A useful skill?

I do not iron as many things as I used to, nor do I iron as much as my sister and Mom, however I still do iron pants and shirts as well as table clothes. Even the so called 'no wrinkle' shirts look better after an encounter with a hot iron.
The boys are very helpful in doing laundry but so far they have not shared the ironing. Noah watched me for a bit as I was ironing the table cloth, and then offered to help. He was convinced it was an easy, quick task but was willing to listen to coaching and instruction - only to realize that it takes time to iron. He humble acknowledge the work involved each time there is a spill on the table clothe and gave me a quick hug before he bailed on the ironing task in search for more gratifying and interesting tasks such as Lego construction.

He may grow up with little need for ironing, but whenever the need arise he will be equipped even if it is for something as trivial as a table cloth.

Box or content?

When the boys where younger, I remember that they frequently had as much fun with the box as with the content, and it still continues. It is a rare day that they do not find a new use for something that was destined for the trash bin had it not been rescued by creative and eager hands.

This week Noah received a new computer. His old one simply gave up, there was no easy fix, and any possible fix had a low likelihood of resolving the trouble. Noah tracked the package more carefully and more frequently than any child track Santa's travel  on Christmas Eve, daily and sometimes hourly he would log on to UPS to see where the desired package was. It finally arrived and he quickly set out to get his PC up and running. On and off there were things that had to run on the computer to get it operational and the boys wasted no time but dove head first into the box and the many fun odd shaped packing materials that comes with a computer.  My shutter finger was not fast enough to capture it all, but they had so much fun that the new computer had to sit and patiently blink for a bit before it was given its due respect again.

Needless to say, this was a super fun and exciting afternoon in the Severinghaus household.

Lemons, lemons, lemons

Noah wanted a fruit tree when we moved to Monterey. We shopped around at several nurseries only to get the same answer - any fruit tree will take years to bear fruit.. Well, we did not have years in Monterey.

As we canvassed the back yard, pulled up weeds, cut away dead branches and cleared out old dry twigs, we realized that one of our trees is a lemon tree. Despite discouraging remarks, and my seriously brown thumb, this tree has born and is still bearing us more fruit than we can handle - we have a continual supply of fresh lemons - it bears fruit year around.

We have made lovely tart lemonade, lemon meringue pie, lemon squares, lemon chicken, lemon in water, more lemonade and it is not unusual for lemons to be our table decoration in vases or in bowls.

What a blessing to find that we do indeed have a fruit tree and one that is already bearing fruit.

One small bargain leads to lots of work

For a while, we have been talking about ways to enhance the lower back yard area and try to beat the moles at their own game - digging tunnels that causes even the most adventurous walker to stumble and trip as the ground disappears under the foot.

Late night scanning of bargain sites yielded a raised flower bed kit and became the impetus for fixing up the back yard. The boys could hardly wait for Bob to arrive back home from Detroit before they wanted to build the box. Little did they, nor I, realize how much work was involved BEFORE the box could be placed - so this great bargain turned into long hours of hard work, dust, sweat and grit and a few trips to Home Depot. Welcome back, Bob!

Mapping

Noah really enjoys geography and is a wiz when it comes to pointing out and naming countries of the world. He finds anything geography related interesting. For our community group, Classical Conversation, the children are encouraged to trace the various continents and countries with the goal of being able to draw the entire world free hand. Noah is well underway to reach this seemingly impossible goal - he traces with exact precision on the windows to get all the curves and bends 'just right'

As he progresses, he will do less tracing and more free hand draw, the muscle memory mastery helping him produce a good map. Stay tune!

Glimpses of learning

Homeschooling is really a misnormer, we don't do school and then not, we learn all day. So when the books are hastily tucked back in the cabinet and the kitchen counter cleared of any lunch evidence I often find the boys exploring and learning in the innovative ways.
Old clothes, pillows, a bag of zip ties, Mindstorm, and a Rubber band gun along with lots of creativity lead to DLF - dear large friend - who attacked Bob with rubber bands when he walked through the door. The DLF had a voice activated computer inside his bulky chest and Bob's "Hi I am home" is all it took to trigger the barrage of rubber bands.
The DLF is now hanging out under Lukas' bed and I have stopped short in the track many a times this week, thinking it is one of our precious boys who is hiding out, only to once again realize that it is only DLF.

Our house is just the right size for four people, so Bob is suggesting that DLF finds a new home in the next few days... I am guessing he too was fooled one too many times by the large body hunched over seemingly hiding out while there are chores to be done.

Unwelcome guests

While we were gone having fun with family, our house was evicted of unwelcome guests.  An inspection had uncovered some potential evidence of guests that were NOT invited NOR welcome in our house.

These guests were allured into the big circus tent only to meet their sudden and unexpected fate - eviction!