Science Fair

Henry had a rough start to his week.  Of the three kids, he seems to get more colds.  Caroline wins for most serious illnesses.  Henry wins for most frequent minor illnesses.  It was mostly congestion/sinus issues, but he laid around for a lot of Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday he started feeling a little better and kicked it into high gear to complete his science fair board and presentation.  He practiced his presentation that he was going to give the judges.  He did a good job of explaining everything, but as always, I told him to slow down when he talks.  He made me ask him the questions that were listed in his guide to prepare for questions from the judges.  Science Fair day came.  Each student in his class had to stand alone in an empty sanctuary to present before a panel of four judges.  Just him and the judges.  It was a touch intimidating.  Later, Henry pointed out things he did well and things he wished he had done better.  Then he relayed, Guess how many of the questions they asked me from the Guide?  

-How many?  

-None.  

They asked him how he measured the acidity of the drinks. (He didn't, but boy, that would have been easy if we thought of it.  We were focused on color and sugar, not acidity.) That was the only question he could remember them asking.  They did say he covered all the questions they were prepared to ask.  

There was one student who wasn't able to come because she was sick, so she'll present next week and then we'll finally get the results.  Henry is quite happy to be done with Science Fair.  Next up he learns (and draws) all the body systems.  This week is the respiratory system.  

At lunch, the younger kids were encouraged to ask each science fair participant a question about their experiment.  If they asked a question, they got a stamp.  If they filled up their card with stamps, they got a prize, so there were a lot of kids walking around asking questions.  (I did overhear one kid ask a student who studied the salinity of the Dead Sea if she played Fortnite, followed by her stamping their card.  So not all questions were relevant....)

Caroline's class painted in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe this week.  She did amazing with her flowers - I love the depth she got.  She looked at one of O'Keeffe's paintings for the pink tulip, but the other two flowers she did on her own.    

Josiah's class had their Individual Events this week.  It had to be a 3-5 minute memorized speech/poem/passage of Scripture/etc.  It was opened ended on what they memorized, but it had to be published and it had to be fully memorized.  The two main skills were memorization and delivery.  Josiah chose to memorize The Beatles' Free As a Bird.  He started his presentation with some background information about how the song came about and then sang it to his class.  

Our oven was giving us some fun this week.  Mid-week, I was cooking (Not. Burning.) chicken in the oven.  Halfway through the cook, the fire alarm started going off.  We noticed smoke in the house as well, so I taught the kids how to use a cutting board to fan the fire alarm.  (Works very well.) With windows open and a big fan running, we got the smoke out.  Clearly it was something on the bottom of the oven that was burning.  (The chicken really was fine - we were making chicken noodle soup since Henry was under the weather.)  That evening, I started the self-clean feature for the oven hoping to fix our little fire alarm problem.  And 15 minutes into the self-cleaning, the alarm was going off again.  That was fun knowing there were 3 hours and 45 minutes of self-cleaning left.  It did fix our problem though.  

Mid-week Caroline showed her chops again.  I had let Benson out in the backyard a little after 8 p.m.  It isn't all that unusual for him to go out one last time around then.  I did not hear it, but all of a sudden Caroline jumped up and ran outside after Benson.  She heard a commotion and animal sounds.  Before I could get my shoes on to go out, she came back in holding Benson by the collar telling him sternly to Get inside!  Then she said Benson had gotten the neighbor's little white dog.  Well, that made my heart sink because I did not want to have to go knock on our neighbor's door.  How another dog could get into our backyard was unclear, but I figured it wasn't impossible.  It's a pretty small dog.  I got a flashlight and went to inspect the situation.  At this point in the week, it had been raining for three days straight - hard raining.  The backyard was half pool, half mud.  I saw the animal curled up, dirty white fur, not moving, and as I approached it I let out a huge sigh of relief when I saw the long opossum tail.  Thank! Goodness!  He was clearly playing dead, but overall looked fine - no blood, nothing seemed bad.  I gave him time to 'wake up' and checked back outside an hour later.  He was gone.  Caroline will just walk up to any situation and grab Benson out of it.  No fear, this one.  

Caroline finished out her week with some good news.  She had a follow-up with the ENT who did her sinus surgery.  She is not a fan of these visits because they shoot a solution up each nostril to prepare the area for a scope. They tell her to swallow it, but it tastes like hand sanitizer (and smells like hand sanitizer), so she hates it.  It burns her throat as well.  He used the scope to look all the way to her sphenoid sinuses and said they both looked good and normal, they were draining properly, and she could discontinue her Flonase.  She was a little disappointed about that because of her two routines, she prefers the Flonase.  The sinus rinse, which shoots a stream of salt water right up her nose, was recommended to continue her entire life.  She was thrilled to hear that tidbit of advice again.  Big eyeroll... It sounds like she is not one to have chronic sinus issues and we only have to go back if she experiences problems.  (And this doctor has an ENT friend in SC, so we're set for that, too.)

At Awana this week, it was Fashion Disaster night.  Caroline chose not to participate because she likes fashion and was not about to mess up her style just to earn one extra point for the Awana Store.  That's my girl.

The kids have all asked to have birthday parties this year since it will be the last year with our Texas friends.  Josiah wanted to incorporate his CC friends with his church friends, but couldn't figure out how to do it.  What he came up with, was a jam session.  He invited his musical friends from church and CC and they got together at our house Saturday evening and jammed to the Beatles.  There were keyboards, a ukulele, a trumpet, drums, and voices.  They all thought it went well and are geared up to do it again.  I told them to take a picture in case any of them becomes famous one day.  They can always say, "I used to jam with them in high school."  

Josiah did not play the ukulele, but it did make me reminisce of his ukulele days.  

Meanwhile, Henry also had a friend over Saturday evening.  They didn't jam, but they did play several board games together.  Caroline played a few with them before hiding out in her room.

It's another busy week ahead.  Same story, different week.  

Arctic Freeze

We started our week in the low 20s. I had to pick up Henry from his sleepover Monday morning.  I did not realize that we were going to have precipitation with the cold front.  The freezing rain started as soon as I got in the car to get him.  Before I had driven a block (and my engine was still cold), my whole windshield iced over and I couldn't see a thing.  I avoided the highway and the many overpasses it holds and got Henry without incident.  As we drove under the highway overpass on the way home we could see firetrucks and ambulances attending an accident above us.  Before the day was over huge parts of the highways were closed due to ice.  We have no winter weather sand/salt trucks here.  

Henry and I stopped at the grocery store on the ride home.  He is always up for trying something new, so while we roamed the produce department, Henry picked up a dragon fruit.  We tried it all together and it was quite good.  It reminded me of kiwi fruit.  Despite her face, Caroline didn't mind it.  Henry was a fan.  Josiah not so much.  Henry wants to pick up a new item each time we go and have a tasting session.  

The winter weather continued into Tuesday.  The highways were still closed as well as the schools.  Homeschools, however, were up and running, which was not well received.  It's not fair! 

Todd sent SWU sweatshirts just in time for the cold snap.  The kids have been wearing them all week and admiring their softness.  Henry was impressed that the elastic on the wrists was not stretched out.  He kept commenting on how well it fit.  He has severely stretched out the wrists of his regular sweatshirt.  He tried to tell me that we bought it that way.  He was not convinced when I told him Columbia does not sell stretched-out-wrist-sweatshirts.  You did that buddy.  That was all you!

Even Benson has cuddled up due to the cold weather.  One night the kids got him to sleep in Henry's room with them.  Hours later when I went up to bed, Benson was nowhere to be seen, so I snuck to Henry's room and he was curled up on Josiah's mattress.  The kids have been sleeping in Henry's room since Christmas Eve.  Josiah with his mattress on the floor, Caroline on the cot.  

Henry spent a lot of the week working on his Science Fair project.  He completed Trial 3 with the stained eggs.  Then he completed his formal research paper.  When he got to class, they went through the papers and Henry notated all of his 'fixes.'  APA format is required.  I read all the information on the APA website, but a lot of parts come down to 'or whatever your instructor requires.'  So, we're doing our best.  We tried.  From the paper, he moved onto the project board.  His title is Sugar Stained Teeth and he wanted 'Sugar' to be written in sugar.  We opted for salt because it looks the same and attracts fewer ants.  The Science Fair is this week and he should be ready to present to the judges. 

Josiah has continued to check his stocks daily, more often hourly.  This week he had a guest speaker in his class come talk about investing and the Stock Market.  He reiterated, buy low, sell high, and Josiah has shown considerable restraint this week in that regard.  He still ranks #2 in his class (of 13), but he is always clamoring for 1st.  

Caroline had her Picasso day at CC.  Picasso is her favorite artist because anything goes and nothing is 'wrong.'  She's taken to naming her people this year as well.  I especially like how she did the tie-dye shirt.  

Josiah, ever the social butterfly, planned an entire event out with his friends this weekend.  A local high school (which none of them attend) was putting on SpongeBob the Musical.  Once Josiah saw the advertisement a few weeks back, he was making plans to go.  When I dropped him off, I gave him some cash in case they had refreshments.  I always throw in the, Be reasonable, advice.  Josiah loved the musical and recognized a few church members as part of the cast.  When he got home, I asked him for my change.  He had bought himself refreshments for the first half, a bit more during intermission, and then something to tie him over during the second half.  He is not liking his Economics project at times like these, because he has to itemize everything he spends.  It's no fun looking at it all written out like that.  

After church today we headed to Tutti Frutti.  The rule was that we would not go there so long as Josiah had his braces on.  That bought me a few years of avoidance, but alas, the time finally came when he got them off.  Every time we've gone to church since, the kids have reminded me that I promised we could go.  So, even though it was only 43° at the close of church, we stopped on our way home.  It is self-serve - you get the frozen yogurt and you get all your own toppings.  Then the moment of truth comes when they weigh it.  And that is why we don't go there very often.  

Caroline had a Benson's Nose photo session this weekend.  She is obsessed with his nose.  

It's a busy week ahead, but it'll be nice to have Science Fair behind us this time next week.

Playing the Stocks at 15

Josiah's Challenge class has a semester of economics with an emphasis on the stock market.  They have two projects that they have to work on all semester.  One is a Cost of Living Project.  One option is they will see how much they currently 'cost' through an analysis of the family's expenses, bills, income, etc.  The other option was to create a cost of living for when they are 23 years old.  Josiah chose the project that tells him how much he costs right now.  We were going through the bills to see all our expenses and as I had Josiah write, "Electricity, Gas, Water" he would interrupt me and say he didn't use any gas.  Do you use the stove?  Then, yes.  Heat?  Then, yes.  We also have to calculate how many miles per week are spent on driving him to his activities.  It's a great project.  

His other economics project is a Stock Market Venture.  His class is part of an online program in which they are given 100K each to play in the stock market.  They use the real stock market numbers, so it feels like you're doing the real thing.  On Monday morning, Josiah bought stock in McDonald's, Costco, Chipotle, and a few "secret" stocks.  Then he watched their progress minute-by-minute.  At 9:20 a.m. he was already selling 5 shares of McDonald's because it was down.  At 9:45, he bought 10 shares of McDonald's because it was up.  I tried to tell him that it was a long game, but that didn't stop him from watching the computer.  It got us talking about stock trading as a job.  Henry perked up and decided he would like to work as a trader from ages 24-40, make millions, buy a NYC apartment, and live the life.  Goals.  Josiah just wants to beat his fellow classmates over the spring semester.  The program ranks his classmates as their stocks change prices.  Interest is peeked, which is great for school projects.  

Henry did his second egg trial this week.  The Powerade egg turned out grosser this time with odd layers of purple.  Henry's also had to practice his presentation because science fair is in 2 weeks.  They are not telling the kids who is doing the judging, so they're a bit nervous about that.

We got to see the new sidewalk poured mid-week.  It was a seven man crew, but one man was dedicated to keeping a tiny dog away from their work.  The small dog (a neighbor's dog that roams somewhat freely) kept crossing the street to visit the workers.  We enjoyed watching them smooth out the sidewalk and add the details.  

Later that day we had even better news.  After 10 days of no heat, it finally got fixed.  Waking up to a 55° house was getting a little tiresome.  We had a good idea that a fuse had blown, but without the skillset to fix it.  Todd originally tried to change out our Nest thermostat.  But then the old original-to-the-house thermostat didn't kick on.  I bought a new thermostat and installed it and that didn't work.  I reinstalled the Nest and it still didn't work.  So, when the A/C guy showed up, we were very grateful.  He showed me the tiny fuse that had blown.  Even better, he taught me how to change out the thermostat (by flipping a switch in the attic beforehand).  It was good the heat was fixed, because this week we dip into the 20s.  Caroline is adamant that if it reaches below freezing temperatures, there must be a guarantee of snow.  She is not about to endure 20° without a little precipitation to go with it.  Of course, our chance of precipitation is 2%.  Fingers crossed we'll have snow in South Carolina.

During the days of no heat, Josiah consistently built us fires every day.  There was a little pyromania going on as well, but overall, we appreciated his efforts.  We also said that the heat getting fixed was a little early birthday present for Josiah who turned 15 this week!  15!  That somehow sounds much older than 14.  He requested a 5:30 a.m. wake-up.  Fortunately it was a CC day, so I'm up at that time anyway.  Any other day, 5:30 a.m. is not on my list of morning alarms.  He opened his gifts before enjoying a healthy serving of Lucky Charms.  He requested the biggest box the grocery store sold.  Check.  He got more Beatles gear - a new hat and t-shirt as well as Paul McCartney's Lyrics books from Grandma and Grandpa.  He's been perusing the books a lot and can never get enough of the Beatles.  

We spent the day at CC, but he enjoyed all the birthday wishes from his friends.  He signed up to do the devotional that morning, and he spoke on the promises of God.  (It was also pajama day.)  

He brought a tuxedo cake for his class and enjoyed serving it to everyone.  What would you like?  A big slice?  Okay.  Here you go.  

For dinner, we had his beloved chicken fingers, this time from Cane's.  He spent the evening starting his new Lego kit and playing video games with his friends.  At 10 p.m. Henry set up his new Codenames game so we did that for a few rounds as well as Tapple (another game).  

He had a tuxedo cake at home as well.  Josiah always goes for the fancy.  (He arranged his own candles.)  

This weekend Josiah went to his friend's basketball game.  He was having a good time until the game ended in a fight.  One kid from the opposing team put another kid in a headlock and started punching his head.  The parents from the stands ran on the court to break it up, and the parents of the punched kid pressed charges.  Josiah's friends from that game have texted/told him many times, That doesn't normally happen at our games.  That's good to know... 

Friday and Saturday Josiah worked on his Lego kit a lot.  It is a Parisian Boutique and Hotel.  The top two floors are the hotel rooms.  They are part of the Lego City collection, so they all connect together like a city block.  Josiah's kit was a corner section, and they connected Henry's sections onto it.  Henry's already been online looking for a building to put on his birthday list.    

Caroline is in her art quarter at CC and this week they did Grandma Moses.  She did a snowball fight with some action and perspective thrown in.  I love the little pine trees she put in the background.  

At Awana this week, they had a new theme night -  Arctic Blast.  Caroline mentioned that she hoped they didn't do it Texas-style by using bubbles.  She wanted real snow.  What she got was a roll of toilet paper that each team wound around a leader, making them into a snowman.  Caroline thought it particularly gross when a kid on her team put a dirty carrot in the leader's mouth.  He played to win.  They also had a jar of marshmallows and  you had to guess how many were inside.  So it was a bit Texas-style.  You got to do what you got to do when you don't have actual snow.  

The boys were happy that LifeGroups started back up this week.  They really enjoy hanging out with their friends and studying through the Bible together.  Henry got to turn his evening into a sleepover.  As he said goodbye to his siblings he said he wouldn't miss them.  They, in turn, replied the same.  So, love all around happening here.    

Things have already cancelled for the start of this week - we're having an Arctic Blast of our own.  A night or two of a deep freeze.  Praying no frozen pipes for us!

Christmas & New Year's

Christmas Day.  Josiah was chomping at the bit to wait until 6 a.m.  He came in to wake me up.  I did not open my eyes, but said, Dad doesn't feel well [true], could I have another 30 minutes?  Josiah agreed, but then came and asked if they could open their stockings.  Sure!  Then he asked if I wanted to take pictures of him opening them.  Well.  I would love to, but right now my eyelids are unable to open.  We did get up at 6:30 a.m.  Gift opening commenced. The kids said they had a good Christmas.  Josiah got a flipbook kit from a professional animator/artist/YouTuber.  What I hadn't realized was that the kit we bought was one of the first 5000 and he had signed both the box and the flipbook inside.  Josiah has been working on his own flipbook.  It is a neat kit - it comes with a backlit screen as well as thick paper which makes flipping the pages a lot easier.

Henry's big gift was a giant adult Lego kit.  I thought for sure it would take a few days to assemble.  But he got started on it quickly and by the day's end he had it completed.  The amount of concentration and hunching over it took was astounding.  Halfway through he did ask me to crack his back.  He loves the Lego cityscapes.  

Caroline was surprised with a Benson/Angus blanket.  And she got her ripped jeans.  Surprise! 

They really enjoyed all the gifts from aunts/uncles and grandparents.  They listened to music all day on their new speakers.  The boys did their Lego kits.  Todd napped a lot because he wasn't feeling well.  

We had a gift for Benson, but he had to wait for it until he was out of his time-out period.  He stood by the back door to be let out mid-morning on Christmas.  When I opened it, his ears quickly perked up.  Then he ran.  It was a squirrel and instead of turning itself around to climb the fence behind him, he instead ran forward toward the tree.  So for a snippet of time, they were running towards each other.  That turned into Benson chasing it around the tree for a few rounds.  We were encouraging the squirrel to go up the tree, but it just kept running on the ground.  Benson would briefly get the squirrel in his mouth, but then the squirrel would be running again.  We got our shoes on to try to separate the two so the squirrel could run away.  At the same time, Benson got the squirrel in his mouth.  He had a better grip this time. Caroline made it out there first and she was not messing around.  She grabbed Benson by the collar and she shook him around to drop the squirrel.  It was slightly scary because I didn't want the squirrel to touch her in any way.  But Benson dropped it and it walked away to the fence.  It climbed over and was gone.  So, because of that 2 minutes of excitement, Benson had to wait until the afternoon to get his Christmas bully sticks.

The day after Christmas, I flew back to see Grandma.  My plane touched down at 10:22 p.m. and I went to the rental car line.  I was surprised to see 7 people/families ahead of me.  That began a small nightmare of standing in line for over an hour.  By the time I was able to speak to the agent at the desk, they had only a few cars left, and despite reserving a Toyota Camry size car, I was offered a Dodge Charger, cherry red.  It was 11:45 p.m.  and I just wanted to get out of there, so I stooped low to slide into the ridiculous muscle car of every 15-year old boy's dreams.  Then I promptly used cruise control so that no cop would pull me over.  

It was good to see Grandma again and this time we finally got answers.  Although not the answers we had hoped, we were very encouraged by the doctor's assessment that by starting chemo right away it should attack the lymphoma and put her in remission.  She started it the same night as her diagnosis. It was a long and rough two week inpatient stay for her.  Home is where she wanted to be and she was finally able to make it there on New Year's Eve.  There were a couple of highlights to her hospital stay, though.  One was the therapy dog, April, that came to visit.  Another was the cutest little grandkids that always make us smile.  

Our New Year's Eve was a little less exciting.  I flew back to Texas that morning and by evening time the kids wanted to do lots of games.  We played HORSE with the basketball, don't-let-the- balloon-touch-the-floor game, a holiday-themed drawing challenge, surprise gift-giving challenge, and then we played Organ Attack.  The adults didn't make it to midnight, but the kids did.  

With the new year, we had to hit the ground running.  CC started back this week and we were a bit behind on our preparation for it.  Henry worked hard on his science fair project and paper.  It dawned on us that we have to do more than one trial, so we'll knock that out this week!  Despite having 5 weeks to do so, both boys started their required reading books a few days before CC.  Henry hunkered down with The Secret Garden, Josiah had To Kill a Mockingbird.  Not exactly light reading for either of them. 

Caroline had her follow-up with the audiologist.  Towards the end of her hospital stay, she had a full hearing work-up.  At that time she passed everything except for one nerve that didn't 'fire.'  It was the nerve which connected her left ear organ to the brain stem.  In September, it appeared absent - there was no reaction from it at all.  But because she still had swelling around the brain and her infection affected the central nervous system, they wanted to do a repeat.  We were pleased that the nerve now gave a normal reading.  The audiologist office was at the same hospital as Caroline's longest stay, so we had to revisit the echo dome.  We looked all over for the therapy dog, Angus, too, but no luck.  Our appointment was a little too late in the day to catch him.

Josiah had a very good follow-up appointment of his own.  After 3 years, 3 months, and 4 days, he finally got his braces off.  True to form, he picked out an American flag retainer.  He shows me 'Merica every time he takes it out to eat.  Then he wanted to go on a sticky/gummy candy binge.  He has enjoyed a good bit of bubble gum this week as well.  He teeth look good and the orthodontist was happy with how they turned out.  In all the excitement we forgot to ask how long he would have to wear the retainer. 

The end of our week was filled with Latin tutoring, Awana, and Henry watching movies.  His class got together to watch The Secret Garden.  He didn't get to finish that before I had to pick him up and bring him to his monthly movie night at his church friend's house.  It is loosely called movie night, because they only watch a hour of a movie at most and then go run around outside, which is Henry's favorite part anyway.

Over the past three days we've been watching the progress on our front sidewalk.  We got so excited when they spray-painted "Xs" on certain slabs early in the week.  Our neighborhood has been replacing the sidewalks at a snail's pace (they started in 2018).  I was even happier that they were fixing it now that we're putting the house on the market.  

Caroline finished her weekend out by trying her hand at pottery.  She received the kit from Child Life when she was still inpatient.  She pulled it out this afternoon and she really tried.  We watched a few videos of potters shaping bowls.  What became abundantly clear was the speed at which the professional potter wheel moved as opposed to the kid version.  But the mess was still the same for both.  

Someone has a big birthday coming up this week, so the excitement is brewing.