Today we received the report cards for this past grading period. I know it's not becoming for a person to flatter themselves, but I use this blog as my journal at times and print the entries off for a binder, so I wanted to record these things. Besides, doesn't every parent brag about their kids successes? I love hearing about other people's accomplishments or victories.
Here are the teacher's comments for Sarah:
"WOW. Sarah continues to amaze me each day. She is very independant, responsible, hardworking, and always willing to help. Academically she is advancing beyond her grade level. Sarah has been doing more independant projects in reading and those will continue to get more challenging. I am thrilled with how well she is doing in class!"
Sarah's first grade spelling words this week are: chocolate, appreciate, apologize, question, bouquet, and mountain. I didn't learn these words until I was in third grade!
She was also selected as the character of the month for school for exemplifying the trait of 'responsibility'. Way to go Sarah! Unfortunately, the day of her celebration lunch at school is the same day of her dental surgery, so she won't be at school that day!
Sarah had 2 pieces of art work selected to move on to the district level of the art competition in school. Yay!
For Matthew:
"Matthew is a very diligent student! He is great at explaining his thoughts to other and enjoys sharing his ideas. His sense of humor and quick thinking brightens our day! He has made steady gains in all areas. Way to go Matthew!"
Matthew also had an acrylic painting selected for the district competition. We're really excited for him because there are only 15 art pieces chosen from the entire school to send to the district level. We're so proud of him! He had to officially name his painting for the paperwork. He looked at me in exasperation and said, "It's just ART!" I pressed for a title again, and he said, "Art is just art. Just call it 'Art'!" Silly guy.
His teacher said he is also a class leader. He changes the dynamic of the classroom by showing people how to interact nicely and forgive each other. She said it was obvious that he is Christian and that he was a missionary in the school by his great example! We are so pleased with him!!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Chicken antics
An occurance we observed in our chicken flock---
Recently we made gingerbread houses. The left over icing sat out overnight and hardened into crunchy candy. I decided to treat our hens to some holiday sugar, so I scraped a couple cups of hard icing into their pasture. Immediately the hens flocked to the site to investigate the new food. One of our hens, named Princess, is an extremely fat Cochin. Somehow she was the first one on the scene and gave the white mound a tentative peck. Tasting sugar for the first time in her life must have been earth-shattering for this little hen. It transformed her completely.
She realized a good thing when she tasted it and strategically she placed a foot on either side of the mound and lowered her head aggressively, like a bull about to charge. She looked all the other hens in the eye and clearly said, "Don't even think about it. This ambrosia is MINE." Some of the younger hens were too eager to notice her warning, and they ran in to peck crumbles of icing from under Princess' wings. She turned and bit them quickly to send them on their way, but alas, now they, too, had a taste of sugar. Throwing caution to the wind, they ran circles around Princess, popping their beaks down to skim pieces of candy off the hill of sugar.
Princess frantically spun in circles trying to punish each offender with a bite. There were 10 of them, and only one of her. Her spinning managed to break large pieces of icing off of the pile, and one young hen saw her chance. Rushing quickly for the prize, she plucked up a large piece of candy the size of her head and dashed away so she could eat it. Unfortunately, Princess saw the theft and wanted it back. Nevermind about the food she already claimed; she must have every last piece to herself. Forgetting about the bounties beneath her, she immediately left the pile of candy and ran after the young hen.
On the other side of the pasture, Princess chased the young hen, who was much faster than her. Princess is so fat that she waddled awkwardly as she desperately tried to tell the hen to stop taking bites of her treasure. She squawked on the top of her lungs (between gasps for air as she tried to catch her breath). The young hen mocked her openly, holding candy in its mouth as it danced just out of Princess' reach, when it would quickly take a bite and then dash off again before Princess could catch up.
Meanwhile, the pile of candy was descended upon in the blink of an eye by over a dozen eager chickens. In a matter of seconds, it was all gone, leaving not even a trace of white against the ground.
When Princess caught up to the offending hen and realized the candy was gone, she screeched in frustration, turned tail, and ran as fast as she could (which by now was pathetically slow) back to the original pile of candy, only to find it gone without a trace. She turned a few frantic circles looking for any crumb of sugar, gave up and squawked in frustration, plopping herself on the ground in a mixture of exhaustion and disappointment. I've never seen such expressive body language in a chicken.
We all had a great laugh at the expence of Princess' pride. It reminded me of the Aesop fable of the greedy dog and the bone. What a great teaching moment for our kids! Greediness yields misery!
Recently we made gingerbread houses. The left over icing sat out overnight and hardened into crunchy candy. I decided to treat our hens to some holiday sugar, so I scraped a couple cups of hard icing into their pasture. Immediately the hens flocked to the site to investigate the new food. One of our hens, named Princess, is an extremely fat Cochin. Somehow she was the first one on the scene and gave the white mound a tentative peck. Tasting sugar for the first time in her life must have been earth-shattering for this little hen. It transformed her completely.
She realized a good thing when she tasted it and strategically she placed a foot on either side of the mound and lowered her head aggressively, like a bull about to charge. She looked all the other hens in the eye and clearly said, "Don't even think about it. This ambrosia is MINE." Some of the younger hens were too eager to notice her warning, and they ran in to peck crumbles of icing from under Princess' wings. She turned and bit them quickly to send them on their way, but alas, now they, too, had a taste of sugar. Throwing caution to the wind, they ran circles around Princess, popping their beaks down to skim pieces of candy off the hill of sugar.
Princess frantically spun in circles trying to punish each offender with a bite. There were 10 of them, and only one of her. Her spinning managed to break large pieces of icing off of the pile, and one young hen saw her chance. Rushing quickly for the prize, she plucked up a large piece of candy the size of her head and dashed away so she could eat it. Unfortunately, Princess saw the theft and wanted it back. Nevermind about the food she already claimed; she must have every last piece to herself. Forgetting about the bounties beneath her, she immediately left the pile of candy and ran after the young hen.
On the other side of the pasture, Princess chased the young hen, who was much faster than her. Princess is so fat that she waddled awkwardly as she desperately tried to tell the hen to stop taking bites of her treasure. She squawked on the top of her lungs (between gasps for air as she tried to catch her breath). The young hen mocked her openly, holding candy in its mouth as it danced just out of Princess' reach, when it would quickly take a bite and then dash off again before Princess could catch up.
Meanwhile, the pile of candy was descended upon in the blink of an eye by over a dozen eager chickens. In a matter of seconds, it was all gone, leaving not even a trace of white against the ground.
When Princess caught up to the offending hen and realized the candy was gone, she screeched in frustration, turned tail, and ran as fast as she could (which by now was pathetically slow) back to the original pile of candy, only to find it gone without a trace. She turned a few frantic circles looking for any crumb of sugar, gave up and squawked in frustration, plopping herself on the ground in a mixture of exhaustion and disappointment. I've never seen such expressive body language in a chicken.
We all had a great laugh at the expence of Princess' pride. It reminded me of the Aesop fable of the greedy dog and the bone. What a great teaching moment for our kids! Greediness yields misery!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
I've spent the last several days decluttering and deep cleaning around the house. It's so therapeutic. I don't enjoy cleaning or organizing (especially the organizing.....yuck!) but it's so rewarding to see the results and I love the peace it gives me to enter a 'really' clean room.
Theres a cruel cycle I live in. Before each semester, I clean and scrub and declutter and organize so I can reduce the chaos in our home. It looks lovely and feels great. As the semester proceeds and my assignments stack up, my 'free time' disappears, and my stress levels raise, I cease to care about the organization in our home. I enter the coping method of focusing only on school work and family needs, and the house cleaning is the only variable without a deadline or emotional status. As a result, at the end of the semester my house looks horrid. The clutter zones have been growing slowly over the past few months and finally they come alive and mock me each time I enter the room. My goal this winter break was to deep clean and organize the worst spots in the house.
The worst room was my own bedroom, merely because this is where everything goes that doesn't have a 'place' anywhere else in the house. If it's too important to throw away, but I can't figure out where to keep it, then it joins the pile on my dresser (aka: the Black hole). I cleaned for hours on my room, and I'm so pleased with how it looks. I didn't take a before and after picture because I didn't want the atrocity documented forever.
I've worked on several other areas of the house as well and I love the way my home is feeling. Have you ever noticed that the Spirit is almost always stronger in an orderly home? I love it.
Invariably it will gradually return to the previous state of entropy, but I'm happy to soak up all the good vibes now. At least in the few select rooms that have been worked on. I keep trying to forget the "toy room-food storage-electronics workshop-art studio" room. It's simply too much to tackle this week. I'm happy to curl up with a great book and enjoy the vacation....like they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I agree.
Theres a cruel cycle I live in. Before each semester, I clean and scrub and declutter and organize so I can reduce the chaos in our home. It looks lovely and feels great. As the semester proceeds and my assignments stack up, my 'free time' disappears, and my stress levels raise, I cease to care about the organization in our home. I enter the coping method of focusing only on school work and family needs, and the house cleaning is the only variable without a deadline or emotional status. As a result, at the end of the semester my house looks horrid. The clutter zones have been growing slowly over the past few months and finally they come alive and mock me each time I enter the room. My goal this winter break was to deep clean and organize the worst spots in the house.
The worst room was my own bedroom, merely because this is where everything goes that doesn't have a 'place' anywhere else in the house. If it's too important to throw away, but I can't figure out where to keep it, then it joins the pile on my dresser (aka: the Black hole). I cleaned for hours on my room, and I'm so pleased with how it looks. I didn't take a before and after picture because I didn't want the atrocity documented forever.
I've worked on several other areas of the house as well and I love the way my home is feeling. Have you ever noticed that the Spirit is almost always stronger in an orderly home? I love it.
Invariably it will gradually return to the previous state of entropy, but I'm happy to soak up all the good vibes now. At least in the few select rooms that have been worked on. I keep trying to forget the "toy room-food storage-electronics workshop-art studio" room. It's simply too much to tackle this week. I'm happy to curl up with a great book and enjoy the vacation....like they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I agree.
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