Flight Minion, Medium Well

Henry had a good start to his week.  Monday morning he had his first KSM (student ministry) outing.  They had a 6th grade get-together.  Henry's group played kickball, which he enjoyed a lot.  At pick-up, he walked to the car all smiles.  

This Sunday was Henry's first day up in the KSM as well.  Josiah was busy volunteering in the preschool, so Henry went alone.  Todd offered to walk him upstairs after he first dropped Caroline off in her new classroom.  Henry shirked that offer and ran on ahead.  He was worried he'd be late even though the first 20 minutes are a hangout time.  He met up with a couple of his friends and seemed to enjoy his first Sunday with the big kids.     

With the August weather, the kids have been making a lot of smoothies at lunch time.  This week, Josiah made a smoothie like normal.  He used a strawberry yogurt and frozen (pitted) cherries as his main ingredients.  Then, as he was sipping his drink, he spit something out.  Before I could even get close to seeing it and feeling it, it dropped and was lost forever.  I was a little concerned since he had blended cherries and I didn't know if one inadvertently still had the pit in it.  Knowing cherries have a poisonous pit, we looked up cyanide poisoning.  

There is 0.17 grams of cyanide in a cherry pit.  It takes 0.1 grams to kill an adult.  Quickly, too.  We had a mild freak-out moment.  However, I didn't see anything resembling a cherry pit in the blender or anywhere else, so we hoped it was just part of the fruit in the yogurt.  After waiting 15 minutes, we deemed all was well.  Within that time, however, Josiah wrote out a quick will and testament.  Henry said his heart hurt, but after a little bit of talking, it felt better.  There is a good chance we will never eat smoothies with cherries again.  Todd mentioned he would politely decline any and all smoothies he is offered in the future.  

One smoothie they did enjoy in its entirety was their Smoothie King treats after Henry earned his 4th red stripe.  I took several pictures and each one had Henry with half-shut eyes.  So this was his sleepy-eyed stripe.  

This week was Henry and Caroline's first day back at CC.  They were very excited to go.  I barely saw Henry all day - only a quick hello at lunch.  Just the way he wanted it, I'm sure. 

Caroline had her first day of Essentials in the afternoon.  There is a grammar portion, a writing section, and math games.  I was able to sit with her and she seemed to enjoy it all.  The hardest part was sitting in a classroom for an additional two hours.  She was definitely not used to that.  For the math games, they started off with quick mental math.  They rolled dice and then had to add whatever they landed on quickly.  Her competitive side kicked in and she aimed to get the answer before her tablemates!  For the writing portion, she learned how to write her very first Key Word Outline.  She has a great teacher so this will be a good year for her.  

Henry's Essentials class dressed up for their sentence "dress-ups."

This weekend we finally had to do yardwork.  It has been so dry this summer, that we have only mowed the lawn three times.  Once in June, once in July, and once in August.  We finally got some rain and were glad to see our grass turn from brown to green.  After we finished, we went out to dinner.  We let the kids order whatever they wanted.  Henry was looking over the menu and asked if he could get the "Flight Minion."  Sure.  But when you give the waitress your order, pronounce it fee-le min-yon.  He went a different direction, ordering the more phonetic sirloin.  

An after-dinner selfie.

School is in full swing around here and the days are jam-packed again.  My prayer this year is that we develop our independence, show initiative, try even if it is hard, and do our best!  During school one day this week, Josiah and I were doing a Logic lesson.  He paused, looked up, and asked, What are those circle things I like?  [pause.....] Oh yeah, Danishes.  And back to Logic.....