James has almost finished his Language Arts book for 2nd grade. Here are some highlights from his "Write Your Own Response" answers.
Q. Write a sentence with only one person or thing. Use "is."
A. Owen is fine.
Q. Write a sentence about something that is happening right now. Use the verb "is" in your sentence.
A. I am doing school
Q. Now, write the same sentence in the past tense.
A. I was doing doing school
Q. Write a sentence about something you have.
A. I have a Felix.
Q. Write two sentences below. Use the plural form of at least one word from the box in each sentence.
A. Owen and I have watches.
A. We are as fast as foxes.
Q. Write a sentence using a synonym for the word small.
A. Felix is little
Q. Write a sentence using a synonym for the word yelled.
A. Owen shouted.
Q. Write a sentence using the names of three of your friends.
A. Alexa, Hobbes, and Felix are my friends.
Q. Write a sentence using an antonym for loud.
A. Be quiet, Owen.
Q. The word fair can have two meanings: equal or a place, like a carnival, where there are rides and games. Write two sentences using the word fair. It should have a different meaning in each sentence.
A. The Patriots don't play fair.
A. Let's go to the fair.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Monday, January 21, 2019
MLKJ Day Getaway
We owe many thanks to Nama, Papa, and Martha for taking the boys this weekend. We delivered them earlier than expected to make sure we could beat the big storm that rolled through, and then ended up having even more time together than expected when Sunday services were cancelled for both of us.
We slept in, shoveled out the driveway, drank lots of coffee, ate a late lunch without anyone complaining about how it was past noon and WHY HADN'T WE EATEN YET? We stayed in a lovely hotel downtown that we didn't have to clean and turned the thermostat up to 75. We watched the entirety of both championship games without ever having to answer any of these questions: "What is the score?" "Who will win the coin toss?" "Who will score next?" "Do you think Nick Foles is better than this quarterback?"
We ate a slow dinner at a fancy restaurant and didn't worry about the thought that the food might be spicy, or possibly had some point had contact with onions or garlic. We drank a whole bottle of wine and didn't have to get up once to put anyone to bed. We wiped no butts and changed no diapers.
We slept in until 9 AM and ate a lingering brunch without having to cut up anyone's French toast or cajole anybody into trying eggs. We didn't button up any coats or strap any carseats. We went to a lovely furniture store and never once uttered the phrase "I told you not to climb on that with your shoes on."
It was beautiful. It was miraculous. And we were thrilled to see the kids again, of course. I think they watched a lot of football, based on their conversations on the way home. James told Owen that he had good news--Bud Light was going to start putting its ingredients on the label. Owen replied that Bud Light was for the many, not the few.
We slept in, shoveled out the driveway, drank lots of coffee, ate a late lunch without anyone complaining about how it was past noon and WHY HADN'T WE EATEN YET? We stayed in a lovely hotel downtown that we didn't have to clean and turned the thermostat up to 75. We watched the entirety of both championship games without ever having to answer any of these questions: "What is the score?" "Who will win the coin toss?" "Who will score next?" "Do you think Nick Foles is better than this quarterback?"
We ate a slow dinner at a fancy restaurant and didn't worry about the thought that the food might be spicy, or possibly had some point had contact with onions or garlic. We drank a whole bottle of wine and didn't have to get up once to put anyone to bed. We wiped no butts and changed no diapers.
We slept in until 9 AM and ate a lingering brunch without having to cut up anyone's French toast or cajole anybody into trying eggs. We didn't button up any coats or strap any carseats. We went to a lovely furniture store and never once uttered the phrase "I told you not to climb on that with your shoes on."
It was beautiful. It was miraculous. And we were thrilled to see the kids again, of course. I think they watched a lot of football, based on their conversations on the way home. James told Owen that he had good news--Bud Light was going to start putting its ingredients on the label. Owen replied that Bud Light was for the many, not the few.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Championship Predictions
James:
Chiefs 32, Patriots 28
Saints 49, Rams 27
Super Bowl: Saints 47, Chiefs 29
Tom Brady will play for five more years
Julie:
Patriots 34, Chiefs 27
Saints 34, Rams 27
Super Bowl: Saints 42, Patriots 32
Desired matchup: Rams v. Chiefs rematch. (Complete offensive shootout)
Owen:Patriots 82, Chiefs 43
Rams 82, Saints 43
Owen likes the tackle of the Rams, Tennessee.
Super Bowl: Patriots will win, but the Rams are a good team too.
Felix:
Chiefs v. Patriots: "Duck"
Rams v. Saints "Uh-oh"
Me:
Patriots 24, Chiefs 20
Saints 31, Rams 17
Super Bowl: Patriots 38, Saints 20
Neither Brady nor Belichick retires, but Gronkowski does. The Super Bowl officially is boring as long as this Patriots thing is going to keep going on.
jjjjjjjjjjjjiiiiiiiiiiiyujhtgthj765432jkkkkkkjhgfgbbbhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhj
(This is a note from OWEN)
Chiefs 32, Patriots 28
Saints 49, Rams 27
Super Bowl: Saints 47, Chiefs 29
Tom Brady will play for five more years
Julie:
Patriots 34, Chiefs 27
Saints 34, Rams 27
Super Bowl: Saints 42, Patriots 32
Desired matchup: Rams v. Chiefs rematch. (Complete offensive shootout)
Owen:Patriots 82, Chiefs 43
Rams 82, Saints 43
Owen likes the tackle of the Rams, Tennessee.
Super Bowl: Patriots will win, but the Rams are a good team too.
Felix:
Chiefs v. Patriots: "Duck"
Rams v. Saints "Uh-oh"
Me:
Patriots 24, Chiefs 20
Saints 31, Rams 17
Super Bowl: Patriots 38, Saints 20
Neither Brady nor Belichick retires, but Gronkowski does. The Super Bowl officially is boring as long as this Patriots thing is going to keep going on.
jjjjjjjjjjjjiiiiiiiiiiiyujhtgthj765432jkkkkkkjhgfgbbbhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhj
(This is a note from OWEN)
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Limping Into 2019
"The sailors brought in their bones a disease so violent that whoever spoke a word to them was infected and could in no way save himself from death... Those to whom the disease was transmitted by infection of the breath were stricken with pains all over the body and felt a terrible lassitude. There then appeared, on a thigh or an arm, a pustule like a lentil. From this the infection penentrated the body and violent bloody vomiting began. It lasted for a period of three days and there was no way of preventing its ending in death." (Michele di Piazze, 1347)
We, as a family, have not made a particularly impressive entrance into the New Year. James was the first to fall sick with whatever cold/flu/fever/bubonic plague has been working its way through us back a few days before Christmas. (In Calvin and Hobbesian irony, he had to go lay down on the couch as soon as he had finished his last batch of schoolwork before the holiday break.)
I was next, and then Felix and Owen. And now J is huddled up under the covers with the blanket warmer on and a hot toddy in hand, sick of the taste of cough drops, and trying to reclaim some sort of a voice.
We've all dealt with it differently. James was a trooper and basically just asked to be left alone with a blanket and a pillow. He watched about three seasons worth of Eagles highlights on the iPad, took a couple of good naps, and made the quickest recovery.
Owen turns bright red when he gets fevery and his fevers burn HOT. Also, his temper. He was attempting to do LEGOs with Grandpa and had to be forcibly removed from the table, then took a sweaty and deathlike nap with Julie lying next to him to keep him from getting up, and then went right back to the LEGO set, relapsed, and repeated.
Felix is just gross. I've always been disgusted by the term "snot-nosed kid," but that's exactly what he is. It's the sort of term you use for someone else's child, some child you see in the supermarket who inspires no familial loyalty or affection, but only a deep-seated revolt at their animal filthiness. The past couple of days I've immediately gone to "snot-nosed kid" when I've looked at my youngest, despite the family loyalty and affection that ties us together and enables him to treat my wardrobe like his own personal tissue collection.
So, no triumphal entry into the New Year. We didn't stay up to watch the ball drop, and didn't even stay the length of our usual visit to Pennsylvania. We're back home now and watching way more than our usual share of movies. (Sick kids, by the way, are even more emotional than usual. Watching Disney movies can be exhausting with them.) But things are looking up. We have boxes full of generous and thoughtful Christmas gifts to unpack, we're in no hurry to throw out the tree, and it isn't even too snowy out.
Since I've already posted at least part of this list once before I'm going to resist the temptation to break it into a separate blog (hurray for blogging more in 2019!), so I am appending my list of 2019 books read to this cheerful plague song.
Jane and Prudence
We Need to Talk
The Satanic Verses
It Can't Happen Here
Crampton Hodnet
Lucky Jim
Chronicles of a Liquid Society
Montaigne in Barn Boots
The Zookeeper's Wife
The Great Halifax Explosion
Ab Urbe Condita Liber IV
The New Paris
Feel Free
Zone of Interest
Game of Thrones
White Teeth
The Undoing Project
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
The Pigeon Tunnel
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Dance with Dragons
The Mission Song
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Dinner
Coming Up for Air
Best. State. Ever.
The Sibyl (Lagerkvist)
The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Happiness Hypothesis
Outliers
C.S. Lewis (McGrath)
The Handmaid's Tale
Into Thin Air
What Should We Be Worried About?
Year of No Sugar
The Woman in Cabin 10
A Raisin in the Sun
Being Mortal
The Righteous Mind
Man's Search for Meaning
Jurassic Park
Empire Falls
The Stuff of Thought
The Man in the High Castle
The Billion Dollar Spy
Goodbye, Things
The Seven Storey Mountain
The Good Earth
The Martian
Hidden Figures
Cat's Cradle
The Nightingale
Pirate Latitutdes
Love in the Time of Cholera
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Blood in the Water
Brady vs. Manning
World Without End
Player Piano
Notes From a Small Island
Behave (Sapolsky)
Orchard and Vineyard
Breakfast of Champions
A Column of Fire
Wilfrid Cumbermede
A Shropshire Lad
Barbarian Days
The Well at World's End
Zuleika Dobson
Where Men Win Glory
Missoula
Into the Wild
Grocery
Friendfluence
An American Sickness
We, as a family, have not made a particularly impressive entrance into the New Year. James was the first to fall sick with whatever cold/flu/fever/bubonic plague has been working its way through us back a few days before Christmas. (In Calvin and Hobbesian irony, he had to go lay down on the couch as soon as he had finished his last batch of schoolwork before the holiday break.)
I was next, and then Felix and Owen. And now J is huddled up under the covers with the blanket warmer on and a hot toddy in hand, sick of the taste of cough drops, and trying to reclaim some sort of a voice.
We've all dealt with it differently. James was a trooper and basically just asked to be left alone with a blanket and a pillow. He watched about three seasons worth of Eagles highlights on the iPad, took a couple of good naps, and made the quickest recovery.
Owen turns bright red when he gets fevery and his fevers burn HOT. Also, his temper. He was attempting to do LEGOs with Grandpa and had to be forcibly removed from the table, then took a sweaty and deathlike nap with Julie lying next to him to keep him from getting up, and then went right back to the LEGO set, relapsed, and repeated.
Felix is just gross. I've always been disgusted by the term "snot-nosed kid," but that's exactly what he is. It's the sort of term you use for someone else's child, some child you see in the supermarket who inspires no familial loyalty or affection, but only a deep-seated revolt at their animal filthiness. The past couple of days I've immediately gone to "snot-nosed kid" when I've looked at my youngest, despite the family loyalty and affection that ties us together and enables him to treat my wardrobe like his own personal tissue collection.
So, no triumphal entry into the New Year. We didn't stay up to watch the ball drop, and didn't even stay the length of our usual visit to Pennsylvania. We're back home now and watching way more than our usual share of movies. (Sick kids, by the way, are even more emotional than usual. Watching Disney movies can be exhausting with them.) But things are looking up. We have boxes full of generous and thoughtful Christmas gifts to unpack, we're in no hurry to throw out the tree, and it isn't even too snowy out.
Since I've already posted at least part of this list once before I'm going to resist the temptation to break it into a separate blog (hurray for blogging more in 2019!), so I am appending my list of 2019 books read to this cheerful plague song.
Jane and Prudence
We Need to Talk
The Satanic Verses
It Can't Happen Here
Crampton Hodnet
Lucky Jim
Chronicles of a Liquid Society
Montaigne in Barn Boots
The Zookeeper's Wife
The Great Halifax Explosion
Ab Urbe Condita Liber IV
The New Paris
Feel Free
Zone of Interest
Game of Thrones
White Teeth
The Undoing Project
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
The Pigeon Tunnel
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Dance with Dragons
The Mission Song
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Dinner
Coming Up for Air
Best. State. Ever.
The Sibyl (Lagerkvist)
The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Happiness Hypothesis
Outliers
C.S. Lewis (McGrath)
The Handmaid's Tale
Into Thin Air
What Should We Be Worried About?
Year of No Sugar
The Woman in Cabin 10
A Raisin in the Sun
Being Mortal
The Righteous Mind
Man's Search for Meaning
Jurassic Park
Empire Falls
The Stuff of Thought
The Man in the High Castle
The Billion Dollar Spy
Goodbye, Things
The Seven Storey Mountain
The Good Earth
The Martian
Hidden Figures
Cat's Cradle
The Nightingale
Pirate Latitutdes
Love in the Time of Cholera
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Blood in the Water
Brady vs. Manning
World Without End
Player Piano
Notes From a Small Island
Behave (Sapolsky)
Orchard and Vineyard
Breakfast of Champions
A Column of Fire
Wilfrid Cumbermede
A Shropshire Lad
Barbarian Days
The Well at World's End
Zuleika Dobson
Where Men Win Glory
Missoula
Into the Wild
Grocery
Friendfluence
An American Sickness
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