Finishing Up

On Monday, Todd came home from work with a box full of food.  His boss had a retirement party that day and he got to bring home a ton of leftover food.  Crackers, cheese, meats, prosciutto, olives, grapes, veggies, so much food.  The kids felt like it was a feast.  It was so much food that it lasted the whole week, making meals very easy.  What do you want to eat?  Get out the giant Ziplocs of cheeses, crackers, grapes, veggies, and pita chips.  Any day I don't have to come up with an idea for meals is a win.

This has been a week of finishing up.  The kids had their last Wednesday night at church.  They all had a good semester there and seemed to enjoy their classes.  Caroline was particularly happy that she got a snack this last week. Her class never gets snack, whereas Henry's class always seems to get a bag of chips.  Josiah is in the student ministry and they get pizza every Wednesday night.  So a snack on the last night for Caroline was pretty nice.  After picking up the younger two from their classrooms, we waited in the hallway for Josiah to come down from the jr. high/high school area.  He met us in the hallway carrying two Chick-fil-a sandwiches.  They had had a special night honoring the high school seniors.  At the end of it, Josiah asked to take two sandwiches for his siblings.  Very nice.  As we walked out of church and into the parking lot, both Henry and Caroline were opening their sandwiches.  I told them, Wait until we get to the car.  You wouldn't want to drop it and not be able to eat it.  Caroline took one bite and put the sandwich back in its pouch.  Henry turned and looked at me, I'm holding it with two hands.  It's not going to drop.  10 seconds later it was on the ground of the parking lot.  His little pouch had a hole on both ends.  Henry adheres to the 5-second rule, however.  He picked that sandwich up and proceeded to eat it.  That's how we build up our immune systems around here.

The following day, Josiah had his final day of Challenge A.  It was a day of blue book assessments.  For his science assessment this semester, he had to present on the respiratory system.  (Parents were allowed to sit in on this section, but we were told to stay silent. 😉)  He had to draw it for his classmates, describe all the parts and how they work.  I assumed that since it was a final assessment it had to be completely from memory.  So for the past two weeks, I've had him present it to me at home from memory.  He was the only one to not walk up with a notecard or something to read.  But at least he knows the respiratory system.  In his drawing, he ran out of room, so he put the diaphragm to the right of his lungs.  He got a chuckle for that.  When he was done with the main parts, he talked about the dangers of smoking as well as what happens in an asthma attack.  He did really well.  He says he gets nervous, but he always surprises me with how well he speaks in front of others.  He certainly does not look nervous when he's up there.  

Now that blue books are over, Josiah has a lot less on his plate, which he appreciates immensely.  He said that his favorite subject this year was the Reasoning strand.  He loved learning about fallacies (red herring, straw man, etc.) in The Fallacy Detective.  He also liked his Analogies book.  I asked him what he liked best after those and surprisingly he said science.  He had a great year.  

While Josiah was taking his blue books, the rest of us were enjoying the End of Year party.  We had a potluck and the kids played for hours and hours.  They were outside a lot.  They played a ton of card games.  I didn't see Henry and Caroline much at all.  Mostly we'd pass in the hallway.  I would ask them if they had eaten.  They had, though I didn't know what they ate.  

Not knowing what they ate at the party came back to haunt Caroline.  That night she woke up at 2 a.m. with a queasy belly.  She proceeded to empty her stomach.  The next morning, however, she seemed pretty okay, so it must have been the smorgasbord of foods she enjoyed.  

Last week, Henry was trying to get all his school work done by 7 a.m.  This week he realized that there was no benefit to that because then he would be bored for a good part of the day waiting for his siblings to finish their work.  So, he's relaxed on his 7 a.m. deadline, but still gets his work done the quickest.  He has filled his days with helping out around the house.  He's done the dishes, laundry, and picked up Benson's 'business' in the backyard.  He's brushed Benson's teeth every day.  He has helped cook many meals as well.  He's been a welcome help.  

Henry finally wore his new gi this week, too.  He's had it for a while, but felt it was still a little too big.  The other gi was a little too small, so we convinced him to give this new one a try.  

At the end of the week, Caroline had her Awana Award Ceremony.  She had completed her book and earned all the awards and patches that went with it.  She was happy to receive her envelope of goodies.  After the ceremony, they always have cookies and lemonade.  Someone was not too happy that her brothers, who did not participate in Awana this year, were still allowed to have a cookie.  Someone said that if you didn't do the work, you didn't deserve a cookie.  That same someone was reminded of all the times she was able to get Dairy Queen or McDonald's when Henry got Memory Master in years past.  But apparently they were not an equal comparison in her mind.  

This weekend we celebrated the kids finishing CC at Outback.  Caroline spent a few minutes getting her area just perfect.  

The food was good.  Both Henry and I got steak and shrimp.  The boy can eat!  

For Mother's Day we got breakfast tacos.  Caroline put her stamp on the box.  

I also got a clean car - Caroline vacuumed the inside and we took a drive through the longest car wash in the United States after church today.  We like this car wash - we feel like we're getting our money's worth.  

Josiah has been drawing a lot before bed.  He's colored a good bit in his Garfield comic books, but one day he got inspired to draw all the presidents on index cards.  It took two nights to complete the set, but he did well.  He really captured their faces and expressions well.

We should have a nice easy week coming up.  The kids will be excited when they see their lesson plans for the week.  Since we have so much extra time, we're going to deep clean one room a day.  Yay for me.    

And Benson, getting a better look at the neighbor's cat.