Hi family,
There have been a number of semi-notable things that have happened in the past few weeks. I never seem to have the energy to write about on my blog, so here they are in no particular order:
Stop the Condos: After a few months of many meetings and thousands of emails and much more time than we anticipated, things seem to be resolving in a fairly acceptable manner. To recap, the 6 acre parcel of land next to our house was purchased by a developer who then applied to rezone it for condos. This was not acceptable to us nor to the rest of our neighborhood. We got hundreds of signatures to protest the rezoning, and after several weeks and lots of agonizing, the developer has requested an indefinite postponement for the rezoning, and is now planning on building 15 homes on the property. Much better than the 70 condos that the rezoning would have allowed, that is for sure! But still so sad to lose that wonderful wild property next to us. It will likely be at least a year before any building begins, however, so we will enjoy it while we can. We may have the opportunity to buy some land right next to our house. We will see. It's been very interesting to see how this whole process works. We have learned a lot, been mightily disgusted with Austin City Council, and have had the opportunity to get to know many of our neighbors which has been a very good thing. We are glad that this big project seems to be drawing to a close.
Sola: Our wonderful kitty Sola disappeared a couple of weeks before Christmas. This has been such a sad thing. Of our two cats, Sola was the more affectionate and sociable-- really a special pet. I guess that is the big downside of living next to undeveloped land-- there are coyotes and hawks and other wildlife that pose a threat to neighborhood pets. I admit to shedding many tears over this, along with all the kids. We were at our ward's Christmas dinner when Mosey asked, "Why does the Friend always have stories about people who say a prayer and then get what they prayed for? That doesn't happen all the time." Oh, my heart just ached for him. I tried to answer as best I could, but he ended up crying, then Brigham started crying, then I started crying, and so our whole family decided it was best to get up and go home rather than make a spectacle of ourselves at the Christmas party. I ask myself yet again why we allow our hearts to be so vulnerable with these furry creatures that even under the best of circumstances will die long before we do. But we do. Mosey has really suffered. Sola was his special pet.
Rain: The day after Sola disappeared, I knew the chances of her coming back were very slim. I applied to be a foster family for Pets Alive, a no-kill animal shelter here in Austin. I knew that Mosey would need some place to direct his love, and the very next day we went down to the shelter to pick up Rain, a 5 month old kitten who had recently become very ill. We needed to syringe-feed her 3 times a day and give her medicine twice a day. She is doing much better now and is eating on her own. She'll be on medicine a few more weeks and then will be eligible for adoption. She is a sweet cat, laying on my lap as I type. She's mostly attached to me, and since she has been sick, is not the fun frisky kitten that Sola and Luna were at her age. I think when she is adopted out we will foster some more kittens (not sick ones-- too time consuming!), and maybe if we come across one who is particularly special we will adopt another one to keep Luna company. Luna has done well in accepting this new cat, after a couple of days. But she doesn't play fight and frolic with her like she did with Sola. :-(
Joseph: Joseph has had a hard time with homeschooling this year. Lots of reasons for this, but the upshot is that Joseph is going to try out public school for a little while. Ben took him to the middle school on Friday, hoping for a tour. But they don't offer tours to non-students, so we ended up enrolling Joseph right then. It happened pretty fast, but we've been talking about it for several weeks, and I was pretty sure we would end up going this route at least for a while. I was impressed with the school-- I took Joseph back on Friday afternoon to try out for the band. The band director is really wonderful. He really, really wants Joseph to play the piano for the jazz band, as well as playing flute in the regular band (Canyon Vista actually has 3 bands plus a jazz band!). I have many mixed emotions about this, but the truth is that I have always said we will keep homeschooling as long as it is working, and it just isn't working that well for Joseph right now. And there is a reason we live in the neighborhood we do, paying much, much more for our home than if we lived half a mile away. And that is because of the school boundaries. Canyon Vista is one of the top-ranked middle schools in Texas. It was important to us to live in these boundaries for this exact scenario, and I'm really glad we have such a good alternative. I think that this could be a really great thing for Joseph. We've told him he can try it out for a week. If he knows for sure it isn't for him, fine, we will withdraw him again. Otherwise he needs to commit to go for the rest of the school year. I think he is excited.
Mosey: Mosey turned 10 on Friday! He had done some schoolwork over vacation so he could have the day off of school. He got to pick his birthday cereal-- Captain Crunch Berries, and he opened one of his presents right there at breakfast-- a pair of walkeroo stilts. These are fun! It took him a while to get the hang of it, and he's still figuring them out, but they've been lots of fun. Joseph and Brigham have enjoyed playing with them too. In the evening he wanted pizza and a Harry Potter movie, and he got a couple of other presents-- a hexbug spider and a game called Spot It. We decided at the last minute to have a party, so I sent out some emails on Friday morning and on Saturday we had a party here at our house. The boys did archery, blow-dart shooting, and airsoft shooting, culminating with a battle that Ben and Joseph and Brigham joined. A couple of the boys had never played before, and I think they had a great time. More friends to invite to our Friday afternoon airsoft wars!
OK, that's all I've got on my list for tonight. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.
Love,
Gabrielle
Monday, January 13, 2014
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
01/08/2013
2 days into school again and it sort of seems like I never had a vacation. :-)
But here are some things about today.
Joseph actually woke up on time! Wahoo!
I had to have a long talk with two of my boys about being polite after piano lessons. Sometimes I despair and worry I have neglected to teach them the very most important things about life. Their teacher is very nice and likes to ask them questions about their lives, especially after a break. But one of my boys was feeling tired and grumpy and was really rude in his responses. I just sat in the living room and cringed... This kid can also be very personable and engaging-- if only he could be that way all the time! (For that matter, if only I could be that way all the time...)
OK, I've got to go to bed now if I'm going to slip in under my midnight deadline. Here are some more pictures from our vacation that I like.
But here are some things about today.
Joseph actually woke up on time! Wahoo!
I had to have a long talk with two of my boys about being polite after piano lessons. Sometimes I despair and worry I have neglected to teach them the very most important things about life. Their teacher is very nice and likes to ask them questions about their lives, especially after a break. But one of my boys was feeling tired and grumpy and was really rude in his responses. I just sat in the living room and cringed... This kid can also be very personable and engaging-- if only he could be that way all the time! (For that matter, if only I could be that way all the time...)
OK, I've got to go to bed now if I'm going to slip in under my midnight deadline. Here are some more pictures from our vacation that I like.
Monday, January 06, 2014
01/05/2014
One more day! One more day of vacation until everything begins again. It's been a good vacation.
Tomorrow I need to organize the papers on my desk and get school things in order. And get the boys to practice. I think I've enjoyed the time off from nagging about practicing more than anything else!
We had a good weekend. On Saturday I stained and varnished the desktop and table legs that the boys sanded for Ben's birthday. And worked on taking down Christmas. I always get a little sad taking down Christmas decorations. There is such anticipation and excitement in putting them up, and taking them down there is only the knowledge that real life has to begin again. :-) Can it be Christmas all year long? :-)
Today was church as usual. As we were getting ready I had to have another talk with Mosey about the importance of wearing socks with his church shoes. :-) "But why, mom?" Basically, so that people don't think I'm a totally negligent mother, failing to teach my children basic civilized behavior such as sock-wearing. I meant to get the boys all new suits this Christmas as well, but it didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow? A few weeks ago a woman in our ward who is a talented seamstress cornered me and said, "I hope you are not offended if I ask you this, but would you like me to take down your sons' suit pants?" I wasn't offended, but was a little embarrassed. I told her they were getting new suits at Christmas, so I guess I really should get that done. Joseph at least will wear socks to church every week, but about half the time he's wearing white socks with his dark grey suit and black church shoes. The funny thing was that very morning I had gotten after him about wearing white socks with his suit. I also didn't understand why it was a big deal, and again, the answer mostly is so that people don't think I'm a negligent mother. :-) Joseph doesn't really find that a very motivating reason, so really, new suits are definitely in order. :-)
I'm still really not liking the 2:30-5:30 church time. It seems like I should be able to get things done before church, but I really don't. I stay up too late the night before, then sleep in too late, and don't get up in time to accomplish anything meaningful. And when we get home, it's a scramble to get dinner made and then it is night! I hope I figure out how to be more productive. Brigham is my morning person, getting up early almost every day and taking the dog out on a jog. Maybe I need to get him to wake me up.
Tonight Jupiter is the closest it will be to earth all this year, and it is directly opposite the sun, so it is also very bright. We brought out Joseph's star-gazing binoculars to look at Jupiter, braving the 37 degree cold outside. We are such wimps. :-) The binoculars were not powerful enough to see any particular detail on the planet, but it was still very discernibly a planet as opposed to a pinpoint star. Pretty cool!
OK, I will close with some pictures of Rachel's cute kids from our reunion.
Tomorrow I need to organize the papers on my desk and get school things in order. And get the boys to practice. I think I've enjoyed the time off from nagging about practicing more than anything else!
We had a good weekend. On Saturday I stained and varnished the desktop and table legs that the boys sanded for Ben's birthday. And worked on taking down Christmas. I always get a little sad taking down Christmas decorations. There is such anticipation and excitement in putting them up, and taking them down there is only the knowledge that real life has to begin again. :-) Can it be Christmas all year long? :-)
Today was church as usual. As we were getting ready I had to have another talk with Mosey about the importance of wearing socks with his church shoes. :-) "But why, mom?" Basically, so that people don't think I'm a totally negligent mother, failing to teach my children basic civilized behavior such as sock-wearing. I meant to get the boys all new suits this Christmas as well, but it didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow? A few weeks ago a woman in our ward who is a talented seamstress cornered me and said, "I hope you are not offended if I ask you this, but would you like me to take down your sons' suit pants?" I wasn't offended, but was a little embarrassed. I told her they were getting new suits at Christmas, so I guess I really should get that done. Joseph at least will wear socks to church every week, but about half the time he's wearing white socks with his dark grey suit and black church shoes. The funny thing was that very morning I had gotten after him about wearing white socks with his suit. I also didn't understand why it was a big deal, and again, the answer mostly is so that people don't think I'm a negligent mother. :-) Joseph doesn't really find that a very motivating reason, so really, new suits are definitely in order. :-)
I'm still really not liking the 2:30-5:30 church time. It seems like I should be able to get things done before church, but I really don't. I stay up too late the night before, then sleep in too late, and don't get up in time to accomplish anything meaningful. And when we get home, it's a scramble to get dinner made and then it is night! I hope I figure out how to be more productive. Brigham is my morning person, getting up early almost every day and taking the dog out on a jog. Maybe I need to get him to wake me up.
Tonight Jupiter is the closest it will be to earth all this year, and it is directly opposite the sun, so it is also very bright. We brought out Joseph's star-gazing binoculars to look at Jupiter, braving the 37 degree cold outside. We are such wimps. :-) The binoculars were not powerful enough to see any particular detail on the planet, but it was still very discernibly a planet as opposed to a pinpoint star. Pretty cool!
OK, I will close with some pictures of Rachel's cute kids from our reunion.
Friday, January 03, 2014
01/03/2014
Happy Birthday to Ben!
The boys and I worked on sanding the desk-top for his office. It's all sanded and just needs to be stained and varnished which we will do tomorrow. The boys also helped clean out the garage, so altogether it was a good couple of hours of work apiece, or more. And they did it happily and without arguing or complaining which was a gift to me, that's for sure!
We went to Verts for dinner (Berlin-style kebap) and then went to HEB to pick out a dessert. One of the problems of an early January birthday are those pesky healthy-eating resolutions. I didn't want to make a whole cake that we would then consume, so Ben picked out a couple of pieces of cookie-cake wedges which we shared at home.
The evening was finished off with Ben playing a game of Civilization against the three boys while watching an episode of Revolution.
Next year I will make a bigger deal of his birthday. :-)
One thing I discovered which I think is cool-- this year all the days match up perfectly with 1975, the year of Ben's birth. So he and his sister Angee were born on a Friday! Cool.
I took some pictures today but can't find my card reader at the moment, so here are some pictures of Ben from our vacation last summer.
I love this guy!
January 2, 2014
2nd to the last day of vacation. It has gone by too fast! As usual I have too much of my to-do list left at the end of the vacation. I did work on a few things though. This morning Mosey and I worked on some cub scout arrow point requirements. We got out our electricity snap-circuit set and he spent quite a while working on a number of different circuits. He is such a gadget-loving kid!
I also finalized my science stuff for this next semester. We're doing chemistry and the first semester we used a free online chemistry curriculum with some really great experiments. This second semester I want to do something a little more rigorous, so I had to research and purchase a few more books online. This kind of research takes me SO long. At one point I had more than $100 of chemistry books in my Amazon shopping cart. A little too much. :-) But it takes me forever to read through all the reviews and think about what I really want. I'm glad to have that taken care of. Now to get a history reading schedule made, vocabulary lists compiled and figure out what the heck to do about grammar. I need another week just for school stuff!
Joseph and Brigham had orthodontist appointments in the afternoon and after we came home I made them all do piano practicing. I've really enjoyed the time off from hounding the boys about practicing. :-) I immediately got into a bit of a power struggle with Joseph and had to step back and talk myself down a little bit. It's so hard to be a parent sometimes. There are times when Joseph and I can really get into a good groove with his practicing. He's being really responsive to what I'm asking him to do, I can then relax a little bit and give him a lot of positive feedback, and it's really actually fun (well, for me anyway). Why can't I strike that balance every time? Instead I push a little too hard, and he instinctively draws back and refuses to cooperate. Ugh. I'd back off entirely and let him do his practicing entirely on his own if I never did have those golden practice sessions with him that show how much progress he can make so quickly when we are in sync with each other. Is it worth still trying to achieve that with him sometimes? I don't know.
To close, here are a few more pictures from our family reunion last summer. I took a bunch of my brother Brigham with his daughter Jane. I happen to think that they are two particularly attractive human beings. :-)
I also finalized my science stuff for this next semester. We're doing chemistry and the first semester we used a free online chemistry curriculum with some really great experiments. This second semester I want to do something a little more rigorous, so I had to research and purchase a few more books online. This kind of research takes me SO long. At one point I had more than $100 of chemistry books in my Amazon shopping cart. A little too much. :-) But it takes me forever to read through all the reviews and think about what I really want. I'm glad to have that taken care of. Now to get a history reading schedule made, vocabulary lists compiled and figure out what the heck to do about grammar. I need another week just for school stuff!
Joseph and Brigham had orthodontist appointments in the afternoon and after we came home I made them all do piano practicing. I've really enjoyed the time off from hounding the boys about practicing. :-) I immediately got into a bit of a power struggle with Joseph and had to step back and talk myself down a little bit. It's so hard to be a parent sometimes. There are times when Joseph and I can really get into a good groove with his practicing. He's being really responsive to what I'm asking him to do, I can then relax a little bit and give him a lot of positive feedback, and it's really actually fun (well, for me anyway). Why can't I strike that balance every time? Instead I push a little too hard, and he instinctively draws back and refuses to cooperate. Ugh. I'd back off entirely and let him do his practicing entirely on his own if I never did have those golden practice sessions with him that show how much progress he can make so quickly when we are in sync with each other. Is it worth still trying to achieve that with him sometimes? I don't know.
To close, here are a few more pictures from our family reunion last summer. I took a bunch of my brother Brigham with his daughter Jane. I happen to think that they are two particularly attractive human beings. :-)
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Happy New Year!
Happy 2014! Man, the years are starting to sound surreal. How can it be 2014??
We had our usual New Year's Eve festivities last night-- fireplace barbecue, root beer floats, and the destruction of the gingerbread house. Plus a marathon multi-player Civilization game (I was starting to feel a little left out), and a movie (last year's "Hobbit" to get ready for the new one).
I've been thinking a lot about what I'd like out of the new year. I'm glad for the chance for a fresh start!
I don't have my New Year's Eve pictures edited yet (or even uploaded), so here's some pictures from our summer vacation (yes, I am that behind on my photos).
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