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.)