Africa, Cake, and the Truth Weekend

Henry had his 13-year well visit at the doctor's office.  He was most proud of his height: 5'3.31".  He has been measuring himself almost daily.  He measures his height against mine hourly (no joke).  Some day very soon he will surpass my height and he will be one happy teen.

Benson woke me up at 5:00 a.m. one morning barking his head off.  I investigated out our front window and saw some skunks, fighting maybe?  It honestly looked like sibling skunks annoying each other because the one skunk was sticking his hind quarters into the other skunk's face.  They were constantly walking, but the one was always putting his butt in the face of the other.  I watched for a while, but had to get ready for CC.  I would check on them periodically.  At one point, two other skunks walked across the street to check out what was going on.  One left soon after, but because I had to keep getting ready, I never saw where the other three went.  Poor Benson had to wait to use the facilities til they were gone.  I don't have time to get sprayed by a skunk!

The kids had a good CC day.  Caroline did her presentation on the Rodeo.  Josiah presented his Shakespeare Project with Bobby.  They shared their video of Good Morning Greece and retold a scene from The Taming of the Shrew.  

Henry has been memorizing Africa for Cartography.  He says it has been the hardest continent yet.  He did break out the capital/country matching system that I created for Josiah when he was doing Cartography.  Josiah got very good at naming the capitals, and Henry said it has helped him, too.  On Friday, he drew all of Africa from memory which was a big accomplishment.  He prefer I not show it because it was not to scale.  His Africa was a bit squatter, but everything was there.  I think all he has left is Australia and Antarctica (and a few Pacific islands), so the end is near.  

Throughout the week, Josiah has been practicing his IE (Individual Event) with his friends and running lines with us. They have to present a fully memorized, published piece.  The four young men chose a SNL skit.  Three thieves are breaking into a vault to steal gold, while a philosopher thwarts their plans using his words.  Josiah is the professor, to which he gives a very proper, studious accent. I did try to determine if SNL skits were 'published pieces' but could not get a definitive answer, so they were able to use it.  The skit is a funny one and I'm eager to see the finished product.  

Josiah was invited to Truth Weekend with his friend Bobby.  It is similar to our church's Caring For Katy project, but this church takes all their junior high and high school kids and they work throughout the weekend.  Actually, they do one service project and they also do a lot of Bible study.  Josiah was very excited to go, and his excitement only grew when Bobby said they would be sleeping at a rich person's house.  When we picked him up Sunday morning, he said playing hide and seek in a rich person's house was very fun because it was such a big campus in which to hide.  They played many games as a group - Squid Games style but without the killing.  He had a lot of fun with the college kids who drove them around.  Josiah got to stick his head out a sunroof while driving slowly around the neighborhood (that's how he tells it).  He came home with 3 rubber chickens.  Just because.  There were only six high school boys, so it was a smaller group, but they seem to have gotten along very well.  Josiah said the preaching and teaching was very good, too.  Next, he's hoping to go to the Rio Grande with Bobby's church for a mission project in the summer.     

With Josiah gone for the weekend, Caroline had a challenge for Henry and me.  We had to make a cake, but she would be blind, I would be deaf, and Henry could not speak.  My headphones muffled the words, so I just ignored everything the kids said, which was kind of fun.  I could hear them asking me questions and I just went along with my business because I couldn't hear.  The cake was made.  Henry wanted two circle cakes, which was fine, but we had no icing, so we just stacked dry cake upon dry cake.  Caroline wanted me to get some icing, but with my headphones on, I didn't hear that.  Hahaha.

Benson spent a lot of his weekend outside.  The weather turned beautiful and he soaked it up.

These next few weeks are very school intense.  Josiah has many end of year projects that he is working on.  Over the next 5 weeks, he has to memorize and present his IE, debate the affirmative in his Team Policy Debate on the Electoral College, write a 10-15 page science research paper, finish his Stock Market Project, present his Cost of Living Project, complete a project for his LifeGroup, and, his very favorite, keep up with math.  His days are very, very full.  One hour at a time.  That's how we work it.