Thanksgiving Break

It was so nice to have a week off.  The kids had planned projects and activities that they wanted to accomplish.  I had my own list.  We started off with a bang.  Monday morning we completed a 500 piece puzzle that Josiah had bought for me from a dollar store a few weeks ago.  We followed that up with some humble pie at the orthodontist.  I had given Josiah a baggie that contained an envelope with his seven brackets as well as a piece of paper documenting the date each bracket was lost as well as what he had been eating at the time.  I had done it for my own records, but the orthodontist and assistant studied that list and put it in his chart.  Josiah was reminded not to eat any pretzels no matter how small, nor was he to eat any granola bars no matter how crunchy or chewy.  I kept quiet, but I wanted to plead our case.  That we cut up all his food.  That he eats mostly all soft foods.  That several of the foods on there shouldn't have made the brackets fall out at all.  But I kept quiet.  For the first eight weeks the orthodontist will make any fixes for free.  After that they start charging.  I told Josiah to be on his best behavior with his eating.  I also reminded him that if the brackets keep falling off, it is only going to prolong the time he has to wear braces.  He isn't enjoying them as much as he thought, (because of all the food restrictions they bring), so he wants to get them off as soon as possible.  Eat soft, my son.  Eat soft.  He did choose 'fire red' and 'lime green' as his rubber band colors to celebrate Christmas.

our puzzle

 Monday afternoon we made bean pictures which was on Caroline's list of things to do.  She started off making a landscape picture.  She had a nice tree with a swing hanging from it, but the beans were just too fun and the glue squirted out too quickly, so her second picture was covered in beans.  I tried to take a picture to show the height of her beans, but it doesn't give due diligence to her creation.  Despite letting it dry for half a day, there was still a cascade of beans falling off once we picked it up.  

Caroline also wanted to have some one-on-one time.  One evening she and I played Pictionary together.  Some of the scariest words that came out of her mouth were, "Oh, this is easy.  You'll get this one." after she picked her card of words to draw.  Every time she picked up the marker, I said a little prayer that I would figure out what she was drawing.  She did a really good job overall, but there were a few that she gave me "clues" to help me solve the picture. 

Tuesday was spent putting together Josiah's model of the USS Arizona.  Josiah had been given this as a birthday gift this past year.  It has been faithfully sitting on our dining room table for nearly 11 months now.  We couldn't reach another birthday without putting it together.  The first half of the build wasn't too bad.  We started assembling it using our bare hands, but after some of the glue dripped on our hands, followed by a hot burning sensation on the skin, we put on some gloves.  We glued on tiny piece after tiny piece.  After we did all that we could, we set a timer for two hours giving the upside-down hull time for the glue to dry.  We were using a modeling cement glue.  Very stinky.  About the time our headaches set it, Henry picked up the glue and noted the skull-and-crossbones toxic fumes warning label.  We opened a window and set a fan in it to suck all the air out of our house.  Good times.  For the second half of the build, we built up.  Masts and command centers.  Lots of windows smaller than the size of a sharpened pencil tip.  Everything was really tiny.  It was about this time that I decided I was a one-and-done when it came to building models.  Josiah, however, surprised me with how much he liked it.  All in all, it turned out fairly well.  The masts both lean a fair amount, but that doesn't seem to bother Josiah.  Any hobbyist would be horrified by the gluing job we had done, but for us it was fine.  I told Josiah that it was more of a looking-at type thing, not a playing-with type thing.  He acknowledged my suggestion and went on playing with it for an hour.  

Tuesday evening we were able to go to our friend's house to decorate gingerbread houses.  We had skipped our CC Christmas party because of COVID - just too many people for comfort with the rise in cases.  So we had our own little party and had a really great time together.  Henry kept sampling the small candies.  Midway through the decorating, Henry pulled out his molar with a gumdrop stuck to it.  I hope it was loose?!!  Caroline used massive amounts of frosting on her trees.  Henry was more particular with his placement of icing and candies.  Josiah got frustrated with his decorating and sabotaged his houses - getting frosting all over his hands and making battering rams out of his sugar cone trees.  (I think he was a little upset knowing he wouldn't be able to eat any of it.)  Caroline made a M&M village.  I had a lot of fun doing the decorations for my own village and I was glad we got a picture before the drive home.  It took one quick stop for a red light and two of my trees dropped down to the car's floorboards.  At home Henry and Caroline asked to eat part of their village.  They discovered that gingerbread houses are more fun to make and not quite as tasty to eat.  The frosting, however, was all homemade and was delicious.  We tried to soak Josiah's gingerbread roof in milk to see if it would soften up so he could try it.  After half an hour the roof was still incredibly hard, so it was a no-go for him.  

Henry's project for the week was to build his Erector set Corvette.  He had received this as a gift for his birthday and he had worked on it when he got it, and I had assumed he had completed it.  But he brought it down one day over the break to say he didn't erect it correctly and he wanted to rebuild.  No problem.  We disassembled and started again.  I did not account for how difficult it would be.  I felt like I had sausage fingers trying to hold all the tiny nuts and screws.  It took two days to complete, but we accomplished it.  

We had a very COVID Thanksgiving with just our little family.  Henry made me single again when he wrote the name plates for the table.  He had requested we eat at the dining room table, which is a place that only gets used when company is in town.  He seemed to remember where everybody should sit, but arguments were brewing, so I had him write names at places to keep everyone's head cool.  

Just as we were finishing up cooking, we noticed that our neighbors across the street had a fryer out on the sidewalk.  I made a joke about it going up in flames and showed the kids a quick video of what happens when wet/frozen turkey meets a fryer.  We made our plates and sat down together.  As Todd was sitting down at the head of the table, we watched as our neighbors brought out their very large, very raw turkey to the fryer.  Todd said the blessing for our food, but the rest of us kept one eye open watching out the window.  They put the turkey in the fryer, and as if on cue, giant flames erupted from the pot of oil.  Giant flames.  Not just up, but out to the sides.  We could see the oil popping everywhere.  They set the grass on fire.  But they got it under control fairly quickly.  (A couple of days later, the kids were roller blading outside and said it still smelled like turkey by their sidewalk - this after two days of solid rain.)  

We made Cornish game hens to try something new.  We really thought it would be cute if everyone got their own little bird.  Todd found a spice rub to put on them that was amazing.  They were much tastier than I expected.  The only thing that made them unappetizing was Josiah's carving of his own bird and naming all the bones/parts.  I think this is the sternum.  These are the ribs.  This must be the spinal cord.  We had to request he turn off Dr. Josiah.  Todd said we cooked them upside down since the breast meat was on the bottom, but I think it made it tastier because the white meat just sat in the juices which was really delicious.  

To keep Benson at bay, Todd had bought him a new bone.  It was beef flavored and to say he has thoroughly enjoyed this bone would be a gross understatement.  He loves, loves, loves the bone.  He happily gnawed on it for nearly our whole meal, until he decided to walk around the table and see what we were doing.  He got a bit under Josiah's arm and I saw his tongue reach out and lick the hen.  Then it was game on.  He wanted more.  He kept poking around both boys' plates trying to get another taste.  

For dessert, everyone had a different pie request.  Caroline wanted pumpkin, Josiah wanted cherry, Henry wanted pecan, and I wanted apple.  (Todd likes pecan, too, but he's trying to work on his figure, so he had a dessert avocado.)  We had a Costco pumpkin pie for the ladies and the boys each got a mini pie of their own.  We also have bigger versions for them in the freezer so we'll have a pie of the week for the next several weeks.  

Todd got some football time in with Henry.  Henry doesn't like to just toss the football.  He likes to create plays.  He is forever trying to catch it on the run.  

We did a ton of yardwork earlier in the week knowing it would be a rainy long weekend.  Caroline asked to help out with the mowing and she did the perimeter of the backyard.  When I told her to do the perimeter, I kind of meant like a 6 foot perimeter or something wide.  She took perimeter literally and did a strip all around the outside of the yard.  She fulfilled her mowing desire and passed it off to Henry who mowed a wider perimeter.  Benson tends to keep the entire middle of the yard very short with all of his running around.  

On Saturday, it had rained all day on an already water-logged yard.  Todd and I got tired of walking Benson around the yard in the pouring rain to use the bathroom facilities.  We figured that since we had to towel him off every time we went out anyway, that we'd just let him be free.  And so we unleashed him and he took full advantage.  As if on cue, he ran like a crazy dog all around the yard, splashing in the small lakes of collected water. 

We also put up the Christmas tree on Saturday.  We (I) decided to keep it upstairs this year.  It just seemed like it would be a nightmare to have the tree where Benson could pull off and destroy ornaments.  To avoid that headache, we put the tree up in our playroom.  The kids did a really good job of decorating it.  They can finally reach all sections of it so we don't have a bare top anymore.  Josiah was our star-putter-on-er this year.  Todd was happy for that.  He has bird bones and still feels quite light.  We'll be pulling out the ladder for Henry to climb next year.  Solid as a rock.  

It was a good break week.  We needed it! 

Outside School

Josiah had a good start to his week.  He went to get the mail for us and discovered a package for himself. He had won a writing contest and they had mailed his prize.  We had totally forgotten about sending it in, but he had submitted a story to a magazine about his favorite book.  The reason he had entered it in the first place was because he wanted the prize: 365 Things to Paint and Draw.  

We finished the digestive system in science this week.  One of the end-of-unit projects was to write a comic showing a piece of food going through the digestive system.  They were too eager to oblige.  Caroline's bum cracked me up the most.  For whatever reason they chose to dress as ninjas that day, hence the head coverings.  (And I apologize in advance for Josiah's spelling.  It is a constant battle around here.  He actually has the capability of spelling much better, but simply chooses not to.)  I, for one, am so happy to move on from digestion.  It gets way too much air time around this house.  

The kids have started their language lessons again.  It is just a free website so they are by no means formal, but it is good exposure.  They have been working on Spanish, but as the week progressed, Josiah decided he wanted to broaden his horizons.  He continued his lessons in Spanish, but started lessons in German and Russian as well.  He mentioned that Russian was really hard.  I imagine it had much to do with the fact that they use the Cyrillic alphabet, something he has never dealt with before.  I thought of all the Russian phrases Todd taught me before we went to Russia many, many years ago.  Privet = Hello.  Do svidaniya = Good bye.  Sok mul'tifruktovyy pozhaluysta = Juice multifruit please.  Ya ne yem myaso. = I don't eat meat.  And most importantly: Voda bez gaza = Water, no gas.  They were very fond of their bubbly water over there.  

CC was memorable this week.  We had to do school outside because there were several COVID cases among people who went to church there.  Since we did not have any contact with the congregants, we were not worried about exposure in that respect, but decided it would be best not to stay all day inside the building.  So we hauled out tables and chairs and set up four different classroom areas.  I think overall we went into the day with expectations of fun and adventure.  The temperature was perfect, it was sunny but with enough clouds in the sky that we weren't roasting.  Each class found shade (and moved their tables as the morning went on to follow that shade).  But it also ended up being a windy day and it felt like we were constantly chasing papers everywhere.  Seeing what other classes were doing proved to be a distraction to the kids as well.  It did not necessarily flow as well as we anticipated, but the kids still took it in stride.  In Caroline's class, the kids played a broom ball relay race for their review game.  It was going well (especially for Caroline whose team kept winning), until the Texas fire ants reared their ugly heads.  Typically you can easily spot their giant mounds above the earth so you know where to avoid stepping.  However, one colony had not built their nest up and attacked Caroline's classmate.  It's a scary thing for kids, though it seems to be a right of passage down here.  The boy's shoes were covered in ants so we quickly took off both shoes and socks and got any off his feet.  They have very painful bites which later become very itchy (much itchier than mosquito bites).  One bit my pinky finger as I was cleaning off his shoes and socks and it is still swollen and itchy four days later.  They are no joke.  Poor kid.  

Josiah asked to edit Caroline's class.  He did a little more than cover eyes.

Josiah and Henry had a combined afternoon Essentials class outside.  It was taught by Josiah's tutor and Henry really enjoyed it.  She's a great tutor and had very funny sentences for the kids to parse.  The boys were also happy to move on from a unit of formal writing to the most fun unit: writing from pictures.  Basically they are given three pictures (Henry got Peanuts, Josiah got Calvin and Hobbes).  The pictures tell a story, but the word are left out.  They have to write a three paragraph paper about the pictures - one paragraph per picture.  Because they get to come up with the story and be creative, the boys love it.  

The kids turned in their shoebox gifts at Awana this week.  

Josiah surprised Todd and I by asking for a haircut.  We were ecstatic.  I don't mind longer hair if it is properly taken care of.  I told Josiah I didn't want to just go into the salon with no plan, so I had him look at pictures of haircuts.  This is what he chose:  

This is the before and after.  (Henry wanted a haircut, too.)

Josiah said his didn't look like the picture and he thinks he'll grow it out again.  Henry said his cut was his favorite cut.  

Benson is a happier dog now that we put the carpet back in the living room.  We had rolled it up when we got him because I really didn't want him using the bathroom on it.  He's trustworthy now, so we introduced it back.  He is loving the many soft areas and has slept on every inch of it.      

Today, Todd took the boys to the store to buy another headset so they could talk to each other while they played video games.  What they had been doing for months now is yelling from the upstairs playroom to the downstairs computer.  Hey, I'm going over here; Let's shoot this guy; etc.  We thought with the head sets they could talk to each other.  However, they were so used to yelling/talking loudly that they just continued on at the same volume.  Henry thought that since he could not hear his own voice in the headset that we couldn't hear him either.  He was playing at the computer downstairs and Todd overheard him tell Josiah, "This is great.  We can talk to each other and Daddy can't hear us."  What? What?!!??  Yes he can!  

We're all looking forward to our Thanksgiving Break.  Hallelujah!  However, we'll have to get through Josiah's orthodontist appointment on Monday first, eat some humble pie there as I'm sure we'll get a talking to about all the fallen-off brackets.  Then we can enjoy the week.  

Picture Day

It was a very unexciting, routine week around here.  Caroline began learning cursive a couple of weeks ago.  We use Pentime books and after she completed the first two manuscript books, she started the "Transition" book this fall.  I thought by 'transition' that there would really be a transition process to cursive.  But alas, she went from straight script on pg. 35 to straight cursive on pg. 36.  She has been learning how to form the individual letters, so I guess that was their transition process.  It has proven to be very challenging for her.  It used to be that she could do her handwriting lessons on her own and I would just check them.  Now we sit together and work through each page.  Her favorite letter so far is the lowercase 'f.'  She's a fan of swoops and loops.  She was previously unable to read anything in cursive, so she's made definite improvements now in being able to read short words.  She feels a big sense of accomplishment when she completes each page and sees her work.  

In CC this week we had picture day.  Henry's tutor's husband is a high school football coach, runs a catering business, and has his own photography business.  So he came as our in-the-flesh Olan Mills photography studio.  Our kids dressed up in their picture day best.  Henry's outfit, though appearing casual, was very well thought out.  He chose his favorite Nike shirt that has a camo swoosh as well as his favorite pair of black shorts.  He did comb his hair, but his hair has always had a mind of its own.  Caroline saved her Mermaid Squad shirt especially for picture day and she accessorized with a headband.  Josiah came down in his usual Alex. P. Keaton three piece suit.  Halfway through CC, Josiah lamented "Why do I always have to be so stylish" because he was very hot and hadn't brought any clothes to change into.  

As we got in the car to leave CC that day, Josiah was sitting tired and dis-shelved in his seat.  He asked me to take a picture of him because he thought he looked really good.  I took it, he asked to look at it, and then confirmed that, yeah, he looked really good.  

Looking good.

Josiah's pattern in the mornings is to come downstairs, find a spot at the table, and read.  He does this bare-chested, wearing only his p.j. shorts regardless of the temperature.  If he should happen to get too cold, he'll don a jacket.  Yet he doesn't exactly sit in the chair to read.  He balances on his tippy toes, sideways, with half his body weight off of the chair.  Every day he sits like this.  Most meals are eaten this way and we are forever asking him to sit in his chair.  Sit.  On your bum.  

We bought Benson another dog bed after he decimated the cover off of his old one.  Technically it was supposed to be his Christmas present but we have felt bad seeing him lie on the hard floor all the time.  We got him one that is more hammock style which seemed cooler which is good for our climate.  It also seemed like it would be harder to tear apart.  Fingers crossed.  He sniffed it out for several hours before fully venturing on the bed.  Then it took a bit longer for him to sit and finally lie on it.  Right now he's sleeping peacefully on it, so we're happy for him to be more comfortable.  

We have one more week of CC before our Thanksgiving break.  This week we are planning on staying outside for all of the morning lessons.  Several of the church's staff have tested positive for COVID.  We do not actually have any contact with the staff as they stay on a different side of the building, but just as a precaution, we're going to stay outside as much as possible.  I am personally praying for a nice overcast 75° day.

Laser Lights

This week we have been studying the digestive system.  We've started at the top and are working our way down.  It's been so interesting that we've slowed our reading down so we can do more experiments.  One day we were learning about mechanical (chewing) and chemical digestion in our mouths.  To see the chemical digestion in action, the kids each put half an oyster cracker on their tongue, found a mirror, and then camped out. They were watching for the enzyme amylase to break down the cracker without chewing.  They sat for about 20 minutes in front of mirrors before they really couldn't take it anymore, but they did experience the cracker breaking down some.  

Then we learned about the esophagus and stomach.  We learned why it isn't good to talk with your mouth full of food.   To simulate the stomach breaking down our food, they each got a piece of bread in a Ziploc bag half-full of water.  They squeezed the bread all around and in no time at all it was mush.  This one was actually kind of gross because it really looked like stomach contents and we quickly disposed of the baggies.  We've been learning a ton about the human body and are always amazed to see how it all works together so flawlessly.  

For his presentation at CC this week, Josiah sang Yellow Submarine by the Beatles.  I was actually outside with Caroline's class at the same time his class was doing their presentations outside, so I heard him across the church yard.  I love that he has no fear to sing a song in front of his peers.  He even threw in a few drum beats when appropriate.  Meanwhile, Caroline played Mary Had a Little Lamb on her tin whistle for her class.  She was very eager to show her skills.  

After CC we went to a nearby playground with friends.  The weather here has been amazing.  Mid-70s to low-80s.  Less humidity.  It's been really great.  We've been sending the kids out to play a lot.  They spent nearly all of Saturday outside with the neighborhood kids.  They wanted to play inside, but that usually devolves into watching Netflix or some other media.  I made them stay outside and every now and then I peeked at them from the window.  They were making up games and roller blading and having fun.  Old school fun.  

One day this week we had a package from Amazon arrive at our doorstep.  It was so huge I figured it must have been something sent to us - I knew I hadn't bought anything quite that large.  We opened it up and found one umbrella and one Lego kit (both of which we ordered).  What possessed some warehouse computer to think we needed a box that can hold all three of our children is beyond me.  However, Caroline is loving it.  She's taken it over, written a keypad on the exterior and she changes the password daily so that only she may enter.  She really loves that it's a safe spot from Benson's licking and jumping.  He is too scared to enter the box.

Henry and Caroline have also been having a lot of fun with Benson this week.  They discovered that he loves to chase after a laser much like a cat.  He attacks the light and bangs his nose into the ground trying to get it.  We've had to make them shine it on the carpets so that he doesn't injure his muzzle.  I also slightly fear that they'll make him so dizzy or run him so crazy that he'll loose his lunch.   Yet whenever Caroline stopped playing with the light, Benson would bark at her to continue.   Crazy dog.  He turned 9 months old today.  

Just a regular week around here.