Parentheticals

This was Rea's first week of homeschool kindergarten: She missed the kindergarten cut-off by a month, so all her friends from Church and the neighborhood started kindergarten this week and she didn't. So Alison told her that they would do a homeschool kindergarten. Alison says there's definitely been a learning curve, but things are going pretty well. Rea says her favorite thing to do is math, which Alison would have guessed was her least favorite from her responses, so that's interesting. She also practices handwriting, reading (Rea is reading aloud "Little House in the Big Woods"), and memory work, and Alison reads some classics (fairy tales, Aesop's fables, etc) to her. It all takes 30-45 minutes a day and has been going well. Alison is looking for some sort of group to join once a week to get out of the house more, but she hasn't found one she loves. She might have to create one. On Wednesday we had Science time with Daddy for the first time. We ...

Monday and Tuesday we played some games of Jurassic space at work. We made changes to the game, and it seems to be getting better (perhaps more polished, but it is a little hard to say.) Rea asked me to print her a swan, so I printed two swan toys this week. One for Rea and one for Sara. They came out really good, and seem like they won't break. Here's to hoping. Tuesday it was Sara's turn for a Daddy-Daughter Date. She decided to go to Macy's and get an ice cream cup to bring home and share. But then she wouldn't let anyone eat it with a spoon; she insisted that they only lick. On Wednesday we had another Sandy board game design night. 6 people came (including two brother in laws). We played Jurassic Space and I got some good feedback. On Thursday we got a quarter-cow from a local farm. It was chopped up into steaks and ground beef and such. All we have done with it as of yet is to make steak fajitas on Saturday. They turned out pretty good. We need to make...

This week we spent some time working on the front yard. We have dug paths in a wagon wheel configuration around the yard, covered them with sand and pavers (that were being thrown away by a ward member), and also built a sandbox in the middle. Alison is ordering a patio umbrella to cover the sandbox (to keep the neighbor cat out of it), and we plan on planting various gardens in between the spokes of the wheel. Alison and the kids went on two hikes this week.  On Tuesday they joined a Meetup group hiking in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  The other big kids ended up not meeting us, so there were two 2 year olds and Rea and Sara and Timmy.  The girls still had fun, and we climbed on boulders and threw rocks in the creek and had a great time.  On Friday, we hiked Cecret Lake with Grandpa Craig and Grandma Julie.  Even Sara hiked the full 3.2 miles with steep switchbacks!  We ate currants, saw a moose up close, and watched waterdogs in the lake.  It was an ...

...Brazilian Lumberjacks cut down the last tree in the rain forest. A spokesman for the Acme Toothpick company said, "Gee, that's too bad." Additionally, grandma Sheila sent us thank you money for helping move. We decided that it would be best to go to Thai food with it. The girls ate a whole plate of chicken and vegetables in peanut sauce between them. They were apparently very hungry. We also just discovered that Sara is very motivated by reverse psychology. All that you have to do to get her to clean her room is to tell her "It is time to clean this room. I want to make you clean it up by grabbing your hands and making you grab the things, but mom said that if you clean it up by yourself that I am not allowed to do that." She cleans it up every time if you say that. She also will wash her dishes if you tell her she is too young to wash dishes. Sara loves helping Timmy. she helped Timmy walk around the house by holding his hands one time. He doesn...

On Monday Sara taught a family night lesson. We don't really know what it was about, but she did teach it herself. Tuesday I had a triple daddy daughter son date. We got ice-cream and went to the store. The kids liked it. Wednesday Timmy got one shot and had no side effects this time (except for a little bit of sleepiness.) We are really happy about this because last one was a beast. Alison tried every natural remedy she could find for helping him adjust, so maybe some of the worked. She's not going to do a proper study, because that would risk it not working, and there's no way we're going through that again. (Three solid months of him screaming every time Alison wasn't holding him, and yes, the doctor said it was probably due to the shots. Yikes.) Thursday Alison went to a meeting at the library, which turned out to be a fascist rally. She had me call her so that she could exit the meeting discreetly. We don't think that any fascists spies trailed her ho...