Monday: bag o' water

Today we drew out of the jars "clean the kitchen and bathroom floors with a rag" and "plastic bag & pencil".

Cleaning the floors went fine.  Isaac lost interest rather quickly, but the kitchen floor was clean by then.  I think he slipped and fell about three times while it was drying, but since he realized that I had recommended that he not walk on the wet floor he didn't say anything.

The bag and pencil experiment went much better than I was expecting.  I really thought it would last about two minutes, but we managed to stretch it out to about ten.  We used kabob skewers instead of pencils and they worked nicely.  We talked about what he thought would happen before putting the skewers in, what would happen if he took them out, what would happen if he put them back in, etc.

Sunday: 11 year pictures and a friend and thinking

Joshua woke up at 5:30 this morning and I dealt poorly with it.  After going in to his room twice I decided the best thing was to hide the monitor under my pillow.  Upon reflection this morning I decided that wasn't the best idea, but realized thinking straight doesn't really happen in the middle of the night.

We finally had someone around that was able to take some of our 11 year anniversary pictures.  However, it was kind of bright so I'm rather squinty.

We had a friend from New York stop by for the evening.  It was nice to see her.  I do miss all the friends from New York.

Saturday: pomegranates

We recently learned a good way to get arils out of pomegranates thanks to Alton Brown of Good Eats.  It was simple enough, so I though we would try them.

It's an odd thing...you bite down and get a squirt of juice and then have the sac left...it is kind of like when a kernel of popcorn hasn't quite popped all the way.  However, Isaac loves them!  Loves them!  Probably because they're juicy.  They were an instant hit.

And somehow, I'm not really sure how, he started paying for the arils.  He has a bunch of coins, and so it was one aril per cent.  Then he does some extra chores to earn his money back.  Yesterday I had him read Dear Zoo to Joshua (so cute!!), today he had to put all the shoes in the shoe closet.

So, somehow, pomegranates are teaching him about the value of coins (through a dime), addition, and work ethic.  It'll be good for as long as it lasts.

Friday: 11 years

Ben and I have now been married 11 years!!

We've had some ups and downs, but mostly ups.  It's been a good 11 years. God has blessed us abundantly.

In other news, today we drew "dust the baseboards" (it went ok) and "make a coconut tree".

Here is what the tree was supposed to look like (and here's the link):

Here's what ours looked like, modeled with a letter going up the tree and into the top:

Now, ours didn't look much like the example.  1) I thought I had disposable bowls, but didn't.  So that changed it a bit.  2) I don't have paints and didn't want to buy them for this activity.  3) Isaac isn't great about cutting shapes out yet, so in order to have him participate the leaves had to be more simple.

All that being said, it was a good activity.  However, realize that it's going to take all day...we needed a ton of glue to hold the paper towel cylinder to the cup and then it took a long time to harden.  I wished I would have realized that earlier.  But we read the book a few times and Isaac put the ABCs in the cup.  He didn't play with it quite as much as I was expecting, although part of it could be that I got play-doh out to help hold up the tree and then he just wanted to play with that.  So a better base might be useful.

Thursday: dumb monsters

So this morning there was apparently a monster in the house that made Isaac afraid to leave the room I was in.  I told him Jesus would go with him in scary situations, which lead to a semi-theological discussion about how Jesus is going home but Chico the monkey would help him.  I tried really hard to have Jesus help him too, but to no avail.

Anyway, next up on our list was Meijer.  I may have walked around the store after getting the few groceries that I needed because everyone was content and no one was crying about the monster outside the door.  Yes.  There were tears at one point over this imaginary monster.

Today's draws were to clean the bathrooms and invite someone over to play.  I know I need to clean the bathrooms more than just when I draw it, but I also know I need to clean them more than I do so there was a good chance it would work out.  And it did.  So now we have clean bathrooms.  As for the person to invite over, I started suggesting some of his friends his age, but he would have none of it.  Grandma Pat was available and willing to come over though, so it all worked out.

(I thought it was a nice smile...well, I think he was at least trying.)

Wednesday: this and that

Let's see.  Today's work activity was to clean under things.  We cleaned under the couches (which didn't really need it, but that's what Isaac suggested we clean under), the fridge,

and the oven.  I was kind of afraid of taking the drawer out...whenever we have an ant problem they come from under the oven.  I was basically imagining an ant nest made from Flurry hair and food under there and ready to freak out.  Luckily, it was significantly better than that.  There are currently no ants, but next time they show up I'll take the drawer out and see if I can find where they're coming from.

The fun item was to cut up magazines and glue them.  It only went ok.  Possibly because I wasn't there as much since Joshua needed to go down for a nap and was resisting.

Isaac also wore this outfit today, that he picked out himself.  Black.  It's kind of too bad it wasn't black day today.

And one last video...

At the end he says, "That was a lot scary."

Tuesday: summer activities, Mother's Day pictures

This morning Isaac pulled the following activities out of the jars: draw a picture for Yameogo, our Compassion child, and beat the rugs.

Joshua had a picture, but since he really just wanted to eat the crayon I'm not going to send it.

Then the rugs...Isaac really enjoyed throwing them over the railing.

Then we beat them.  It was cold.  And the dust didn't really come out all that well...we quit before it stopped coming out.  I remember a character in some book hating beating the rugs (Laura Ingalls, perhaps?) and now I understand.

The Mother's Day pictures from church came out.  At least Ben and I look happy.