Clinic Visit

Ruby had her appointment at the Cleft Palate Clinic this week. They all agree she is looking good, and we were pleased to learn she had full hearing in both ears following her tube surgery last November. I'm glad that miserable morning with an inconsolable child was worth it!

They are pretty vague about her next surgery, but it will happen sometime between ages 7 and 11.

Earlier in the week we celebrated the first quarter birthdays, which all belong to my sister's family.
There was drama when Ruby did not realize how quick she had to be to help her big sisters blow out the candles.

Nana with her youngest and oldest grandaughter

Pearl's school this week has included learning how to do satin stitch, practicing her typing, listening to the audio of a Robin Hood legend, and caring for newborns. And that is just the sneaky school we tricked her into doing for fun.

Dipping Candles

Our co-op makes for such an enjoyable day. This week Sapphire learned about the sense of touch and practiced counting using nursery rhymes. Pearl played store with her math class (but it is so much fun she does not realize it is a math class) and worked with maps in geography.

In second period I taught the 2nd and 3rd graders about the history of candle making, including a look at 19th century whaling (candles from whale heads!), and we dipped our own candles. It could have been very messy, but the girls were just great.

My girls love to wear their Chinese dresses. This week they wore them to church. We had an emotional children's sermon; the kids prayed for the littlest ones' Sunday School teacher who left directly for the airport and his officer basic training. It ended in a ferocious group hug that could have easily tipped him over.

The little ones don't fully understand where he went. In her thank you note, Sapphire had me dictate "I hope you armor fits."

And, just as an update, Sapphire has added a line when she offers grace: "Help our house not to blow up." We feel like just about everything is covered by the time we are done praying.

Pearl and I had the chance to visit our newest family gem in Lancaster County. We established that Pearl is, according to my husband's family term, a baby hog. She would be content to hold her cousin all afternoon. What sweeties!

Fe-brrrrrrrrr-uary

Last week our co-op resumed. Here the girls in my class are writing up little essays about what we learned about colonial cooking. They did not seem to enjoy the flavor of any of what we cooked or sampled except for the store-bought spiced wafers.

Today Pearl and I whipped up some Lovely Pavlova, a dessert from New
Zealand named in honor of a Russian ballerina. It has lots of egg white and sugar, so it is very sweet. We mostly ended up eating the crunchy meringue top and the strawberries. 

The Pavlova looks an awful lot like the terrain around our house right now. The snow piles outside are tempting to climb, but the girls never stay outside for very long. The sledding is a little too dangerous for them too. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

Our electricity came on after 1 3/4 days, which was just plenty for all of us. We are also pleased that we have electricity in time to enjoy the Winter Olympics. Pearl and I plan to devote school time to learning about the different sports and the countries competing in them this week.







I took the girls to meet their newest cousin. They were very well behaved, though Pearl wanted to eat her up and Sapphire just wanted to wrestle her, I think. 


Sapphire has her own brand of refinement, of course. At the grocery store this week I put her in the basket of the cart while Ruby sat up front. As we made our way down the soup aisle, I had to maneuver deftly around several people, including an elderly couple, and Sapphire hollered out, "Don't hit the old people!"

Pearl tries her hand at the big drum, and Sapphire chats

We joined our local Families with Children from China group to celebrate Chinese New Year, and wow, they put on a big night. We saw a lion dancer/drum group from Johns Hopkins (and Sapphire sidled up to them, probably trying to work her way onto the team).









They also invited a local Chinese dance troupe, a kung fu school with very impressive weapons (Pearl loved that one), and a man who played a Chinese instrument made from a gourd and bamboo. It was almost too much culture even for me!

Snowy Snowy Days

Our family made a brief trip to Port Jervis, New York over the weekend so that my husband could take his master's test.  This is not a spot I ever expect to return to, but we did enjoy the salt water pool in the hotel. The girls swam and swam.

I did learn that it is considered bad form to ask if you passed a karate test or not, so he didn't get the official word and won't for some time.  We're pretty hopeful.

We have continued with our studies. Here Pearl has created a galaxy out of Styrofoam.  She and Sapphire are also working to memorize the books of the Bible for a church fundraiser, so if you would like to sponsor, them, just send me a line. Their deadline is Palm Sunday.

Then the storm came. We've been without electricity since Wednesday morning in below freezing temperatures. The coal stove is heating the house and our soup!  We are very fortunate, since all of our town and many of the people from our church are also without power, and some are living without any heat.

Today I popped into the library to upload another audio book onto the kindle so that we will have something to listen to when the sun goes down.


And, meanwhile, we wait to hear about my niece who will be born very shortly.

Going Orange

 
The karate school and ministry my husband started the year before we were married has reached its 11 year anniversary, and, as usual, we celebrated with a party.

We had another milestone to celebrate--our little yellow belt earned her orange belt.  She was very eager to get to class and wear her new color.






This coming week my husband will travel to New York for a masters' test.

Crafting in the New Year

 

The Christmas break is really over now and we are back to school here. We've begun testing some projects for our upcoming co-op semester, including candle dipping. It did not make nearly the mess I anticipated, but it does take a long time to melt wax.  The two big girls *loved* it. Sapphire ran around holding her little unlit, lumpy candle all evening.












Pearl asked to learn more about the Holy Lands since she is going to join her daddy's tour group in a few months. We're making a unit study out of it, so she is learning the science of the Dead Sea's salinity, the geography of the region, and the history of some of the sites she will see.  We also used this as an excuse to watch Ben Hur.







We have a few other projects knocking around, including this fun Christmas gift. The girls like delivering mail to themselves through the mailbox. 

And this is a gift I made for myself. I've wanted Victorian-style silhouettes of the girls for ages, and I decided it was time to make them before their little girl chubby cheeks had all disappeared. 

For those of you looking for an update on Sapphire's prayer life, I asked her why she felt the need to pray for unpoisoned food. She said she thought maybe some Bad Guys would sneak into the house and poison our food.  I am relieved that she wasn't suspecting me.