C went to see L's dance recital on Sunday afternoon. He had a wonderful comment after her more difficult dance: "All I have to say is that, in my opinion, that is some impressive jumping." I absolutely agree with him. L's easier class did a number of sotee's in first and second positions and some sotee arabesques, but her more difficult class did things that I can't name and that are much more difficult. One of them involves starting in fifth position and then jumping and landing forward of where they started, but in fifth position again. They also did jete's (leaps) across the floor. L has really learned quite a lot this year. Not only can she do these new steps, but her body is straight and her arms are wherever they are supposed to be. It is quite a feat to get it all together.
L caught a caterpillar today. His/her name is "Caterpee". We tend to call it a him, but there's really no way to know for sure. You can't exactly check between the legs! Anyway, it's a monarch caterpillar. She caught one a few years ago, but she was so sure it wasn't a monarch because it didn't have the right color stripes. Well, it made a chrysallis right before family camp, and since we didn't know what kind of caterpillar it was, we took it to camp. Nothing happened at camp, but the day after we got back, the monarch came out of it's chrysallis. I have beautiful pictures of that. It was a truly amazing sight!!
Well, it appears that Caterpee is also a monarch, so we are looking forward to watching him grow over the next month or so. L is very good about making sure he has plenty of leaves to eat. He eats quite a lot. C commented how much he already ate and pooped in just one day. But, that's his job. All he is supposed to do right now is to grow and get ready to make his chrysallis. He appears to be doing that well. L is very good about feeding Caterpee. Things are going to be a little stressful, though, with the move. I hope she can find milkweed easily in our new neighborhood. And, she is going to be at camp for a week. Most of that time, P will be home alone since C and I will be at a family reunion. L will have to make a reminder so P will keep Caterpee well fed.
We had two sets of thunderstorms come through today. Because of that (I tend to get bad headaches with storms), P and I decided that we will have our anniversary celebration on Thursday. It turns out that since I treated my headache preemptively, I didn't have a really severe headache tonight. We did, however, get to see a beautiful, complete rainbow in the sky after the first set of storms. It was just beautiful. What a reminder that, even when things are looking dark, God promises to take care of us.
When I became a stay at home Mom, there were a few things in our routine that I wanted to change. I wanted my kids to eat sandwiches at lunchtime more often and to eat ramen noodles for lunch less often. I really don't like that they eat ramen very often because it isn't very nutritious. P let them have it quite often because it is easy and cheap. When they ate sandwiches they would also have chips. I rarely let the kids have chips, which is something they don't like about my being home.
Well, I have surrendered on the ramen battle! Let the kids eat ramen every day at lunch. Is it really going to kill them? I seriously doubt it. My concession is that they have ramen noodles. My requirement, though, is that they also eat a fruit and a veggie. So, they had ramen with grapes and carrots today. The ramen is really cheap. At Sams Club, I get 36 packets for $6. It's hard to beat that!
We still have our sandwich days. The kids aren't always happy, but they deal with it. Whenever we picnic, I make sandwiches - we usually have chips when we picnic. I treat them with grilled cheese sometimes. We sometimes eat leftovers or other somewhat more exciting things. The kids like their ramen plain, though. So, I have given up on the ramen front. I've "given up" on a lot of things, but we're better off for it. The more I relax on the little stuff, the more time I have to really teach the kids the important stuff of life.
Well, it looks like the move to the new house is "on" again. We are looking at closing in the next two weeks. All of our financial ducks have lined up - Thank You, Lord! So, we may be trying to get moving pretty quickly here. That is just fine with me. I have been very frustrated with living in limbo. I am looking forward to setting up housekeeping in the new house. I know it is smaller and probably less convenient (laundry in the basement, no dishwasher, etc.), but I have felt so strongly that this is where God is taking us and I want to get there and meet our neighbors, etc.
Well, I think it's time to see if I can get some sleep. I promised the kids swimming tomorrow if I don't have too much of a headache.
2 comments:
The jump that L is doing (starting in 5th and ending in 5th) is called changement (I think that's spelled right). That's pretty impressive that she's able to do those at her age. When I was taking ballet from a dance studio, taught by a former professional ballet dancer (I can't remember which company he danced with), I wasn't doing changements until I was around 12 or 13. Those are pretty difficult to do (you have to have good control of your leg muscles). Sounds like she's really advancing in her dance which is super! Ballet is a great discipline and really teaches to focus on the details, especially when you get to the point where L is and focus on technique rather than just the movement. The caterpillar project sounds really neat! That would go real nice with the MSB Butterfly and the Bog Beast book/DVD (we might just have to copy that idea)! Glad things are progressing like you guys want with the house and all! We're constantly praying for all of you!
As a side note, changement is french and pronounced sh-auz-mon (that's about as close as I could get to an english sound----hope it makes sense)! :)
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