Christmas and New Year's

Except for Caleb and I both being sick on Christmas day, we had a great holiday season. Of course, most of our learning centered around Christmas, and one book we focused on was "Clown of God" by Tomie dePaulo. It's part of our Five in a Row curriculum and using that as a springboard we also learned about Italy and treatment of the elderly. We had Gracie fairly young, and in addition to both sets of grandparents, she also has 3 great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather. My grandmother is the oldest at 89, and showing consideration  towards elderly people is something that really applies to her life, but isn't always easy for a kid to understand. The manners book I mentioned in my last post has a section devoted to relationships with the elderly, and we used that to start our discussions.

After that, we just made stuff! I was extra glad to have Gracie home to enjoy all the craftiness. The great thing about kids is how much they enjoy simple things. One of the things that intimidated me before I started homeschooling was how I was going to think up enough nifty crafts. But one afternoon we made paper snowflakes and Gracie remarked over and over how cool they were. All it took was some paper and scissors, and my kids had hours of fun. Plus my windows looked really cute. We also made some angels for the tree, super smell-good applesauce ornaments, lots of coloring pages, and of course COOKIES!! Here are some pictures:


                                       I know, I know. Caleb+ Scissors= Scary. But it went ok.

 These are the applesauce ornaments-

                                       

The cookies went like this:

                                       And here's Luke just cause I feel bad about leaving him out...

This week has been spent trying to re-group from Christmas. My house still looks like a bomb went off and we are trying to find spots to keep all the new toys. "School" will start up again next week, and in the meantime I've been asking myself what I hope to accomplish in the New Year. I'm not completely sure what the answer is, but I have a few ideas....

1) Responsibility!
Over the summer, Gracie had a list of chores to complete throughout the day. It went well at first, then she started dragging her feet. And whining. And taking four hours to wipe the bathroom sink. Then we started homeschooling, and it was really eating into our lesson time. I finally scrapped it. But now she's had a few months to get adjusted to school, and the chores are coming back. She's about to turn seven, and she really needs to develop some maturity and be more responsible for her belongings and her time. She's also moving up to the next age group at piano lessons, and it's going to be a little tougher. I think it will be good for her to have to work a little harder.

2) No more whining!
This kind of goes along with the responsibility. The past two months, Gracie has gotten into the habit of whining about school work. Seriously? She has three worksheets a day (phonics, Bible, math) and the rest of the time she doesn't even know we're doing "school". But she whines about the worksheets, especially phonics. At first I was going easy, giving her breaks.I didn't want her to get a "bad taste in her mouth" about school, but now I'm over it. Suck it up kiddo.

3) Find some more friends!
I know what you're thinking- "I knew it! homeschoolers have no friends!" not true. Gracie has friends. But I would like her to make a few more, and it would be a plus if they were also homeschooled. We've honestly put ourselves out there- gone to park day, rollerskating days, a field trip, and a monthly class at the Wetlands- and we still haven't managed to make any solid friendships. Rollerskating, for example, was all older kids. Nobody seemed to show up at the park. I've been friendly to other moms, but it's been HARD. Hard, because they've already done this, and have their group of friends established. They don't "need" us. Hard, because homeschoolers convene from all over, and a few nice people I've met live pretty far away. Hard, because some mornings Gracie insists on walking like a velociraptor in public.
I have wondered if I made a mistake by not joining the co-op...but then I think of all the extra pressure it would have been, and I know I couldn't have handled it this year. MAYBE next year...

Looking over this list, it seems like I'm making all the goals for Gracie, as if she is solely responsible for how school goes. For any of this to be accomplished, I have to not be lazy, be well-prepared, be consistent. Really, any goal I have for Gracie is also a goal for myself. Except the whining. That's her problem.

So overall, I would just like to develop some more routine and structure, while still remaining relaxed. Luke has really started settling into a schedule lately, and I think now things might start to run more smoothly. Christmas was a much-needed break, and now I'm itching to get going again!

Minding Your Manners

Ok, I am going to sound like an old grandma here...but kids today have absolutely no manners. I'm not talking about which fork to use- that's etiquette, and I'm not too worried about that. I'm talking about basic please-and-thank-yous, excuse me's, common courtesy. I can't tell you how many times I'm out in public and I see kids being just plain obnoxious. Running through stores, bumping into people (I told you I would sound like a grandma),whining for things they want, and interrupting their parents while they talk to someone. This is exactly how I don't want my kids to act.

My son is the worst offender. He wakes up about 7 every morning, marches out into the living room, and names his demands. "I want apple juice and Cheerios!" he doesn't even say good morning. One time he left out "I want" and simply declared, "Apple Juice!" Then as I am pouring the apple juice, he demands it four more times. Another obstacle to good manners is his complete lack of volume control. This morning in ShopRite he shouted, "Do you hear that OLD LADY laughing?" Yes, and now I SEE her giving us dirty looks...

The good news is, Caleb's lack of manners stems from his age. With time and training, he will learn not to behave that way. What bothers me are the older kids who still act like Caleb. This is not from immaturity, but from a lack of respect. I want my kids to be respectful. I don't want a bunch of self-centered brats. We live in a society of entitlists who don't think they or their kids should have to defer to anyone. Their kids are better than others and they don't need to say sorry if they knock mine over on the playground, or excuse me if they walk on my heel while they are texting. They seem to think practicing some manners would reveal some sort of character weakness, but in reality, the opposite is true. Manners show you are strong enough to put others first.

This is one area Jeremiah and I try to emphasize a lot with our kids. As six and three-yr-olds, we don't expect them to be the picture of perfect manners, but we do expect them to be courteous.That's why when I found a library book this morning called "Everyday Graces: A Child's Book of Good Manners", I was pretty psyched. It's a collection of poems, excerpts from stories, and even Bible verses, all teaching a lesson about manners. Some of the authors quoted are: Mark Twain, L.M. Montgomery,Robert Louis Stevenson, and C.S. Lewis, and some of the chapters include: Honoring Your Mother and Father, Helping Out at Home, Kind Words, Taming the Tongue, Befriending the Elderly, and lots lots more. I am definitely going to get my own copy and incorporate it into our lessons.

And, before you write me off as completely antiquated, the back cover says, "It's also a book of manners for rock stars"-Bono

Christmas is coming...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, homeschooling, books, all that good stuff...let's talk about CHRISTMAS. More specifically, the terrible time I am having trying to decide what to get Gracie. Gracie is a hard kid to buy for. She likes everything, but nothing in particular. She is interested in a wide range of things- dinosaurs, animals, art, cats, fairies, space, the ocean, Australia, bugs, sharks...you get the idea. So pegging down exactly what to get her makes my brain hurt.

Caleb is sooo easy. For all the hard times he gives me in other ways, he is so easy to please. Caleb's interests(after purposely driving me mad) go like this: 1)Thomas, followed by all other trains 2) Construction vehicles of any kind 3) pieces of wood 4) tools on which to bang said pieces of wood. Lately we have been having problems with woodstove kindling disappearing, only to find them holding up sections of Thomas' tracks or Lincoln logs. So this Christmas, Caleb is getting a huge set of big wooden blocks, a really cool working scoop loader, and a crane that goes with his Thomas set. Easy.

Back to Gracie. Now, I am usually impervious to the siren's song of name brands, and even pride myself on finding some really original, significant toys for my kids. With the exception of American Girl dolls. Those little harpies screech to me from every catalog "Buy me!"... "No me!"..."Buy us both!" On top of that, they hurl threats at me "Felicity will soon be gone! Buy her now before she's locked in the vault FOR-EV-ER!" (or until you find her on ebay). I don't know what it is about them. I love that they're all from a time period, so you feel like they're educational too. If I was filthy rich I would include American Girl doll books in our history lessons and buy every doll that went with them. I love that they look wholesome.I love that they have a "girl-power" vibe without being feminist.Maybe it's because I remember drooling over the catalog as an 8 yr old, back when it was still Pleasant Company and you could only choose from Kirsten, Samantha, or Molly. After pining away for a year and a half, my dreams came true and I got a Kirsten doll. It was all I hoped for, except her hair was horrible as soon as I brushed it (now they have the doll hospital for that). I loved the books just as much as the doll, and had the Samantha and Molly books too. After a few years I outgrew her, and my mother short-sightedly gave her, along with her blue bed and quilt, to a younger girl from our church. Then, last year, they retired her. I almost cried.

So over the past few years, the American Girl catalog has found it's way to our house. Gracie looks through them, and expresses interest, but never in a specific doll. I always thought it was something we'd get when she was older, but then this year, the 2010 doll of the year is Lanie, "an energetic girl who explores the world in her own back yard" She's blonde, and you can purchase an outfit that includes rubber galoshes. Gracie anyone? Her accessories include a jar of bugs, binoculars, and also woodland friends, a fox, an owl, and a squirrel. And, Yes, I totally recognize that Lanie is pushing the liberal environmentalist "Go Green" agenda.
But love is blind.

 

(Notice the Dorling Kindersley Field Guide to Birds?!)

We go to a monthly class for homeschoolers at the Wetlands Institute, and I can just picture Gracie now, releasing hatchling turtles into the ocean, rubber-galosh clad Lanie in tow.

Gracie...starts talking about Bitty Babies(?!)

Bitty Babies are adorable too, and you have to admit there's nothing cuter than a 6 yr old pushing a doll stroller. I want to get her what she wants...but Lanie is only here for THIS YEAR!! Yes I know! I am a complete sucker for their marketing ploys!

To make things even more painful for me, they also make "Bitty Twins" which look exactly like Caleb, which I have been forbidden to buy. (Although I have to admit the thought of two Calebs makes the side of my face twitch)

I should add now that I don't even really like dolls. Just these dolls.
If Gracie doesn't make up her mind soon, I am seriously going to put Lanie on my own wish list :)

Better Days

This week has gone a lot better than the last few, thanks mostly to some more tweaking of our system and a mattress pad. Yes, a mattress pad! Luke was still not sleeping at all during the day, and waking up every hour during the night. He always fell asleep in our arms, and as soon as he hit the crib, he was awake and screaming. I ended up putting him in bed with me a lot, and every time he zonked right out. So I thought that the crib mattress being so hard might be the problem. I got the mattress pad Monday, and he only woke up twice. Then Tuesday he took a TWO HOUR nap(!) and slept that night from 10-5. What a difference some sleep makes...

I also started "officially" including Caleb in our lessons. Every day he would ask, "You teach me?" so instead of waiting till he naps(which is never guaranteed anyway), we read the FIAR story with him and then while Gracie does seatwork he gets a coloring page of a shape, letter, number, or, Thomas the train(I don't tell him Thomas isn't actually "schoo-work", as he calls it) He's a smart little bugger and has known the alphabet since he was two, which further proves that kids are learning all the time, as I never taught him any letters. I still don't know how he picked them up.

After that we break for some lunch, then I do try to get Caleb and Luke to sleep, and Gracie and I work on phonics and math. I like to have at least math with no interruptions, as this seems to be what she is least interested in. Phonics is a breeze, but I am still doing the easy lessons because they include some good rules, and the easiness boosts her confidence anyway.

Then, for Bible, I passed the buck to Jeremiah. I wanted him to be included in some way so that Gracie would look at him as someone to learn from too, not just "Mom is the answer person". So they do that after dinner, which also frees up time for me during the day. We use Christian Light Bible, which I have to say is kind of dry and predictable. Every day is the same, read the passage, read the story, color the picture. I will definitely be looking for something else next year. Anyway, Jeremiah is doing really great with that, he taught her how to look up verses, which I didn't think to teach her yet. He also asks her to read as much of it as she can, and I was really, really surprised by how much she could read! I just take for granted that "it's the Bible, she can't read that yet", so it was really cool to see Jeremiah bring something out of her that I didn't even know was there.

I also ordered a 30-trial of the Muzzy Spanish program. I have been looking at programs since before we started, but I didn't know what was good, and they're always over $100. A lot of them had books for parents to read, which wouldn't work for us because I would mispronounce everything! I remembered Muzzy commercials from when I was kid and looked it up. It think it's mostly DVDs and CDs, so I don't have to do much of the teaching. ( I do know "taco", "burrito", and also, "cinnamon twists", lol) We can try it free for 30 days and if we want to keep it, we can pay monthly for 5 months. It is definitely becoming more and more useful, almost necessary, to know Spanish, and now is the time for them to learn it. Maybe I'll pick some up too. I am pretty excited about it.

Lastly, the biggest change of all- I started relaxing. One day I was doing the dishes, after making applesauce all morning. Luke was screaming, the house was a mess, and there was still school to do. I was getting stressed. My heart started racing like it was in my throat. Then I realized, this is ridiculous. Who am I trying to impress? Jeremiah doesn't care. My kids don't care. Why do I care? I don't have to bake all morning and clean the house and do schoolwork. I was making myself unhappy, and if momma ain't happy... it's true! My kids will never look back and remember that there was dishes on the counter in 2010. But they will remember if I was miserable. So I let it go. As long as we have clothes to wear, dishes to use, and clean bathrooms, we're good, and I can use the weekends to get caught up. I have the whole rest of my life to clean my house, but I only have a few precious years to raise my kids.

Besides, when they're bigger, they can clean it themselves :)

Baby blues

I have the baby blues. No, I'm not suffering from post-partum depression. I have a case of the Lukes.

It seems like Luke was trouble even before he was born. I've never really shared it, but before we were expecting Luke, I suffered a miscarriage. I was about 8 weeks along when it happened, and although it was a very sad experience, I thanked God I still had two healthy kids. I was pretty down and out for a few weeks afterward, and I felt the only way to "get over it" was to get pregnant again. There went from being a baby, to being no baby. I wanted there to be a baby. The doctor gave us the ok, and a month after the miscarriage, I was pregnant with Luke. Then he started giving me trouble...

About 8 weeks along again, I started bleeding. I called the doctor in a panic. I was able to get an ultrasound right away, and they said the baby had a strong heartbeat. That was good news. But there was no way to predict what might happen. They called it a "threatened miscarriage" and I was put on partial bed rest. I could get up and do normal things, but nothing strenuous. That continued for a few weeks. Then, finally, it stopped. Whew.

About 2 weeks later, Gracie started kindergarten. Her third day, she had some mild, cold-like symptoms. She had no fever and felt fine, so she went to school the next day. When I picked her up that afternoon, she was covered in a lacy red rash.  I took her to the doctor, who said she had fifth-disease, a common, nothing-to-worry-about virus- unless you're in the first trimester of pregnancy. If you contract it while pregnant, the baby can A) die or B) become anemic and need blood transfusions in-utero. Awesome. Needless to say, I was now a basket case. My only hope was that I had already had it earlier in life without knowing it( you don't always get the rash), because you can only get it once. I made an appointment for blood work. I had to wait a week for the appointment, and another week for the results. It seemed like forever. When I finally got the results, they showed I had not been exposed, which means I probably had it once already.

After those weeks of freak-outs, it was fairly smooth sailing for a while. The only "problem" was that every time I went for a check-up, they told me Luke's heart rate was "a little high", but "nothing to worry about" (THEN WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME??!).

Then, at 37 weeks, so close to the finish line, it hit me: the mother of all stomach flus. All day I was sick, until finally I was dehydrated. Gracie had it too, so together we went to the ER, only to lay on the waiting room chairs for six hours. We finally got treated, and I was anxious to go home. But...Luke's heart rate was"a little high".(I know! it's always high!) So instead of letting me go home, I had to be admitted to maternity to be monitored until his heart rate went back to normal. So I laid there for another hour, with all kinds of wires. His heart rate never went down, and they finally got word from my doctor that it seemed to be normal for him. At 4 am I went home.

Needless to say, I was anxious to have this baby. The doctor recommended I be induced, because Gracie was born in 15 minutes and Caleb in 5, so they were afraid I would have Luke in the minivan if I waited it out.
So on March 31st I got all hooked up with monitors and what not, and everything was going great, until I almost died.

I'm not joking, and if you know me, you know I'm not a drama queen. Luke tried to kill me. For whatever reason, my blood pressure and heart rate dropped, and I felt like I was floating. Everything was fuzzy around the corners of my eyes- tunnel vision, and I knew without a doubt, that if I closed my eyes, it was all over.All I could think was I was going to die and Jeremiah was going to be left to raise our kids alone. I just kept praying and praying and focusing on Jeremiah, just trying to keep my eyes open. I just wanted to shut them and go to sleep. Voices were muffled. Oxygen was hooked up. Shots were given. There were about seven extra people in the room, all of whom I later realized were specialists they had called in to be on hand for whatever happened next. Finally whatever medicine they gave me kicked in, and I started to come around. They told me Luke was ready to go...but his heart rate was "a little high" (ugh!)

Later I wondered if the delivery was really as scary as I thought. We didn't talk about it for a few weeks. Then one day I asked Jeremiah if I had exaggerated it in my head. "No," he said, "you were cashing in your chips".

So here I am, almost seven months later, with my strong, beautiful, healthy (although his heart rate remains, "a little high") MONSTER. I love him to death, but the kid is a pain in the butt! All he does is cry. But not pitiful, make-you-feel-sorry cry. Demanding ,hey-lady-pick-me-up-now! cry. He is absolutely incapable of entertaining himself. In the swing...cry. In the playpen...cry. Jumper...cry. You get the idea. And he's sneaky. He tricks people. Everyone thinks he is a calm, happy baby, because whenever we are out, I'm holding him. But as soon as we get home, and I set him down, his evil twin emerges and demands my unadulterated attention.

So here I am, trying to homeschool Gracie, with a screaming baby. We started doing schoolwork in the afternoons. Gracie can play with Caleb in the morning, then after lunch it's naptime for both boys and she and I do her lessons. It looks good on paper, except Luke never sleeps. I get him in for a nap. I start with Gracie. 10 minutes into it, he's screaming. I get him back to sleep. Or sometimes I don't, and he just screams while I shout over him. Or I hold him on my lap while he grabs the books, crumples the pages, yanks my hair, smudges my glasses. Very frustrating.

I should insert here, to his credit, Luke does sleep pretty well at night, most of the time. I guess I would be a zombie if he didn't.

The only thing keeping me going at this point, is that it won't be like this forever, and I guess it's better to interrupt first grade work than something harder. My mom always says, "Don't wish it away" and I don't want to do that, but...I do dream of homeschooling my kids with no one screaming. Of reading a book without stopping six times to wipe up spit-up. Then I kiss his chubby little cheeks and he smiles his gigantic smile and feel guilty I ever felt this way.


'Cause babies don't keep.

Casualties of homeschooling

I knew when I we began homeschooling that some things would change around here. I knew I would sacrifice my free time. The time I used to read in the afternoon. The opportunity to take an uninterrupted shower. My desire to have any more children, ever. (lol) My sanity.I also knew I would have to lower my housekeeping standards. That was the hardest part for me, because I am really uptight about my house. I cannot relax until everything is cleaned up and organized. That's not to say it always is- just that I am on edge until it gets that way. It's something I need to work on anyway, as I drive everyone nuts barking out orders to clean things up. So I knew I was going to have to chill out a little. But it hasn't been easy, especially now that we are in our new house.We want to keep it nice, and we'll spend a little extra for better quality trim or paint. Toys stay in the bedrooms. No food in the living room. And don't bang the cabinets.

When we moved in the first thing we redid was the dining room. The previous owner used it as an office and it was carpeted with old, smelly, stained carpet. The white paint was dingy and dark wood trim in each corner concealed the fact that they never completed the drywall. We ripped up the horrible carpet and replaced it with laminate hardwood. We patched up the drywall and painted a cheery, mustard yellow from the Benjamin Moore colonial collection.We finished it up with soft white trim. I added cranberry curtains and accents. It is by far my favorite room. At our old house we ate in our living room, and this is like a dream come true.

It was also the ideal place to do schoolwork, so when we got started I moved everything in there and organized it in wooden cabinet I've had since we first got married. I keep the books, manipulatives, crayons, pencils, glue, markers, everything there. I wanted it to be accessible so the kids could get things out whenever they were feeling creative and make little masterpieces. I imagined Gracie as a famous illustrator one day, telling an interviewer, "My mother really nurtured my creativity...growing up, no art supplies were off limits, I was always free to express myself!" the problem is, in my fantasy, they put the supplies BACK WHERE THEY FOUND THEM. This has not been the case.

I started noticing that stacks of paper were slowly taking over my house. A little pile on the kitchen counter. A little pile on the desk. A few more sheets on the coffee table. Some papers with shapes cut out on the kitchen floor. Then I started finding chewed up crayons in the dog's bed. Before I knew it, there were papers and pencils and crayons scattered all through the house. Even in the bathroom! "Clean up your art stuff guys!" I must have said it six times a day, yet every time I turned around, there was MORE. It's just the way things are when you homeschool, I thought. I started cleaning it up myself too, but it never seemed to help.

I sat the kids down and told them they had to start asking before they got out supplies, and when they were finished, clean them up. "Ok!"...and they forgot.

Then yesterday was a particularly hectic day. Caleb was extra bad all day. I woke up with a migraine and found  him standing in the open fridge, chucking lemons and apples across the kitchen like baseballs and the dog chewing on one. While I was helping Gracie with math he got a Sharpie and colored his hands. All day was like that. We topped it all off with a last-minute trip to a masonry supply store to buy stone for our woodstove. They were trying to close and we were trying to shop and Caleb was trying to climb the samples in the showroom. We were tired and stressed and had dinner late.

I finally got the dishes done about eight and started to wash the table in my beautiful dining room. I glanced up and when I saw it I actually felt sick to my stomach. Scribble marks from one end of the wall to the other, all over my gorgeous yellow paint, up and down and curled around, darker in some places where he had pressed extra hard. He left his weapon at the scene. A lone pencil, now dull from his merciless rubbing.
"CALEB!!!"

Needless to say, his butt was mine, as are all the art supplies now. Gracie is not allowed to use them either, because she was irresponsible and left them out where Caleb could get them. They are all in a box up in a cabinet. They are not allowed to ask for them. When I decide they can color, that's when they can color. It's a pain having to retrieve them when Gracie does schoolwork or to write something down ourselves, but for now it's the only way. The piles of paper were put in recycling, except for a few exceptional ones that I saved for posterity. It's a shame it had to come to this, but I feel like I got some order back in my house. And, for the rest of the week, Luke is my favorite child.

Rowing

This past week we completed our first week of the Five in a Row curriculum. It was AWESOME! I can't believe what a difference it made. For the first week since we started it felt like we were actually learning something.


If you're not familiar with Five in a Row, it's more of a guide book than an actual curriculum. The way it works is you read the same book five days in a row, and every day you focus on a different topic gleaned from the book. This week we read "The Story About Ping" by Marjorie Flack. Ping is a little yellow duck who lives on a boat on the Yangtze River in China. One day while diving for fish he misses his master's call to board the boat. By the time he resurfaces he realizes he will be the last duck to board and will receive a spank on the back. To avoid his punishment he hides on the river bank. Soon he is cold and lonely, and almost becomes duck dinner. When he find his way back to his boat, he is the last duck again, but he has learned his lesson and accepts his spank so that he can be safe and warm with his insanely large family.

It sounds like a simple kid's story, but when you really start to peel back the layers, there is so much more to it than that. Ping must face the consequences of his decision. There's a moral/character lesson. It's set on the Yangtze River in China, so there's geography. You can study ducks for science, or buoyancy, or water. Every page is illustrated, so you can study art. Using the Five in a Row guide was like having a blindfold taken off. Instead of just reading a children's book, which I do every day, about three times a day, we were really READING it. Here's how we did it:

Monday: Literature, what that is. Fiction vs. Non-Fiction. What makes a classic? Gracie dictated her own story to me.
Tuesday: Ping's decision, using discernment. Talked about strangers, keeping secrets from parents, peer pressure
Wednesday: Illustrations- medium, viewpoint, shadowing, reflection and movement on water
Thursday: Light and reflections, refraction. Looked at different objects through a jar of water
Friday: My favorite day. Life in China, locating China on the map. Religion and government of China, food, animals. Gracie later remarked that she was really glad we live in a free country. Watched some scenes from "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness", which is about the life of missionary Gladys Aylward.(Netflix is a great resource for homeschooling!). I was really excited to tie the topic into missions. We made a "kah-mee-shee-bye"(phonetic spelling!), which is a "story box". You make picture cards, then as you tell the story you slide them through a slit in a box, making a little theater. It's actually Japanese but I couldn't find any Chinese crafts, so that led us to talk about Asia as a whole! For dinner that night we ordered Chinese take out and
(this was Jeremiah's favorite part, lol) ate on the floor like they sometimes do in China. After dinner Gracie retold us the story of Ping using her story box.

Another advantage of Five in a Row is there's more opportunity to include Caleb in what we're doing. He liked reading Ping too and helped decorate the story box. He was also surprisingly deft with chopsticks!

It was a great week, and I am sooo happy I started Five in a Row. This next week we're reading Madeline and studying France of course, and the human body(Madeline has her appendix removed). There's no French restaurant around here so I'd better find some recipes online. I'm thinking pastries...

Here's a little of our week in pictures (Gracie is a pretty good artist, if I do say so :) )