Spring Break week. It was a really nice week where we enjoyed having some down time. The weather was amazing. Perfectly sunny warm spring weather. The kids played outside on Monday with a tennis ball and baseball hats. They stood in a circle in the front yard, threw the ball up, and they had to catch it in their hat. By Tuesday, they had given the game a name, Bounce, and moved it to the driveway. By Wednesday, they had rules and a referee and a game board drawn out in chalk. One person threw the ball towards the other person, but it had to bounce once in the "Bounce square." The second person had to catch it in their hat. The referee sat in a chair to make sure the ball bounced correctly and that the players did not cross the line during their throws. They played this every day except Friday when we were inundated with smoky air. There was a fire west of Fort Worth (well over 4 hours away from us). The strong winds were blowing the smoke all the way down to the Houston area.
We watched a movie a day - Josiah has been trying to get all of the old Spiderman movies from the library since seeing the newest one in the theater. Of course, everyone else has been, too, so he's been waiting for a while for them to come in. And, much to his dismay, they're all coming in backwards - Tobey Maguire's 3rd movie arrived first, then his 2nd movie. (He's still 6th in line to get the his 1st movie. He's been on the wait list for two months now!)
One evening, Josiah wanted to paint. We sat down and were joined by Henry and Caroline. We used the acrylics this time, so we stayed up a little later to be able to use up the paint we squirted out before it dried up. Henry did not know what to paint at first. After many (many) suggestions, he settled on painting a red boat. He did a very nice boat surrounded by water. He added a rain cloud, and pondered what to add next in his nautical theme. Portals. Two portals were the finishing touch, and they were his favorite parts of the painting.
Josiah opted for Fortnite characters.
Caroline went abstract.
Caroline actually drew another picture of me last weekend. She sat down with her board and asked me my favorite shape. Trapezoid was the answer. Then she got to work and drew me (with purple eye shadow) with trapezoids.
Jiu-jitsu was still open this week, and it was even nicer because the class sizes were smaller with people out on break. The boys like to "practice" at home all the time. Although their at-home practice sessions nearly always end with one or more of the following: tears, anger, yelling, unnecessary roughness penalties. We have a before-class and an at-class demonstration.
Henry has been tasked to find a hobby. He typically has the most free time during the days since he is self-motivated to finish his schoolwork early. However, he gets frustrated on days when no one else finishes in a timely manner (according to Henry's standard of timely) and he doesn't have anyone to play with. So, we've suggested/requested/demanded he find a hobby so that his time is well spent and not wasted. He has decided (it may have been suggested to him) to train Benson. He got a dog training book at the library. He read all the training sections and wanted to start with, Sit. But Benson already knew Sit. So, Henry said he'd teach him, Down. But Benson already knew, Down. Henry then moved on to, Shake. He did teach him Shake, but Shake is not a very useful command in the grand scheme of things. So, it was then suggested he teach Benson, Come. That way when we want him to come in from outside, he'll actually listen to us. Henry's been using cut up hot dog as a reward and he has gotten Benson to obey Come inside the house. This week, they'll have to take their training outside.
Caroline has been concerned about Benson continuing to hurt his nose on the fence, so she's been taking him out on a leash a lot a lot. They have walked all over the yard at all times of day. Unfortunately, our neighbor's dog is still getting to the yard next to us, so we're always on guard when Benson goes out.
I had a very productive week. Yay. I had a list of things that I wanted to get caught up on and it just worked out that I got most everything finished. One morning I was vacuuming out the van. When I got to the third row seat, it looked like a Coke had exploded back there - the seat was covered, the floor was a mess, and the backs of the seats from the second row had tons of splatter stains. It is rare for anyone to sit back there anymore so I had no idea when it happened. It did not come as a big surprise that everyone played the innocent. I have no idea how this got here! was their dumbstruck response. How could you not know you did something as massive as this?!! So, all the kids came out to help scrub and our lovely Norwex cloths got all the stains out. After cleaning the fabric, the kids cleaned the insides of the windows. Then they asked to wash the car. After the car was cleaned, we raked a few bags of leaves from the front yard. We came back inside feeling very accomplished.
Since it was smoky on Friday, the kids pulled out the "I'm bored" jar that we made when they were toddlers. It is full of popsicle sticks which have activities (for toddlers) written on them. Nevertheless, they picked a stick and did puzzles. When that was done, they picked another stick and drew pictures. They danced (to Beethoven's 5th), then played with playdoh. As they were nearing the end of their playdoh playing time, I stuck a new activity in the jar, "Clean your stuff off the dining room table." Magically, they were no longer bored.
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| Dancing |
Caroline came to the grocery store with me one evening. We were passing a Corona display when Caroline asked, "Is that Snoop Dogg?" Yes it is. It was pretty funny. She learned who he was from the Super Bowl halftime show.
And now our break is over. We should be refreshed and ready to finish out the school year. The younger kids only have four more weeks of CC left. Josiah has six more weeks of Challenge A left. This spring semester has flown by.
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