Into Summer
First, the family quotes of the last two weeks
5/25/20
(During a morning walk, we passed a guy only wearing shorts, and fairly short ones.)
Gideon: What's that guy with no pajamas?
5/31/20
Gideon (who had been a pain all day) climbs up on the couch to cuddle with me.Beth: Do you love Mommy?
(Nods head)
Beth: Mommy loves Gideon (even when you're aggravating)...
(Seth reaches over and touches Gideon's shoulder.)Seth: Seth loves Gideon
Gideon: No! Mommy loves Gideon.
Gideon: Let's swordfight!
Seth: We can't swordfight; it's Sunday.
[We have had swordfighting on Sunday. Perhaps Seth just doesn't want to swordfight today or is feeling calm today. Gideon just doesn't agree, and sees this as another reason not to like Sunday.]Gideon: No! Sunday is all gone! I bit Sunday; I ate Sunday!
6/2/20
The dinner plan was tacos, which Kaitlyn and Gideon do not like. I had been busy that day, and considered using some gift cards we had to order out. Rob and I were discussing this, and Gideon weighed in on the vote:
Gideon: We can't get tacos because the taco store is closed and it's locked. And the governor said no. We can go to the pizza restaurant now. We can't go to taco Tuesday! (This began in a firm someone grumpy voice and ended in a triumphant happy voice)
Gideon sometimes calls certain people by a nickanem, so we asked one night what each person's nickname was. This was his response.
Natalie - Nattle (started here)
(Can you give others nicknames?)
Kaitlyn - Kaity (heard before)
Seth - Sephy (heard before)
Carolyn - Carrie (made up on the spot)
Alee - Alee heart (made up on the spot)
Then we asked: What's Mommy's name? What does Daddy call Mommy?
Gideon: Honey
Us: What does Mommy call Daddy?
Gideon: Rob
Then, our photos & happenings
6/5/20
Seth actually watched some friends graduate (via a live broadcast) - one local, one in Germany (both simultaneously viewed on his laptop).
Memorial Day - we "continued" school. It wasn't a school day for them, but that had specific things to finish, and it didn't matter when they did them that week, just that they did. So, everyone worked on the last of the things that were due, Alee and I continued on with my plans, and Rob worked on a project for our family.
(I wanted to get Alee's 180 days finished as early as possible since the other kids were winding down assignments early! I withdrew Alee before Spring Break to homeschool her the remainder of the year. I had already planned to homeschool her beginning this fall, so I took the opportunity to start now so that I could choose what she did each week and to assess where she was in math to prepare for next year. Because of this, we still had to document 180 days while the public school kids basically had no assignments the past 2 weeks, even though this past Friday was technically their last day. We did mostly fun activities that had educational value the last week.)
Kaitlyn is frequently disgusted by Gideon's eating habits.
Middle School Drive through pick up/drop off. (We mostly just had pick up since the girls didn't have any library or text books to drop off. Kaitlyn got an award - "student of the year" for social studies. I think; she goes above and beyond in most classes, so it's hard to remember.)
She's also a little crazy. :) She showed us her impersonation of a crab. (It was very good.)
5/30/20
We took care of my nephew while Seth helped my brother and sister-in-law move in to their new home. Gideon liked him, but needed to be equally treated. (He has since asked once if he could have a baby. Sorry, Gideon, you'll have to enjoy cousins.)
My other brother that was helping with the move-in brought his oldest, so Alee got to play with another cousin close to her age that she doesn't see often.
Kaitlyn the baby whisperer. I have no idea how she got him to sleep with the chaos happening around the corner.
Gideon riding his "donkey" while he watches his shows.
Being a robot, I think.
Gideon is trying to "paint" on the scripture we're memorizing. He still seems to think the TV is a touch screen like a tablet. :)
I'm making house changes. There aren't but so many you can make since we fill it up, but some decorating edits need to be made. One of them is mu sewing area. First, I found a space to put the things that used to be on the shelves that were on the wall. Then, I removed the shelves and spackled. (I'll take care of the wall some other day.) Next is making sewing machine covers that match, are cute, and actually keep the dust off my machines. (My current plastic ones do not.)
This is mid-project; I'm showcasing the blankness, not that it looks good yet.
We decided it was safe enough to start visiting one of my grandparents that lives "in town" - DeeDee. I wish I could visit both of my grandmothers several times a month, but one lives 3 hours away.
Grandmothers have a habit of keeping junk for grandchildren (and great grandchildren), so all of my kids had some treat while they were there. Gideon wanted a second treat. (It may have been a third that he was requesting; he's so fast and independent that sometimes I miss him getting something for himself.) I said no to more sugar and said we'd have that next visit. He was good, and accepted that.
The next day he asked if we were going to see DeeDee. (And continued to ask for a few days after.) We will go again this week, and he can have his treat.
Alee finished her timeline of (select) Church History events; here's a close-up shot. (She brought me a few events that had fallen off, so I think this is missing some things.)
6/3/20
Gideon was insistent he wanted to ride in the back of the stroller. (He didn't, but he wanted to.)
Kaitlyn wanted to make her own set of play dough that isn't Gideon's to be mixed. I was busy with Seth and Carolyn, so I gave her a few recipes, and she made them, and then labeled the bags of play dough with the qualities of each so we'd know which we would want to make again. She cleaned up most of the mess also. (Life point!)
Alee went to Memere's house on her last day of school with her cousin. They did cover the end of her history and played a game Memere had prepared, and they got to go swimming! (Alee was very excited to swim in a pool.)
Alee and I played tangrams while the others were doing Wednesday night activities. Gideon joined in, trying to make the shape also. Mostly, he just scattered the pieces about the floor, but he took some pieces and then said, "I made a candle" - and he almost did! Goodness, he amazes me sometimes!
Seth's favorite thing...just kidding. Seth really does not like to mow the grass, but he endures it.
I love how the kids come up with fun setups for water play.
I finally got Gideon a little pool. Setting up our big one is so much work that I don't do it that often, but the little one is easy to fill and dump.
My brother has been sending pictures of his toddler playing in water on his back porch, and refers to it as his country club. My other brother's kids were playing in water and referenced theirs as a country club. Because of the crazy set ups my kids have done, I referred to ours (particularly the picture of Gideon in his little pool wearing underwear - his choice!) as the white trash country club. (I was joking but Kaitlyn didn't like that, so she "designed" her own, and then went out and cleaned up and set up the yard to be better.)
Rob and I finally organized the workbench (which was turning into a junk pile as everyone piled things they found on the table for Rob to deal with later).
Another area of the house I'm working on are the windows in the kitchen. I took down the old worn out blinds and outdated valences months ago when we painted, but I never have put up anything to replace it. The afternoon sun makes the kitchen table so hot and so bright, it's hard to use that half of the room. I'm finally going to fix that.
My first fix is a custom curtain rod for our odd bay window shape (which isn't entirely symmetrical, by the way). Rob and Seth helped me bend a metal conduit into the right shape, and I spray painted it. We all worked to get the pipe right and the brackets in place.
This week's plan is to help Carolyn work on sewing skills by making curtains with her. I'll also put finials on the ends of the poles. (Ignore the blue painter's tape for centering that I forgot to remove before the picture.)
While we were working on the garage and the curtain rod, the kids (mostly the girls) spend the time playing outside. They played ball, they played with water, they played on the trampoline, and they combined them. They played "jimbo" (like limbo). Instead of bending to go under, they jumped to go over the water hose stream.
Today Carolyn wanted to practice making a cake. This was her first cake she made entirely independently - all from scratch. It was really good. (It should have been for butter content!)
We haven't really had much in the way of school this past week anyways since Alee's was all fun activities, and the public school kids basically did nothing. However, we are officially done with school for the year - all school! Public school, homeschool, and the combination of both.
It's summer break, and the weather knows it. It's reached 90 degrees F most days this week.
5/25/20
(During a morning walk, we passed a guy only wearing shorts, and fairly short ones.)
Gideon: What's that guy with no pajamas?
5/31/20
Gideon (who had been a pain all day) climbs up on the couch to cuddle with me.Beth: Do you love Mommy?
(Nods head)
Beth: Mommy loves Gideon (even when you're aggravating)...
(Seth reaches over and touches Gideon's shoulder.)Seth: Seth loves Gideon
Gideon: No! Mommy loves Gideon.
Gideon: Let's swordfight!
Seth: We can't swordfight; it's Sunday.
[We have had swordfighting on Sunday. Perhaps Seth just doesn't want to swordfight today or is feeling calm today. Gideon just doesn't agree, and sees this as another reason not to like Sunday.]Gideon: No! Sunday is all gone! I bit Sunday; I ate Sunday!
6/2/20
The dinner plan was tacos, which Kaitlyn and Gideon do not like. I had been busy that day, and considered using some gift cards we had to order out. Rob and I were discussing this, and Gideon weighed in on the vote:
Gideon: We can't get tacos because the taco store is closed and it's locked. And the governor said no. We can go to the pizza restaurant now. We can't go to taco Tuesday! (This began in a firm someone grumpy voice and ended in a triumphant happy voice)
Gideon sometimes calls certain people by a nickanem, so we asked one night what each person's nickname was. This was his response.
Natalie - Nattle (started here)
(Can you give others nicknames?)
Kaitlyn - Kaity (heard before)
Seth - Sephy (heard before)
Carolyn - Carrie (made up on the spot)
Alee - Alee heart (made up on the spot)
Then we asked: What's Mommy's name? What does Daddy call Mommy?
Gideon: Honey
Us: What does Mommy call Daddy?
Gideon: Rob
Then, our photos & happenings
Seth actually watched some friends graduate (via a live broadcast) - one local, one in Germany (both simultaneously viewed on his laptop).
Memorial Day - we "continued" school. It wasn't a school day for them, but that had specific things to finish, and it didn't matter when they did them that week, just that they did. So, everyone worked on the last of the things that were due, Alee and I continued on with my plans, and Rob worked on a project for our family.
(I wanted to get Alee's 180 days finished as early as possible since the other kids were winding down assignments early! I withdrew Alee before Spring Break to homeschool her the remainder of the year. I had already planned to homeschool her beginning this fall, so I took the opportunity to start now so that I could choose what she did each week and to assess where she was in math to prepare for next year. Because of this, we still had to document 180 days while the public school kids basically had no assignments the past 2 weeks, even though this past Friday was technically their last day. We did mostly fun activities that had educational value the last week.)
"I like sticks and rocks."
Kaitlyn is frequently disgusted by Gideon's eating habits.
Middle School Drive through pick up/drop off. (We mostly just had pick up since the girls didn't have any library or text books to drop off. Kaitlyn got an award - "student of the year" for social studies. I think; she goes above and beyond in most classes, so it's hard to remember.)
She's also a little crazy. :) She showed us her impersonation of a crab. (It was very good.)
5/30/20
We took care of my nephew while Seth helped my brother and sister-in-law move in to their new home. Gideon liked him, but needed to be equally treated. (He has since asked once if he could have a baby. Sorry, Gideon, you'll have to enjoy cousins.)
My other brother that was helping with the move-in brought his oldest, so Alee got to play with another cousin close to her age that she doesn't see often.
Kaitlyn the baby whisperer. I have no idea how she got him to sleep with the chaos happening around the corner.
Gideon riding his "donkey" while he watches his shows.
Being a robot, I think.
Gideon is trying to "paint" on the scripture we're memorizing. He still seems to think the TV is a touch screen like a tablet. :)
I'm making house changes. There aren't but so many you can make since we fill it up, but some decorating edits need to be made. One of them is mu sewing area. First, I found a space to put the things that used to be on the shelves that were on the wall. Then, I removed the shelves and spackled. (I'll take care of the wall some other day.) Next is making sewing machine covers that match, are cute, and actually keep the dust off my machines. (My current plastic ones do not.)
This is mid-project; I'm showcasing the blankness, not that it looks good yet.
We decided it was safe enough to start visiting one of my grandparents that lives "in town" - DeeDee. I wish I could visit both of my grandmothers several times a month, but one lives 3 hours away.
Grandmothers have a habit of keeping junk for grandchildren (and great grandchildren), so all of my kids had some treat while they were there. Gideon wanted a second treat. (It may have been a third that he was requesting; he's so fast and independent that sometimes I miss him getting something for himself.) I said no to more sugar and said we'd have that next visit. He was good, and accepted that.
Alee finished her timeline of (select) Church History events; here's a close-up shot. (She brought me a few events that had fallen off, so I think this is missing some things.)
6/3/20
Gideon was insistent he wanted to ride in the back of the stroller. (He didn't, but he wanted to.)
Kaitlyn wanted to make her own set of play dough that isn't Gideon's to be mixed. I was busy with Seth and Carolyn, so I gave her a few recipes, and she made them, and then labeled the bags of play dough with the qualities of each so we'd know which we would want to make again. She cleaned up most of the mess also. (Life point!)
Alee went to Memere's house on her last day of school with her cousin. They did cover the end of her history and played a game Memere had prepared, and they got to go swimming! (Alee was very excited to swim in a pool.)
Alee and I played tangrams while the others were doing Wednesday night activities. Gideon joined in, trying to make the shape also. Mostly, he just scattered the pieces about the floor, but he took some pieces and then said, "I made a candle" - and he almost did! Goodness, he amazes me sometimes!
Seth's favorite thing...just kidding. Seth really does not like to mow the grass, but he endures it.
I love how the kids come up with fun setups for water play.
I finally got Gideon a little pool. Setting up our big one is so much work that I don't do it that often, but the little one is easy to fill and dump.
My brother has been sending pictures of his toddler playing in water on his back porch, and refers to it as his country club. My other brother's kids were playing in water and referenced theirs as a country club. Because of the crazy set ups my kids have done, I referred to ours (particularly the picture of Gideon in his little pool wearing underwear - his choice!) as the white trash country club. (I was joking but Kaitlyn didn't like that, so she "designed" her own, and then went out and cleaned up and set up the yard to be better.)
Rob and I finally organized the workbench (which was turning into a junk pile as everyone piled things they found on the table for Rob to deal with later).
Another area of the house I'm working on are the windows in the kitchen. I took down the old worn out blinds and outdated valences months ago when we painted, but I never have put up anything to replace it. The afternoon sun makes the kitchen table so hot and so bright, it's hard to use that half of the room. I'm finally going to fix that.
My first fix is a custom curtain rod for our odd bay window shape (which isn't entirely symmetrical, by the way). Rob and Seth helped me bend a metal conduit into the right shape, and I spray painted it. We all worked to get the pipe right and the brackets in place.
This week's plan is to help Carolyn work on sewing skills by making curtains with her. I'll also put finials on the ends of the poles. (Ignore the blue painter's tape for centering that I forgot to remove before the picture.)
While we were working on the garage and the curtain rod, the kids (mostly the girls) spend the time playing outside. They played ball, they played with water, they played on the trampoline, and they combined them. They played "jimbo" (like limbo). Instead of bending to go under, they jumped to go over the water hose stream.
Carolyn learned a lot about finance this past year (at the co-op, in discussions with Rob, and in recent discussions learning about personal finance). We wanted them to take the self-reliance personal finance class, but the schedule just wasn't working because of conflict with another church meeting almost every Sunday, so they didn't continue the class with the group. Instead, we went through the information as a group within our family (older 2 kids and parents).
Because they don't have real finances yet, we made up finances and assignments for them. We wanted to give them some sort of certificate (but not the one you'd get by taking the real course with a group), so we made them our own for completing our finance class.
We hope they'll both sign up for the course with their spouses as newlywed couples one day.
Today Carolyn wanted to practice making a cake. This was her first cake she made entirely independently - all from scratch. It was really good. (It should have been for butter content!)
We haven't really had much in the way of school this past week anyways since Alee's was all fun activities, and the public school kids basically did nothing. However, we are officially done with school for the year - all school! Public school, homeschool, and the combination of both.
It's summer break, and the weather knows it. It's reached 90 degrees F most days this week.
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