News

Let's see... What's been going on. Phoebe had another doctor visit last Monday. She had a puffy eye with some purple underneath. I thought maybe it was allergies and almost didn't do anything. She had a bacterial infection (could have been strep or staph); if it had gone into the orbital (part of the eye), it could easily get to the brain. So, I was glad I took her! THey gave her a shot which seemed to clear it up almost right away. And she's on medicine for 10 days.

Elizabeth had her portfolio exam for school. It was a public school teacher who did the exam. She asked her some questions and looked over the work she had done. She asked her, "If you could count as high as you can, what number would that be?" Elizabeth said she's counted to 219 but could probably count higher. The teacher said very sweetly, "Well, do you think you could count to 20 for me?" I don't think she believed the 219 number. :-) The only suggestion the teacher had was that we do a formal phonics program. Elizabeth is reading fine, but it would be good for her to have that base of phonics knowledge, so I ordered a book on that this week.

Phoebe woke up the other day and was crying to let me know. I went into the bedroom and she had her head leaning in her hand with her elbow propped up on the top of her crib like a Charlie Brown character. She said, "I'm crying." "Oh," I said, "Are you sad?" "Yea, I sad." She just cracks me up sometimes.

Jonathan is just going crazy. He runs and jumps and just needs to get his energy out. He's been painting 'Bibles' lately. He write squiggly lines on his sheet of paper and then wants me to use it for my Bible.

How Elizabeth makes juice

Most of it makes it into the container.

Park Play

I love the park behind our house. There's a huge open field of soft carpet-like grass. And a long sidewalk that goes all the way around the whole park. At the back end of the park is a lake at which we can do some of our nature study. Elizabeth loves to pick magnolias from the trees around the park.

Daily Life

An evening at home after baths.

Mother's Day

The kids began making cards and gifts for Mother's Day on the Wednesday before. They could barely wait to show me! Jonathan ended up showing me his gift box of cut yarn before the big Day. But Mother's Day arrived without me seeing most of the gifts. As you can see, I got fresh cut roses (from someone else's home; they shared with the kids); a wrapped plastic container with pearls on top which contained sour candy (I love!) and a dark chocolate candy (Elizabeth asked me a week ago which one was my favorite and "kept" one out for my gift. She says she stole it, but I keep telling her they were for the whole family, so she didn't steal it), a specially colored gift bag, a cut out basket from a coloring book with lots of flowers also cut from the coloring book and placed inside, and a card Jonathan made in Sunday School. And a laugh when Jonathan ran up to Phillip at church and cried, "Happy Mother's Day, Dad!" Phillip also bought me a lovely purse and I didn't have to cook the whole day before Mother's Day!

She's better!

Another Phoebe ER visit

Phoebe just seems to be catching everything this year! And we don't even go many places! Yesterday she woke up with a cough and then had a fever in the afternoon. She woke up several times during the night with the awful cough and raspy crying and we would sit in a steamy bathroom for a while till she calmed down. Sunday (today) I stayed home the first hour of church while Phillip preached/taught the high schoolers (he and the youth minister switched places this Sunday). Then he came home for Phoebe duty, and I went to church to teach my 4th graders. After a quick lunch (always taco crunch on Sundays!), we all loaded up in the car and drove to the Children's hospital ER. We were there 3 hours and had X-rays and saw several doctors. Finally a diagnosis: Viral croup (like last time) and an ear infection. I wish Phoebe would get sick during the week when our regular doctors were in the office; it's a lot cheaper and less time-consuming. Oh well, at least we don't have to wonder what's wrong with her.

Funny Jokes

Elizabeth came up with a joke during one of our Cotter Tens Fractal sessions:

"What did the blueberry say to the lemon?" "We make a good pear!"

She told me later that it was funny three ways: 1. They are all fruit. 2. The two colors combine to make a third color. 3. Two is a pair, and 'pear' sound the same as 'pair'. I couldn't believe she understood all of the implications of her joke.

Phoebe loves her 'macamOni'.

Jonathan comes up with mostly bathroom jokes, so I won't repeat them here.

The Cotter Tens Fractal

Huh? That's my first reaction when I saw this project in Elizabeth's math curriculum. It's easier if done with a group, but we had a group of two (well, four if you count the other two kids, but they were more of a hindrance than a help, I must say). Anyway, since I had no clue what this was about, I figure you may have very little clue also. "Fractals are a new branch of mathematics only a few decades old..... The Tens Fractal, a regular fractal starts with ten small equilateral triangles arranged in the pattern of a larger equilateral triangle, the ten triangle. Ten of these ten triangles arranged in the same pattern forms the hundred triangle. And ten of the hundred triangles in the same pattern forms the thousand triangle, the Cotter Tens Fractal. One purpose of building this fractal is to help the children visualize and experience the repeating tens structure of our number system. Another purpose is integrating mathematics and art." Yes, there are a thousand little green triangles in there, and yes, we cut them all out. The Fractal is 6 feet tall.