The Soy Scroll Prophecy

The younger kids' ELA book told us to make a scroll this morning.  We dutifully rubbed soy sauce all over some paper to make it look old, then dried it with a hairdryer.  When we checked our ELA book to discover what fanciful project we needed an aged scroll for, the book told us to use it . . . for spelling practice.  Rather than waste a perfectly good scroll on a spelling quiz, Anna decided to make . . .

. . . a squishmallow prophecy!!!  In case you're not fluent in our local squishmallow dialect, the soy-scented prophecy saith:

"Each and every squishmallow shall be found with their owner.

The hamster known as Doc shall continue to sit in Joy's hand!!!

Someone shall do something that maketh somebody else feel sad!!!"

Verily, the prophecy speaketh the truth.  Life is filled with ups and downs, and the people (or squishmallows) who love you will stick with you through both good times and bad.

Anna the Princess Angel

 Anna recently outgrew all of her Sunday dresses, so we got her a new dress that she says makes her look like . . .

. . . a princess sitting on a couch throne . . .

. . . or holding a scepter and a giant pearl.

When she's wearing the fuzzy, star-studded jacket that came with the dress, she says she looks like an angel.  Personally, I think she looks like a rock star angel from the 80s.  Either way, I'm glad she likes the dress. :)

The Rapunzel Club

 Notice anything . . .

. . . unusual about this picture?

Anna accidentally put her pajama shirt on backwards. :P

Speaking of Anna, her hair is getting rather long . . .

. . . but not as long as Joy's.

Glasses and a Catapult

Joy finally got her new glasses today.  Last time, she chose half-rimless frames that we had to bring in for repairs at least twice.  This time, I told her she was only allowed to choose one of the Flexon frames, which are virtually indestructible.  

As she gazed out the window with her new glasses, I asked if the trees suddenly had leaves again.  She replied, "No, it's winter.  But they do have branches again now."

In other news, our congregation hasn't had many activities for younger kids over the past few months, but they're determined to change that this year.  Todd is now old enough attend the boy group, and he went to his first activity on Tuesday.  They made little catapults, and Todd and his sibs have had a lot of fun catapulting beads and pompoms in our family room since then.

Anna's girl activity group got together this evening to paint birdhouses.  Anna is thrilled that her friend Shayla is old enough to attend activities with her this year! 

When I dropped Anna off for her activity, I noticed that the Young Women had covered a chalkboard with colorful Post-its showing things they love about the youth program.  A couple notes quickly drew my attention.  Enderman drawings and swirly capital F broadcast loud and clear: Joy made these ones!

The Year Journaling Became Cool

In addition to being the year of the COVID-19 pandemic and our crash course in homeschooling, 2020 was the year all of our kids started keeping journals.

At the beginning of last year, Joy's youth leaders at church challenged her to record her thoughts in a little, handmade journal they gave her.  It was meant to last her all year, but Joy wrote so much that she filled it up in a month.  She then started typing her journal on a computer, so she could write faster and not worry about running out of pages.  We started letting her stay up an extra twenty minutes or so after family prayer to write (or rant) about her day.

In September, Anna set a goal to be more grateful.  She thought a gratitude journal might help her achieve that goal, so while Joy stayed up typing each night, we let Anna stay up writing three or four things she was grateful for that day.  After a few weeks, I noticed that she was adding fun illustrations to each entry.  I also noticed that she seemed much happier.  She actually inspired me to start a gratitude journal too (without illustrations).

In November, Daniel asked if he could stay up to type in a journal too.  He said journaling sounded like fun (and he liked the idea of staying up later).  His entries tend to be short and lighthearted, with lots of exclamation points.

Last but not least, Todd climbed aboard the journaling bandwagon last week.  His gratitude journal is mostly an ode to squishmallows, and I suspect his main motive for keeping it is that he gets to stay up with his siblings.  Hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Gratitude and Honest Haiku

 Christmas break is over . . .

. . . and homeschool is back in session, as of yesterday.

One of Daniel's ELA assignments today was to write a haiku poem.  After reading some of the finest examples of haiku composed in the past few centuries, he wrote this poem straight from the heart:

"I don't like writing

I never want to do it.

This is just for school."

Meanwhile, the two younger kids' ELA lesson showed them how to make pop-up gratitude cards, in conjunction with a story we're reading about a character who learns to be grateful.  The instructions seemed simple enough, but actually making the cards was kind of stressful for me, since I'm not very artsy and the kids needed a lot of help.  Once all the drawing and cutting and gluing was done, I left Anna and Todd to write their messages while I worked on lunch.  A few minutes later, Anna warmed my frazzled heart by showing me who she'd written her card to.

Awww.  Thanks Anna. :)

Gifts in January

The younger kids were in the mood to bake yesterday . . .

. . . so we tried a delicious new cookie recipe (tips: make the dough balls 2" wide, and put the sheet of baked cookies into the fridge as soon as you add the Hugs, so they don't melt into white chocolate puddles).

This morning, we plated some of the cookies (and two marshmallow unicorn horns Anna received from her sister for Christmas) . . .

. . . and took them to our friends across the street.

A few hours later, Daniel's deacon quorum leaders arrived with a gift of their own: a pizza to welcome Daniel into the quorum.  (Thanks for sharing your pizza, Daniel!)

Lastly, this amaryllis was a gift from God.  Technically, Trader Joe's sold it to me (and I have no clue whether each one they sell will bloom as profusely as this one did), but having eight bright red blooms burst out all at once feels like a delightful gift from Heaven.  This beautiful, living bouquet makes me smile every time I see it.

"For the beauty of each hour

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale, and tree and flow'r,

Sun and moon, and stars of light,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise."

--Folliott S. Pierpoint