Philadelphia Field Trip

We've been studying the colonial period and the American Revolution for eight weeks now. Before the temperature started to dive, my mother and I chose to take Pearl on a field trip to Philadelphia to see the places we've been reading about.

After the much anticipated train ride, we began with a trip to a museum that has a collection of Washington and Ben Franklin busts and portraits. Pearl had asked to see a real art museum after our foray into York last spring, and I was very proud of how she made her way around the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The colored pencils I brought allowed her to engage with the art when she needed to sit. We also saw a few works by Benjamin West, a Quaker ancestor of ours who was the President of the (British) Royal Academy in the mid 1700s.





We thoroughly enjoyed a much needed meal in Chinatown before walking through that section of the city to Independence National Park. We had planned to skip the tour of Independence Hall, but it has been greatly shortened since I was young, and now you see just two rooms, the old court room and the congressional room where all the history happened. Pearl lagged a bit there, but she made it through with the help of her junior ranger activity book.

The next stop, Franklin's Printing Press, showcased a working, 18th-century press. The rangers running it entertained us with explanations. I enjoyed seeing the cases full of tiny type waiting to be set since it reminded me of the Victorian book creation I have read so much about.

We walked a few blocks to Betsy Ross's house, which is not part of the national park. Pearl and I climbed through the narrow building, winding up and down the stairs. The costumed Betsy Ross stole her heart, I think, when she gave Pearl a cut out star like the ones on the first American flag.








Our little historian retained just enough energy to walk back to the park office for her swearing in as a junior park ranger. The gentleman did a great job engaging her in the process, and she proudly displayed her little plastic pin.

Field trips are fun!

In front of the Chinatown gate

"Rainbow!"

the rainbow ends at our house!

At the store the other day, I looked over to see Ruby standing right in the way of an older lady, another customer. I told the little shortie to scoot, since the lady obviously wanted to walk through. Ruby straddled her legs a bit to make it clear she was in the way and not moving. She eyed me. She eyed the lady. Just as I was wondering how this defiant toddler showdown would end, she looked back to the lady and said, "Password." I had to laugh. At home the girls sometimes block a doorway or the bottom of the stairs, but they give way instantly if we say the password, which has been "Rainbow" for about two years now. We do not have great encryption. Back in the store, I realized it would be faster to just tell the lady the password than to explain to Ruby that not everyone plays our game. The patient customer gamely said "Rainbow," and Ruby hopped out of her way. 

She also enthusiastically sings the two songs she knows, but only these lines enthusiastically repeated over and over, with no variation, even when we helpfully suggest the other words:
"Jesus love me...the bible tell me"
"Be wise. Be wise. Be wise"

Update: The "password" game has been outlawed. Peace must be maintained.

Quiet Week with Pneumonia

Daniel's recovery is going well. We're monitoring his activity, but he feels great, and it is wonderful not to have that aneurysm hanging over our heads any more.

Ruby, meanwhile, decided to develop pneumonia in her left lung, so her ear tube surgery has been postponed and she is on a hefty regime of medications. She doesn't act sick and is just as feisty and bouncy as usual, just with a rumbling cough.

We took a family walk to identify trees on Tuesday despite the recovery and the pneumonia. We had a relaxing time searching for the perfect picnic spot along Trout School Road. Pearl is collecting tree information for a book she's making following our unit on trees.

Later in the day Sapphire asked if we could make chocolate chip cookies "like we used to do." I'm not sure why she was feeling so nostalgic about them, but we made a batch and somehow I was left spooning them onto the cookie sheet.  They have such entertaining ideas that take a lot of prep from me, then they rush off to asking for something else while I am still cleaning up. No wonder I seem like a killjoy sometimes. I can only manage so many messes on my own.

If you have watched the girls you know that there exists a healthy sibling rivalry between Ruby and Sapphire. This has meant two kiddie picnic tables on our porch because the greater the space between them, the less arguing we hear. They also often have to go to separate floors of the house to give us a break from the fighting, though they are always drawn back together like two fractious magnets.  This morning I learned just how deep it goes. Sapphire had climbed into bed with us in the night and fell back to sleep. I awoke to hear her arguing with her sister in her sleep: "No, you can't Ruby!"

Daniel's trip to Israel is filling up, and he will be giving a talk about it this Friday at the Forks of the Brandywine in Glenmoore. See HolyLands2014.blogspot.com for the details of the trip.

Another Update

The doctor had Daniel discharged from the hospital on Thursday after he spent just the one night in the Neuro ICU. We waded home from Philly in the big rains, and he's been taking it easy here in Glenmoore ever since. He feels pretty good. The doctor was pleased that he has no headaches or anything, and his incision site, which is so tiny it is like when you have blood drawn, is healing up just fine.

Of course, he does have $10,000 worth of coils in his brain. Not that those tiny things would be worth anything to anyone else, but we are very pleased to have them. The tiny coils, made in Ireland, were each just 8 or 10 cm long, and they threaded eight or so up through his artery, his heart, and his neck into just the right artery feeding the brain. Now they have a home up there.

The large aneurysm had two tiny, mini-aneurysms growing off of its base, but the doctor said they will just watch those at the 3, 6, and 12 month check ups. She said that, hopefully, the tiny ones will disappear on their own now that the big one has been stabilized.

So, despite having brain surgery from the inside out, as the doctor called it, he feels pretty normal. He does have to force himself to rest up though! We're so thankful for the way God handled all this for us. We're also grateful for our community and the support we've felt throughout this ordeal.

Out of Surgery

All is well. Daniel came out of surgery at 5:30 after being in there for 3 hours. The actual surgery part must have taken about 2 and a half hours. The neurosurgeon said that she was very pleased with the outcome. They did not need to put in the stent, but just coiled that aneurysm full of titanium so that it will no long be a risk factor. He's in the Neuro Intensive Care right now, and they should move him to a regular floor tomorrow (Thursday). He's doing a countdown of the six hours he needs to stay very still flat on his back. Four to go! Even after that, he'll need to take it easy for several days because the procedure went in through an artery. We're very pleased. This is the best news we could get. He should be released tomorrow. He is making much more sense now that the medications are wearing off. I was ready to shut his mouth with medical tape for a while when he was bombarding the nurses with the same questions over and over. Thank you SO MUCH for all the prayers. He told the neurosurgeon that she shouldn't be surprised if the aneurysm was gone, since faithful friends have been lifting him up in prayer. Our prayers have been answered in a slightly different way, however. Phew!!

School Days

This week has given us a breather from some very busy days, but we've also had some unique experiences.

Over the weekend Ruby and I spent time at the church yard sale, but I can't say that we helped much. Ruby and I also popped in to celebrate the 100th birthday of a friend, Spin. He is pretty amazing, and probably more clear-minded than I am. Ruby's sisters had a chance to go see Sight and Sound's Noah with their Nana.

Pearl's school has given us daytime hours to spend on enrichment classes.  She's been taking piano lessons since the spring, and this last Sunday she played a much-practiced duet with her piano teacher for the worship service prelude. They gave a very pretty, harmonizing version of "Jesus Loves Me."

Pearl also began American Sign Language lessons this week.  She will happily spell the name of anyone who requests this service.

We spent a family afternoon in a local orchard. We picked nearly a bushel of apples very quickly, so this isn't the all-afternoon event it used to be when Pearl was a toddler.  Sapphire was demanding pie, so I might make that happen later this afternoon.  They all love the long peels my apple peeler makes.

 Next week we'll be traveling eastward on Tuesday to prepare for my husband's surgery early (8am) Wednesday morning. He should be in the hospital for one or two nights. We will remain out east until at least Saturday evening.



  

Children of the King

Our calendar for October is nearly empty, but September has more than made up for it. On Saturday the
girls had play practice at church, then I decided to take them apple picking, and while we were there we thought we'd use up the Maize Quest coupons they earned in their summer reading program.

I avoided the large corn maze, but we did enjoy the bamboo maze, the tipping board maze, the corn house and the three story slide.  We visited the pumpkin patch, which was fairly sincere.

That evening we headed out to the Mid Autumn Festival with the Families with Children from China group. This was our first time there with Ruby. She was not too interested in any of it except the fact that they had a table covered in scissors and paper. She went to town cutting confetti, her favorite new pass time.

For Children of the King Sunday, the kids put on the play 'That's so Daniel.' They've been working on it for months, ever since spring. Pearl was Servant 1, and Sapphire was a lion. Ruby had practiced with everyone, but when it came to being on the stage, she was much more interested in starting fights with her big sister than singing, so she was limited to one song.

The kids performed in the evening too, followed by a spaghetti dinner. I loved seeing the whole cast play together after the show. They've got such a strong community of kids here.

We had co-op this week too. My class made the soap Sapphire and I had tested earlier, and it went very well.  We talked about how oil is hard to get off without a detergent, and the kids loved stirring the pot of shaved soap and water. One mom told me her daughter lugged her new soap to soccer practice and the grocery store; so cute.  Sapphire has been allowed to join the kindergarten classes now, so she is feeling very proud. I help a little with Pearl's last class, which discusses the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. Her teacher uses a neat, engaging video that shows a guy catching creatures from the beach area and explaining their adaptations.

Today I took Pearl and a friend on a field trip. We met up with a bunch of other home schooling families to go for a trip on the Underground Railroad. Women dressed as Quakers met us at a historical home, a real stop on the Underground Railroad. We walked with them through the woods, pausing to hear about what the real journey might have been like. The atmosphere was too lighthearted to capture the fear the escaping slaves must have felt, but it did drive Pearl to gobble up a graphic novel about Harriet Tubman I had brought along for the long ride there.

I was able to fulfill an item I sold at the church auction this summer. I prepared and served local wines paired with international cheeses at a friend's house for a party of five. The pairings worked out nicely, and everyone seemed to find something they really liked. The wines came from Naylor, Allegro, Nissley, and Moondancer, all nearby wineries.

This week I also took Ruby to the ENT. They've suggested we have tubes put in her ears. She does not seem to have scarring, and I haven't noticed extra ear infections, but liquid behind her ear drum may be making sounds muffled (and they know they know the liquid is there), so they want to allow that to dry up and clarify sounds for her. They said it would be a five minute procedure, and that she'd hear better right away.  It might even be a little overwhelming as she suddenly hears how loud the world is.


My husband is still feeling tired this week; that's his main issue. He just finished the antibiotic to work against the lyme.