Shakespeare

Sarah is taking an afterschool Shakespeare class this year.  She is doing it with a group of homeschoolers from church.  When we were approached about the idea in the fall, it seemed like a great way for Sarah to gain exposure to Shakespeare that would help her in later classes, and solidify some friendships at the same time.  The homeschoolers are required to do much more for the class than Sarah (read lots of plays, write papers, etc) but Sarah has mostly been going for fun, and doing the minimal amount of reading to keep up.  I've been fine with that, since she has a full load at school and is also busy with piano, fencing and other activities.  But she's still been learning a lot.  They've learned about the language, history, and culture and are now learning drama skills and acting out scenes from the plays.  Good stuff.

Well, a few weeks ago the teacher of the class proposed that the parents and families read some Shakespeare along with the students for the last few months of the class.  The plan was for each of the five families to pick a play for the group to read and then host a book-club type discussion for the play.   The goal was to promote lifelong learning and show our students that this was a priority to us as well.  As part of our reading, we were supposed to identify lines from the play that we liked and thought we could incorporate into our family conversation and culture.  The idea was intriguing to me--could I really get my children to walk around quoting Shakespeare?  However, it was also overwhelming.  How could I find time to read aloud Shakespeare as a family?  And would we even understand it?  I hadn't read any Shakespeare since high school, and I had found it difficult and depressing then (We read Hamlet and Macbeth.)  But I agreed to try.

The first play chosen was The Merchant of Venice.  Our discussion was set for Friday night.  We started it only a week or so prior, because David and Sarah were in Washington DC and we had to wait until they got home to begin.  In between homework, scriptures and bedtime, we tried to read a bit here and there.  We had a big push on Sunday afternoon.  Then the week got busy with ballet, violin, piano, baseball, scouts, young women activities, the Blue and Gold Banquet, and BYU basketball games.  David had to bow out so he could prepare for his medical boards.  Kate and Ben were bored and quickly left the room whenever we began.  But we pressed on.  We finished Friday night at 6:15, just in time for our discussion. 

And I have to say, I LOVED it!  Definitely loved it.  I guess I have learned a little bit of something in the last twenty years, because I didn't find it nearly so difficult to understand this time around.  Granted, there were still words and phrases that I didn't understand, and I'm sure that I could have benefitted from a Shakespeare-era dictionary and some cliff notes, but for the most part, I got it.  And loved it.  Oh yeah, I said that already.  But I really did.  The story was exciting and suspenseful.  The language was enchanting, witty and moving.  There were funny characters full of puns and serious soliliquies on justice and mercy.  It is no wonder that his work has been around for centuries.  My girls were captivated.  I can't wait to read the next one. 

Here are some of our favorite quotes:

Act 3, Scene 3: Shylock: 
Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause,
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs.

Act 3: Scene 4:  Portia:
I never did repent for doing good, nor shall not now.

Act 1, Scene 2: 
Portia:  Good sentences and well pronounced
Nerissa:  They would be better if well followed.

I have found a treasure!

Now, on to Taming of the Shrew.

The best laundry room ever

I now have the best laundry room ever.  Hands down.  It's perfect. Totally functional and pretty too. 

I love it.

I must admit, the laundry room was one of the things I loved about this house when we were house hunting.  It has cool flooring, interesting tile work around the sink, nice cabinets, and a skylight, giving lots of natural light.  But David has added some cool additions that make this room even better. 

We found this great drying rack at IKEA that he installed over the sink.  It adjusts to 4 different angles.  I can hang dirty dishcloths and towels over the sink to dry before I put them in the laundry.  I can put the rack all the way up and dry my sweaters.  Dirty baby clothes now get washed out in the sink and have a place to dry.  Love it!

He also added this shelf and rod.  Now I can hang clothes directly from the dryer.  I thought about moving all the shirts I needed to iron before I took this picture, but I think William's little shirts on the rack looked so cute.  It is fun to see William's, Ben's and David's shirts all there together. 

David also added these wire drawers in an open space under the counter.  We use these to sort our clothes--the kids put all their dirty clothes right in these drawers, and when they are full, I put in a load of laundry.  Easy as pie.  Love it.  Thanks to David for making this the best laundry room ever!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 We had fun celebrating at our house by wearing green,

 eating our usual green pancakes,

and packing green food for lunches.

We ended the day on a good note with these yummy shamrock ice cream sandwiches.  (No corn beef and cabbage for us!)  Hope your day was fun too!

A leprechaun left treats in Kate's classroom and even left footprints all around the school.  Kate has been obsessed with lebrechauns ever since and even wrote a thank-you note to the leprechaun that visited her school.  However, she has been stumped on how to get the note to the leprechaun.  We finally decided to put the note under her pillow in hopes that the tooth fairy will take it to him next time she comes for a visit.  Hmmm...not sure if that is how it works, but we'll see.

Basketball

Ben just finished up his basketball season.  His last game was last Saturday. 

Ben had a great season.  He improved a lot and had fun.  He played in a new league this year and he met a whole different group of kids.  Good experiences.

 I love watching kids play basketball.  It is way more fun for me than watching soccer or baseball.  I guess that is because I love basketball and watching these kids improve and play is enormously satisfying.  I volunteered to take him to nearly every game. 

I've already been spending way too much time playing basketball with Ben and his new basketball hoop he got for his birthday.  But that is another post...

An ordinary day

I watched a video recently where a woman who had been badly injured talked about the gift of an ordinary day--how we take so much for granted when we don't appreciate the wonderful-ness (is that a word?) of ordinary days.  So here is a few photos I took one afternoon recently of one of our "ordinary" days.

Here's where we see Sarah these days:  in front of the computer. 

Between homework, emailing her friends, and playing games online, this is where we often find Sarah. 

On this particular day, I caught Rachel working on some paper dolls that she and Sarah have been making for Kate.  I think the making is definitely going to be more fun than the actual playing, but that's just fine with me.  Rachel has also been working on a Doodle 4 Google, that she is entering in this contest. 

I can't remember what exactly William was up to, but he was concentrating on something.  He loves to sit and read books and often makes reading "sounds" as he turns the pages.  Very cute!

Here is Kate practicing her piano, sitting on one of David's big medical school textbooks so she is tall enough.  Love it.

Ben finally got his turn on the computer.  Ben lives for his screen time.  Whether it is playing the Wii or playing computer games, he will get all his responsibilities done (piano, homework, jobs, etc) quick as a wink so that he can have time to for his "screen time."  We limit the kids to one hour per day. 

Here's a picture of  my new coat rack I got for the entry way.  I am loving it!  It is nice to have a place for everyone's coats when guests come to visit (keep in mind that it rains here all year, so jackets are a must for at leat 10 months out of the year). 

I tried some new cookies that my friend Janelle put on her blog.  These cute zebra-striped cookies were fun to make and so yummy! 

Pretty ordinary stuff makes up our ordinary days.  I didn't take pictures of all the driving around to lessons and practices.  I didn't photograph the dirty dishes in the sink and the piles of laundry.  Those things are definitely a part of our days.  However, I am so grateful to be a mother and have these wonderful children in my care.  I love making a home and filling it with good things.  There are so many difficult things about mothering and homemaking, but it is a blessing to be able to do it--every single ordinary day. 

This is what NINE looks like!

Ben had a birthday last week and turned nine!

We celebrated with his favorite dinner of steak, cream cheese mashed potatoes, and peas.  Then he opened his presents.  Some of his favorites were a harmonica,

a nerf basketball hoop for his bedroom door (to replace one that broke a few months ago),

a chess set that David brought from Iraq,

and a pocket telescope/microscope that he got from Grandma Hales.

His big present was a basketball hoop for the back patio that he and David are still working on putting together. 

Ben chose to have chocolate cheesecake pie instead of a birthday cake.  It was delicious!

Happy Birthday Ben!  We love you!

After we assembled his nerf basketball hoop and put it up, Ben immediately started playing and figured out he was finally tall enough to slam dunk it.  He decided that maybe turning nine had made him taller after all!

Mid-Winter Break

The kids had last week off of school for "mid-winter break."  David took the week off so we could spend some time together.  We headed over to Ellensburg for our mini-getaway on Wednesday, and went swimming that night. 

Thursday we got up early for our big ski day.  Grandma had agreed to watch Kate and William so that David and I could take the older three skiing.  We left at 7:30 a.m.  It snowed the whole way, and what was supposed to take an hour and 40 minutes took 2 1/2 hours.  We pulled into the parking lot at 10:00 a.m. on the dot and barely made it in time for their lesson.  We got the kids all set up with their equipment and checked in with their instructors and then David and I were off to ski by ourselves!  After getting our equipment and running into some technical difficulties, we only had time for a couple of trips down the mountain.  I hadn't skiied in years, and even then, I wasn't very good.  So I was definitely rusty.  It was a good thing that the kids were all in lessons because David had enough work just getting me down the mountain!  But it was fun and time flew by.  We picked up the kids at noon, had some lunch, then headed back out to ski.  It snowed the whole day and so the fresh powder was wonderful.  However, it was freezing.  Super cold.  At one point I completely lost feeling in my fingers.  As we were stopped on the side of this steep run, I asked David how long my fingers could be numb before I sustained permanent damage.  He had me put my fingers on his back under his coat until the feeling came back.  (Am I married to a nice guy, or what?)  Of course, once the feeling came back, my fingers hurt like crazy.  So bad.  In fact, they hurt and felt tingly for more than 24 hours.  Definitely the first stage of frost bite.  (David has already bought me hand warmers for next time.)  But anyway, back to the skiing.  After lunch, David and I took one trip up two lifts to the very top of the mountain.  It was snowing so hard and we just kept on going up and up into the clouds.  I'm sure the view would have been amazing on a clear day.  But it was so cold and windy up on the top of the mountain, biting cold--even the used tissues in my pocket froze solid.  I was glad to make it down a little lower.  After the long run down the mountain, we got the kids from their practice time on the bunny hill and David took each of them up the lift for the first time and down the shortest run.  After Ben's first time down, he was doing pretty well, so I took him a couple more times while David worked with Sarah and Rachel.  It takes a long time to get down the run when you fall on every turn, but they each eventually made it down and learned a lot.  After that, it was time to turn in our skis and head home.  It was another 2 1/2 hours home.  We were sore and exhausted, but it was a good day.  Thanks to mom for watching William and Kate for us.  

Here's the only picture I took of the day.

I kept thinking I would take more, but it was too cold to take my gloves off to take pictures. 

Friday we stayed in town and went to the Children's Activity Museum. I figured we needed a fun activity for the little kids since they didn't get to go on our skiing adventure. They loved the children's museum of course.

 William absolutely loved these ball runs.  He played with them nearly the whole time we were there. 

 This cone blows air. The boys loved seeing how high the different kinds of balls would hover in the air stream.

They had a super cute cafe where the girls played for most of the time.

 Ben was even the customer sometimes.

 William found a car to drive.

It is fun to have older sisters to dress you up.

Friday evening the girls and I and Grandma went to the high school musical, "Singing in the Rain."  It was fantastic!  Even Kate loved it and has been singing songs from the show all week.  I was really amazed at what a great production it was for such a small town. 

We got up early Saturday morning and drove home in time for Sarah and David to make it to their fencing class (Yes, David is taking fencing too.  Cool, huh?).  That was the end of our mid-winter mini-getaway.