Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I love Elinor!

Which Jane Austen Character are You? (For Females) Long Quiz!!! You scored as a Elinor Dashwood As Marianne's older sister, Elinor lives at the other end of the emotional spectrum. She rarely reveals her intense feelings and is more concerned with being honest and loyal than having what she deserves. Even though her intentions are pure, she sets herself up for loss by constantly placing other people before her own needs. Overall, Elinor is gentle and rational but is just as capable of radical emotions (despite her withholding them) as her sister. Elinor Dashwood 94% Jane Bennet 88% Elizabeth Bennet 66% Charlotte Lucas 63% Marianne Dashwood 53% Emma Woodhouse 50% Lady Catherine 34%

Monday, March 05, 2007

The Groaning Sofa

Back in February, the boys had a little slumber party one Friday night.  Ethan wisely chose to sleep on the floor.  I think they may have outgrown this.
 

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Reload, Ready, Aim, Blog

Jericho has been nagging encouraging me to update my blog.  I think she is more interested in pictures of her badly missed younger brothers than in anything I have to say.  However, in the interest of accommodation I have decided to try to discipline myself to make entries to my blog before I spend too much time reading everyone else's.
Seth
Seth has been a little Under-The-Weather lately( as have many of us here) but before that he was a resounding success as The Hedgehog in the ALC production of the Winnie-The-Pooh play titled Poohsticks.  His succinct response to the sledding season this year is "Totally Awesome!"  He and I have been working hard at brushing up on math and grammar for the dreaded Iowa Test in April.  He started piano lessons in January and pleases me by practicing every day without reminder.














Seth and Ethan dressed up as a big clown.  They love doing this.













Ethan
Ethan is the only one of us to not succumb to the recent Under-The-Weatherness.  He bounced onto the scene in Poohsticks as the Eeyore-bouncing culprit, Tigger.  He has also been busily working at his math and grammar in preparation for Test Day.  He also scrapes away at his fiddle.  He is polishing Bach's Minuette No. 2(along with Gabe) and he is fiddling like crazy on Boil 'Em Cabbage Down.

















This picture shows Ethan's high and tight military haircut.





Gabe
Gabe has lost his voice due to a nasty case of bronchitis in the Great Under-the-Weatherness currently afflicting the Pennsylvania Stevensons.  He has been rather more lethargic than usual, too.  He showed signs of rallying today, however, and fortunately was well during the ALC dramatic presentation of Charlotte's Web.  It took him a little while to warm to his role, but at the end of the day, he did a serviceable job of portraying an eccentric sheep.  He is also diligently(?) preparing for Test Day, besides keeping up with his ALC assignments.  He has done a great job in the writing department this year.  He also tortures his violincello almost every day.  He is working on a shortened version of the Prelude to Bach's 'Cello Suite No. 1.
















Caleb
Caleb had a more eventful week than most.  He even has an eventful week coming up.  Tuesday he joined some other homeschoolers on a snowboarding trip.  Ironically, he and I had a pleasant chat that morning about using caution and how injuries affect more people than just the injured one.  He still believes in the judiciousness of being careful, but on one of his downhill runs he managed to jam the toe of his snowboard into the snow in such a way as to flip himself off the board, dislocating his right shoulder and fracturing his left in the epiphysis of the humerus(the fracture is in the shoulder joint at the tip of the bone connecting the elbow to the shoulder).  Clyde Harms very kindly transported him home.  His dad very kindly transported him to the ER at Reading Hospital.  Dr. Jack Perry very kindly put his right shoulder back in place.  Caleb is not wearing a cast, but sometimes I think he wishes he was.  He wears two--count 'em--two slings and has to walk around like someone a lot older than 16 to keep his injuries immobilized.  He made me get a healing herb he had read about and mix it with some lanolin so I could smear it on his shoulders every day.  He wants to heal asap, but I'm afraid he's not going to be well in time to save his role in the ALC high school play.  You see, we're heavy into the theatre season here.  The ALC Players are putting on You Can't Take It With You and Caleb is portraying an excitable Russian ballet instructor.  At one point in the play, Caleb was supposed to pick up one of the other actors and wrestle him to the ground.  The directors and Caleb are applying their creativity to be able to rework that part into something he can do.  He can still kinda play the piano and continues to work on the beautiful piece from Amelie for his recital.  He is really handicapped when it comes to playing his guitar and banjo, however.



That thing sticking out of his ear is the telephone earphone because he was talking to Jericho.  He looks pretty goofy because this was the end of a long day.







Nathan
Nathan is in Long Island again this weekend.  He is preparing us for the time when he will leave us after The Wedding.  We're already used to him being gone a lot.  He works and goes to Art and goes to Long Island.  This  is as it should be, but we don't have to be completely happy about it.  Here's a sample of what he works on at art.

















Tom
The newsiest thing Tom has done lately is to shave off his mustache without telling anyone he was going to do it.  He walked out of the bathroom and flipped us all out.  I think he thought we might flip out, but I don't think he was prepared for the full extent of flipping.  Nathan had trouble controlling himself all evening.  Would go from some kind of manic laughter to almost sobbing without warning.  Minutes after the revelation, digital photos were winging their way to the 3 children in the West so that they could flip out with the rest of us.  We were all having to deal with the absence of something we had known for 29 years.  We still love him anyway--he loves us and takes very good care of us--and that's a big, complicate job.  But I'm happy to report that his mustache has almost been restored to its former glory.

















Pam
Some of what I am busy with you can tell from the above--helping boys with the Test,  working on learning their musical instruments with them, etc., etc., etc.  I am also trying to finish as many knitting projects as possible. Here are a couple of recent ones--

 
The top picture is of the finger puppets I made for Eliot and Judah and the Lamb is a birthday present for Sam Penney.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Finally, Thanksgiving

We started food preparations the night before, but cooking and baking started in earnest early Thanksgiving morning.  Appetizers began at 2pm at the Logos Auditorium--about 40 thankgivers in attendance.




Some post meal  entertainment--Ken Wolff's vocal ensemble


and Josh and cohorts sing the blues

We enjoyed ourselves immensely and we are very thankful to our Lord for allowing us to  be together as a family.
We've received a beautiful snowfall in Moscow and I'll try to post some scenery later today.