What We've Done in Pictures

Obviously I'm behind.  There is too much going on in life right now.  I was planning to post my "What We've Been Doing..." post on the new month/moon day.  Then I had another regular post and then a super long post that I had started working on (and is a saved draft) that was a "travel-back-in-time and journey-forward" post, but ironically enough recent events have caused complications to that...and well, I may do something else with a much shorter version.

This is going to be my "What We've Been Doing..." monthly post with more than normal picture volume, and I'll be caught up.  There have honestly been a lot of days lately where things have been chaotic or at the very least disorganized, even several days in a row where I didn't even read to the kids...not even their daily Proverbs chapter nor any other bible teaching.

So here goes...

What We've Been Reading...

Jaden William's periodicals, plenty to discuss

Trusten's periodicals and more little readers

Liv's periodicals (she was missing a month's worth of stuff)

What We've Been Doing...

Jaden trying to light up a new bulb (an even smaller one that he took out of his flash light), but I think it was unsuccessful.

We went bowling since Jade has been persistently asking for awhile

This is what was going on behind me (without prior permission, so indoors will NOT happen again) when I last updated this blog.  The big fireball flame went quite high.  Jaden (to his credit, he researched the safety beforehand) placed isopropyl alcohol and olive oil in an empty bb or pellet can and set it on fire.  It also started sparking like fireworks, which slightly panicked this momma.  He said something like, "It's no big deal; don't worry," then tossed the lid on top of it, extinguishing it.

Elizabeth, about a month ago at 14 months, sitting to watch a learning video that was started for Trusten and/or Liv, NOT for Elizabeth.  I'm not really big on my babies under two watching anything on a screen, but it was amazing to me that she found herself a place to sit and watch.

Two sweet girls--Liv and Liz--playing and watching the hail outside (Feb. 25)

The day's weather: hail

Liz at the looking window (Feb. 26)

Snow!

Happy girl

Passover and the Week of Unleavened Bread are coming up, and I've been using up my yeast on making pizza crusts, so we've had plenty of pizza lately.  Mmmm...black olives and pepperoncini peppers

See the deer?  In this picture, there are two in the road, one in the yard (right).  I am REALLY getting ready to stop using my iPhone for all my pictures and go back to using my digital camera.  The phone sometimes takes really good pictures, but other times it is truly sub par.  Anyway, we've been watching deer a lot lately, too.  They are frequently in our yard and across the yard, down the road, etc.

Jaden took this picture.  I LOVE this!  I'm able to sit with Elizabeth and look at books with her...just like I did with Jade.  That never worked with either Trust or Liv.

Alphabet magnet book with Liv.  This was the first, maybe second (but it's been a long time) time I did this with her, and she did very well.  She knows all her letters, very rarely getting anything wrong (and when she does, it's like a 'd' instead of a 'p' or 'b' or something).  

The older three are watching an Amazon Prime video about Ecuador, and "Happy" is up there with them to snuggle.

I pull up the blinds in our bedroom, shut the bathroom door, and often gate our doorway so that Elizabeth has a safe place to crawl and play when I'm busy.  Sometimes our bedroom becomes a kids' hangout, though.  LOL

There she goes...Elizabeth is on her way to the window.

Elizabeth watches out our front storm door as Sylvester the cat swipes at the handle, wanting inside.

Liv, who was scooping water out of her and Elizabeth's wagon

Trusten excitedly running to get a picture with me

Trusten and I on a beautiful day

Sweet E and her momma

Trusten playing with Elizabeth who enjoyed crawling all over the yard that day (Mar. 11)

Jaden has been busy doing science experiments, reading about metals and other minerals, studying geography, and studying and learning languages.  He got it approved with me a couple months (I guess) ago to download a language translator app on his iPod.  So between these three things he was about to drive me up the wall telling me me stuff all day long.  I LOVE that he loves to learn and that he gets to explore things on his own like I liked to do as a child (but wasn't able to year-round), but he was driving me crazy, because I couldn't live in my own thoughts.  He finished his last most Language Lessons book, and I can't get him his next one, yet, plus he needs more practice just writing.  SO, I told him that he needed to just write in his journal each day the stuff he wanted me to know about what he learned.  That is working out nicely.

Trusten is still doing well with all his book work.  My really long post I spoke of was going to involve him a lot.  I'm just thankful to have him.  There have been a lot of challenges throughout his life, but he's such a blessing to me.  I just wish others could understand my sweet boy.  I most often get met with two opposite extremes, one of which devalues me and the other of which devalues him.  Some think I'm crazy, because when they are around Trusten they don't see anything out of the ordinary and probably think I'm making up stories about him and his behavior.  Others go to the opposite extreme and think he's evil.  :-(  He's dealt with many issues, and they're not his fault.  I just help him work through the things the best I can.  Here recently he has dealt with complex tics that take up at least two hours of his day, every day, when he lets it all out.

I sat down with him recently and explained to him that I know how he feels and what he's going through.  I have gone through my entire life with Tourette's syndrome, though I did not know what was wrong with me as a child.  I did learn to hide my tics (thankfully my condition is mild enough), but during the peak time, which was around the ages of about 10 to 13, I would get home from school and lock myself in my bedroom and tic for hours. You can't do that kind of stuff in public.  People will think you're a freak.  Nathan went to college with a man about 40 years of age (at the time) who did have the same type of tic who did it during class, and it's just sad.  I've spent years trying to figure out what all and what exactly causes it and related problems.  Of course, that brings me to the fact that it all comes with positive aspects as well (for some).  Thankfully those of us in this household do possess the positives that are common in the higher-functioning individuals afflicted. 

I feel bad for him, though.  He's extremely intelligent, very witty, full of energy and creative thought, and he's loving and kind.  I have strong faith that he will be someone great when he reaches adulthood, but he struggles with a lot.  I've just got to continue to help him be the best he can be (and that goes for all my children) and encourage him. 

Liv is always (as she has for quite some time) talking about being a momma to her babies or talking about how she is a baby tiger (or whatever, but tiger is most popular), Elizabeth is a baby tiger, and I'm the momma tiger.  Sometimes she adds the males in and says that Trusten is a "little" tiger, Jade is a "big tiger," and Nathan is a "daddy" tiger.  She is so funny. For the longest time she has really gotten into personalizing pictures of mother animals and their babies (and we are always looking at nature magazines and such).  She'll point and say, "That's me!"  And then, "And that's Baby Sister...and that's you!"  If there are only two babies, which there often are, it's always herself and "Baby Sister."  So lately I've been teaching her what various baby animals are called, so now when she says she's a baby tiger, she knows that also means a cub.

Elizabeth is still Happy.  She's a happy, smiley baby who is getting along just fine.  She's been getting into things more, but she's still an easy child.  VERY different compared to Olivia at this age.  She's still not walking at fifteen months of age, but she's been letting go to free-stand a lot lately, and then she slowly lowers herself and plops on the ground.  She loves to mimic sounds that she hears.  She still doesn't say much of anything, though, beyond "Momma" and "Da-da."  I need to work more with her on signing.

Well, this is all I have time for, and this catches me up.

 Until next time...

Lessons About Fire, Metals, and Snow; and Will's Lego Spaceships

It SNOWED, and we got about nine inches or so of accumulation, so we all had a lot of fun.  I posted about that on my last post, but after the snow was melting off, William asked me about snow.  He asked how it was made.  I decided to read straight from the encyclopedia to him.  He learned then that it is water that is in a vapor form that freezes into minute crystals and falls to the ground.  I then asked him whether he'd like to make paper snowflakes.  We watched a Youtube video instructing us how to make them, and he went excitedly making his own after I demonstrated with the first one.  They didn't turn out exactly the right way, but I think he did a great job.

 He then wanted me to remind him how to cut hearts, so I did, and I showed Trusten how to cut out a heart.  My parents' marriage anniversary had just passed, too, and they were about to visit us, so William gave his snowflakes and hearts as gifts. 

Before the snow melted away, we made a snow volcano. William made a center, I poured baking soda in, and then I fetched the camera and the baby, and William had mixed some paint in some vinegar and poured it in for fun:

He then delighted in shooting arrows through the "volcano" with his bow:

One day on the way to the grocery store one day, William asked about metal in the ground, what it does if you bury it for awhile and then dig it back up later, whether more metal in the ground would "build up on it."  So, I explained briefly that most metals would break down in the earth and the minerals would disperse through the soil.  I talked about finding iron nails and other iron pieces over the years, while digging, and how rusted the pieces would be, as they oxidized, breaking down and returning to the earth in dispersed pieces.  He said that he recently dug up some metal that he'd buried about a year ago and said that it looked as if it had pieces of other things building up on it.  I told him that was another possibility.

The next day Will talked about metals weakening in the fire.  He'd put some metal piece (can't remember what now) in the wood stove, and he said after the fire was out, it was still in there, and he got it out, and it snapped easily.  I told him metals could melt, and yes, they could also weaken and become brittle.  I explained how different types of metals had different melting points, etc.

The following day a dying fire with still quite a bit of burning embers was in the wood stove, and William took a lighter and was trying to light up something else in there separately.  He discovered twinkling sparks that were quite dazzling.  He called me over to see, and he asked why that was happening.  I told him it had something to do with the electric charge, but I wasn't sure how to explain beyond that.  Nathan later told him that...well, I can't exactly remember--ha ha--and poor Jaden William couldn't exactly, either, because the next day I told him I would film him making sparks, and in the video he forgot how to describe it.  There was hardly anything in the way of embers this time, though, so the video is not nearly as spectacular as the show we saw the previous day:

One of William's favorite things is to build with blocks.  The sixth day of the week is video game day where he gets to play video games (with breaks) if he's exhibited good behavior during the week (which he usually does).  One of his favorites is Lego Star Wars, so he likes to build Lego spaceships.  I told him I'd like to take a picture of some of his creations (the ones he had currently laid out on his dresser top).  I told him I'd post them to this blog, and he insisted that he tell me the name of each.  Some of them bear names I know he got from the Star Wars game, but some of the things he made up himself:

From l to r, front: 1. News-telling spaceship  2. News-telling spaceship guard 3. Tie fighter  4. Rescue spaceship 5. Half bull-dozer, half crane  6. Naboo Star Fighter.  From l to right, back row:  7. "Just a trailer"  8. battleship  ("white and yellow things are telescopes, blue ones are cannons")  9. Big-engined spaceship  10. race car (he explained his turbo engine setup to me...he's so cool).

Side 

11. "20,000 MPH Spaceship" (He explained in detail about how there are bombs stored, 20 seconds after they are shot, others have formed and then take their place, and then he explained how it has six places that are in control of speed, which is why the ship is so fast.  Doesn't look like there could be room for all that stuff, I know, but he showed me how he had it all figured out.  

If anyone wonders the same thing I have, namely that his colors aren't always symmetrical, he has explained to me that he runs out of certain blocks, so he has to use other colors.  It's because he will keep built ships, cars, etc. on his dresser for the longest.  He doesn't want to disassemble them.  What do you all think about the guys wielding their swords?  Pretty cool, huh?  Shhhh...no one tell him, but I'm planning to get him the Star Wars movies for his eighth birthday.  I haven't seen the recently-made ones, the 1-3.  I've only seen the old ones, 4-6.

  Some other things of which I've taken pictures are as follows:

The binder I made for Jaden William in which to file his history stuff

His new sock monkey "Sara" that he bought and a journal entry in which he wrote about it.

Will update again in a few days, so until next time....