Saturday, January 28, 2006
There's education here somewhere...
Posted in Learning on the Narrow Path
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Moving is so stressful for us and the kids. The kids had to leave their home, their friends and move 2500 miles just before Christmas. This is the first year ever we didn't put up a tree, make cookies, have a hot cocoa wrapping party, all our treasured traditions. The only time we heard Christmas music was in restaurants on our way. Since then we've been trying to do so many things at once: unpack boxes, get rooms set up for efficiency and beauty, find our most important things (anyone seen the box that has my sanity in it?) and still cook, clean and do a little school. Then the "sickies" hit. Rose's allergies went crazy and her eardrum burst. My allergies also acted up and I got a screaming sinus infection. All the kids have allergy rashes, even the ones I didn't think had allergies! Dearest is in back pain from all the lifting and carrying. I thought we were coming down with chicken pox (all but the youngest two have had it, thankfully) but it didn't "bloom" right - so what ARE those bumps?! Jonathan's OCD came back with a vengence and now he's nearly incapacitated for several hours a day. Christy's glasses broke. Blair got a tummy bug. Then the house started up. The guest bathroom toilet started flooding the floor from the water intake pipe. The dishwasher started flooding the garage from somewhere beneath the floor. The thermostat is going crazy and running the air conditioner if the temperature in the house rises above 68. The microwave broke, the washing machine is dripping on the floor, the movers broke my brand new computer, the unused garage freezer's door somehow got pushed shut and is growing the most lovely green mold... So what have we learned, children? Christmas isn't about trees and hot cocoa wrapping parties. We know way more verses of Christmas carols than anyone realized. The further southeast we traveled the more Christmas was celebrated rather than some obscure "winter holiday." How we unpack boxes is as important as the job itself. Moving boxes make great toys. Jumping on bubble wrap in the dining room sounds like when you break a board in Tae Kwon Do class. Everyone in our family LOVES to cook! (Who knew!) Allergies are different in Tennessee than in Oregon. Eardrum anatomy - hm, where is that book with the walk-through ear model? When Mommy's head hurts, bubble wrap in the dining room is not a good game. Not scratching itchies takes a lot of self control. When Daddy's back aches, he can't bend over for hugs, but he can snuggle in his recliner. What is chicken pox, what causes it, what does it look like, can I get it AGAIN? The lens that used to be in Christy's glasses on her weak eye makes a fantastic magnifying glass! Raw carrots are not the thing to eat when you have a tummy bug. A couple gallons of water clean the bathroom floor really well. When you're in the garage, what rooms are above you? A new, digital, computerized thermostat may be "cool" but unless you want your air conditioner running in January, sometimes the old-fashioned kind is easier to learn. We must learn where our main water shut off valve is. There are alternate ways of heating leftovers, how many can we think of? You can use the coffee maker for making boiling water really fast. The Sears repair guy can do that cool Donald Duck voice. Mold is smelly, ugly, hard to clean off. Let's not grow mold in our bathrooms from towels on the floor, okay? Mold looks really cool under Christy's glasses lens! I'm sure there's education going on. I'm just not sure how to count the hours for the records... |
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Saturday, January 28, 2006 - records
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Posted by Monday, January 30, 2006 - Untitled Comment
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Friday, February 17, 2006 - Well done
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