The Gallbladder's My Favorite

Josiah had an orthodontist appointment earlier in the week.  The orthodontist has been telling us "we're in the home stretch" for the past three visits (24 weeks of being in the home stretch).  Josiah's been a tad curious how long the home stretch was going to take.  This visit, he spent a lot of time looking at Josiah's teeth and feeling all in his mouth.  After he was done, he said that his teeth looked really good and that he should get his braces off this summer.  It's about nine months after Josiah had hoped, but at least he has a time frame which helps.  

To brighten up Josiah's week even more, he had to get busy and clean his room for real.  None of this, Spend an hour cleaning your room, then he starts to clean, then plays with Legos, then makes a new Lego creation, then the hour's up.  The sheer amount of artwork and Legos he has accumulated over the years is always staggering.  We talked about Legos later in the week and Josiah defended himself by saying he was able to keep them all clean when we lived in Virginia.  Maybe, but you were also five and had exponentially less.  

We had a good CC week.  In the mornings, one mom started a map club.  The younger kids can draw the maps free hand or trace them.  Their goal is to draw at least 100 maps (as a group) by the end of the semester.  Since we are always early to CC, Henry and Caroline joined up and each traced a map for their first week.  They stopped when their hands cramped up.  One reason for the club is that when the kids go into Challenge A (7th grade), they have to draw the world, so this will give them both a leg up and a familiarity with the process.  

We learned about Edgar Degas in Fine Arts.  The kids drew with pastels on a cloth.  They had outlines of some Degas paintings that they could use, but they also had the freedom to draw whatever they wanted.  Caroline followed her own creativity and drew a sunset.  Henry picked Degas' Friends At the Theater outline. 

 

At the end of the day, Henry and Caroline have to help clean up and they typically take the trash to the dumpster.  It's always a quick toss because, for most of the time we've been at this church, a racoon has taken up residence in the dumpster.  

Caroline has been enjoying her hair chalk a lot this week.  Many days she has colored her hair to match her shirts.  She likes to color the front bits and typically chooses blues and purples.  It was crazy hair night at Awana, so she had that in the bag.  

We've appreciated the cooler, rainy weather this week by making a lot of homemade chicken noodle soup.  I've made it so much that I've repeatedly told the kids they don't have to eat it anymore; I just like it.  Maybe to switch things up, both boys took over the cooking on Saturday.  Henry made everyone pancakes for breakfast.  He does the complete process by himself at this point.  He only runs out of steam when it comes to clean-up, but I don't mind helping if I don't have to cook!  Then for dinner, Josiah made us grilled cheese sandwiches (which we ate with chicken noodle soup).  Josiah takes his sandwiches seriously.  He starts with a full stick of butter.  He butters the griddle, he takes a slice of bread and butters both sides of it, he puts the cheese on the bread and butters the cheese, then he butters the second slice of bread on both sides.  As they cook, he sprinkles some salt on the griddle, adds a bit more butter and puts the sandwiches on top of the butter/salt combo.  

 

We ended Saturday night with a game of Organ Attack.  We were all given five organs.  The objective is to basically kill the other players' organs.  They have to have two afflictions to die unless you play the necrosis card and then the organ dies immediately.  There are immunity cards and medicine cards.  The kids play it so fast and with such aggression that Family Game Night turns into kill or be killed.  The gallbladder is the favorite organ for some reason, so when that dies someone's unhappy.  Todd and I always go into it thinking we'll have a family game night full of laughs and fond memories.  And it always ends in someone yelling, someone stomping off, and someone quite happy for their win...

pancreas

That was our week.  Always grateful for Mondays and a fresh start to our weeks.  

Happy Birthday Again

A short and sweet week.

At jiu-jitsu this week, there were a couple of people putting up a huge decal on their main wall.  They completed it by the end of class, so they took a group picture.  Caroline said there was a lot of discussion about the "THE" which was quite close to the power strip.  In the end, it all worked out.  Caroline is in the middle with a big smile.  Henry, back left, took a more serious don't-mess-with-me stance.

At CC we learned about Thomas Gainsborough.  He liked to do fanciful landscapes and then paint portraits of people over them (The Blue Boy).  The kids were allowed to paint a landscape of their choosing and when they were done, they glued a picture of themselves on the landscape.  Last week, we took pictures of the kids and they posed however they wanted.  They got really creative - the boy next to Caroline posed like he was flying and his "landscape" was mostly all sky.  Henry chose a more contemplative look.  Caroline posed as if she were climbing a mountain.  In class, she only made it through painting the sunset.  She has yet to add the mountain at home, but when she does, she'll glue herself climbing it.  

Todd was not feeling well over the weekend.  He called it a man-cold.  His words, not mine.  He did have a fever, though, so we'll give it to him.  On Saturday, Josiah and I were out running errands, so Henry made Todd some soup.  When Todd picked up the spoon to take his first bite, he noticed Henry had given him a fork.  When asked, Henry said it was to eat the noodles and chicken.  And that confirmed to Todd that Henry was definitely my son.  I like soup for the chunks.  Todd is a fan of the broth.  

This weekend we made the birthday cake that Josiah originally wanted.  We had red velvet cake with a layer of vanilla ice cream in the middle.  Then he wanted a cream cheese frosting to go over it all.  He put the candles in it himself and we sang, Happy Birthday to you again.  Happy Birthday to you again.  Reviews were mixed.  Some could do without the ice cream, some the frosting.  

Besides a bunch of school work, that was our week.  

Fourteen is Fine

Josiah was very, very excited for his birthday this week.  He spent the entire day before his birthday trying to control his excitement.  He kept asking everyone if they were excited for his upcoming birthday.  At least twice an hour he relayed his excitement and wanted to make sure our excitement was at or above his same level.  He didn't think he would be able to sleep at all that night.

For his birthday morning, Josiah wanted everyone up by 6:00 a.m. so gift opening could commence before Todd left for work.  He also requested that we hide his gifts.  He never asked for clues, so I was just going to hide them and send him off with a Good Luck!  Todd was nicer and asked if he wanted clues written.  He did.  Now that he was turning 14, we made them a bit harder to solve.  What fun would it be if he knew exactly where to find the next gift?  He solved most of them pretty quickly, except for one which said, "I'm hiding with my empty brothers."  It was an Amazon box with a gift in it, but it was in the middle of the other empty boxes that I save.  

It is always fun to watch Josiah open gifts because he is excited about everything.  This year he got a lot of colored pencils - from his siblings and from us.  

He got lights for his bedroom, animal pens and a sketch pad, Fortnite action figures and V-bucks.  

He also got a karaoke machine.  When he opened it, Henry commented that I must really want it loud around here.  A few days after his birthday, his last gift came which was a microphone stand.  He is now ready to rock and he keeps trying to enlist the rest of us to have a karaoke night.  

Josiah was a fan of Benson's card.  He signed it himself the evening before.  In it, he stuffed packets of Kool-Aid.  Josiah always enjoyed the Kool-Aid cups Great Grandma had.  We were able to bring three back to Texas.  We unpacked them after our Christmas trip and he's been wanting Kool-Aid ever since.  I had never bought Kool-Aid and wasn't even sure they still sold it, but to Josiah's delight, we found some.  

Josiah also showed appreciation for Caroline's revival of her Harry Pooper card.  

Todd dressed up his Froot Loops again.  He had to break out the thesaurus for "-oot" words this year.  He's used Groot Loops, Okra Loops (inside joke), Froot Poops, Foot Loops, a few odd years of mini donuts, and Soot Loops.  

After their bowls of sugar, there was some karaoke singing.  They used up all the power it had, so while the karaoke machine recharged, Josiah sang and danced around in the kitchen.  

For lunch, Josiah chose the ever-nutritious, Lunchables.  And then for dinner, we headed to Cheddar's so we could have their amazing chicken tenders.  The food was good, especially the never ending honey butter croissants!

The biggest thing Josiah looked forward to was a day off from school.  He still had to watch his Logic videos because he has a standing appointment for that, but then he got to play with his friend Bobby for a while, so it was a little work, a little fun.  

Our oven has not been working for a few weeks now.  We had ordered a part for it, but it hadn't come in before Josiah's birthday.  Because we couldn't bake a cake, he picked one out at Costco.  He chose the one with the teddy bear on top because, as he noted, bears are cool.  To make it a bit cooler, Josiah added sunglasses and nicknamed it "Big Boi."   He also chose the candle placement himself.  The group of four red candles were purposefully close together to heighten their flame.  A bit of a pyro we have here.  

All in all, he seemed to have a pretty good birthday.  

A few weeks ago, Caroline helped Todd take the oven apart to see if it was indeed the ignitor that had gone bad.  We tested it and that was definitely a problem.  This weekend, the oven part came in and Todd was able to replace the ignitor.  YouTube showed him how to replace the part and then how to get the door back on!   Once everything was back together, the oven worked so much better.  I kind of liked being forced into making only stovetop meals; it kept expectations nice and low.  It may be an odd combination of food, but it's the best I could do without using the oven.  I'll miss saying that...  The first thing Josiah wants to bake is his original birthday cake idea - a red velvet cake with ice cream on top. 

At CC this week, Josiah gave the devotional.  He started it out by asking his peers to think of their favorite day from last year.  Then he spoke on Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  We need to live each day as it comes and appreciate each day we have.  Leave tomorrow's worries for tomorrow.  Appreciate the past, plan for the future, but live in the present.  

In the Foundations classes, they've moved from tin whistle to great artists for their fine arts strand.  They started with Rembrandt and how he painted with a lot of light and shadows.  Caroline's class learned how to draw a face while looking at a model (a mom).  After adding the facial features, they tried to shadow it.  (It was also pajama day, hence the outfits...)  They definitely learned that drawing faces was very challenging, which only made us appreciate Rembrandt's work even more.

Josiah's birthday has officially brought birthday season upon us.  It'll be a busy few months. 

Cookies Good, Harmonica Bad

Josiah had to start school this week because his CC group was meeting.  He expressed his sincere excitement with a plethora of moans and groans.  This spring, instead of reading novels, they are reading a ton of short stories and writing their own throughout the semester.  Josiah's problem with the short story will be to pare down the number of ideas floating around in his brain.  He is very keen to share his story.  They also have mock trial, and after reading through the case, Josiah decided that being the defendant would be his cup of tea.  The case is about a crane that falls during a hurricane, killing two people (squatters on the site).  Josiah would be the man in charge of the construction site where the crane sat.  I think they'll try out a few roles at the start before everyone settles into the roles they like best.  He'll be quite pleased to have Henry and Caroline get back into their school routines come Monday.  

To throw in a little fun, Josiah and I competed in our annual Battleship game with peppermint hot cocoa.  We usually play this the day after Christmas, but since we were out of town, we didn't get it in.  Josiah kept guessing exactly where I had my ships.  I was questioning if he could see their reflection from my reading glasses.  He claimed he saw nothing of the sort.  Needless to say, he crushed me.  

Caroline got her workout on and went to jiu-jitsu several times this week, earning her 4th red stripe.  We decided not to celebrate at Bahama Buck's because no one was finishing them and they were too expensive to waste.  We tried out Crumbl Cookies instead.  Their schtick is that they bake only 6 flavors of cookies each week, rotating the flavors.  Caroline chose the vanilla bean, and the boys chose chocolate chip.  They were gigantic and really sweet, but the kids were fans.  

Todd earned props at his Krav Maga class as well.  Before Christmas, he had three weeks of testing.  This past week, he found out his results.  He attained Level 8.  A black belt is level 10, so he was very pleased with his results.  He was told that he had all the technique, he just needed a little more stamina.  Todd, noting his age, said this was about as good as it was going to get.  In his program, the only belt given is the black belt.  

Benson discovered he was not a fan of harmonica music.  Josiah found his harmonica and started playing it.  It didn't take long before Benson was howling beside him.  

Caroline loves laying next to a sleeping Benson.  Easy access to his ears.

Benson has his own way of telling Todd that he would really prefer he read his book outside so they could keep each other company there.  

Come tomorrow, we get back into everyone's routine.  Second semester here we come!