Domestic Adventures

Trent and I were discussing this morning how we really need to get new flooring. Always listening, Emmaline interjected her opinion.

E. How about we get blue carpet, Daddy?

T: Uh, no.

E: sigh Daddies are just not as creative as kids.

Taught my 1st and 2nd graders about the lost colony of Roanoke
Climbed on the school playground with Micah
Ate a pomegranate with Emmaline
Took the kids to the library
Read a story about an airplane to Micah
Read a story about a goose to Emmaline
Made a bunch of phone calls
Made a wonderful soup of leftover Thanksgiving turkey
Lounged around surfing the internet next to Trent who’s also lounging around surfing the internet

A good day.

In case you’re wondering how that turkey turned out, it was wonderful. It roasted to a beautiful golden brown and cooked just right (thank goodness for instant read thermometers!) and was much easier than I realized it would be. If only I had managed to take a picture before carving it!
Trent’s grandparents joined us and I think this is the first in forever (ever?) that we’ve spent time with just them. It was good talk and share stories over a relatively quiet meal. We talked a lot about the times Trent and his siblings spent visiting their house as children, and I’m so glad the kids and I had this chance to get to know them better.

Just finished reading this book by Mem Fox. I ordered it from the library and read the whole thing in one day, and ever since Trent has had to listen to me babble on about reading and reading aloud and how I love this book. It just struck a chord with me. The title of the book, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, pretty much says it all, and it’s just packed with information that makes so much sense about how kids learn to read and why reading aloud is so important from the very earliest ages. Fox focuses on building a strong reading foundation in children before they go to school where they will learn phonics, and as I read I could identify with almost every example she gave. Yes, I can see this in my kids, yes, I see this in the kids at school. Listening to children read at school, I can tell which ones are solely relying on phonics, and which are using phonics in conjunction with other reading skills they probably gained from being read to.
I also loved this book because it really affirmed me in what I’ve already been doing. It left me wanting to do more, but it feels good to have someone preach at me how right it is spend time reading with my kids, and how right it is to read aloud to kids at school every day. Things I’ve been doing just because they were done for me.
I could ramble on and on about this, but instead I’ll just leave you with a couple of other reading resources I’ve found recently.
The Read Aloud Handbook is, of course, all about the same thing, but takes a much more dry and academic approach.
The Bob Books approach reading from a very different angle than Mem Fox, but are a wonderful tool. I bought these after reading how Hope’s girls loved them, and it turns out Emmie loves them too. Getting kids excited about reading and giving them success is a very good thing.

E: Mommy, I want to do something fun with you.
A: Okay, let’s stare at each other.
E: sigh Sometimes Mommies can be a little bit tricky. Turning to her imaginary audience, If you’re a little kid and your mom is a little tricky here are some things you can do. Turning back to Mom, Mommy, say ‘let’s be silly.’

P.S. That wasn’t a very Thanksgiving-y post, but I’m so thankful to be the mom of these wonderful little people.

Okay, that statement probably doesn’t deserve an exclamation point, but I’m excited about my turkey. Most of the family is out of town this holiday, leaving just our household plus Trent’s grandparents, and we have inherited the duty of hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Usually my part of the big meal is to bring cranberry apple pie, but this year I get to do the whole shebang - minus the pie, as Trent’s grandmother is bring that.
I’m trying to keep the menu simple enough so I don’t stress myself out, though I must admit I’m slightly anxious about cooking a turkey all by myself. Armed with advice from my mom and my trusty copy of The Best Recipe, I think I’ll do alright. And if I don’t, at least I should get some comical bloggity material out of it.

We are blessed to have a wonderful new friend to watch Micah while I teach. She really enjoys the short time she spends with him, just as he does, and that makes me feel so comfortable leaving him.
She is a writer for NTM@work and often when I pick Micah up, she’s just bubbling with ideas, excited about what she’s writing or just thoughts she’s been thinking on. It’s like getting a little mini-devotion to just soak in.
The other day, she shared memories from her college days about when her girlfriends broke up with their boyfriends and they would be just torn to bits, all sadness, and tears, and suffering. Why, she thought, should breakups be such awful things? Of course, it’s painful to be rejected and lonely too, but to end something that’s not right for you is a good thing. Being freed from a relationship that’s not God’s plan for you is a good thing. It opens you up to the blessings God has planned for your life. Those girls would go on to find husbands who were a perfect fit for them, prepared by God for them. Those guys, too, it turns out, weren’t terrible people because they broke up with the girls, they just weren’t the right guys for those girls. Of course, in hindsight everything is easy, but I thought this was a wonderful little nugget to tuck away for when Emmaline and Micah are older and prone to emotional melt-downs. God has wonderful plans for us, and when He closes doors, our sorrow should be overshadowed by our joy, anticipating His blessings and grateful for His protection.

Found this via Antique Mommy. My vocab level hovers around 40 and I’ve donated 1000 grains of rice.

It’s so addictive.

Instead of watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Sunday night, we did our own Extreme Makeover: Aquarium Edition. Our saltwater tank had long been getting minimal care and over the past week or so Trent had steadily been making improvements and combatting the plague of hair algae. He set up a sump which should help our water quality and keep the water level in the tank constant. It also acts as a refugium where we can grow “good algae” to complete with the “bad algae”. Trent altered the pH of the tank to kill off some of the hair algae too. Sunday, we needed to replace our sand bed, so while we were at it, we decided to replace the tank as well. The new tank is eight gallons larger and best of all clean! Moving to a new tank gave us opportunity to rearrange the live rock and I really like the new configuration. Add brand new light bulbs and everything looks so happy and vibrant. Okay, there’s still a lot of hair algae, but see how many rocks are not covered in hair?
Also, check out this hermit crab. A pulsing zenia had stuck itself to this empty shell. When the crab decided to upgrade his home, he chose the zenia’s shell so he’s been carrying that zenia all over the tank. They seem to be doing well together so far.

Now that we have all this halloween candy in our house, what do we do?!
This is an idea I saw in Family Fun Magazine last year. Take 25 pieces of candy for each child and lay them out in a long line. Use plastic wrap to wrap up this line of candy, tying a ribbon between each piece. Starting December first, each child gets to cut one piece of candy a day from their candy chain. It’s a good way to distribute the candy over time and help the kids count down to Christmas. They can count the candies to see how many days left until Christmas.
Emmaline helped me with last week. We looked at the calendar together, then she got to count out the pieces. Then off to the closet went the candy until Decemeber 1st!