Sunday, February 27, 2011
Joseph's flute!
So we decided to order a flute from Amazon instead of renting. Joseph was so excited! He woke me up every morning blowing on his glass Welch's grape soda bottle to keep in practice. He kept checking our front porch for 3 days until it finally came on Friday. He tore it open right there on the entryway floor and was able to make a pretty nice tone on it right out of the box.
He's been playing it and admiring it and cleaning it and polishing it all weekend long. His first lesson is tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait!
Goodbye sweet Hyundai!
Yesterday we sold our Hyundai. Ben hasn't been driving it since he got his other car in September, and so this weekend he decided to get it all cleaned up and inspected and appraised and ready to sell. Well, he went to CarMax to get it appraised, and while he was there, it refused to start again! The car had been having some issues with backfiring and sometimes stalling at stoplights. Ben decided it wasn't worth his time to get it looked at and repaired, since we probably wouldn't get much out of an 12 year old 132,000 mile car anyway. So he sold it to CarMax right then and there.
I never even got a chance to say goodbye! And I don't think I have a single picture of that car. :-(
It was the first car Ben and I bought together, and the first and only new car either of us has ever had. It was the car we brought the twins and Mosey home from the hospital in, and the car I used to drive mile upon mile with them in the backseat, hoping to lull them to sleep. We drove to and from Utah many times, blankets tucked in the back windows so the boys could sleep. It was my car while Ben still had his green Ford Ranger, and then his car when we got the van. I did love that car.
We drove back to CarMax this afternoon after church, hoping to find it to take one picture with it before it was gone forever, but it had already been moved, and CarMax was closed on Sunday. So, I'll have to make do with my memories. And "dark blue 1999 Hyundai Sonata" google images. :-)
I never even got a chance to say goodbye! And I don't think I have a single picture of that car. :-(
It was the first car Ben and I bought together, and the first and only new car either of us has ever had. It was the car we brought the twins and Mosey home from the hospital in, and the car I used to drive mile upon mile with them in the backseat, hoping to lull them to sleep. We drove to and from Utah many times, blankets tucked in the back windows so the boys could sleep. It was my car while Ben still had his green Ford Ranger, and then his car when we got the van. I did love that car.
We drove back to CarMax this afternoon after church, hoping to find it to take one picture with it before it was gone forever, but it had already been moved, and CarMax was closed on Sunday. So, I'll have to make do with my memories. And "dark blue 1999 Hyundai Sonata" google images. :-)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
2 days of pictures
Joseph and the roly poly bugs he is raising in ziplock bags of orange peels. Eeek!
Jumping is not enough. They must do scooter stunts!
The past few days have been pretty laid back around here. Certain boys have been in an extremely good pattern, and I've not wanted to break the spell. Plus, we can't resist the 70 degree perfect weather. So we've gone light on the school work and heavy on the playing outside.
Monday, February 21, 2011
A good day
I have a brand-new niece!! Celia Eleanor Sloan, 2nd daughter to Naomi and Dave was born tonight at 6:58 PM. I have a soft-spot in my heart for 2nd daughters. Watch out Naomi, you could be raising another Gabrielle. :-)
Also, today was a great day for my boys! It was an especially awesome day for Joseph. He was such a wonderful kid today. This is why I get tied up in knots over him-- I KNOW the kid that is inside there! He is wonderful and happy. I just need to help Joseph free him.
Yesterday after church the boys were waiting for Ben and I to finish up in a meeting, and they found a nest of rolly-pollys (technically wood-lice, but that's such a yucky name). They put a bunch of them in a ziplock bag full of orange peels and brought them home. They seem very happy in the orange peels, and the boys had lots of fun with them today. They got out paint pens and marked on the backs of some of them to keep track of which ones were which. Joseph put them on a piece of paper, and then tracked them using a pencil, seeing if they all take the same route over the paper. I'm a little worried I'm going to find dessicated rolly-pollys on the floor after a couple of days, but it's fun for the boys.
The weather was beautiful today and I decided to scrap spelling and typing and greek and latin roots and let them play outside. They jumped on the trampoline and rode bikes and scooters and dug in the dirt and turned over rocks looking for millipedes and centipedes. All good boy-stuff.
And I found a flute teacher for Joseph! We're going to go for a trial lesson next Monday. I was trying to find a male teacher, which isn't so easy for the flute (well, I think it isn't easy for any instrument). I found one who is a grad student at UT, from France. I hope he will work out. Joseph is so excited to play. We went to the music store to find out about renting a flute, but it is $30/month, with a 3 month minimum rental, and I get get a new flute on Amazon for not a lot more than that, so I'm not sure what to do. I'm sure the rental is probably a better quality instrument, but does it matter that much for a beginner? I need to do more research.
I fully intended to get my camera out today and take pictures of the rolly-polly racesl, or the boys jumping on the trampoline, or something, but it never happened. Instead, I will leave with some beach pictures from our Florida trip (which I'm still working on almost 4 months later).
Also, today was a great day for my boys! It was an especially awesome day for Joseph. He was such a wonderful kid today. This is why I get tied up in knots over him-- I KNOW the kid that is inside there! He is wonderful and happy. I just need to help Joseph free him.
Yesterday after church the boys were waiting for Ben and I to finish up in a meeting, and they found a nest of rolly-pollys (technically wood-lice, but that's such a yucky name). They put a bunch of them in a ziplock bag full of orange peels and brought them home. They seem very happy in the orange peels, and the boys had lots of fun with them today. They got out paint pens and marked on the backs of some of them to keep track of which ones were which. Joseph put them on a piece of paper, and then tracked them using a pencil, seeing if they all take the same route over the paper. I'm a little worried I'm going to find dessicated rolly-pollys on the floor after a couple of days, but it's fun for the boys.
The weather was beautiful today and I decided to scrap spelling and typing and greek and latin roots and let them play outside. They jumped on the trampoline and rode bikes and scooters and dug in the dirt and turned over rocks looking for millipedes and centipedes. All good boy-stuff.
And I found a flute teacher for Joseph! We're going to go for a trial lesson next Monday. I was trying to find a male teacher, which isn't so easy for the flute (well, I think it isn't easy for any instrument). I found one who is a grad student at UT, from France. I hope he will work out. Joseph is so excited to play. We went to the music store to find out about renting a flute, but it is $30/month, with a 3 month minimum rental, and I get get a new flute on Amazon for not a lot more than that, so I'm not sure what to do. I'm sure the rental is probably a better quality instrument, but does it matter that much for a beginner? I need to do more research.
I fully intended to get my camera out today and take pictures of the rolly-polly racesl, or the boys jumping on the trampoline, or something, but it never happened. Instead, I will leave with some beach pictures from our Florida trip (which I'm still working on almost 4 months later).
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Joseph and the wheat
A few months ago Ben planted wheat around our yard. Not much, he just wanted to see if it would grow. Well, it does! He and Joseph walked around the yard and harvested it this afternoon. I thought Joseph looked so cute with his blue eyes matching his sweater, that I made him pose with the bowl of harvested wheat stalks. Look how yellow our lawn got! The cold weather the last month or so made it go totally dormant. It's been nice and warm the past week or so (70's! I love it!), and I'm hoping it will start to green up again. I mean, come on! It's February! Isn't spring here yet? :-)
Weekly letter
My mom and dad and most of my siblings write weekly family letters. I've mostly just written on my blog, but my brother Christian can't get on blogs on his mission, so I sent an actual email, instead. Since I'm too tired to write something different here, here is the letter I wrote.
It's really boring. My life isn't boring to me, but it sure sounds boring when I write about it! I need to work on having funnier, more interesting things happen in my life so I can write blog posts about them. :-)
Hi everyone,
Hey! I'm writing a letter! I'm flirting with the idea of a weekly letter like the rest of you, for Christian's sake. Since I know he's dying to know every detail of my life.
This week has been alright. I'm tired. I don't get enough sleep. I could probably get enough sleep if I really tried. The thing is, I don't like sleeping! I've been thinking about why, in my whole entire life, since about the age of 10, I haven't really gotten enough sleep. It's all (mostly) self-inflicted, subtracting the months of little babies. I just don't like sleeping. It feels like a giant waste of time. You can't get anything done when you're asleep! :-) Bedtime comes, and I can think of 100 other things I would rather be doing. Morning comes, and I'm tired, but even then, I don't like sleeping in (sometimes I do, accidentally). I'd rather get up and do something! I think I never grew out of the phase of childhood where you hate to sleep.
I have a couple of sons who apparently share my dislike of sleep, and I see the consequences during the day, and I'm sure I must demonstrate those same symptoms (grumpiness, mainly). I get so stressed out when my boys don't go to sleep on time, but then I don't make much of an effort to get myself to sleep on time!
I fancy myself to be pretty self-disciplined, but at least in this one area, I'm nothing but a slouch. :-)
So. What happened this last week?
Monday I was sick. I think it probably was a result of accumulated sleep-deficit. Nothing got done that day.
Tuesday I was better! I attempted to get my kids to do schoolwork and practicing. It mostly got done. Brigham and Joseph had scouts in the afternoon. This week is the blue and gold banquet where they will get their Bear. Joseph told me yesterday he wants to get his Eagle before he's 14. Yikes! I really don't think I'm that ambitious. While the boys were at Scouts, Mosey and I went to the grocery store. He's a good little helper. Tuesday night I went to a parenting seminar with my friend Kellie. It was about relating to kids with ADHD and ODD (oppositional defiant disorder). None of my boys have either of these, but defiance is definitely something I encounter fairly regularly, and I can use some help! It was a good seminar and I learned a few things and got re-motivated for some other things. Then Kellie drove me home and we sat in her car talking for an hour, so I was up too late again. :-)
Wednesday I again attempted to get my kids to do schoolwork and practicing. It mostly got done. In the afternoon was our homeschool group Valentines Party. It was supposed to be at one of the other mom's home, but about 1:00 PM she called me to let me know that 2 of her kids were not earning the privilege of attending the party, and could we have it at my house? Yes, of course. I could hear the discouragement in her voice and really felt for her. Boy, have I been there. The party was pretty fun. I made sugar cookies and frosting and the kids decorated cookies, drank HiC fruit punch, ate cheetos, and went wild. And I got to talk with 2 other adults. Win-win! After the party, I drove Mosey and Joseph up to HEB. Mosey had bought himself a Megablox Dragon when we were there on Tuesday, and Joseph was itching to get himself one. So Joseph got one, and Mosey got another one. They make their own money, and I let them buy things when they want them, but those two in particular have a hard time holding on to their money. Should I institute a mandatory savings plan?
Thursday I again attempted to get my kids to do schoolwork and practicing. It got about half done. Piano lessons in the afternoon, and then I took the boys up to HEB for the 3rd time in as many days. This time, Brigham wanted to get a dragon! So he got one, and Mosey walked out with another one. The past few days they've been playing with the dragons non-stop. We really don't need any more plastic toys in the house, but I sure do love seeing them play well together. I wanted Mosey to do his violin practicing before I took him to HEB (using that as a carrot to do good practicing and to get it done quickly), but he promised he would do good practicing after we went to HEB. Never listen to the promises of 7 year olds. He was a total pill about practicing. I confiscated the new dragon for the night, to his extreme distress.
Friday morning Mosey repented, gave me a good practicing session, and he got his dragon back. He mostly likes practicing, but sometimes he gets in this mood where he's bound and determined to do anything except cooperate. Horseback riding in the afternoon. Nothing much else noteworthy that day.
Saturday was chore day. I attempted to get my car inspected (2 months overdue, I'm tempting fate every time I get in the car), but the car place was too busy. Joseph and I went on a massive Walmart shopping trip, replenishing our hall closet 3 months food supply. Joseph was a good helper-- we had to take 2 trips since the ride-on carts have such small baskets, and he loaded every single bag into the cart, from the cart to the car, from the car inside the house, and then got it all about 1/2 put away. He's been a really good boy this week.
Today was church. After church I had to make a bunch of phone calls, asking a few people to help me with a Relief Society activity in a couple of weeks. That's my least favorite part of my calling-- having to ask other people to do stuff.
And that's it.
This was such an incredibly boring re-telling of my week. That's why my blog has been sparse lately. Stuff happens, I'm really busy, but the retelling of it actually makes me *want* to go to sleep. :-)
I can't wait to hear of baby CiCi's arrival sometime this week (I hope!), to add to the overflowing birthday week. Happy Birthday to Benjamin and Daddy and Polly!
I love you all,
Gabrielle
It's really boring. My life isn't boring to me, but it sure sounds boring when I write about it! I need to work on having funnier, more interesting things happen in my life so I can write blog posts about them. :-)
Hi everyone,
Hey! I'm writing a letter! I'm flirting with the idea of a weekly letter like the rest of you, for Christian's sake. Since I know he's dying to know every detail of my life.
This week has been alright. I'm tired. I don't get enough sleep. I could probably get enough sleep if I really tried. The thing is, I don't like sleeping! I've been thinking about why, in my whole entire life, since about the age of 10, I haven't really gotten enough sleep. It's all (mostly) self-inflicted, subtracting the months of little babies. I just don't like sleeping. It feels like a giant waste of time. You can't get anything done when you're asleep! :-) Bedtime comes, and I can think of 100 other things I would rather be doing. Morning comes, and I'm tired, but even then, I don't like sleeping in (sometimes I do, accidentally). I'd rather get up and do something! I think I never grew out of the phase of childhood where you hate to sleep.
I have a couple of sons who apparently share my dislike of sleep, and I see the consequences during the day, and I'm sure I must demonstrate those same symptoms (grumpiness, mainly). I get so stressed out when my boys don't go to sleep on time, but then I don't make much of an effort to get myself to sleep on time!
I fancy myself to be pretty self-disciplined, but at least in this one area, I'm nothing but a slouch. :-)
So. What happened this last week?
Monday I was sick. I think it probably was a result of accumulated sleep-deficit. Nothing got done that day.
Tuesday I was better! I attempted to get my kids to do schoolwork and practicing. It mostly got done. Brigham and Joseph had scouts in the afternoon. This week is the blue and gold banquet where they will get their Bear. Joseph told me yesterday he wants to get his Eagle before he's 14. Yikes! I really don't think I'm that ambitious. While the boys were at Scouts, Mosey and I went to the grocery store. He's a good little helper. Tuesday night I went to a parenting seminar with my friend Kellie. It was about relating to kids with ADHD and ODD (oppositional defiant disorder). None of my boys have either of these, but defiance is definitely something I encounter fairly regularly, and I can use some help! It was a good seminar and I learned a few things and got re-motivated for some other things. Then Kellie drove me home and we sat in her car talking for an hour, so I was up too late again. :-)
Wednesday I again attempted to get my kids to do schoolwork and practicing. It mostly got done. In the afternoon was our homeschool group Valentines Party. It was supposed to be at one of the other mom's home, but about 1:00 PM she called me to let me know that 2 of her kids were not earning the privilege of attending the party, and could we have it at my house? Yes, of course. I could hear the discouragement in her voice and really felt for her. Boy, have I been there. The party was pretty fun. I made sugar cookies and frosting and the kids decorated cookies, drank HiC fruit punch, ate cheetos, and went wild. And I got to talk with 2 other adults. Win-win! After the party, I drove Mosey and Joseph up to HEB. Mosey had bought himself a Megablox Dragon when we were there on Tuesday, and Joseph was itching to get himself one. So Joseph got one, and Mosey got another one. They make their own money, and I let them buy things when they want them, but those two in particular have a hard time holding on to their money. Should I institute a mandatory savings plan?
Thursday I again attempted to get my kids to do schoolwork and practicing. It got about half done. Piano lessons in the afternoon, and then I took the boys up to HEB for the 3rd time in as many days. This time, Brigham wanted to get a dragon! So he got one, and Mosey walked out with another one. The past few days they've been playing with the dragons non-stop. We really don't need any more plastic toys in the house, but I sure do love seeing them play well together. I wanted Mosey to do his violin practicing before I took him to HEB (using that as a carrot to do good practicing and to get it done quickly), but he promised he would do good practicing after we went to HEB. Never listen to the promises of 7 year olds. He was a total pill about practicing. I confiscated the new dragon for the night, to his extreme distress.
Friday morning Mosey repented, gave me a good practicing session, and he got his dragon back. He mostly likes practicing, but sometimes he gets in this mood where he's bound and determined to do anything except cooperate. Horseback riding in the afternoon. Nothing much else noteworthy that day.
Saturday was chore day. I attempted to get my car inspected (2 months overdue, I'm tempting fate every time I get in the car), but the car place was too busy. Joseph and I went on a massive Walmart shopping trip, replenishing our hall closet 3 months food supply. Joseph was a good helper-- we had to take 2 trips since the ride-on carts have such small baskets, and he loaded every single bag into the cart, from the cart to the car, from the car inside the house, and then got it all about 1/2 put away. He's been a really good boy this week.
Today was church. After church I had to make a bunch of phone calls, asking a few people to help me with a Relief Society activity in a couple of weeks. That's my least favorite part of my calling-- having to ask other people to do stuff.
And that's it.
This was such an incredibly boring re-telling of my week. That's why my blog has been sparse lately. Stuff happens, I'm really busy, but the retelling of it actually makes me *want* to go to sleep. :-)
I can't wait to hear of baby CiCi's arrival sometime this week (I hope!), to add to the overflowing birthday week. Happy Birthday to Benjamin and Daddy and Polly!
I love you all,
Gabrielle
Monday, February 14, 2011
Brigham playing Pachelbel's Cannon
This is a song that had Brigham in tears a few times. It is from his "lesson songs" book. Up until recently, he's been able to practice, play, and sign-off his lesson songs in a week, maybe, occasionally, 2 weeks. But this one took 3 weeks! :-) He was so upset when his teacher assigned him one more week, he actually started crying right there in his lesson. And his teacher is the nicest, gentlest soul! But he really perfected it in the last week, and when he went to his lesson on Thursday he told his teacher that he was really glad she assigned it to him one more week.
sick day
I woke up this morning feeling really weird-- dizzy, weak, nauseated. I took a shower and then went back to bed. I told the boys I was sick and they had a free day. The whoops of delight resounded throughout the neighborhood. :-) I woke up briefly about 3 times, and then got up at 5:30 PM. I can't believe how long I slept. I still feel weird, but about 75% better than I did this morning. No idea if I have a virus or if it is a few weeks of ridiculous sleep hours catching up with me... The problem is that now I have to deal with the aftermath of the boys' free day, which will probably keep me up late again. And so the cycle continues. :-)
The past few days have been fairly unremarkable. School. Laundry. Practicing. More laundry. More school. More practicing. :-) Brigham's and Mosey's violin lessons have been moved back 15 minutes, so now we have time to drop Joseph off at home after piano lessons before going to violin, which Joseph is happy about. So on Thursday we came home to drop Joseph off, and do some last minute practicing with Mosey. He then packed up his violin in his case and jumped in the van... leaving his violin case on the table. We got to his lessons (25 minutes away) and he looked around and said, "Mom... I left my violin at home!" Oops. So Brigham got an extra-long lesson that day and Mosey got to play with Dusty (the dog) to his heart's content.
Here's Brigham practicing his violin. Hanging upside down across the arm of the couch. Hey, whatever works!
Friday was a fun day. A friend came to lunch and brought the boys new legos! They spent the next few hours putting them together (go-cart for Mosey, helicopters for Joseph and Brigham), breaking for a couple of hours while we went to horseback riding, and then finishing up strong after we got home. Mosey required a little bit of help on his, but I was still impressed with how well he did on his own. Brigham also built his tallest Kapla block tower yet. It touched the ceiling!
Saturday was a very busy day for me. I went to a leadership training broadcast at the Stake Center from 10-12, then met a friend for lunch at Mesa Rosa. She is the mother of one of Mosey's preschool friends from a couple of years ago. She and I met at the preschool's "Meet the Teacher" morning. I had just returned home from my transplant, and was sitting there with my bald head in a scarf, cane leaning against the chair. She came up to me and said, "It looks like you had about as fun a summer as I did." She turned around to show me the back of her head-- hair just beginning to grow back around a long scar where she had brain surgery. She has a chronic disease, too, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which has landed her in the hospital many times, and required multiple serious surgeries. We've talked a lot about having a chronic illness, and how to balance worries about an uncertain future with being a wife and mother. It was so good to talk to her. I have many understanding friends and family, but some things can only be understood by someone else going through the same thing.
After lunch I went to another friend's house to take baptism portraits of her cute son. He was about the most cooperative, dreamiest little photography subject I have ever worked with! She wants a pencil-sketch image for her son's baptism announcements, which was why I have been playing around with a few different photoshop techniques.
In the evening I went to see a movie! Something I haven't done for a while. I went to see "The King's Speech," which was so, so, so good. It was also rated R which was an absolutely ridiculously unwarranted rating. There is about 15 seconds in the speech therapist's office where Bertie yells out a string of bad words as part of a therapy technique-- to show him how he can be fluent under certain circumstances. It was the most unoffensive use of bad words that I've ever heard, and there was not a single other objectionable thing in the whole movie. I heard way more offensive language in 30 seconds walking through the group of teenagers gathered around the entrance to the mall where I saw the movie, and I am not exaggerating. I would be 100% comfortable having my kids watch the movie, and they definitely will watch it at some point. I really wanted Ben to come with me, but he has a strict "no-rated-R-movie" stance. I generally do, too, because it is so easy to justify bad scenes which then never leave your brain, and I figure I might miss out on some good movies using that policy, but I definitely will miss out on a lot of crummy movies. But this movie truly was an exception worth making. The subject matter is near and dear to my heart-- King George VI of England who had a very bad stutter ("stammer" in England), but who, as King during WWII was needed to give many speeches to rally and uplift his countrymen. It was so well done, and so poignant to me, as a stutterer, and I think to anyone, really. I really wish Ben had seen it with me. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
After the movie I then spent about 4 hours working on the photos I took earlier in the day. The pencil-sketch technique I found is really awesome, but is not easy. It actually does take quite a lot of drawing skill, but it was really fun to do. And way easier than an actual pencil drawing, since erasing mistakes is much easier, and the ability to change pencil "width" and darkness was more than what I can do with the art supplies I currently have.
Yesterday was Sunday. I was so tired after church, because of the 3:30 AM bedtime the night (morning) before, and Ben told me to take a nap while he made dinner and straightened up the house. That's a better Valentine's gift than chocolate, if you ask me.
That brings me to today. Now it is 11:00 and I really, really should go to bed. But the house is still a disaster (it didn't clean itself up while I've been on the computer), so I guess I will clean it up. Fun, fun!! :-)
The past few days have been fairly unremarkable. School. Laundry. Practicing. More laundry. More school. More practicing. :-) Brigham's and Mosey's violin lessons have been moved back 15 minutes, so now we have time to drop Joseph off at home after piano lessons before going to violin, which Joseph is happy about. So on Thursday we came home to drop Joseph off, and do some last minute practicing with Mosey. He then packed up his violin in his case and jumped in the van... leaving his violin case on the table. We got to his lessons (25 minutes away) and he looked around and said, "Mom... I left my violin at home!" Oops. So Brigham got an extra-long lesson that day and Mosey got to play with Dusty (the dog) to his heart's content.
Friday was a fun day. A friend came to lunch and brought the boys new legos! They spent the next few hours putting them together (go-cart for Mosey, helicopters for Joseph and Brigham), breaking for a couple of hours while we went to horseback riding, and then finishing up strong after we got home. Mosey required a little bit of help on his, but I was still impressed with how well he did on his own. Brigham also built his tallest Kapla block tower yet. It touched the ceiling!
Saturday was a very busy day for me. I went to a leadership training broadcast at the Stake Center from 10-12, then met a friend for lunch at Mesa Rosa. She is the mother of one of Mosey's preschool friends from a couple of years ago. She and I met at the preschool's "Meet the Teacher" morning. I had just returned home from my transplant, and was sitting there with my bald head in a scarf, cane leaning against the chair. She came up to me and said, "It looks like you had about as fun a summer as I did." She turned around to show me the back of her head-- hair just beginning to grow back around a long scar where she had brain surgery. She has a chronic disease, too, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which has landed her in the hospital many times, and required multiple serious surgeries. We've talked a lot about having a chronic illness, and how to balance worries about an uncertain future with being a wife and mother. It was so good to talk to her. I have many understanding friends and family, but some things can only be understood by someone else going through the same thing.
After lunch I went to another friend's house to take baptism portraits of her cute son. He was about the most cooperative, dreamiest little photography subject I have ever worked with! She wants a pencil-sketch image for her son's baptism announcements, which was why I have been playing around with a few different photoshop techniques.
In the evening I went to see a movie! Something I haven't done for a while. I went to see "The King's Speech," which was so, so, so good. It was also rated R which was an absolutely ridiculously unwarranted rating. There is about 15 seconds in the speech therapist's office where Bertie yells out a string of bad words as part of a therapy technique-- to show him how he can be fluent under certain circumstances. It was the most unoffensive use of bad words that I've ever heard, and there was not a single other objectionable thing in the whole movie. I heard way more offensive language in 30 seconds walking through the group of teenagers gathered around the entrance to the mall where I saw the movie, and I am not exaggerating. I would be 100% comfortable having my kids watch the movie, and they definitely will watch it at some point. I really wanted Ben to come with me, but he has a strict "no-rated-R-movie" stance. I generally do, too, because it is so easy to justify bad scenes which then never leave your brain, and I figure I might miss out on some good movies using that policy, but I definitely will miss out on a lot of crummy movies. But this movie truly was an exception worth making. The subject matter is near and dear to my heart-- King George VI of England who had a very bad stutter ("stammer" in England), but who, as King during WWII was needed to give many speeches to rally and uplift his countrymen. It was so well done, and so poignant to me, as a stutterer, and I think to anyone, really. I really wish Ben had seen it with me. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
After the movie I then spent about 4 hours working on the photos I took earlier in the day. The pencil-sketch technique I found is really awesome, but is not easy. It actually does take quite a lot of drawing skill, but it was really fun to do. And way easier than an actual pencil drawing, since erasing mistakes is much easier, and the ability to change pencil "width" and darkness was more than what I can do with the art supplies I currently have.
Yesterday was Sunday. I was so tired after church, because of the 3:30 AM bedtime the night (morning) before, and Ben told me to take a nap while he made dinner and straightened up the house. That's a better Valentine's gift than chocolate, if you ask me.
That brings me to today. Now it is 11:00 and I really, really should go to bed. But the house is still a disaster (it didn't clean itself up while I've been on the computer), so I guess I will clean it up. Fun, fun!! :-)
Friday, February 11, 2011
fun with photoshop
I have been experimenting on Photoshop a little, trying to find a good method of turning a photo into a pencil-sketch, without having to actually do a pencil sketch!
Here's one I played with tonight. It takes some skill (I can see one or two glaring mistakes which I couldn't quite figure out how to fix), and I'm sure this is really amateur, but it was fun! This could get addicting. :-)
Here's one I played with tonight. It takes some skill (I can see one or two glaring mistakes which I couldn't quite figure out how to fix), and I'm sure this is really amateur, but it was fun! This could get addicting. :-)
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Catapults and presidents
Brigham spent Saturday morning perfecting his trebuchet catapult that he rigged together using a handweight, various wooden blocks, and duct tape. I thought it was really ingenious, and it worked! He and his brothers built castles and fortresses and set up armies of soldiers, all of which were blasted away by the trebuchet. Cool!
Here is Joseph this morning. Guess what he's reading? A MATH book. This is during his "free reading" period, and he chose to read a math book. Really! I never thought I'd see the day. :-) This is an awful picture, but before I could adjust the settings for another shot, he curled up like a snail and refused to let me take another one. I have to be stealthy with the camera! :-)
The math book is called "Life of Fred" and it's the first of a series of clever math books that teach math from fractions all the way through calculus via a series of funny, weird little stories about a boy named Fred. It's not going to replace his regular math (mastery requires repetition), but at least it has caught his interest, and gives real life scenarios of how all these math concepts are used. And it pokes fun at traditional math textbooks.
And here is Mosey this morning, trying to wake up enough to eat breakfast and do scripture study. We've had a few too many late nights, and he is dragging.
Things are otherwise going all right. I've pulled out all of my parenting books and I'm reading them all over again as fast as I can, and I think it's helping.
I don't think my parenting strategies are going to change my kids' innate personalities in any way. Brigham will always be a pleaser. Joseph will always be strong-willed. Mosey will always be... Well, I can't quite define what he will always be, but he will always be Mosey! :-) But, as a parent I can teach my kids strategies for helping them through various situations that will come up over and over again in life. And I can teach myself strategies for how best to navigate tricky conflicts and discipline issues in a more effective way. That's what I'm hoping for. Not to change my child, but to teach us both how to handle situations better.
My favorite parenting book (it was my favorite when I read it 4 years ago, and it's still my favorite) is called "The Everything Parents Guide to the Strong-Willed Child." I can clearly see some benefits even after just a few days of conscious application.
Today for the boys' grammar/writing lesson, we were learning about the correct form for writing a letter. I asked both of them to then write a letter. It could be to anyone and about anything, but it had to have the correct form, and be well-written. I was fully expecting moans and groans from my somewhat writing-phobic boys, but to my surprise, both of them totally took to it! Joseph decided to write a letter to Barack Obama. He got really excited! He wrote a rough-draft and checked spelling and grammar, and then re-wrote it (by HAND), folded it, put it in an envelope, addressed and stamped it, and put it in the mail! I was so impressed. His handwriting was neat! We've had some conflicts recently about neatness, and I'm glad to see that he can be neat when he wants to be.
This is what he wrote:
Dear Mr. President,
Are there any amendments to the Constitution you would like to make? If so, what are they and are you going to try to pass them? If not, do you think the Health Care Bill Congress is passing is constitutional?
I would appreciate if you would answer these questions.
Sincerely,
Joseph Turner
Joseph is very excited to see if he gets a letter back from the White House. I hope he'll at least get a form letter back, but we'll see.
If only all my writing lessons was met with such enthusiasm! :-)
Here is Joseph this morning. Guess what he's reading? A MATH book. This is during his "free reading" period, and he chose to read a math book. Really! I never thought I'd see the day. :-) This is an awful picture, but before I could adjust the settings for another shot, he curled up like a snail and refused to let me take another one. I have to be stealthy with the camera! :-)
And here is Mosey this morning, trying to wake up enough to eat breakfast and do scripture study. We've had a few too many late nights, and he is dragging.
Things are otherwise going all right. I've pulled out all of my parenting books and I'm reading them all over again as fast as I can, and I think it's helping.
I don't think my parenting strategies are going to change my kids' innate personalities in any way. Brigham will always be a pleaser. Joseph will always be strong-willed. Mosey will always be... Well, I can't quite define what he will always be, but he will always be Mosey! :-) But, as a parent I can teach my kids strategies for helping them through various situations that will come up over and over again in life. And I can teach myself strategies for how best to navigate tricky conflicts and discipline issues in a more effective way. That's what I'm hoping for. Not to change my child, but to teach us both how to handle situations better.
My favorite parenting book (it was my favorite when I read it 4 years ago, and it's still my favorite) is called "The Everything Parents Guide to the Strong-Willed Child." I can clearly see some benefits even after just a few days of conscious application.
Today for the boys' grammar/writing lesson, we were learning about the correct form for writing a letter. I asked both of them to then write a letter. It could be to anyone and about anything, but it had to have the correct form, and be well-written. I was fully expecting moans and groans from my somewhat writing-phobic boys, but to my surprise, both of them totally took to it! Joseph decided to write a letter to Barack Obama. He got really excited! He wrote a rough-draft and checked spelling and grammar, and then re-wrote it (by HAND), folded it, put it in an envelope, addressed and stamped it, and put it in the mail! I was so impressed. His handwriting was neat! We've had some conflicts recently about neatness, and I'm glad to see that he can be neat when he wants to be.
This is what he wrote:
Dear Mr. President,
Are there any amendments to the Constitution you would like to make? If so, what are they and are you going to try to pass them? If not, do you think the Health Care Bill Congress is passing is constitutional?
I would appreciate if you would answer these questions.
Sincerely,
Joseph Turner
Joseph is very excited to see if he gets a letter back from the White House. I hope he'll at least get a form letter back, but we'll see.
If only all my writing lessons was met with such enthusiasm! :-)
Saturday, February 05, 2011
snow day
The enormous cold front that swept across the country this last week dipped down into Austin to give us a taste of what most of the rest of the country endures every winter. It got COLD! Monday evening at the grocery store, I noticed it was really busy. All the handicapped parking places were taken! All the bananas were gone! I commented on it to the kid helping me out with my groceries and he said, "It's probably everybody getting groceries before the freeze comes." That was the first I had heard of it (life is more interesting when you never hear a weather report), but he wasn't kidding. It dropped about 40 degrees that night, and stayed cold all week.
On Wednesday after the boys' art class, they went across the street where a small creek runs-- it was frozen completely over and was totally thrilling. I started hearing rumors of snow (again, no weather report = never knowing what's coming), and Joseph started getting excited. I could tell he was excited because he kept saying, "I bet it won't snow." "I'm sure there won't be any snow." "Mom, it's not going to snow, but if it does, will you wake me up?" He's like me. He tries vainly to stave off disappointment by trying to pretend he doesn't care. It doesn't work.
Well, it DID snow (although I had already gone to sleep, so I didn't wake Joseph up), and on Friday morning everything was covered in about 2 inches of snow. When I got up and saw the blanket of white outside, I called upstairs, "Hey guys! Get up and look at the snow!" The boys have NEVER popped up out of bed as quickly and willingly on a school morning. I'm tempted to try that again sometime, but it would probably only work once more, and I doubt they'd find it amusing. :-) Joseph was the first one dressed and downstairs and out the front door to be the first one to mark is footprints on our front walkway.
It wasn't much snow, but enough to cancel school and work and pretty much bring the entire city of Austin to a stand-still. I don't think it was the snow, per se, but the combination of snow, 20 degree temperatures, and no snow plows or road salt. I scoffed, but at 8:00 AM when I got in the van with Brigham to drive over to his piano teacher's house where he had left his coat, I suddenly got it. The 7.6 mile round trip took us an hour. It had been well below freezing for 4 days and the road surface was very cold, and so the snow had not melted in the slightest. In making a turn, the van started sliding and spun around 180 degrees. It was scary!! Luckily there was no one on the road (I only saw about 5 other cars as foolish as I was out that morning), so no harm done. I was also happy to see that, in spite of being a completely inexperienced snow-driver, I did remember about steering into the turn and not fighting it. Brigham was quite delighted, actually, but my heart was going about 180 beats a minute and I was petrified the entire rest of the drive. But, we retrieved his coat, and he got to spend the rest of the morning playing in the snow with his brothers.
Joseph was really disappointed to find that he could not make snowballs! The snow was too powdery to stick together. But they had fun tramping around in it, standing on the ice that covered the surface of the pool, and a little later when the sun came out, the snow started melting enough to stick and a big snowball fight ensued which ended in 2 of the 3 boys stomping in the house in tears, so I guess it was a big success. :-) They also discovered the success of their little "experiment" with an egg which they left outside to freeze. Yep, it cracked!
Brigham also initiated the building of a snowman. He used a rake to gather up a big pile of snow from the basketball court and they made a very decent snowman!
I can't get back to that part of the backyard in my wheelchair, so I sent the boys out with my camera to take a few pictures. Pretty good, huh?
After a while, Mosey came in, freezing. I've never seen his cheeks as bright red as they were-- hives were even popping up on his cheeks! I didn't know that could happen with cold, and I worried he was getting sick, but they disappeared once he warmed up. This picture doesn't do justice to how bright red his cheeks were.
His poor little hands, totally inadequately insulated with his Target dollar-spot lime-green mittens which got soaked almost immediately, got so red and swollen, he couldn't even unzip his jacket. Look at his CTR ring cutting into his poor little finger!
I didn't bother trying to do any lessons with the boys until after lunch when they were pretty much snowed-out, and even then it was pretty much a wash. Ah, well, no harm done.
It's warmed back up today. The high was 67 or something like that. That is what I love about Austin weather. You get to enjoy a fun few days of freezing weather and snow, but there's no time to get sick of it before it bumps back up to perfectly pleasant spring-time weather.
So, there you have it! The excitement for the week.
On Wednesday after the boys' art class, they went across the street where a small creek runs-- it was frozen completely over and was totally thrilling. I started hearing rumors of snow (again, no weather report = never knowing what's coming), and Joseph started getting excited. I could tell he was excited because he kept saying, "I bet it won't snow." "I'm sure there won't be any snow." "Mom, it's not going to snow, but if it does, will you wake me up?" He's like me. He tries vainly to stave off disappointment by trying to pretend he doesn't care. It doesn't work.
Well, it DID snow (although I had already gone to sleep, so I didn't wake Joseph up), and on Friday morning everything was covered in about 2 inches of snow. When I got up and saw the blanket of white outside, I called upstairs, "Hey guys! Get up and look at the snow!" The boys have NEVER popped up out of bed as quickly and willingly on a school morning. I'm tempted to try that again sometime, but it would probably only work once more, and I doubt they'd find it amusing. :-) Joseph was the first one dressed and downstairs and out the front door to be the first one to mark is footprints on our front walkway.
It wasn't much snow, but enough to cancel school and work and pretty much bring the entire city of Austin to a stand-still. I don't think it was the snow, per se, but the combination of snow, 20 degree temperatures, and no snow plows or road salt. I scoffed, but at 8:00 AM when I got in the van with Brigham to drive over to his piano teacher's house where he had left his coat, I suddenly got it. The 7.6 mile round trip took us an hour. It had been well below freezing for 4 days and the road surface was very cold, and so the snow had not melted in the slightest. In making a turn, the van started sliding and spun around 180 degrees. It was scary!! Luckily there was no one on the road (I only saw about 5 other cars as foolish as I was out that morning), so no harm done. I was also happy to see that, in spite of being a completely inexperienced snow-driver, I did remember about steering into the turn and not fighting it. Brigham was quite delighted, actually, but my heart was going about 180 beats a minute and I was petrified the entire rest of the drive. But, we retrieved his coat, and he got to spend the rest of the morning playing in the snow with his brothers.
Joseph was really disappointed to find that he could not make snowballs! The snow was too powdery to stick together. But they had fun tramping around in it, standing on the ice that covered the surface of the pool, and a little later when the sun came out, the snow started melting enough to stick and a big snowball fight ensued which ended in 2 of the 3 boys stomping in the house in tears, so I guess it was a big success. :-) They also discovered the success of their little "experiment" with an egg which they left outside to freeze. Yep, it cracked!
Brigham also initiated the building of a snowman. He used a rake to gather up a big pile of snow from the basketball court and they made a very decent snowman!
I can't get back to that part of the backyard in my wheelchair, so I sent the boys out with my camera to take a few pictures. Pretty good, huh?
After a while, Mosey came in, freezing. I've never seen his cheeks as bright red as they were-- hives were even popping up on his cheeks! I didn't know that could happen with cold, and I worried he was getting sick, but they disappeared once he warmed up. This picture doesn't do justice to how bright red his cheeks were.
His poor little hands, totally inadequately insulated with his Target dollar-spot lime-green mittens which got soaked almost immediately, got so red and swollen, he couldn't even unzip his jacket. Look at his CTR ring cutting into his poor little finger!
I didn't bother trying to do any lessons with the boys until after lunch when they were pretty much snowed-out, and even then it was pretty much a wash. Ah, well, no harm done.
It's warmed back up today. The high was 67 or something like that. That is what I love about Austin weather. You get to enjoy a fun few days of freezing weather and snow, but there's no time to get sick of it before it bumps back up to perfectly pleasant spring-time weather.
So, there you have it! The excitement for the week.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Wheelchair project
(I'm going to keep this up at the top of my blog for a few days.)
My baby sister, Eva (not really a baby anymore—she’s 17! Yikes!), is working on her Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, equivalent to the Boy Scout’s Eagle Award. For her project, she is raising money to buy wheelchairs for disabled people in developing countries. When she told me she was doing this, I almost choked up, I was so touched.
$59.20 pays for the cost of one wheelchair (I feel almost criminal thinking of how many wheelchairs my TiLite could have paid for). 100% of the money goes to the organization distributing the wheelchairs (Free Wheelchair Mission). My sister has a goal of being able to pay for 50 wheelchairs. This is one of the best of causes, and one that I feel passionately about. I ask anyone reading this to donate, even just a little.
I remember very well the first time I used a wheelchair. It was during my worst flare-up back in November of ’07. Every day, it seemed, I would wake up and another part of my body would have stopped working. By the end of the month, just before my hospitalization and stint in rehab, I couldn’t walk at all. I couldn't even move my toes. A friend brought over a wheelchair her elderly mother was no longer using, and the relief I felt at being able to move again was really indescribable. It’s hard to explain how it feels to lose mobility. The distance from the couch to the kitchen, a matter of 20 feet or so, stretches into what may as well be miles. It is terrible to be helpless and totally dependent upon others for what most people take for granted—two moving, functional legs.
Without the ability to move, it’s easy to start feeling like a wallflower in the dance of life. Everyone else is out there moving and dancing, while I’m sitting here, left out, left behind. Every person needs to feel useful and productive in order to find satisfaction and joy in life—it’s innate to being human. But without mobility, it is hard to feel useful for much of anything.
I wouldn’t be able to do any of the things that bring me joy and a feeling of worth on a daily basis without my wheelchair. It is my lifeline to feeling like I belong to the human race.
Knowing how difficult I would find my life without my wheelchair, it is nearly impossible to imagine the despair and difficulty of people living in impoverished areas of the world where one’s very survival is much more dependent upon physical abilities than it is in my privileged upper-middle-class American life. If you belong to a family in which every person is needed to work just to put food on the table, loss of mobility is not only personally devastating, but may actually put your entire family in jeopardy.
Providing a means of mobility for these people means everything. It means unlocking the jail cell that their lives have become. It means being able to feel like there is some purpose to your life, some reason to keep on trying. Mobility allows mothers to be able to do all the work of motherhood again, fathers to be able to help provide for their family, children to be able to go to school, to be able to see some hope for their future. It means being able to re-enter the human race.
My baby sister, Eva (not really a baby anymore—she’s 17! Yikes!), is working on her Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, equivalent to the Boy Scout’s Eagle Award. For her project, she is raising money to buy wheelchairs for disabled people in developing countries. When she told me she was doing this, I almost choked up, I was so touched.
$59.20 pays for the cost of one wheelchair (I feel almost criminal thinking of how many wheelchairs my TiLite could have paid for). 100% of the money goes to the organization distributing the wheelchairs (Free Wheelchair Mission). My sister has a goal of being able to pay for 50 wheelchairs. This is one of the best of causes, and one that I feel passionately about. I ask anyone reading this to donate, even just a little.
I remember very well the first time I used a wheelchair. It was during my worst flare-up back in November of ’07. Every day, it seemed, I would wake up and another part of my body would have stopped working. By the end of the month, just before my hospitalization and stint in rehab, I couldn’t walk at all. I couldn't even move my toes. A friend brought over a wheelchair her elderly mother was no longer using, and the relief I felt at being able to move again was really indescribable. It’s hard to explain how it feels to lose mobility. The distance from the couch to the kitchen, a matter of 20 feet or so, stretches into what may as well be miles. It is terrible to be helpless and totally dependent upon others for what most people take for granted—two moving, functional legs.
Without the ability to move, it’s easy to start feeling like a wallflower in the dance of life. Everyone else is out there moving and dancing, while I’m sitting here, left out, left behind. Every person needs to feel useful and productive in order to find satisfaction and joy in life—it’s innate to being human. But without mobility, it is hard to feel useful for much of anything.
I wouldn’t be able to do any of the things that bring me joy and a feeling of worth on a daily basis without my wheelchair. It is my lifeline to feeling like I belong to the human race.
Knowing how difficult I would find my life without my wheelchair, it is nearly impossible to imagine the despair and difficulty of people living in impoverished areas of the world where one’s very survival is much more dependent upon physical abilities than it is in my privileged upper-middle-class American life. If you belong to a family in which every person is needed to work just to put food on the table, loss of mobility is not only personally devastating, but may actually put your entire family in jeopardy.
Providing a means of mobility for these people means everything. It means unlocking the jail cell that their lives have become. It means being able to feel like there is some purpose to your life, some reason to keep on trying. Mobility allows mothers to be able to do all the work of motherhood again, fathers to be able to help provide for their family, children to be able to go to school, to be able to see some hope for their future. It means being able to re-enter the human race.
In the motherhood trenches
The last several days I've been down in the motherhood trenches, so to speak, and probably will be for some time to come. But I will emerge for a moment to chronicle at least a little bit of the last week.
Notables: Pinewood Derby race. Brigham and Joseph came in 2nd and 3rd respectively, in an incredibly tight neck-and-neck finals with their friend Adam. Mosey made a car as well and got to race his, and made it to the finals. Brigham won all the heats he was in (except for the final race), Joseph--ditto, and Mosey came in first in at least a couple of his heats, so all three boys got a taste of victory. However. That did not prevent the drama and tears and claims of cheating (that was the worst-- disappointment I can understand, but sour grapes is not cool) from 1 or 2 of my boys when they did not win the final heat. Sigh... It was ironic because one of those boys went into the races saying, "I'm probably going to come in last. I know I'm not going to win." But, he got a taste for victory, and got his hopes up, and had a difficult time handling the results. I despaired of my mothering skills a little bit that night. Apparently I haven't yet sufficiently instilled the lesson that sportsmanship is better than victory. However again. By the very next morning, this boy was enthusiastically claiming that it was the "best pinewood derby race ever," and that he couldn't wait till next year, and he hoped next year it would be exactly like it was this year. Huh? I'm very happy for the about-face, believe me, but, still, huh?
I gave my camera to one of my sad boys to try and distract him. See those dark circles under my bloodshot eyes? That is from my being up until 3:30 in the morning and getting less than 4 hours of sleep. I need more time in my day, I really really do. This picture is proof that I'm not entirely ruled by my vanity. And proof that I really *was* there and I really am a daily part of my boys' lives, even if not a photographic part. This is for posterity, boys.
On Friday night I took Joseph on a date. It was so wonderful. After a difficult week, I decided he needed an evening of my full, undivided, POSITIVE attention. And it was so fun. We went to L'Madeleine for dinner and then to an Austin Chamber Ensemble concert which was fabulous. The program featured an incredible pianist who played a varied repertoire from Mozart to turn-of-the-century French composers (think Debussy, but not), to a couple of absolutely fantastic ragtime arrangements of Chopin, to Gershwin's "Variations on I've Got Rhythm." The woodwind ensemble played several pieces as well, which was really interesting to Joseph because he is very interested in picking up the flute. I worried a little that the concert might be boring to Joseph, but I needn't have worried-- we were both spellbound. Afterward we tried to find a Marble Slab that was open, but to no avail. We did, however, see 14 deer which was exciting to my animal-lover. So, it was a wonderful evening and we'll definitely do it again.
I'm seriously considering switching my school curriculum. I feel like we've gotten into a rut that no one is particularly excited about, and that's not good. However, the curriculum I'm looking at is $$, so I'm very torn. Somebody please tell me what to do. :-)
OK, back to work.
Notables: Pinewood Derby race. Brigham and Joseph came in 2nd and 3rd respectively, in an incredibly tight neck-and-neck finals with their friend Adam. Mosey made a car as well and got to race his, and made it to the finals. Brigham won all the heats he was in (except for the final race), Joseph--ditto, and Mosey came in first in at least a couple of his heats, so all three boys got a taste of victory. However. That did not prevent the drama and tears and claims of cheating (that was the worst-- disappointment I can understand, but sour grapes is not cool) from 1 or 2 of my boys when they did not win the final heat. Sigh... It was ironic because one of those boys went into the races saying, "I'm probably going to come in last. I know I'm not going to win." But, he got a taste for victory, and got his hopes up, and had a difficult time handling the results. I despaired of my mothering skills a little bit that night. Apparently I haven't yet sufficiently instilled the lesson that sportsmanship is better than victory. However again. By the very next morning, this boy was enthusiastically claiming that it was the "best pinewood derby race ever," and that he couldn't wait till next year, and he hoped next year it would be exactly like it was this year. Huh? I'm very happy for the about-face, believe me, but, still, huh?
Brigham with his 2nd-place car. Yay, Brigham!
And his car. At our house we sort of go for function over form. :-)
Joseph and his 3rd-place car.
I gave my camera to one of my sad boys to try and distract him. See those dark circles under my bloodshot eyes? That is from my being up until 3:30 in the morning and getting less than 4 hours of sleep. I need more time in my day, I really really do. This picture is proof that I'm not entirely ruled by my vanity. And proof that I really *was* there and I really am a daily part of my boys' lives, even if not a photographic part. This is for posterity, boys.
I failed to get a picture of Mosey with his car, but here's his car! He came up with the design and painted it entirely by himself.
And the pinewood derby crowd. One of my sad boys was clearly still upset. well, now it's documented forever on my and 10 other families' cameras. :-)
On Friday night I took Joseph on a date. It was so wonderful. After a difficult week, I decided he needed an evening of my full, undivided, POSITIVE attention. And it was so fun. We went to L'Madeleine for dinner and then to an Austin Chamber Ensemble concert which was fabulous. The program featured an incredible pianist who played a varied repertoire from Mozart to turn-of-the-century French composers (think Debussy, but not), to a couple of absolutely fantastic ragtime arrangements of Chopin, to Gershwin's "Variations on I've Got Rhythm." The woodwind ensemble played several pieces as well, which was really interesting to Joseph because he is very interested in picking up the flute. I worried a little that the concert might be boring to Joseph, but I needn't have worried-- we were both spellbound. Afterward we tried to find a Marble Slab that was open, but to no avail. We did, however, see 14 deer which was exciting to my animal-lover. So, it was a wonderful evening and we'll definitely do it again.
Look!! He let me put my arm around him!! Happy mommy.
Other than that, it's been mostly the same routine of school lessons and practicing and chores and the usual tomfoolery that comes with 3 boys.
Brigham has fun with milk. I wish I could say this was a really cool science experiment studying surface tension, but alas, it was only my boy indulging in the irresistible urge to make a big mess wherever possible. :-)
A favorite snack of the boys': Vanilla milk. I've been making this for them since they were toddlers and they're big enough to make it on their own now.
I'm seriously considering switching my school curriculum. I feel like we've gotten into a rut that no one is particularly excited about, and that's not good. However, the curriculum I'm looking at is $$, so I'm very torn. Somebody please tell me what to do. :-)
OK, back to work.
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