Random thoughts

I wanted to get a post in before this coming weekend (you know, Halloween costumes and festivities) but it's going to include a lot of random things.  I guess that's how it goes sometimes.

Our crazy fall weather has continued.  After the wet, wet August and September, we have had some gorgeous days in October.  Even though many places in McFarland and Madison experienced a frost a week or so ago, since our neighborhood is up on a hill, we didn't.  Our broccoli, pole beans, raspberries, and a few lingering peapods are still producing, albeit slowly.  Actually, I cannot remember another fall raspberry crop like the one we've had.  It's been amazing.

The girls are looking forward to this week at school since they only have three days of school.  Many Wisconsin schools have a fall break the last weekend in October; our girls deserve this one.  These two have worked SO hard for the first six weeks of school.  I discovered this afternoon that neither girl has any real homework expectations this week because of the shortened schedule.  Hooray!  We took that extra time and headed down to the neighborhood park for some good outdoors time (although it took a bit of convincing on my part to get everyone out the door).

Backing up a day ... on Sunday after church we went to a local Madison park for a picnic and some time outside as a family to enjoy the fall weather.  Instead of going to an apple orchard or a pumpkin patch in the fall (since we can experience those things in our yard), we often have gone up to Devil's Lake as a family.  This year Matt and I decided that the experience wouldn't necessarily be worth the extra driving time, but we still wanted to do something outside together, so we tried a different park.

I think it worked out well.  The picnic lunch by a playground was great for Ethan and Kate.  After not having seen Kate play at a playground in ages, we learned that she has gotten really good at monkey bars this year.

Then we let Ethan ride his bike and Anna use her wheelchair for a "nature" walk on a paved trail.

Kate grumped a bit about having to walk, but I think she enjoyed herself at least a little.

Backing up another day ... on Saturday we attended the BCCN Halloween party at a local bowling alley.  The kids were all excited to wear their costumes and we had a great time bowling together.

LadyBug Girl (a.k.a. Anna) didn't use her wheelchair for this experience.  The walker and/or helping hands were enough.

The Vampire (a.k.a. Kate) decided to bowl without the ramp.  Not bad for her first try.

Batman (a.k.a. Ethan) liked to carry the bowling ball all by himself.

Although big sister was always close by to make sure he was safe :)

And finally, I have been trying to write down some of the things Ethan says these days.  This boy is hilarious, and he asks questions ALL THE TIME.  Here is a sampling:

Ethan: "When you get older, does your name change?"
Me: "Not usually.  What would you change your name to?"
Ethan: "North South East West"

"You just stay there and sleep while I clean up." (He said this to me while I was resting in his rocking chair.)

"Cream licky boo"  (This is what Ethan would name a pet if he should ever get one.)

"Why do some cars and trucks have two mirrors on the side while others only have one?"

"Why do some cars have two exhaust pipes?"

"Can you pass that truck up there?  I want to see it."

"Mom, did you hit the throttle as we went up the hill back there?"

"Daddy, why do we turn the lights out when we sleep?"

"Is God a girl or a boy?"

"What is heaven like?"

If I remember correctly, this questioning stage will last until he gets into Kindergarten ... at least.  We're glad he's curious, but sometimes it would be nice not to have to explain everything.

Settling In

I think we have settled into a fairly good school time routine.  Of course, as soon as I say that, something will fall apart and the routine will no longer work.  But for now, it's working.

The girls are still drained enough at the end of a school day that they (especially Kate) need some space right after school. Some days the down time is individual; other days it involves listening to a story on Kate's school ipad.

Still other days the kids can be found listening to Anna read a story to her younger siblings.

I usually have to tell Kate she has to stop reading at 4 o'clock (otherwise she would read all afternoon and then be a basket case for the rest of the evening), and the kids play until dinner.  Dinner, homework, prep for the next day, and finally getting ready for bed rounds out the days.

The girls have both had a field trip or two already this year.  I was able to go along to help with Kate's class as they harvested their garden plot at the community garden.  Later in the week, Matt joined Anna on the 4th grade trip to Old World Wisconsin, mainly to be her extra legs to make all of the movements and transitions safest for Anna and easiest for school personnel.

Kate and Anna are signed up for a drawing class once a week after school on Wednesdays.  They both are enjoying the experience, but it makes for an extra drained Kate by the end of the day sometimes.  Maybe she will continue to grow into these kinds of extracurricular activities.  The girls haven't participated in any activities outside of school (besides therapy) as of yet.  We're okay with that.  Nobody is expressing strong desires to join any clubs, sports, music groups, etc. at this point.  Someday they will, but we will enjoy our relaxed afternoons while we have them.

The lack of extra committments also provides us with free time to schedule appointments (like the traumatic flu shots we had a few weeks back) as well as giving us the ability to make a stop at a park on a beautiful afternoon.

In fact, Ethan and I have been doing our best to enjoy some of these gorgeous fall days, after the exceptionally rainy August and September.  This boy and I have a grand time hanging out at a park just the two of us, or visiting friends (both his and mine).  I'm treasuring this last year of having him home all the time, without the restrictions of a pre-school, school, or nap schedule.  Although Ethan has been known to fall asleep on the way home from picking up his sisters.  Oh, well.

Ethan and Kate have both shown an interest lately in using "real" tools, such as hammers and nails.  Those two had a lovely time nailing pieces of foam together one night.

Then one Saturday recently, Kate and I worked together to make a (very amateur) stuffed kitty.  Kate likes learning these kinds of new skills, even if it's a completely new experience to understand just how much time and energy goes into making something relatively simple.

Another day recently we discovered some visitors in our back yard.  A sandhill crane pair came by a few days in a row to feed on the leftover corn cobs and grubs in the garden.  It's pretty awesome to have a field in our backyard.

Shortly after the cranes' visit, we decided to dig our sweet potatoes.  Although there wasn't a frost predicted, we wanted to get to those tubers before the mice did.  Holy cow, what a harvest we have!

We only found one mouse nest and the critters had only gotten into a handful of sweet potatoes.  Not only were there lots of potatoes, but many of the ones we dug were HUGE.  We rigged up our sweet potato curing room (a.k.a. the basement shower with a heat lamp and humidifier) and these big bad boys have been curing for more than a week.  We're all looking forward to trying out some new sweet potato recipes this winter.

I guess all that rain this summer really helped these plants along with all of the fruit trees and raspberry bushes.

Unfortunately, we have colder weather on the way so not only will we need to turn on the heat sometime soon, but our tomatoes, peapods, broccoli, pole beans, and raspberries will probably give up when we get our first real cold snap.  Also unfortunately, we have our second round of colds since school has begun.  Ethan, Kate, and I have been dealing with sore throats, runny noses, and yucky feelings already.  Hopefully it passes quickly and easily for the whole family unit.