Crated Children

This week we pretty much finished school.  We have one more day of science to read, so we'll officially end on Tuesday.  I informed the kids that they would each have to do their math twice a week throughout the summer.  We've had summers before (maybe only one, I think) where I didn't make them keep up their math skills and come August there were many tears of frustration from all three.  So, I told them they could pick whichever two days of the week they wanted (Mon-Fri), but they had to do it first thing so that it was done for the day.  No one complained.  Not even a little!  They were more focused on picking their days.  As it is right now, the boys picked Mon/Fri, Caroline picked Tues/Thurs.  I also told the boys that if a holiday falls on a Monday, they still have to do two lessons that week (but they can move it to Tuesday).  That was because they were already lauding the fact that this weekend was Memorial Day and they had Monday off.  I don't think so. 

Henry fulfilled a few dreams this week.  We allowed him to try the Milkbone treats.  He's been asking to try them from the first day we bought them.  He crunched into one and said, "Are these good for me?"  I'm going with a 'no' on this one.  Then he asked to get in Benson's crate.  And there he stayed and hung out.  Benson willingly walked into the crate with him.  It all looked too tempting, so a few minutes later, Josiah joined them.  And then they encouraged their sister to do the same.  The poor dog didn't know what they were doing with his space.  

At jiu-jitsu, it was Professor Mike's birthday this week.  He is the owner and main instructor in all the classes.  At the end of Caroline's class, all the kids sang to him.  Then another adult instructor flipped him over his shoulder, which is what Mike always does to the kids if they go to class on their birthdays.  The boys' class was next and at the end, Mike allowed every student to flip him!  In this picture, Henry is on top in the white, Josiah is in the grey on the bottom.  

Caroline has found a new book series she loves - the Cam Jansen books.  They are mysteries and she really gets into them.  She likes to retell the story as she reads and lets us in on how she thinks the case will be solved.  She typically reads in bed at night and brings the book downstairs in the morning, "I finished it."  It was through the reading of this series that she decided to have a family game night with a carnival game they had in one book.  She got a piece of red poster board, drew eleven circles on it, got a nickel, and called everyone upstairs to play her game.  We got two tries each to flip a coin onto the poster board.  If we got our nickel in the circle we got one point.  If the nickel was exactly in the center of the circle we got two points.  If the coin was touching the line of the circle or out of the circle, we got zero points.  We played ten rounds and at the end, Henry won.  However, I do not think we should discount where everyone was sitting.  Todd and I were on opposite ends of the couch tossing our coins to the poster board on the floor.  Josiah stood up on a box and tossed his coin from on high.  Caroline sat next to the board, but still gave nice tall coin flips.  Henry, however, sat next to the poster board, and often flipped his coin a measly two inches high over a circle.  Next time we'll have a "flipping spot," to make it a bit more even.  

Josiah is still very much into the presidents.  He checks out lots of books on them and reads them all.  Then he'll ask if I thought Taft was a good president or Pierce or Johnson.  I have no idea!  I very often have to respond that I know nothing of their presidencies and that he is sure to know more about them.  Now I've started reading the books after him just to gain a little knowledge.  He is also, of course, drawing them.

At dinner last night, the kids were coming up with adjectives to describe themselves.  They were calling out: Helpful Henry!  Charming Caroline!  Joyful Josiah!  Cute Caroline!  Hunkin’ Hankster!  Helpful Josiah (said with a Spanish ‘J’)!  As they’re extolling all their greatest qualities that began with their letters, Henry asked me if he should try to do 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' or 'Todd' and 'Erin.'  I said, “Erin.”  Instantly, Caroline called out, “Irritating Erin.”  Really?  Excellent.  Encouraging.    

And earlier in the week, Caroline and I were in the car, it was a quiet moment, pleasant.  Then she broke the silence and asked, "Are you ever going to be attractive?"  Um, it's not looking good at this point.  

Today was a day where four out of five of us used a good 50,000 words each.  I was not one of them.  But I heard all the words.  Currently, I have on my noise-cancelling headphones.  And tomorrow's a holiday, so no school/work, so that means more words. 

  

Pink Bike with Streamers

Benson began his week with a joyous celebration of cone freedom.  Todd took his cone off before leaving for work Monday morning and Benson was a happy little dog.  He spent the first 10 minutes scratching and licking every area of his body.  With the cone, he avoided the stairs almost completely, but as soon as it was off he became a frequent upstairs traveler.  He's gotten into all the same trouble as before - he can jump up to get our shoes from the top of his crate.  He will get into any room that has not been properly sealed off.  We took him to the vet mid-week for his yearly check-up and they said he was one healthy dog.  His bite marks have healed nicely and he got his shots up to date.  He spent the rest of the day sleeping it off.  I think the one thing he regrets about his cone was that he got meatballs and muffins stuffed with medicine twice a day.  That has all abruptly stopped and he hasn't been as eager to eat his dry dog food.  He has often walked over to his food, sniffed it, and walked away. 

The vet also gave Benson a rabies tag for his collar.  We put it on and it looked so good.  Now he jingles wherever he goes so no more sneaking around for him.  He also got the cutest Get Well Soon card from Todd's cousin Cheryl.  The kids have read it to him often and he has licked his approval.

I was not feeling so great at the beginning of the week.  (Not covid, I checked.)  On Tuesday, I slept in til 11:00 a.m.  Woke up, acknowledged the time, and went back to sleep til noon.  This is not something I do frequently, but was glad to note that the kids were capable of feeding themselves and a few of them even did some of their school work.  (While one chose to do their full math lesson and handwriting, another chose to copy their ten spelling words and call it a day.)  They texted me a menu of options for room service.  When I finally got out of bed and made my way downstairs, I did have Josiah make me toast and he did a great job.  We didn't get a lot of school done that day, but that was okay.  By the following day I was on the mend.  

Henry had his Memory Master dinner this week.  Todd took him this year.  The kids sat at one table and tried to play a few games before eating.  The cake had a picture of all the memory master kids from the last day of CC.  Henry had a very nice time.  

To relieve the stresses of their academic work, the kids took to sumo wrestling mid-week.  After lots of wrestling type moves to try and take their opponent to the floor, we told the kids that sumo wasn't wrestling.  The objective was to push the competitor outside of the sumo circle.  Ohhhhhh.   Then they pushed.  But they don't have big-mass sumo bodies, so their pushes were a little too sharp and aggressive.  We called the match.  

Lately, Caroline has been asking me if Daddy is the only boy who ever liked me.  I told her I figured so.   She's been asking me lots of questions about who liked me (apparently not many...) and what I wore when I was a kid/teenager.  These questions have been going on all week and one day we were out in the car and there was someone walking along wearing baggy pants and a big t-shirt.  I pointed the person out to Caroline and said, "That's the sort of thing I wore in high school."  to which Caroline replied, "I can see why no other boy wanted you."  Yeeeaah... 

Caroline had a great end to her week.  She has been bike shopping online.  She had very specific requirements - pink, purple, or rainbow.  It HAD to have streamers hanging from the handle bars.  She didn't want a blue bike with pink accents.  She wanted pink to be the primary color.  We looked at several stores.  Local bike shops had crazy expensive kid bikes and none fit the pink-sparkle-streamer criteria.  We ended up finding the perfect bike.  A Huffy.  It was just what she wanted.  She begged Todd to put it together after work one evening and immediately took it out for a spin.  She was ecstatic to see the streamers fly.

I was gone all day on Saturday for a practicum with our homeschool community.  Todd kept the kids on the move.  They did jiu-jitsu, (showered and changed), and then headed out to the pet resort where Benson will stay for a few weeks this summer.  It is a really nice place - very clean.  It is on 14 acres, but the dogs have 3 acres.  They're out in the grass all day.  They check to see if your dog can be with other dogs or needs it's own 'walk.'  They have two pools.  Todd said that even each of their smaller, individual walks have a kiddie pool in it with a beach umbrella for shade.  They are nice digs.  Benson should enjoy his time there.  After checking that out, they went out to eat.  They texted me a picture of them eating out.

I texted them back a picture of me eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Caroline laughed. 

So I texted back a picture of a chocolate I had gotten from the practicum.  Caroline, not so happy.

Then, to keep them on the move, Todd brought the kids to a pet store. Henry reminded him that he never got to pick out a toy for Benson, so he got him a long rubber toy that you should throw in lieu of a stick when playing fetch.  Caroline picked out a new collar for him. It is a lighter turquoise sort of color (you can see it in the picture of Josiah, Benson, and his get well soon card).  Josiah got him treats.  They also got a tag engraved with his name and our phone numbers.  They had a great time.  Now Josiah wants a hamster.  I think that would be a great pet for your first apartment.

How I'm feeling right about now.

Graduations & Gallery Furniture

The week started off well for Josiah.  He earned his first stripe in jiu-jitsu.  He went to the lunch class and the evening class that day because he was extra excited.  These stripes are big motivators for the kids.  As soon as they earn one, they're already counting down to when they'll get their next one.

The kids have spent time outside every day in their homemade hammock.  We had a small tree branch break, but instead of falling, it just hung.  After swinging on that branch for a few days, another bigger branch broke in the same area.  (Obviously, the tree isn't sounding so healthy.)  With more branches to work with, they got the idea to make a hammock.  There were many warnings to be careful since they were basically asking to be supported by a broken branch.  Nevertheless, after a week their hammock is still going strong.  They used a whole roll of rope to make a pulley-like system which allowed them to lift and swing the person resting in the hammock.  It's quite a creative feat.  It is also probably best, now that the branches are sufficiently weakened, that we have a week of rain coming up.  

I snapped this picture last week.  This is a typical morning in our house.  7:00 a.m.  Henry is working on his math because his goal is to complete all his work as early as possible.  Josiah is drawing as he does every morning.  In a few hours time Josiah will be mad that Henry has completed his school work and he is not yet done.  Typically we hear, It's not fair.  I have so much more work than him.  As you should.  You're older.

He did draw a good picture, though.  It's a lemonade fountain.

Henry finished his 4th grade math book this week.  I had ordered his new 5th grade books, but they were not delivered in time, which allowed him to have two days off of math this week.  His books went from Illinois to Georgia to Houston to a somewhat local city to Dallas to Houston.  I was watching the tracking wondering what the heck was going on.  Henry was watching the tracking with glee as the books made an unnecessary trip to Dallas.  They're here for Monday, though.  ;)

On Friday, Aunt Claire graduated from nursing school (Magna cum laude!!!).  Since she lives about 2000 miles away, we watched her graduation ceremony online.  When she walked up to receive her diploma, she was also given a rose.  Caroline kept talking about how she and Claire were graduating on the same day.  Claire from nursing school.  Caroline from Sparks Girls.  And they may have both experienced the same amount joy at their respective graduations.  Caroline was also quick to note that her graduation wouldn't be as fancy.  No roses.  After three years, Caroline moves up from Sparks Girls to T&T.  She filled her vest with all the jewels and patches and wings that she could earn.  She did well.  

Their awards.

And, after four years, Josiah graduated from the T&T Awana club.  He is officially done with Awana.  Although it does go through high school, he will continue on with his Life Group through our church which is essentially the same thing.  Another chapter done for him.

Saturday morning, I told Josiah that we were going to go to the Mock Trial that the Challenge B (8th grade) kids put on.  I wanted him to watch it since he'd have to do it in two years' time.  He grumbled and stomped on the stairs as he went up to get dressed.  Why do I have to go?  I don't want to go?  He was upstairs for a while and came back down dressed to the nines.  Todd ended up taking him and they stayed for the first court case.  (The students have to each play a role in a real court case-- prosecutor/defense attorney/witnesses/etc.  They have a real judge presiding and in years past they were in a real courtroom.  Covid has made it so they had to do it at our CC church.)  After watching the first trial, they slipped out and went to the comic book store.    

This weekend, we tried a new Tex-Mex restaurant.  After perusing the menu, Henry chose the "Lopez" which consisted of five different dishes.  Upon ordering it, the waiter gave a little chuckle, "Okay!"  When his three plates arrived, Henry dove in first to his rice and beans.  Of all the things!  We brought home several enchiladas and a big chile relleno.  He kept saying that I wouldn't have to cook him dinner for two days.  And yet, the very next morning Todd and he finished off all the leftovers.  

After we ate, we walked to the furniture store next door.  It is Gallery Furniture and it is owned by a man named Mattress Mack.  He's a very well known figure in the Houston area as he is always helping out the city.  When Hurricane Harvey hit, he opened his furniture stores for people to sleep on the mattresses when they couldn't go to their homes.  His furniture stores are not like any other.  You walk in and are greeted with a toy train display.  They have giant furniture and a huge aquarium.  We walked the store and in the middle was a huge open room that was a U.S. history walk-through.  He even had a real Model-T on display.  As we wrapped our way back around to the front, we ended at the "play at your own risk" mattresses.  It was a group of 12 mattresses pushed together for the kids to jump on.  Ours had a blast.  

Benson is counting down his time in his cone.  Right now he walks up to me, stands, stares, and barks.  I try to see if he's hungry or needs to go out.  When those don't work, it's clear he wants to be scratched.  I scratch his neck area and his whole face goes into content-mode.  Josiah is really good at scratching all his itchy parts, too.  

To finish out our weekend, Josiah wanted a family night where we all completed in his Crash Team Bandicoot Racing game.  Todd created a double-elimination bracket.  Since it was Josiah's event, he was allowed to pick all of the tracks for each race.  The kids were all in.  Until they lost.  When all the brackets had finished, Henry came out the victor.  Josiah created trophies for all of us.  It was a good time.  (The neck hug between the boys below was not a friendly one despite the smiles on their faces.)