Dec. 27, 2006 - Gerald Ford's Death and What That Means to Me
I got up this morning and began reading the FIAR boards (my normal routine) and discovered former president Gerald Ford had died in the night. What a shock! My 6 1/2 year old is a presidential nut. He knows all things presidential. Earlier this fall, he watched with great anticipation as Ford became the longest-lived president. He wrote to Ford and received a letter in return (with what we think is a "real-deal" signature).Anyway, I told him the news this morning and he took it in stride. In fact, he seems almost happy about it. It's another presidential fact for him to know. He's spent half the morning writing the date down in all of his president books. He keeps repeating over and over and over that Ford and Truman have the same death date, just like John Adams, Jefferson and Monroe all died on July 4th. He is making a list of all the presidents who died in the state of CA (Ford, Reagan and Harding). I know in my head it is just the Asperger's Syndrome. People with Asperger's don't express the same sorts of emotions as others. Joel is just looking at this as another bit of presidential knowledge. To him it's just a fact ...nothing to mourn about or feel sad over.
I saw all those posts on the FIAR board with my sweet FIAR sisters mentioning feeling concerned for my Joel and how he would take the news. If only they knew ... I know that probably anyone else's son with a great interest in presidents would cry or be upset or ask a lot of questions about death. And when moments like this happen, my little bubble of thinking Joel is just like any other 6 year old boy (other than his great interest in presidents and his amazing ability to memorize/remember facts) is completely popped and I feel, in almost an overwhelming kind of way, just how different he is than the rest of the world.
So I'm grieving today ...for the loss of a President, one who was honest and true and ultimately helped heal our nation from some terrible trials. America will certainly feel the hole left behind by this American patriot.
But today I am also grieving for my own son and for what Asperger's has cost him. I know it isn't a death sentence in the way other horrific childhood diseases might be. I know that most likely he will grow to adulthood, be able hold down a fine job (perhaps even as a college history or political science professor) and quite possibly even marry and have children. But he will always, always, always struggle to see the world as the rest of us do and to respond appropriately. And for that I feel an even greater sense of loss.
Dec. 23, 2006 - And now appearing onstage in Kansas ...
It's the Heart-y Girls Rock Stars Band starring Julia (age 3) as the lead singer and Nathan (age 5) as the publicity and production manager!Julia is the lead singer for a "rock star band" which is for girls only. That is why they are "The Heart-y Girls." (Heart-y as in hearts ...you know, those cute little red and pink shapes that little girls love. Clarifying in case someone was confusing "Heart-y" with "hearty" as in a hearty meal.)
This is a wonderful rock band and they are from Kansas, so that is where they do all of their concerts. Apparently, all the singers (all one of them) are too young to travel. Also, being that the manager is a minor, it is rather hard for him to arrange for travel to faraway places. That's why they just give concerts at home ...in Kansas.
The Heart-y Girls have several great songs that they sing, including:
I'm a Rock Star (written by the manager, who also makes a cameo appearance singing a duet with Julia)
Co-Co-Co (which I am assuming is a tribute to the lead singer's favorite cereal, CoCo Puffs, which she doesn't get to eat very often)
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Jingle Bells
and many, many more!
This is truly a must-hear to appreciate concert! And now, I must rush back outside to my driveway (despite the chilly weather) because that is Kansas. It's almost time for the big finale of The Heart-y Girls concert! I'd hate to miss that!
(For anyone who does not know, we do not live in Kansas or anywhere near Kansas.)
Dec. 2, 2006 - The Wedding Poinsettia
This past week my boys noticed some poinsettia decorations while we were driving through town. They thought it was a bit funny that someone would use flowers to decorate for Christmas. I figured out pretty quickly that they had never heard about these beautiful Christmas flowers, and therefore it was a good time to tell them about my mother's Christmas wedding as she has a very special memory of poinsettias to go along with that.Since that day earlier this week, my boys have talked nonstop about KayTee's wedding poinsettia. Joel told the entire story to his therapist, Ms. Beth. Nathan has drawn pictures of poinsettias. And I've retold the story many times this week, and entertained question after question after question about KayTee's and Poppa's wedding..
It just so happened that we've been reading Allen Say's book "Grandfather's Journey" for our FIAR story this week. We have also read his books "Tree of Cranes" and "Tea With Milk" as go-alongs. All three of these books are stories from his family history. This gave us the idea to write out own family story. I'm sure it is easy to guess which family story we wrote!
I'm pretty proud of the final draft. Nathan is currently working to churn out some illustrations. It was a good experience and I think that we all had fun. Isn't wonderful how the neatest things will just fall into place? God is just so good with timing!
Here is is:
The Wedding Poinsettia
written by Joel (and soon to be illustrated by Nathan)
This is a Christmas story about my grandparents. My grandmother is named Kay McGee Terry, but I call her KayTee. My grandfather is named Malcolm Terry, but I call him Poppa. This is the story about their wedding day.
KayTee and Poppa were going to get married on December 20, 1968. It was going to be a Christmas wedding. There was going to be pretty Christmas carols played during the wedding and lots of Christmas colors decorating the church. Best of all, KayTee was going to carry a white poinsettia for her wedding bouquet.
The pionsettia is a traditional Christmas flower. Poinsettias bloom at Christmas time. You can find poinsettia blooms in red, pink, and white, but red is the most common color of all. These flowers grow in Mexico. They were first introduced in the United States around 1830 by Dr. Joel Poinsett, the U.S. Minister to Mexico from 1825-1830. He brought some of the beautiful flowers back to his South Carolina home because he loved them so much. After a while, the lovely Christmas flowers from Mexico came to be called poinsettias after Dr. Poinsett, and Americans have been enjoying these beautiful flowers every December since that time.
Now when KayTee was getting ready for her wedding, she called a flower shop and said, “I want a white poinsettia for my wedding.” After talking with a florist, she ordered a white poisettia from a flower shop far, far away. It had to be special-ordered because white poinsettias were not that common. In that time, brides were supposed to carry bouquets of white flowers. That is why KayTee chose to carry a white poinsettia wedding bouquet.
On the day of the wedding the florist called KayTee with some bad news. She said that the white poinsettia had not come in with the other flowers that KayTee had ordered for her wedding. No other flower shops nearby had a white poinsettia. The florist said that she was very sorry about it and that she could make Kaytee a pretty wedding bouquet out of white roses or white carnations instead.
Kaytee was very disappointed. She really wanted a wedding bouquet made with a white poinsettia. After all, her wedding was a Christmas wedding and the poinsettia was a Christmas flower. So she told the florist that she would carry a red poinsettia instead.
But the florist gasped and said, “No! You can’t do that! Brides should only carry white flowers! It might bring bad luck if you carried a red poinsettia!”
Kaytee said, “I don’t care! I want to carry a poinsettia. If I can’t have a white one, then I will carry a red one.”
That night the Christmas carol “O Come All Ye Faithful” played in the church, and Kaytee came walking down the aisle, holding onto her father’s arm with one hand and carrying a red poinsettia in her other hand. She was a very beautiful bride.
As far as we know, the red poinsettia did not bring bad luck. Kaytee and Poppa have now been married for 38 years. They have 3 children and 5 grandchildren and lots of love all around.
Then end
Apr. 7, 2006 - Miss Rumphius and Lady Bird Johnson
We've been rowing "Miss Rumphius" by Barbara Cooney this past week. It's been a real joy to read this book with my boys each day. However, I've loved this particular book for many years. I used to do a Miss Rumphius unit every spring when I taught 3rd grade. So this week has felt a lot like I was being reunited with a dear old friend.Here's what our week has looked like:
On Monday, we read the book and enjoyed trying to figure out which state might be the setting for the story. The boys decided on Maine, which was a very good choice. We decided upon Maine because from the setting of the story we knew it must be someplace by the sea where the winters were snowy and hard. And, after looking carefully at all the little details, we noticed that a little boy in the last picture had the word "Maine" on his t-shirt. It was very fun to look for the clues and details that pointed to the un-named setting of the story. We also talked a little about nicknames ...how some nicknames are hurtful and others are not hurtful, and how to tell the difference. This was an important discussion to have because lately my boys have taken to calling each other "dummies" when they get angry.
On Tuesday, we read the book, but did nothing else that was related. Joel was celebrating his 6th birthday that day and Nathan wasn't feeling well due to another ear infection. We mostly just spent the day making Joel feel special and Nathan feel better.
On Wednesday we painted lupines with watercolors. In the afternoon, we went to the library. We go weekly, but this week was special because in the story Miss Rumphius was a librarian. While there, we looked at how the books were arranged on the shelves, talked about fiction/non-fiction, and perused the reference section. We also found some books on wildflowers and Lady Bird Johnson to take home with us. Since that trip, Joel has started talking about how he might like to be a librarian after he is through being president.
One of those books that we checked out on Wednesday was "Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America" by Kathi Appelt. My little presidential trivia buff really enjoyed that book. After reading the book, we looked at the online website for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. There were several nice pictures of wildflowers ...and we also noticed that there were several recipes of Mrs. Johnson's on the website. We printed off the ones for her spiced tea and lemon squares.
On Thursday, we talked about bushels and pecks and pints and quarts, looked at lupine seeds, planted lupine seeds and talked about how Mrs. Cooney showed evidences of wind in her paintings. We also wrote a letter to Lady Bird, who is still living and is now 93 years old. In the letter, the boys said that they had decided she was "a real life Miss Rumphius" and they thanked her for making Texas and America a more beautiful place.
In the afternoon, the boys helped me cook a meal in honor of President Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson. LBJ's favorite meal was chili, so we had chili for supper. We made a big pitcher of Lady Bird's spiced iced tea and our dessert were those delicious lemon squares that she was known for making. Everyone but Joel thought the meal was very tasty. (Joel is such a picky eater. He wouldn't even try the chili or the spiced tea. He ate a crumb of the lemon square, but said it wasn't very good at all. He seemed to be extremely happy with his bowl of plain, buttered noodles and glass of water, though.)
Today we've talked about shadows and telling directions by looking at the sun. Tomorrow we are planning to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center in Austin. We are excited about the daytrip and hope that it will be a fun field trip to end our enjoyable week.
Apr. 3, 2006 - Joel's First Campaign Party
All Joel has loved for the past two years is presidents. The child lives and breathes presidents ...it is all he talks about, all he reads about, all he thinks about and all he ever wants to write about. So, when it came time for him to pick out a birthday party theme, he naturally wanted a "presidents' party." At first, I was rather stumped at how to pull this kind of party off.At some point during the past two years, Joel realized or figured out that the first presidential election he could run in would be the 2036 presidential election. Quite often his discussions will center around who might run against him and will he be republican or democrat and other important campaign questions. You would think I would have come up with the idea sooner rather than later ...but eventually I did come to the realization that we could have a campaign party for Joel's birthday.
Ideas began to fall into place. We got out the red, white and blue streamers, balloons, partyware and such to decorate. Daddy made campaign posters for Joel. Mama ordered Joel a special campaign t-shirt ...white with an American flag and the words "Vote Joel 2036!" Goodie bags were filled with plastic tumblers decorated with American flags, pencils with Joel's campaign slogan (Vote Joel 2036!), and small American flags to wave. (We also threw in a red lollipop, a bookmark and a small bottle of bubbles.) We made a great big cake with red and blue stars on top that said "Vote Joel 2036!" instead of "Happy 6th Birthday!"
Today was party day! All in all, it was a big success. Joel now has 15 loyal voters who have promised him their undying support, which is 100% of the partygoers in attendance. Considering that we are a grassroots kind of campaign, we think we are off to a good start!
Happy 6th Birthday, Mr. President! :)
Mar. 30, 2006 - Creative Writing with a Two Year Old
This morning Julia came to me and said, "Mama, I want to write a puppy story on the 'puter. Okay?" How could I possibly refuse? So we sat down and she dictated to me the following story about her Aunt Brooke's little dog:Julia’s Puppy Story
This story is about Pippen. One day Pippen eat some food. He ate bones. Julia does not eat bones. Julia pretends to eat bones sometimes.
Then Pippen go to play. He plays with his toys. Julia plays with toys too.
Pippen sat down with Aunt Brooke. Pippen loves Aunt Brooke. Julia loves Aunt Brooke, too.
Pippen is black. Pippen is skinny. Pippen is so sweet. Pippen is happy. Pippen loves Julia! Julia loves Pippen, too!
by Julia (age 2 years 8 months)
Isn't it wonderful?! Of course, I'm not partial or anything like that. It's simply the most amazing story that any 2 year old has ever written. No doubt she will be a Pulitzer Prize winning author in a dozen years or so! :D
Mar. 20, 2006 - Crayons, Sand and $750
It’s definitely been a Monday around here.This morning the children wanted to color. I had some things I needed to do, so it was fine with me to pull out the paper and crayons and let them be creative. When the phone rang, I stepped into my bedroom so that I could actually hear the conversation over the dull roar of children’s voices. When I came back into the dining room about 5 minutes later, I discovered a rather large and intricate piece of artwork ...a one of a kind masterpiece all over the dining room floor. After a somewhat loud and mostly one-sided discussion between Julia and myself, we decided it would be best if the artwork were removed. Julia scrubbed and I scrubbed and 15 minutes later, most of it was off the floor. I really hadn’t intended to mop the floor today, but at least that chore has been done for the week.
This afternoon the sun was shining. It had been rainy all weekend and we were glad to see the sun break through. The kids wanted to go out to play and I let them while I cleaned up the kitchen from lunch. Several minutes later I looked out the window and noticed the kids all crowded around the sandbox. Apparently the lid was left off and it had filled with rain water over the rainy weekend. My 3 blessings sat around (Joel), on (Nathan) and in (Julia) the sandbox making mud-pies. Julia’s dress was soaked and her hair was dripping wet ...but she had a big smile on her face. Nathan had as much sand on his hands, arms, shirt, legs and shoes as I have ever seen on one person in my life. It was apparent he was trying to become one with the sand. Joel, the family neat-freak, had only the tips of his fingers covered in sand. However, he was also the one who opened the door to let Julia back inside ...with a sand bucket filled with sand, water and flowers for me.
As if crayons and sand weren’t enough to make my Monday, our mini-van has been giving us some brake problems. Seeing as brakes are pretty much a necessity in order to drive safely, we decided to have this problem looked into. The sad truth came back and in order to repair old reliable it will cost us $750. I’m not going to complain too loudly because we had just received some extra money that the army owed Matt, but I sure could have found more enjoyable ways to spend that $750! This is the first major repair work that we’ve had to get done on our 6 year old mini-van. Not too bad, considering we’ve put about 125,000 miles on her. Now if she will just stay in good condition for the next 18 months or so, I’ll be happy.
I’m thankful that crayon can be scrubbed off of wood flooring. I’m glad sand comes out of hair, clothes and carpet. And I’m feeling rather blessed because I had that extra $750 in my bank account this week. Next week it might not have been there. But most of all, I’m thankful that today is Monday and we have a whole new week to fill up with adventures and memories. And, please ... may it all be uphill from here! I’ve had about all the Monday for one week that I can take!
Mar. 14, 2006 - Haiku
We've been rowing A Pair of Red Clogs this week, and so in the process we are learning about various things that originated in Japan ...Sumo wrestlers, origami, sushi, etc. Today we talked about haiku.My plan was to simple. I wanted to introduce haiku poetry and read a few examples. That was it. But when Daddy came home for lunch and the boys told him what they had learned during the morning, he decided to share a haiku he had written many years ago. The boys were very impressed and decided that if Daddy could write haiku that they could as well.
I must admit that I was not confident in the ability of my two young sons to write haiku. Happily, I was wrong. The little fellows spent at least 20 minutes working on their haikus and laughing over their word choices. In the end, I think they did an excellent job!
Here is what they wrote:
Read my fluffy lips:
A skeleton is coming!
Run! Run to the house!
(by Nathan, age 4)
Little, little bridge
With no people to cross you
I feel sad for you
(by Joel, age 5)
Giraffe in Egypt
Pet of the Egyptian King
Living in the sand
(by Joel and Nathan)
Mar. 13, 2006 - Old Age
Last night I overheard a conversation between my boys. It went like this:Joel (who is about 3 weeks shy of 6 years old): I know all about old people, Nathan. I can even make a list of the top ten old people of the world.
Nathan (who is 4 years old): Yeah ...like Mama Pat.
Joel: Oh, yes. Mama Pat would certainly be on that list. She was very old. You know how I know she was so old?
Nathan: How?
Joel: She was born in 1906 ...that’s way before they even had color in this world!
Nathan: I didn’t know that color was invented after Mama Pat was born!
Mama Pat was my great-grandmother, and there for great-great-grandmother to my children. She past away the first week of January, having just celebrated her 99th birthday the week of Christmas.
Her death was a very tender thing for our family to experience. Death is never easy for it always brings about pain when you have to let someone go. However, Mama Pat's death was not tragic nor extremely sorrowful. We had the reassurance of knowing Mama Pat was a Christian and therefore had gone on to be with her Savior in heaven. We also knew that living on earth was no longer a pleasure for her as she was mostly bedridden and unable to participate in the things in which she had once taken so much joy. And so it was with gentle tears of happiness that we were able to bury our beloved family member.
My children don't have much experience with death, for which I am extremely grateful. The death of their great-great-grandmother has been a topic of interest for them over the past 2 months. They had only seen Mama Pat a handful of times, but we had made cards for her on special occasions and kept her picture on our fridge. They loved her because I loved her, and because she was a very real part of our extended family.
For the past few weeks, the boys have asked questions about growing old and dying. Mama Pat's death has provided me with an opportunity to talk with my boys about what happens as a person grows elderly and what happens to our bodies and souls after we die. These kind of conversations aren't easy for parents, but I'm grateful for being able to share with my boys on these hard issues in such a gentle way.
Of course, after overhearing last night's conversation, I think I need to do a little discussing about what life was like during the long ago past ...and maybe take a few black and white photos of them around the house so that they can relate to the lack of color in the old black and white pictures of relatives that I have displayed in our home.
Mar. 10, 2006 - Hats!
We had a fun week learning all about hats! I found this fun book by Ellen Spinelli, Do You Have a Hat?. It talks about famous people and the hats they wore: Abe Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, Walt Whitman, etc. The book had a bouncy rhyme and was a pleasure to read. This was our main book for the week and we read it every day (just as we do our Five In A Row books).In addition, we took the time to explore and learn about some of the people mentioned in our main book. We learned about Nat Love and cowboys and Stetson hats. I found a really fun book about cowboys and how they used their hats for so many purposes ...watering their horses, protection from the weather, and as a pillow, just to name a few. We also learned a little about Daniel Boone and his coonskin cap, and Louis Comte who just so happened to be the first magician to do the "rabbit in the hat" trick. And while we didn't talk much about Walt Whitman, I did show them a picture of this famous American poet and read aloud a small portion of his poem "Oh Captain, My Captain."
I found a book on the history of clothing. We studied the section on hats and enjoyed noting how many different kinds of hats their are and how hats have changed over the years. We learned a little about milliners and the parts of a hat (crown, brim, etc) too.
This took us to our fun activity for the week ...making a hat! We found a pattern in the book on the history of hats. We made our hat out of white poster board. We decided on a tall stovepipe hat, just like Abe Lincoln would have worn. Then we painted it pink and hot glued on lots and lots of beads. Julia declared it was "soooo cute!"
Tonight we are having a "Hat Dinner." Everyone is coming to dinner wearing a hat. And I am going to make a hat cake for dessert ...imagine the kind of hat that Madeline wore and that is what this cake will look like. It will be a single round layer for the brim and a smaller layer baked in a pyrex bowl added to the top to make the crown of the hat. I'll frost it with a yellow icing and add a ribbon to make it look pretty. I think it will be yet another fun themed dinner!
It's been a fun week, and even though it was light in regard to the 3 R's, I still think we learned a lot.
Mar. 3, 2006 - Themed Dinners
We've had the most fun this week with our dinner times. Tuesday (Feb. 28th) was Mardi Gras. Being the Louisiana-raised girl that I am, I wanted to honor my home state in some way. So we ate red beans and rice that night. I also made my lazy-version of King cake (cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting and green/yellow/purple sprinkles on top). Of course I secretly added the baby to Daddy's cinnamon roll. Traditionally, if you get the plastic baby in your piece of King cake, you must then buy the next King cake for the next party. But for our dinner, the person finding the King Cake must entertain the rest of us with a song, poem, joke or silly dance. Daddy recited a poem ("Happiness" by A. A. Milne). We were having such a grand time that dear old Dad became the mc for the rest of us as we recited poems, told jokes and danced silly dances for the next half hour.Thursday night gave us another opportunity to celebrate, as it was Dr. Seuss' birthday. We ate green eggs and ham, of course. Following our meal, Daddy read us one his favorite Dr. Seuss books (Fox in Socks). Then we all read another Seuss book round-robin style ...each one reading one page before passing the book along to the next person. That was so much fun that we read another book in the same fashion.
As I put my sweet boys to bed tonight, they were still laughing about the fun we had shared. And it was such fun laughing and making memories around our dinner table. St. Patrick's Day is in two weeks ...I'm definitely going to try to plan to host another themed dinner for our family to enjoy.
Mar. 2, 2006 - Newness
New ... I love that word. According to the Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary, the word new means "not old; ... recently discovered; ... not experienced before; ...being in a position, place or state for the first time."Currently I am new to the state of Texas. The Army moved us here less than two weeks ago. I am also new to blogging. I've read blogs many times. I've thought about blogging. But I've never done it until tonight. There is a season for everything.
This is my season to experience "newness." And I am full of anticipation to see how God will use and bless our family in TX, as well as how He will work in and maybe through me as I write this blog.
