Elizabeth's class did a Reader's Theater last Friday.
She raided Will's closet for her Grandpa costume. This may have been one of the funniest things I've ever seen her do. I can't believe how completely uninhibited she is in front of a crowd! She had the creaky old Grandpa voice down pat, the hobble with a cane, and then there was the hair: 
She's playing the part of a VIKING in the upcoming Rapunzel play that she's doing with a local children's theater group. How does this petite little blonde get such roles?
On Friday night Brandon and the kids wrapped up their 6 week Star Wars marathon with Return of the Jedi. Elizabeth was holding back genuine tears as she told me about Darth Vader turning good again, his spirit joining Obi Wan and Yoda in the after life at the end of the movie. It was so cute I had to stop myself from laughing since she was obviously very touched by this cinematic moment. It's interesting. These movies are a totally different experience for this generation. When I first saw Star Wars in the theaters in 1977, Darth Vader was just the bad guy you loved to hate. The kids who watch the Star Wars movies now fall in love with cute little Anakin and then watch him turn into this horrible bad guy. It's disturbing! Her obvious relief and sheer happiness at seeing him come back to himself at the end of this 6 part saga was just adorable.
Brandon was on call over the weekend and spent more time than usual in the hospital. Kidney stones, bleeding bladders, men who couldn't pee from huge prostates. Your run of the mill urology stuff.
Elizabeth went to a Build-a-Bear birthday party, Will went to soccer practice, and I left Kate home with Rachael for a few hours while I went to the church for the annual women's conference that was positively fantastic! I loved hearing from Janice Kapp Perry, a well known music composer in our church (mostly children's music) who didn't even start composing until she was 40 and told stories of battling self-doubt and fears over the decades with every new project or challenge. It was really inspiring! I've got a thing for this topic of lifelong learning as well as conquering personal fears and pushing beyond the comfort zone. It was a wonderful message about God never inspiring us to do anything He isn't willing to help us accomplish.
But the best thing that came out of the conference was the service project for the refugee families who were "adopted" by the church in our area. I had already purchased diapers/toothbrushes/toothpaste for a family of NINE from . . . (wish I could remember the name of the teeny remote country they came from). When I heard they really had NOTHING and could use just about anything and everything, I quickly went home and had the kids go through their clothes, toys, and books to give me whatever they felt they could give up. I ended up taking 2 full laundry baskets back to the church, and Elizabeth in particular was so overly generous with some of her really cute dress ups and books. It was heart warming to watch her and Rachael gladly give up perfectly good things they still liked because they recognized the need of this other family. I was so grateful my kids were given the opportunity share. We need more experiences like that. I know dropping stuff off at Goodwill is essentially the same thing, but it felt different since we had faces and names to go with the need. I wish we could have hand delivered the goods ourselves, but today at the grocery store I ran into the woman who did, and it was so nice to hear her recount the story. I love being reminded of how much we have and how much good we can do if we are just willing to open our hearts even a little. There is so much need in the world!
We did what we could over the weekend to celebrate our little bit of Irish heritage. I kissed both of them:
Irish boiled dinner:
Speaking of Will . . . tell me, what would you do? He got into the gifted program after I had him tested, but it's run through a different elementary school. He'll be in 6th grade. Sigh. I went to the orientation meeting tonight and it sounds perfectly awesome. They will MUMMIFY CHICKENS during the unit on Egypt! (I mean, based on that alone, don't you think we should go for it?) But do you switch a kid to a different school in 6th grade when he just moved in 4th? He seems pretty enthusiastic about it, actually, but I'm still not sure what to do. 4 kids, 3 schools. Am I cut out for that? What would you do?
Last but not least, I'm heading to Iowa on Thursday to see my sister Christina. She's not doing too hot. I may be off the grid for awhile, or maybe my mom and I will be blog happy in the evenings together while watching presidential news coverage. Who knows.
Speaking of which, after tonight's primary in Illinois, it's looking more and more like we're going to have a Mormon and an African American running for President of the United States. What?? Talk about progress.
Now if we could just get a black homosexual Mormon woman running the next time around, that would be something . . .
I know, I'm mentioning both religion AND politics in this post. My apologies.
LOVED your political commentary. LOL You are quite brave to do it!
ReplyDeleteIf your son wants to do the gifted program, let him go. I don't think you'll regret him going, but you might regret NOT sending him.
Gifted programs are few and far between - if this sounds do-able without major family sacrifice, go for it. This is why we are stay-at-home moms - to nurture and provide for our family.
Of course, my youngest is 26, and I work full-time now, but I was a SAHM for 24 years.