7 Quick Takes, March like a lion edition

so I'll catch you up on what is new, but...where to even begin?

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~1~

Four kids, 19 years of parenting, and our first cast.  It was bound to happen.  I knew with Amie's love of parkour, that a cast in our future was likely. I really thought it would be her wrist or arm, though, not the leg.  She did this jumping from a 10 foot wall to a 6 foot wall, landing badly.  One of the coaches came to get me when it happened and since she was still on top of the 6 foot wall, the quickest way to get to her was by going up the wall.  The coach offered to give me a leg-boost up, and I accepted.  Hands down, one of my very favorite funniest memories is the look of awe and shock on the other coach's face when he saw me pull myself up onto the wall.  He thought I scaled it.  His eyes bugged out is surprise.  I kind of wished I really had done it, but I fessed up right away that I had a leg-up.  They had so many cast color options!

~2~

I have a mid-term exam for my college class this week, which means that I am at the half-way point in the class.  I have to take a moment and reflect on the fact that I haven't dropped out of the class, missed any assignments or just simply stopped going.  Maybe I should light a candle in thanksgiving...living the Jenn life, I don't have a lot of success with follow-thru.

~3~

No missed assignments in my class, but living the Jenn-life, I of course have to have some screw-ups...I earned a perfect score on my first paper, but- here's the Jenn-life story>>>>> I stayed up late the night before finishing it (as only an accomplished procrastinator can) and then in the morning, I printed it up, 3-hole punched it, and stapled it together, with the rubric on the front.  I dropped Josie off at school, got on the freeway and headed to class. As I was turning it it, I flipped through it, and realized the last 2 pages did not print at all.  Yup, classic Jenn-moment.  I was really lucky that the instructor is very approachable and easy-going, I emailed the entire paper to her as soon as I got home.  The end. The moral of the story is that Sky is right and I shouldn't procrastinate.  I'll get right on that....tomorrow.  Maybe.

~4~

We (my sister and I) have moved on from helping my grandparents to managing their care.  Two weeks or so ago, they had a plumbing problem in their bathroom.  Sky took 3 days off work to go and repair their floor and replacing faucets on two sinks, and repairing water damage.  We've been dying to rip out the carpet in their bathrooms and replace it with laminate that would be easier for grandmother to use her walker on, and easier to clean.  Well, the water damage took care of that decision, and we were able to put in new waterproof vinyl plank flooring.  It's really, really nice looking. Grandmother fell again while we were there, and we were able (barely) to convince her to come stay at our house for two nights while the bathroom work was going on, so she could rest.  It was also a trial run for her to see what living with us would look like.  Grandfather has alzheimer's and is declining, I really think grandmother needs to be living with us, so I can care for her.  I couldn't believe how hard it was to get her to come stay with us, she was so worried about grandfather.  I am hoping that we can have her stay with us about once a month for two days, so she can get some rest.  I am already madly pinning grandmother suite ideas on pinterest, and I think we are going to start on the suite soon, so it will be ready for her when she needs to come. I {heart} pinterest.  I'm a visual person, I love pinning beautiful photos and ideas!  You can see my boards here:

http://www.pinterest.com/henjenca/

(I know, I need to figure out how to put a pinterest button on my sidebar...coming soon!)

~5~

We are doing a lot of managing and coordinating for the grandparents.  I have found that the Cozi site is really useful for elder-care management.  It's a online family schedule site, the cool thing is that two people can manage it so both my sister and I have access.  We put all their Dr. appointments into the calendar, and then we get alerts weekly on what is happening.  There is also a section for photos- where I upload receipts and there is also a journal section where I can record things that are happening with them- that grandfather could not remember my mother, that grandmother fell, that I spoke to grandmother for the first time about coming to live with us.  It is a really helpful site, and it is free.

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~6~

Josie has a painting up for auction for her arts high school.  The auction ends March 19th. This would make a nice gift for someone in the military, or for a parent of someone in the military.  It is titled "on patrol" and you can click the link here to bid on it here: On Patrol OCSA auction.  It is oil on canvas and the size is 15" by 24". Proceeds go to fund the Orange County School of the Arts conservatory programs, which is non-profit. The fundraising event also has other art and packages for bid, different things like dinner packages, tours, etc.

~7~

Sky found us a new show on BBC, it's called Endeavor and is a police mystery show that takes place in the late 1960's - I think. It's very good, we've watched two episodes so far and we are hooked.

*7 Quick Takes happens every Friday over at Conversion Diary

My Burn Book {parrots in the morning}

My Burn Book {moments I want to burn into memory}

We have a huge resident flock of parrots in our area. Sometimes they are all here, sometimes just a few.  This morning, we had quite the ruckus.  I love, love, love these parrots. When I hear them in the morning or evening, I love to close my eyes and pretend I am somewhere tropical.

join up and share a memory below:

7 Quick Takes Science-fair edition

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~1~

I introduced Amie to yoga.  She is enjoying a kids yoga class.  I love this studio, isn't it beautiful?  I can't even remember what this move is called, I think it was the "belly train".  Sky thinks it looks like a bunch of dominoes tipped over :)

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~2~

Meg has been dreaming for most of her life to barrel race horses.  We had to sit her down once, a long time ago, and explain that this would not happen, we couldn't afford horse-riding lessons.  Well, fast forward to 17 years of age....and she made it happen.  She has been so tenacious with her desire to be around horses, to the point of calling random stables in nearby cities/counties and trying to arrange to work for lessons.  Which, she did.  And now, here we are... funny, as I went through my photos of this event for editing, I noticed that in all of the photos of Meg competing, she is grinning wildly.

you go, Meg!

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~3~

Yes, it looks like, walks like and smells like Science-Fair season!!  Meg had a big project/ Science-Fair experiment/research paper for Chemistry, and Josie had a research paper/Science-fair presentation and 3 D model of a cell.  She did her project on the red blood cell, and here is her cell model.  Can you see the oxygen stuck on the hemoglobin?? I got a kick out of that part!  :)

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~4~

In the midst of all this Mad-Science, I opened up my fridge and noticed that Meg's container of 200 blue-bottle fly pupae were hatching.  Just the sort of thing every mom expects to see on her butter shelf....blah!  I requested she go free them.

~5~

Went to a new student orientation meeting with Josie at the Performing Arts School.  I was really impressed, I think she is going to have a great year.  She picked graphic arts, animation and piano for her electives - and these classes take place during the academic portion of her day, they aren't even part of her art conservatory portion.  Very cool.

~6~

We are on the home-stretch with Farmer Boy.  I am really enjoying this book, somehow I skipped it when I read all the other Laura Ingalls Wilder books.  I'm reading it primarily for my boy, I hope he is soaking up the lessons on hard work and integrity.  As for me, Almanzo's mother makes me feel very, very lazy, I don't think that woman ever sat down! Lazy, and hungry...that book has a lot of good food mentioned.

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~7~

Our new kitchen island project is very close to being completed.  Sky completely demolished the old island, there was nothing left but a spot on the floor with missing tiles. He then built this island frame here, from scratch.  Including these drawers.  The bottom two big drawers will hold our pots, pans and lids.  The drawers are fancy/smancy and will finish closing by themselves if you don't close them all the way.  I don't even know what the term for that is...but it's really cool. My new stove-top is in place...drool....and this Saturday Sky will attempt to pour a concrete counter top on the island.  He has never done this before, but I have complete confidence, the man can do just about anything he sets his mind on.  He also has mad-concrete knowledge/skills.  I always found it amusing that he had to take a concrete class in college. Who's laughing now, Jenn, who???  Not me- I will be grateful for my  new stained-concrete counter and will never, ever call concrete "cement" again just to make Sky mad.

Amen.

hope you are having an awesome week, bloggy friends! 7 Quick Takes happens every Friday at Conversion Diary. Hop on over and join up!

Quick Takes Sunday

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~1~

30:  The number of games Demi-Sky won, straight in a row, against the Bible College boys.  The game: Connect four.

The boys, they were humbled.

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~2~

The hens will not sleep in their coop anymore.  At dusk, they now roost in various places. Sky's garage-workshop is a favorite, comfy, safe spot.  Here is Dapples making herself at home on the skill-saw. (I'll share more in a later post about why the hens will not roost in their coop anymore)

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~3~

Sky recently finished a bench with a slate-tile top.  It now sits underneath our big window in the front room.

I love this man <3

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~4~

Christmas Eve with family.  We spent the evening with my dad and step-mom, and then at Sky's big/ginormous Family Christmas Eve Party.  We are talking big family plus cousins plus their children's big families.  It is big, noisy, fun, familiar.  Tamales are served every year.  It's tradition.

~5~

Sky's sister also makes those peanut butter blossom cookies. You know the kind, the ones with a hershey kiss in the center?  Yum. There is a reason I do not make these at home.  I would eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Amen.

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~6~

The grand-kids and cousins shared their musical talent.  Most involved the piano (hard to get a good photo of a little noggin peaking behind the piano)  Here is Meg playing her fiddle.  She prepared traditional Christmas music to share, but the crowd demanded music from Lord of the Rings as a finale.  Yes, she can play them by heart.

~7~

We just ended our week-long Bible conference.  Our final guests have packed up and departed, it was a very busy but full week.  Full of love, family, friendship, fellowship, music, worship, deep Bible truths.  The topic this year was the second half of the book of Psalms. New Year's Eve was the last night of the conference.  Something about ushering in a new year makes things seem so much more urgent, more pressing and more personal.  I'm struggling to get my thoughts into sharable order.

We begin the new week, getting our house in order, catching up on lost sleep, and preparing for the New Year.  I am looking forward to new resolve, new routines, new school work.

I hope you have a Happy New Year!

* 7 Quick Takes Friday is hosted every week at Conversion Diary, click over to join up!

strange pet tricks 2

I took Emma the Wonder-Labradoodle in for a very over-due grooming session.  Known around these parts as her "day of beauty". {whisper} I'm still waiting for my whole "day of beauty"...

 When I pick Emma up at the groomers, I am never quite sure what I will be returning with:

Here is the before:  Emma the Wonder-Labradoodle as Labradoodle.

The very first time I arrived to claim this run-way beauty, I was quite stunned...

Unfortunately, we let her grooming session lapse a few months, she was very overdue and had some matted areas. I was a bit taken back to pick this up:

and that friends, is a strange pet trick!

Happy Wordless (or word-ful) Wednesday!!