A Strong Foundation

We started school this week, or as I dubbed it, "school-lite" due to the fact that our Grammar, Spelling, and Caroline's workbooks hadn't yet arrived in the mail.  Everything is in at this point, so next week will no longer be the lighter version.  We started off the year with some Texas history.  We all enjoyed it - just your basics, drawing the state, labeling the capital, drawing the flag and seal, understanding what all the colors and stars and leaves mean, etc..  It was a good intro to the state in which we live, yet know little about.  Now we're reading about the Alamo thanks to a book sent by Grandma.  It has been a good way to begin the year.

After the second day of school, Henry and I were in the kitchen and he remarked that he didn't want any Lego kits for his birthday.  "I want science.  I just like science...and geography...and Latin.  I want to learn."  Oh, thank you child.  You just made my day.
On the third day of school we went to our friend's house after our lessons and played for a while.  The kids had a lot of fun.  And, while I didn't think it was possible, their son had even more Legos than our boys.  Henry was in Lego heaven.
So, on the fourth day of school, Henry amended his "I want to learn." statement to, "I want one of every Lego kit." Just one.  Just one of every Lego kit in existence.  

Our friends had a cool water slide in their backyard.

It's also been a crazy busy week.  The kids saw the dentist and fortunately there were no new cavities.  Josiah has a cavity in a somewhat loose baby tooth that he's had for a while now (6 months ago it had the cavity and was just a little loose).  They just told him to wiggle it a lot so it comes out quicker.  We'll take wiggling over a filling any day.  And Caroline was just the chattiest girl there.  She jumped up in the chair with a, "Me first!" and just chatted up the hygienist.  She cracks me up.  I'm so glad she's not timid to speak.  Henry was honest with the dentist.  When she asked him how many times a day he brushed his teeth, he replied, "Well, today I brushed them twice, but usually only once."  So, while we always supervise the evening brushing, it looks like we'll have to supervise the morning brushing as well....

The foundation repair men came towards the end of the week.  It was a crew of five.  These men dug with just a shovel, holes that were probably four feet deep.  It was such hard work but then it was like, wow, they did this type of work every day.  They must be exhausted when they get home.  For lunch, they all ate and then took a siesta.  It was funny to see five men just lying on the yard with their hats over their heads.  I'm sure it felt good.  The kids were always peeking out the blinds to see their progress.  One man would nod at Josiah and Josiah would give him a thumb's up.

unloading the truck

Side yard after Day 1.

They tore up our bricks in the front entrance to get pilings under the front door area.

That would be a man's head in our front entrance.  This is the man to whom Josiah always gave a thumb's up. 

It was a lot of destruction.  But on their second day here, they raised the house.  They had a supervisor come to do the measurements while it was being raised.  His name was Jesus, so I texted Todd that we were in good hands with Jesus at the helm.  There was a lot of creaking of the walls and floors, but I could visibly see the floor boards coming back together.  That was one of the main things that we were hoping would fix itself.  There was never a promise that they would go back together.  There was always the chance that they could bow up, but we were very thankful that they almost look like they used to.  Just a few gaps are left (and will always remain), but we can live with that.  Now we have lots of cracks in the walls and ceilings to spackle.  We'll have to have a spackle party soon.

The crew also put in a root barrier.  A three foot deep thick material that prevents the tree roots from encroaching upon our foundation.

My grandpa always said to treat the worker's well so they'll do good work on your property.  So, the kids had fun putting out snacks and Gatorade every day.  What we discovered was the worker's had a specific penchant for: red Gatorade, chocolate-chip granola bars, Doritos, and Lay's chips.  It took three days and five cases of Gatorade for the work to be completed.  We are happy for the improvements, sad for the cost, but hopeful that it lasts for the existence of the house!

The boys finished their weeks on a good note.  Josiah had a magazine come with his first published poem.  He won one of the magazine's contests several weeks ago (about the same time our magazine subscription was up, and we had to renew it just to see his poem published).  They had sent him his prize back in July.  It was a bird origami type book, since the contest was about birds.  It was exciting to see his poem especially since they only printed 6 out of the 10 that won.

Henry successfully completed his orange-black belt test.  Henry did quite well with the forms, sparring, and kicking.  The instructor is very tough during the belt tests.  He yells a lot more and is not nearly as friendly as he is during class.  He criticizes them more, too.  Henry sat down after sparring with the instructor and was starting to fall apart.  He desperately wants to do everything perfectly, and because of that he has a tough time taking criticism.  But he didn't fall apart.  There have been times that he's just fallen on the mat at karate and cried and given up because he didn't do some particular move correctly.  But during the test, he didn't cry, he pulled himself together and he finished it well.



At the end when the instructor was putting his new belt around his waist, he told Henry that he needed to work through his discouragement and not focus on the negative, but on the things he did right.  It was good advice for him.  Henry also was probably the strongest/biggest kid this particular night.  (There were younger kids working for lower belts at the same time.)  So, when it came time to break the boards with his foot, Henry kicked through the thin board and then the wide board on his first try.  He just boom kicked them, which came as no surprise to us, but the rest of the audience sort of gasped and then clapped for him.  Someone said, "Ooo, he has some power."  I think what trips up a lot of the little kids is fear.  If they don't kick hard enough the board won't break, but they let fear take over and they kick far softer than you know they're capable of.  Henry doesn't fear no stinkin' board.

new orange-black belt

On the drive home, Henry got a milkshake.  His brother, who had difficulty controlling his silliness in his karate class earlier in the day, did not get an ice cream.  I asked Josiah to take a picture of Henry with his shake since I was driving.  I found about thirty pictures of what you see below.  Sad face, no ice cream.  Happy face, ice cream.

Caroline brought home a picture of the fruits of the Spirit from church today.  She was proud that she had painted everything the correct color.  We could see the pear, apple, lemon, banana,strawberries, etc.  Todd asked her what the black fruit was.  She replied, "A taco."  The little known Texas taco fruit.  She told me they didn't have a taco paint color.

Caroline is excited to start her pre-K curriculum this week.  Her two workbooks finally came in, so we'll be starting it tomorrow.  This is the third time we've gone through it, so it'll be neat to see how she enjoys it compared to the boys.  Josiah loved everything about it, every story, every workbook page, everything.  Henry enjoyed most, but had two particular books that he just couldn't stand.  I have a feeling she'll like it all because she loves school.