Christmas

Christmas!  The kids had a good Christmas, despite what they asked for last week.  Josiah got a Penn & Teller Magic kit that he loves.  He kept thanking us for it all day long.  (That's how you know you got them a good gift.)  Henry got a Nerf basketball hoop that he has been playing with nonstop all week long.  Before Christmas, Henry constantly was tossing a ball around.  Constantly.  Now that he has the hoop, he can at least direct the ball to somewhere relatively safe.  (Although I have been quite surprised that we haven't had a broken picture frame or anything despite all the ball throwing.)  He has also used the ball to play catch inside.  He and Josiah pretend that they're doing football plays.  Henry will throw it and if Josiah catches it, he always has to run for a touchdown.  They try to make it an urgent play, but they don't have the strongest grasp of football timing.  One time Josiah threw it to Henry and with an urgency in his voice said, "Henry!  Catch it!  Five minutes left in the game!"


Grandad & Nana got the boys Lego kits, which were joyously put together immediately after breakfast.

Grandma and Grandpa sent slide whistles and pan flutes among their many gifts.  Todd is giving it one more week, before he packs them up in our luggage to take to the beach in June.

Great Grandma got them cool little writing tablets.

Caroline got a doll that cries and takes a bottle, just like what she packed up in the Samaritan's Purse shoebox.  She also got a red dress from Nana & Grandad that she has worn several times this week already.  And she got doll beds from Grandma & Grandpa that she loves.  She's been having a lot of doll time.

In fact, having her new doll beds has inspired her to put all of her babies to bed.  One night, she gathered all her knitted blankets and had a giant sleepover on her floor.  Each blanket held 3-4 of her babies.  "But," she said, "the white blanket isn't for my babies. That's my dance floor."  So, every time she went back to get more babies, she'd stop at the white blanket and dance around for a minute before moving on.  Classic Caroline.

We made a birthday cake for Jesus as well.  We got the recipe/idea from our children's minister at church.  It was very symbolic:
The cake was round, representing the world.
The cake was chocolate, representing the sins of people.
The icing was white to show Jesus' purity, covering our sins.
It had an angel on it - the bearer of Good News.
It had a star as the bearer of glad tidings.
Twelve red candles represented Jesus' blood covering us all the time, twelve months of the year.
Evergreens were on the cake to represent everlasting life.
Lighting the candles showed that Jesus is the light of the world.

All these things we went through, reading a passage of Scripture with each one.  It was all very symbolic and special and all that good stuff.  Henry eats some of the cake and says, "My favorite part is the sin."  And there went the moment.

After lunch one day, the boys were eating some of their candy from their stockings.  Henry had a Twix bar and Josiah was eating his Pocky (little shortbread sticks covered in chocolate).  Henry asked Josiah, "Can I have one?  I gave you 3 of mine."  Josiah, using his Awana verses, said to Henry, "Well, you're supposed to be a cheerful giver and you're supposed to give without expecting anything in return."  He did succumb to Henry's continual asking, and I think he gave him one and a half Pocky sticks.  I'm not so sure he did it cheerfully, though.

The amount of junk food they have eaten this week is bordering on ridiculous.  While waiting for their Book-It Pizza Hut pizzas to be baked, we stopped off at the grocery store to get some New Year's Eve treats.  Henry picked up one of those bags of donuts.  Josiah got mini-muffins.  (They picked out Little Debbie Christmas Trees for Caroline.)  After eating their very healthy dinner of pizza, they wanted some dessert.  They were in the kitchen eating,Todd and I were in the dining room.  I went back in the kitchen and Henry had eaten the entire bag of donuts.  I looked at it and said, "Henry!  There are six servings in here!!"  Josiah chimed in that he had told Henry he shouldn't eat so many.  So I asked Josiah, "How many did you have?"  Josiah ate 4 donuts after having already eaten a package of mini-muffins.  We need to go on a sugarless fast for the next month!  Caroline is no better.  She basically asks for dessert from the moment she wakes up in the morning.

We did Advent candles this year and each week when we lit the candles, we read some verses from the Bible.  We used the Bible app instead of the real Bible, which got Josiah interested.  He wanted to look at the Bible app.  So for the past couple of days, Josiah and Henry have been reading the Bible together.  Josiah reads it on the app and Henry uses his big font Bible that he got this year.  Henry's Bible is the red-letter version (Jesus' words are in red).  He held up his Bible and said, "Jesus talked a lot.....but I still talk more." Yep.

Now it is New Year's Eve.  Henry is scared of the sound of fireworks, which in his defense, are occurring directly outside his window.  He's come downstairs twice already, so we've set up a fort for him to sleep on the couch so he can be near us. 

Josiah is expecting us to come in at 11:55 pm. and sing in the New Year with him.  I'm not sure that will happen, but I may go in and whisper Auld Lang Syne just to say I did.  He wants me to wake him up and have a party.  I'm not keen on that. 
It has been a good year, but we are excited to see what 2018 holds.

Christmas Eve

Our week back to school went well.  At least Monday went well.  But then Todd was off work from Tuesday on and it is just like in a regular classroom, the kids were acting up when a substitute was around.  Since Todd was off the rest of the week, he was able to see the kids' karate classes.  He noticed Josiah's improved a lot and was much better focused than in months past.  After karate one afternoon, we went out to eat.  It was a place we hadn't been to in a long time, but Caroline remembered she used to get the chicken nuggets there (because they were the gluten/dairy-free menu item).  Since she's been having more freedom in her eating, I read the menu to her and asked her what she wanted.  She picked a grilled cheese sandwich.  When our food came and the ordered sandwich was placed before her, she asked, "Where's the chicken nuggets?"  They're back in the kitchen, honey, being cooked for some other kid who ordered them.  She didn't care for the sandwich, but she ate her chips and a bunch of graham crackers from the salad bar.  Then she got quite upset when I said, "No, you can't have dessert."   "Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"

The weather has been pretty nice this week, so we got out to rake a few leaves.  Caroline took the opportunity to fill her car trunk up with leaves, drive to the center of our driveway, unload, and throw them in the air, gleefully announcing, "It's snowing!"

One evening Todd and I started watching a new show on Netflix.  In the first episode, a boy is missing and then discovered dead.  They showed the mother looking in his bedroom at the disheveled sheets and the empty bed.  After the show, we went up to bed and, as always, I checked on our children.  What do I discover, but an empty bed and disheveled sheets in Caroline's room.  So, I check our bed first, and was surprised to find that empty as well.  On to the boys' room and I didn't see her, so back to her bedroom for a closer inspection, no Caroline, so back to the boys' room and there she was cuddled up against Henry.  I put her back in her room.  The next night it was the same thing - I found Caroline in Henry's bed.  I asked her the next day why she was sleeping in Henry's bed and she said, "Well, I can't sleep in my bed, so I go to Henry's bed and I ask him if I can sleep in his bed.  The first time he was awake and said, 'yes,' but the second time he was asleep."  I told Todd what she had been doing and he said, "Caroline is in Henry's bed?  The two children who cannot sit in the same row in the car?  The two children that cannot share the ottoman to watch TV?  The two children who cannot sit next to each other at the bar because they constantly fight?"  Yes, the two who have been bickering nonstop for weeks now, are best buds at bedtime.  Now when we put Caroline to bed, she's quick to tell Todd and I to go downstairs right away.  We do, and immediately hear the patter of feet going from her room to Henry's.

3rd night together.

One of Josiah's Awana assignments was for him to make something with a parent.  So, we made a cinnamon streusel cake together.  I really tried to let him do the whole thing by himself, and besides cracking the egg and putting it in the oven, he really did do the whole thing.  It turned out pretty well, too.  Certainly well enough that it was gone in two days.

While his streusel was cooking, he and I played an incredibly slow moving game of Battleship.  After every guess, Josiah would dip his candy cane in his hot chocolate and lick the drop off the end of the cane.  He'd stir his drink with his candy and drink another drop.  We never did finish the game, mainly because the cake came out of the oven and we had to hop in the car to get something from a friend.

While we were driving to our friend's house, the children chimed in on what each would like for Christmas this year.  Based on their ideas, we're going to be handing out a lot of disappointment tomorrow morning.  Caroline piped up that she wanted a baby sister.  Once she said that, Josiah said he'd like some peace and quiet from all the bickering and that he wanted to be an only child.  Henry said he wanted Grandaddy and Nana for Christmas.  So, no matter what we have under the tree at this moment, they're all going to be disappointed.  One child has one sibling too few, one has two siblings too many, and one just wants his grandparents.

We did make it to church this morning, so we got an official Christmas picture.  Unfortunately, it was a bit too late to make it into the Christmas cards that never got mailed.  I was not on top of my game this year.

Henry had to ham it up, because, well, he's Henry.


Now we are just waiting for Caroline to go to sleep, so we can put the gifts under the tree and get to sleep ourselves.  Today would be the day that she took a two-hour nap and so isn't sleepy.  I keep hearing her walking all over the upstairs.  We'll just have to wait her out. 

A Week of Sickies

Josiah started off last Saturday with a fever, which only got worse as the weekend went on.  He spent last Saturday night in our bed with fever and sniffled from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.  My sympathy wasn't at it's highest as this is a bit of an annoyance for me (Get a TISSUE!!!), but I did keep my mouth shut and just handed him a tissue....over and over again....  He was awake again at 4:30 a.m. with a high fever which was the beginning of a very rough Sunday.  He threw up many times despite eating nothing all day long.  Sunday night into Monday he was up every single hour.  Monday morning we went to the doctor to see if it was viral or bacterial because Josiah wasn't eating anything, but was continuing to throw up, which had to be incredibly painful.  It was viral, so we were sent home with the advice to give him an antacid to help his stomach and that it should work itself out.  Monday was rough, but the antacid did seem to help and Josiah enjoyed the taste of Pedialyte again.  He still ate nothing but a couple of oyster crackers.  Josiah would pick up his shirt and touch his abs and say that he could tell that he was sick, because his stomach goes in, but when he's healthy, it goes out a little bit.  He showed us his washboard abs quite a bit.  He did want to bathe, but the poor boy was too weak to pick himself up into the tub.

He fell asleep waiting for the doctor.

Tuesday, he was still tired and weak, but he was finally eating again.  Just a bagel and more oyster crackers, but by the evening he was craving all sorts of restaurant foods, so he seemed to be back.  Unfortunately, as he was getting better, Henry developed a fever Tuesday evening.

While we were worried Henry would get the virus, he was fine the next morning, (though he does have a head cold).  Josiah, unfortunately, spiked a fever every afternoon for rest of the week.  There was a lot of lying on the couch and enjoying Netflix.  I told him we'd just tack on the work he missed in school this week to the end of the school year.  Apparently, those were not the "feel better" words he was looking to hear.

It was sad because we had lots of fun activities scheduled for this week - making gingerbread houses with friends, an afternoon at a friend's house, a field trip with our CC group, karate, and Awana.  It's just how it works out sometimes.

Todd fixed our refrigerator this week.  Our refrigerator gaskets have been torn for some time, so you'd have to close the refrigerator a particular way so the doors would seal.  We'd gotten used to closing it this way, so now that he's fixed it we're just amazed every time we close the refrigerator doors.  It's so easy!  You just close them and they stay sealed.  It's the little things sometimes.

Caroline lost another tooth, and as happened last time, the tooth just fell on the floor in front of her and she bent down to see what it was.  She wouldn't even pick it up - she called me over to get it for her.  I do not understand her lack of excitement over losing teeth, but it's definitely a thing for her.  She waits until the tooth literally falls out.  This particular tooth has barely been hanging on for weeks now.  It was practically sideways in her mouth for the past two weeks, but still she left it.  You could have just plucked it right out without any issue.  While she doesn't care so much about the actual tooth, she was happy our tooth owl had money for her.

Since Caroline has been the only healthy child, she was able  to go to karate.  It was just her and another girl in class, so they got lots of attention.  She earned her new white-black belt.  I think she has hit the end of the road of belts for now.  Once she turns 5, she can start testing for them.

We had some Christmas music on while making dinner one night, and Caroline was rocking out to that.




That was our week.  A lot of sickies and a little bit of fun for Caroline.  Today, Josiah has finally gone a full 24 hours without a fever over 100, so we're hoping the trend continues and that he has a nice and highly productive half week of school before the holidays.  We may need some prayers to help with that, though.  I don't think he's too excited to get back into it. 

A Sad Farewell

We studied the Haitian Revolt at the beginning of the week.  During this time of upheaval in Haiti (Saint Domingue), Napoleon sent his brother-in-law to take charge, but yellow fever (malaria) overwhelmed his troops and killed thousands of Frenchmen.  Our Activity Book, to go along with this story, had old remedies to "cure" malaria.  There were cold baths, hot bricks soaked in vinegar to sweat out the sickness, blisters of mustard paste to stimulate blood flow, all kinds of fun things.  One remedy was to drink limewater and milk to soothe your stomach (which you'd have to drink quickly due to the curdling effect).  This was one we could do.  So, I mixed the lime juice with milk and quickly set out two cups.  Josiah reluctantly tried it, but Caroline refused after watching Josiah's reaction.  It was probably for the best because it was already curdling a few minutes later when Henry tried it.  Henry gave his usual shrug that it wasn't that bad, while Josiah dramatically said otherwise.  These poor people who were subjected to unimaginable pain through the "cures."  We are thankful for modern medicine around here.

Henry, "Meh? I'm a fan of curdling."

Caroline, Nana, and I went shopping earlier in the week, and Caroline proved to be quite the shopping partner.  She gushes over everything sparkly.  We were walking around and she loved all the necklaces and earrings.  When we walked by the high heels with sequins on them, she picked them up and said, "Oooooo, I love high heels."  She touched every soft blanket and sat on every chair they sold.  She was a shopper!

Mid-week, Grandad & Nana flew back home and, as was the case last year, we sadly sent them home with the kids' illnesses.  The morning after they left, Henry woke up and immediately asked, "Can I have my phone just to look at them?"  He had taken a picture of them on an old phone as they were leaving.  He has cried several nights for them.  It is because he loves so much that goodbyes are hard.  We are grateful for all the time we got to spend together, though.  The kids have started a countdown to June when they can be reunited again.

A couple of days later we woke up to snow on the ground.  It does not snow very often around here, so it was quite a surprise.  And because it doesn't snow a lot, we do not have winter coats. The children have all outgrown the ones we brought from Virginia and there was never a reason to buy any more.  We doubled up on sweatshirts, Henry sporting one of Todd's.  They had a lot of fun running around in it and making snowballs.  But they were also freezing and their hands were red when they came inside.  (We don't have gloves either...)  Josiah was the only one to remember snow from our time back east.  (It is hard to believe that they were only 5, 3, & 1 when we left.)

Caroline was so excited to play in snow.  She saved her snowball in the freezer.

The boys threw snowballs at our stop sign.

The boys finished up their robotics class this week as well.  They had an obstacle course and the younger kids were racing the older kids to see who could get through it without touching the legs of the chairs.  Our boys were on the younger kids team and they beat the older kids 4-1.  They were excited for that.  Robotics has turned out to be a well-loved activity.

We finished up CC for the semester as well.  Last year we finished up before Thanskgiving, but we're still on Hurricane Harvey schedule with all of our activities.  It has felt like a very long semester in that regard.  This past semester, for science, we have been doing the human body.  We have done different body systems and learned about different organs.  The culmination was to put our "bodies" together.  The kids got to glue themselves together and our director had printed out pictures of all the kids faces, which made them very cute.  Now we need to find wall space to hang these up.

We got our Christmas tree up this weekend.  Todd set it up and spread out the branches.  I sat and handed out non-breakable ornaments.  The kids put all the ornaments on the tree.  The vast majority of ornaments are now situated in the front middle third of the tree.  It is quite cute to see a heavily decorated tree at their eye level.

Josiah has also drawn a lot from his art site on YouTube.  Caroline sat with him and drew a nutcracker following all the instructions.  I was super impressed with her finished product.  This is going to get laminated and taken out every Christmas.

Sadly, Josiah's weekend ended on a sad note.  He's had a high fever and lots of nose sniffling.  This seems to happen at the end of every semester as well...sickness invades.