Drums, Driving, a Party, and some Cash!

I haven't had much to post lately, just a few things here and there. So here is some here, so you can see what we're up to there ;)

The snare in the open air :) I had to make a rule "no outdoor drumming on Sunday mornings." Neighbors . . . you are welcome :)

Buck took the other three to a Monster Truck show, so this one and I got to cruise the church parking lot for about an hour. Then she set out on the big roads--exceeded 30 mph, navigated a 4-way stop, figured out traffic lights, and we made it home a-ok. Parents must be brave, because this is such a huge learning curve . . . all the things we take for granted (like how to stay in the center of the road) are all new and challenging things to accomplish. It's like teaching her to read, but surrounded by moving objects traveling at high speeds in our direction :) She likes the sign--awareness for others is good!

The girls were invited to a friend's birthday party at a favorite restaurant. To the boys' delight, they also got to attend to spend lunch hour with their buds, E's brothers! I got to sit at the boys' table; it was so much fun! They have unique conversations :) But I liked that the M boys obeyed their mama's "clean your plate orders." I thought it was cute that when I teased about the lack of veggies, the next round came stacked with vegetables they'd never tried before . . . "What is this?" "It's cabbage, you'll like it." "It's . . . surprising." Ha!

E is on a swim team and they had a competition, so all the kids on her team came to the party. It was kind of the M family to cover all these meals, plus ours! We weren't even invited; we invited ourselves to save them the drive to our house to drop off our girls before the next swim session took place! We must be good friends to invite ourselves to parties :)

Look at this guy! He's earned $100 and has his eye on a new bike! Proud of his hard work and honesty. Last week an extra dollar got into the mix, and without waiting for me to say anything he said, "I think I should give it back," and out the door he disappeared. The neighbor who paid him appreciated his honesty and told him to keep it. He also said his wife would have to wash dishes for the next week to make up for the mistake, hee hee :)

Bring on the Books!

It seems early to be stock-piling next year's schoolbooks, but when the tax refund comes, that's what we do (or go on vacation, but we're having a stay-cation for spring break when J and Z visit instead of travelling :)

Yesterday--the first round  of books arrived. Today--the second round filled our living room! I think the students have already read half their workbooks and are "so excited to do this stuff!!!" We'll see if that sentiment holds throughout the fall ;)

I love getting boxes of books--even if it's in the middle of a workout and I arrive at the front door drenched in sweat to receive the box from the mailman. Like I told my sister-in-law, there's no shame when you're in the last leg of your thirties ;)

Here are some BOX DAY pictures! :)



I went ahead and ordered Geometry for Caelan's freshman year. This curriculum (since our previous company only makes math curriculum through Algebra 1) comes with daily DVD instruction, online streaming for, I don't know, questions? a teacher's guide with the answers printed step-by-step, and hopefully a pleasant learning experience for us all :) She'll also take a Spanish I course, both girls will take a home ec. course (I expect them to ace it ;) and oh, Caelan agreed to take summer school to get caught up for high school English. I tried some other curriculums in recent years that just aren't as thorough as what we started with and what we're doing now. She wants to do 9th grade English in the fall, and I don't blame her, so we did placement tests and figured out where her weak spots are--ordered workbooks that cover those, and hopefully she'll be all set to start HIGH SCHOOL in the fall, what?! :)

And on Drums We Have . . .

Jam time! Our music teacher seems to get a new instrument every time we come to class. This week it was a full drum set! The girls were working on their piano lessons (Caelan at the upright, Gab on electric, teacher on guitar) and Mr. P decided to get Graysen going on the drums. He told him which hand to hold the snare stick in, explained how the snare made its sound by flipping the drum over to show the metal strings on the bottom; he also gave an overview of the other drums and what they are called and used for . . . it was quite an impromptu lesson! G just couldn't resist trying a little drum solo :) In fact, at one point I heard him say quietly, "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because the DOG was chasing it!" Then he gave himself an ba-doom-doom-crash on the drum set, lol :)

Mr. P said, "And the third part of my plan comes together!" He is trying to build a band out of our kids, ha!



Gabby also took a turn, but it was a short turn and I didn't get any video. Here's a bit more after Mr. P set up the symbol and tried to get G on rhythm with two hands and a foot! (Brennen was upstairs helping Mr. P's wife lay flooring in their newly remodeled attic space--when it was time to go, he all but BEGGED to stay and keep working on renovations. I think he misses it from our project at the K's house!)



Here's a rock band G made out of paper, that I think I forgot to post? Maybe not, maybe you get to see it twice :) He had Buck buy him like 10 rolls of packaging tape yesterday. I'll try remember to get a pic of the Star Wars fleet he's built with cardboard and tape. It's kind of impressive :)

After-thoughts

Driving home from church, Graysen says . . . "Mom, after a person dies . . ."

I brace myself, ready for a heart-to-heart . . . "Do you just shred all their credit cards?"

Oh my! What will this child think of next? :)

Dunkin' for Jesus

Our kids had the honor of a special invitation by their friends to witness their baptisms! It was a private event (sometimes they take place during church services), so we came back to church twice in one day :) Remember, those of you who've attended with us, our church is also a gymnasium--with basketball hoops--so dunkin' . . . ;) Okay, never mind that, it's late and my brain gets funny.

As it turned out, several of our good friends were there. We are in this strange in-between where we have lots of connections with the Deaf community, both those who are deaf and hearing who are fluent in ASL, though we are neither. I love it though! People are people, and we're glad this is the group God stuck us into ;)

As you can see, Mr. G dressed very fancy for the special occasion. He wanted to wear his bowtie, but couldn't find a shirt to match. His buddy S (in the FREE shirt) often wears bowties and G wanted to honor his friend. B looked handsomely cool in his sweater and Christmas hat from Grandma J--his buddy F also received baptism. Then the girls' friend E (sister to S and F) ALSO was baptized, so it was quite an event! Their dad did the actual statement of faith questions in ASL while the next kiddo in line to be baptized translated/voiced for the audience of family and friends--so neat! Our pastor, just stood in the wings watching while their dad did all the hard work. I thought that was pretty cool, too.

In the meantime, I got to hold my friend G's shiny-eyed baby--that girl beams sunshine!! There were actually another five kids present who didn't get in the picture above, so it was quite a crowd of youth to witness God's command to those who follow and believe in Him.

As we were waiting for the baptized kids to dry off, our pastor noticed Graysen's attire--"You look like a businessman! All you have to do is start a business!"

G says, "I already have one."

"You do? Tell me about it; I want to know about your business."

"I pick up poop."

"You, say, what now?"

"I pick up poop . . . with my brother."

It was a pretty funny conversation :) I think in the end, G ended up with a contract to do the pastor's yard ("but just once, because I have five kids who should be out there cleaning the yard.") Pastor's pretty safe from charges, though, since I don't know where he lives :)

Old School Dining

Creamy Artichoke Soup by Brennen

Caelan's Lentil Spinach Soup

This bread was seriously good!

It all began with lamb . . . :) Actually, it all began when we got Gabby's new glasses. The prescription was way wrong. When the girl at the counter was typing in the order, she said, "This is really a big change, I better go check." Well, she checked and the doctor confirmed. The glasses (a week or so later) did the opposite. "Mom, I see double in this eye?" Yeah, not good.

So we made another appointment with another doctor (again wishing our regular eye doctor had not had to transfer his appointments that day). Gab got a completely different prescription, we re-ordered her glasses, and since Buck is sort of (kind of) the eye doctor's boss--he was a not happy pappy!

Our original plan during this unusual second trip, was to gather some of the ingredients Caelan had been storing up on a list. Their curriculum invited them to plan and prepare a Bible times meal for the family. Caelan had been searching the internet and getting feedback from her siblings for more than a week. Finally settling on the menu, the trip seemed timely. But we forgot, ha! Because Buck was able to leave early that day. We had way more fun things on our minds . . . like dinner out as a family.

Well, oddly enough, this particular evening there was a crazy winter thunderstorm--with lightning! There were accidents everywhere, tons of traffic, and soaking rain--so weird! We drove separately to the restaurant, and found ourselves seated in a giant corner booth, practicing our chopstick skills ;) Yes, Grandma J sent us a PF Changs gift card (Buck said it was just for us, but we decided to share). Somehow--we managed to hit the price almost exactly, which is weird because usually just Buck and I can rack up that kind of bill by ourselves. Granted, he signed up for some special club deal so he could order sushi  off the super-secret, not available to the public menu. G$ got a kids' meal. Gabby declared Chinese food was not her jam, and just ate rice :) I remember the portions being gigantic, so we had C & B split a plate and viola! However, everyone licked their platters clean and B said, "Mom, I'm still REALLY hungry." (He had second dinner at home after we made it through the crazy weather back to our house).

But we forgot the lamb.

So, the next day, being Buck's day off--he and several of the children set out to gather the (of course, rare, expensive) ingredients on C's list :) He drove ALL over town, looking for lamb. Strike one! Called to confirm (they didn't mention he had to buy like HALF the lamb); Strike two! Finally had to go to a Sam's Club (our membership expired, so he had to reup it to buy lamb--I kid you not) and we ended up with four pound lamb roast that cost about $65 (including the membership, which he did get reimbursed because he uses it for work a lot) and hours of time.

While I continued to work on next year's school book order, he and the kids prepared our feast--wait, maybe that was the next day, but they for sure put the lamb in the marinade (which was a lot of onions and a lot vinegar). Buck said the actual making of the meal was harder than prepping for Thanksgiving! So many unusual ingredients and cooking methods.

Finally, they served the first course--an artichoke soup (soooo yummy) with the El Khobz bread that the girls made. The second course was spinach and lentil soup (I liked it, but I really like spinach :), rice of Beersheba (Graysen's contribution--with capers and dill), cucumber and yogurt salad (Gabby's dish), and Rebekah's tasty dish--remember how Esau's birthright got tricked out of him by his brother? Apparently this lamb dish is what was served--although, I'm not sure how Biblical hunting sheep is. Surely it was some other meat back in the day? :) Despite it's strong salty/vinegar flavor, it was so tender! And we were stuffed! :) Caelan finished off the meal with Tiger Nut Sweets--a roll of dates, cinnamon, walnuts, honey, and almonds all dusted with powdered sugar. Kind of healthy, really!

We of course could not eat all of this! We took a large tin full to the K family to enjoy (and there's still more in the leftovers category within our fridge :)

Anyway, we were proud of the kids for trying something new, planning and prepping it (with a little help from dad) themselves!

G's Rice of Beersheba

Gabby's Yogurt Cucumbers

A healthy dessert, pretty much ;)

Baby Wrangler

Graysen wanted so badly to hold the baby--who is becoming harder to hold as she crawls and stands now--after art lesson. We were all chatting and I looked over to see he'd pulled her onto his lap. She just leaned back and stared at him--it was so, stinkin' cute! But my silly slow camera refused to catch a picture of her smiling at me with him or in still motion for just a second. So you get blurry, but still precious :)