TODAY
Out my window: Cool morning, warm forecast. Maybe Fall will come in November. More likely it will be winter and we will skip Fall. Oh well. The kids have been playing outside a ton (that's where they are currently). Last night they were thrilled to realize they were out so late they tripped the motion-sensor light before coming in for bed. Fridays are nice.
Around the house: Meh, not much. The bedroom situation is still up in the air, although I don't think she'll be moving back downstairs anytime soon. We usually put the dog box in the baby (currently Gemma) room during winter, but I have no idea how it is going to fit with our current setup. Aaron assures me everything will work out fine. He always does this, and amazingly things always do seem to work out. Still, I am dubious. I ordered some new candles for our Advent wreath. I believe we got 3 years out of the last set, so I am happy with that. We could probably limp through with them for another year, but they are pretty discolored and we had wick issues last year. This time I went with 3x4 inch pillars instead of 3x6s. Don't ask how long I spent shopping for them.
The kiddos: Gemma seems to have hit a bit of a rough patch of late. She has matured so much in the past six months or so, and I know I need to look at how far we've come (because believe me, its far), but it's still frustrating. She is growing up and I think she is experiencing some emotional growing pains. But enough of that! She was really excited about some pictures of the Pope they looked at at school yesterday. Like, super-duper excited. She wrote out, verbatim, the directions for how to get to the website and everything. She said it was www.vat, I figured out the Vatican.va part from there and as soon as we got to the website she was able to navigate it into English and find the photo page. I was pretty impressed. She also started spouting off all the Internet safety tips she has learned, which double-impressed me because we don't do much Internet at home and admittedly haven't talked a lot about that. Don't get me wrong, we will eventually when the kids have more access at home, but for now I am very pleased with what they're teaching her at school.
We had the kids' pictures taken at school as we have with Gemma the past two years. I really debated, because it's pretty pricey, but decided to go with it mainly due to the convenience, plus they turned out really nicely the past two years. Not so much this year. Gemma's head was tilted really funny (which I understand, and we could retake if we wanted but retakes are over a month away), but both kids' pictures seemed to be somewhat out of focus and had funny looking shadows in them. I returned them and am hoping the refund process will be straightforward. We'll stick with Portrait Innovations or another avenue for the foreseeable future.
Clement is so cute. The lady we visit in the care home gave him some stickers on Wednesday afternoon. He has literally carried them everywhere since then. He even slept with them Wednesday night. He is so proud of them.
Kolbe is always glad when the weekend comes. He seems to like school, he definitely tolerates it. He isn't quite as head-over-heels for it as he was at the start of the year, but he doesn't despise it either. I was a little anxious for his school conference to see how he was doing, and I was very pleasantly surprised at what his teacher had to say. Handwriting is more a struggle for him than it ever was for Gemma, but then he will go and surprise me with how beautiful he can write. I suppose I should stop obsessing so much. He is learning his sight-words and is starting to sound out /cvc/ words as well! He is very excited to learn to read!! He also talks about school a lot to me...what he had for lunch, what they did or read, different kids in his class, so that is fun. They do this "Zero the Hero" thing every ten days (10th, 20th, 30th day of school), that I am guessing will culminate on the100th day of school, and he really gets a huge kick out of that. School has been very good for him.
In the kitchen: This past week we had the first batch of Mexican chili of the season, chicken enchiladas, tuna/salmon casserole and breakfast for dinner. Up next week is pulled pork with potato casserole and some steamed veggies, homemade pizza, crispy chicken salads, stuffed bell-peppers and a family birthday party.
Learning: I got my little accordion folder back out to keep track of the kids' school things (papers that have to be learned/signed/returned, flashcards, etc.) I made some handwriting pages for Kolbe on this website. I still use the Handwriting Without Tears method with him though (just with the regular lined paper they use at school), even though they use ZB at school (the letter formation is similar for the most part). The HWT just makes sooooooo much more sense IMHO. I wish the school used it but oh well, I am pleased with what we are able to supplement at home. Clement loves the Mat Man song and can build Mat Man all by himself while listening. It is adorable. I am so glad we purchased the wood pieces set for capital letters, it is a great manipulative.
Reading: I have started Farmer Boy with Kolbe at his request. He didn't even want to read our own copy, he wanted one from the library, haha. I am not sure it will keep his interest, but we are reading it in the van while we wait for Gemma at pickup so we'll see. Almost finished with Rufus M. with all the kids and then we will read The Moffat Museum. Gemma and I got to page 170 of Ginger Pye and it was just too scary for her, oh she likes it a bunch and wanted to go on but then she would get so freaked out by the "unsavory character" that I made the executive decision it was time to put it down. We started First Farm in the Valley last night. I think Ginger will be a great read aloud with all three kids here in a few years. Clem's favorite book of late has been Press Here. He loves being read to and will also sit and read it to himself, and oh how he giggles. We read Angel int he Waters and On the Night You Were Born as part of Respect Life month, and we will also be reading Horton Hears a Who soon. And since it is now October, I pulled out our (very own, squeal) copy of Too Many Pumpkins this past week. That is probably in my top 10 list of favorite picture books. LOVE it! Both kids' teachers send e-newsletters in which they include a book title or two of what they've been reading in class, so I've been expanding on that by checking out said books plus other books by the same author or illustrator or whatever. This week we have been enjoying a big stack of books by Don Freeman. The kids took a particular liking to Earl the Squirrel. I have stunk at personal reading lately. I need to get back into it.
Watching: MLB postseason. Gearing up for Gold Rush!
Bringing me joy: Snuggling with the kids. "Dates" with Aaron after the kids are in bed or before they are up, or even the quiet time we have to visit on his day off when the kids are at school and Clem is playing on his own. Tasty beer. Good friends. Fall flowers. Cooking. Having the deck door open on cool mornings and evenings.
Thinking about: Oh, a lot of things.
Pictures to share:
I have taken so few pictures of late, it is insane. Here are a few recent ones I took of the kids when we went to a party downtown last weekend. We felt so classy. ;-)
Joseph Had A Little Overcoat - The perennial tale of being a good steward of what you have. The illustrations and cut-outs from page to page are fun to follow in this vibrant book.
