Jack Lately

I really need to do a better job of just blogging about the little things the kids are up to because they add up - and change! - so fast!  I've been adding to Jack's list for a little while and it's pretty long now.  Here we go...

Jack has done a good job of maintaining As and Bs this term (after a bit of a rocky first half of the year during which if he had any grades slip down to a C he'd lose screen time until the grade went up again).  I feel like he respects the rules and process at home and he's also in a better groove at school.  His Latin teacher copied me on this email to Jack a little while ago: "I just wanted to say thanks for your participation this week in Latin class. We went over some hard stuff this week, and you were very engaged the whole week, and I feel like you were one of the students who understood best what was going on. Thanks for always being willing to participate in class and answer questions!"

We found out recently that everyone will be at school for the full day Monday-Thursday beginning at the last term, with Fridays being used as advisory days.  It will be a bit of a shock for everyone, but I'm hoping it won't be too hard on Jack.  

Jack has been expressing his creativity in a few different ways lately.  At the beginning of the year he was really into drawing (photos coming later), and during a brief obsession with the Monsterverse (King Kong + Godzilla) he began writing a new book called Monster Island: Legend of the Idol.  He shared it with his English teacher, who gave him some feedback and said, "Hey! I read what you have so far, good work bud!  Let me know when you get more done, I look forward to reading it!"

Another creative outlet for Jack has been finding and creating his own memes, and putting them together in themed slideshows.  This is one he came up with on his own:

His creativity got the better of him during a recent history assignment to research a historical figure and put together a slideshow about him/her.  His rough draft was was heavy on cartoon images and exclamation marks and light on research and insight, so I spent some time with him to turn it into a scholarly presentation (with some personality - if not as much as he started with).

(we didn't keep the original title slide but this is a close recreation)

(the title slide for the presentation he turned in)

Jack auditioned for the school's spring musical: "Romeo and Juliet: Love is a Battlefield."  It will use the original Shakespeare text but add in 80's musical numbers, and the costumes will be inspired by 80's fashion.  Jack is in a couple of the ensemble groups and he's enjoying it so far.  I'm excited to see the performance!

Jack has gotten into Wings of Fire again and even started a WoF book club.  He invited a few friends from school to meet him on Friday to discuss the first part of the first book and do a few activities that he put together, but nobody was able to come that day.  Fingers crossed that he has better luck this week!

When asked what he wants to do when he grows up, Jack said he wants to be a farmer, an author, and a marine biologist.  Not that he's narrowed it down to those three options.  He wants to do all three.  Yes, he's planning to live in Florida.

We were out shoveling/snowblowing after a storm
last month and I asked Jack to shovel our elderly neighbor's
sidewalk and he did it without any whining or complaining.

Jack got this cool Chia Pet for Christmas and we were
all excited to see how it would look.  It was a bit of a tricky
endeavor to get the chia seeds to stick to the straight back of
the pod, but it turned out great!

Isn't it cute?  Now we need to start again!

Jack is officially into Legos again.  He's been working for several days
to put together a set that has been disassembled for a long time.
So far we've found most of the pieces...

Jack used to hate the dentist - even just cleanings.  But he's doing so much
better now and didn't even need to be coerced to go in for work last week!
(Pic taken after he got two fillings on opposite sides of his mouth,
enjoying the wonders of numbness not wearing off quickly enough.)

Jack was waiting for a work area in his room for a little while and was
disappointed when Luke's Area 23 was set up first.  But soon after, I found
this great desk and chair on Facebook Marketplace and we got Jack's
workspace set up.  He helped me add the leather pulls to the drawers and plan
out and make the shelves.  I surprised him with the magnetic
board and fun people-magnets.

The Latest Craze

In the fall, one of Luke's friends introduced him to a show on Disney+ called "Gravity Falls."  It's like "Phineas and Ferb" meets "Stranger Things."  Or, if you're not familiar with P&F then maybe "The Simpsons" is the next closest series.  It's an animated show about two kids who move to a town in Oregon where strange things happen and they try to figure out what's going on and keep the town from getting destroyed.  Luke has become obsessed with the show, and he's turned the rest of us on to it too.  It's really funny, but also very weird.

Last week, Jack decided to buy a book that's featured in the show called Journal 3.  He'd seen it at Target and couldn't get it out of his head, so we went back to buy it several days later.  Jack liked the idea of surprising Luke with the journal and it really worked - Luke was so excited!  He said, "I can't believe that Journal 3 - the legendary journal 3 - is IN OUR HOUSE."  Both boys spent as much time as they could poring over it.

After getting the journal, the kids finished both seasons of the series, but it was still fresh in Luke's mind when he created his very own portal using simple household items: stuffed animals, duct tape, socks, and the top of a toy light sabre.  Who knew?

Born Again

More From Luke

A few weeks ago Cat was explaining that thermonuclear atom bombs (the reaction happening at high temperatures) and Luke asked, "So you can only use them in summer?"

Another day, Jack admitted that he got some spit on Froggy (Luke's preferred bedtime stuffed animal for forever) and when Luke checked to see if it was spit he said, "Yes it is.  Indeed, I felt it."

A few weeks ago Luke got in the car after school and informed me that he wanted to be in the Army or an electrician when he grows up.  When I asked him why he wants to be in the Army, he said because he wants to "fight for freedom."

"Whose freedom?"

"America's freedom.  Also, anger."

"What do you mean, anger?"

"Anger at other countries."

Recently I decided I wanted to read a chapter book with him at night (something I haven't done as much with Luke as I did with the older kids).  We looked through our shelves of chapter books and I made several suggestions of books I thought would be fun.  He finally chose one that hadn't been on my radar, but which definitely makes sense given his interest in the Army: I Survived the American Revolution, 1776.  We're both enjoying it!

On a related note... during a brief origami craze, Luke made these ninja stars.  So that he'll be prepared.  In case of attack.

Luke had a vision to make a giant gummy worm by melting gummy bears that were wrapped in Froot by the Foot.  He was so excited about the outcome that he shared it with everyone.  After he brought some to Ben, who was upstairs working in the office, he came down and excitedly reported that Dad had given the creation five stars.  I told him that Dad had never given anything I'd made five stars and Luke giggled to himself and said, "No offense, but that's funny."  Then after thinking about it for a minute or two he added, "And you've made a lot of things."

Ben took Luke to several stores to try to find new school shoes.  After striking out over and over again, they turned to Amazon, but still couldn't find the right size/option.  Ben finally checked Walmart.com and Luke immediately fell in love with these beauties.  He didn't want the rest of us to see the picture before the shoes arrived, and when they finally did come, he quietly sat on the chair reading and smiling to himself, waiting for everyone to notice.  He says he chose them because they're so colorful.

Luke has been struggling to get his homework done all year, and has had to stay in at recess several times to finish work that should have been done in class.  He particularly resists writing.  He's also a very fidgety kid, and almost never sits through a meal without getting up at least once.  He's had some trouble staying in his seat at school this year too.

We had him assessed for ADHD at the end of January but he didn't quite meet all the requirements for a diagnosis.  One of the suggestions from our pediatrician was to find a quiet place where Luke could do homework, free from distractions.  This had been on my mind but hearing it from the doctor motivated me to make it happen.  I cleaned off an old desk we had in the garage and made a place for it in the catch-all room in the basement.  Luke had been talking about Area 51 shortly before this so I suggested we call his new workspace Area 23 (to do with his birthday) and Luke agreed.  It's been very helpful so far!  

I also started looking for other options to help him reach his potential and be more successful at school, and decided to start physio neuro therapy.  It's a 6-month program designed for bright kids who are struggling.  We meet with a trainer once a week to review and learn new exercises, then I help him through the exercises at home 5 times a week.  The exercises are designed to create more efficient neural connections, helping him to have a better memory, an increased ability to focus, and better coordination.  He started last week and it's going well so far!  I cleaned out the multi-purpose room in the basement a little more so that we could set up the equipment for the exercises.  It worked out that we were already using that as a workspace for him!

UPDATED 3/16/21:

The day after I published this post, Luke told me he actually wants to be a detective.

When he was getting ready for bed that night, I told him he should collect all the dirty clothes in his room and put them in the dirty clothes hamper in the laundry room.  He replied with, "Oh, that's gonna be a big load."

The Chicken Chronicles 2.26.21

 

A few fun things happened this month!  First, as you may be able to see below, Buttercup was caught on camera hogging a treat.  We've started bringing out the heels of our wheat bread loaves and breaking off bits for the chickens.  They get really greedy with this (and certain other kitchen-scrap-treats) and sometimes jump to grab big chunks from our hands before we've broken them up.  Buttercup managed to get a big piece of the heel one day and ran off with it, unwilling to share with anyone.  Ms. Felix was in hot pursuit, but Buttercup held on to that bread as if she was a condemned prisoner with her last meal.

It was really fun to see the chickens out in the snow when we got a few inches in mid-February.  They were definitely cold, but they were still willing to be out in the snow.  It was fun to watch them tromp through the snow - you couldn't even see their legs.

I picked up some of the chickens to snuggle with them and warm them up a bit, and Hei Hei was the one who seemed to enjoy it the most.  She even started purring.  I could feel and hear her happy vibrations and she contentedly let me hold her for several minutes.

They've gotten even more picky about kitchen scraps.  They aren't really
interested in strawberry tops anymore and won't even look at vegetable scraps;
but they love when we bring them discarded blueberries or raspberries,
bruised avocado chunks, and apple scraps.

Look how cute they were in the snow (and see a little Bandit attack):

Eliza's Birthday

At the end of the day, Eliza was ecstatic that her birthday was so "great."  We didn't do anything too crazy that day, but there were enough little customizations that Eliza felt really special.

She woke up and did her morning workout as usual, got a break from some of the work she usually does in the morning, and chose to have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  Right after we started driving to school she remembered that she's old enough to ride in the front now, so we pulled over so she could enjoy her first (officially sanctioned) ride in the passenger seat.

She shared (grocery store) sugar cookies and Capri Suns with her class, her less homework than usual, and enjoyed her requested pasta alfredo dinner with chicken and broccoli.  Everyone else got their work done in time for us to also have a movie night - which almost never happens on school nights!  We laughed out loud at one of Eliza's favorite movies, Bedtime Stories.  We also enjoyed cake and she opened a few presents.  She loved the necklace Mema and Papa sent, and has been spending a lot of time with the 3D pen she asked for.  I also surprised her with a metal print of a picture I took of a turtle at the Sea Turtle Hospital in January.

Eliza was really excited to have a birthday party this year.  We decided that the least risky option (Covid-wise) was to gather in a big space, so we scheduled another private viewing party the weekend after her birthday.  She invited 8 friends to come watch Tom & Jerry and we made cake pops and goodie bags to share.  All of the friends came, and they had a lot of fun enjoying snacks while they talked and joked and laughed during the movie.  (Not pictured: Whit, Jack, and Luke created their own boy area in the theater, watching from the second row.)

That night, Suz's family joined us at a hibachi steakhouse for dinner.  It was the first time any of our kids had been to one and they loved it!

It was so fun to celebrate Eliza's birthday!

Catsitting

Suz's family was out of town for a few days and hired the kids to take care of Lucy.  Jack spent the most time over there, making sure she had food and fresh water and playing with her.  But over the course of the weekend, everyone was there cuddling Lucy and keeping her company.

She kept us on our toes, though.  First of all, it was always a bit of a hunt to find her when we first arrived.  And she would run away now and then.  And then there was the time that she jumped off of the counter and hung out behind the refrigerator until we pulled it away from the wall and Eliza got her out.

"Look, I'm smiling!"

Sunday afternoon movie time at Suz's house.

Luke trying to spot Lucy behind the fridge.