Henry at Bat

We took this week off from school.  It was a planned week off and a very much appreciated mental break.  I took the time to clean the house.  Todd got more than one text that said, "You won't recognize the [insert] room." and  "I've rearranged [insert room/closet].  Don't be mad."  There was a lot of closet swapping and organizing going on.  It was great.  It also proved that if we didn't homeschool, we would have the potential of keeping a very clean house.  But we do homeschool.  So we don't....

Since it rained every day this week, the kids did a lot of indoor activities.  We've had some old build-a-wooden-boat projects lying around so the kids got busy on those.  Josiah did many Muppet Show performances.  He also created an ode to Lowe's now defunct Build-and-Grow program by creating a Muppet Show Build-and-Grow.  Complete with instruction books.

Henry spent some time making miniature animals.  I thought it was origami at first, but it was mostly paper tearing and scrunching.  In the picture, the elephant is on the right and a guy on a motorcycle is on the left.  When he explained them, you could really see what they were, but without him here to tell it, you'll have to use your imagination.

Sadly, because of Tropical Storm Imelda, we missed going to see a free performance of Peter and the Wolf.  It was in downtown Houston at an outdoor theater.  They actually do their performances rain or shine since there is a small covered area.  However, being that it was a tropical storm with winds blowing the rain all around, we didn't chance it with Caroline's cast.  I was really disappointed, though, because I saw Peter and the Wolf as a kid and really loved it.  If she didn't have that cast, we would have made a memory of watching it in the rain.

For our side of town, Imelda was mostly just an annoyance.  We had some street flooding that you just had to wait out.  The further east you went, the worse it got.  In fact, they said that it was the 5th wettest day on record for the Houston area.  Bush Airport broke it's record of highest one-day rainfall that had previously been set during Hurricane Ike.  Todd's university closed early, which was sort of funny because no one could leave.  Where he works, the streets flood really easily.  One very bad consequence of Imelda was that nine barges broke loose during the storm, causing them to hit I-10 at the San Jacinto Bridge making the bridge impassable.  This is the same I-10 that we take to get east each summer.  It's going to be a traffic nightmare for a number of months.

Currently our mail service has also stopped due to the storm causing the mail distribution center's roof to cave in.  So we are without mail.  That's exciting in a not-so-exciting way.  We're not sure what's going to happen with that.

Imelda also caused Henry's very first baseball practice to be cancelled.  This weekend he had a second practice, but the fields were still muddy, so they only did the batting cages.  In the emails explaining what the kids needed, they mentioned a glove, a uniform and hat, cleats, and it was suggested that they have their own bat and helmet.  Nearly 30 years ago when I played softball, the coaches always had a ton of helmets and bats that everyone shared.  I figured it would be the same.  Nope.  Every single kid brought their own bat and helmet to the batting cages.  Fortunately, one kid shared his with Henry so that he could get some practice.  He had the last five minutes of practice in the cage.  It was his first time hitting a real baseball with a metal bat.  He liked it.  Today, after church, Todd took him to buy him his own helmet, bat, and carrying bag.  He's ready for the next practice now!


The boys were able to go to a swim party on Saturday for some friends who are moving out of the area.  Caroline cursed her broken arm for missing a second swim party.  Todd brought her to a nearby furniture store that has much more than just furniture.  They had giant furniture that you could test out, train tracks, free water and candy.  They had a good time out together.


We spent today doing yard work.  Before Imelda, we were under a burn ban.  It had been hot and dry (still humid, just no rain) for weeks and weeks.  All the yards in the neighborhood had been turning brown.  Then we had Imelda and it rained for five days straight. For us, we had a wonderful steady, soaking rain, with only one day of "tropical storm" torrential rains.  So the grass is no longer brown and it grew inches upon inches in days.  Now we have a clean house (mostly), a fresh yard, and we're  ready to start a new week of school again.