Weekly Wrap-up: August 23-29

This week we had our first church service in the new building.  I loved our Sunday school room.  It had been painted by the previous church occupants, but it was bigger and remarkably well-appointed for our tasks.

Sidenote:  I think Luke’s face perfectly sums up his Sunday school experience.  He is always the oldest still-participating kid in Sunday school class, and I know that gets tiresome for him.  Still, he’s not quite ready (and neither am I) to see himself as a “helper.”  He likes doing the activities and answering the questions.  But there’s really no regular attender who is his age, and I know that gets frustrating, although he doesn’t complain.  I mentioned to him recently that when he gets to be youth group age, he can go to Uncle Chris’ youth group if he wants to.  I totally think he will end up doing that, but when I suggested it last week, he was indignant:  “No!  I like our church.”  I hastily explained that we are not leaving our church, but just that he might think differently when he is youth group age, especially with two cousins in the youth group.

Sunday after church, we went over to some friends’ house to eat lunch.  That evening, Anna started feeling bad and running a fever again.  She had had strep two weeks ago, and this looked suspiciously like strep.  Since she had already been through a full round of amoxicillin, I was frustrated that we were potentially dealing with another bout of strep so soon afterward.

She still felt bad on Monday, so I made her a doctor’s appointment, and for good measure, made one for Luke since his nose was running, and he had a croup-y cough.  Their symptoms weren’t similar, so I was shocked when they both were diagnosed with strep that afternoon and put on a stronger antibiotic. 

This was especially problematic because Classical Conversations started the next day, and I was a tutor.  Needless to say, that was totally out now, so I arranged for a sub, and we reconciled ourselves to missing the first day of CC.  Luke and I were especially sad, but we cheered ourselves with thoughts of Harry Potter and Doctor Who marathons on Tuesday, in lieu of CC.  

Still, they were well enough Tuesday morning to introduce that week’s memory work:

And they were both eager to complete the drawing project that they would have done in CC:

I didn’t do the science experiment, but I think I’m going to try to do it on Monday before our next CC meeting.

We finished the sixth Harry Potter book on Tuesday, so we celebrated with Butterbeer and a movie night that night.  I noted on Facebook that Luke has gotten to be such a good movie-watching buddy.  He comments on things like the actor’s performances (“I think the actor plays this scene really well.  Rupert Grint, I mean”) and things he has read elsewhere (like how the cave in the sixth movie is really in Germany and was used by the Germans in WW2).  I really love watching stuff with him.  Once recently while watching Doctor Who, I was looking up a familiar actor on IMDB, and made some kind of comment like, “Ohhh, that’s who that is.”  When Luke asked, I said it was a character from Downton Abbey, and he said, “Is it Thomas?  You know, the bad-ish one?”  I think he has maybe watched fifteen minutes of Downton Abbey in his life, but his recall of it was remarkable.  My husband refuses to watch that show because “all those white people look the same to” him, but Luke remembered specific characters (and also, “bad-ish” is a great descriptor for Thomas)!  Anyway, the point is, he’s really growing into a fun viewing companion.

Thankfully, both kids were both feeling much better on Wednesday.  Our a/c seemed to be messing up, so it was really warm inside, but outside, it was absolutely gorgeous.  Thus, we had most of our homeschool day on the back porch.  We reviewed their CC memory work with a combination of physical activity and writing:

In the above left picture, Luke is reciting his Latin noun cases while jumping back and forth across a stick. 

As great as it was to be outside, I fretted about our a/c, even sending a picture to Greg:

These are the little messages that I’m sure he loves receiving while at work.  I was hopeful it was just a problem with our wifi, but Greg was sure that it was a bit more than that.

Even though the kids were feeling fine, they still looked a little peaky on Wednesday, so we kept them home from church.  Because he is a wonderful husband, Greg told me to scram when he got home, giving me a chance to get out of our boiling, streppy house and go eat dinner somewhere on my own.  I chose The Well, and enjoyed a sandwich, coffee, and a good book:

I took this picture because it was my “grace” for Wednesday evening.  It was so nice to sit and eat and read in the quiet, air conditioned building.  I was very thankful to Greg for suggesting it.  I did stop by church that night to see everyone and to attend a children’s ministry planning meeting.  Then it was back home.

Thursday was a bit stressful because of the air conditioning drama.  I had to reschedule piano for earlier in the morning to be there when the a/c guy came, and when he did, he had nothing but bad news.  He gave me a long and detailed explanation, complete with visuals, but what it all boiled down to was that we needed a new a/c.  Fantastic.  We have already had to replace our roof this year—why not the a/c also?  And while there is never a good time for big home repairs, this year is really not a good time.

So I managed my panic got a quote from his company, and then called a friend from church, who gave us a much better price, not to mention a better model.  By the end of the day, I had come to terms with the situation, and was just thankful that we had the money. 

So that was on Thursday.  During that day, we also had school outside…

…and spent the afternoon doing crafts with the Y.E.S. kids:

On Friday, we did a few hours of school quite early in the morning because we had  friends coming over.  We have been building up to the Civil War in our History reading (Wilberforce’s biography was included just for comparison’s sake in regards to the slavery issue), and today’s chapter was, “The First Shot is Fired.”  When Anna heard that title, she said cheerfully, “Time to get the Ft. Sumter cannon!”  And then she ran inside to get Luke’s souvenir cannon from our visit to the fort this summer, along with a Squinkie to fire it:

Yay for vacations that double as field trips!.

Around mid-morning, the Steeds came over, much to all of our delight.  While Courtney and I had a much-needed catch-up session, our five kids ran around having a ball together.  (Also, the a/c men were at work toward getting us a cool house again.)  When Court and the boys left after lunch, she spontaneously suggested taking Luke with them, an idea that was met with joy by all the boys.  So he ran in, packed a bag really quickly, and then headed off to spend the night with his buddies. 

Once Greg got home, he and Anna went on a Daddy-daughter date (her idea).  After dinner and some browsing at Barnes and Noble, they tried out a chocolate shop.

Over dinner, they started talking about marriage, and he asked her who she thought she would marry, mainly just to hear her answer.  She shrugged and said, “I don’t know.  I guess it depends on who I meet.”  Fair enough.  So he asked her what kind of guy she would want to marry.  She considered and said, “Well…I think I’d want to marry someone like you.”  Which of course melted his heart.  She went on to say she really wants to marry someone funny. 

I thought of that today during a text exchange I had with Greg while I sat waiting to pick up Luke at Courtney’s and my meeting place.  He asked me to stop for milk, which led to me brainstorming about what else we needed from the grocery, fully expecting this to be a collaborative effort:

Would you believe that it’s texts like this that make me fall more in love with him? 

I’m a weirdo.

He “made up” for his sarcastic disinterest by having a delicious meal cooked for us when I arrived home that evening.  We ate on the back porch, enjoying the lovely, mild weather, and trying not to kick our stalker cat. 

Weekly Wrap-up: August 16-22

Sunday morning, of course, was Anna’s triathlon.  Afterward, we went for a big breakfast at Bar-b-Cutie, and then headed for church.  It was “move into the new building” day, so we had a brief devotional under the pavilion and then went to work. 

Before worship, Luke, Anna, and Trevi spent some time with their Iranian “grandmother,” Mrs. Ashraf:

After worship, it was time to work.  No rest for the weary!

Both Luke and Anna did great, throwing themselves into whatever job we gave them.  As an aside, the man in the picture with Luke has two kids, who both competed in Anna’s age group in the triathlon.  His son, who is 7, was really good.  He has competed in several triathlons, and came in something like 5th place!

I have absolutely no idea what happened Monday, except that I know we had speech therapy and tennis and that we started week 3 of school.  I think it went well—but I have no pictures to remind me of what we did.

On Tuesday, we had Family Orientation for CC (Classical Conversations, if I haven’t made that clear). 

I thought it went really well, and I loved meeting my little class of Apprentices.

During some of the time, we tutors watched the kids while the parents met with our director.  I had to snap this picture of Canon because he is inevitably surrounded by girls:

Oh my heavens, when that kid is a teenager…

Another development this week was that we came dangerously close to adopting a cat.  McGonagall, as we called “her,” has been hanging around for weeks, meowing piteously whenever we went outside, and generally harassing us.  She acted so lonesome, not to mention starving.  We were almost positive she belonged to her next door neighbors, but they have recently moved…and the cats remain.  I say “cats,” because there is also an orange cat, known to us as Crookshanks, who has been hanging about.  Unlike McGonagall, Crookshanks can fend for himself.

Anyway, it got so bad that Greg actually bought the poor thing cat food, since she acted like she was clearly starving to death.  The kids loved her, but Greg and I were kind of annoyed by her stalking of us all, not to mention her repeated attempts to get into our house.  I was a little relieved when our neighbors showed back up and claimed her.  They are temporarily living in a townhouse that is not great for pets, so they’ve left a feeder for her (actually him, and his name is Ruger) and Crookshanks (again, not his—or her—real name).  They have a contract on a house and are about to move there, at which point they will be taking the cats.

I can’t believe I actually just typed all that out, except for the fact that I needed to explain those pictures.  Also, for better or worse, McGonagall has been a fairly big part of our life here lately, so I guess I should write about her (him). 

On Wednesday, Luke had a orthodontic consult.  Luke’s teeth are a disaster, just like his mother’s were before him.  I had extensive orthodontic intervention, and I know Luke will need it to.  The only question is when.

The ortho consult was pretty fancy, and they took all kinds of pictures.  I had to sneak a picture of the screen they used to talk to us about his teeth, if only because the pictures in the top left look exactly like mug shots:

Without getting too technical, the orthodontist said that we can just do a big one-phase thing when Luke turns 11, rather than do a two-phase thing that would start now.  I thought that was great news, personally.  Luke was nervous about having to have braces at all, and while I can keenly relate to that, it’s clear that he definitely, without a doubt needs braces.

Also on Wednesday, Anna gifted me with one of her Harry Potter scarves, wrapped in a paper that says, “True Gryffindor,” and insisted that she take a picture of me holding it:

On Thursday, at piano, I started feeling sick, and once I got home, that feeling quickly devolved into a stomach bug.  Yuck!  I rarely get stomach bugs in Nashville.  It’s a medical phenomenon.  I did not get one bug in all four years of college, which was unheard of for me.  Up to that point, I was a solid, 2-bug-a-year gal.  And since I’ve been back to Nashville, I’ve only had one bug.  This was big #2.  I was so annoyed.  It wiped out two of my days, and put homeschool on the skids.

By Saturday, however, I was feeling much better, well enough to take a short hike with the family.

We went to a new park in Franklin, on the Natchez Trace.  It was pretty, but tiny.  We walked almost every trail they had, and it was only a mile and a half.  Still, the weather was pleasant, and it was nice to be outside again.

I promise there are times in life where I wear makeup. 

While I was sick, mom called to tell me that we should go out to Outback, and she would pay.  That was an awesome offer, if not particularly appealing while I had a stomach virus.  By Saturday, I was well enough to take her up on it.  The kids wanted Logan’s instead of Outback, and it was delicious:

That evening, the kids Face-Timed with Gaga, and, as they often do while they Face Time, they played her what they were working on in piano.  It was one of those surreal, “holy cow—technology!” moments for me:

My daughter is giving a live concert for my mom, who is watching in Macon.  I mean, wow.  Greg and I have a phrase, “We are future people!” that we use whenever we do something like pay a bill from our phone.  This was definitely a, “We are future people” moment.  I mean, seriously,  It’s amazing that we can do stuff like this.  Amazing.

So that was that week.  A little too much nausea for my tastes, but otherwise perfectly pleasant and nice.

Anna’s Triathlon

In my last post, I wrote about all the stress I felt about Anna’s triathlon.  Thankfully, by Saturday night, both Anna’s and my nervousness had evolved into excited giddiness, which did not let up the next morning.

I woke Anna up at 5:00, thinking that we would leave by 5:45 and get to the race site at 6:00.  Transition closed at 6:45, so I figured that would give Anna plenty of time to get her transition area set up, get her numbers on her, and get her electronic ankle bracelet.  I gave Anna so much time to get ready because she is a historically slow waker when she is woken up early.  We always have to wake her up on Christmas and Easter morning, and it takes her a good fifteen minutes to finally register excitement about her Christmas presents/Easter basket.  Thus, I went into her room at 5:00, fully expecting protests.  It took me a second to rouse her and remind her about the triathlon; I watched as my words penetrated her blank expression.  Then, she jerked awake, jumped out of bed, and ran ahead of me to the kitchen to eat breakfast.  I was shocked.  She is never this awake this early in the morning!

Twenty minutes later, she was ready to go.  Since transition opened at 5:30, I decided to head on, thinking it might be nice to have some extra time to set up:

We ended up being one of the first ones there!  Anna waited in line for transition to open.  Before they let her in, they wrote her race number on her arm and leg:

Then, she set up her transition area with the supervision of a volunteer:

Afterward, we had about an hour to wait before the pool opened and we were separated.  Anna was not ONE BIT nervous.

We had a great time sitting and laughing, talking, and watching the sunrise.  It was a beautiful day, and there was even a big rainbow in the sky.  We thought that had to bode well.  Finally, the pool opened, and the competitors went to one side while the parents went to the other.  There were almost 300 kids racing:

Before the race started, the mayor of Nolensville came out and led a prayer, followed by a Marine…color guard?…who brought out the flag, and a swim coach sang the national anthem.

Then, the race began.  The first group was the “Vanderbilt buddies,” where kids with special needs were helped through the race by teens:

I honestly could see Anna doing something like that one day.  It appeals to several different characteristics in her.  Then came the oldest age group, then the middle age group, and then Anna’s age group.  The racers went in one at a time, running across an electric mat that activated their timing sensor.

Anna’s group just had to swim 50 yards, which made me happy.  The first triathlon we registered her for had her swimming 100 yards.  It got cancelled, and this was the one I found to replace it.  Since it was her first one, I was happy with the shorter distance.

Next, she got out and ran to transition.

In transition, she was really jittery.  I think she was cold, and her brain was overwhelmed by all she had to do.  First, she toweled off.  Then she put on a sock.  Then she realized that she needed to put on her shorts.  So she took the sock off. 

By this point, Greg and Luke were there (you can see them in the above picture on the other side of transition).  We were all yelling and cheering her on, and it occurred to me that it might seem to her like we were rushing her.  So I shouted in as comforting a voice as I could, “Take your time, Sis!”  She looked straight at me then, and beamed.  Then she took a deep breath and got dressed with no problem.  For the first time in her life, she also started to fold her towel, but we called to her to forget the towel!

Then she was off on the biking portion.

The kids biked straight down the road leading out from the rec center, which was closed for the event.  I was thankful that it was a “there and back” type course, with no chance to get lost.  Anna’s lack of direction is no joke.  Still, I prayed so hard while she was on the bike course and was so relieved to see her come back into view.  The race organizers had the kids dismount well before transition, I think because one of the early kids rolled right through without thinking.

Later at breakfast, Greg asked Anna if she’d had any trouble with the biking portion, and she said that she didn’t, but that another little girl had wrecked, and Anna had waited with her until one of the race volunteers got to her.  She related that anecdote as if it was of no importance, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and I think she was a little surprised at how much we gushed about how proud we were of her.

Anyway, Anna’s second time in transition was much easier.  She just put up her bike and took off running:

The running portion was .7 miles, which is not bad at all.  At the far point of the running course, there was a water stop, and I think Anna took her sweet time there.  Other than that, she ran the whole way and finished happily.

I was soooo proud of my little triathlete.  All of my nervousness-turned-excitement mutated again into immense relief and pride.

I was so happy that she had completed it with no problems!

The next morning, she was up and begging to do another one!  There was actually a kids’ triathlon in Murfreesboro the next weekend, and if registration hadn’t been closed, I honestly think I would have registered her.  As it is, we will just have to wait until next summer for her to get to do another one.  She definitely plans on doing this one again—and Luke thinks he might join her!