February 15-22

I've always harbored a pet theory that given everything we know about the proportions of human bodies (mostly learned in art class), we should be able to more accurately predict heights. There are holes in my proportion chain, though, a notable problem being that even though eyeballs are the same size for your whole life, there is no way to reach inside a baby's head and examine the eyeball size. I was explaining this to the kids one day, and Gretchen thought maybe irises would also stay the same size. You know, since eyeballs do. Brilliant! We all latched onto this very scientific conclusion and set about measuring irises in the most precise way imaginable: We stared into each other's eyes and hollered about staying still. All the male irises in the family are visibly larger than the female irises which clearly means we're on to something. The family now believes that Theodore will be the tallest. The girls are all, as closely as we could measure, about the same as me.

One of the girls (probably Gretchen?) received the board game Villainous for Christmas. Olivia and Gretchen, and some others, have been enjoying playing it approximately twice a month since then. Their biggest obstacle is that it is a longer game, so by the time they finish explaining it to a friend they only have about 20 minutes left to actually play and don't manage to get very far. Yesterday Bryan played with them, and then told them to create their own villains to add to the game, which provided some interesting discussion and kept people busy. Olivia is creating Bowser and Gretchen is working on Dawn Bellweather.

Side note, the previous paragraph was made more difficult by the fact that the children of the household have completed the cot/caught merger while the adults have not. Don and Dawn sound the same coming out of Gretchen's mouth.

We had no school on Monday due to President's Day, and it ended up being more busy than anticipated. Olivia and Kaitlyn performed piano at a local nursing home for service hours. Kaitlyn played mini golf on the oculus with Opa. Olivia and Matthias went to a friend's house for a game of Kid Magic (just magic the gathering, but all kids playing). Olivia played chess with Opa. I'm not sure what Gretchen was up to. Probably homework and riding her bike. Theodore was also around, but didn't have any engagements.

Speaking of riding bikes, Olivia and Gretchen have become quite independent and will frequently take their bikes down to the subdivision to ride for a while. It started as a way to get exercise without running as the weather warmed up, but Gretchen especially has really taken to bike riding as a way to get a little break outside between other obligations.

Now that the weather is warming up, fog days are back on the table! These were a huge surprise to me when Olivia first started school. With the number of kids coming from the country, though, I guess the fog is a problem. Monday was actually incredibly foggy, even in downtown Lima and on the freeway as late as 9 am. That would have been a canceled day for sure if we didn't already have the day off. The administration is reluctant to cancel anymore this year because we're out of calamity days and have to do virtual learning during cancellations, which is inconvenient for everyone. As a result, a moderately foggy Thursday morning ended up being just a 2 hour delay.

Matthias is unintentionally and reluctantly becoming better at cleaning up. He had made butter at school and wanted to try at home as well. Unfortunately, when he got tired of shaking the jar his arm got a little to low and he managed to smash the bottom of the mason jar on the counter, sending cream all over the kitchen. He had to wipe up the cream, sweep the floor, and then mop. Many tears were shed, but he did a good job and when he spilled something the next day he was much more willing to take care of it.

Kaitlyn made slime yesterday, which obviously led to Matthias making slime as well. We didn't have food coloring, so we just have two large balls of white slime. It was painless and easy and doesn't even seem to be unbearably sticky, which I appreciate. They still are not allowed to have it on anything fabric.

Theodore would like to know how many reptiles you can name without looking them up. Bear in mind that alligators and crocodiles apparently count as the same thing, and all reptiles within the same genus count as one. You are permitted to separate orders and (probably) families.

Pictures:

February 8-15

I was rushing to fit in a few quarterly unbirthdays this week before we reached Meatfare Sunday. Last week Olivia had mexican chicken and oatmeal raisin cookies. Gretchen had grilled chicken sandwiches and candy. Theodore picked breaded chicken tenders and cotton candy, which was almost difficult, but luckily stores sell cotton candy around Valentine's Day. Bryan wanted pulled pork sandwiches and stretchy India ice cream. ... He got the pork. I'll hopefully get to the dessert this week before Cheesefare next Sunday. Bryan wins the prize for most creative (read: labor intensive) unbirthdays.

We had a few haircuts around here: Matthias got a buzz, Gretchen refreshed her pixie cut, and Kaitlyn chopped off about 8 inches in what felt spur of the moment to me but was probably well thought out. She's at shoulder length now and much less reluctant to comb her hair than she once was.

On Friday I had the opportunity to play with the Adrian Symphony, which is always a delight. It was the Valentine's Day concert, so we had an afternoon rehearsal and an evening performance. The whole concert was Broadway love songs. It turns out maybe my favorite thing to play is pit music.

While I was gone the boys built a fort in the living room. It's still mostly there, although they only got to sleep in it the first night. On Saturday we made sure to get some pictures in the fort with Flat August so that we can send him back to his school on Monday.

Saturday was my day to spend with Kaitlyn. We went ice skating in Findlay and then watched a movie. My ankles are not up to the challenge of skating for 2 hours, although I'm getting a little better each year that we do this. Kaitlyn mostly doesn't skate with me, instead preferring to say hello as she laps me yet again. Sometimes we just stand off to the side and admire the better skaters. Kaitlyn would really like to learn how to do the sideways ice-scratching stop that the hockey kids use. Our movie this year was Avatar: Fire and Ash. In 3D. I have seen zero of the previous Avatar movies, but followed along well enough once the main plot got going. Kaitlyn filled me in on all the missing lore as we drove home.

The Olympics have been featured on our television several times this week. I remember watching with my mom sometimes, and wanted to have a similar experience with my kids. I'm not sure it's working, especially since most of the watching happens after bed time. I do find it exceedingly convenient that what I want to watch comes on automatically after whatever regular sports event Bryan is watching earlier in the evening. Kaitlyn has been consistently slipping out of her room at night to quietly watch with me. Olivia emerges about half the time. Sometimes we just look up whatever specific event we want to see (figure skating, mostly) on youtube. I do think Kaitlyn is mostly in it for the potential falls.

And a conversation I had with Theo this week. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the handwriting in question.

Theo: Can you help me with my homework?

Me: What do you need me to do?

Theo: You could write this for me.
Me: Your teacher would definitely know it was me.

Theo: But my handwriting is beautiful.
Me: I know, that's why she would be able to tell.
Theo: Why, is your handwriting terrible?
Me: No, my handwriting is good. This is my handwriting. *gestures to note on the table*
Theo: ...Eek.
Me: Eek?! What's wrong with it?
Theo: *laughing* Look at it! The e is touching the e. And the e is touching the d. And the f is touching the i. And the t is touching the j!
Me: That's a u.
Theo: *more laughter* I guess it's pretty good, but it's all touching.

Pictures:

February 1-8

Jake gets 15 points for snack house guesses. Opa gets 4 points. Now I have to go figure out how to update my points balances.

Last week our friends from church, the Millers, came over to visit after church. Matthias and their boys had a good time roughhousing all over the basement. Kyle has been invested in ukulele lately, so he and I talked shop while Bryan and Tara pretended to be interested in ukulele. My uke skills have only had to stay ahead of one six year old I’m teaching, so having Kyle be excited to discuss chord patterns actually increased my current knowledge by about 15%. We’re going to put together a duet of Pachelbel’s Canon sometime. Probably.

Basketball season has ended, hurrah. We should have a week or two before track season fills the void.

Living Room La Comedia is alive and well. Some years I do better than others getting all of the scheduled shows in before Bryan gifts me a new season for Christmas. We had two left over from last year and fit them in on January 31 and February 1. We also got in the first show of this season on February 5, so we’re kind of La Comediad out right at this moment. Last Sunday was our very first family show. We watched Peter Pan with the kids and they loved the experience.

Friday we dropped the girls off at the Miroglios’ and then Bryan and the boys and I headed up to Michigan to visit my former roommate, Danielle, and her family. I don’t know what all the girls ended up doing, but they had a good time. The boys enjoyed discovering different toys at a different house. Bryan got to play some poker and we all watched India beat the USA in cricket. Watched might be too generous… Bryan and Wilson watched. Danielle and I were in and out between cricket and the kitchen. Mostly the kitchen, but I saw enough cricket to know some things about cricket now.

On the way home last night we took a 9 minute detour to drive by Zion and the Detroit house. I remember little about the neighborhood, which is unsurprising given how much we did not wander around the neighborhood. I did point out the parking lot across the street where we used to ride bikes and roller blade on occasion. I did not remember to emphasize the stoop next to the church steps that is apparently excellent for jumping. Sorry, Jacob and Jillian. The house we grew up in is the only house left on the block. Everything else is parking lots for the church and the charter school.

The boys were much more interested in seeing the ambassador bridge on the way home. They liked knowing that they were so close to Canada and asked several times if we could just go into Canada and then immediately turn around and come back. They settled for knowing that half the bridge belongs to Canada and claiming that they could see Canada (kind of true, but also it was dark). We have Flat August with us for this week, so I took a blurry windshield picture of the bridge to send back to August’s second grade class with Flat August, International Observer.

Today should be a quiet day and it will be nice to have an afternoon to reset before the busyness of the week begins again.

Pictures:

January 25 - February 1

Church was virtual last week. I heard traffic on Allentown and sent Bryan out to check. He shoveled a trench to the end of our driveway, noticed that Stevick looked the same as our driveway, and came back. Also, given the depth of the trench, our van did not look like it was going to make it out. As we decided that we probably wouldn't make it, the Sheriff upped the winter roadway advisory from a 1 to a 2. We gathered the children in the oratory and cosplayed Sunday during early Covid.

I tried to bribe the kids into shoveling the driveway. Matthias went out for a little while and, bless his heart, shoveled snow into the garage. ... Bryan did a much better job with the length of the driveway on Sunday afternoon, and I took care of about half the back portion on Monday morning. We have a snowblower, but it doesn't think it knows how to turn on. It makes a lot of noise but never catches, which as you can imagine is very useful for a snowblower.

It was our week to bring food to coffee hour, so when church was canceled we were left with enough Sloppy Joes to feed the whole block. Bryan promised to have parking spots available if our friends the Miroglios and Misiakiewiczes came to visit. We sent all the kids outside to play and then let them take turns in the hot tub to warm back up. It turns out that I am no longer as prepared for outdoor winter play as I once was. Theodore has boots. Matthias and Kaitlyn share a pair of boots. Olivia and Gretchen share MY boots. Snowpants are a similar story, although I think we're only one pair short on those. Luckily the Misiakiewiczes brought a spare pair that Kaitlyn could borrow. I am very prepared in the glove department, so we had enough gloves for everyone to wear two pairs plus a waterproof pair over the top. And when the under pairs got wet we were able to swap them out.

School was, of course, canceled on Monday. We even reached a level 3 roadway advisory sometime Sunday evening. My favorite part of school being canceled might be that after school activities tend to be canceled as well. School was also canceled on Tuesday. And on Wednesday. On Thursday we had a two hour delay, and then, finally, on Friday, we had to go to school for the whole day. The monsters. It was actually a sad week for the kids to miss school because it was Catholic Schools Week and there were a lot of fun activities planned. Olivia was legitimately disappointed when Tuesday was canceled because that was student appreciation day -- pajamas, popcorn and a movie, and no homework. She recovered well. The days at home were pleasantly relaxing. We read books and played games and the kids built with Legos.

On Friday there was the annual Staff vs 8th Grade volleyball game. It took 3 matches, but 8th grade eked out a narrow win. Olivia was happy because 8th grade won. I was happy because I acquitted myself well. Matthias was unhappy because the gym was incredibly noisy, so he spent the better part of an hour looking miserable with his fingers stuffed in his ears.

My running this week has been frigid. I have a treadmill in the basement, but if I run outside then I only have to be mentally strong for a few crucial turns rather than for 40 whole minutes. I have enough layers, a lighted vest, and yaktrax, which are basically snow chains for my shoes. The runs themselves have been pleasant enough, and I have learned that the feeling of frozen eyelashes is a strange, but not altogether unpleasant, sensation. 

Last week Bryan decided we were making Raw Apple Cake. It was a bit of a tag team effort, and when it came out of the oven something tasted off to me. I went through the recipe and between the two of us we were sure we'd put in all the right ingredients. Then I thought maybe my recipe was wrong, so I hunted through my loose recipe papers for the one from mom. It was the same. Maybe I just don't know what raw apple cake is supposed to taste like? A few days later, I had an epiphany. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of warm coffee. I asked Bryan what kind of coffee he used. It was cherry coffee. Word to the wise, cherry coffee make the raw apple cake taste different. :)

At Olivia's request, I am reposting the snack houses. Useless points shall be awarded for correct guesses. 3 points for being the first comment to correctly guess each house, 2 for the second comment, 1 for the the third comment. Each house is on its own point system.

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