Parentheticals

Alison and Mike celebrated their 16th anniversary this week. We were so busy that we didn't really plan anything, but Mike ended up making a not very amazing chocolate mousse, which he called a malfeasance  (Because it wasn't a tort). Rea and Sara both continued to attend their play rehearsals this week. They are practicing Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:30 to 9:30, and Saturday mornings from 9:30 to 12:30, so it's a lot! They are having fun, though. This week, Alison took them on the bus on Tuesday, so that they could learn how to do it. We're not sure how often they'll take the bus - they have to leave at 5:15 to get there early enough to not be nervous about being late, and Rea doesn't get home until 4:30 on Thursdays, so probably only on Tuesdays. But that's one less hour Alison has to spend driving them! Elsa got an award for friendship at school this week! That's not too surprising; she tells us that everyone in her class is her friend and alwa...

Look, we're posting on time! Only one week's worth of stuff, so it'll go fast. Last Sunday, Rea got her patriarchal blessing! She decided she wanted it and set up interviews and things, and it was so exciting to have it happen at last. It was a lovely experience. Wednesday Rea did a Secret Santa gift exchange in Young Women's. She had planned to make a snow globe with a sea turtle in it, but Mom procrastinated shopping until it was too late to find the turtle. After a lot of thought and effort, she ended up putting a Christmas candle in the glass globe with blue glass gems and a package of peppermint bark. It was pretty well received. One of her good friends got her name, and gave her a gorgeous locking journal cover that you can put new books into when you fill one up. It was perfect for her! Thursday this week was Rea's end-of-semester blue book exams. She had to draw the Western Hemisphere + Europe and label all countries, US states. and Canadian provinces and th...

This week on Monday we got a cat. Sara has done such a good job of taking care of Rocket that when she asked for a cat and agreed to take care of it the same way the parents decided that she was mature enough to trust to do it. We looked online at a few options and settled for a mixed breed not-very-allergenic black and white cat. He has had a few names - he started with the name Choge but now he is being called Jello, because he is a jellical cat. We will attach pictures to the bottom of this post. He is 8 weeks old (his birthday is June 14th), and he is very energetic and loving. He enjoys playing with everyone and doesn't love rocket a lot yet, however he tolerates him. Timmy also seems to be getting sick. He slept through the visit to Grandma's house and seemed poorly. He is coughing a lot, but he claims to be well. On Thursday was Rea's first day of school for the year. She is doing a class that meets every Thursday from 8:30 till 4:00. In class they all bring interest...

We did a lot of engineering for school this week. The kids' project was to make a car that went down a ramp and hit a wall at the bottom while keeping a LEGO person safe. They came up with different solutions: Timmy took all the wheels off his car and slid it down the ramp, Sara put a wheel in the back perpendicular to the axle to drag behind, and Rea made a pad in front to dissipate the impact. They all worked very well. We watched some Bill Nye physics videos and explained what was happening in terms of inertia and friction. The kids had so much fun that they kept going and built boats. Then Alison pulled out the next engineering project on her list and had them start building cable cars. They really like that idea and had fun with the first iterations. We'll be working on this project for a few weeks. For Young Women's and Activity Days this week, Rea painted and Sara drew. They made beautiful pictures and had a lot of fun. Alison got sick with a nasty cold this week. It...

This week Alison worked hard on preparing for the kid's upcoming year of school. She has planned a lot, and hopefully things will go smoothly because of that. On Wednesday Mike started his next semester of his Master's program. Hopefully it is smooth sailing now that Orsega is out of the way. He is certainly less nervous about this semester than last one. Also on Wednesday we went to the Brown's house and mowed the lawn. Everyone went over there, and half of us earned money from doing some part of the work. The other half picked weeds and cleaned up leaves to earn ice cream. While we were there, we picked up Grandpa Mike's gold panning pans. Mike has been thinking that that would be a good thing to do during weeks where there is nothing to forage, and Grandpa Mike is letting us borrow them to see if we like it. We were thinking of going this weekend, but that turned out to be a bust. What can you do? On Friday Alison and Mike went to a play which the OBT put on at Drap...

This week Mike did more and more homework in hopes of finishing the semester with good grades. He is finishing up one of this finals, which is a paper documenting a project that he has been building all semester. His other project is 80% done, and since it is all due midway through this upcoming week he just has to get it done. On Tuesday we all went to the Classic Fun Center to celebrate Timmy's Birthday. It was really his birthday a long time ago, but this was the first time that we could go, so we did it then. Timmy had a fun time. We went in the jungle part, the ball shooting part, the bounce houses, and lazer tag, and we also played carnival style games in order to win prizes. It was super hot in there because it was over 100 outside, but overall it was pretty fun. On Wednesday the kids were invited to a sleepover at the Plastows house. They all had a fun time, but Boo decided at about 9:00 to come back home and sleep with us. It is too bad, because she was sad that all her si...

We spent this week (and will spend the next) in self-quarantine before going to California for Thanksgiving. It's been challenging at times! But we also had some fun. Monday we woke up to snow! One day a week our school time is devoted to handicrafts and tales - normally we embroider or draw while I read aloud from King Arthur, Tales from the Odyssey, and whatever else we're reading. With the beautiful snow, I decided that snowcrafting was certainly a handicraft, so we headed outside. The boys and I built a snow fort, and the girls made a snow garden. It was a lot of fun! When we were tired, we came in and drank hot chocolate while I read aloud. It was awesome.  In the afternoon, we tried to do our Crowned with Virtue meetings over zoom. It didn't work so well. Only one of the two other girls got on, and Rea and Sara started by being super silly and ended by fighting. Oh, well. Tuesday we finished up our unit on medieval Japan. We must have done something else, but no one r...

This week baby Elizabeth slept better than she ever has before. She only woke up Michael two times during his core sleeps, and she was mostly happy for Alison on most of the nights as well. She is also sometimes eating meals with us like a toddler usually does, which is to say that she will pick one thing that she wants and eat a lot of it. This is significantly better eating than she usually does. Early this week we turned half of the Halloween candy that we collected from the children into Halloween candy cookies. We have approximately three dozen Halloween candy cookies frozen as balls and our freezer now. The weather has been good (up until today), so we have been playing outside a lot Mike's schooling is continuing to go well. He currently has A's in both of his classes. Mike's teaching is also going well, and he received some of the best ratings possible this last semester. He is also getting good ratings at work, and getting used to the newly reorganized team that he...