My first graduate!

Today, my first student graduated from spelling class. He completed the entire curriculum and can spell at the high school level. More importantly, he has an awesome personality!  His handwriting is not great, but I'm so proud of him.  I was surprisingly emotional about the whole thing.  Here's his last lesson:

The rabid mouse, the vital gymnast, and the expendable housewife

I was making lunch when I heard Marty screaming in the garage.  I whipped the door open to find her standing proudly over the body of a dead mouse.  She's an old, overweight housecat with no hunting background and no claws, so I was impressed.  Sarah and I went out to inspect the victim, and we had this conversation:

M: Pet it to see if it's still warm.
S:  No way! It might have rabies.  You pet it.
M:  It's ok if I get rabies but not you?
S:  Well, I'm a gymnast!
M:  And I'm just a housewife, so I'm expendable?
S:  Well, I guess you're job is important too, but it's not like you're a gymnast or anything.

Do you have an angle named after you?

Sarah and I were sitting at the desk while she was taking a math quiz. 

S:  Is it OK if I name this angle?
M: Sure.
S: I'm going to name it Angle M-O-M.
[I'm honored, so I choose not to mention that no two points should share the same letter.]
M: I've never had an angle named after me before!  I hope it's not an obtuse angle.
S: No, it's a right angle, because Mom's always right.
M: That's right. Haha!
S: Or I could make it acute...would you like to be acute?
M: That would be fine too, as long as I'm not obtuse.  I think I'd rather be right than acute though. 

Exotic sister smoothie

My secret sister from church gave me a fruit basket yesterday, including a star fruit and a kiwano. The kids and I cracked them open today and tried them.  They were both very good.  I decided to make a smoothie with banana, carrots, spinach, blueberries, star fruit, kiwano, and coconut water.  It looked like a beautiful rainbow in the blender.

Noah cutting the star fruit. 

testing the kiwano (Sarah said it tastes like "banana and kiwi mushed together" and Noah added, "with the freshness of a cucumber"

  Noah named it "The exotic sister smoothie".

We had enough left over to make popsicles.

Taking those negative thoughts captive

As so often happens in parenting, I learned a lesson that I was trying to teach my kids.  Noah was grumbling about math, saying how much he hates it, how hard it is, on and on.  I told him he needed to change the way he was thinking and talking about it.  I told him to find something to be grateful about in regards to math.  He tried and came up empty, so I said, "Instead of complaining about how much you hate it, you could be thankful that you have a brain that can think and a hand that can write." 

I'm not sure the lesson was very effective with him, but I was reminded of it minutes later when I went to clean the kitchen.  I caught myself thinking things like, "I hate cleaning.  I'm no good at it, and what's the point anyway? Somebody is going to come along and mess it all up again."  With my own lesson ringing in my ears, I told myself to find something to be grateful for in the messy kitchen.  I changed my thinking to, "I'm thankful that I have such a nice kitchen.  I'm thankful for the mess, because it means I have food and I have children. I'm thankful that I'm healthy and able to clean."  My whole attitude changed, and I soon had a nice, clean kitchen.

Maybe the lesson did sink in with Noah too, because his math today was the best it's been in a long time!

Begging for shoes

I don't buy new shoes for kids whose feet are growing, or for kids who leave their shoes out in the rain, at friends' houses, etc.  So I bought a used pair for Noah from someone online for $2, and we agreed to meet at Casey's in Pekin to make the exchange last night.

It was dark and raining at the time we were to meet.  Casey's has a pretty big parking lot, and there were lots of vehicles there.  I ruled out the ones pumping gas and looked for a car off by itself.  There was one in the corner, so I pulled up next to it, but nobody was in it.  Then a car pulled in and parked way over in another corner away from everyone else.  Ah.  This must be the shoe lady.

My first clue should have been that it wasn't a lady at all, but a middle aged man.  I reasoned that she must have sent someone else to make the exchange for her, since he rolled down his window as I approached his car.  He looked expectant and said hello but didn't produce any shoes.  I said, "Do you have shoes?"  He looked baffled, glanced at his feet and said, "Yeeesss. Why?"

Awkward social moment.  There I am, standing in the rain outside a stranger's car at a gas station in the dark, and he thinks I want his shoes.  I said, "I mean, are you here to meet someone for shoes?"  He said, "No...?" and I mumbled, "Oh.  Sorry, never mind."

I went back to my car, drove to the opposite conspicuous corner of the lot, parked for a minute, and then a lady pulled up next to me.  She stuck the shoes out the window, I stuffed a couple bucks into her hand, and was back on the road in two seconds.

Morning with Sarah

I went into Sarah's room this morning to wake her up for her science class.  I was saying, "Rise and shine..." when I noticed that she was already sitting up in her bed, so I said, "Oh, you're already rising!  Are you shining?"  She scowled and snapped, "No! I'm not! Because you...."  I had already left the room (trying to preempt an early morning fight) before I could hear what heinous crimes I  had somehow already committed against her.

Ten minutes later, she and Noah were off on their bikes to the science teacher's house, and I was beginning to savor an entire hour of peace and quiet.  It was short-lived.  Sarah came bursting through the door yelling about her bike not working and how she had to walk it home.  Now she's two minutes late for class, so I have to drive her, and I don't have time to put on pants.  Thankfully, I didn't get pulled over or have to exit the vehicle for any reason, so I just dropped her off and returned home to my now 45 minutes of pantless peace and quiet.

Update:  I spent part of my free time fixing Sarah's bike and delivering it to the science teacher's house.  As I was walking home, I realized I had my slippers on.  But at least I was wearing pants.!