My Winter Home

Much of the snow has melted, but there is still enough left for Patrick to make a little snowman.

Household Happenings.

Here's what it looks like outside right now.  That could change in a little while as we are expecting another big snowstorm.  We have stocked the fridge and are (I hope) well-prepared.  I'm hoping this will be the last snowstorm as state chess tournament comes up in March and right after that?  Another stupid hernia surgery for me.  My third.  It was a relief to hear that, actually, because my regular doctor thought I had a huuuuge tumour for a little while there.  No worries.  Just my guts falling out again.  :/

In homeschooling, Emperor has just read through Silas Marner and Conrad's Heart of Darkness.  I think he enjoyed Silas Marner much more and found the other book a bit disturbing.  His new math curriculum is all graded on the computer (sample lessons here!).  Here I am teaching him by doing absolutely nothing.  He ran into a bit of a problem because he forgot how to multiply fractions.  So then he spent today reviewing with Khan Academy.  There is no excuse not to homeschool because you don't know all the answers when the internet is out there, right?  Changing the subject, I bought this little house at the thrift store; I don't know why.  I just like it.  It is a "handpainted Delft."  I think it is a salt shaker because of the little holes in the chimney, but it sits on my windowsill.

Rose can read simple words and do matching games and easy games like Candyland.  She also helps out around the house frequently.  I found this little girl looking over my shoulder while I was watching Hoarders the other day.  She would like you all to know that garbage goes in a bag.  Poopies go in the potty!  And as she watched, she wondered, "Why is she doing that?  That's disgusting.  We don't throw trash on the ground!"

When Woodjie has the sniffles or is just not feeling himself, I will give him a "hairbow" so he can look like a little unicorn.  He will lie down with his blankie and twist his hair for a little while.  He is starting to use full sentences most of the time and can count up to 42.  He is just so cute, isn't he?

Pony Princess

I got a haul of ponies from the local thrift store.  Rose just loves them.

Christmas Elves

I cannot believe this.  Elf is upset that Woodjie brought home a Christmas Elf hat from kindergarten.  Only he is the Elf.  Woodjie says, "Now I a Elfie, TOO!  There TWO elves!"  Rose had to jump into the picture and G... well... what a goof. 

Rose Update!

Rose is pretty.  She has a new necklace.  She likes to write and can write her name.  She can comb her hair.  She plays Star Wars and Chinese Checkers with Patrick.  She likes to look out the window.  Her favourite foods are donuts and Biscoff spread.  She helped me write this post.  :)

Our Family

After I took this picture, Rose wrote her (long) name all across the top in black marker.  She is very proud of being selected to share about her family with the preschool class next week. 

Hanging Out This Afternoon

Rose is supervising Woodjie's creative process.

I'm teaching Rose "ladder checkmate."  The second queen is an upside-down rook.

I'm also in the process of teaching Rose how the knight moves.  If your knight starts on a star, he'll have to hop over to the other star.  If he starts on a smiley, he ends on a smiley.  Two up, one over.  He always winds up on the opposite colour from which he starts.  The confusing thing about it is that this is true all around where the knight starts.  In the center of the board, there are eight squares to which the knight can move.

After Rose does a chess exercise, she gets to pick out a sticker and put it on her new princess. 

The Princess Dress

Worth every penny of the $5 I spent on it at the thrift store.  Rose just loves it.

My Little Ponies

Rose is very, very happy that Woodjie and I found these ponies at our local thrift store.  They each have different names, personalities, and hairdos.  :)

Braces Are On!

This is what is going on inside Emperor's mouth AFTER the tooth extraction.  Imagine a huge pair of teeth there with roots that go way up.  Ok, it's still a mess, isn't it?  I have a feeling poor Emperor is not going to be finished after his crossbite is alleviated.

But yay!  The braces are on and Emperor chose purple covers for his brackets.  He goes back at the end of the month for a tightening-up.

Woodjie got a vaccine.  He is very angry about it.  He said it hurt and "it not nice!" that they did that to him.

Rose can write part of her name!  This is an excerpt.  Note the typewriter-style lower case "a."  Emperor still writes like that.  I don't know why that isn't taught in schools but is mostly a teen girl thing.  To my mind, lower case "a" and "o" are too similar when printed by hand most of the time.

The Weather Song

I have about 50 half-sung songs still on my camera!  I finally had to go ahead and ruin the first part of the movie by shouting, "Now!" at her.  Forget the waving cues; she'd wave back.  Ha!  But Rose is very pleased and proud to be able to present this song to you today.  She and her little preschool friends sing it before they peek outside the front door to see what the weather is like that day.  I hope you enjoy it as much as she enjoyed being the star today.

Obnoxious.

I sure wouldn't appreciate if YOU took my picture while I was sleeping and posted it on the internet.  Somehow, though, the cuteness factor makes it all morally OK.  Miss Rose no longer falls asleep on the couch downstairs with Woodjie and has Dad carry her up around 11:30 pm.  Mom insisted:  new room, new routine.  (Bad enough Woodjie has such horrific troubles with bedtime; we had gotten into the habit of letting Rose do what Woodjie does.)  But now, we brush her teeth, read a book, and then Rose is free to read books in her own bed and turn out the light herself when she is ready.  :)

Happenings at Home

I don't like yelling and I find singing at my children when they are naughty to be three times as obnoxious anyway.  I thought I knew for sure that I would be damaging any love for music that they would have otherwise developed.  Not so!  Elf wants to transcribe my angry song into something for EVERYONE at his school to enjoy.  He envisions the entire orchestra playing the "Mad at Kids Song," originally sung by his mother but properly composed by a very small Elf.  When it is finished, he will show it to his music teacher and she will love it for the masterpiece it is.  Elf also wants to be sure to have some sort of memory of my song after I am dead.  Nice, huh?

Woodjie!  I just luv Woodjie.  He was able to tell us that "ear hot" and fuss a bit so that we could take him to the doctor.  Sure enough, ear infection, in the ear he indicated.  Poor lil guy. 

Rose can "poo poo in a potty."  And is a "pwincess."  And had her birthday.  She lost her three!  She is now four, and that means pink PRINCESS cupcakes.  She has all the sparkly rings from the top of these storebought concoctions (schools don't let you bring homemade... and as there were 13 children in the class and I had to buy cupcakes in dozens... sigh).   I couldn't find a good present for her and D said yesss, we don't have to spend any money!  Ha.  Nooo, that just means that because Rose doesn't realize she is missing out and therefore won't pester me, I have lots more time to research expensive gift ideas on Amazon.  I'm thinking lifesize pink pony. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

At the Club

Emperor is not so happy about having his game interrupted by me. But Rose? Rose is THRILLED to be allowed to go to the Kansas City Chess Club for the first time. Not to mention, she LOVES having her photo taken. She did participate in most of the exercises (with help... lots of help). The only thing she wasn't even slightly interested in doing properly were the pencil and paper tactics exercises. In those, random chess pieces were circled and, instead of a line and arrow indicating the "best pin," she drew lines that would seem to indicate that they wandered off the page and went AWOL.

Rose Update!

Rose can now set up the board if you remind her that the queen goes on her colour and king goes on the e square. Here are the chess pieces and how they apparently move:

Knight: Just take a guess and then let Mom show me.

Bissip: goes diagonally, but I lose track of where I'm going.

Ponn: hops forward. Takes diagonally! I'm starting to get this one.

Qwweeeeen: Queen does whatever she wants. Do not touch my queen.

Keeng: hops one spot.

Wook: I want to move this piece out early in the game, but Mom will not let me. I wind up moving my Knight. At the end of the game, Mom helps me with Wook to make "ladder checkmate." I always win!! :)

Chess Preschool

Rose has expressed interest in playing chess for a good while. I was hoping we could learn the potty thing first, but ok. We start out learning how to place the pawns and the king on the board. Then we learn how the pawns advance on the board. When Rose gets a queen, our little game is over. Someday when she gets all the moves down, we will have to take her to the chess club. There aren't that many girls who play chess, but I figure that Rose is used to doing everything with lots of boys around and she'll be fine.

What's His REAL Name?

"MIKE!! It on a wall!" screamed Rose, jumping and pointing. Woodjie came over to look at whatever "Mike" is. I'm in the middle of bagging poopie diapers (ugh), rounding up dirty laundry and reallllly looking forward to washing my hands. With soap. You just can't stop in the middle of a job like that. It would be too hard to get back into, you see...

"Ee MIKE!" Woodjie starts to scream. They both start hopping about and screaming. "Mike! Momma, Mike! MIKE! Mike Mike Mike Mike Mike! MIIIIKE! IT ON A WALLLLL!! WOOK!"

I'm thinking, great, they're naming spiders and I'm way too busy to kill them at the present moment. Bleh... poopies tossed into garage trash, clothes thrown next to washer two floors down, run upstairs and ahhhh water time. And grab a shoe.

"OK, where's this 'Mike?'"

"WOOK!" Woodjie points to a little green scratch on the brown wall. "MIKE!"

Siiigh. "His name is MARK, Woodjie. There is a Mark on the wall."

"Ee MIKE. Wight dere," Woodjie insisted. Well, ok. I have trouble remembering names, too. I guess he's Mike now.

"I Not Wau-ra."

Dad really needs to quit teasing the kid and calling her Laura Ingalls. Not pictured? The pink flowered prairie skirt. No bonnet. :)

Tornadoes.

In the summer, it's tornado season. A friend of mine had no idea about tornado sirens! I thought everyone had those, but maybe not. So I'm posting some pics of our closest one and chatting a little bit about our "season" so far.

When the siren goes off, it means to get into your basement or best cover right now. It could be the result of a county-wide warning, or it could be specific to where you are. Just get into the basement and tune in to your radio from there to see what's up.

 The siren goes off every Wednesday at the same time. Eeeven though it was a Wednesday yesterday, I knew it was a for real siren. It was turned super loud as if to tell everyone that people, this is not a drill. And it went on for I'm thinking an hour and a half or so.

Emperor was already freaked out about Joplin. He understands. He is very, very afraid. I distracted him by making him match my huuuuuge collection of single socks. I mean, why not. I told him I would give him a nickel for every pair he folded together. I'm tremendously bad about matching socks with this size of a family. PLUS, there is the fact that G has until recently only worn one sock at a time, being in a cast/boot and all. (BTW, he is still in a brace. So... not done yet.)

Emperor was very nervous and upset but the job helped a bit. When he was done it was eeeeerie quiet, odd whistly outside and he sat with me. Little tears in his eyes.

"Momma, if I live, you owe me 70 cents," he whispered as he got in my arms. I held him close and even Woodjie and Rose sat and were suddenly still next to me for a minute. They have no clue, but they were still a bit. I don't know what could have caused it because usually they don't stop and crouch like that even when there is shouting and upset in the house. They remained down a good ten minutes. Was it a tornado nearby? I still don't know.

After a long time, it didn't sound eerie or even angry outside any more and the sirens stopped. Emperor had a hard time being coaxed out of the basement. Poor guy.

There is some photographic evidence on a major news channel of a funnel cloud about a half a mile from our house yesterday. One neighbour of mine (who is not given to hysterical fits of exaggeration) reports that the tornado passed OVER our houses. Why she went outdoors to look, I could not in a million years tell you.

If you are interested,  here is a YouTube video of a tornado siren in action. Promise it is louder in real life.