Girl Scout Week

 This past week was Girl Scout Week.  Girl Scout Birthday is March 12th and this year the Scouts turned 101.  It just so happened that Celee's troop had an activity planned for that day.  It didn't really have anything to do with the birthday, but it was nice to do something with other scouts on that day.  It also helped that Gwyn and Lyla got to go too.  Celee's troop went to a wonderful grocery store here called Wegman's.  This store is like a cross between a Whole Foods and a Publix to me.  Heavier on the Publix side, but that's about the best way I can think to descibe it.  Anyway, the girls learned about healthy food choices.  I must brag that when asked what each girl had for breakfast, one of my girls had the most healthy answer of the group with oatmeal.  They also got to assemble some healthy foods to try.  I think the only "new" thing on the menu was spaghetti squash for my girls.  They technically have had it before, but none of them remembered it.  They also re-learned to make Monkey Toast.  I don't think we ever called it that, but it is toast with some kind of nut butter and bananas on it.  Gwyn has made it almost everyday since!

Wednesday we met some friends to play in the park.  It was just too chilly though.  We gave up when I got the call to pick Celee up from the elementary school.  It was her last day of testing.  They made it through wonderfully!  I really am so proud of them.  And very thankful to the ladies in the office at Padonia Elementary who were so very welcoming to my girls and made their testing days go so smoothly.  We won't get results until the end of the summer, but the girls feel good about how they did and anything that helps build their confidence outside of what I can do make me happy too.  So to celebrate the end of testing, we went to our friends' house to play and by mid-day it was warm enough that the kids all got to play outside again anyway.

 The girls and I decided to go out to eat for further celebration.  It doesn't take a lot to convince me.  "It's a Tuesday! Let's celebrate!"  So we ate at Jason's Deli, which was very good, then we went to the Dollar Store and bought some plates to decorate.  We've been wanting some more plates, and I kept looking at a craft idea on Pinterest using sharpies and dollar store plates so we tried it.  The girls really enjoyed drawing on the plates.  It was neat because you can erase it if you make a mistake and then when you get it how you like it, you bake it and it's permanent.  We each got a plate (Jason has still got to do his) and now we can eat more than one meal without having to run the dishwasher.  Heaven forbid that we would have to wash plates by hand.  :)  Oh and i guess I was feeling crafty because I decided to make a bleach t-shirt.  I think it came out pretty good.  I did drop some bleach to the side of the picture so now there's this weird blob east of Meridian, but I think if anyone asks I'll just say that must be Birmingham.
**Plate update:  The wonderful pictures they drew on the plates lasted through 3 dishwasher cycles and then started to fade away.  We are back to almost white plates again.  :(  Jason was concerned that it was coming off on our food, but I'm pretty sure it is only in the dishwasher.  So much for that Pinterest project.**

   Saturday was the World Thinking Day Celebration here.  Lyla's troop was representing Poland.  Celee's troop was representing England.  And Gwyn's troop was representing Japan.  Each girl had a turn at their troop's table answering questions about their country.  Then each girl got to travel around to all the tables learning about all the countries.  Afterwards everyone got to sample food from each country for lunch.  Each troop also prepared a song or dance to represent their country to perform for the audience.  Lyla's troop danced a traditional Polish dance.  Celee's troop danced to the Beatles while dressed as Royal guards or princesses.  And Gwyn's troop sang a Japanese children's song.  All the troops did a great job and it was fun to watch all the different takes each troop had for their performances.  To top it all off, there was a giant swap at the end.  My girls brought their swaps from previous events as well, so they ended up getting to swap for several more of the country swaps than they would have.

Sunday was St.Patrick's Day.  Somehow I neglected to take a picture of anything that day.  Celee and Lyla decked out in as much green as they could find to wear to church.  They were very adamant that no one have an excuse to pinch them.  Gwyn felt like she could get by with a minimum of green.  We had some sort-of Irish food.  I made scones for breakfast, which I think is more English than Irish but oh well.  We had green waffles for lunch.  We had roast (no corned beef for us), potatoes and cabbage for dinner.  I even made a green souffle for dessert.  We had gone swimming in the afternoon, so we were all tired and decided to watch a movie for the rest of the evening.  I voted for the Secret of Kells, but I was voted out so we watched The Two Towers.  Again, not exactly Irish, but Middle Earth has some Celtic-ness about it right?  :)

The Snow Day That Didn't Happen

This past week Gwyn and Celee started taking the MSAs.  That's the standardized test that kids take here in the public schools.  For homeschoolers it's optional.  I opted for them to take it for the practice mostly.  I want for them to be used to taking this type of test when it comes time to take them later and the tests are more serious.  I also am not worried about them doing poorly on them.  I think it will be interesting to see what they do well and what we could work more on from the results.  The tests here are not norm-based, so they are graded on the content, not on how well they do in relation to other students.  I hope that this will give me some info to work with.  Maybe we need to work on some things more.  Maybe we're doing good or awesome in some things.  At least I'll have some data to go on beyond what we do at home.  Also, the girls have kind of enjoyed it.  Gwyn has more than Celee - she was put into a class with a fun-sounding teacher and two girls she already knew.  Celee doesn't know anyone in the class she was put in, but I think it's kind of interesting to them to be reminded what public school is like.  I think it will help them handle test anxiety too.  It's tough to go into a room full of people you don't know and take a test.  I'm really proud of them!  Gwyn has one more session this week, and Celee has three more.  I'm also super proud of Lyla because this week she finished her Teach Your Child To Read book.  She did not particularly enjoy this book. It is 100 lessons long and she went through seasons (the 1st 20 or so lessons, again in the 50s and 60s, and the last 15 or so) were she put up an irrational fight against doing it.  But I  learned during the first season to keep my cool and we persevered.  I will say that we would have chucked it if it didn't work.  She did learn to read.  And she did have many lessons that were pleasant as the front of the book promised.  And even if she denied it at the time, she was quite proud of herself when she would learn something new that she could read on her own.  In other news we did had a fake snowday last week.  A huge snow storm was supposed to hit us.   We were supposed to get between 6-12 inches of snow.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  It did snow a good bit, but it was mixed with rain and it was too warm so it all melted.  Anyway, that pushed the testing farther into this week.  The girls have been really sweet to each other about the tests all week.  They've made welcome home signs for each other, and fixed snacks for the one coming home.  Maybe all these outward expressions of love and harmony had to be equalized somehow because they have all also been at each other all week.

We made our own Sistine Chapel this week.  We are learning about Michelangelo and got to look at lots of examples of his art.  We talked about how hard it must have been to paint on your back on top of scaffolding for four years.  Then we got under the table and made our own.  The girls picked their own scenes from the Bible to paint.  As much as they love to paint, we're all pretty sure we don't want to have to do it for four years like that.  When they were done we displayed it on the ceiling in the entry hall.

 After all the testing and yucky weather and fussing this week, Friday turned off really nice.  We got out.  I took the girls to Oregon Ridge to do a short hike.  We did a pretty easy hike and it was only 1.6 mi long.  The girls found this tree with huge galls all up it, so of course they had to climb it.  I know it shouldn't but this grosses me out for some reason.  After the hike we found a geocache on the other side of the park that Girl Scouts had placed.  The caches with swag are the best!  Then everyone played on the playground until we all got too cold.  The wind was nippy!

 This weekend each of the girls got some space!  Celee got invited to spend the night with a friend from scouts.  Gwyn invited a friend to spend the night with us.  Even Lyla got to spend the night at a friend's house!  To top it off Jason even went out to eat with a bunch of guys.  So Saturday night it was just me, Gwyn, and her friend for most of the evening.  They made a cupcake bakery, always a good thing.  Then we went out for Chinese food.  I couldn't resist going out to each with only two kids and myself!

Today we sprang forward and hour and somehow we ended up picking up Celee and getting to the early service at church early.  That was nice though to not be in a rush and to have time to take a few breaths before worship.  After church I took Gwyn's friend home and then got in the van with Lyla, four other Girl Scouts, and her leader to go to Daisy Day.  It was a bit unorganized, but the girls did have fun.  They got to make a butterfly that was kind of like making god's eyes.  They learned a dance.  (The video of that is just precious!  Totally embarrass-a-teenager material!)  They planted seeds to bring home.  They did experiments to learn about taste and right/left dominance.  They made a fun-day budget to earn the Money Counts Petal. They made Girl Scout Promise magnets.  And they made some new friends!  It was fun, and exhausting.  Not a good day to wear heels.  But they were so cute and I hated to take them off after church.  Needless to say, after all the sleeping over and Girl Scouting, we all needed to chill, which we did. The girls all emphatically insisted that they were not tired and could not go to sleep, but they all did before 8pm.  Here's hoping that they wake rested and ready for more fun tomorrow.

Happy Birthday To Me

Yep.  This week I turned 35.  I officially have to check a different age-group box on most forms now.  I guess that means I'm technically not a "young adult" anymore.  Pooh.  I guess I can just try to rock the latter half of the thirties.  :)    Jason was so sweet - for my birthday he actually ordered a cookie dough ice cream cake for me.  That's a big deal for him to order something, but he did confess that he was able to order it online so he didn't have to actually talk to anyone except when he went to pick it up.  It was sooo yummy!  The girls and he gave me super sweet cards and some nice gifts.  We also got to go out to Boca de Beppo for dinner.  Super yum!  I had made a reservation (online!)  and asked for the kitchen table.  It was fun to watch all the commotion in the kitchen.  Everyone was so nice and funny.  They seemed to enjoy their jobs there.  One cook even photo-bombed Gwyn!

The birthday just kept on going because Friday night was date night at the gym, so who can pass up that opportunity?  Jason and I decided to go bowling.  He did really well!  He even got a turkey (three strikes in a row for those, like me, who wouldn't otherwise know what that is)  Of course the camera was not ready to capture that though.  I got two strikes too.  We ate yucky corn dogs and laughed and bowled.  Then after we picked up Celee and Lyla (Gwyn was sleeping over at a friend's house) we went home and watched a really horrible BBC sci-fi show from the 60s.  It was called UFO, but I guess Brits call that an "oofoe."  We made it through three episodes hoping for something redeemable, but no luck.  We did get a lot of new inside joke material though.

Other than that, our week was as usual.  We went off into the "woods" one day.  We got our cat, Moxie, fixed.  No more apartment with a cat in heat!  We did school.  We played with friends and swam and went to church.  We have enjoyed going to Women in the Word on Wednesday mornings.  Lyla gets to play with her church friends.  Gwyn and Celee are in a room with two other homeschool girls who are their age.  They look forward to it every week.  And of course I love getting to worship and study scripture and then discuss it with other women.  I look forward to it too.

Lyla's Girl Scout troop is still practicing their Polish dance for World Thinking Day.  They are too stinkin cute skipping around doing their dance.  (Once the grown-ups got them to understand it isn't a race and that you shouldn't try to pull your partner down or break their fingers.)

 That's about it this week.  We're settling in and hoping for Spring.  I did see bonny bells blooming on the roadside two days ago.  That's a good sign!  Although we're supposed to get a snow storm this week.  Maybe it will come fast, be fun, and leave fast making way for 60 degree days!

100 Day and a Women's Retreat

This week we had 100 Day!  We've actually done school more than 100 days, but Lyla's 100 chart didn't get started until 2 weeks or so into school.  Consequently we didn't exactly celebrate 100 days of school, but that Lyla got to the number 100 on her chart.  She's been putting a straw in her 100 cup everyday for 100 days and finally we filled it to 100.  Of course, Gwyn and Celee wanted to do 100 day activities too so we had a 100 Day Party.  We counted out 100 cheerios, made a 100 paperclip chain, made 100 Day glasses, and 100 Day crowns.  We times ourselves to see how many of certain things we could do in 100 seconds.  100 seconds is longer than I thought it would be!  The girls drew pictures of what they think they'll look like when they're 100 years old.  I even found a neat-o math activity for Gwyn and Celee all centered around the number 100.  They kept trying to get me to make 100 cookies, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

I got to go to the Women of Grace Retreat this weekend in Gettysburg, PA.  It was a much-needed time to focus on God and what he's doing and wants me to do.  Lisa Whittle was the speaker and her message about how God wants us to thrive was very timely for me.  The worship music was great!  The workshops were all poignant; I even got a new perspective on Nehemiah's story of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem that was particularly meaningful to me.  I ate way too much good food!  It's nice to be pals with self-confessed foodies who steered us to great food all weekend when we weren't eating the yummy food at the retreat.  I kept being surprised by seeing people I know, not from church.  It is a small world.  It doesn't seem like we've been in Baltimore long enough to keep running into people I know, but I do!  And it's nice.  I got to hang out a lot with some of the ladies from our small group.  I must say that Jason and I, and the girls, have been truly blessed by these women and their families inviting us into their circle and making us really feel a part of their "house church."  I came away from the weekend overwhelmed by how sweet God is.  I just kept getting a feeling throughout the worship services like when someone gives you a "happy."  I don't know if people outside of the South call it that, but when a friend gives you a little gift or token for no particular reason I've always called it a Happy.  That's what God gave me many times this weekend.  Little Happies, which just kept reinforcing to me that God does see me, He cares for me, and He desires me to be well.

 A big Happy God gave us this weekend is also that we now have a contract on our house in Illinois!  Yay!  We don't close until May, but it is so nice to have that at least scheduled.  Barring anything going wrong with inspections or banks, we will soon be able to stop worrying about paying rent on top of the mortgage!  As the girls said, "Then we can do stuff!"  In other news, the girls had a busy time this weekend, with each girl needing to be more places than usual and with Jason in charge of it all.  He did good!  He's a keeper!  ;)  I did get to go to Celee's girl scout meeting when I got back home from the retreat.  She is so funny!  They were making paper crowns because they are studying England for World Thinking Day (I know technically that was Feb.22nd, but here they aren't celebrating it until late in March).  They also colored pictures of Queen Elizabeth.  So Celee decided to cut Elizabeth's face out and attach it to her crown so she could impersonate the Queen.  And of course this started something, so a lot of the other girls started putting poor Queen Elizabeth's face on their own too.

I think they get all this silliness from their daddy, who decided we needed to all arm wrestle after dinner tonight.  As if it wasn't enough with Jason and me holding the girls' elbows down so they'd do it right.  He decided to arm wrestle for Lyla by putting his arm out the arm of her shirt.  She was not amused.  And that wasn't enough.  Then she put her arms out of his hoodie and this is the picture we all left the arm wrestling match with.