Family, Love, Literature, Crystals, and More {November and December 2019}

We enjoyed a lot of good family fun during the last two months of the Roman year.   We went through a crystal exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum.  Here are a few of the pictures I took:

The following were amazing geometric devices that were so fun to gaze into.  It felt like you could go on forever through them.

Neat how the geometric display can be seen reflected in this crystal!

After we finished the exhibit, we went outside the museum and walked the trails:

We read the following book, which was a sweet story that involves a girl who enters the care of her aunt and uncle after the state removed her from her parents' home.

We liked that book so much and found the description of another book of hers interesting enough that I bought and downloaded it on my Kindle.  It is also told in first person by a girl whose father left her, her mother, and her brother, and they became homeless and started living out of the mother's car. 

We never failed to enjoy the winter wonders outdoors.  I took new pictures of some frostweed (Verbesina virginica).  I walked with the kids down to the icicle-laden cliffs so that they could play.

I'm happy to say that I truly have the perfect-tasting fried rice down, and not only that, but I also make the perfect Japanese white sauce, too.  I had been disappointed the first several attempts, but I'm ecstatic that I have finally mastered this.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  It is very time-consuming and labor intensive, though, to cook and refrigerate the rice, saute fresh vegetables (onion, zucchini, mushrooms, and broccoli are our favorites), scramble the eggs, fix Japanese white sauce, and fry the rice. But it is sooooo good!

And look!  I made two cheesecakes for a sabbath dessert one week—one pistachio and the other raspberry, both with homemade crusts.  They were delicious!

In the previous post, the rat Tobin was featured.  The following rat is his brother Buddha.  Carissa trains the rats to go through obstacle courses for treats.

In late December, I read the following book to the kids, since its setting is winter.  It's a ghost story, but it teaches a lesson about racism, now and historically.

William sometimes goes on longer hikes with us elsewhere, but this time the three of us hiked near home.

And we went bowling, too:

When I had all four of my babies, we enjoyed a fun hot dog and marshmallow roast:

We visited my parents and other family.  I got my dad to take a walk with Carissa and me, and we ran into the boys driving the ATV down at the boat landing (White River).  

The four girls (including my two nieces) always spend ample time hanging out:

Meg and I

Then it was back to everyday life again.  During this semester, I stayed home to work on my bachelor's degree online and did some substitute teaching.  Two mornings of the week, Carissa has on-campus classes and drops the kids off at school on her way. I always see them on their way at the door.  

Sometimes I go for a walk and only one child joins me.  Often the child is Elizabeth.

Trust and Liv went through a brief spell of wanting to go hang out on the roof of the house.  

Trusten was assigned a cell project.  He was able to choose whether he wanted to do an animal cell or plant cell.  He and I worked on it together, and it was fun.  He really memorized the cell parts and what they did with ease.  He's always seemed to enjoy biology.  Hmmm, wonder from whom he gets that. ;-)  

I made up some sort of cake bread/cake that I think was both vegan and gluten-free.  Oh yeah, it was flourless, I think.  It contained banana and avocado, chocolate, and I don't remember what else.  I've got the recipe saved somewhere, if anyone wanted to contact me for it. It was somewhat good.

We were able to give the kids winter solstice gifts:

We also celebrated Elizabeth's eighth birthday.  My baby is getting so big!  

She likes to get cakes half vanilla and half chocolate.  She eats a bit of both.  She requested the candy decorations this time around.

Her class sang "Happy birthday" to her:

My biggest baby passed his driving test!  We left there and went to get his license.

Elizabeth made a Rudolph reindeer for art in school:

I made some sort of coconut cream pie that was a lot better than any sort I'd made before:

At the tail end of the month, we visited family again:

2019 was a pretty good year.  We certainly dealt with some challenges, but we enjoyed a lot of good fun and learned plenty of new things.

Until next time...

Jaden William's Very Belated 10th Birthday Post

Yes, William turned 10 back in June, but he wanted to go to a junkyard for his birthday trip, and he simply wouldn't give any other suggestion.  I told him that some day his daddy would just have to take him, that it wasn't really a birthday trip for the family.  And this year has been nothing short of crazy and somewhat not-as-usual.  For some examples:

*Both the boys' birthday trips were delayed (through Trusten's only a month-and-a-half).
*We took very few walks (I think this was mostly due to a strange-to-here number of mosquitos that would feast on us each time)
*We didn't read most of our magazines during the summer (but kept them back for later), which has never happened for months at a time, before.
*We've had times of less school more-than-usual. 
*And more!

But that's life, isn't it?  Sometimes things happen, and life gets jumbled around differently for a time, but then it gets better again, or there becomes a new normal...or whatever!  And you know what?  It'll be ok.

So...for a FLASHBACK, going back in time four months, here's a picture of Jaden William with his birthday gifts (which were meager this year--used books off Amazon and a few Smencils, whereas Trusten got a few Smencils and three pair of different fun socks, as he loves novelty socks), but that's ok, too, as it doesn't need to always be extravagant, which is a good life lesson!):

Trusten didn't want to miss the opportunity to have his picture taken with Brother.  

Then we took Jaden's birthday trip two weeks ago.  I finally decided it was time we go SOMEWHERE for his trip, so we decided to surprise him by going to the Crystal Bridges art museum.  We didn't get to see everything before we had to go (the twins certainly weren't as enthralled about it, if you know what I mean), but we can easily go back another time.  There are plenty of gardens and walking trails outdoors, too, and we got a nice day of exercise, sunshine, and fresh air.  I bet the gardens are beautiful in spring and summer.

I took a few pictures of my favorite paintings and other things.  There were several paintings of birds and things, but I'll only post a few here.  Jaden didn't have any favorites over the others.  He said, "I didn't have any favorite.  I liked all of it.  A lot."

 I should have gotten the kids to stay closer in the foreground in the above picture (not to mention not having them stare into the sun), but I was disappointed I had to hurry to get a picture at all, as Nathan took off with Elizabeth in the stroller and was making a rather speedy getaway!  LOL  I think he'd heard enough of Liv's whining and Trusten's transgressions of getting too close to the art.  But anyway, isn't that metal tree so neat?  The sky was perfect!

 Some of my personal favorite paintings are shown above. 

I keep wanting to call the branch creature a deer, but I believe it's a horse.  I don't know why I want to think of it as a deer.  I just had to get a picture of the kids with the pig!


Coming soon is an update on what the kids have actually done in "school", as well as fall pictures, and a general update on the kids. 

Until next time...