Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, January 6, 2014

Outside my window...  still dark.  Wyatt just left to catch the bus, and it is cooooold.  Well below freezing.  I can't see the sky yet, but I'll bet it's clear.  For us, the coldest weather is clear weather.

Hearing...  Tate in the shower (the bathroom is next to my office), the furnace blowing, and Kerry puttering in the kitchen downstairs.

Pondering...  the sad family story of a woman I visited with yesterday.  There are no guarantees with raising kids... no formula that promises success.  No If I do A, B, and C, then D and E will surely follow.  I wonder where my boys will be in ten years?

Praying...  that they will be faithful.

Thankful...  for my wonderful family, my encouraging church family, sweet friends, a warm house, and these smiling faces.

Going...  to get back to our schoolwork, momentarily.  Oh, it's been a nice break!

Reading...  all the Appendices to the Lord of the Rings series, something I've never done before.  (Okay, I'm skimming.)  I was curious about some of the extra material in the new Hobbit movies and now I see where they got (some of) it.

Looking forward to...  starting new projects, this new year.

In the kitchen...  I cooked the boys breakfast.  Starting back to school after a long break needs some sort of special launch, doesn't it?  Only scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls (the kid that pop out of a tube, with a little tub of orange icing, so don't be too impressed!) but they enjoyed it :D

In the learning rooms...  I have no idea what we'll be doing.  I completely detached from school work over the Christmas holiday.  I think Gunnar and I will start reading about medieval England - King Arthur and all that.  Tate?  Still in the Civil War, most likely.  Math?  Science?  Hmmm... Tate is still studying weather patterns.  Gunnar will be doing some kind if experiment involving wire, a 6V battery, and a compass, and somebody needs some purple cabbage juice (indicator).  Yah, and exponents, and factoring polynomials, and apostrophes and auxiliary verbs.

Around the house...  evidence of much reading.  I love that everyone reads, but for-the-love-of-Mike could you please pick up your books?!  And I have much wintery, blue and silver, icy snowflake-y stuff out.  Interestingly, though, I've discovered something.  I like blue.  (We knew that.)  But blue candles?  For some reason, with the exception of some Partylite (ie expensive) blueberry votives, blue candles have the oddest scents.  I was given some for Christmas by someone who clearly was thinking of me and my likes - blue, check; candles, check.  But I think they have a little-old-lady smell.  Flowery powder maybe?  But I'm burning them anyway, because they're pretty :D

The Mother Load...  I have a feeling that the boys will be a lot more "hands-on" today, what with getting back in the groove and everything.  And there's so much to do!  One priority is to help the boys find some sort of Bible reading plan.  Tate has read straight through the Bible twice already, and there's sure nothing wrong with that (!) but I want them to have several options in hope that something 'clicks' with them.  And I'm shying away from ones that are highly scheduled because it's too easy to get behind and then just quit.  (Read through the Bible in a year, etc.)  Suggestions?  

Noticing that...  every time the phone rings, Gunnar jumps.  Really?  Why?  It's not like he gets a lot of calls, especially in the middle of the day.  (They're usually work-related calls for Kerry, and precious few of those.)

Something to remember for later...  when the boys remember (most of the time) they'll jump ahead to open/hold doors for me.  Very sweet :D

Something fun to share...  though we don't have cable and don't really follow professional sports, the boys always look forward to the super bowl, whoever is playing.  "Our" Seahawks are doing well this year, so maybe we'll have a personal interest, but I think they just like going to Grandpa and Grandma's for a party - Grandma's annual "Soup-er Bowl".  I'm bringing chili.

A favorite quote for today...  

All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage.  

Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.

I do love Erma Bombeck!

One of my favorite things...  real mail.

A Bible verse...  

He who forms the mountains,

creates the wind,

and reveals

His thoughts to man,

He who turns

dawn to darkness,

and treads the high places

of the earth - 

the Lord God Almighty

is His name.

A few plans for the rest of the week...  besides church, school, and CAP (the constants in our lives) we have a light week (yay!) - an orthodontist appointment (Wyatt is sooo excited), dinner with friends one evening, and possibly a (CAP) radio class on Saturday.

A peek into my world...  I took this out my window a few days ago.  Something about it looks peaceful - probably the quietness of a snowy day - and hopeful.  I think it's the way the branches all curve up at the end, like hands ready to receive what comes.  We are praying, with much hope, for a job for Kerry.