Fourteen is Fine

We started the week with some very nice weather.  There was football and Trivial Pursuit. Benson spent most of his day outside, too.  He took advantage of our being home on a weekday.

Josiah has continued to make Mr. Potato Head scenes in my class in the mornings.  He started the week with a preaching scene - the preacher had his hands raised and the congregation of two had their hands raised praising the Lord as well.  I didn't get a picture of it, but it was a good one.  As the week went on, he had a wedding...

...and a presidential motorcade, which was appropriate for President's Day.  My class learned about Washington and Lincoln this past week, so it was all tied together.  

Josiah had his first week of play practice.  He stays for an extra two hours after school.  He came home one evening and said, "Please do not ask me any questions.  I don't want to talk.  I'm not mad.  I'm very tired." It's a long way to May, so hopefully he'll get used to it. 

Two nights before his birthday, Henry came down with a fever.  He stayed home from school on Friday still feverish.  He spent his last day as a 13-year old sleeping on the couch.  Poor guy.  He was still under the weather for his birthday, but was able to do the scavenger hunt for his gifts.  We have been raising the bar on our clues, making them harder to solve, but he breezed through most of them.  One was an anagram that took Henry a while, but Josiah and Caroline got it almost immediately.  THEN PARTY.  (The pantry.)  He blames the fever for his slower solving time.

We enjoyed omelets for breakfast with all the fixings - green pepper, bacon, cheese, onion, tomato.  I did not think everyone would eat the omelets, but everyone put their orders in and several came back for seconds.  I did cook them in bacon grease, so they had some flavor.  Chipotle was the birthday lunch, although with the price of eggs right now, the omelets should have counted as a restaurant meal.  Chicken piccata, steamed broccoli, and rice was the desired dinner.  Henry is our chocolate man, so it was a devil's food cake with chocolate icing for dessert.  Chocolate chocolate.

Josiah printed a Taylor Swift cover for his new Madden 25 game.  Todd and I showed our age and thought it looked like Paris Hilton.  He got a Texans jersey, a comforter, and an immersion blender. He's our smoothie guy, and cleaning the giant blender every day got a little tedious last summer.  His grandparents and cousins blessed him with a Texans shirt and a laser tag game.  He wanted to play some on his birthday, but he was still feeling rough for most of the day.  Gargling salt water was his friend.  

Despite our warm start to the week, a cold front pushed through for the remainder of it.  Benson enjoyed the sun hitting his bed.  

This month has flown by.  Only two more weeks and the third semester will be over.  

Dead Potato

At the start of the week, the boys came home with 100's on their math tests.  To prolong the joy, they quickly suggested we should have a celebratory dinner.  Chipotle won out.  

The next day, Josiah had a different sort of test.  The CLT - Classical Learning Test.  It's a standardized test that he'll take in 9th and 10th grades.  He was less confident on this one because all the math was what he'll learn next year.  The best part about the test was the end.  They were allowed to leave.  Todd picked him up a little before 11 and they went back to SWU together.  Josiah is always down to getting food from their cafeteria.  They had chicken tenders and dessert pizza.  He was a happy camper.  Todd left him at the library where Josiah read books about WWI & WWII before hanging out in Todd’s office.   

The week finished out well.  We had a pep rally in the morning because the varsity girl's basketball team was headed to the state tournament in Columbia.  The game was at 1:15 p.m. and some teachers allowed their students to watch it instead of having class. (They won 70-35.)  Caroline took two quizzes that day and not much else.  Meanwhile, Josiah was praying for labor pains that Friday and they came through for him.  He did not want to have to share his illuminating summary in his Omni (Ancient History/Lit) class, so he hoped that his teacher's wife would go into labor.  And she did!  She was due any day, so it was an okay thing.    

During recess, Josiah played soccer foot square.  At one point he fell backwards hitting his head and wrist.  And all those years of jiu-jitsu teaching them how to do a break fall...  His wrist is still hurting him, so it has been wrapped in an Ace bandage all weekend.  Right now it is more sore than swollen, so we're waiting it out for a few days at least.  

Josiah likes to set up train tracks for the kids in my class in the mornings.  One day this week he set up a track with a few Mr. Potato Heads looking on.  It was very cute.  On Friday, he got the Mr. Potato Heads out and made some characters sans track. I glanced over and noted that the three-in-a-row looked cute.  Then I took a longer glance and saw he created a crime scene....  

This weekend, Benson 'helped' me read Caroline's science book.  Popcorn was involved and he's a sucker for popcorn.  He's a quiet, polite, but persistent beggar.  He also drools when he sees a food he likes, so he got some popcorn to keep his drool off the book.

Despite a very rainy Saturday, Caroline and Henry got some football time in out front.  

Sunday morning, we were all up early.  We had a tornado warning at 5:45 a.m. and with a very water-saturated yard, we were watching our trees.  We love the trees until times like these.  The sun came out this afternoon which was a very welcome sight.  We are thankful for all the school holidays this year.  Tomorrow, after a good sleeping-in, we plan to celebrate all the American presidents.  

Braces On, Benson's 5th

Tuesday afternoon, Henry got his braces on.  Josiah's orthodontist in Texas had a seat for parents next to their child.  Josiah always wanted me to go back with him, so I was there for the whole process.  At Henry's orthodontist, they have no chairs, so I said goodbye and sat in the waiting room while the magic happened.  An hour and a half later, he emerged.  They said he did very well.  They went over all the information with him.  They told me he said no to the free Dippin Dots.  At this office, if he wears his free t-shirt, he can get Dippin Dots every visit.  Henry has no intention to wear it, but when Caroline heard about it, she was ready to get her braces.  He did request mashed potatoes for dinner, so we made that happen.  Henry has been very tight lipped.  I got a 2.5 second glimpse when we got to the car.  I called myself lucky because no other family member got a peek.  Todd finally got his glimpse on Saturday.  I asked Josiah to draw an artist's rendering of Henry's mouth.  Perfection.  

Josiah had his first read-through for his play.  They had two hours to do it.  Josiah said they were speaking with emotion until time started running out and then the director said to speak at double speed.  His official practices start at the end of February - four times a week until May!  It's a lot.  

Saturday was Benson's birthday.  This year I made him a cake from peanut butter, pumpkin, applesauce, egg, and oat flour.  It was the lovely brown color which is how all his baked goods turn out.  We spent a lot of time trying to get a picture of him wearing his birthday hat.  Benson was a very good sport.  As I was taking a video of Benson downing his first slice in one gulp, I heard Henry in the background saying, "It isn't bad."  Caroline said it was dry.  I tried it and this was the best tasting treat we have ever made him.  Actually edible.

Josiah spent his weekend making dalgona cookies from Squid Game.  He's never actually seen Squid Game, but there are enough YouTubers out there that have shown some of the games.  After melting sugar, he added a tiny bit of baking soda and they puffed up.  Then he tried to get an imprint of a shape on them.  It was a big learning curve on Saturday.  Sunday, he started up again making more.  These turned out better.  The goal is to carve out the shape without breaking the cookie.  His Saturday cookies cracked on their own, so if we were contestants we'd all be dead.  Sunday's cookies turned out better and we were actually able to play the game.  Josiah and I succeeded in getting our shapes out without cracking.  They tasted like very toasted marshmallows. 

For the Super Bowl tonight, Henry and Caroline went to a friend's house to watch.  Josiah stayed home with us for some OG family time as he calls it.  The original 3.  And this guy.

Surrounded by Sickies

This has been the week of sickness.  Josiah stayed home on Monday because he caught Henry's cold and his cough was quite persistent.  He had ups and downs all week with how he felt, and his cough lingered, but coughs tend to do that.  Meanwhile, the upper school has had a flu pandemic on their hands.  Josiah had only five kids show up on Tuesday.  By Thursday, there were only two kids left in class.  At first, the teachers started recording themselves so the kids at home could keep up. By Friday, however, Josiah said he and his history teacher talked for an hour about food.  This particular teacher absolutely loves teaching, so he clearly gave up for the day.  

Henry had over half of his class out as well.  It seems like the kids not only danced at the Winter Ball, but they shared Flu A as well.  Strep throat has also made an appearance, but the flu took the lead.  It's been quite the week.  It felt like we were walking on eggshells all week seeing how the kids felt each day.  So far we stayed flu-free.  Todd did catch the boys' cold, but I'll take colds over flu any day.  

Henry recovered from his cold and went to his first orthodontic appointment this week.  He has been asking for braces for well over a year, but I didn't want to start the process in Texas and then have to find a new orthodontist to finish the treatment in SC, so we waited.  We met, we discussed the treatment, and we went ahead with the plan.  Henry left that first visit with spacers on his molars in anticipation of braces being put on next week.  We were told to give him Tylenol when he got home, but Henry felt tough.  The next morning, when he thought his teeth were breaking, he took the Tylenol.  He is very happy to get the process started because he doesn't want to wear braces in high school.  He made it clear that I was to share no before & after pictures, however, here is a collage of my handsome Henry over the years.  Another collage of 'random' smiling pictures will be shared in 24 months time.  

Henry and I got in a game of Trivial Pursuit.  He's moved up to the adult questions, but the game still came down to the wire.  I thought I would take him when he didn't know the Queen of Soul, but he beat me...by a hair.

The kids don't like me to take and share as many pictures anymore, but this guy doesn't care and he's still cute as ever.