Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Week.  Caroline made a pumpkin cheesecake to start off the festivities.  It was a no-bake recipe, which logically that meant it was easier.  'Twas not.  She had to dump a cup and a half of pumpkin puree on paper towels and blot out all the excess liquid to get it down to 3/4 of a cup.  The number of pumpkin-juice paper towels was steep.  She was looking forward to eating it that evening, but was unwilling to wake up at midnight when it was properly cooled.  We tried it the next day with homemade whip cream that Josiah wanted to pipe.  We enjoyed it after our traditional Thanksgiving Tacos on Tuesday.  The pie was good, but Caroline would not do a ginger snap crust again.  Too 'spicy.'

Late Wednesday morning we were on the road for Virginia.  I knew driving the day before Thanksgiving could get a little hairy.  The first half of our drive was met with many an accident and slowdowns.  We stopped midway for gas and the second half of the trip was smooth sailing.  It was only 6:30 pm when we arrived, but because it was pitch black in the mountains, it felt like 10 pm.  We visited with Grandma and Grandpa for a bit before retiring to bed. 

Thanksgiving morning, the boys jumped at the opportunity to walk Aunt Claire's big dogs.  We were unaware of the leisurely pace of Mr Moose, so Caroline joined up with us for the second half of our walk.  Later the cousins walked Maggie, so all the dogs were taken care of.  

We enjoyed a truly traditional Thanksgiving meal with family.  It is good to all be on the east coast again so we can have these get togethers.  We are truly thankful for our family.

The following morning we headed out early for Hampton.  We stopped at the first lookout point to get a picture of the kids and the mountains.  The sun was bright and right at their backs, so we did our best.  This lookout is always a favorite.  Henry and Caroline lingered at the wall taking in the view, while Josiah and I high-tailed it to the car because it was 21° out. The kids would love a house that looks out on that scene.  

We made it to Hampton late morning and spent the day visiting with Grandad and Nana.  The kids played frisbee in the frigid weather.  I was surprised how long they stayed outside.  We watched from the window and thought, Aww, look at them playing together.  And then Henry pushed Caroline.  And then she pushed him back.  And all was normal again.

Josiah checked my tires before we hit the road.  Every time we wake up in Staunton, my tire light comes on.  That cold mountain air.  

Saturday morning we were back on the road again.  We left early to hopefully avoid the holiday traffic and it worked for the most part.  

The kids wanted to get the Christmas tree up before our break was over, so Sunday afternoon we got it accomplished.  Josiah opened the box with the tree and saw some bugs.  He originally reported a lot of roaches.  Caroline, who was not in the room, nor near the box, reported five roaches.  Josiah later said it was two.  We never did find any, but Henry was ready with the shoe as the tree was put in place.  This was a big step up because, until this year, he had refused to kill any bugs - not because he was a bleeding heart, but because it was gross and he didn't want his shoe to get dirty.  

No one is ready for school to start tomorrow.  No one.  We have three very full weeks ahead before our Christmas break.  

Big Dumb Eyes

Caroline baked more cookies this week.  She's still on her quest to make cookies worthy enough to bring in for her Switzerland project.  What we've found is that the Swiss love an almond base.  The almond crescent cookies were really good, but we already had the recipe.  It just looked similar to what we've seen in pictures, but it isn't a 100% Swiss recipe.  She tried again today with Basler Brunsli - chocolate almond cookies.  These were kind of okay.  Henry was a big fan, but Caroline said they were too chocolaty.  

I did a little cooking for my class as well.  We were having a Thanksgiving Feast in K3.  The night before our Feast, Todd and I headed to the store to pick up a rotisserie chicken.  That was our "turkey."  The chickens were still cooking, so we shopped and periodically headed back to check on them.  We witnessed the worker check their temperature several times.  They looked really close to done based on their color.  One even fell off the rotating rack thing.  Finally, the oven beeped loudly with bright orange lights.  I assumed that meant they were done and we could go home.  The worker, probably all of 20, opened the door, yelled out really loudly, shut the door so hard it bounced back open, and then slammed the thermometer, tablet, and his phone down so hard that the tablet went flying in our direction and landed on the floor of the store.  We decided we didn't want a rotisserie chicken anymore. I got up super early the following morning and cooked some regular chicken in my own oven.  

The kids had many quizzes, tests, and projects to finish up before their break.  Caroline had to make a climbing man for her science class.  It was supposed to climb up the string left-right style, but hers did not exactly do that.  She just pulled on both ends of the string and blasted him up to the top.  

On Friday, the kids had a service day.  The Rountree House students served at the homes of several widows.  The boys' first stop was at a house where they disassembled a playset.  They moved on to a second house and did yard work.  They were told ahead of time they would be doing yard work, so they went in with that expectation.  Caroline had heard stories of previous years about how the girls would visit with the widows - leisurely chat and eat cookies while the boys did yardwork.  She quickly realized that was not the case this year when she was handed a rake.  She said they worked really hard and got a woman's yard all cleared for about 20 minutes before the trees started dropping more leaves.  No matter, though, because it was still a big help to clean up what they did.  

This weekend, three out of five of us got to see Nate Bargatze up in Greenville.  Todd and I got tickets many months ago.  A few weeks after we got our tickets, Josiah was invited by a friend to go to the same show.  Then we felt bad for Henry and Caroline.  They felt bad, too, because we do love his stand-up around here.  We had to wait outside the arena for Josiah's friend's family and as we sat on the steps, enjoying a little shade, we watched a number of husbands walk their wives' purses back to the car.  (They had to be clear purses.)  It was pretty funny because you could see the face of annoyance every time.  We really enjoyed the show.  Henry and Caroline have sworn us to secrecy because they want to watch it on Netflix when it comes out.  

This weekend, Josiah wanted a family game night so he created a Jeopardy board.  It was just Todd, Caroline, and me for the first round.  The ladies were doing quite well with the categories - Basic Latin, US History, & Family Phrases.  Todd jumped into the game with the Beatles questions.  Henry came down for Double Jeopardy which was highly unfair because the new categories were: Advanced Latin, NFL Quarterbacks, Good Football Players, Christian Artists, & (Josiah's) Pop Culture.  

In defense of my score, I would risk it and buzz in a lot.  It didn't always pan out.

Josiah and Caroline finished out the weekend with a Progressive Dinner with the youth ministry.  They met up at church and were driven to House #1 where they enjoyed appetizers - chips and salsa.  They packed the vans again for House #2 - main course.  Finally, they headed to House #3 for dessert.  Caroline said it was really good.  This is one of their favorite activities.  Caroline also likes getting a glimpse in other people's houses.  

We are very excited to have the week off.  

Not Rachel

We had a very chilly start to the week.  On Monday afternoon, we looked in the backyard and saw snowflakes.  You could count them falling, so it wasn't much, but it was still exciting.  As the week went on, we've switched to shorts again, but those flakes sparked excitement for the winter.  

At school on Wednesday, I had taken my class out to recess and noticed the entire Upper School outside playing.  Josiah came to the fence and informed me that Owen, who had won Upper School Director For a Day, had released everyone from Chapel for a bonus recess.  He also brought in donuts for everyone.  He was dressed as the real Director, who himself was dressed as a student.  The kids had a lot of fun with it.  

Their school pictures came in, too.  No pumpkins made it like originally thought.

  

Basketball season has begun and all three kids spent their Friday night watching both boys and girls teams play. Henry has spent a lot of time writing a paper this week.  It had a word limit of 900, which he soon discovered was a lot harder than expected.  At 1100 words, he thought it impossible to cut 200.  And there went the adjectives, the however's, and the also's. He learned the power of editing and got it down to 900 words exactly.   

I helped Todd take Benson to the vet for his shots.  This was a real country vet - way out with one horse looking at us from the field adjacent and another in a trailer behind our car.  Benson showed a lot of interest, but alas he stayed in the car and the tech came to him.

Josiah had his second college tour this weekend.  It was at SWU, so we were a bit familiar with this campus, but it was good to see it from a Preview Day perspective.  We got a tour before going to their campus fair.  Josiah talked to quite a number of professors and administrators, most of whom Todd knew.  The incentive was to get six signatures so you could be entered into a drawing at the end.  Josiah completed the task and his name was later drawn for the prize.  We got meal vouchers which was another highlight for Josiah who is always a big fan of all-you-can-eat campus dining.  Josiah said he was interested in their media communications major and one professor told him about the professor in that department who has taken his students to Sundance.  He's also working on a movie this summer and has his students as part of that as well.  They have a very big media room on campus with green screens and lots of filming equipment.  Very cool stuff.

Josiah is also interested in how one gets to be Ty the Warrior:

Saturday night, Todd had created seven rounds for our family to play $10,000 Pyramid.  All five of us took turns quizzing each other on the categories.  When it was Henry's turn to come up with clues, he had a tendency to say, Umm, umm a bit.  When it came to Caroline's turn to quiz Henry she said, Don't worry, I'll stutter, too.  That's love right there.  The kids did quite well with the categories, so now we are working on harder ones.  A good one was "Men in the Bible." I rattled off about 25 different names and Josiah would never say Men in the Bible.  I finally told him "Not Rachel" and he got it right away.  There were others: "Things Mom Likes" and the kids quickly gave the clue of Clean your room.  Clean your area.  They weren't wrong.  For "Things Henry Likes" we all said, Bouncing a basketball and that's all it took to know it was Henry.  

The boys played a bit of football over the weekend before we all headed out to rake up those leaves. 

We were getting to the end of finishing the front yard when a slight breeze hit.  It felt so good, we stopped and looked up from our work.  The refreshing breeze was bringing with it the remainder of the leaves on the trees.  Very pretty fall picture, but we didn't appreciate the additional leaves on our clean yard.  Meanwhile, Benson helped Todd blow the leaves in the backyard.  Todd was hoping Benson would frolic and jump in the piles, but he merely marked them all as his own.  

Caroline also spent a bit of time training Benson.  He looked like a walking circus bear with the stick.  

It's a four day school week for us.  Friday is a Service Day, so not our regular scheduling.  We are super excited for our Thanksgiving week off.  

A Baking Weekend

Caroline had some science homework at the start of the week.  I was sitting beside her, helping her check it. She was leafing through the pages looking for Ampère's Law.  She passed a page with a black and white picture of a female scientist.  Recognizing it was not Ampère, she said, No, that's Mariah Carey.  Actually, no.  'Twas Marie Curie.  

Henry has been asking to go to Olive Garden so he could try the Never Ending Pasta.  He asked daily if we could go.  Sometimes hourly.  He was pretty confident in how much he could consume.  We went Tuesday evening.  One bowl of pasta.  He finished one bowl.  One bowl of soup, one bowl of pasta, 3 breadsticks.  He ordered a second bowl of pasta just so he could pretend to eat it and bring it home.  Caroline did the same.  Caroline discovered she loved chicken and gnocchi soup.  In fact, all the kids surprised us by ordering the gnocchi soup.  Josiah looked up the record number of Olive Garden breadsticks eaten in one sitting.  It was an unofficial nineteen.  Josiah has now set a life goal of defeating that record and immediately kicked off his training by eating six breadsticks during our evening out.  

More food was had this weekend.  Caroline has to do a report on a European country of her choosing.  She picked Switzerland.  The final project will be a presentation in December at which time they have to bring in a Christmasy treat that is enjoyed in said country.  For Switzerland, she found cinnamon cookies or cod.  She chose the cookies.  We did a trial run this weekend. They were Zimtsterne, which is a German cookie, but enjoyed in Switzerland as well.  Not good.  I spit mine out.  All the kids tried them.  Zero stars.  Todd surprised us and liked them, so he got the whole batch.  Fortunately we have time to find a better tasting treat.  But no cod.  

Josiah is reading Beowulf and they have a feast in his class tomorrow.  Josiah said he'd bring soft pretzels because Old English is similar to German and Germans like pretzels.  We did a trial run with them on Saturday as well, and they turned out quite good.  The only bad thing about soft pretzels is that they're not nearly as good the following day, but maybe that'll go along with the time period of Beowulf.  He also wanted a beer stein to drink out of for the feast.  (They were told to bring fun cups.)  Josiah wanted to go to a thrift store to look for one.  We pull up and it was no thrift store, but an antique store.  They did, however, have a whole shelf of beer steins so that made it worth it.  I was partial to the one stamped West Germany on the bottom, but I liked the one Josiah picked out as well.  It comes with a bell hidden underneath so he can shake it when his mead gets low.  

It was hypnotizing watching the yeast grow.  

Henry had the Athletic Awards Ceremony one evening this week.  He was close to getting a letter this year, but still needs to shave off a little more time.  Next year.  

On Friday, the lower school celebrated GrandPals Day - so named because not everyone has grandparents nearby, so they can bring a Pal.  Basically the kids got to bring their grandparents all over the school and show them all the things and eat snacks together.  The lower school left at lunchtime, so the upper school had a quieter afternoon.  When I went to pick up the kids a few hours later, I watched Henry's class run out to the parking lot and play foot-square with their teacher.  Like four-square, but you use your head and feet.  

Two more weeks until Thanksgiving break.  The countdown begins.  

Spirit Week

This week was Spirit Week at school.  Monday was Mismatching Patterns.  Tuesday was Tops & Bottoms Tuesday - fun hats and socks.  Henry was firm in his choice to wear the sombrero.  Josiah looked through all of Todd's hats.  He was most interested in the old WWII hat with pins and medals on it.  Then he turned it around and saw the USSR's hammer and sickle and decided he was not going to promote Communism.  He settled on his cap.  Caroline was a no-go for hats, but did rock her Reese's socks.  

For Wake-Up Wednesday, we were allowed to wear pajamas to school.  Typically, when this happens, we're all wearing our pajama pants and an appropriate, clean looking top.  Henry, however, wore his actual pajama shirt - an old hand-me-down gymnastics shirt from Bobby in Texas.  I asked him, Did people ask if you did gymnastics?  Yep.  Thursday was Country vs Country Club and we all wore flannels and jeans that day.  More 90s grunge than country, but we were comfortable.  Friday was Reformation Day.  Only Josiah dressed up for this one.  You could go as a king/queen, prince/princess, peasant, monk, knight, etc. 

Reformation Day is also Halloween and we handed out candy this year.  Josiah went to a Halloween party at a friend's house in the neighborhood.  Henry and Caroline were not interested in passing out candy, so Todd and I sat at the end of our driveway.  Our neighborhood is a mecca for trick-or-treaters.  People drive in and huge groups of people walk around.  We prepared ahead of time so we wouldn't run out, but we had at minimum 160 people pass by.  Our very first trick-or-treater was driven around in a golf cart by her parents.  Todd noted the open can of Miller Lite in a koozie in the driver's seat.  So that's fun.  One of our last groups included a family who parked their car in front of the house.  The parents and two kids got out.  All four of them said, trick-or-treat, and all four opened their bags for candy.  Next year, we may just go as a family of five and see what we can get.  We had one truck pull up and the driver got out, introduced himself, and told us his parents built our house and he grew up in it.  That was when the neighborhood was three houses and a giant pasture.  Later another lady said her grandmother used to live in our house.  That's the way it is around here.  Lots of hometown folk. 

Mid-week, Caroline and I made it to the pumpkin patch.  She was very methodical in both size, shape, and color.  The following day, the Rountree House got together to have a pumpkin carving party at a friend's house.  Caroline did quite well on her ghost.  Henry did the Texans logo.  Josiah started to carve the Rountree symbol - a tree - but changed it into Snoopy.  

Josiah made rock candy.  A ton of it.  We still have a ton of it.  Because it's just hard sugar and that's pretty much it.  It's a cavity in the making. 

Henry made me a blanket using ancient weaving techniques.  He said he chose Christmas colors.  It is quite cozy and warm.  

Josiah spent Saturday morning serving with the youth ministry.  They went shopping for toiletries and snack items and packed up blessing bags.  Then they went to a ministry in town that houses the homeless from October to April.  They were given a tour and shown what the ministry does, which is so much better than just dropping off the bags.  He had a good time.  He wasn't home for long before it was time to get ready for Saturday night.  The boys had the Barn Dance.  Each class got together for dinner and pictures before heading to the dance.  They are close knit groups here and it is so nice that they enjoy hanging out with each other.  

After picking them up they shared snippets of their night.  Both had a very good time.  Henry said he and another boy hurdled each other.  Apparently, grown man's leap frog.  Josiah played football with a few friends and he did his dance when Bye, Bye, Bye was played.  There was dancing.  No details were given there.

Before they left that evening, I had Caroline put on a flannel so I could get a picture of the three of them together.  Caroline knew I wanted the picture by the little lake in our neighborhood.  It is a quick walk.  We pass one house to get there.  We knew one boy would be annoyed, but still say, Let's go and get it over with.  The other boy would be annoyed, resist, and ask why we weren't doing the picture in our own yard.  We were not wrong.  But I still got my picture.

Meanwhile, Caroline wanted me to make a cheesecake that Saturday night, so we stopped at the store for ingredients.  We passed the British Foods section and Caroline found a Turkish Delight candy.  This was the very same candy that Edmund was ready to give up his siblings for in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so we brought it home to try.  When Caroline read about the White Witch offering Turkish Delight to Edmund, she thought he was eating a turkey sandwich.  She was not a fan of the Delight.  Josiah tried it the next day and he was not a fan either.  He said he wouldn't sell out his siblings for that.  

Now that we're in November, we're officially on the countdown to Thanksgiving (break).