Tim's Art Opening

Tim and his fellow classmates had a unique opportunity. The got to work with senior level Kendall photography students. The students taught them about taking pictures and worked with them for four weeks. On the fourth week, they shot 15 black and white photos. They also got to go to Kendall and learn about the dark room process. They developed a contact sheet and then picked the picture they liked best. All of the pictures were then mounted and placed in their own art show. We were very impressed with their work. There were several that we saw that we would have payed money for.

The Student Exhibit

 

Student work

 

Tim's Photo

 

Tim's Photo (different angle)

 

I have smart children who think way toooo much. How do I know this? Well.....Sunday we went to "The Gardens" to look at the annual Christmas tree display. We saw trees and other things from every culture. It took my children all of two days to think this through and then discuss what we "should" do.

These children have decided that in an effort to be multi-cultural, we should celebrate all of the holidays of the season. Not only should we celebrate Christmas, but in order to support our friends in Germany, we should also celebrate St. Nicholas Day. Then, in order to support oldest child's best friend, we should also celebrate Hannakuah. Of course we have more than one friend, so we should also celebrate Kwanza. Then, of course, there are all the different calendars that would include multiple celebrations of New Years through the year. In fact the only holidays they aren't very interested in celebrating would be those that include fasting or work. They just want the food and gift giving.

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Winter Solstice, Happy Hannakuah, Have A Great Kwanza, and a Happy New Year to all. If the boys have their way, I'm going to be very busy this year.

First Snow, First Snow Day

The kiddos wanted snow. I said I was ready for snow. We got snow! I knew it was going to snow, so I did put my boots on before I stepped out the door Friday morning to take the dog out. As my foot his the snow it took me a couple of minutes to figure out that my boots were not tall enough to cope with the snow. Wow! What snow!

After getting the dog back in, I decided I better turn on the TV to see if there was a small chance that school would be canceled. The first news we were greeted with was that over 100 and some schools were closed---hmmm, this was getting interesting. The second thing I heard was that our school was included in the closing. Jack and I huddled around the TV to make sure we actually saw the closing go by on the ticker.

So I moved to the living room to see what was going on. Shane got up to go to work and we watched the commuters not only make their way to work on the day of the first snow but truly deal with SNOW! It wasn't pretty. The next thing I knew Shane was calling in to work to see if he could work from home. Permission granted the man got dressed and prepared to head out.

My hope was that he was going to get a start on the shoveling, but no, the man was heading out to get his latte. When he returned, I heard a strange noise and looked out the window. The man finally broke down and bought a snow blower. He's had fun playing with that all weekend.

The boys spent the entire day outside enjoying the wintery goodness. The boys asked if I knew what was better than the first snow. What? The first snow that includes a snow day!

My Poor, Sad, Pitiful Thanksgiving

So, last Sunday evening the normal before bed chaos was beginning when all of a sudden I heard a bad, bad sound. Youngest child had gotten sick. So laddy was home Monday, he then was ill Monday night, so was home Tuesday, got sick Tuesday night, so was on rest Wednesday. I decided I better plan for a Thanksgiving at home, so off I headed to the store.

Thursday dawned and laddy got sick yet again. I decided it was silly for us all to be trapped in the house, so I told Shane he and oldest should head off, but first I should go to the grocery store and get myself something to eat. I decided on a TV turkey dinner and they had these baby pumpkin pies, so I picked on up. I felt like a total loser as I was headed to the checkout, so I went to the self-service checkout and headed home.

Youngest and I had a fairly nice day. We watched a bunch of movies and worked on our own little projects. Then the time came to make my dinner, and again, it just seemed quite pitiful---my little frozen Thanksgiving dinner and little bitty pie.

In general, a good day. If only the food would have quit laughing at me.

Shoe Saga, Part 2

So, the great shoe adventure was well documented at the end of the summer and the great winter boot hunt was not nearly as dramatic for oldest son. However, traipsing through the woods multiple times per day plus scaling ravines and running in and out of the creek has taken their toll on the shoes. It probably didn't help that we were so desperate for any shoe by the end of the summer trip that we completely cheaped out. So granted, they probably weren't the best choice for this school.

Saturday, the family headed out for the shoe hunt part 2. We decided to head back to the store that seems to have decent shoes and the best kid's selection. As, we're trucking down the road, Shane suddenly took an unexpected left turn and we ended up at Gander Mountain. I wasn't feeling too positive, because we had hit several of these types of stores this summer and they didn't carry kid's sizes and Tim is not quite into adult sizes yet.

We were accosted almost immediately by a salesperson and after an initial overwhelming look at the store, I asked where the kid shoes were. He walked us right over and wonder of wonder they had not 1, not 2, but many choices in a kid's hiking boot. Almost all of them were made of that wonder material called Gortex. The magical stuff that will help keep my child's feet dry. I left Shane and oldest to look at the hiking boot selection and I went in search of snow boots. (Yes, the child has already wrecked his snow boots with no measurable snow on the ground yet. Hey, they were keeping his feet dry in the creek until the sole fell off.) I found two choices and went back to check on the boy.

After helping him wrestle his feet into the shoes (yes, Tim, in hiking boots you have to loosen the laces before you cram your feet in), and allowing him to walk around. Shane had him do the boot stomp test, etc, etc. They were pronounced the most comfortable shoes the lad had ever owned (and bonus, were the same price as the last decent pair of sneakers we bought him last year.) On to the snow boots. One pair was discarded without trying them on because they had the dreaded "grommets". on with the second pair. "Mom, these are it. These boots are just like wearing regular shoes. They actually fit my feet." (I guess he couldn't resist that tiny bit of mommy guilt.)

So the lad is happy with his footwear. At least for this week. I so hope these will get us through the rest of the year.

The Dog

My husband has decided that this dog deserves furniture privileges. This is what I have to put up with now. The dog has decided that no matter what I'm doing (reading my Kindle), he needs to be right there helping out....all 70 pounds of him.

 

 

 

 

International Night

Finally! The pictures from our second big project this year. The kiddos had to take notes on notecards and use 4 different sources. They had to make an outline for a speech and give their speech from only an outline. They had to cite their sources with a bibliography. They had to make a huge visual, map, and flag. They had to make 2 dishes from their country. They had pen pals (exchange students at Grand Valley). The kiddos all had to learn 3 group dances with songs, one small group dance, and most had to learn at least one other small group dance, so there could be a sub if, heaven forbid, someone was absent. The night was held at Grand Valley and was a dress up occassion. Here are the highlights:

 

Tim's visual (Germany)

 

Tim and his pen pal. She's from Hanover, Germany and hasn't traveled much at all.

 

The welcome dance from Africa

 

Tim's Sicilian Square Dance.

The War of The Pets: Cat 1 Dog 0

I have a secret to tell you. My dog talks. No, really he does. He possesses my body and he talks. The family loves it when it happens. When nothing else works, it leaves the oldest in stitches. The rolling on the floor, begging you to stop kind of stitches. The kind we don't see so much anymore now that he's a "cool" middle school-er who is way smarter than we are. Anyway, this entry isn't about oldest, so let's forget that little side note.

So the other thing you need to know is that Shane loves to sleep. He really, really loves it. He has ever since I have known him. To sleep until 11 or even into early afternoon before children was not uncommon. After children, well, it was survival of the fittest. After I had been up with said children at 5 or 6 in the morning (especially in the horror of uncontrolled reflux years), the whole sleeping in thing didn't happen anymore (at least in Shane's world, personally, if I get to sleep until 9:00 am, I consider that sleeping in.) Now that the children are older, sleeping in happens again, but at times we get tired of it and it is just time to get up. So we try to come up with creative ways to wake him up (generally unappreciated, I might add.)

The other thing you need to know before I start this story is that we have 2 animals. I know that will come as a shock to you since the cat is a myth to most of you. Anyhow, the cat is getting on in years and doesn't like to put up with young upstarts of dogs with boundless energy. So, in order to keep everyone happy, the cat lives upstairs and the dog lives downstairs. The dog has only, in the last few months, discovered that we have a cat. He is very curious.

Saturday was a day we just needed to get life started. It was already 10:30 and the husband was still asleep. So, I gave the dog a rare privilege. I let him go upstairs. Now this is Shane's least favorite way to wake up. The dog heads up at a run, slides into the doorway and takes a tremendous jump usually landing on Shane's groin. Shane than groans, turns over, and hides his head under the pillow. The dog then spends the next several minutes, trying to lick his face, while nosing and digging with his paws under said pillow to get at Shane's face. On this day, there weren't the usual muffled groans, so I headed up to see what was going on. In a rare show of I'm not sure what, the dog was laying quietly being petted. So I crawled into bed to help love on the dog. At one point the dog had managed to squirm under the sheet and shove Shane over to share his pillow. Goofy beast.

As will happen, the dog got bored with us and jumped off the bed and began nosing around. I guess when I sent the dog up, it sent the cat into Shane's closet. The dog stuck his nose in the closet and almost before we could blink, a cat came out hissing and batting (an aside, the cat has no claws.) There was a brief stand-off. One more bat by the cat and the dog went back onto the bed, tail between his legs and the cat went under. Now the dog was standing on the bed with his mom and dad and suddenly got a dose of courage. He began barking and then trying to see the cat under the bed (but never getting on the floor--hey, she's a tough old lady.) We were ready to leave the room, but the dog would not get off the bed. It took a rather stern word from Shane to get the dog to follow us downstairs. The dog is not nearly as interested in going upstairs anymore. After all, he (who weighs 65 lbs) was beat up and scared into submission by a 7 pound, elderly ball of fur with no claws.

It's Over

International Night is over. I've spent 2 hours a day for 3 weeks at Tim's school. Shane is so excited. He's hoping he will now have a consistently clean house, clean laundry, and a hot meal on the table. Well, he can hope.

The night went beautifully. I made strudel (sort of). I didn't thaw one out and cook it, but pretty close---puffed pastry + canned apple pie filling + cinnamon sugar sprinkled over the top. I heard it was yummy. Then Tim and I made the wurst and kraut. The boy was skeptical until he saw me frying bacon and then cooking everything in the bacon grease afterwards. (Yes, my boys will eat just about anything cooked in bacon grease.) Between the bacon and the apple and cider we added, the kraut had a very nice flavor. The family agreed we should make it again. Tim's pen pal said it tasted like home, so I guess I did well.

The dancing was awesome and it was so cool to see the kiddos' posters hanging up that I had seen them working so hard on over the last three weeks. (The posters were about 4 feet long by 3 feet wide.) The food was delicious......and tomorrow we start on the musical version of Christmas Carol. I asked one of the teachers about how quickly they wrap up one project and jump into the next and she said that they don't believe in breathing. So very true.....I can't wait for winter break this year.