Other Random Happenings

And in other news:

--Bob fixed our crazy cooktop last night!  We thought we would have to order a new one, and we actually did order an induction one, which was really on sale at Lowes.  At Bible study last Friday, however, Tim P. said he thought it was a switch, so when we got home, Bob googled our cooktop model number to find out parts numbers, and he found the squirrelly part online and ordered it.  He replaced it last night, using Luke's eagle eyes to make sure the numbers on the wires on the new part matched the ones on the old part (way at the top of a dark cabinet), and now we are back in business!  When we turn the burner off, it goes off!  The things you take for granted . . .  Siri and I have been creatively using crockpots (plural because we had to dig my old one out of retirement and use both to have enough to feed our combined crews!) and the electric skillet, as well as this single electric burner we've had for ages that has come in very handy.  But now we are very glad to have 4 burners to use once again!

--We got our Stanford test scores back online today!  This is a new thing, but it is so much quicker than just waiting for them to be mailed to us.  You will be pleased to know that everyone did fine, although I think Jonathan is a little over-confident of his math skills.  When we were working through his test review book, I noticed that he was loathe to actually write problems out on his scratch paper, preferring to just figure them out in his head.  Predictably, this strategy was not as successful as he might have thought, so I kept telling him he needed to write every problem down.  But I don't think he really did, LOL.  Oh well.

--Bob celebrated the Army's birthday at the Pentagon today.  They had a tank sculpture thing surrounded by 2600 Georgetown cupcakes frosted a camo color.  Expensive!   

--Jonathan has learned how to knit, thanks to Celia's patient teaching.  He's using 2 bamboo skewers as knitting needles.  Who knew he had such talents?!

--Micah no longer goes down stairs on his tummy.  Now he sits down and bumps down the stairs on his bottom, with his tummy sticking way out.  It's so cute!  We have Anna to thank for teaching him that. 

And now you are all caught up with our not-so-interesting lives!

16 Week Appointment

Today was my 16 week OB appointment.  Everything looks good--baby's heartrate is in the 150s, although s/he was moving around the whole time, so it was hard to get a consistent reading.  I have been feeling a lot of movement, so I wasn't too surprised the little one was all wiggly today.  I'm measuring right at 16 weeks, which is good, because I look like I could easily be 25 weeks at least, LOL.  My ultrasound is scheduled for Monday, June 25.

I did have to take the one hour glucose screening test, which I expected, so I brought plenty of reading material.  I'm almost done with a really fascinating book called The Disappearing Spoon:  And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World From the Periodic Table of the Elements.  So interesting!  A very fun read!  My friend Rabia recommended it to me, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who has a passing interest in chemistry, or just likes knowing cool facts about interesting people and things.  I am going to require the Rivendell boys to read it next summer before we do chemistry.  Actually, Nathan picked it up after I got it out of the library and read through it pretty quickly already, so even teenage boys find it interesting!

This was actually my second trip to Bethesda in 2 days.  I had to take Nathan in yesterday because he has a wart on his foot that we want off before he goes to CAP encampment.  While we were there yesterday, I noticed a big posterboard sign talking about a "code white" exercise that would be taking place . . . today.  Ack!  The sign said that no one would be permitted to move around the hospital while the exercise was going on, and patients would be taken to a safe place.  Great!  Since I knew I would most likely be there for awhile today, I was certain I would be caught up in the fun.  Instead, I think I barely missed all the excitement!  I was driving up to the gate to leave, and there were MPs all over the place.  One of them was by the active barrier thing, and as soon as I drove over it, he motioned for the car behind me to stop.  Then they put the barrier up, preventing cars from leaving or entering the base.  But I was out of there!  Woo-hoo!

Hershey Park!

Yesterday we spent the day at Hershey Park with Rivendell and a few other friends.  It was such a great day!  To start off, we left our house at 7:30 AM, a feat never to be repeated I am sure.  We got to the park right around 10:00, when it opened, and we got good parking spaces.  I was a bit worried about going through the gate to get in.  The website says "No outside food" several times, but hey--I'm pregnant, Micah's 1--we need our snacks, LOL.  We had all eaten some jerky and cheese sticks on our way in from the parking lot, but I had some more jerky plus some graham crackers and fruity snacks for Micah in the diaper bag.  Well, I shouldn't have worried.  The guards just gave the opened diaper bag a perfunctory glance and didn't even root around in it at all.  So I guess they weren't really all that concerned about graham crackers.

Once inside, we split into groups, although we hadn't met up with everyone yet.  But eventually we all met up (there were 32 of us plus Micah), and we split into 3 groups. 

There was the older group who rode all the big roller coasters.  They got to ride all of them, and the lines weren't very bad at all.  The longest line was about 15 minutes.  We hardly even saw this group at all, although they did deign to meet us so we could all go back to the parking lot for our late picnic lunch, since they were all "starving" by that point.  We had parked by a line of trees, so we just had our picnic there, which worked out really well.  I never could figure out where the "picnic area" the Hershey Park website talks about even is!

The middle group didn't ride as many roller coasters but did most of the other rides.  I thought Hershey Park had a really good selection of "medium" rides  Bob was with this group the most, along with 2 of the other dads, so they had a lot of adult coverage.

And then there was the "little kids + moms" group, which included 6 kids who actually rode the kiddie rides, as well as Micah, who rode the carousel and the "pony cart" ride, but was not a fan of either.  Marie was a part of this group too, but she rode the stroller most of the day.  There are a ton of kiddie rides all throughout the park, and the little kids had a grand time on them, especially since there were no lines!  We moms had a really nice time visiting.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous--low 70s, not humid, with scattered clouds--so we were not uncomfortable, and a lot of the benches by the kiddie rides were in the shade.  I can't imagine a more pleasant day, weather-wise, which was such a blessing from the Lord!

So all the groups had a wonderful time, and we didn't end up actually leaving until around 7:30, meaning we got home after 10:00.  Everyone was exhausted, and it's taken most of today to recover, LOL.  This was the last official thing of the school year that I was in charge of, so I am now feeling a great sense of relief!  No more responsibilities!  Well . . . not entirely, LOL.

The only fly in the ointment was Jonathan, who was sporting an angry poison ivy rash on the right side of his face.

He apparently got it on Sunday.  He was picking up sticks in the backyard after dinner, while everyone else were all preparing for a campfire.  I didn't notice any sort of rash until Monday morning though, when he came down to breakfast.  By Wednesday it had spread and looked like this picture.  I've been giving him Benedryl and putting hydrocortizone cream on it, but it's still itchy and red.  He was worried his face would scare the ride attendants, but that didn't seem to be the case, LOL.  Hopefully it will go away soon!

A Bit of Afternoon Excitement

Siri was cooking soup for dinner this afternoon.  (We've been alternating who cooks dinner each night, and it has been WONDERFUL!!)  It was almost ready, and she ran downstairs to do something.  She was only gone for a minute, but when she got back up, the soup was burning on the bottom!  "Weird", we both thought.  She rushed to get it poured into another pot, but then she noticed that the burner wasn't off.  Except it WAS off.  The burner kept cycling from very, very hot (glowing deep red) down to like a simmer every several seconds, and nothing we did to the switch made any difference whatsoever! 

This actually happened to me a few weeks ago, but Luke came over and fiddled with the knob, which made the burner turn off, so I completely forgot about it.  I don't think I ever even mentioned it to Bob.  It just made me look like I don't know how to work my own cooktop, LOL.

But this time nothing at all worked, and the burner was pumping out incredible amounts of heat while cycling on.  I called Bob, who was on his way home, and he said just to flip the circuit breaker off.  Fortunately it didn't take too many tries to figure out the right switch, and our crazy burner finally had to admit at least a temporary defeat.  But with tonight being CAP and Bob's Bible study, he's not going to get a chance to look at it anytime soon.  I hope it's an easy fix . . . we got this cooktop (a Frigidaire ceramic cooktop, for those taking notes on which cooktops to avoid, LOL) almost 4 years ago, so way too soon to think about replacing it.

I'm beginning to feel like all our appliances are revolting, to be honest!  I just posted on Facebook about how all our refrigerator shelves and drawers are breaking--well, not the shelves themselves, which are glass, but all the cheap plastic parts that hold them in.  They clearly are not made for the amount of food and big containers we put on them (although the 25 year old Montgomery Ward fridge I got from my Nana and Papa, which is out in the garage and has metal connecting pieces, is still going strong, no matter how many gallons of milk/giant watermelons/brining turkeys in huge pots, etc we put on those shelves . . .).

And our fridge down in the basement (another one from my Nana and Papa, one with the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on top) is slowly giving up the ghost as well.  I had the best of intentions of running down there with a thermometer and testing it before Siri came, but I never did--until her gallon of milk spoiled after only about 2 days.  Then I realized that the top fridge part was actually a balmy 52 degrees.  The freezer, which we knew was not actually "freezing" things, was about 34 degrees, so she started using that as a fridge.  But now random things ARE freezing down there.  I'm telling you--it's an appliance plot!  Hopefully the ovens and the dishwasher are still on our side.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Jonathan turned 9 on Saturday, and in a rare occurance, we actually celebrated his birthday on Saturday!  He requested ribs for his birthday dinner, and we also had corn on the cob and some steamed vegetables.  The C's are here staying with us, so adding 6 more people definitely makes every day a fun party day, even when it is not anyone's birthday!
For his cake, Jonathan wanted an eagle, like the one he drew in his art class (which he is holding).  I had some troubles with the proportions of the head and the beak. In fact, I had to perform some "rhinoplasty" and cut out a hunk of beak after I had frosted the whole thing because it was just too big.  But it tasted good, and now it's almost gone!

Jonathan had an art birthday too--he got some watercolor pencils and a sketch pad from the C's, as well as a drawing DVD and kit from Grandma and Grandpa G.  Then he also got a headlight that is white light and red light with the money from Grandma and Grandpa B., which he has been asking and asking for--he wants to be ready for Camp Caleb next month at White Sulphur Springs!  He also got a Lego set.

So all in all, a very fun birthday, and Jonathan is looking forward to drawing many more pictures! 

Biology Conundrum

I've been doing a lot of planning for this coming year's biology class, especially in the lab department, since I'll have to make a big order, plus tell Siri what she'll need to get over in Hawaii.  Also, I'm going to start teaching biology in August, so I can take the whole month of December off between Thanksgiving and New Year when I have the baby, so that's another reason to get a jump on the class.  It's such a relief to have already taught the junior high life science class, and to know exactly what I need to order!

So for the labs--I have 3 different options to choose from.  We're using the BJU biology book for our main text, and I aleady have the teacher manual, pus the lab teacher manual, for that.  Unfortunately, many of the labs are fairly similar to ones we did in life science, and they just didn't seem that exciting to me.  So on to option number 2.  We are going to use the DIVE biology cd to help me with the lecture load this year, so the kids will watch the appropriate lectures, and we will meet on Tuesday at our regular Rivendell for the lab, and then we'll meet again on Thursday for a little while so I can discuss things in more depth with them.  We are definitely planning on having them take the SAT II biology test, but depending on how I think things are going, probably they will also go ahead and take the AP exam.  So having another session each wekk will help me better prepare them for those exams.  The only tricky part is that the AP bio exam is being reworked for this year, so there aren't any old exams to use for practice.  Test prep books for the 2013 exam are being published in September, so at least we'll have that.

Anyway--the DIVE cd has labs on it that the kid can watch, complete with data, and they can fill in the lab reports in the workbook.  Some of the labs even fulfill AP lab requirements! But that's not really *doing* a lab, and doesn't give any good hands-on lab experience.  I was thrilled, however, when I realized that Home Training Tools has a lab kit specifically for DIVE biology!  And I was less-than-thrilled when I realized that it only includes for materials for about half the labs, and some of those are just the dissections.  Also, there is not a real lab "manual" with DIVE.  It lists materials, has places to write data, and asks good questions to help formulate conclusions, but there are not written-out procedures.  You are supposed to watch the lab on the cd and then do it yourself.  That would be really hard, especially with the added complication of skyping.  I would have had to watch all the labs and then manually type up procedures, and that just seemed like a tremendous added hassle.  So the DIVE labs weren't a good alternative, although I probably will have the boys watch the AP ones, just to gain the added knowledge.

That leaves a book I discovered through the Well-Trained Mind high school forum.  It's called the Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments, by Robert Bruce Thompson.  This book was just published in late April, but the author also has a book for chemistry (with almost the same title) that has gotten rave reviews, so I was pretty confidant this book would be exactly what I was looking for.  And it is!  The website even has a page which matches up the labs to the BJU chapters!  They sell a lab kit to go along with the book ($170), but we are not going to be doing all the labs, plus we already have a lot of glassware, goggles, etc.  I've gone through and made a list of what we need, and I've found those items on various scientific supply websites.  The labs all have clear, explicit instructions, and they look so interesting!    The author has a big emphasis on building stuff yourself, really DIY lab science, so that should be fun.  Definitely different from the BJU labs!  I'm excited about them, and I think the boys will enjoy them too.

We have our first Rivendell planning meeting soon.  Should be a fun, challenging year, as usual!

Anna and Grace

 Anna got glasses!  At her 6 year old physical, she didn't do so well on her vision screening, so I had to take her in to get her eyes checked at the eye doctor's office.  Nathan was also due for a check, so I took them both last Friday.  Nathan's eyes got worse this year, so he got new glasses as well (no pictures though--sorry!).  Anna had tons of problems, especially with her right eye.  The doctor ended up having to dilate her eyes because Anna was "overfocusing".  It turns out Anna is far-sighted, with a really weak right eye, so we're patching her left eye for 45 minutes a day, and she has these nifty pink bifocal glasses!  This picture was right after she got them, so she still looks kind of uncomfortable in them, but she's been doing well with wearing them.  She looks like a little librarian!  So cute!

And here is Grace, showing off the gap where her 2 bottom front teeth used to be! 

Testing Is Over!!

We finished up our 3 days of Stanford Achievement testing!  This was my first year to be in charge of the whole thing, so to say I am relieved that it went off fairly smoothy is a huge understatement!  We had almost 50 kids test from 25 families.  I was constantly worried since putting the order together in late February/early March that I was dropping some ball or forgetting some major something, but praise the Lord, all the tests for everyone got here just fine!

This year we had a plethora of testers, I am very pleased to report.  Last year we did not.  Many grades had to be combined (which is a pain because they still have to break apart for the "listening" section), and I had to be a tester, even though I had just had Micah less than 6 weeks before.  This year I was a little bit passive-agressive when I sent out the first email about testing back in January--"AS ALWAYS, this testing can only take place by having parent volunteers to help administer the tests as well as other needs. Last year we were short and I had to be a tester, even though I had a 5 week old baby, as well as 3 other nursery-age children. If your excuse is not any better than mine would have been, please find a way to help, especially if you only have older children!"  It worked!  Lots of moms got qualified to be testers, which involves having a college degree, watching an extremely boring DVD, and filling out an online application.  As a result, I had separate testers for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th grades.  Fifth and 6th grades had to be combined, and 9/10/11 are always combined, since they don't have any listening section.  Having so many testers was a huge blessing, and I am so thankful for each one of them!  There was also a different mom each day as a floater, and another one to be in the nursery.  LOL, if I wasn't in charge, we wouldn't even have needed the nursery--no tester had nursery-agde kids, but I have 4 that aren't old enough for testing!

Tuesday was the grueling marathon day.  That day was the last day for the high schoolers, and there was one high school boy who was soooooo slow.  The Stanford is not a timed test, so as long as a student is progressing, they can have as long as they need.  Well, everyone else in all the classes was finished around 12:00, but it took this boy until 2:20 to finish.  We were all so ready to go home!  He had taken a long time Monday too, finishing around 1:30, but I didn't need to collect his test booklet, so I was able to go home before that.  Tuesday I had to wait.  In hindsight (note to self for next year . . .) I totally should have ran my kids home as soon as they were all finished, since I knew this boy was going to take longer.  Poor Micah was in desperate need of a nap, and Faith was melting down as well, since we had been there since 8:40.  I just couldn't imagine that anyone would actually take more than 2 hours longer than everyone else on a test.  I can't imagine what he does for the actual SAT.  Nathan said he took 2 minutes on every question, even non-math ones.  There may be some special needs involved (no one ever said), but in that case, I think his mom should have paid to have a tester just come to his house.  That would have been so much less stressful for me and for the tester for his grade.  But he will not be testing next year, since he'll be finishing up high school, so it won't be an issue!

We also had the power go out in the church for about 30 minutes Tuesday, which was just another added bit of excitement.  Fortunately, all the rooms have windows, so the kids could keep on testing. Today, since Nathan was finished, he kept Micah at home with him, so Micah could have his morning nap.  He went down a little before 10:30 and slept until after 1:00, and then he went down again around 4:00.  He was a tired little boy!  That certainly made things easier for me!  The floater for today had a 4 year old girl, so I went ahead and brought Anna, Grace, and Faith so they could all play.  The 4 girls had an absolute ball!

I made a bunch of other notes to mention for next year too, such as "make sure to give me the email address you actually check, as opposed to the one you use when you sign up for stuff and don't want to read the junk emails that come as well".  There were a couple of instances where people were not getting my emails--one lady emailed me at 10:30 Sunday night to ask what time they needed to arrive, since she hadn't gotten any emails from me!--while in fact I actually sent out several informational emails *to the email addresses they provided to BJU Press when they ordered their tests*.  I don't have time to make sure those email addresses are not throwaway ones!  But overall things went really smoothly.  Now all I have to do is get over to the post office or UPS or someplace and send this enormous and heavy box on its merry way!  Then I can just anxiously await the testing results for my always-(over?)confidant kids, which is a normal part of each testing year for me, LOL.

Random Happenings

This is a catch-up post, since I keep meaning to blog about these things, but never do.  Here are some random things that have happened somewhat recently:

--Grace lost her first 2 teeth.  She lost the first one over the weekend while she was putting on her nightgown  The second one came out this morning.  They're both on the bottom, in the front, so now she has a nice gap for straws.

--Anna is riding without training wheels.  This actually happened quite awhile ago (March, maybe), as soon as we got the bikes out from the shed.  She was pretty much ready last summer, so she just needed a short sessions with Bob, and away she went, never looking back!

--Micah finally did teach himself to go backwards down steps, with a lot of encouragement from Luke.  So now it's nice that I don't have to worry about him at the top of stairs anymore!

--Nathan got awarded a full scholarship to Civil Air Patrol encampment!  He had to fill out an application and write an essay.  Christine Mc and Ed L wrote letters of recommendation for him that were absolutely wonderful--I'm sure they were what pushed him over the edge!

--I dropped my still-quite-new phone Friday night, and the upper left corner shattered.  No, we didn't buy insurance, and no, I obviously didn't have one of those hard nifty cover things for it.  Grrr.  I was getting out of the big van, and I pulled the diaper bag over my lap  The diaper bag turned over a bit, and the phone slid out and fell onto the road.  The big van is high up!  I'm praising the Lord that it still works.  Two months down in a 2 year contract--then I can go back to a regular phone.  The funny thing is, Nathan had just asked me that afternoon if I was liking the phone any more!  I'm really not.  I never use it for anything other than making calls, so it is a total waste that we are paying money for it to be a smartphone.  Now I have to nurse it along.  Oh well--like I said, at least it still makes calls!

Forced Rest

This week has been a busy one.  We had our last day of Rivendell on Tuesday, and I've been preparing for 3 days of standardized testing next week, which I am in charge of for our bigger co-op.  Wednesday morning we had a wonderful time with friends out west, then hurried back for 3 orthodontic appointments after lunch, followed by having company for dinner.  Thursday morning I watched the daughter of a friend (no extra work for me though--the 4 girls had such a grand time playing together!), then had my weekly one-on-one Bible study with Kimberly.  I rushed home from that and took Jessica L back home (she comes Thursday afternoons to help Anna and Grace with their reading) and dropped Nathan off to mow.  Bob was out of town too.

So Friday I awoke with many plans involving organizing and moving a ton of pictures and scrapbooking stuff from a room in our basement.  Instead, my intestines did not cooperate.  I got absolutely nothing done, not even eating breakfast.  Eventually I got tired of spending all my time in the bathroom, so as soon as Micah went down for his morning nap at 10:15, I went back to bed too.  Fortunately I was able to sleep a few hours, and I did feel better when I woke up, although still not hungry at all.  I was able to take Anna and Nathan to their eye doctor appointments though--I was certain that would be possible in the morning! 

By yesterday evening I was feeling pretty normal, so I went to sleep planning on going to Jessica's graduation ceremony this morning.  But alas, when I woke up my tummy was still not feeling . . . settled . . . so I opted to stay home and lay low instead.  So many plans . . .  I guess this was the Lord's way of telling me I may possibly not be resting enough, LOL.  Once again, I felt much better in the afternoon.

I was able to sit and sort pictures in the basement though.  That was a fun trip down memory lane for me!  I saw a picture of Ed L's retirement, and Bob was holding Micah . . . except Micah wasn't born then, so it must have been Jonathan!  It was fun looking at random pictures that hadn't been filed from back in Colorado and Ohio.  The boys looked so young!  I was reminded of how much I really enjoyed scrapbooking, and how much I miss it.  That is one of my sacrifices for homeschooling through high school--I just don't have the time or mental energy to scrap right now.  Some year . . . maybe 18 years from now?!  Ha!  I'm hoping that in another couple of years Rivendell prep won't take so much time.  Then maybe I'll be able to have an actual hobby again!

So it was a restful day.  Hopefully this was what was needed.  I've got another busy week planned next week . . .

Happy Mother's Day!

We've been celebrating Mother's Day for several days around here!  I've gotten roses, some turtles (candies, of course, LOL), and a great amount of wonderful handmade cards over the past few days.  And this afternoon I got the best present of all--I got to take a nap!!

As I woke up, I was calculating that for 12 of the past 15 Mother's Days, I have either been pregnant or nursing.  (1998, 2000, and 2005 were my "off" years.)  Wow!  Happy Mother's Day to me!

One Mother's Day several years ago, we visited my friend Julie and husband Tim at their small church in PA.  They gave away a small book for all the moms called Life's Little Tribute Book For Mothers.  It has a lot of quotes about motherhood, from famous people, from not-famous-at-all moms, and from kids of all ages about moms.  Here are a few of my favorites:

--Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it starts snowing.       Phyllis Diller

--Stories first heard at a mother's knee are never wholly forgotten--a little spring that never quite dries up in our journey through scorching years.     Giovanni Ruffini

--Mother is the name of God in the lips and hearts of children.    William Makepeace Thackery

--No one will ever engrave "She kept a tidy house" on a mother's tombstone.    Susan Causdale

--Every mother is like Moses.  She does not enter the promised land.  She prepares a world she will never see.        Pope John Paul VI

--Men are what their mothers made them.    Ralph Waldo Emerson

--Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.      Lin Yutang

--A rich child often sits in a poor mother's lap.     Danish proverb

--A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, and his mother the longest.     Irish proverb

--The trouble with being a parent is that by the time you are experienced, you are unemployed.    Rosemary Coleton

--I looked on child rearing not only as a work of love and duty, but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.    Rose Kennedy

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends, and especially to my own mom, who is the best example of a Godly mom I could have ever had!  I love you!

Commissary Bargain

Caleb and I made a huge trip to the commissary yesterday.  In March, Luke and I went, so it's been awhile.  The big bargain we found--this huge, 40 pound box of bananas for $2.00.  That's a lot of bananas for $2.00!  We do go through a lot of bananas, but probably not 40 pounds of them, so now I'm wondering about the best way to freeze them.  Should I peel them, lay them on a cookie sheet, freeze them, and put them in a ziploc bag?  We'll definitely use them for smoothies.  And I'll keep some out to get really ripe for muffins, banana bread, and frosted banana cookies (Caleb's favorite!).  No matter what, how can you go wrong for $2.00?!

Extra Appointment

This morning I had the appointment with the doctor that the lady I saw last week insisted upon.  It turns out the lady was a nurse practitioner, not a midwife.  Anyway, the doctor walked into the room and said, "I've reviewed your chart, and well . . . I just wish the NP had come and asked one of us last week while you were here, instead of making you come all the way in for an appointment."  Yessss . . . my thoughts, exactly!!  There is no reason for me to have any increased risk of a clot during this pregnancy due to my arm blood clot back in 1993, and absolutely no reason for me to take any blood thinners.  As I thought.

So then I asked him about the whole "prolapse" thing the lady talked about when she couldn't find my cervix.  "Umm . . . you can't have a prolapse because you're pregnant--your cervix is closed," he said.  "And after a pregnancy, your uterus can settle back down any way and it's fine.  So I would just disregard all of that."  Okay!  Done!  And I am more settled in my decision to not ever see that particular NP again,, LOL.

The doctor did say that I am fine to see midwives and NPs though--I don't have to just see doctors.  Yay!  He listened for the heartbeat with the doppler but couldn't find it, so he wheeled in the little portable ultrasound machine to check it that way.  So I got to see the little munchkin wriggling around again, happy as can be, with the heart beating away!  Everything looks good, and I don't have to go back for 5 weeks.  At that point I'll have to take a 1 hour glucose tolerance test.  Time for me to make exercise a priority again, now that Rivendell is practically over.

Cake Pops!

Tonight we celebrated Grace, Bob, and Amy P.'s birthdays at Bible study!  I brought rice krispie treats, chips and dip, and Hello Kitty cakepops.

I had seen someone link to these absolutely adorable Hello Kitty cakepops on the Bakerella website a while ago.  I convinced Grace to want these for her birthday because they looked pretty easy and were so cute.


Well--they weren't actually all that easy.  I realized that Bakerella must have dipped hers 2 times, but I didn't have time for that, what with all the appointments at Bethesda this week.  I also didn't flatten the balls enough.  I did use vanilla pudding instead of frosting to mix the cake pops with, and that was a vast improvement--not so sickly sweet. 

I ran over to Michaels Wednesday night to grab whatever I could find.  I was hoping for an "edible ink pen", since that is what the recipe recommended, but no luck.  So I picked up these little tubes of frosting that were for writing--practically the same thing, right?!  Well, not exactly.  I had so much trouble with them!  The red and yellow tubes were made by Wilton, and they were soooo runny.  So a good deal of the kitties look like they have chicken beaks for noses, and the red glob of frosting connected the 2 halves of the bow ran down onto the faces.  Bakerella used yellow mini chips for noses and red mini m&ms for the bow part, but I didn't have those either, and I thought frosting would be easier.  Ha!  The black tube was by the Charm City Cakes guy, and it had the opposite problem--it was so thick, I had to keep running it under hot water to be able to squeeze it out, so the whiskers ended up being quite thick!  When Grace first saw the cake pops with the faces drawn on, she said, all excitedly, "Hello Kitty . . . indians!"  It was funny.  Next time this inspiration hits, I'm definitely ordering an edible ink pen from Amazon, LOL.  The girls had a great time helping me, especially with the bows.  Poor Hello Kitty--I had to later reposition several of the bows because they were smack dab in the middle of her face!

They look okay from a distance, but in actuality, every single one of them had some glaring problem.  Not my best work!  But they were tasty, and everyone enjoyed them!

Shots, Shots, Scary Shots

Today's trip to Bethesda involved Anna (6 year check-up)and Micah (12 month well-baby).  The actual appointment went really well.  The doctor was SO nice.  I really liked her!  Anna was not very talkative because she was worried about the prospect of shots, and the doctor confirmed that she did indeed need some, since she hadn't had an appointment since 2009.  Whoops!  It seems like I take people in all the time, but I guess she slipped through the cracks.  Anna is perfectly healthy and continuing along a little below the 25th percentile for both height and weight, so she is pretty average for our kids.  I was really worried and almost canceled the appointment because Anna is learning to roller skate, and this weekend she took a nasty spill on her poor little tushy (better there than on the wrists, Bob always tells the kids!).  There's a lovely bruise there now, and I was so worried we would get a mean doctor who would assume some sort of terrible thing.  But praise the Lord, this doctor was so nice and never even saw the bruise!  Anna als got vision-tested, and it turns out her vision is 20/40.  So it appears she is taking after her big brother Nathan, and now I need to get her an appointment with an optimitist.  If she gets glasses, I hope she will look as cute in them as her cousin Emily, who just got a new pair not too long ago!

Micah also is perfectly heathy.  He was so happy in there, toddling around and making all sorts of happy noise while the doctor examined Anna!  He is 23 pounds, 5 ounces, and almost 31 inches long, so he is closer to the 50th percentile in both weight and height--a definite outlier for our babies!  I told the doctor that he is reacting to milk with hives, so I have been avoiding it for several months now (actually avoiding it in foods--he's never just drunk cow's milk).  She offered to give me a consult to the allergy clinic, but I said I didn't think I needed one now--I already know how to read labels and how to substitute for milk, thanks to 9 years of doing that for Caleb!  If at 2 he is still allergic, then maybe I'll get the consult and see if he can be tested for other stuff as well.  It does not appear that he is allergic to peanuts, since he has gotten into peanut butter on the counter a few times with no ill effects.  I'm still giving him sunbutter, though.  He now is eating all table foods and loving everything, so he really came a long way in about 6 weeks!  It's so nice that he can just feed himself meals.  He definitely loves to eat!  Good thing he is so active.  If only I could get him to turn himself around and go down the stairs backwards!  He has no interest in that though--he would much rather just stand at the top of the stairs (or stool in the kitchen) and whine until someone takes pity on him and rescues him.  Fortunately there are always plenty of people around.

So as I said, the appointment part went great!  Then we headed over to the immunization clinic.  They are always slow as molasses over there, and since our appointments weren't until 11:00 and 11:30, I went ahead and packed us lunch.  We had a nice little picnic there, and eventually they called our name.  Even as we were walking towards to room where they give shots, Anna was already whimpering and carrying on.  I had to leave the stroller outside, so I was carrying Micah and holding Anna's hand back to the table.  After the usual verification stuff, the tech said he'd do Anna first, so she could get up on the table.  I lifted her up, and she immediately started loudly crying and thrashing around!  I couldn't even get her to stay on the table, especially since I was also carrying Micah.  So I set Micah down (who happily started to wander around all the other tables--I neglected to bring a big boy to help, a mistake I shall not make again!!).  A second tech had already come over to help with Anna, and now a third tech had to be called over to hold Micah.  Gah!  So Micah was out of the way, but Anna continued to wail loudly, kicking her legs and thrashing her arms.  I couldn't even get her pants down!  I. was. MORTIFIED!  NONE of the other kids have EVER acted like this before!  Caleb is a total wimp about things like shots and blood draws, and he moans and carries on, but NEVER like this!  I was leaning over her upper body, pinning her arms and chest down with my body, and staring intently at her, saying, "Yes, Mommy, I will be obedient and lay still . . . yes, Mommy, I will be obedient and lay still" in a very firm voice, not that she paid one ounce of attention.  Needless to say, after the ordeal was finally over, Anna did NOT get a lollipop or a sticker.  Micah, on the other hand, was a real trooper, hardly crying at all.  Good grief!

Even as we were walking through the hospital on our way to the parking garage, Anna kep on whimpering and moaning about how her legs still hurt.  I told her that if that was the worst pain she ever had to face, she could consider herself a very, very lucky girl.  This does not give me hope for grandkids from her, anyway, LOL.  Good thing I have plenty of other possibilities!  Of course, the really sad thing is that we were walking through Walter Reed National Military Medical Center--where our wounded warriors are sent to recuperate.  So all around us are young men with literally several limbs blown off each, struggling to move their own wheelchairs, or learning to walk on their protheses, etc.  It's always such a humbling thing to see, and it certainly puts any difficulty of mine into perspective.  Now if Anna could just see that  . . .

First OB Appointment

So this morning I had my first actual appointment.  Everything went fine.  I had a dating ultrasound, which confirmed my Nov. 28 due date.  The little teddy graham was wiggling all around, looking so cute! 

Then I saw a midwife for my actual appointment, and she was not someone I remember seeing during Micah's pregnancy.  She told me my last pap smear was done last May at my 6 week post-partum check, so she thought she'd go ahead and do one now.  Okay, that's fine--except she could not find my cervix!  Yeah, that was a little embarrassing, LOL.  She tried 3 different speculums before just reaching in and feeling around to locate the darn thing.  Then she could finally do the pap smear.  So!  Nice to know my parts are not all where they should be anymore!  She kept saying my uterus was "prolapsed", but that means it has fallen down into the birth canal, and that's not what has happened with me, so she's not using the right term.  Retroverted, maybe?  Anyway, it's from having lots of babies.  It's tipped toward the front, not back though.  Learn something new every day!  I'm having no discomfort whatsoever, or any symptoms at all, actually, so I guess she can call it whatever she wants.  She did say it would correct itself.

So then she started looking through all the records I meticulously filled out at my OB orientation.  There's a space for previous surgeries, so I always mention how my right first rib was removed in May 1995 because it was blocking my subclavian vein in my right arm, causing blood clots.  So she asked me about that, and then said she was writing down that I had a "propensity for blood clots".  Well . . . I did, but it was a physical cause, and since the rib has been gone, I haven't had any more problems.  Then she asked if I had taken Lovanox for any of my pregnancies.  I have not, but for my first 2 pregnancies, I was seen at the Air Force Academy hospital, which is pretty small, and they had me inject myself twice a day with heparin in my belly.  This was a total hassle, and by the end of those pregnancies, my poor tummy looked like Bob was regularly beating it with a baseball bat, with all the huge bruises, LOL. 

So imagine my delight when we moved to Ohio about the time I got pregnant with Caleb, and the high-risk OBs there at that big regional hospital told me it was absolutely unneccessary for me to take any bloodthinners during pregnancy!  Woo-hoo!  Maybe this is one reason we have so many kids--pregnancy just seems so easy when you don't have to inject yourself in the belly twice a day!

Anyhow, my next 6 pregnancies proceeded uneventfully, especially as far as blood clots go.  Even the paranoid civilian doctor I had for Grace, the one who wanted to induce me at least 2 weeks early because she was so certain I would hemorrhage simply because I was having my 6th baby, was not at all concerned about potential blood clots!

But this midwife was.  So now I have to go back to see a doctor next Thursday to make sure everything is okay.  Ummm . . . what would have changed since my last pregnancy, which ended just over 1 year ago?!  I kept saying stuff like, "Well, my last 2 pregnancies were here at Bethesda, and the doctors were never concerned", but she was firm about me seeing a doctor.  What's one more trip, I guess, although it seems like a total waste of time. 

I've already made a note of this lady's name though, and I won't be seeing her again!  Although she was perfectly nice, she definitely seems like the paranoid kind who likes to worry about non-issues, and I definitely don't need that in my life!   Hopefully the doctor I see will just let this go . . .

Happy Birthday, Grace!!

Grace turned 5 today!  I think she is glad she eventually did decide to come out 5 years ago!  I know I am, LOL.  Grace is such a sweetie.  We tease Luke by saying she is his "Mini-Me".  She is so much like he was at her age!  But we need another person who finds things and makes sure other people are where they are supposed to be around here . . .

Grace is reading now, and she also loves hidden picture-type books.  She loves dancing around and singing as well.  She's not as big into being outside as some of the others though--she would rather stay inside where it's quiet and do her own thing!

Today we had a busy day, but we did fit in some celebrating!  We had Rivendell at our house, since the elementary co-op finished up last week.  We made brownies with chocolate mint frosting to share with everyone (all were gobbled up!) at lunch.  Grace picked, of all things, hot dogs in crescent rolls for her birthday dinner, so I was actually able to make those in the short amount of time between the end of Rivendell and having to get Nathan off to CAP.  We even fit in present-opening during that time!  Grace got a big cardboard castle that you color from us.  I actually bought it at Christmas, knowing Grace would like it and realizing it would not be at Walmart when her birthday rolled around.  Good call for me!  She also got some books, some clothes, lots of fun coloring/sticker/hidden picture books, and a $5 bill from one of her aunts and uncles, which was a source of huge excitement, LOL.   And right after Rivendell was over, while Christine and I were sitting outside watching the little ones play, our Rainbow Resource order arrived, containing, among other things, new phonics, handwriting, and math books for Grace!  This may not seem that exciting, but trust me--it is VERY exciting for 5 year old girls!

We're going to make cake pops to take to Bible study on Friday night, so we'll keep on celebrating until then!

Ah, Bethesda, My Old Friend . . .

We've had an amazing streak of not having to drive to Bethesda for medical care.  After Micah's 6 month well-baby appointment in October, we only had to trek up there once this whole entire winter, when I thought Micah might have an ear infection.  Otherwise, no one has had any sickness that required the services of a doctor.  Yay!

But our streak has come to an end.  Not that anyone is sick, however.  Nathan is filling out his application for Civil Air Patrol encampment, and we realized he needed to know his blood type.  Well . . . I have no idea!  So I called the pediatric clinic, and it turns out he has never been blood-typed.  So the doctor put in the order, and Nathan and I drove all the way to Bethesda (excuse me, I should refer to it by its new catchy acronym--WRNMMCB.  LOL!) to have his blood drawn this afternoon.  There was no waiting at the lab--it's so nice, now that the second lab has opened up in the new America building.  The lady missed the first time, Nathan almost fainted, but the blood was taken, so all's well that ends well!  Just a 2 hour chunk of my day gone!

When the doctor left a message to tell me she put the order in, she also mentioned that Nathan hadn't been seen since June 2010, so it was time he had a physical as well.  So I scheduled that for the first available time--Friday, May 4 at 2:30.  This reminded me that the only reason he went to the doctor then was to get a physical to play football, and Luke didn't play football that year or in that league ever--so Luke must not have been seen since 2008.  Hmmm . . . looks like I need to make another appointment sometime!

Next week I will once again become very familiar with that drive to Bethesda because I'll be going not just once for Nathan on Friday, but actually 3 days in a row!  I have my initial OB appointment on Wednesday at 10:00, and then I have well-child appointments for Micah and Anna on Thursday at 11:00 and 11:30.  Ah, fun--I live for the parking garages.  Ha!

One good thing Nathan and I accomplished this afternoon while at Bethesda was changing Anna's primary care manager.  When I called to schedule the appointments for Anna and Micah several weeks ago now, the scheduler had a really hard time finding 2 close together for us.  This was because, as she told me, not all my kids had the same primary care doctor.  I found out today that the ONLY child of mine who had a different doctor was Anna.  What in the world?!  I had assumed it was Micah!  Why would she get put with another doctor?  And not just any other doctor--a doctor who wasn't even on the same team as the doctor for everyone else, which was why it was near impossible to get appointments back-to-back.  Government healthcare--I'm telling you, it's probably not going to be what you think it will be . . . (cue ominous music . . .)  But it's still cheap, especially for our big family, so we persevere through the idiocies.  And this idiocy was fairly painlessly corrected by filling out a raft of Tricare forms to change Anna's PCM. 

So we're back in the drive-to-Bethesda routine.  I will say that parking is a lot nicer this pregnancy than with Micah, now that the other parking garage is open.  But I did not miss the drive these past few months!!

Pregnancy Update

I'm 7 weeks along now.  I actually found out pretty early this time.  My cycles have been astonishingly regular since they came back in November, so I knew when it didn't start.  As always, the big clue for me was what DID start--having to pee in the middle of the night.  As soon as that starts, I know what that means, LOL.  So I had a positive pregnancy test on March 25, about 4 1/2 weeks along.

So far I've been feeling pretty good, which is normal for me.  I have noticed more heartburn though.  I haven't really felt much if any nausea, and I haven't been affected by any odors (boy?!).  I'm tired, but you know what--I'm tired when I'm not pregnant.  Tired is pretty much the state of my life right now.  I have so far taken exactly one nap.  I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other!

What I am having a hard time fitting in is exercise.  With Micah, I got pregnant in the summer, and those months are always very active, healthy months for me, where exercise takes a big priority.  I kept exercising last school year until he was born, but I was never able to do as much as I did when I was pregnant with Faith and had gestational diabetes.  Then I was exercising after almost every meal.  Yeah--I really don't see that fitting in at all next year.  With Faith and Micah, I would take a break in the middle of the morning of school to exercise, but that has not been happening this year.  School is just taking so much longer, now that Anna and Grace are added in there.  And I had been letting Caleb and Jonathan work more independently on math and English, but that was not bearing good fruit, especialy with Jonathan, so I am back to pretty much having to sit right next to him and work with him on each math problem.  Getting up earlier than everyone hasn't worked either, mainly because I can't go to bed really early, since that is my time to work on science stuff without anyone else needing me.  So I'm still working on this time conundrum.  I did exercise today, at noon while everyone else was eating lunch.  That will work some days, but not all.  Oh well--I will do my best. 

I remembered to call Bethesda to register for my "OB orientation", which will be next Wednesday from 9:00-1:00.  I'm sure it will be full of new interesting tidbits about pregnancy and military OB units that I have never heard before--ha!  At least I have babysitting at home!  I'll blend in with all the other newly pregnant moms, except I already look 5 months pregnant, and they won't actually show until they are about 5 months pregnant, LOL.

Latin Exam Results

The boys took the National Latin I exam back on March 15 (I discussed our Latin program here), and we waited eagerly for the results.  The boys all thought it was "really easy", although Nathan and Luke each talked about at least one question they had gotten wrong after it was over. 

We received the results about a week or so ago, and I am pleased to report that all 4 boys did excellently!  They all medaled--2 golds, and 2 silvers!  I am just so thrilled with their results, and so proud of their efforts!  Praise the Lord for his blessing!

We had a little celebration at Rivendell on Tuesday.  After the younger kids arrived from their morning co-op, I presented the medals and the certificates, and then we all enjoyed Air Force Dessert!  It was a fun way to wrap up a lot of hard work!

Happy 1st Birthday, Micah!

It's hard to believe that one year ago today I was in labor, preparing to push out a 10 pound, 8.5 ounce boy!  We celebrated Micah's birthday by having spaghetti, which he loves.  Jonathan and I made some rice krispie treats as well.  Having just had Anna's birthday, and Easter yesterday where I made mint frosted brownies, I really was not in the mood for more cake!  Micah loved the rice krispie treat, as well as the strawberry sorbet he had (well, he thought the sorbet was a bit cold).

So Micah's come a long way in one year!  Unfortunately I was not on the ball, and I neglected to actually schedule a one year well-baby appointment until last Friday, so the appointment isn't until May 3.  We'll have official stats then, but for right now, he's a little over 21 pounds.  He is the only one of our babies to actually be 20 pounds at 1 year old!  He's walking confidently, leading with his belly and waving his arms all around.  I am still working on getting him to eat all table food, instead of mushed up food.  He likes bread, fruit, and dessert, LOL, but he is not a fan of veggies unless they are processed and smooth.  He doesn't want to eat soup or casseroles either.  The girls were all definitely eating only table food when they turned 1, so this is just another example of kids being different.  Don't assume you figured out the perfect method just because some of your previous kids all did one thing just the way you wanted it! His idea of fun is to be outside with the older kids, and he is always devastated when they go on out the door and leave him behind!  Next summer . . .  He adores all his older siblings, who in turn think he is the cutest baby ever!

But he won't be able to rest on his "cutest baby ever" laurels for long.  We're expecting #9 the end of November!  I guess I'll have to replace that stroller after all!

Spring Break

I've really enjoyed this spring break.  Really, really, REALLY enjoyed it!  The older boys finished up some Rivendell stuff last week, but I did absolutely nothing with the younger kids the entire time, and it was heavenly.  It meant I actually had some time to do some organizing!

I started out last weekend by switching out winter/summer clothes for the younger 6 kids (Nathan and Luke can fend for themselves).  This takes a while as I try to figure out what was never worn and should be donated or consigned, what from Jonathan is in good enough shape to be held onto for 7 years until Micah is big enough, and for the girls, what clothes should go in whose drawer.  The last one is getting harder and harder.  There is less than 3 years between all 3 girls, and I think the day when they will all wear the same size will come pretty quickly.  Oh, for a big "closet room" like the Duggars have, where all the clothes are just arranged by size, and everyone can just come in and pick whatever fits.

Then we had our long-awaited house cleaning on Monday.  This was actually a bit of a surprise, in that we were technically scheduled for Tuesday morning.  But the lady called at 10:00 Monday morning to see if they could come Monday afternoon, around 12:30.  "Ummmm . . . we won't be as "ready" for you as we would be tomorrow," I stammered (while furiously whispering out the side of my mouth, "THEY'RE COMING TODAY!  CLEAN!!!!" to the boys).  I had not finished putting all the clothes tubs away, and I had several other little things I wanted to do before they came.  I jumped into the shower at about 11:35, and at about 11:40, there was a knock on my bathroom door, with Luke saying, "They're here . . . "  I was sure he was playing a late April Fool's joke, but no, they were there!  So I felt a little flustered and disorganized (what else is new in my life, LOL), but in the end, it was fine.  I was glad they came early!  Otherwise I would have just puttered around, never moving on to another project.  Instead, I went to bed Monday night in a sparkling clean house, which was such a huge blessing.

This enabled me to spend Tuesday working on my science lab supplies.  I have an armoire in our schoolroom that is for these supplies, and indeed ones from last year are in there.  Ones for this year were artfully arranged around the armoire in the the boxes they arrived in, all willy-nilly.  So I organized AND catalogued all the supplies (it took several hours!), and now I am so happy!  It should make ordering for next year a piece of cake, as I don't have to root through boxes to see exactly how many graduated cylinders or hydra slides I have currently.  And everything is grouped according to subject (electricity, magnetism, etc) so that really helps too.  I felt so accomplished Tuesday night!

Wednesday and Thursday we worked down in the pit of Legos known as our basement.  I would not call it "organized" yet, but there are a lot less empty boxes and trash down there, and it is clean  ("was" I should say--that lasted all of a few seconds.)  We have more work down there.  I still have an entire room of paperwork to go through, but for right now, I can just shut that door, LOL.

So Friday we rewarded ourselves by having a playdate with some friends.  That was a fun way to pass the time while we eagerly awaited my parents driving in from Ohio for the Easter weekend, as well as Micah's 1 year old birthday on Monday!  We are all enjoying having them here now!

It's going to be hard to get back in the groove of school on Monday . . . only 6 more weeks until summer break . . . although we still have some stuff to finish up over the summer . . . and biology memory work to plan for next year . . . It never ends!

"The Shallows"

I just finished reading a fascinating book right now (can you tell we're on spring break?!) called The Shallows:  What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr.  Someone on the Well-Trained Mind forums recommended it, and it finally came in for me at the library.  His basic question is "As we enjoy the Net's bounty, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?"

I have noticed that as I spend more time on the internet, I have become less likely to want to pick up a book and read, or in fact dive into any project that will take more than about 15 minutes (which is pretty much how much uninterrupted time I ever get during the day).  Instead, it is just so easy, if I have those 15 minutes, to browse on the internet, following links, checking blogs and facebook, browsing news stories (but just enough in-depth to be able to converse intelligently about them), etc.  And I have been feeling that it is more difficult to put my thoughts down in writing than it used to be (although pretty much everything about my life was easier when I didn't have 8 kids and wasn't teaching high school courses, so maybe that is just where I am right now, and not a direct correlation to my internet use!).  But anyway, I was interested to read what this author had to say.

He began by talking about neuroplasticity, and how for many centuries (until fairly recently) people assumed that once a brain matured, it could form no new pathways.  But in fact that is not the case, and brains are remarkably resilient.  But in the same way that someone who becomes blind develops new neural pathways strengthening his sense of hearing, the brain will also weaken and dissolve circuits that are neglected, whether those circuits were good or not.  "The vital paths in our brains become the paths of leaast resistance."  Well, that's kind of a scary thought!

Carr then discusses the history of the printed word, which was very interesting, since we are studying the medieval/renaissance time in history this year.  There were the dire statistics about how younger people especially weren't reading much of anything printed anymore, but more important is how reading things on the internet is actually changing how we interact with reading, since scrolling and clicking are multi-sensory.  This influences how much attention we actually pay to what we are reading, as well as how deeply we immerse ourselves in it.  "The linearity of the printed book is shattered, along with the calm attentiveness it encourages in the reader." 

And what is the result?  " . . . When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning.  It's possible to think deeply while surfing the Net, just as it's possible to think shallowly while reading a book, but that's not the type of thinking the technology encourages and rewards."  The kind of stimuli that the internet provides are the exact ones that result in quick alterations in brain circuits!  And it "short-circuits both conscious and unconscious thought, preventing our minds from thinking deeply and creatively."  Our brains are cognitively overloaded by all the hyperlinks, notifications, etc. available.  Amazingly, research shows that you don't learn and remember as well when you are distracted!

The author discusses other areas, like Google's goal of digitizing and putting online all books, making it even easier to just find certain snippets completely out of context and without any deep contemplation of the entire work.  He also had an interesting chapter on memorization, especially for someone like me who pushes memory work so hard!  "What had long been viewed as a stimulus for personal insight and creativity came to be seen as a barrier to imagination and then simply as a waste of time . . . The Net quickly came to be seen as a replacement for rather than just a supplement to, personal memory."  He goes on to describe how memories are made and turned into long-term memories, along with some fascinating experiments.  It turns out that storing more and more long-term memories stregthens our mental powers, modifying the brain so that it becomes easier to learn new skills later.  Using the internet as an artificial source of memory has none of these benefits, especially since you need attentiveness for memory consolidation in the first place, and the internet does not allow for deep attentiveness!  So now many people find it hard to concentrate even when away from the computer . . .  The book's conclusion:  "As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence."

All in all, a fascinating book.  And I am doubly resolved to read more books, memorize more speeches and Scripture passages, work more crossword puzzles--all not online.  And I am definitely resolved to keep my kids from having a ubiquitous phone in their hands at all times, playing games or texting constantly!!  It's for the good of their brains . . .

Kitchen Addition

Yesterday we watched the 5 McC kids all day while Craig and Christine were at IKEA, looking at kitchen stuff to replace their flood-damaged cabinets.  We had a total blast--the boys played hockey all morning, ate lunch, then went back outside before coming in to finish watching "Henry V", which Nathan and Isaac had begun watching for literature class at Rivendell on Tuesday.  The girls primarily stayed inside and played in the toy room or with duplos, with breaks to read books and watch a video.  Fun day!

When Craig and Christine got back, they brought me this magnetic bar, which I have wanted very badly for as long as I have seen the one hanging in Christine's kitchen!  She has a shorter one, but IKEA didn't have any shorter ones.  She almost didn't buy this longer one because she thought I wouldn't want a long one, but ha!  As you can see I have made use of all the space!  I LOVE this thing.  I LOVE how I got rid of my sticky, dusty knife block that took up room on my counter.  I LOVE how I can just wash the knives I use all the time, and then stick them right back up on the bar.  This is as good as getting my big pot rack!  Bob got that thing installed Friday before Bible study, and I immediately loaded it up!  Thank you, Christine!  I would have been happy to watch your kids even without this great gift!!

(Luke came in and read this over my shoulder, and he was astounded that the knife rack was the main focus of this post, as opposed to the awesome day that was had . . . ) 

Happy Birthday, Anna!!

Anna turned 6 on Wednesday!  Bob was in Tucson this week, but that didn't stop the fun--it just prolonged it!

Wednesday morning I baked a quick rectangular cake for Anna before I took Faith to her dentist appointment (which went swimmingly--no cavities!).  The girls all had a playdate over at my friend Lynnea's house after lunch, which was special, and after I brought them home, the girls and Caleb decorated the cake all by themselves!  They had an absolute ball.  I think I hit upon a great way to take cake-decorating off my plate . . . 

Yesterday Bob got home, so Anna got to open her presents.  She got some really fun things--a new set of realistic-looking play pots and pans, some new summer clothes, a huge princess coloring book (a BIG hit, Melinda--she is really loving it!), a Color-Wonder coloring book, and one of those Barbie heads where you can style the hair.  This was actually passed on to us by Linda and her daughter Stephanie, and Anna was sooooo excited when she opened it.  "Oh!  I've ALWAYS wanted one of these!"  Throughout the day today she's kept saying things like, "I love this doll!"  I knew she would love to have something where she could do the hair!  I'm hoping to work on her braiding skills, LOL.

Tonight we're bringing cupcakes to Bible study, and tomorrow night Bob is going to grill steaks for her birthday dinner (is she her grandma's granddaughter or what?!).  So really we're still in the middle of "the week of Anna".  Fun times!

St. Patrick Deja Vu

We had a long, drawn-out celebration of St. Patrick's Day, especially considering we aren't even Irish!  Hey--it's fun to have family traditions.  So Nathan signed up to bring dessert to Bible study on Friday night.  He made these yummy brownies with a mint cream layer on top.  Mmmmm--I love chocolate and mint . . . He enlisted Caleb's able assistance to make green rice krispie treats.  Luke and I picked out (green) mint brownie chip ice cream during our trip to the commissary that afternoon.  Plenty of yummy greenness!

Saturday morning I put the corned beef brisket in the crockpot, but I didn't any other vegetables because I wanted to make colcannon and soda bread to go along with it.  Then Bob and I headed over to Costco to look at new cell phones . . .

Bob and I got our first cell phones back in 2005, right before he had a 2 week TDY to Colorado.  We got new phones again in 2008, around the time of our big trip out to Utah.  Both times we just got the free phones.  We always had Sprint as our carrier because back in 2005, they were the only carrier to get reception at our house, which is down a little hill.  But in between then and now, new cell phone towers have been built in the area, and we figured reception wasn't a ptroblem anymore, especially since we knew our neighbors had Verizon and AT&T as well now.

Recently we have really become aware of an extremely annoying "quirk" with Sprint, namely that we don't get our voicemail messages until a few days later.  So for example, Bob called me last Tuesday afternoon, looking for a friend's phone number.  I gave it to him and didn't think anything more of it until I got out my phone to call him Friday afternoon, on our way back from the commissary.  Hey!  I had a new voicemail at 3:39, which was weird because it was then 3:50, and we'd been driving for a little while to get off base and onto the highway!  I listened to the voicemail, which happened to be left by Bob--Tuesday morning.   I was glad I listened to it, becaus he gave some other details about a work situation that he never mentioned again, assuming I had heard the message!  Grrr.  This happens fairly regularly for us, and we weer just sick of it. 

So Sprint was not an option.  That left Verizon and T-Mobile at the Costco kiosk.  We spent awhile there, but T-Mobile just had so much better prices, as well as a better military discount by far.  Bob and I walked away to consider things, and we sat down under a big umbrella on some patio chairs there in Costco to talk.  While we were talking, and older couple came up and started examining the table, which had a firepit thing in the middle of the table and a lazy-susan sort of thing on top of the coals.  We discussed the table for awhile with the couple, and then they sat down in the other 2 chairs.  We ended up talking with them for about 45 minutes!  They are retired Army, and one of their sons is a USAFA grad who flies F-16s.  The wife was a realtor, and Bob has been thinking maybe he should do more with real estate (he has his license but has been really too busy the past few years to do anything with it), so they had a long conversation about real estate, among other things.  Anything, we all just really clicked, so it was like this fun double date in the Costco patio funriture section. 

Eventually we headed back to the cell phone kiosk, while our new friends Jack and Joan went off to finish their shopping, LOL.  There we told our very friendly and helpful salesman Diego that we were going to go with T-Mobile, and since the prices were so good, we were going to get 2 smartphone (HTC Sensation, I think), along with 2 free phones for the boys to take, like to practices or whatever.  So getting those phones and setting them up took approximately forever, and we finally got home after 7:00--much to late tos tart cooking potatos and baking bread.

Fortunately Bob spotted an email from our homeschool group saying that a Subway near us was having a grand opening celebration with all regular footlongs for $1!  So I put the corned beef in the fridge for tomrrow, we piled in the van and drove over there.  We did have to wait a little while, but it was worth it!  Of course, we weren't eating until after 8:00, and all the kids still needed baths and showers, so it was a later night than I had planned all around, but still--yay!  We had new phones!

Until we took them out and started playing with them.  Then we realized that we basically got no reception whatsoever in our house.  Well, that's not entirely true--we did have 1 bar out on the back deck and 2 bars as long as you sat in the big chair in our schoolroom.  Other than that--nothing.  Hmmm.  Now the smartphones did have wi-fi dialing, so they did actually work, once we figured out how to get the phones to recognize our wi-fi (althought he salesman had already told us that keeping wi-fi enabled all the time was a huge battery drain--great, one more thing I need to remember to turn on/turn off all the time!).  But the other 2 phones were useless.

Sunday morning on the way to church, we kept checking the reception.  We had to drive 2 miles to get a good signal.  So Sunday afternoon after we got home from church found Bob and me back at Costco, spending another afternoon with our good friend Diego (Jack and Joan were NOT there, at least that we could see, LOL).  This time we knew exactly what we wanted (only 1 extra phone though, since Verizon is more expensive), but the kiosk was even busier, so it still took forever.  We didn't get home until 6:30, at which time I rushed into action, making the colcannon and soda bread.  There was no way I was waiting ANOTHER day to eat this meal!  We ate our Irish meal Sunday night, with basically no leftovers--just enough for Bob to take to work for lunch on Monday.  I'm definitely making 2 briskets next year, and a boatload of potatoes.  I did make 2 loaves of soda bread, so there was enough of that. 

Now Bob and I are just trying to figure out our new phones (Droid Bionics).  I am definitely not technological enough (or interested enough, frankly) to figure tons of things out.  That's what I have all these boys for!  I did send one text to Amy, just to prove that we do indeed now have that ability, and now I can answer the phone without hanging up on you, so that's a step in the right direction.  Oh, and I installed the Facebook app on it yesterday during a down time at Rivendell.  No games though--the boys don't need any more temptations to spend time playing those kinds of games!

"Backpacking Across Europe"

That was the theme for the 5th week activity we had at our elementary co-op on Tuesday.  I know I've said before how the co-op is structured, but we have 4 week unit studies on different topics--some historical, some science, some geographical, etc. each year--and for some of the units, we have a big "5th week activity" that is the culmination of the unit.  Sometimes it is a field trip, or a special speaker, or whatever. 

So the kids just finished 4 weeks learning about Europe, and they had such a fun 5th week activity!  First the kids went to various classrooms by tiers, and they each received a cute little fabric backpack that had some fake euros in it, and also a passport.  Then they all met in the big opening room, and one of the teachers talked in Polish (she's a native!).  Then they had kids come up and hold signs saying how to say "hello" in various European languages (Jonathan got to hold "ciao").  Jessica L. came over from the high school co-op to do some Irish dancing.  Jonathan said everyone liked that a lot--she's a great dancer!

Then the 4 tiers went around to 4 different rooms, getting their passports stamped at each room.  One room was a marketplace, where the kids got a globe key chain, a "football" popper, a pencil, and a compass, which they "paid" for with a fake euro credit card-thing they all had.  While there, Daniel McC taught Jonathan how to say, "Hello, my name is Jonathan.  How much does this cost?" in Italian.  The McCs took a big trip to Italy a year ago in November to visit friends, so apparently Daniel is still remembering his Italian!

Another room was an art room, where the kids got to paint a postcard scene using pointillism.  They used q-tips as brushes, and they only got to use 3 colors.  Someone had drawn a very simple scene of a sailboat on a lake with mountains behind, so the kids sort of filled in the areas with their colors.  The cards turned out really well!

There was also an Olympic game room, where they did a modified curling game, rowing on a skateboard, and long jump.  There was also a fake torch in there, Jonathan reports.

And lastly there was the "cafe", which is where I helped out for the first part of the morning (until I had to run over to Rivendell to teach science, and Christine came to TNT to take my place).  The ladies really went above and beyond with the food--a Slovakian beef and potato goulash soup, pierogies, Swedish meatballs, Swedish licorice, Polish cookies, cream puffs, baguette slices and cheese, pita bread and cucumber dip, churros, and Belgium dark chocolate pieces that looked like Pringles.  Yum!  There was peppermint tea to drink, which was also quite tasty.  I'm not much of a hot beverage person at all, but even I liked this tea!

So the kids had a fun time "backpacking" around the halls of TNT!  Then they headed over to Rivendell to finish off the day--and what a gorgeous day it was!  The temperature was in the high 70's, there was a nice breeze, and it was sunny!  When we got home the kids went down to the creek behind our cul-de-sac with Bob, and then the younger kids actually put on swimsuits and played in the sprinkler.  I can honestly say we have never put on swimsuits and played outside in March before!  Fun day!

Goodbye, Faithful Friend

This is a "Strollee" brand stroller that I bought for around $30 at a consignment store back in 2002, when we lived in Ohio.  Bob had a TDY to D.C., actually, and we all were going to go with him.  "All" of us meant Nathan, Luke, Caleb (who was not even 1), and me.  I wanted a stroller that folded up to be skinny, like an umbrella stroller (so we could easily take it on the Metro), but that had some sort of basket underneath.  This stroller fit the bill and was not very expensive.  It folded (down)in half, and then the 2 halves folded in toward each other.  It has been the most useful stroller ever.  It's been great for trips because it didn't take up too much car space, but it was a little bigger and more substantial than an umbrella stroller, and by loosening a strap on the back, you could recline the seat so a baby could be in there.

Well, all good things must come to an end . . . Back in December we stopped at Ikea on our way home from Great Wolf Lodge.  As we were leaving the bathroom on our way back out to the van, the stroller all of a sudden got all wobbly, and I realized that a metal part connecting the handle had actually broken!  The boys at Rivendell always say that Micah is a "ninja", so I assume it was his mighty ninja mind powers that broke the metal, LOL.  Anyhow, I was very glad that it happened at the end of the trip, and we tossed the stroller into the garage, where it promptly got buried in stuff and forgotten.

Until we started cleaning out the garage, that is.  I decided we are not actually running a hospice program for terminally broken strollers, so it finally made its way into the dumpster, on its way to its eternal reward for a decade of pushing our babies hither and yon.   But first I took this picture so I could give it a respectful eulogy.  If we were to have another baby, then we would definitely replace the stroller (although I have never seen another "Strollee" stroller anywhere, LOL), but right now Micah is fine in the umbrella stroller we do have.  So thank you, faithful stroller, for all the rides!

Art by Jonathan

Jonathan has been asking me quite often for quite a while to find him an art class.  I am not remotely "arty", and this has been an incredibly busy year, so . . . that was certainly not tops on my priority list of things to do!  But one day my friend Lynnea said there was an art class at her house, and there was one more space open at the table. Jonathan went for the first time a few weeks ago, and he LOVES it.  They use these chalk pastel colored pencils that I had never even heard of before.  He finished his first picture on Wednesday--these pears.  Pretty good, isn't it?!  He's working on a picture of an eagle now.  So maybe this science/math/engineering family will have one artist!

Finishing Up Latin

We had our last Latin class on Thursday, and the boys will take the National Latin Exam on Wednesday. I have been thinking over this Latin journey, and I wanted to capture a few thoughts.

First of all, we have done Latin for years. Nathan and Luke started back when Nathan was in 2nd grade, and Luke in kindergarten, using Prima Latina. We finished that book and then spent some time doing Minimus, because I had heard how fun and cute it was. But I didn't want to shell out a ton of money (like $70 or something) for the teacher manual, so we just stumbled through it. I had no idea why the verbs were conjugated differently, for example, and if a noun wasn't a subject, then I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. Still, it was a fun break, although I don't think it actually did anything as far as learning goes.

So after we finished Minimus, we went back to Memoria Press, doing Latina Christiana I and II. We took a few years going through the 2 books. I was frustrated with LCII because there wasn't really much practice at all with the grammar concepts introduced, so every day I would come up with 2 sentences to translate in English, and 2 sentences to translate into Latin.

I was planning on starting Henle I a few years ago, but then MP introduced First Form Latin, so I had the boys go through that book instead. I didn't do it with them, but it introduced more verb tenses, and now MP is recommending doing the First Form series (there will eventually be 4 in the series) instead of LC II.

So then I was once again planning on starting Henle, but we ended up waiting a few more months so that Caleb McC could finish LC II and do the class with us as well. While we were waiting, I went to the HEAV convention, where I talked with Amy Regan from Lukeion. I have heard only great things about Lukeion's Latin classes, and especially about her teaching. Well, she said she would not recommend Henle, and that most people who use it end up stopping after a few units because it just isn't organized very well. She uses Wheelock's, which is a college-level text in her classes. I picked up a cheap used copy of Wheelock's at the used book sale, and I wondered a bit if I was totally off in my plans. But I did think that I usually have a pretty good feel for what works for me, and there have been other times that people have told me that what I was going to do wouldn't work, but it did.

So we went plunged ahead with Henle, using MP's study guides. We discovered right away that the first several units were all complete review, so we blew right through them, and the MP lesson plans really weren't that helpful. But there was a TON of translating, and so using all these grammar concepts that we had spent years memorizing became quite natural. One criticism of Henle is that it has a very limited vocabulary. This was actually a feature for us, LOL. Almost all the vocab were words we already knew from LC, and a limited vocab again made it easy to focus on really using the concepts. Another criticism is that Henle is very preoccupied with Caesar and his Gallic wars. True, but this wasn't really a problem with all boys. Plus, the sentences were easy to mock (the classic "The bodies are in the river", LOL).

I found it was actually really easy to teach Henle, and I didn't think it was laid out weirdly. Maybe it is because we did so many other MP books, but it felt very familiar. I used my Wheelock's book to clarify some concepts, but it moves so much faster and introduces a ton of vocab. I think that someone who really knows Latin could easily teach Wheelock's at a high school level. Unfortunately the boys had me, LOL, so it was much, much better to have a book that actually was supposed to be high school level. Also, Wheelock's doesn't have as much practice and translation--and I don't have an answer key, which is something I would absolutely have to have in order to teach with it!

We've been taking all the past NLE exams (Intro and I) that are posted on their website, so I am hopeful that will help familiarize the boys with the vocab they are lacking. Because they are so familiar with the grammar, they often can figure out the answer by context clues or by the endings on the words. We'll see how it goes.

A lady posted on the Well Trained Mind forums about a website she developed to help review the Roman culture for the test. It was really helpful! There is a list of questions, and there is also a quiz you can take to review. (I'll have to come back later and link it--the computer I'm on isn't letting me copy and paste the link! Technology . . .) Also, I searched on youtube for "Latin 100 commercials". Lone Pine Classical School has their Latin 100 students do travel commercials for ancient Rome--watch a few of those, and you will be well caught up on all your cultural knowledge for ancient Rome!

So we'll see how the test goes. All these years of study, and all I can say is that we are now pretty fluent in what is expected for a first-year high school Latin course. I do think we are much more comfortable and familiar with everything than someone who had ONLY taken one year in high school. That person might have covered the same amount of ground, but we have it ingrained in memory since we've been working with these endings and vocab words for so many years!

And then Caleb and Jonathan (and Daniel and Joel McC) are coming along behind them. Caleb and Jonathan are over halfway through LC I. I know I want them to take the Intro exam. Who knows--maybe we'll even go farther, into Latin II. Maybe my old brain will finally be able to keep the perfect and pluperfect tense endings straight if I go through them again!