The Infamous Haircut

So back on that horrible Sunday, Grace took a pair of scissors to her own hair and lopped off a big chunk right in the middle of the back of her scalp. I knew theoretically that it could have been worse, but I still had such a hard time dealing with it. It took me 2 days before I could even really look at her to begin to evaluate how I could attempt to make things better! Here is what it looked like. She cut up and down, so there was a nice, long hunk missing, and no possible way to do layers or a block or anything like that to disguise it. I guess I could have shaved it, LOL.
So after contemplating for awhile, I finally just cut everything shorter and tried to blend the back as best I could. It really isn't as noticeable now, unless you are really looking.

And, thankfully, you can't tell anything from the front, so we are still going to attempt pictures sometime in the next week or so. Before anyone else gets hold of any scissors or gets a black eye or anything . . .

Belly Shot!

Melinda asked for a belly shot, so here is one from this afternoon! I'm 35 weeks along. First, the view from the front:
Now, the side view. Oh my goodness!

I am at the stage where no clothes are really comfortable--my shirts ride up, and my pants ride down! Oh well--only 5 weeks to go!

Penn Museum

Yesterday we had such a fun day! We went on a little field trip to the Penn Museum with our Rivendell co-op. One family couldn't come, but we still made for a large group--6 adults and 16 kids! This is the same museum that we visited back in June 2009, when we took our weekend trip to Philadelphia and stayed with my college friends. Back in the fall, someone posted a message on a homeschooling email loop that Christine and I are on about this great deal they had seen for the museum--buy 4 tickets for $16! So we all did that, although it seemed like the beginning of March was light-years away when we were planning this trip. I think we were all doubting if it would really work out as the time actually got closer, but we all made it there and had a terrific time. It was a great review for the kids too of all the ancient history we've been studying this year with Tapestry of Grace year 1.
We started out on the 3rd floor with the gallery on Upper Egypt. The mummies were impressive, as always!

Then we moved on to the Asian gallery, where the crystal ball was admired.

In several places, Christine had the 3 Rivendell boys go through the room and pick one thing to explain to the younger kids. Here Nathan is explaining about the lion, which would have guarded a palace or something. The Chinese lions look like dogs because lions aren't native to China, so the artists used dogs as models. I had always wondered about that! Also, this is a male lion because it has a globe under its paw. Female lions are depicted with baby lions under their paw. Interesting!

Here is a group shot taken by a kind passer-by in front of a Japanese Buddhist shrine. I told you we were an impressive group! Buddhists at one point in time underwent a period of persecution in Japan, and so they started making these minature "portable" shrines, of which several were displayed.

We moved on through the Rome and Greece galleries before heading outside to eat our picnic lunches on the benches in front of the museum. The weather was beautiful, praise the Lord, so the kids got to run around this fountain and work off some steam. Then we headed back in and finished up with the Lower Egypt gallery, as well as the American Indian and African galleries, which aren't that big. Here are the 3 Rivendell boys in front of one of the excavated pillars from a palace in Lower Egypt. You can see a doorway in the background.

We were done by 3:30, and we all headed back home, exhausted. The 3 girls fell asleep pretty quickly in the van! All the driving and walking about did me in, and I am still so tired!

We are supposed to go to PA to visit Bob's family next weekend, but this drive has made us have second thoughts. I might be too far along to make another drive--it was so frustrating to have to stop all the time for me to go to the bathroom, and I was so uncomfortable sitting! So we'll see how I am feeling in a few days.

Pregnancy Update

I'm now over 34 weeks along--less than 6 weeks to go! I am feeling big and uncomfortable, so yeah, everything is normal. I have definitely been mushy-brained lately--I made whole wheat biscuits a few nights ago and used baking soda (4 1/2 tsps!) instead of baking powder! Blech! I am even more foggy-headed because I have a cold and am all snuffly. I'm sure I could kick this thing if I could just lay around all day for a day or two! Ha, ha, I crack myself up!

I had an OB appointment yesterday, and everything looks fine. The little guy is a very active kicker! I lurk on this doula forum, and someone posted a link to a woman's blog, where she had a slideshow of her last birth, which was a homebirth. It was all lovely and quite natural, but she had an 11 pound baby and had to push for like 2 hours, even though it was her 5th baby!! Ack! So that is my latest nightmare and worry, LOL, especially since I already do have big babies (Caleb was 9#, 5 oz., and Jonathan was 9#, 6 oz.). Anyway, I asked the doctor if I should take another 1 hour glucose test, just to make sure I didn't have gestational diabetes. She was quite surprised at this request, LOL! She was really not that concerned. She said I passed the last 1 hour one with plenty to spare (my number was 102, and anything under 140 is passing), I haven't gained too much weight, and the baby is measuring right. She also said that the 1-hour test, which is just a screening anyhow, gets less and less accurate once you get more than 28 weeks along. So I didn't take another test. I guess I'll just keep up with the exercise, although I didn't exercise today. This cold is making it hard for me!

As I was walking up to the line to make my next appointment, 2 pregnant ladies were talking. I heard one of them say she was 35 weeks along, which surprised me because her belly was clearly larger than mine! I don't like to brag, but I usually win most belly contests at this point, LOL. I asked her if she was expecting twins, and she said yes, in a surprised voice. She looked really great--all belly! She called it a "torpedo belly", and that was what it looked like! She actually lives in Annapolis, but the Naval Academy doesn't have an OB department in their clinic, so all the ladies have to come to Bethesda. That's quite a drive, especially when you are pregnant with twins! So whenever I am tempted to complain, even about the drive to Walter Reed, I need to be glad I am not having to come from Annapolis!

Anticlimactic Allergy Appointment

This morning Caleb and I trekked back over to Walter Reed for another follow-up allergy appointment (after his big anaphylactic scare before Christmas). This time we brought samples of all the food he was eating at lunchtime--pepperoni pizza from this local restaurant, fresh pineapple and grapes, and decaf Folgers coffee. I thought he was going to eat them in an oral challenge-type thing, but as it turned out, the doctor just wanted to use those things to prick Caleb's back. So the tech made a slurry of the dry coffee, and for everything else just stuck the pricker in the food, then stuck it in Caleb's back. Caleb had prick tests done back in July, on his forearm, and he was a basket case! He moaned, wailed, and otherwise carried on. I am thrilled to say that this time he just laid there and read a comic book! Yay!

And he didn't show any positive reactions to anything, which was not that surprising. He had a tiny wheal by the pineapple prick, but it evidently wasn't big enough to be called a positive reaction. But he's had all those food many times before without any problems. He has had mild reactions to fresh pineapple before, but only when he's had a ton of it in the previous days. So I think my theory of him being sensitized by the exposure to his friend's pets the day before the reaction is probably the best one, and I expect it is the pineapple that was the culprit.

So with no positive reactions, the doc sent up over to the lab to do a blood draw for a RAST test. We'll see if anything shows up there, and based on the results, they will bring Caleb back in for an oral challenge. Hmmm . . . I really don't know if I want to make yet another big trip out to Walter Reed in the next few weeks! But we'll keep on avoiding fresh pineapple for a little while more, I guess.

One interesting thing was this pediatric doctor who was shadowing our allergy doc. He was seriously the tallest man I have ever seen in person--he had to duck to go through doorways! Our allergist is not a short man by any means--probably 6'1" I would say. He almost came up to this other doctor's shoulders! When we were sitting in the waiting room before our appointment, I heard some tech asking who "Doctor So-and-so" was. "You can't miss him. He's the really tall guy in the black navy uniform" was the response. And as soon as I saw him, I realized he was obviously the guy being discussed! Definitely not someone who blends into a crowd of uniforms!

Happy Birthday, Luke!!

Today is Luke's 12th birthday! We started celebrating on Friday, when we brought Air Force dessert to Bible study. I'm still not entirely sure how this delicious dessert got its name, but it is an old favorite from White Sulphur Springs, and it is much yummier (and easier to make!) than a traditional cake! I had to ask Marty Thomas and Carri for help with the recipe--thank you, ladies!!

We also celebrated tonight by finishing up the Air Force dessert. Luke also opened his presents.
He got a Transformer, as well as 2 comic books (Zits and Foxtrot) Nathan and I picked out from Half Price Books while we were in Ohio. Of course, we actually started celebrating Luke's birthday IN Ohio, where he received a Lego Minotaurus game from Aunt Amy, as well as a really challenging flag puzzle from my parents, where the flag is actually made up of a ton of tiny pictures. He has already started working on this puzzle!

Luke is such a tremendous help with the girls, and I definitely appreciate his attention to detail, especially when he is helping me find something that is missing! He still finds a ton of money whenever we are in stores. He is also an amazing basketball player--taking after his cousin, Pilot! He just finished up another undefeated season.


Here is a close-up view of the Air Force dessert. I doubled the recipe to fit in my big pan (it's a roasting pan, but I use it for casseroles and other big things--like desserts!). We only had a little bit left!


Air Force Dessert


16 oz. Oreo cookies, crushed into crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 gallon ice cream, softened (we used cookies and cream, which is the traditional kind, I believe)
1 jar chocolate fudge topping
1 small cool whip container

Reserve 1/4 cup crushed cookies for topping; mix remaining cookie crumbs with butter, and press into bottom of 9x13 pan. Spread softened ice cream evenly over cookie layer. Drizzle fudge over ice cream, then spread cool whip on top. (We added another layer of chocolate topping here, just for good measure, LOL.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs. Freeze.

Another Random Conversation With Jonathan

So before we left for Ohio, I was changing Faith's diaper, and in wandered Jonathan. He told me he really wanted to go back to visit "Florida". This threw me for a loop, since the last time I could think that we were in Florida was to visit the L's when they were stationed down there, and I was actually pregnant with Jonathan. So . . . hard to imagine him having fond memories and missing it, LOL.

I suggested that perhaps he was thinking of Virginia Beach, where we spent a couple nights last spring. That was fun, although we were all squished together in one small hotel room for 3 nights. He insisted it was not there, and that we had stayed in a nice house with a dog that Faith wasn't afraid of. They played ping-pong, and the dog kept picking up the ping-pong balls . . . I was really stumped, as I was still stuck on "beach-y" places, and I couldn't think of any friends who lived near a beach and had a dog. Fortunately, Nathan came in then. He was able to think outside the beach box, and he suggested that Jonathan really wanted to visit PHILADELPHIA again, where we had stayed with my college friends Phil and Sandra in their beautiful old house, back in June 2009. They have a big dog named Sox who had indeed played ping-pong with the kids. Bingo! Well, you know--Philadelphia and Florida . . . practically the same place! So easy to get mixed up! LOL! And of course, the big memories from that little trip were not the Liberty Bell, the tour of Independence Hall and Betsy Ross's house, or meeting "Ben Franklin". Ah well . . .

So next Jonathan asked if Sox was dead. Ummmm . . . I don't think so . . . what brings that up?! Well, Jonathan was concerned for his health because the pets of ALL of our friends are either having to be put to sleep, or are moving away. Apparently, knowing our family is the kiss of death for pets, in Jonathan's mind. Actually, Amy had to put her cat Pumpkin to sleep a few months ago, and the McC's dog Stormy died a few weeks ago, but both pets had lived at least 17 years, so this was not totally unexpected, and I don't really think the deaths can be pinned on us, LOL. And the L's dog Ned finally was able to go live with Anthony, his actual owner, since Anthony is in pilot training now and has a house with a yard. So that's 3 pets we know . . . I don't think you can draw any statistically meaningful conclusions from that small sample size, so I think we are still safe to be around those of you with pets! I did send an email to Sandra, however, inquiring after Sox's well-being. I will let everyone know if he is still enjoying good health and happiness (as we all fervently hope, LOL).

We're Back!

We drove back yesterday from Ohio, and it was such a dreary day! The one spot of excitement was as we were merging onto I-70 from I-68 in Maryland. It goes to one lane, and a semi had overturned in the median between where we were merging and where the cars coming south from Breezewood on I-70 merge. There were ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars, plus a bunch of people milling around. The police officer had set out some flares, but other than alert us to the fact that something was going on ahead, they didn't clearly lead us anywhere. There was a pickup truck ahead of us, and he was really zipping along. It was actually a miracle that he didn't hit the police officer, who had to jump backwards as the guy zoomed past. I just followed along, but as we passed, I saw a paramedic holding his hands up in the air, like he was asking, "What is going on?!" Then I looked back and realized that all the cars behind us were stopped. So obviously the policeman was trying to stop traffic, and we were the last vehicle to get through! Whew! None of us were in the mood to just sit on the highway for however long!

Our book on CD was The Mysterious Benedict Society, a book which I actually had not read before. I also had out Tom Sawyer, so there was some debate about which book to listen to when we started. The book ended up being quite interesting, with lots of little puzzles to figure out, so I was glad we picked one I hadn't read! Also, it is very long--13 hours--so we still aren't done with it. We have a little trip next weekend up to Philadelphia with our jr. high co-op (field trip to the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaology), so we'll be able to finish it on that drive.

So now we are back home. I spent the morning unpacking and trying to get the house back in some semblence of order before everything starts back up next week. I was able to get a little bit ahead in Latin while we were gone, so that should be helpful. I still have some prep work for science on Tuesday, though. Tomorrow is the last day of Upward basketball games, so we have 3 games to attend. Then we have church on Sunday. It will be good to see everyone, but I do confess I am not looking forward to it. Hopefully kinks will have been worked out, but it was just so terrible last time. Oh well--stiff upper lip and all that. I want Sunday to be a good day--it's Lukie's 12 year birthday! We're actually celebrating at Bible study tonight!

Vacation is over--back to the real world!

Fun in Ohio!

Well, it has now been a week since I last posted. We definitely had a much different (and better!) weekend this time. We packed up and drove to Ohio on Friday! It is the winter break for our co-ops, and it was definitely time for a vacation!

The weather was absolutely beautiful for driving (although Luke did comment that it was a better day for playing outside, rather than driving, LOL). Our book on CD was Cheaper By the Dozen, one of my all-time favorites. There was a tiny bit of language that was a lot more noticeable to me when it was read aloud, as opposed to me just reading it. I guess I just skipped over it. Still, it is such a funny book, and as we have more and more kids, I can relate more and more to the book! We'll be painting Morse code messages on the walls and listening to language recordings in the bathroom in no time! Ha!

We are staying with my best friend Amy for the weekend, which has been so much fun. Satruday was a day of basketball. We went to Jacob's Upward game at 11:00, and then on to Zach's middle school game at 12:00. The weather was still nice, so the boys played outside all afternoon long while Amy and I caught up. Then we met my parents at Young's for dinner and ice cream before heading over to Cedarville to watch the last regular season basketball game at the university! The Yellow Jackets won handily, and we got to see Zachary L. cheer, so it was a very fun evening!

Yesterday Zach woke up running a fever, so he has not been up to par yesterday or today, poor guy. But the rest of us all went to Amy and Jason's church, where there was plenty of seating and no threatening black curtains, LOL. Nice! The service was nice, and their assistant pastor preached an excellent sermon. Afterward, ew came back here, where Amy had a delicious meal of chicken and noodles waiting for us in the crockpot. Amy and I go to do a lot of scrapbooking yesterday afternoon/evening. I finally got Faith's little album started--actually, it's almost finished! Now if only I wasn't 3 years behind on my regular albums. Maybe this summer I'll have some time to work on those.

Some time today we'll move over to my parents' house for the next few nights. They actually lost power last night and are still without it this morning, so we'll wait until it comes back on before making the big move! In the meantime, the kids are all playing nicely, and I am contemplating exercising. Ahhh . . . I can feel the stress melt away! So relaxing to not have to do anything or go anywhere!

What a Day

We've had quite a time here today. We're still dealing with some sort of mild bug, which apparently only strikes on the weekend. Luke, Faith, Grace, and I were all sick last weekend. Friday Nathan wasn't feeling 100%, and eventually he did throw up once Friday night. He felt better then, and was fine Saturday. Saturday night, however, he awoke around midnight, thought he had more time than he actually did, and sort of vomited while turning his head. Some did make it into the trash can next to the bed, whil some sprayed in a lovely fan on the carpet. Then, in a complete surprise, Luke threw up at 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, and 6:00. What in the world?! Luke is never sick, and now 2 weekends in a row?! When Caleb woke up this morning, he said he wasn't feeling good either, so we let all 3 older boys stay home from church. Nathan and Caleb seem fine now, but Luke is struggling more. He basically just laid on the couch all day today and ate a bit of applesauce and toast. Hopefully tomorrow he'll feel more like himself. And hopefully no one else will get this second round.

It turned out to be just fine that the boys stayed home from church, as that was a huge source of stress for our day as well. Our church meets in a school auditorium because we outgrew our actual church building a few years ago. The nice thing about the auditorium is that everyone fits with no problem! But this past week the powers-that-be (PTB) decided they want everyone to squish together, so they were going to rope off the back sections. Originally when we first moved, they had done this as well, but as more big families came in, we needed the back parts of the auditorium, where the rows are shorter, so we could have access to the aisle, and so we would just move the ropes aside as needed. But this time they cooked up this idea to have huge black curtain/screen things all along the back where they were blocking off the back rows. So now if you move the ropes, you would be sitting behind a big black screen so you wouldn't be able to see anything.

Of course they said they would leave a few rows in the back section, but those rows were quickly filled. We got there this morning right on time, but we have to sign kids up for children's church, put Faith in the nursery, drop food off for fellowship meal, etc., so we can't just waltz in to the auditorium and claim our huge row of seats. When I saw the curtains this morning, I got so upset. I literally started crying, which is rare for me, but I am feeling quite hormonal and emotional lately. This was like the straw to break the camel's back.

I'm sure the PTB have reasons for this that they consider are perfectly important and reasonable, but for me, all I see is one more day of stress. We have to get to church early so we can claim 9 seats (on the aisle no less, so that pregnant me can get out to use the restroom during our 2 hour long service), or else our family is going to have to be split up and spread out everywhere, just like in the old small building. And if we are late, then we will be punished by not having seats, so that is stress, and if we are early, then we are just causing another family to have to be split up or just stand in the hallway or whatever. VERY stressful for someone like me who already hates being late, but unfortunately is responsible to get a lot of other people out the door, as well as have my house ready for our small group to come over right afterward 2 Sundays a month. So they can say it's not about me, but it certainly makes for a day where it is easier to choose to just stay home, rather than face the stress and humiliation of not being able to sit anywhere. This probably all seems like such a tiny deal, but there really is nothing less welcoming in a church, especially for a big family, than walking in and realizing you just don't fit anywhere.

So what ended up happening today: we only had Jonathan, Anna, and Grace, since we left the older boys at home. We went in to find seats after my little meltdown, only to find, of course, that the only seats left were up in the second row. I immediately turned around and walked out, way back to this area in another hallway that is curtained off for nursing mothers. I sat there in a rocking chair all by myself and relaxed. It was nice and quiet. Bob took the kids up to the second row, where the music was so loud Jonathan put his hands over his ears and shouted "NO!" So they got up too and went outside the auditorium where they have a TV screen set up so moms with little kids can be and still watch the service. The good news is that in only 8 more weeks we'll have another baby, so I guess it will be natural for us to be there, since that is where I see us unless they open up more rows or something.

After we got home, Bob and I were so tired after our interrupted night that we took a nap. Eventually Anna came up to inform us that Grace had cut her hair with scissors, NOT the paper, like she should have been cutting. Anna was quite upset about this. We called Grace up, but it was dark and I couldn't really see anything different, so I figured she had trimmed some little piece of hair with the little kiddie scissors. Wrong! After we got up and went downstairs, I could very clearly see that Grace had cut 2 big hunks from the back of her hair, almost down to the scalp. The hunks are separated by a long hunk of hair. There really is no way to repair it, short of buzzing the entire back of her head. I can hardly stand to look at her. I had wanted to get pictures taken before the new baby comes, but I don't see how that will work now. Her hair grows so slowly. This will literally take years to grow back. It is very upsetting to me, on top of everything else for the day.

So that was our very bad day. I'm still weepy, and I'm not feeling up for another week. I ate a ton of chocolate this afternoon, so now I'll probably have an 11 pound baby. Tomorrow Luke is supposed to get his second set of braces on, bright and early in the morning. And Friday we're supposed to drive to Ohio for about a week. I do need a vacation. And at least we won't have to deal with church next weekend.

Forced Slow Down

I have really been trying to accomplish a lot this past week, and I did make some progress. I got the basement storage room cleaned up, and I went through the first few tubs of baby boy clothes. We actually don't have that many things anymore, so I will definitely be shopping at some of the spring consignment sales! Sunday afternoon we were scheduled to have our church small group over in the afternoon, so Saturday we really cleaned the main floor and the basement (in between Upward basketball games!).

I think I was overdoing it, though. I had already commented to Bob that I could really feel a difference in how I was feeling between, say, 29 weeks pregnant and now 31 weeks pregnant. I stayed up late baking banana frosted cookies for growth group, but when I finally went to bed, I had a hard time falling asleep. I just felt so full, like nothing had digested. At 3:00 I woke up and knew I was going to vomit. Sure enough, I was right, and I was also right about nothing have digested, LOL. I did not really feel good all day Sunday, and I basically just laid around on the couch all day, interrupting that with naps in my own bed.

Now the whole thing didn't come as a total shock to me. After we got home from Bible study Friday night, Luke came back downstairs to say he wasn't feeling good. He threw up around 11:00, and then he went to bed. He wasn't quite as perky the next day, but he went ahead and played a great game of basketball in the afternoon and pretty much ate normal food. When we got Faith up Saturday morning, it was quite obvious that she too had vomited sometime during the night, although not too much. She also bounced right back and was eating normal food by the afternoon.

I had a harder time bouncing back! I was definitely not up for basketball the next day, and I just nibbled things like crackers, chicken noodle soup,and a banana all day. Even when I went to bed Sunday night, I was still thinking, "Boy, I hope that little bit of smoothie I just drank doesn't come back up, because it sure feels like it might . . ." But I went off to sleep, and when I was rudely awoken by cries from Anna and Grace's room at 3:00 AM, signifying that Grace had thrown up, I felt fine! It had totally passed! (Grace was fine the next day too, and so far no one else has gotten this bug.)

It was actually kind of nice to just lay around and rest on Sunday. I have noticed that I have basically not napped at all this entire pregnancy. I just haven't had time. So I guess it takes a mild stomach virus to get me to rest when I need it! I didn't exercise Monday either, continuing my "take it easy" theme. I think I am just going to have to let some of my "to do" list go by the wayside. It's hard to do that because I really want to be more organized, with less clutter, but things like laundry, cooking, school, and exercise are taking up most of my time and energy right now, and it looks like trying to force myself to do more is not a good strategy!

Faith is 2!!

Wow, I can't believe Faith turned 2 today! It seems like just yesterday that we were speeding to Bethesda, not sure we were going to make it in time!

She's getting to be such a big girl--she definitely thinks she is, anyway, LOL. She is talking a lot more, and she is really playing with Anna and Grace now. She has become quite enamoured with one particular baby doll, so she has started even sleeping with this babydoll. She does not want to be left out of anything--she wants to be in the middle of all the action! Her big brothers take such good care of her, and she definitely adores them! The picture above is of her in the ballerina leotard that I used as a model for her cake.

We had our big co-op day today, and then Bob and Nathan went to Civil Air Patrol this evening, so we decided to celebrate her birthday tomorrow night, with presents and ice cream. Faith is enjoying being the birthday girl, so I am sure she wouldn't complain about extending the whole celebration one more day, if she even understood time, LOL.

Happy Birthday!!

Friday night we brought a birthday cake to Bible study to celebrate my birthday (Feb. 7) and Faith's birthday (Feb. 8).
Although you can't really tell here, Faith was actually very excited about being sung to! She did not, however, know what to do with the candles. Luke had to come over and help her blow them out.

The cake was modeled after a little pink leotard she has that she loves to dress up in.

It was not my finest work. I forgot to texture the "sleeves" to make them look more like the skirt (because they are tulle, like the skirt), and I also didn't proportion it right. The bodice should definitely be skinnier. Oh well. It's all gone now!

Lemurs and More Varenga

Every 2 years our Tuesday morning co-op does a writing unit. For the 5th and 6th graders, they write a research paper and then do an oral presentation, complete with a display board. Two years ago, Nathan did his report on Madagascar. This year the theme was "animals", and Luke picked lemurs.

Lemurs are native only to Madagascar, which turned out to be handy. For the meal afterward everyone had to bring in a dish related to their animal--either something the animal eats, something made from the animal (so hard to find a good cut of lemur though, LOL), something from the country where the animal lives, or (the cop-out last option!) something in the shape of the animal. Someone made absolutely adorable cupcakes in the shape of koala bears! We brought our old standby of varenga--the boiled, roasted shredded beef dish over rice that we also brought in for Nathan's meal. Never thought I'd use that recipe twice! It's actually pretty good.

Luke did really well on his presentation. He made eye contact and spoke slowly, covering all his points but not relying too much on his notecards. He was able to answer the questions people asked after the presentation. He looked confident up there, a far cry from a few years ago, when he would dissolve in a silent puddle of tears when in front of a group of people!

Here's a closer look at his display board. Lemurs are cute little guys, for the most part (well, not the freaky aye-aye so much). He had an interesting paper and talk! These kind of experiences are why it is nice to be in a co-op. It's so much different giving an oral report in front of 17 other classmates, plus random parents and siblings, as opposed to just one's own siblings and parents!

Digging Out

Yesterday the kids and I dug out the big van and Bob's minivan. Bob flew back yesterday afternoon, and we had an appointment at 4:00 to drop the big van off at the dealership because it was making a funny noise. Of course that meant we needed to be able to drive it out of the huge snowpile it was in! And if we dropped the big van off, then Bob's van needed to be clear as well, so we could all go to Bible study last night, since we don't all fit in the Sienna! Here you can see what we were starting with:
The snow clumps in the top were so heavy and hard to break up, we just started picking them up with our hands and tossing them! Luke played some rounds of snow basketball.

Even Faith "helped" out. She knew what to do with the shovel, even if she didn't get very much, and didn't toss the snow in the right place! She also wouldn't keep her mittens on, so she (and Grace) again were the first ones inside.

Success! Even a path for the mailman! That bit of shoveling took us about 40 minutes. Then it was on to Bob's van.

Fortunately the minivan is not so big, so we didn't have to shovel as much snow. It was a good thing, too, since we lost most of our helpers! Caleb, Jonathan, and Anna had discovered that they could slide down the slight hill in our front yard and go up on the big snowberm we had just made. Fun! So it was just Nathan, Luke, and me to finish off the shoveling.

Success here too! This bit of shoveling only took us about 15 more minutes. I sure was tired by the end of it all though. No time on the treadmill for me yesterday!

A few months ago I bought 2 new shovels at Walmart, thereby guaranteeing, I thought, that we would get no significant snowfall this winter, LOL. I was very glad we had them the past few days--it meant that Nathan, Luke, and I could each have a big shovel, and the other kids could share the 4 little shovels we have. Very nice! One of the new shovels even has the curved handle, which I really like. I thought it helped a lot with the wet, heavy snow. Of course, what we really need is a Wovel . . .

Insight

Here is Luke's bit of insight into the feminine mystique yesterday:

"When the girls are in bad moods, the way to get them happy again is to tell them how pretty they look, or how pretty something is on their dress, like 'Oooh, look at that pretty flower!' That distracts them."

Definitely a good place to start!

SNOW!!

Finally!! We have been waiting for a good snow, and finally we got one yesterday. It started off just as rain, and a lot of people didn't take the threat of an actual storm very seriously! I, however, am a faithful follower of the Capital Weather Gang ever since we had all those big storms last February, and they said snow would begin falling between 3:00 and 4:00, and that we would have significant accumulation, although it would differ by region. Well, starting a little before 3:00, it began sleeting, and in another hour, the snow started coming down very heavily--a couple inches an hour. It was the worst time for a storm, right as rush hour started, and tons of people spent hours and hours--I've heard as many as 12 hours to get from downtown out to Leesburg--trying to get home. Our good friend Tim P. left his office at 4:30, and by 10:00 he had made it one mile. So he turned around and drove on side streets back to his office (took half an hour), where he spent the night on the floor of his office. You can read his first hand account (and see all his awesome photography) on his blog here. Bob is TDY this week, however, so he did not have to deal with the commute! I was so happy about that! We all enjoyed the sight of all the snow falling while eating chocolate chip banana bread fresh from the oven! We went out last night after dinner to shovel the driveway, since the snow was very wet and heavy. We measured with a ruler, and we had 9 inches!

This morning everyone was so excited about playing in the snow! We did a little bit of school (amazing how much more motivated everyone is to finish in a timely manner when there is fresh snow to play in), and then they suited up. I am very pleased that 5/7 kids can get themselves completely dressed for snow all by themselves! Very nice!

My goal for Faith was to have her spend at least as much time outside as it took to get her dressed. We ended up being out there 45 minutes, so she was much happier about snow and snow clothes than she was last year!

The boys and Anna spent most of the day sledding at the end of the cul-de-sac with our neighbors. Caleb is looking happy here, but this afternoon he flipped his sled, hit a tree, and now has a lovely goose-egg on the back of his head.




Faith and I took a little walk around the neighborhood, with me pulling her on the sled. Nathan gave her a quick spin as well.

Here is the aftermath . . . tons of wet suits, jackets, gloves, and boots. My friend Kim gave me this great hint last winter--put a felt-lined plastic tablecloth on the floor to catch all the wet stuff. It's a great idea!

Everyone is totally tired and will sleep well tonight!

Bad Week For Fingers

So I just finished soaking my middle finger and thumb in salt water for about 30 minutes. Earlier this past week I reached into the dishwasher to stick one more piece of silverware into the basket, and a fork stabbed me under my fingernail! I couldn't believe the flatware was defending the dishwasher, LOL. And then a few days later I was cleaning a big pot that I had used to boil pasta, and a stubborn piece of bowtie pasta poked under my thumbnail!

Starting Thursday, my poor middle finger has been hurting so badly! I can hardly have anything touch it! The whole situation is definitely bringing back bad memories of my staph-infected middle finger back in March 2008. My thumb hurts as well, but I don't seem to use the tip of that as much, so it's not as bothersome. I keep telling myself, "This is surely the worst day . . ." but it's not getting better. So I thought I'd better start soaking it to make sure nothing bad happens. Bob is going TDY this week . . . the similarities are scary, LOL. At least I know to ask for the ER doc for anesthetic if anything has to be lanced--I learned that lesson, LOL. And I'm a lot more careful when sticking things into the dishwasher now as well!

Allergy Follow-up

Back on Dec. 22 Caleb had a scary allergic reaction, and we never could pinpoint what caused it. He had a follow-up appointment at Walter Reed this afternoon. We saw a different doctor, as well as his resident (intern? I always get mixed up, LOL). They were both extremely nice, and they went and consulted with the doctor we saw the last time, who set up Caleb's milk challenge, as well, so we had many minds considering this problem! They all agreed it was pretty unlikely that it was the coffee.

In thinking over the situation the past few weeks, I came up with a few more differences that might have made a difference. For one, Caleb ate a slice of pepperoni pizza that was left-over for lunch that day. We had gotten it from a local restaurant the night before, but he had only eaten pineapple/ham pizza that night. Also, Caleb ate the last of a fruit salad with lunch. The salad only had fresh pineapple and grapes to begin with, and by the time Caleb ate it, there were only grapes left. But they would have been sitting in pineapple juice, and he has had issues with fresh pineapple before. Nothing like this reaction, of course, and only when he ate a lot of it on subsequent days, but still . . . he is a little sensitive to pineapple. Maybe, combined with the increased sensitivity from the dog and cats he was exposed to all day the day before, it was enough to trigger a big reaction?

So we have an appointment for Feb. 28, and we are supposed to bring in some fresh pineapple/grape fruit salad, a slice of pepperoni pizza from that same restaurant, and some of the Folger's coffee, like he was drinking that day. They will do some skin tests and have him eat the stuff and see if there is any reaction. I'm thinking there won't be, and we'll just have to be content to not know exactly what the problem is. But who knows--maybe something will show up.

A Flexible Day

Tuesday is our co-op day, but we had a bit of an ice storm last night. The younger kids' morning co-op was cancelled, but we decided the roads were fine, once we got out of our subdivisions, so we would go ahead and have our junior high co-op. We decided we would meet a little bit later, though--10:00 instead of 9:30. I dropped Nathan off at Christine's house, and she drove Isaac and Nathan, along with her 1 year old Elena, over to our church to meet Eric and do history (Theresa, our literature/writing person who usually teaches first, has a big hill in her driveway and absolutely could not get out).

As they were almost at the church, Elena threw up all over herself and her carseat. At the church, Christine examined the situation and decided going home to clean up was the better course. So she picked up Eric and headed back to her house. She was going to clean up Elena, then do about 45 minutes of history. Then I would stop by her house, pick up the 3 boys (and drop off some of my own so we would still all fit in the small van, the only one I felt like I could scrape this morning!), and head over to the church to do science. I had already decided that with the later start, we wouldn't even really go through the chapter--we would just do the lab, which was the frog dissection. Christine would bring everyone else in her van in time to eat lunch. Then we would do Spanish.

A few minutes later, Christine called again. Elena had thrown up again, and she didn't even want to put her back in the car seat (which she still had to clean). As we were talking, the boys came in to inform her that her van was sliding down their driveway! Ack! Time for yet another plan!

So I ran back over (good thing we live close!), picked up the 3 Rivendell boys, and brought them back to my house. We all ate lunch, and then we leisurely did the frog dissection at my kitchen table. It was so nice! I didn't have to lug anything into the church and back out again! Siri came about 1:30, as we were finishing up, and she did Spanish over here. We just skipped memory work (although I will email it out), and Theresa emailed out her assignments for literature. Luke did point out that "It's no fun to just read and not have the discussion" though!

The frog dissection was fun! I was glad I had just done a frog dissection with Lynnea's and Kari's kids a few weeks ago. Their specimens were much larger, as well as dye-injected, so I was a bit worried about how clear everything would be with these scrawny little guys we had today. No worries though--everything was there, just as it should be! The funny thing was that all 4 of our specimens today were females, as well as the 6 specimens I did with Kari and Lynnea! I was hoping for at least one male, but no such luck. The one I did before were all very ready to reproduce, with bellies full of eggs, and really large oviducts. Today's specimens were not at all in that season of life, so no eggs.

Today's specimens did have one thing going for them--full stomachs! All the ones I did the other day pretty much had empty stomachs--maybe because they were injected? Or maybe just a coincidence. Anyhow, when we sliced those stomachs open, we saw nothing interesting. Today, however, the boys were pulling out recognizable bugs from the stomachs! Eric's frog had a caterpillar, and Nathan's frog had not one, but 2 Japanese beetles, one still in prime condition! Isaac's had a bug as well, but it was more digested, and we weren't able to definitively tell what kind it was. I thought everyone would be interested, so I made sure to take a picture of Nathan's beetles. The one in front in the complete one.

And just in case you want to briefly review your high school biology, the liver is the 3-lobed organ near the top of the cut, and the stomach is the J-shaped organ under it, with the small intestine coming off the side. We found lots of other organs and glands, but that's all you can see!