Sliding Through the Summer

This summer has actually been more busy than the school year thus far, and shows no sign of slowing. We've somehow filled our days, and I haven't even signed the kids up for swim lessons, which was something I'd been hoping to manage. We haven't even been swimming yet, actually.

Never fear, water has not been absent from our lives. Last year, Art was able to get some scrap material from work, and it has been worth its weight in plastic and whatever else is involved in its make-up. It's possibly one of the world's best slip 'n slide materials, and we have a yard that goes downhill in all directions. It's a match made in summertime heaven.

The slip 'n slide has seen much use from Mim and Zaya, neighborhood friends, cousins and homeschool friends. This kills large strips of the lawn, or would if Aaron didn't move it regularly, and adds quite a bit of water to the creek at the edge of our yard. It's all worth it, though. They get tons of exercise, and play for hours. Ahhh.

Year One Memoir - Prologue

Our first homeschool year is drawing to a close. It's going out with a whimper rather than a bang, since we're slowly dropping subjects as I consider them "finished". All that remains for Zaya is vocabulary and history. Mim lacks Math, Spelling and History. (Zaya finished his math book yesterday.)

 There's no way we're going to finish Mim's spelling book this year, so I think we'll just keep using it and play a little catch-up next year. I don't think it's one of those subjects where you can just skip around, not if the words are following basic phonics rules as hers do.

 Our history would be done if Mommy would remember to sit and read a chapter every afternoon like she should have. The trouble is that we get distracted and I think, "We'll read that tomorrow. My voice is tired." Of course, my voice will also be tired by afternoon tomorrow. I'm not the best at pattern recognition. Maybe we should do history first for this last week and a half.

 All that being said, I don't plan for us to completely drop the learning process at any point this summer, we're just moving to a different view of school for a few months. I've told the kids that they can each choose what they want to learn each day, so long as they choose something. We'll see where this takes us. So far the new Garfield typing game seems to be winning.

We've had a great year, and I've never regretted the decision to teach the kids at home for even a moment. (I'm sure those moments will come at some point, I'm just saying they didn't this year.) Part of that is my memories of how crazy the last few years were with them both attending the little Christian school in W'ville. It was/is a wonderful school, but with tuition, the commute, Mim's daily tears and Zaya's frustrations in class, it just didn't work for us.

I remind the kids when they get whiny sometimes, "If you were still in your old school, you would have five hours left before you would be at home, and you would've already been there for two hours. I don't want to hear it. Go finish that last paper." I'm mean that way.

I plan some sort of wrap up post in the future, but for now, this is just to say: We are here. We are almost done with school. The experiment has been (thus far) a success.

Mimsy Lou Retton

I thought she did very well. She forgot to salute the judge at the end, but did eventually. We'll see how long this keeps up. She's already tired of the twice a week practices, so I don't know that she'll be a gymnast for much longer. Wish there was an easy answer. Is the health and physical benefit worth the fight?

Outbreak

We've been doing a little experiment over the last couple weeks. Zaya got a bacteria growth kit for his birthday, and was very excited to begin collecting germs.
We prepared all our petri dishes first, which involved cooking up some germ-food. (Chicken stock and agar).

After letting them air dry...





We put them in the refrigerator to wait.



We collected germs around town while running errands. I even put them on my shopping list.



We sat them on the counter, and today I decided it was time to end the experiment. You can only have a stack of bacteria on your kitchen counter for so long before it starts to affect the family psyche. (They were under a towel, but I still knew they were there.)

The first six are about two weeks old, so some of those colonies (the creek water) have started to die away. Some, on the other hand, (the wal-mart cart handle) are still going disturbingly strong.


The last nine are just about a week old.

Here are the results. The picture first.




1. Spring Street park

2. Wal-mart cart handle

3. Door handle of the Wilkenson Drug Store

4. Coke puddle on McDonald's parking lot

5. Edge of McDonald's trashcan

6. McDonald's bathroom latch

7. Our backyard creek

8. Computer keyboard

9. Zaya's cough

10. Toilet ring

11. Fridge drain channel

12 Outside of raw egg shell

13. Miriam's finger trip

14. Washing machine ring

15. Top of soap bar in bathroom

As you can see from the picture, some of them were surprisingly germ-free. Notably the latch of the McDonald's bathroom stall, Zaya's cough, and the handle of the local pharmacy.

Some were distressingly active. i.e. the aforementioned Wal-mart cart handle, Mim's fingers, and the most surprising, which was the top of our soap bar in the bathroom. In fact, the germs that showed up on that one were different than any of the others. This was Safeguard soap, by the way, which is supposed to be anti-bacterial.



Another interesting thing to note...the large black germ colony from the Wal-mart cart handle looked exactly the colony from the toilet ring, and...wait for it...my computer keyboard. Yes, it is hard to type with sterile gloves on.

We have five petri dishes left, and plan to collect for those this week. I will not be sorry to be finished with this experiment.

Howard Carter They Ain't

We dyed eggs on Sunday and let the kids hunt them in the backyard. Officially, this made "Easter Egg Hunt" number 3, but since the first two were really just "Easter Egg Scoops" I don't count them. Sure, they bagged a ton of plastic eggs with little toys in them, but there was no hunting involved. It's really just a gigantic race to see which hyped up kids can cram the most eggs into their baskets. (The real pros all had Wal-mart sacks tied to their belt loops.)

Anyway, we decided that our children should experience the joy and frustration of racing against the clock to find actual hard-boiled eggs before the sun makes them inedible.

We discovered that they get their detective skills from their mother. Which is to say, all clues would have to be accompanied by big arrows and flashing lights.

Here we are, full of hope, heading out to conquer the world- or find fourteen eggs- whichever comes first.


Well, no Zaya. That's not an egg. Let's keep trying, Sweetie.




Mim needs a lollipop break. It's exhausting looking for eggs. It's been about three minutes at this point.




Hmmm. What could that be in the pot? A large ovoid flower?



Whoo. Still tired. Maybe if she sits on the basket, eggs will magically appear.



"Look Mom! The seeds are sprouting. What? Eggs? Oh, yeah. Still looking."



"Plants here too, Mom!"



"Right where? I can't see it. Are you sure, Mom?"



"Oh, right! Now we see it!"


Now they're finally picking up speed. It helped that Daddy showed them picture clues that he'd taken for the last six of them.


You might think I'm mocking my children. And let's be honest. I am. But I will also point out, in the interest of Egg Hunt Justice, that when the kids hid them for us, Art found eleven, and I found three. See? I told you they were my genes.

Babies are Beautiful

I'm having so much fun watching my friends and family members become parents. In some ways it was just yesterday that I walked through that portal of no return myself, yet my children are suddenly six-and-a-half and eight. I think that means I've been a parent for eight years. It boggles the mind.

But I digress.

I've especially enjoyed my cousin Mandy's journey into motherhood. I will admit that I was a little nervous of how it would be for her. She feels things very deeply, and her health is not the strongest, so I was afraid that motherhood, with its accompanying lack of sleep and hormonal ups and downs might be especially hard on her.

My fears were ill-founded, and I'm so very glad. Her little girl is a doll. They named her Serenity, and it looks like they named her very aptly. I'm sure she has all the typical baby tendencies; spit-up, poo, teething...but she also is beautiful, sweet-tempered, and a real talker, just like her mama.

Mandy has completely accepted that it is good and right to spend time snuggling with the little one. That isn't easy for many women. She has already begun the process of enjoying these fleeting moments of infancy with her precious child, and I'm so proud of her. I love hearing her talk about the jokes she makes with her baby and her husband (who sounds like a fantastic father and spouse).

Her little one wears actual baby clothes, which I wouldn't have guessed previously, since Mandy herself favors a more...eclectic...style. She has wisely decided that Serenity is her own person, and will develop her own tastes and desires as she goes through life. Again, not every woman can do that. I know I struggle(d) with that myself.

I pray that my other relatives who have just had babies or who are looking forward to that prospect in the near future can accept the ups and downs with the same grace as Mandy. Her little girl has a crazy, fun-filled life to look forward to, and although I know there are still difficulties ahead, and that there have already been bad days as well as good, I know too that Mandy will have the strength to face them, and the heart to make them count.

Here's to you, cousin. God bless you!

Hazards of Homeschool

This is the danger of introducing new science topics. Today I told Zaya to go read his chapter about protists. (Also called protozoa) He runs off all excited that he doesn't have to do his spelling yet.

After a few brief minutes of quiet, I hear a sound coming from the living room.

*SPLOORGE*

and again

*SPLOORGE*

My son is now a protozoa. The next thing I hear from the living room is,

"I need a membrane." He comes crawling into the bedroom to find a blanket. Now he's crawling around discussing his own inner working, and complaining that his sister hurt his mitochondria when she sat on him.

She is an amoeba, but has a fuzzy, silky, purple membrane, because apparently there are divas in the protist world as well.

So much for getting schoolwork done. How do you tell your children to stop being single-celled organisms and playing together nicely and come do their spelling. It would take a heart of stone, which I like to think I do not possess.

Does this happen to other mothers? I have to think it does. I have to think that, because it keeps me sane and hoping that my children will some day become effective, functioning members of society.

I suppose the rest of our schoolwork can wait until my single-celled organisms have tired of what should be a fairly limited existence.

Apples and Oranges

My father recently took a Myers-Brigs personality test, and it has started our family on a little cascade of personality testing. Whenever something like this happens, it brings to mind our quirky little differences, and, at least for a time, we understand each other a little more. Reading our personality assessments has been eye-opening as each of us say, "Hey! That's exactly right!" (I'm an ENFP. Mostly)

We've often laughed (wept?) at the extreme opposite personalities in our house, but it's been fun to see it on paper as well. Of the three children (myself and my brother and sister) I am the one who is most likely to fit in with others, get along with people, and be comfortable functioning in the world in general. My siblings would be the first to agree with that statement, so I'm not telling them something they don't already know.

Just yesterday was a great example of those differences. My younger brother and his wife and my younger sister went for a quick trip to Dallas to see a concert. They travel fairly often, and have been to quite a few different cities for one thing or another, yet things like this still happen: [liberally paraphrased]

I get a call from my brother, "Carina, are you near a computer?"
"Well, yes, I can be. What's up?"
"We're heading to that concert and we don't have a map for Dallas. Could you find the {unnamed} Theatre on the map?"
"Sure. I'm on Google maps now. Ok, I've found the Theatre. Where exactly are you?"
"We're driving down I-35. I think in Fort Worth."

That's right. They were already in Fort Worth, and didn't actually have any kind of map to get them to a location in central Dallas.

I proceeded to give them what were probably confusing directions over the phone as they hurtled down the interstate. They did arrive at their destination, so all's well...etc. I encouraged them to go by a gas station and grab a map. Crazy, out-of-the-box thinking from big sis. I was joking about it to my mom this morning, and she said that my sister actually owns a GPS, but no one thought to bring it.

This is one of the many reasons I love my family. We all need each other so much. I would feel lost if I couldn't still take care of my little brother and sister sometimes, and apparently, they would be lost and wandering around Dallas if they didn't have a big sister with a good internet connection. A slight exaggeration, yes, but you get the idea.

Now if I could just find my car keys...I guess we do have a few things in common.

(The picture includes my younger cousin. She's like a little sister, so it all still applies. I won't give away any of her personality secrets on the net. You're welcome, C.)

Catching Up

The kids and I had a wonderful little visit to our family and friends in western OK. Art went on a business trip, so we decided that it would be a good chance for us to reconnect with our loved ones back home.

We made a list and tried to schedule in as many people as possible, and I think we did fairly well. We left a little something behind in almost every house: a jacket here, and sock there, a cd, toothbrush, chip bag...you get the idea.

I spent most of one morning just trying to re-collect all these tokens of our presence. Some remain uncollected.

It was especially nice to see Mr. M again this week. He was very sick this last summer when we moved, so the kids weren't able to visit with him next door like they have for the last five years. He and his wife moved to a retirement village in Kansas right after we ourselves moved out of state, and we didn't think we would ever have a chance to see them again.



We were so surprised to hear that Mr. M had been spotted at morning coffee at the cafe. We drove to three different businesses trying to track him down, but finally found someone who knew that he was at their old home, even though the car was gone. (His wife had the car downtown at the hairdresser's. I love small towns!)

We were all ecstatic to have the chance to visit with Mr. M again. It was just one of many blessings this week. Another highlight was the opportunity to hold my new "sort-of" nephew. He's only a few weeks old, and the pictures over the internet weren't enough. Now I know he's real because I held him, all tiny and sleeping, in my own arms.

All that to say, it was a wonderful week, and we enjoyed every last bit of our visit. I got to see friends I haven't talked with in years, and friends I used to spend hours with every week. Mom and Mom-in-law, Dad and Dad-in-law, siblings, siblings' spouses, nieces, nephews, cousins...whew!

I'm exhausted, and glad to be home, but I'm so thankful that God gave me the courage to make the trip on my own with Mim and Zaya. I apologize to everyone who had to clean up after us when we left, and I hope we improve in our packing and preparation abilities as time goes on.

I don't regret a moment of it, though, only that there weren't enough moments to visit everyone. Going home always renews my faith in human-kind and the power of love to cover distances, both physical and temporal. I can't wait until we're all together in the presence of God someday, and I can see absolutely all my loved ones at the same time, and for eternity.

A Little Angst in the Afternoon

As a mother, and especially now as a homeschooling mother, I've had to come to terms with my children's strengths and weaknesses. I've learned so much more about their personalities, and how that affects their reactions to the world. It's a process, of course, and impatience frequently rears its ugly head, but I think I've come quite a distance within the last year.

I suppose this process has made me more aware of how other people treat/view my children. I've always been the kind of mom who took it personally if people thought my children did something they shouldn't, but it was because I felt that I had failed in my task as a good mother. Now I find it hard not to be frustrated with people when they don't understand their behavior because I see it as part of who they are, rather than a huge fault for which they should feel guilty.

For example, Zaya is very imaginative little guy. That doesn't come as a shock to anyone reading this blog, of course, but it's surprising how little other people understand him. They think he's not very bright, sometimes, because he's staring into space, or pretending to be some single-celled creature with frightening accuracy. They get frustrated with him when he doesn't attend with complete concentration to their every word, or intuitively understand simple things like "you must always shut doors behind you."

Of course, he does need to pay attention, and shut doors, and pick up his shoes, and goodness knows I try to teach those things at home, but the fact that he frequently doesn't, does not mean that he is unintelligent, ill-mannered, or badly raised. It just means he's imaginative, bright, and forgetful.

Maybe I take things too personally, and people don't really believe those things at all. Maybe I'm projecting my own frustrations onto other people, but I know there's some kernel of that in most of his interactions with other authority figures.

I wish I could give out a little manual for him whenever we're in a new "class" type situation. It would be a strange read, I guarantee you, but it would probably save me a little heartburn, in the long run.

Burnination Play by Play

Zaya today is "sort of a dragon". He's a "land dwelling creature that breaths hydrochloric acid instead of fire, and drinks sulphuric acid". All I can think is, imagine the heartburn!

Mim (just a plain dragon) is attempting to care for him, and being rewarded with showers of acid. You can only do so much for some people.

She has suddenly decided that she has crystal armor on, and the debate of whether or not HCL could eat through crystal is going strong.

I've also discovered that fire-breathing dragons do not like to have their hair brushed. They retaliate. Who knew?

Something like this happens ten to fifteen times a day in my house. They have the most bizarrely vivid imaginations. I can't even get pictures, because they're generally in perpetual motion.

I just try desperately to keep up, and not get caught in the cross-fire. (Or cross-acid, as the case may be.)

I've just been handed a "big chunk of ruby" so maybe it's got it's perks.

Compilation of Weirdness

Things Overheard in the Thiessen home
Culled primarily from Facebook status updates
You have been warned.

Here are examples from recent months:

My son is imagining that he went to the end of the universe and opened up a new one with his friends. His friends are " a dino-pirahna plant, Yoshi, and a mutant six-legged lion that he just made up." So...shouldn't he have at least one real, flesh and blood, human friend? Do other people's little boys have friends?


Kids were listening to Respighi's Pines of Rome this morning with the iTunes visualizer on too. I kept hearing things like "Double Helix!!" and "A Wormhole!" coming from the other room. They have weird hobbies.


I came home from grocery shopping to find that my children had transformed into Jedi warriors.
And they have a Wookie named Hanukkah.
I'm pretty sure that's not socially acceptable.


Zaya wrote a silly story yesterday. I printed it out this morning. We are running out of ink, so some of the words are very bold. The others are light and faded. He's reading it out loud, but loudly emphasizing all the random parts that are dark. He's such a goober.

Right now in our house:
Zaya is a vampire
Mim is a Werewolf/Vampire/Zombie. She morphs.
I frankly have no idea how they know much of anything about these creatures. I blame ThinkGeek.


Mim in a whiny voice -
"Mom, I just want to play tax-collector, but Zaya keeps going off to other dimensions."


At breakfast, my kids were cafeteria managers. Then they were time-travelling big game hunters. Then they were T-rexes. (This says something about their place in the whole predator/prey dichotomy, I think.) Now I'm supposed to go see "a special" in Mim's room. It's only 9 am. This is going to be one of those days.


Zaya tonight, calling from his bedroom:
So, Dad...a hypothetical question. If the earth, or any planet, were hollow, and there was something at the exact center of that hollow space, would there be pressure on it from all sides because of gravity?
An exact quote. They're still in there discussing it. I keep hearing words like mass, nebula and eon. Not sure what the answer was.


Zaya keeps saying he's eating a Barbarian Filled Long John.
Sounds horrific!

Mimsy

Mim has a great imagination. It runs on a different track than Zaya's, but it's no less unique.

She told me she wanted to draw a face with pipe cleaners and paper. I found some tape for her and then left her to her own devices. She returned with this.



In case you can't tell, that's a gigantic open mouth. The red pipe cleaners are lips, then we have a tongue, uvula, tonsils and dark pit of the throat. There are teeth around the outside.

We went to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield to visit my cousin. The kids each chose a stuffed animal. (Separate post about that to follow.)

Mim's animal is a wolf named Silver. He's become her baby, and she's decided to wear him like a tribeswoman might. I helped her with this particular arrangement.



I think the wolf looks pretty happy too.

She has also absolutely fallen in love with Minecraft. It's a world-building game that looks simple at first glance, particularly because they've purposely chosen an 8-bit art style, but the options are near endless.



Mim has already created seven or eight worlds. (This is not one of them, it's just a picture I found on the net.) She only likes to play in creative mode, because you can't die and you already have access to all the resources. If I could figure out how, I'd get a screen grab of one of her glass and diamond palaces for you, or one of her vast chicken coops made of blue wool. She also has a house on one world that is layered with different materials so that as you go down the interior stairs, you walk past strata.

She always was my child who would play with blocks. Essentially, this is blocks on an infinite scale.

It's so fun to watch my children grow, because they show their personalities in such funny ways. I love that home-school gives me the blessing of being there for so many of these moments because we are all learning to embrace our weirdness, and it's quite a trip!

Baby it's Cold Outside. Finally.

Our first snow day in Missouri. The kids are ecstatic. I got them to finish Math, English and Spelling, and then sent them out on an extended "play until you can't play anymore" recess.

I waited inside to greet and comfort them on their return.

So glad we have a basement with a backdoor. It's perfect for peeling off wet layers of clothing.

Some Christmas photos and thoughts. Not deep thoughts.

We had our usual hustle and bustle this year, with an added element of staying with family until we were ready for the drive back to Missouri. It was great to see everyone again, and I officially apologize for all messes and inconvenience that we left behind.

We had our own little celebration here at home the day before we left.







Then we visited my family for a few days, and traveled to Texas for a day as well.





The next few days we spent with Art's family.



We were almost able to pack everything back into the van for the trip home, but not quite. (That's without the back bench seat. We left it at home.)

While we tried to unpack, a process that took several days, the kids began rediscovering their toys. Mim begged every two or three minutes (from Monday to Friday evening when we arrived home) for me to go get batteries for the remote control cars that they got from my grandparents in Texas. She couldn't understand why I wasn't terribly eager to get back in the car and run to Wal-mart.

In the interest of family peace, however, I did. They have provided hours of great entertainment. Mim's remote came without an antennae, so Aaron soldered one on for her. Of course his looks great and works very well. I had previously come up with my own solution, which involved a metal chopstick and some painter's tape. Granted you had to kind of hold it in with your hand while using the remote, but I'd like to point out that it did work.





That's our Christmas story. Lots of family, lots of gifts, lots of fun, lots of unpacking. All worth the trip.

Noel

We had our church Christmas program two weeks ago. The kids were Mary and Joseph. There was much craziness associated with this program, and it provided hilarity for all involved. The lovely lady who directs the children in their programs spent hours and hours making sure that every single child had something to be, do or say. We had a new change to the script for every practice, I think, trying to keep up with which kids were around and able to participate.

Here are the kids dressed up for their piano playing part.



And here they are as the happy new parents. G-ma and G-pa T and Aunt and Uncle D came to see them and visit. Oh, and bring us a piano. YEA!!

Christmas Break Ambitions

The kids are officially on Christmas break as of this Monday. My ambitions for the week are (I hope) reasonable. My only plans:

Monday - Wrap Presents and Sort
Check

Tuesday - Visit nursing home to deliver gifts and play piano. (kids)
Check

Wednesday - Make chocolate covered stuff
...almost check...
(The kids are playing "poor family", and they're having such a good time I don't want to make them stop. They're begging and bartering for shillings, then using them to buy weapons, fabric etc. to improve their lot in life. Oh, and they keep asking me to buy pets. (Apparently I'm the shopkeeper.) I don't know how to explain that pets are kind of a luxury item.

Anyway...

Thursday - Have our Christmas here, pack for trip

Friday - Drive home for the holidays.

Can't wait to see everyone this next week. We'll miss those of you who aren't able to make it down this year.

Merry Christmas from me and the crazy squealing kiddos. And Art. He's at work, but his Christmas vacation starts right after lunch today. (Yea!!)

Miscellany

Here a few pictures from life around here- random snapshots, if you will.

This is Zaya dressed as a Newsie. He's selling papes, and wearing one of the costumes that Grandma Lilibeth brought when they came to visit.


Here Zaya discovers _The Wizard of Oz_. He started it after breakfast, and finished it before Sunday School. Apparently, he's a fan.


Here is Mim's fancy doll that Mr. Mac gave her when we moved. She took off the fancy dress and had me make the doll a bible costume. (No sewing involved.) Then when I went back into the school room, the doll was standing under Mim's desk reading a pamphlet about birdwatching. Who knew?


Art got some scrap materials from a co-worker and made a gigantic slip n' slide in our backyard. The kids had a blast, and I may just have used it myself. No admissions.

And..Salute

The kids had their first gymnastics meet today in a nearby town. There weren't that many children there, so it was of reasonable length. All they did was tumbling down a line of mats, so there was little to learn, and little pressure.
They both did very well, ie they did their little routines with a minimum of nervousness from Mim and wiggling from Zaya.
I forgot my camera, of course, but I did take pictures with my cell phone. Now I have to figure out how to get them onto my computer. Anyway,here are some pictures of the triumphant athletes after our return home.Zaya got a trophy as the only beginner boy. All of the children got medals, because they separated things by age and etc. They have decided (read Mim has decided) that they will share the trophy since it's not fair that Zaya got one just because he was a boy.

We're Back!

We are officially reconnected to the world! It's a bit too overwhelming to think of all the things that have happened since we last had the internet in our home, so I won't be trying to catch up on the blog.

Suffice it to say we're all still here; we're adjusting to life in Fornow; we're enjoying homeschooling; life is good.

Oh, and we really, really miss everyone back home. That should go without saying, but I would like it said for the record. Not a day goes by when I don't think of some people I would like to talk to and see.

Here's a quick picture of the kids from my Grandparent's 60th anniversary this summer. We had a great time, and I was so glad to have the opportunity to go.



I'll throw other pictures on here as I run across them. For the moment, I'm going to get off of the computer. I haven't readjusted to the screen time, and my eyes are killing me.

Oh, and I'm also trying to participate in NaNoWriMo again. Last night I had to just throw a towel over the screen and type blind. I'm about 1500 words behind, so I'll probably have to do the same tonight.