Grand Ohio Adventure

One full day back and hardly a moment to reflect. In short, the visit to Dr. D's parents Thursday through Saturday was one of the easiest but strangest we've had.

First, we went out for pizza with Dr. D's parents to our absolute favorite pizza place ever - Marion's, which defines good pizza. Really. It just doesn't get better, even if it comes on cardboard trays and we all were crammed in a corner of a very busy restaurant. Delicious and fun. After which we all went to the pool. Dr. D's dad hung out in the hot tub and his mom sat and watched while the rest of us frolicked. Or while Fish and Mud Pie frolicked and St. Nick screeched every time anyone came near him. The water was only up to his chest, but he's always been touchy about the water. Swimming lessons were a disaster, and that was when he was 2.

Now for the strange thing: We stayed in a hotel. A Residence Inn, to be exact - two bedroom suite with a living room and kitchen. All to ourselves! It was bliss. Well, mostly. We expected it to be bliss, and it sure seemed like it would be. Night one we put the boys down in the queen bed and Mud Pie in a portable crib (she barely fit) and all were out by 9pm. Only Mud Pie awoke a handful of times between 11pm and 3am. 3am is when Fish's cough woke him, and heaven forbid he be awake alone. So he chatted to St. Nick until he woke, and Pie of course joined in the fun. Dr. D went in with Fish, St. Nick came in with me, and Pie lay awake happily kicking her feet in the crib. Finally, around 4am I sent St. Nick to the couch (far, far too wiggly) and slept until 7:30. That was good enough for me. I let Dr. D snooze until 8:30, but I knew breakfast was done at 9, so we all dragged out of bed and had a truly incredible full hot delicious breakfast. With coffee. Lots of coffee (for lucky Dr. D. I'm off caffeine).

And what do good hotel-staying parents do after breakfast? Return to the pool, of course! More frolicking (Fish and Pie). More screaming (St. N.). But fun.

Now, after the pool, the parents got smart. We went to Walmart and bought children's Nyquil and some pool floaty toys, like an inner tube and a raft. But, alas, next stop was not the pool, it was a shopping center to meet Dr. D's parents for lunch.

We got there half hour early. And we saw this fascinating restaurant called The Pub with authentic British goodies, and Dr. D and I were dying to go there, and we even convinced the in-laws to go there, and it was fabulous - the decor, the menu, the servers, only ... there was no children's menu. So, despite being slightly embarrassed (mostly me, and slightly is a slight understatement) we left and went to Panera instead. There we learned that a kids menu is not a must since our kids don't eat real food anyway. They were cranky (see above on how we all slept), we were cranky, the poor in-laws didn't know what to do with us.

Dr. D wanted some time to talk with his dad before he starts stem cell replacement next week (can understand that), so Mom and I took the kids and walked around the shopping center. Highlights: Great bookstore, cool bathrooms (sigh. life with kids), and nice level sidewalks for running.



We fetched Dr. D and Dad and went back to Legacy (where they live) to hang out. There I remembered exactly why we opted for a hotel, and decided that yes, a night of very little sleep was much better than seven people in a two-bedroom, one bath townhouse. We took a walk, and ate a yummy dinner, and spent some time gabbing, and went back to the hotel where we ... drum roll ... went to the pool! Much more fun for St. Nick with the floating toys.



After which we made use of the Nyquil and let St. Nick stay up so Fish and Pie could sleep. Then he slept on the sofa and we slept (wonderfully) in the other room. Next morning was yet another delicious breakfast and yet another visit to the pool. I was getting a little pooled-out by that point.

And then it was time for the six hour drive home. Heaven be praised for technology, like VCRs in minivans. Since then we've gone to church (fantastic service), straightened the house for two Sunday afternoon showings, visited two open houses (one of which I went to myself while Dr. D and the [fussy] kids waited in the van), ran an abundance of errands, and finally really truly came home.

For a photo-journey of our trip, click here.

Week in the Life: A Report

I've been using Homeschool Tracker, but the past few weeks I just couldn't think clearly enough to plan/keep up with it. I may not go back, which is a freeing thought. Anyway, I may well be procrastinating on judging an entry to the ACFW's Genesis contest right now, but I haven't done a school update in ages, since I started using HST, and I feel like doing one now. So, here it is! (That contest entry will still be there tomorrow. It really will. Sigh.)

What we did and how it went...

Monday the 17th:
Leading Little Ones to God, lesson 49.
Read You Wouldn't Want to be in Alexander the Great's Army in its entirety.
Had a picnic in the living room. Not really school, but fun and out of the ordinary.
Review #5 in Singapore Math 1B. All fine except skip counting by fives.

I thought we needed more work on skip counting, but later St. Nick counted by fives without issue. I don't know why he got hung up on it in the review.

Tuesday:
LLOTG, 50.
Math topic 8, ex. 46. (Numbers to 100)
Scholastic Success with First Grade worksheets on maps - borders (pp. 284-5).
Ancient Greeks (Usborne). St. Nick read this himself, supposedly, and drew a rather hasty sketch in his history notebook of ... I don't recall and I don't feel like getting up to look and I might not know what it is even if I did.
Read another chapter of Mouse and the Motorcycle (Beverly Cleary).

Wednesday:
LLOTG 51 (St. Nick and I alternated reading paragraphs).
Math ex. 47-48.
St. Nick looked at Dangerous Journey (a retelling of Pilgrim's Progress, which we'd read a few months ago).
Looked briefly at Life in Ancient Athens (which wasn't very interesting for either of us, sorry to say).
Read Alexander and the Stallion (by Elizabeth Westra, also known as Grandma).
St. Nick read Jason and the Golden Fleece independently. Or at least read some and looked at the pictures. I'm not sure.
Scholastic Worksheets on Naming Words (pp. 199-201).

Thursday:
St. Nick watched television and played computer allllll day while Grandma W. read a book or read to Mud Pie and while Mom and Dad had Fish at the hospital for his surgery. Not very happy about this.

Practice for the big day!

Friday (today!):
LLOTG 51.
Math ex. 49-50.
Scholastic Worksheets on maps (US map), and on exclamation sentences.
Read King Midas and the Golden Touch by Charlotte Craft.
St. Nick read Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel independently. He finished it pretty quickly, so I'm not positive he didn't skip words, though he was able to narrate back. Hmmm. Isn't he too young to be speed-reading?

It was also a no-computer day (see comment on yesterday), which meant St. Nick spent most of his time pacing and being bored. I relaxed the computer rules when I was ill, so for two weeks he played in the afternoon. Now I'm regretting it. Gone is the boy who raids the recycle bin to "invent" things with tape and cardboard and paper clips. Back to the boy who sits and whines, "What am I going to do? I'm soooo booooorrrreeeeddddd!" Huge melodramatic sigh. We're giving the laptop to Dr. D's father, now that Dr. D has his laptop from the office, but our desktop (out for repairs since November) will be coming back this weekend with Uncle. Drat! Maybe we really should get rid of it altogether.

Fish also did some work this week, like had surgery and a pre-op tour of the hospital. We've read a handful of books to him, including his all-time favorite of Yoko by Rosemary Wells.

Overall, a good and very busy week! I'd say "now to those contest entries" but it's too late for that. Mud Pie will be up soon, and I don't really want to read them today anyway. How convenient.

All Done!! Fish's First Surgery

Today marked the first surgery ever for any of the children - Little Fish to have a hernia repaired.

He did so incredibly well! We were at the hospital two days ago for a tour, which did wonders to alleviate his fears. He bopped right into the hospital with only a little hesitation (because we didn't go immediately to the play room). He loved the hospital PJs, was a sport with temperature taking and blood pressure cuffs and other kids in the play area. I was expecting him to be more of a Thunder Cloud, and I was pleasantly surprised to see him winning over all the nurses with his cute little self.

After surgery, however, he was a sleepy guy! It was a good half hour before he stirred in recovery, and we had another hour before he was ready for some bites of Popsicle and sips of juice. And after that, he fell back asleep until we woke him to get dressed.

After which he promptly vomited.

Overall, a very positive experience (as positive as surgery and hospitals can get, I think). But no swimming for him, so no visiting the hotel pool with Uncle and Aunt and Cousin this weekend.

Here he is just waking up:













And here getting some ice chips from Dr. D.

Adventures in Home Searching

Picture it, long winding drive with lovely homes off to each side. Quaint bridge over a stream, woodlands spotted in snow.

We're on the look for the house belonging to the For-Sale sign out at the road. I'd seen it on the MLS and had written the address in my notebook, a notebook which was sitting helpfully on the mantle at home.

"I think it was in the 5500s, or 5600s? The first number was 5," I said. Only we didn't see any house that looked like the photo online. We came to what appeared to be the end of the road. There were wheel ruts going on, through what was left of the winter's snow, but it was such an untraveled path. We didn't dare risk it. We went home.

And we checked the address. "It WAS down that path!" So, ever-determined, we returned last night. The snow makes the drive treacherous, but there it is, the house from the picture. Only we can't take time to see it. We're focussed on making it up the gentle, but snow-covered incline of the driveway. Near the top, the wheels begin to spin.

We try pushing, rocking, packing dry leaves under the tires. No use. We are stuck.

But! The 45 minute wait for a tow truck gives us opportunity to peer in the windows, walk around the property. Since it is vacant, we don't feel too awfully like trespassers. It's lovely!

I was still thinking of the last time we drove up to an out-of-the-way house and nearly got stuck, so I dismissed this house as soon as it was clear we weren't making it up the drive, but Dr. D wasn't so quick to judge. And, standing there in the snow, stranded with three kids in the van, was about the most normal I've felt in weeks. Unfortunately, that hasn't lasted, but the house is still beautiful.

Pharmaceutical Guinna Pig

Over two weeks of illness - not sure what's going on. St. Nick's hearing is still not right (though it's only been three days since he started the 2nd antibiotic for the ear infections), and me ...

I took a prescription last night and had a horrible reaction to it - tremors, restless, quaking muscles. Like having fever chills without the fever. And the real kicker: I had not read the package info to even think these could be side effects. Dr. D read it after I started experiencing things and could hardly believe he was seeing my symptoms on the "serious rare side effects contact your doctor immediately" list. So we did contact my doctor, but once you take a pill, there's nothing to do but wait out the effects. It lasted until probably 9am before finally subsiding.

Will I ever feel like myself again?

On children...

R. Scott Rodin writes (from the forthcoming Stewardship Resource Bible):

Children are a gift from God (even in their twos and those teenage years). They are never "ours" in the sense that we have an absolute right of ownership over them. Our children can never be considered in abstracto from their relationship to us as God's gift to be stewarded and cherished. How tragic is our human history of abusing, manipulating, devaluing, and ultimately destroying the lives of the children entrusted to us by God. What impact would it have on our world if parents saw their children as precious gifts from God that require our loving and committed stewardship?

What a convicting lesson. It is far too easy for me to forget this, especially when I'm surrounded by culture that outsources every task of parenting to others, from saying good morning to the goodnight kiss. They need this assistance, they say, to "get a break" from these little beasts who have put a damper on the fun of life. And having children does change life.

I'll admit, Fish and Mud Pie's constant bickering drives me to distraction, especially when I'm so ill. And St. Nick's endless energy (except now that he's sick too) can exhaust me. This past week (or two, or more) has been challenging, not just in the "getting better" department. It's been hard not to resent the runny noses and constant demands. The little beings who don't stop or even slow down when I'm barely able to attend to them. If anything, my illness or fear or distraction makes them all the more desperate for affection, which heightens the tension. Only, it doesn't have to.

It's my prayer that Dr. D and I will always remember that these lives are entrusted to us, and our responsibility in raising them is a sacred act of devotion. Both to them and to God.

Everything We Need

I started a post a day or so ago, a rambly whiny post about how hard life has been the past eight days, ever since my persistent cough became something truly noxious. Add to that, everything else seeming to fall apart at once - dental troubles, our mini van needing repairs, Fish needing surgery ...

But whining isn't the response I need to have. I've prayed so much Scripture the past week and a half. On the way to doctor's visits, as I've held St. Nick as he smoldered with fever, over the phone with a pastor from our church. It's right there, as obvious as can be. God has given us everything we need.

Not very profound, that. But does it have to be, to be true?