Routine-ish 2020 week 2

Well, what a week.

Co-op actually went wonderfully well, especially compared against my low expectations. Isaac gave his report (with only a few tears at lunch time, beforehand, because he really doesn't understand the American Revolutionary War well) and Ezra exhibited so much self-control.

Of course, come time to do school on Tuesday he absolutely melted down and actually packed his pillowcase with every clothing item and said he was going to run away. He was only hiding behind the garage but still. It was a very rude awakening into this new-again routine. We all shed a lot of tears and prayed some desperate prayers and had some intense discussions. Nothing in my life has ever stretched me as much as this kid.

We're needing to relearn how to do school together and how to allllll our routines. We didn't review our history timeline often enough last quarter, so we're trying to do so more often this quarter.

Wenesday Ezra had his therapy appointment and the little boys and I hung out in the car, which was actually quite pleasant. Then I rushed off to do a new piano lesson and fill in for Seth at BEN while he coached Isaac's very first basketball game!! They won and Isaac told me he had the assist on Davin's two baskets. Whether or not that's really true I'm not sure.

It was also the tenth anniversary of Seth's marriage proposal, which is amazing if I stop and think about how quickly a decade flew by... which I just don't have the mental space to do yet.

We sent Job off to school Thursday morning and got a great deal of school done. Ezra did his math and grammar so cheerfully! And then the walk home from picking Job up from the bus took at least four times as long because we had to enjoy the freshly fallen snow!

There wasn't really enough snow but Isaac literally scraped up every bit he could to make Job this snowman:

My favorite part of the day, however, was that Ezra did two grammar worksheets on his own, apparently cheerfully, and absolutely correctly while I was teaching piano lessons!!! Plus I got to hang out with Moriah in her room (which was silent because her siblings were all gone) and catch up.
I've been working to teach the boys to help make and clean up breakfast and lunch. Isaac did such an amazing job on this omlet for Seth!!

Then Aunt Kathy came down for the day and brought her 50+ year old favorite board games. The boys love spending time with her. And we went out to dinner with my parents, so yet another night of skipping dinner.

After Seth and Isaac had their team pictures, he took Ezra ice skating (in reward for his cheerfulness at co-op) and then to the Proctor's to watch football while the little boys hung out with me while I cleaned and caught up on admin stuff. We're slowly rolling out the Playmobile stuff from my childhood and they're enthralled. And they're so so good at playing with each other. I can't imagine a more relaxing Saturday.

Happy New Year! 2020 week 1

The Proctors joined us to ring in the New Year and we stayed up way way too late (2am) playing card games. Isaac lasted until about 1am watching YouTube videos but we put Ezra and Job down for bed at 8pm because they needed the sleep.

New Years day we went to the Rutledge's open house and then Thursday we went to the Tacoma Children's Museum with the younger Bakers. Job loved riding on the Link and we'll have to do that somewhat regularly from now on.

Yesterdat was Seth's 34th birthday and the boys tried their hardest to make it a special day for him, beginning with a birthday omelet that Job primarily ate.

They also decorated and made him a (hotly contested flavor profile, but eventually became lemon raspberry) cake. Perhaps my favorite thing was that I got to take Job to the store with me to get lemon juice for the icing (and pick up my new FitBit) while Ezra and Isaac stayed home to clean the living room together. Of course, since Seth works from home they weren't really home alone, but what an amazing blessing to be able to give them a task and expect them to complete it!

We have week one of unit 3 at co-op this coming Monday so we tried to do our history readings yesterday and today without too much efficiency. Isaac has a report to prepare as well!

Davin and Delaney spent the day with us so their parents could get some projects done at home without them. The kids played together so well! And wore themselves out. Their parents sweetly brought teriyaki with them and we all ate together, so thus far into this new year I have yet to truly cook dinner.

Introducing Job

Our sweet baby boy was born Wednesday night (via emergency c-section) at Tacoma General Hospital and we transferred to Seattle Children's Hospital this morning. He has had a steady stream of assessments that have confirmed his diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (meaning that the left ventricle of his heart is essentially non-existent and he needs open heart surgery to reconfigure his heart). He does not have additional defects (as is common with HLHS kids) and has been determined eligible for surgery, which has been scheduled for Monday morning. I have been posting to a blog and Facebook group, both of which you are welcome to visit/subscribe to should you desire to follow along on this long journey with us.

Job Simon Manuel Parkinson
9:26pm, April 6th 2016
7lbs, 19 inches

We chose the name "Job" because we want our son to mirror the faith in God's sovereignty that the Biblical Job displayed throughout his suffering (and because of the Washington state history tie in to Job Carr - I spent my pre-motherhood days researching and writing about PNW and Tacoma history, so such names have been particularly attractive to me). "Simon" was Ezra's choice for a middle name, but we don't know how he thought of it! "Manuel" is the name of Seth's mother's father. (Ezra and Isaac's names were also chosen after OT Biblical figures and Washington state historical figures, with middle names of their grandfathers). We (and certainly the boys) will likely continue to call him "Frightful" at least part of the time ("Frightful" is the name of a falcon in one of Ezra's favorite books and he almost immediately chose it as his brother's name when we told him about the pregnancy).

Our first day at SCH has been absolutely wonderful, particularly because Ezra and Isaac got to meet their baby brother. AND even hold him! We weren't expecting them to be able to do either (because of NICU standards to protect against the flu season), so this was just about the sweetest moment I could have even hoped for.

We have had so many blessings bestowed upon us already, and your encouragement and prayers have been one of these blessings. Thank you!

New School Year!

I have always seen the month of September as the real "new year" and that was certainly the case this month too. The first two weeks gave us a gradual transition to our new fall schedule, as we slowly added activity by activity. But September 14th officially kicked off fall with our co-op orientation.

When I homeschooled there weren't co-ops to be found, but as homeschooling has become more and more popular the last two decades, co-ops have likewise become pretty popular. I visited several back in February and talked to as many people as I could about their various co-ops and eventually settled on Home Instructional Support Co-op. It meets every Monday in Federal Way, from 9:30-2:30 and runs in 6 week units. I originally signed up for the co-op with the understanding that Ezra *could* begin their kindergarten program but alas he is in fact too young, so he's in the preschool program.

I am in the nursery from 9:15-12:15 every week with Isaac, and our classroom is right next door to Ezra's classroom and conveniently has a door (with a glass window!) between the two rooms, so I get to peek in on Ezra pretty often. The nursery has 12 kids in it (including Isaac), ages 3 months to 3 years old. It's a lot of work and, to be perfectly honest, it's not my favorite age group, but I love being with Isaac and I'm happy to do it so that Ezra can be in the preschool. As of yet we haven't introduced a schedule or many activities, but we'll see how it goes.

I don't totally know the preschool schedule yet, but they have craft time, circle time (where they recite their memory work and go over the daily/weekly/monthly calendar), show and tell and so on. I will know more details soon!

Friday Update #26 (7/3/15)

Seth has been at the Yakama Indian Reservation all week, since last Saturday, serving with Sacred Road Ministries. This is already his fourth year going with a team from our church, although it's his first year leading the trip. It was 100-110* all week, which made it a hard week, but the team persevered. However, I did get texts like this:

We actually went out there to visit Wednesday night and Thursday day, which was such a great trip!

But first, in chronological order:

Saturday morning we got up early and rushed to do errands before Seth left. Somehow (mercifully) we made it to Lowe's on time, despite my pessimism, to for their Grow and Build program. The boys built a Captain America motorcycle (with lots of help... or "help" because I don't think I was actually much help. They were so little that it was hard to hammer in the nails without destroying the rest of the motorcycle!).

Sunday was the church picnic, so I took the boys over to the Hamlins'. Unfortunately, the Family Olympics were cancelled, but Pastor Rich bought 30-40 squirt sticks (is that what they're called?) and the kids had fun playing in the water.

Monday morning we went up to Shoreline with my mom to see my grandparents. Since we still had our squirtsticks in the car we got to play with them again. I got to talk to my grandparents while the boys played, so it wa those silly sticks more than paid for themselves! I also got to help my grandma figure out her new tablet..

That night I dropped mom off  at her house, along with both boys, for a slumber party in the tent. Ezra has been talking about this for weeks, and since Seth was gone it was especially nice to have a little break from watching kids. I was supposed to go to my swim lessons at 7am Tuesday morning but slept through them since i'd stayed up so late the night before, folding laundry at watching movies. I did get to take my online Herodotus class without interruption though!! And then, after class, I got a hair cut and picked up Isaac at the spray park (where he'd been playing with Grandpa and Ezra). Ezra had somehow convinced all us to let him spend another night at Grandpa and Grandma's house, since "a sleepover means you sleep over and over and over" " at someone's house. So Isaac and I got to spend time together packing for our trip and then, Wednesday morning, Ezra and my mom met us at the Y for the boys' swimming lessons, after which the boys and I headed off to the Yakama Indian Reservation.

We made pretty good time, got dinner and checked into a hotel. We got in the pool a little after 6pm and didn't get out until it closed at 10pm! I did get the boys out for a bathroom break twice, actually. And Seth came and joined us around 8:30-9!! The boys are swimming so well this summer. Every time we get in the water they make more and more progress, which is so fun to see. We were all pretty wiped out when we straggled back to our room and Isaac hardly stayed awake during his shower. Ezra, as is typical, powered through his exhaustion and took a long leisurely bath, but fell asleep wrapped in a towel on the bed as I was looking for his underwear.

Thursday morning the team drove up from the rez to meet us in our hotel parking lot on their way to Rimrock Lake. The lake was a good hour and twenty minutes from the rez, but it was much cooler up in the "mountains" and I think all the kids thought the drive was worth it. Our kids thought so! I sat in the shade the entire time and watched the teenagers play with my kids, so it was quite the break for me too. Unfortunately, one of the teenagers found a little garter snake and the group of them spent a good 5-10 minutes passing it around, much to Ezra's delight. I, of course, heard "snake" and jumped up and ran down the beach and sat on a log 50 yards away until Seth assured me the snake was long gone.
nter

When it was time for the team to leave the lake (to get to Kids Club) we thought we were going to part ways and see Seth (and the team) on Saturday. The boys and I got popsicles and then went to the museum.

I just had so much fun with the boys at the museum. Ezra was SO excited and to go to the museum. I'm not exactly sure why - he enjoys going to other museums and we had talked a lot about the Yakama, but his enthusiasm was particularly high. I took our umbrella stroller and kept Isaac in it for about half our time in the museum, which was probably a good decision. He did ok, but it was hard to keep his interest in a particular installation as long as Ezra wanted to stand there and look at it and talk about it. There were a lot of taxidermied animals on display, though, which helped Isaac immensely. Since we'd talked so much about Yakama history and culture, it was easy to interact with Ezra while at the museum and he asked great questions. I love, love, love this stage of engagement! [photos in the museum weren't allowed]

The museum closed at 5:30pm, otherwise we would have stayed a bit longer (well, definitely longer if Isaac hadn't been with us), but we spoke with the clerk in the gift shop and admired the beadwork for sale and then Seth called and invited us to come have dinner with him (well, and the ERC team and other churches) at the church on the rez. We hadn't expected to see Seth again and were just going to hang out in Yakima for a while (find dinner and a park?). I hadn't seen the new church building (built last year) so it was really fun to go see where the teams now stay and to meet some of the new missionaries and, after dinner, listen to Chris Grandberry speak. The boy enjoyed a great deal of attention and the opportunity to play on the playground equipment.

 We didn't make it home until 2am Friday morning, but it was definitely worth the long drive to go see Daddy and have a better idea of what he was doing for a week (even if, on Friday, the boys got to watch too much TV while I napped and didn't get any of the chores and projects done that I had expected to).

Motorcycles

Today we walked to the YMCA for swimming and gymnastics. It took us about an hour, at a semi-leisurely pace, which allowed a lot of time for talking.

Isaac pointed out at least three motorcycles as we were walking (along with numerous trucks and pieces of garbage and whatever else he saw). I didn't hear Ezra say anything to him the first few times, but as Isaac pointed to the third motorcycle I heard Ezra say:

"Isaac, please stop talking about motorcycles! I asked you before and you keep doing it. I don't like hearing about motorcycles because it makes me think about how my grandma died!"

Friday Update #19 (5/15/15)

Hannah didn't get to go to Ezra's birthday party on his birthday, so we met her at her new apartment by Wright Park to check it out, then go out to lunch at The Hub and then play at the park. It was fun to have so much Hannah time, and it was an absolutely beautiful day. The boys also got to try out their new Avengers tattoos.

For Mother's Day church hosted a brunch and the kids gave their moms a potted plant and a "I love my mom because ____" poster. This is what Ezra gave me:

We had lunch at my parents' house with Jack and Esther afterwards.

We've been trying to decorate our mantle with seasonally appropriate decorations and candles. Ezra gets a big kick out of it.

We started our new session at the YMCA and on Tuesday and Thursday Ezra and Isaac are both in swimming lessons (and I’m in lessons with Isaac) and then we all shower and head off to the gymnastics room for gymnastics class. They’re in different levels, but we get to all be in the same room together. Well, I have to be with Isaac, since he’s only two and can only participate in classes with a parent, but I enjoy doing classes with him, especially this session because that means I also get to watch Ezra in his class instead of being outside the room or playing with Isaac elsewhere.

On Friday Isaac is taking a “creative movement” class (that Ezra gets to tag along to) that is similar to gymnastics in that we do a lot of the same stretching and beginning exercises. But then he gets to play with ribbons and hoops and bean bags and gets to run and jump and gallop in time to whatever music his teacher selects. For Isaac it’s an exercise in following instructions more so than it is an exercise in actually perfecting any skills.

But Ezra is really getting rather accomplished, especially in his gymnastics class. On Thursday he was actually called up, in front of the whole class, to demonstrate a series of routines on the bars to the rest of the class to demonstrate how each routine should be performed. I was so proud of him! I think he was suitably proud too.

Isaac has moved up to a new level of swim class, based on his age, and it’s much more challenging. Eventually that will be a very good thing for him, as he really needed to move up and be challenged, but right now it’s just hard. He doesn’t enjoy the challenge yet, so neither do I. But he needs to learn to swim! And I really appreciate and respect the teachers and the lesson progression, so I have full confidence that this is indeed what he needs to do and what he can do.

One day, for craft time, I pulled out a bag of "jewels" and the glue sticks and the paper to which the boys were supposed to glue the jewels. I then washed dishes and came back to this:

Isaac thinks he's getting cuter and cuter. For example:

Ezra has been asking about the piano a lot lately and wanting to play pieces from the Frozen book I have. But this week he was especially persistent and I wrote out "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for him and put "A," "B," "C" stickers on the keyboard and he played it all by himself!!! I am so proud of him and SO excited!

 
And then he wanted to write his own music: