Planetarium layout

Oh, come on, you had to see this layout coming! It's a bit busy, but you can see why I had to use my friend Christine's kit. I tried to make the background look like you are looking through a telescope, but that may have complicated the layout unnecessarily.

Rainy here today. And that doesn't help my already low energy level. Sigh. Tomorrow I'm on another field trip with Emmelia to another swimming pool, then on Saturday there will be swimming/wading at her friend R.'s birthday party. We're definitely observing summer here! At swimming lessons last night, Maura (at just over 2 years old) declared "No, Mama, I swim by myself!" (!) and she also hit a major water-bug milestone of jumping into the pool holding only one of my hands - and going completely under each time. She LOVED that! I think she's definitely going to be my swimmer. Maybe next summer she'll motivate Emmelia a little more, since I have a feeling they'll be in the same swim level. ;-)

In other news, I finished up physical therapy for my back this week. I've learned lots of good stretches and exercises that I need to keep up with to make my back stronger and strengthen my "core." Just being more aware of how I am moving and lifting has already helped immensely. I really like how the physical therapist worked with my lifestyle and gave me ideas for squeezing some exercises into my busy life. Overall, it was a very good experience.

Last night, Emmelia and I finished reading "The Wizard of Oz"! We had a nice discussion about how different the book is from the movie before she went to sleep. And today I discovered something I was not aware of at the campus library - the Juvenile Stacks! I went over today and checked out the next two books in the Oz series - "The Land of Oz" and "Ozma of Oz". How great is that? Not only am I excited that I don't have to purchase the entire set of Oz books right now, I'm excited to get the chance to read some of these books I didn't get to read as a child. There are some definite benefits to having kids.