They Grow Up

I'm not talking about this kind of growth.

I'm talking about all of a sudden realizing how capable your little ones are.  

We are sorting, tossing, organizing, and packing a little bit each day.  Last week we had a puzzle party and did all of the puzzles so we wouldn't move any with missing pieces.

Do you know how many were missing pieces?

One.

Only one puzzle out of dozens that hasn't been cared for.

All the other times we have moved there have been dozens missing, lost, and broken.  

It's silly really, just a little puzzle, but it makes me realize just how much they grow when I'm not looking.

Historical Shift

For the last two years, we have done a big timeline as our group history project.  While certainly a fun project, repeating it for a third year didn't sound too exciting to me.  If it isn't exciting to me, I'm positive it is less exciting to the small children I call my students so we have been working on something new.

This year we have been studying the settlement of the Americas and writing our own book about it!

I'm not talking about a history textbook full of dates and details, but rather a compilation of maps, select biographies, illustrations, etc.  Instead of Story of the World, we are using a collection of history and geography books put together from major booklists covering American History.  We are also using the Pioneers & Patriots textbook.  Here is some of what we have covered thus far and what will be included in our "book".

South & Central America

An illustrated list of early explorers (courtesy of Caleb)
A current political map of South America (courtesy of Aidan)
Biographies of two South American Saints (St. Rose of Lima courtesy of Aidan and St. Martin de Porres courtesy of Caleb).



New France

A current political map of Canada (Caleb)
Illustrated explorer list (Aidan)
Saint Biographies (Aidan- St. Kateri & Caleb- St. Isaac Jogues)



The Colonial US

Map of the 13 colonies (Caleb)
Profile of life in the colonies (Aidan)



We are wrapping up our studies before we prepare to move, and this project will not be *finished* for quite some time.   We are hoping to finish up these sections and then next year we will move into the American Revolution and other early American history.  I haven't decided yet if it will be best to bind them just at a copy store or actually scan and/or type everything up to print more neatly.  I think it will depend on how everything looks when we are finished!

On a side note, while writing is still something that is challenging for the boys (and has a ways to go to reach "grade level"), their paragraph writing skills have improved a fair amount through this project.  I feel like this will open up a whole new world for us next year!

Weekend Entertainment

I've been promising to post a video of myself doing tae kwon do for awhile now.  It's a big step for me, so I'm going to tease you with this.  This is our demo team performance from our recent tournament.  Go ahead and pick me out ;)   (Aidan is hiding in here too...)

They Eat Green Food

This is my adventure into artichockes.

We get a weekly produce basket from Bountiful Baskets and last week I bought 2 baskets because we were hosting a First Communion party.  In addition to about 20 onions, I ended up with 4 artichokes.

I had never eaten or prepared an artichoke before in my entire life.

Assured by some excessively patient friends that it would be ok, I searched Pinterest and all of my cookbooks for artichoke pasta recipes.

And then like a good cook, didn't prepare any of them.

Instead I threw together some of the common flavors into a sauce that was a little more to my dietary preferences.    Into my Vitamix went chicken stock, greek yogurt, a little lemon juice, artichoke hearts, parmesan cheese, and spinach.  I didn't measure anything, just dumped and tasted.  I was going for a pesto type sauce....only without any nuts.  Or oil.  Or herbs.   So kind of nothing like an actual pesto.....

I redeemed my not-pesto artichoke sauce by serving it over pasta.



Shirtless blue eyed boy approved.



And all is happy in the house where we don't fear green food.

Caleb's Highs & Lows

This post is actually not anything about Autism stuff, although with all the stuff I'm about to tell you has gone on with this boy in the last 2 weeks (plus moving craziness) there has certainly been a fair share of those highs and lows as well this week.

Since he was little when Caleb has gotten sick, he has gotten sick.  I mean like playing fine one minute, lying on the floor out of it with a high fever the next.  I  keep thinking that he will outgrow this sudden onset of all illness, but so far no luck.  When he laid down on the floor a couple weeks ago, sure enough, his fever was 103.7.

That was Tuesday night, and knowing Caleb and knowing our weekend plans we took him first thing Wednesday morning, and sure enough...strep.  You might think strep throat isn't anything to be too concerned about, and certainly not warranting of mention in a blog post, but it gives perspective to the rest of the post.   Thankfully he did respond well to the antibiotics and no one else got sick...phew!

Friday we headed up the mountain for a tae kwon do tournament, our last of the year before Worlds in July.  Caleb helped with set up and hung out on Friday and then had his own competition on Saturday. He had a great competition, making it through all 4 traditional events without any melt downs.  His "reward" for this was getting to play in the bounce houses that were set up at the event.  (It wasn't really a reward, I just told him he couldn't play until his competition was finished.)

Not long after he fell out of said bounce house.  He was a little sad about it and said his arm hurt, but the medic on site checked him over and said she thought he would be ok.  He perked up and played (although NOT in the bounce house...he wanted no more of that) and was fine the rest of the day.

This is Caleb we are talking about, so I should have known.  He was ok on Saturday, ok on Sunday, and Monday BAM swollen arm.

Turns out...broken arm.

It's not a bad break, but of course he had black belt testing coming up on Saturday!  Thankfully we have some really awesome instructors who came up with a way for him to modify his board breaks and sparring and helped him figure it all out.  It was a little dicey and they kind of had to fudge the rules a bit to let him pass, but I think they just knew Caleb.

Instead of sparring with peers, he sparred an instructor with his cast padded and instructions not to use his arm!

Caleb will be Caleb, and even a black belt doesn't make him want me to take his picture.

As if black belt wasn't enough excitement, on Sunday, Caleb received Jesus for the first time in the Eucharist.   Such a beautiful Mass.

Or, so I'm told.  Afternoon special masses and toddlers don't really fit well together and I listened to what I could through the side doors while Logan talked to himself.  We snuck in for the actual communion portion of Mass and the parish hired a professional photographer for the event (do discourage parents with cell phone cameras) so I can see the rest for myself later.  Actually I'm quite excited for that CD because Aidan was serving at Mass as well and I am hoping for a few nice pictures of him in that role as well.  Part of the photographers deal is that we get rights for the images so I will be able to share them here once they come.

Caleb is not so into having his picture taking these days- at least he was slightly more receptive on Sunday!

He still has a cast for a few more weeks, but hopefully this is the end of all the excitement for Mr. Caleb!   He has all of his end of year evaluations for speech, OT, etc in the next month and I need him to participate so we can plan for his therapies once we move to Minnesota.