1st Day of School

Monday was our first day of school.  The kids were so excited to sit all in a row at the table in the school room.  Benson was really excited, too, and bounced and jumped and walked and sniffed and licked every bit of the room.  Henry thought that if we brought his bed in, he'd lay on it and sleep while we did school.  So the bed was brought in.  Benson had no intentions of laying down or sleeping, only exploring.  We tried putting him out of the room so we could focus on our work.  That didn't work either because he stood on the other side of the door barking and whining.  Eventually we gave up and moved "school" to the breakfast table.  Benson chilled out and we were able to get our schoolwork done.  

We even had our first science experiment of the year.  We are studying anatomy and physiology this year in science.  The beginning of the book talks about ancient civilizations and what they knew (or didn't know) about the body.  We read about how the Ancient Egyptians used salt and other chemicals to preserve/mummify dead bodies.  So, in like fashion, we took an apple and cut it into eight slices.  Each slice was set in a cup with either table salt, Epsom salt, baking soda or some combination of the three (and a control with nothing).  They are to sit for a week and we get to see which has caused the apple to lose the most moisture.  Josiah is the only one who ventured a guess and he went with the apple covered with 1/2 cup of table salt. 

With Hurricane Laura intensifying in the Gulf, Todd was sent home Tuesday evening with his laptop and orders to work from home the rest of the week.  We were anticipating getting some of the outer bands of the storm.  We did laundry and put extra ice in our freezers in case of a power outage.  We gassed up our cars and put them close to our garage doors to protect them from the winds.  Wednesday evening came and it was clear the hurricane was going to hit the Texas-Louisiana border.  As we were watching the news Tuesday evening, Henry was getting anxious and said they'd all have to sleep together like they do with the fireworks.  Caroline kept asking, "We're in the 'yellow,' right?"  Yes.  We were in the yellow band of the storm (Not red.  Not orange).  After all the anticipation, we didn't even get a drop of rain.  I know because I was outside with Benson at 11:00 p.m., 2:30 a.m., and 5:00 a.m. that night.  It didn't even get windy, just slightly breezy.  Obviously, east of Houston got hit hard.  Our church has sent out their "chainsaw team" to Louisiana to help break down the fallen trees.  In Texas, the major grocery store chain wrote out their hurricane restrictions.  (I actually looked at the comments from this meme and people were dead serious about buying up brisket.) 

Benson has discovered his reflection in the oven.  One evening as dinner cooked, he stared, barked and growled at himself.  Now he passes through the kitchen regularly to growl at the dog in the oven.  Henry has also taught him that if he walks partway up the stairwell, he can turn around and look at himself in the mirror.  More barking.   

He has really grown in the past two months that we've had him.  On the left he is 6 months, on the right 4 months:

The heat here has really been oppressive for several weeks.  It's nearly impossible to play outside.  However, one evening this week, Josiah got out to do some sidewalk chalk.  This is a ninja from Lego Ninjago.

This coming week we start CC!  I am not prepared in the least at this point, so I need to kick it into gear quickly.  The kids are excited to see friends again.  It will be good for us to get back into a routine.  It helps to keep us all accountable in our schooling.      

The End of Summer

One afternoon this week, Josiah had a sixth grade boys get together at church.  He is entering the student ministry which is grades 6-12.  This was a small group get-together so the junior high pastor could meet the new kids coming in.  They had about 10-11 boys there and they played games outside and chatted a little.  [And as a side note, I cannot believe Josiah is entering 6th!]  On the drive home, Josiah was telling us what all he had done.  At the beginning they asked the boys to say their name, favorite sport, favorite movie, and favorite drink.  When it got to Josiah's turn he said, "Josiah, competitive drawing, Lego Ninjago, sparkling grape juice."  He said he couldn't think of a sport he liked, so he made one up.  Later on, a lady from church came outside to ask the boys if they had any questions about KSM (student ministry).  None of the boys were saying anything.  Josiah said he didn't want to be rude with no one asking a question, so he asked, "Do you like Dude Perfect?"  This awakened all the boys and the conversation quickly devolved into Dude Perfect videos.  When it came time for games, they played wiffle ball and kick ball.  Josiah volunteered to be team captain because he knew he wasn't good at sports so he tried to get the kids who were good at sports on his team.  It worked.  They won at wiffle ball.  Smart kid.  He said he had a great time and that he couldn't wait to do the student ministry.  Why?  Because on Wednesday nights they have pizza and Sunday mornings they have donuts and sometimes pancakes.  Our skinny-minny loves his food.  (We don't know when we'll go back to church, but at least he's looking forward to it.)

While Josiah was at church, Henry, Caroline, and I went to run a few errands and they got a little playground time.  It has been months since they were on a playground so they were really happy.  They asked me to take lots of pictures.  

While we were driving to church, totally out of the blue Caroline announced "Somebody quit."  What?  "Somebody quit at Taco Bell."  How do you know that?  "They have a 'Now Hiring' sign."  Observant one she is.  

This week the kids have been squeezing out every last bit of summer they possibly could.  They have all been waking up in the five o'clock hour so they can do media.  It's only a summer thing that they can watch things right when they wake up (on weekday mornings).  I clearly remember sleeping in during the summer months when I was a kid.  If I woke up at 5:30 a.m., I'd be excited that I could sleep for three more hours.  They have played with the neighbor kids a lot.  They have watched lots of Dude Perfect and then practiced bottle flipping on each other.  

Henry bottle flipping on Josiah

We spent a lot of time one evening trying to capture Benson's graceful, effortless jumping over our pile of tree branches.  The kids kept running the path they wanted him to follow, but Benson would usually bump into them instead of jumping behind them.  We finally got a semblance of it by throwing a stick.  He loves his sticks.  It was hard to capture, but the dog can jump.  

Our asthma cat neighbors from last week were moving the last bits out of their house this weekend.  At one point they put up a small sign saying "garage sale."  Josiah took one look and saw a giant dollhouse.  He told me he was going to go over there and ask if he could buy it for $1.  I gave him a bit more money than that, but he still got it for $1 because, as they told him, "you saved our cat."  He lugged the whole thing home for Caroline and presented it to her in her room.  It's a really nice Fisher Price doll house.  It's an older model, so it's better built.  Definitely worth more than a dollar.  After Josiah dropped it off, he asked if he could go back over to see if he could find something for Henry.  He ended up coming back with an electronic robot that dances and raps.  Another dollar.  We haven't gotten it to rap per se, but we were only able to change out six of the seven batteries it required.  Meanwhile, Todd said he was going to go over there and give the neighbors money to stop selling things to our kid. :)

A lot of time this week was spent on readying the school room for our school start tomorrow.  We changed the table placement, so they are all in a row facing the white board.  This was at the request of Caroline and they're all excited to try out the new seating plan.  We'll see how long that excitement lasts.  ;)  

We're also going to spend our week paying attention to the two hurricanes in the Gulf.  I think the weathermen said that's never happened before.  No doubt it chose to happen in 2020.  

Asthma Cat

 Monday, Todd had his first day back at work.  He missed his 30 second commute that he had for five months.  He has to wear a mask there and when he goes to the gym, he has to wear gloves covering his entire hands.  It takes some getting used to and one morning after leaving for work, he had to turn around and come back for his mask and gloves.  After that he commissioned Caroline to make him a reminder sign on the front door.  It was her idea to write 'Safety first.'  

We had been doing math and reading all summer long, but for the past two weeks we've taken a break from math.  I always appreciated that the two subjects gave us a little bit of structure to our day.  The kids claimed they did not appreciate the structure, yet when we stopped the math they had some days where they were soooooo bored.  So Thursday morning of this week the three of them wrote up their own individual schedules.  They purposefully did not put times in, just activities.  Josiah's was basically play-media-eat-play-media-eat-play-media-eat all day long.  Caroline and Henry's were similar.  The three of them were keen to keep to their schedules that day, but they didn't think to coordinate them.  When Henry reached his time to play in the front yard, he couldn't find anyone to play with.  Caroline was dutifully playing with her Barbies and Josiah was engaged in his drawing time.  Neither would deviate from their assignments.  Henry really worked on Caroline to get her to go out front.  She finally went out with him and they lasted all of five minutes in the heat.  (It has seriously been hot here.  Our power bill sadly reflects it.)  At 8:20 a.m., Caroline exclaimed, "Oh no.  The next thing on my schedule is lunch."  I told her she didn't have to eat lunch at 8:30 a.m., which actually relieved her.  She was going to eat.  The schedules lasted all of a day.  They've been mentioned in the last few days, but I think they all like the freedom to play what they want when they want.  

Henry wanted some individual time with me this week and for that time he chose to teach me how to play Minecraft.  First, Henry gave me a tutorial about the controller.  Henry likes to give every detail for every button.  By the time he was finished I had no idea what button did what.  Having seen the boys' amazing creations in Minecraft, I was looking forward to building myself a cool house.  What I didn't bank on was that I got old and couldn't even figure out how to walk in a straight line.  After 20 minutes I had only built a rectangular outline of a house three 'bricks' high.  I spent half the time falling off my row of bricks and having to jump back on.  Now Caroline wants to play with me.  I think it is a boost to their egos to see me so slow.  

The kids also made marshmallow houses this week.  I think it was really just a ploy to eat marshmallows in the morning.  

Friday, Todd took the day off and came to the pool with us for the first time ever.  The kids were super excited and showed off their swimming skills.  They did somersaults and headstands in the water.  But what they liked best was that Todd could pick them up and toss them in the water.  

Caroline getting tossed.

Henry getting height.

Josiah.  The easiest to flip.

Saturday was an eventful day.  When I took Benson outside in the morning, I heard a cat try to claw it's way up our fence (from the outside, trying to get in our backyard).  It didn't succeed, which was fine by me.  We often have cats in our yard; so much so that our kids have named two of them.  Because of the frequency of cats, I didn't think much of the one trying to gain access.  Then, closer to noon, Todd was outside and noticed the cat squeezed between our fence and our house.  Early afternoon I found said cat in our backyard, lying up against the house.  It was very, very still.  We were worried it was either sick or pregnant.  It didn't move when Benson barked at it or got near to it.  He, of course, discovered the cat before we did.  He was doing the thing where he stretches his body really long when he's sniffing something new.  We were praying the cat was okay and just resting and would leave again.  It didn't.  Henry put out some water for it, but it still didn't look like it was moving at all.  Then after dinner, I went out again with Benson and the cat had moved from it's spot.  We were overjoyed that it had left to go back to it's house.  Then a half hour later, while out with Benson again, he did his stretchy sniffing position.  The cat had merely moved a few feet to very deep grass against the house.  At this point it was getting dark, so we took a picture of it and I posted it on a local neighborhood app.  Almost immediately someone said the cat was theirs.  We were again overjoyed that someone was coming for the cat.  The kids were looking out the window at every car that passed expectantly hoping it was the owner.  They were so, so excited.  In all his excitement Josiah exclaimed, "I'm so glad we're finally making an impact on our community. "  That kid can act like he's five one minute and twenty-five the next.  The cat was scooped up by it's owners.  He said he called it "asthma cat" and that it stays indoors all the time.  It only got out because they were moving that day and it escaped.  

Henry loves to pretend that he is a sniper in the military.  He wears his backpack around and fake shoots his guns all throughout the day.  Recently he ordered a lemon of a gun from Amazon.  I typically look at all purchases, read reviews, look at how many stars they have, but for whatever reason I didn't look at what he wanted at all.  I guess I assumed it was a Nerf gun.  It wasn't.  It was a knockoff and Henry has learned that hard lesson of cheap knockoffs.  Todd has spent his day unjamming the gun over and over again.  

This evening at dinner, we told the kids that we were going to go to a indoor water park in a few months time.  Todd showed the kids the website and all the water features.  Henry and Caroline were talking about what they wanted to do first and were chatty about the slides and the pools.  Josiah, meanwhile, asked, "Will there be hot chocolate?  Do they have a food court?  Do they have a restaurant?  Do they have pastries for breakfast?  Oh, we can go to McDonalds!  If they don't have hot chocolate, I can bring packets with me.  And a mug.  And water.  Do they have a microwave?  Can we bring microwave pizza?  Is there a TV in the hotel room?  Can we hang out there and watch TV?  Do they have a hot tub?"  Water park, child.  We're going to a water park.  

A funny meme from one of my favorite childhood books.

138 Days

We had a Media-Free Monday around here.  (Basically they all lost media due to various infractions the day before.)  In the morning the kids asked to sew pillows for their stuffed animals.  Josiah sewed his totally on his own, but Caroline asked me to sew hers.  They also crafted bunk beds out of boxes.  Henry made himself a miniature version of each using paper and cotton balls.  

Pillow for Dog.

Bunk bed for Dog complete with "Bop" punching toy.

Later that day the boys decided to dress like Todd.  They squeezed themselves into a single pair of shorts.  Then they both got in an old sweatshirt.  One kept his head covered in the back (so there was quite the hunchback look) while the other had his head free.  The hands that we could see were from the person behind while the person in front held his arms under the sweatshirt, guiding him.  They thought they were hilarious.  They told Caroline to go clean her room and that was about the only "Todd" thing they did.  Mostly they tried to walk around the house and dance with their four legs.  They dressed up like this several times this week.  Todd eventually gave them a pair of his shorts so they didn't have to squeeze into kid size shorts.   

We made it to the pool twice this week.  The first time, the boys wanted to go shirtless.  As we were getting ready at home they stood in front of the mirror admiring their muscles.  Henry kept saying he had abs.  He was constantly saying he had a six-pack or a four-pack or a two-pack.  Then he was showing me his abs on his legs.  In fact he called all his muscles abs.  So I introduced him to pecs, quads, gluts, abs, biceps, etc.  He thought pecs were probably the funniest thing in the world.  He squeezed his together a lot after that.  A lot.  (We do human anatomy this year at CC so he'll learn his body part names in short time.)  The pool was crowded the first day we went, so when we went a few days later we aimed for a later time slot.  We hit the jackpot - an empty pool  There were three other boys that were there for a short time, but other than that we had the full 90 minutes to ourselves.  It was great.  Only Henry and Caroline came that day (Josiah preferred to stay at home since he burned his shoulders the first day), but they swam a ton, did cannonballs and dives.  Caroline was particularly fond of telling stories before she jumped in, 'Hello this is Dude Perfect.  Today we're going to do pool stereotypes.'  Then she'd do some crazy jump in the pool.  She often did the runway model walk as if she didn't know the pool was in front of her and she'd walk right in.  

Caroline put me in my place one evening with a discussion about dogs.  We were talking about dogs that shed and dogs that don't.  I mentioned that I didn't think poodles shed.  Caroline asked why we didn't get a poodle to which I replied that I thought they were slightly ugly.  Caroline went off.  "What if they think you're ugly?  You can't judge a dog by the way it looks.  Just like you can't judge people by the way they look.  God made all dogs special.  Especially Benson."  She schooled me.  And, I'm sure poodles have a great personality.

Caroline also had quite a sad night.  One night at bedtime she just started bawling out of nowhere.  Hard crying.  It was hard to understand her through the sobs, but she kept repeating that she didn't want Todd to die.  

    "I don't want Daddy to die of the virus.  I don't want you to die either.  I want to live with you guys         forever because I don't know anything and you know everything.  There are bad people in the world      and I don't know who they are.  Everyone looks nice to me.  I don't know who to marry or where to        live or what to do."  

I kept telling her that we weren't going to die.  We certainly didn't expect to die in the near future.  Every time I told her we weren't going to die she'd reply, "Eventually."  Yes.  Eventually we'll die.  She kept saying 'eventually' so often that it sounded like we were dying sooner than expected.  Eventually...  The most ironic thing about the conversation was that she said she didn't know anything and that Todd and I knew everything.  All Day Long around here we ask her to pick up her things, put her dishes away, clear off the table, etc. and we are always met with, "I KNOW!"  

Last week I was at the grocery store looking for a long-necked bottle to use for when we make angel food cake and have to have the bundt pan hang upside down.  In my hunt, I looked through all the spirits and juices.  Thin necked glass bottles are hard to find!  I finally found the perfect bottle.  It was a single serving of non-alcoholic sangria.  Essentially it was sparkling grape juice, but with a very long thin neck.  Josiah drank this sparkling grape juice and thought it was the best thing ever.  (We don't do carbonated beverages around here.)  He asked us to buy more. So when Todd went out shopping this week he picked up a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling apple juice.  Josiah drunk the entire bottle today, with only a small amount given to his siblings.  Caroline tasted it and made a face like it was the grossest thing she's ever put in her mouth.  Henry tried it and then asked if it was going to dissolve the tortilla in his stomach.  It's carbonation buddy.  Not acid.  

It's been a hot week so we've played in the backyard mostly where it's shadiest.  The kids brought their bikes back there.  I think the only reason they did this was because they walked/rode them through the house.  

They also played baseball with Benson's tennis balls.  I finally had to nix that game because they were constantly hitting them over the fence and having to run around to retrieve them.  

We attempted a family dog picture.  Benson was uncooperative at first as he kept his head in the grass gnawing on a stick.  Henry kept pointing at the camera so Benson would look at it.  Eventually Caroline picked his stick up to get his head up, so that's why the stick is hovering.  

And...after 138 days of being at home...Todd ventures back to the office tomorrow.  

Cut It All Off