What ARE They Learning?

I often wonder what my kids are actually learning.  What are they learning from me?  From school? From church?  Because what I think they are being taught is not always what I hear them explaining...

Today for Sunday Seminar this is what they showed us.  I'm so thankful for my kids.  They keep me laughing.  

Do not mistake this for an alligator.  Derek made that mistake and got severely chastened by little Benny.  This is a crocodile.  Derek kept asking him what he learned about, why he had a picture of a crocodile (alligator).  Ben got so frustrated.  Why couldn't we understand that this was a crocodile and that was that?  No other learning was going on there in his mind.  (By the way, his teacher drew this...his drawing still looks like scribble city.)
Another fun Ben fact from this week is that I took him back to the eye doctor and it looks like with the glasses he is seeing SO MUCH better!  No eye crossing and he has better 3D vision!  Hooray!

I was really proud of Libby this week.  She finally proved she could read well enough to graduate from the special Title I reading program at school.  This was a part of the assessment that allowed her to go back to doing reading with the rest of her class.  I love the way she spelled desperate.  Overall, this is probably the best sample of her writing I have ever seen.  She has turned a corner lately!  

Sarah read us a book for Sunday Seminar.  Then, when she finished she said, "You can applaud if you would like to."  Of course we wanted to, after that!  This piece of her writing came home a couple of weeks ago, after a family movie night where I actually joined in (doing a project on the floor during the movie of course).  But, clearly she noticed (I'll translate a bit here)..." I was happy when my mom and dad watched Despicable Me 2 with me!"

I spent a few minutes listening to Sarah play yesterday and her imagination really is "the best!"  And I feel like you can see how in just a couple of weeks her writing has really improved!

Master BATH FINALLY DONE!

 The pictures in this post are turning out to be a trainwreck just like this project.  Derek has theorized (hopefully) that because this project was so difficult from start to finish that I will retire from home projects indefinitely.  HA.  HA.  Ha.  ha.  ha.....fading laugh.  He might be right.  This project almost broke my will to ever attempt anything (and I mean anything) again.
I ranted a few weeks ago about how we were almost done and then had to reorder the countertop.  2 weeks later I called to see when it was coming and OOOPS.  They hadn't ordered it.  Then, 3 weeks later (due to snow delays in Texas) it finally arrived.  It took the plumber 2 visits to get the faucet installed so that it wasn't leaking underneath.  Derek had trouble putting the door back up because I had somehow managed to throw away the hardware to hang it.  Bathfitter had to come back 2 times to try and stop the shower door from spewing out water when you opened it after the shower (it is better, but not perfect).  I broke one 48x36 mirror trying to hang it without brackets (apparently this can be done, youtube says so, but I will never attempt it again).  I won't even tell you which of the towel racks are crooked or imperfectly hung (okay, I will, all of them). and I the floor has a few paint flecks here and there.  Especially where I was touching up the baseboards and somehow the newspaper got stuck to the baseboard and in my freak out to try and fix it...well, anyway.  This bathroom has been a thorn in my side since Dec. 23rd when I started ripping down the wallpaper.  I still need a clock and a shelf.  But I am going to give it a rest and focus on yoga (BREATHE!) and on being a mom and cooking healthy meals and keeping my house cleaner so that no little 2 year old guest comes up and tells his mom and dad he is eating an m&m he found under my couch.  OUCH!

Vanity before.  Under this tile was a thick layer of cement and chicken wire.  So hard to get off, especially of the wall.  Yuck.  

This is the underlayer of wallpaper.  Pretty sure it was a beautiful metallic.  I bet the ceiling had a metallic color at one point too.  

Midway through the process.  Or so I thought.  Actually I was months away from finishing.  

The beautiful purple lights. 

3 paint color attempts.  The one on your right was the winner.  

The bags, remnants of the tile, cement and chicken wire shower. 

What the old shower looked like.  Never wallpaper your bathroom.  Behind this wall paper was disgusting MOLD.  

Just so you can see the amazingly gross grout around the countertop tiles, and the "beautiful" purple details.  

TADA!  The finished bathroom.  It was Derek's idea to paint the vanity blue.  And I love it.

The new shower.  I looks like tile, but it isn't.  So no grout to get moldy!  It has an amazing fan that sucks the moisture right out and has a nice bright light (which I love), or a dimmer light (which Derek likes).

More views...

More views... So relieved it is over!

Early Easter Pics

I am committed to trying to get a family picture once every six months, roughly Christmas & Easter.  Remember, I am a recovering historian.  And what I studied is photographs.  And what they say about us.  Or what they say about what we are trying to say about ourselves.  So, I try to get evidence that we are still around, and that I am still hopelessly in love with dressing up my family in seasonally appropriate matchy matchy outfits 2x a year (this is all Derek will tolerate).  Oh, and the Halloween photos, but those are in a genre all of their own.

All of a sudden, our "Easter" was upon us.  The choir at church did their Easter number in church today, and Derek sang with them.  So, since Derek had the day off, this was it.  The day we would all be together.  I found the boys' ties first.  Then, I found the girls' dresses at Burlington.  Geniously matchy matchy.  But I found nothing for myself.  So this is a year with pics where mom is behind the camera, and ok about that.

When I apply my historian brain to these photos, I come up with some funny conclusions.  

What I hope these pictures say: Wow, that mom is amazing for being able to get those matchy matchy outfits together and get everyone in one place smiling (mostly) and standing still (mostly).  

What they probably say:  Wow, that mom is kind of insane and has way too much time and money to throw away in finding and acquiring matchy matchy outfits.  She probably felt an immense amount of social pressure to find and buy her kids those outfits to fit in with social norms at church and school.  (Reality, we live in a mostly "thrift-store-clothes-wearing because we want to" ward and school.  So, I buy this stuff because I want to, not because people would judge me if I didn't.)  

But here is the most important thing to me...What I hope my kids will see in 20 years when they look at these pictures:  My mom loved us enough to try to help us look our best and feel connected as a family.  We all belonged together because we matched.  In more ways than just our clothes.  That is what I see when I look at the pics of me and my siblings in our  matchy outfits from 30 years ago. 

This is me (Tricia), Rachel and David in 1980.  I think that these were probably our Easter Dresses!

 

What Ben is saying as I type?  "Mom, Libby is drawing on her face with a marker!"  What I am thinking?  At least the picture was earlier today.  And I yell over my shoulder without looking, "Libby, stop writing on  yourself."

The other bit of reality is that I love my kids so much it hurts and nothing is better than seeing them looking and feeling their very best!  It is worth a bit of shopping to make that happen.  (My mom did actual sewing to make that happen!)

Ben's Glasses!

It was a bit of a journey to help Ben get glasses.  The first doc I took him to saw the lazy eye right away and told me he would for sure need glasses.  But, she wanted me to take him to a clinic that specialized in Vision Therapy.  I was put off by the concept of vision therapy, and went with a regular optometrist that specialized in kids.  He didn't see the lazy eye.  Told me I was probably just seeing things, essentially.  But I kept seeing his left eye turn.  More and more often.  So I took him to the vision therapy place.  And, they told me I wasn't crazy!  I was seeing his eye turn.  They could do the right things to get him to try to focus and whoop, there would go the eye turn.  So, finally, about 6 months after I knew he needed glasses, he finally got them.
I was really shocked (but probably shouldn't have been) at the variety of girls glasses that are out there compared to boys glasses.  I knew I wanted the all plastic type, with the strap.  Thanks to facebook, and my friend Melissa, I figured out what brand I was looking for for him and tracked them down.  Can I just say that glasses are a racket though!  I can't wait until he can wear what Costco carries.  So much cheaper!
He loves them.  Thinks he looks handsome.  I got a scratch warranty included--but this guy is so careful with them so far, I might never need it--HA, not.
One other interesting thing that came with his visit to the Vision Therapy clinic (and I told them I didn't want to do any actual Vision Therapy visits, ain't nobody got time for that!) is a list of accommodations that he should have at school because of his issue.  I am going to make an appointment and take Libby in.  I am guessing she may need some accommodations too.  That will probably make a big difference in her school experience!

Libby was jumping for joy that she wouldn't be the only person in the family with glasses.

Celebrating Brion

Derek's dad turned 75 this weekend.  And he retired.  And it was the Pi day of the century.  So, we celebrated.  In a BIG way.  The party was the brainchild of my sister-in-law Maren, who I love.  We are so similar, so I knew I could trust her to throw a great party where things were well delegated.  I did the decor for the party.  Others worked on the cheese/meat/fruit platters.  It was a beautiful event.  The kind of thing that people often do for their loved ones after they have passed on.  But we got to show him the slide show of his life, and give him hugs.  The grandkids also did a skit about his life. Emma wrote it, and my kids and Kaj acted out parts.  Libby got to be a cave woman version of Grandma Doris.  Ben got to be a cave man who burped on stage and also a bag of M&Ms (this was apparently Brion's first Valentine's gift to Geneva).  Sarah was Grammy Geneva, marrying a husband who was sick and in the hospital.  It was a fun retelling of his life.
The best part of the weekend for me was having 2 sisters-in-law stay at our house.  We had so much fun talking and wedding planning for Derek's youngest sister Leanne.  Our wedding dress shopping trip was EPIC.
I love being a part of the Norton clan.  It was precious to see how many wonderful people came out to celebrate Grandpa Brion.  There were over 200!

"Cavewoman" Libby

Cave Man Benny

"Geneva" and "Brion" Sarah and Kaj

The first Valentine's Day gifts:  Flowers and M & Ms (the smallest bag you could buy, apparently).  

The proposal

All the Norton Siblings together!  Can you tell they are related?

Kid Quotes...Medical and Marvelous!

Daylight Savings came on a Sunday where I was up late (for me) on Saturday night, and I took my first Claritin of the season (I am always drowsy for the first few times I take the non-drowsy stuff...it does get better, thankfully).  Put the 3 together and what do ya got?  Someone who is too tired to blog.  So, I could just wait until tomorrow.  Except that I'm too busy and I didn't blog last Sunday either.  SO, here ya go.  My favorite quotes from the last couple of weeks.
Ben:  Derek and I were in the bathroom where we were brushing kids' teeth.  Ben walked out and said, "See ya later SUCKERS!"  What?
Also one morning on the walk to school a bird pooped on Ben's hand.  He was totally grossed out.  And so was I.  But many people told me it was a good omen, and I believe this because we got a really, unbelievably good parking spot at Costco that day.
We had the Shorewood Wrestling banquet this week.  This is a big potluck dinner and my kids love it because they play around big room, and even up on the stage near where their dad is giving out awards.  It was a proud moment for him when they were on the stage this year and Ben put Libby in a headlock.  He got to say into the microphone, "Kids, take your wrestling out in the hallway."  
The girls each had a medical moment and a marvelous moment (that I can remember...I'm sure they each had more of both...)

"IT'S POOP AGAIN!"

Ben's medical moment was when we tried on the frames that we ordered for his glasses.  He likes the color, his favorite hulk smash green.  I like that they are all plastic and NOT gonna break!  We will pick up the finished product in about 2 weeks.

One is when we were working on decorations for Grandpa Brion's upcoming birthday party.  She was doing a VERY good job of helping me.  We were making one of those triangle hangy things (you know what I mean, right).  I before I attached it to the string I wanted to see how different people attached them.  So I googled and started looking through the images.  Libby watched me for a few minutes with growing impatience.  She said, "Mom, if you keep looking at those ideas, you are not your creative self.  Don't ruin your creative self!"  (And I tend to agree with this sentiment, so I closed the browser and we did it the way my creative self wanted to!  And it worked :).  And it was probably the most fun I have ever had working with Libby on a project.  She stayed with me to the end.  It is so fun to see my kids growing up.
Another Libby moment will be etched in my mind forever.  She had something going on with her eye.  She complained for a few days and I couldn't see anything external.  Finally I made her open her eye for me (I had to help) and had her look to the side.  The spot that she was complaining about was really red.  Kinda scary red.  So I took her into the doc the next day.  It was about 2:00 in the afternoon, so I tried to feed her on the way in, because she has been getting super low blood sugar in the afternoons.  She can't handle anything that is tricky until she has had lots of food and lots of time to digest (this is because she doesn't eat her lunch--something this week has shown me I need to work harder on, but I digress...)  So the doctor took a look at her eye and came back with the most experienced doc in the clinic.  This is never a good sign.  She also had a black light and 2 types of drops.  Libby went BALLISTIC.  Sobbing, screaming, flailing, screaming, "NO DROPS!  YOU ARE A BAD DOCTOR!  YOU ARE HURTING ME!  BAD DOCTOR, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (on repeat)"   The 3 of us managed to restrain her and get the drops in.  The first one numbed her eye.  The second one made it a glowing yellow, under black light.  It was

amazingly psychedelic trippy awesome.  It would have been a moment to pause and try to figure out if I could buy mascara made of that yellow drop stuff because her eye lashes and face where it had dripped looked so cool under the black light.  But, remember I have a SCREAMING BANSHEE on the table.  Anyway, finally, it was all over.  And they found nothing and they wanted me to take her to a specialist the next day.  Imagine that when she realized the specialist would need to probably do drops too, she felt better.  (And actually the redness was better the next day too.  I figure that a combo of the drops and frantic tears probably took care of whatever was irritating her eye.  But man, I bet those doctors had a good laugh that night.  
Sarah had an interesting week too.
I got a real taste for her sense of humor during a 20 questions game just before the poop on Ben's hand.  She asked me if the thing was from a book.  "No."  "Was it a mythical creature?"  "No."  "Is it a unicorn?"  "Sarah, I just told you it wasn't a mythical creature, or from a book. Try again."  "Is it a Pegasus?"  Me staring and starting to laugh.  "Is it a Phoenix?"  She could barely contain her laughter as she asked about 3 more mythical creatures (her favorite thing to use for a 20 questions item, btw).  She was totally playing with me.  I love seeing her intellect and humor coming together.
On Thursday the nurse called me at about 2:15, just as I started to do the yard work I had been looking forward to all day.  Sarah hadn't been feeling well, so she came in to the nurses' office and rested.  Then she felt better and went out to join her class for the last few minutes of recess, and BARFED on the playground.  Poor girl.  She was really sicky.  Then she came home a rested and started feeling a bit better.  So we went ahead and took Libby to dance.  When we were waiting to pick up Libby I could tell her stomach was feeling a bit worse.  I tried to coax her to puke into the toilet.  No, she said she was fine.  But then she let loose in the lobby.  I caught most of it on a magazine (not my best idea ever, since she kept going and I kept spilling puke off the opposite edge of the magazine while all the other dance moms looked on paralyzed.) Don't worry, the studio has the best stain hiding carpet ever.  Sprayed with Lysol, wiped with paper towels and it was as good as new.  And that was that.  Sarah

felt better the next day and skipped off to school without a backward glance at the tummy troubles.  Libby stayed home on Friday claiming her tummy hurt.  Still not sure if it did or not, but she never did any vomiting, for which I am thankful!