It's All Relative

Quarto and Terzo are compiling family history books as an exercise in learning how histories are put together. How do we know what we know from history? They have a page for each person in our immediate and extended family and had to interview people (or have mom send an email for them) to find the answers to the questions listed. Terzo interviewed me, and when we got to the question about what my school was like I told him, "My elementary/ middle school was very small. When I graduated from 8th grade, there were only 32 kids in my class... a lot smaller than my high school class of 575."

Terzo got a funny smile on his face and responded, "Mom, that's not that small. I am the fourth grade!"

True, that.

He Collects Sea Shells By The Seashore

This past Christmas, we went to visit Frodo's parents. They live near the beach, so of course we had to go walking and collect shells on every walk. I wish I had taken pictures of the kids' collections before they pared them down! There were thousands of shells, urchins, corals, and even a starfish spread all over the floor of my in-laws' garage... and the place smelled like fish! And there was sand. Lots of lots of sand. Everywhere. Have I mentioned how much patience my in-laws have? Lots and lots of patience. Lots. Almost equal to the volume of shells and sand that was spread over their garage floor for three days in December.

This is all very interesting, you are probably thinking. But why are you mentioning your Christmas trip and patient in-laws now? It's May. This all happened four months ago!

You have a very good point. First of all, I have been very remiss in updating my blog these last 4 months, so I have a lot of stuff that has been piling up. This is one of those things, and when I am overwhelmed with lots of real work to do, I will amazingly find plenty of time to share the backlog of events here. However, this post is not as untimely as it seems because...

Terzo and I just got around to mounting his (vastly pared-down) collection a couple of weeks ago. He chose his favorite items (we let each kid bring home their favorites from the garage floor with a max of 50 items each; the rest were returned to the beach), looked up the items online and in field guides, typed labels, and glued them into the frame. Because we mounted them with hot glue, I did most of the gluing and he did all of the sticking for each item... but you get the idea.

He cannot wait until we paint his room this summer so that we can hang the display on his wall.

Good job, Terzo!

This was not only an excellent school project, btw (not that he thought of it as school; too much fun!). He also needed to mount a collection for display as a Cub Scout project. I love educational multitasking!
 

Flexibility

This is a cross-post from my other blog 11:36. (When you have problems keeping one blog updated, it is perfectly logical to begin a second one, right?) Enjoy!


My plan today was to be at the local Maker's Market selling. Then I found out that Primo had a rifle shoot scheduled, Secundo had a fencing lesson, and Terzo and Frodo had a camping trip scheduled... all when I was supposed to be at the market.

Sooooo...

I told Primo she couldn't go to the shoot (she has two others scheduled this month), Secundo could go to fencing, and Frodo would take Terzo camping, and I would hold-down the fort at home and go for a walk at the walking park.

Thennnnn...

Primo and Secundo were invited to a sleepover. Their friends are moving out of state this summer, so I want them to spend as much time as possible together. This didn't change my plans too much, though. My house just became the kid-exchange rendezvous point for Saturday morning.

Sooooo...

I get a call Saturday morning from sleepover mom that Secundo has a fever, so she is going to give her meds and let her rest until it's time to drop the girls off. This is quickly followed by a text from The Man's mom asking if Quarto is going to storytime with them today. (Quarto loves going to storytime with The Man, and The Man is moving this summer, too, so I follow the "hanging out with friends who are moving" philosophy and say he'll be ready to go in 20 minutes.)

Thennnnn...

I get another call from sleepover mom that they are on their way, but can Primo go to friend's little brother's soccer game with friend. I say yes. (See "Thennnnn...." #1) So she goes to the game (so I think... see below) and Secundo gets dropped-off and promptly falls asleep on the sofa. This results in my sending an email to the fencing instructor (can't find her phone number anywhere) letting her know that Secundo is sick and won't be at class. Quarto gets picked up for storytime. All is quiet.

Until...

Primo is dropped off by sleepover dad. She discovers new SpongeBob DVDs and disappears into my room (Secundo is still asleep in the living room) to watch them. (I got a call from sleepover mom about 20 minutes after Primo gets home apologizing for the miscommunication. Sleepover dad brought Primo straight home rather than to the soccer game. I thought that was a rather short game.) Then Quarto gets dropped off and quickly joins her.

Thus...

I am not at the park walking (although I guess I could go now that Primo is home and Secundo is asleep and Quarto is fixated on the TV), and I am not at the Maker's Market as a browser (the seller ship has passed). I am instead listening to Saturday NPR (one of my favorite things to do) and folding laundry and getting ready to plant some seeds then head to the grocery store. Not the day I planned, but a good day. I like good days. And it can only get better when Frodo and Terzo come home... I miss them.

If I Only Had A Brain Hat

This is Terzo's brain hat.


This is also Terzo's brain hat.


This is the effect of Terzo's actual brain.


Any questions?

The Brain Hat can be found in Easy Make & Learn Projects: The Human Body by Donald Silver & Patricia Wynne.

Note: No children were harmed in the creation of this blog post.

Fly on the Wall

At the lunch table this afternoon:

Quarto: Dad? Can I eat the rest of my jellybeans tomorrow?

Frodo: No, you'd get a tummy ache.

Terzo: And be in a sugar comma.

Fly on the Wall

Terzo came into the kitchen after coming home from his first swimming lesson to give me a report.

Terzo: There are three boys in my class, but I'm the only one who spokens English.


(I was very proud that I held in my guffaw while correcting him.)

Hunkerin' Down

A few weeks ago, Gustav threatened our area, so we updated our emergency kit, put fresh batteries in the weather alert radio, and kept an eye on the weather forecast. By the time Gustav arrived, we got a lot of rain and about an hour's worth of tornado warnings, but otherwise, our day went on as usual.

Then Ike looked like it was heading our way, but it veered-off toward Texas instead. Again, we simply continued with our regularly scheduled program.

This week, we are again stocking up. The cabinets are full, the cars are filled with gas (we're still borrowing cars while we wait to hear the verdict on our truck), and we've got an ear turned to the radio for updates and information. We do not have an evacuation plan, however. We are not stocking up on drinking water, and our lives will still basically continue as always... we just won't be going into town during the next few days. Until Thursday, to be precise. And that's only because I'm insane.

Today is a home football game. The campus opened to tailgaters and RV parking at 4am this morning. That's standard for home football game Saturdays. Our general MO for home game Saturdays is to hang out at home and get stuff done around here. At 6pm, we head to WalMart. Why 6pm? That's when the football game starts. The 60,000 spectators in the stands and the 80,000 tailgaters will be in the stadium or glued to the big screen TVs they hauled to the campus watching the game. It's the perfect time to go grocery shopping. WalMart is on our side of town, so that's where we go during game day. We don't want to have to drive by campus just in case we run late at the store, and even if we leave late, at least we'll be going against the flow of traffic.

You may be thinking, "Well, you should be used to game Saturdays by now. What's the big deal?" It is a big rivalry weekend, so the crowd will be even larger, but that's not what makes this game Saturday different from every other. In fact, there will not be another game Saturday like this before Frodo graduates. That's because yesterday They started arriving.

Private jets began buzzing over our house on their way to the University airport yesterday. They'd fly over, land, then fly over again... presumably on their way to Memphis to hang out for the week since the University airport can't house all the planes and helicopters in need of a resting place this coming week. The kids would hear a plane coming and begin scanning the sky. "There it is!" they'd cry. "Here They come," I'd sigh internally.

I have been conflicted about the arrival of Them since hearing they were coming a few months ago. As a resident of our small, university town, I think about the increased income it will mean and am happy that I will benefit from the freshly paved roads and other public works projects that were put on the fast track over the past few months. However, I have had to suffer through closed roads, constantly changing traffic patterns, security fences and jumbotrons popping up like mushrooms overnight, and the rapidly developing single-mindedness of business owners, local government officials, local media, and university higher-ups. As a homeschool mom, I think about what a great opportunity this is for my children. They will probably never have an opportunity to witness something like this again. What a great opportunity for discussion of government, politics, campaigning, and rights vs. privileges. But we're also going to have to cover topics like discrimination, the KKK, talking points, sound bites, and spin.

What could cause both energizing excitement and paralyzing dread?



That's right... as of yesterday, if you don't include the Secret Service agents and construction workers setting-up two 8' perimeter fences, one interior/ one exterior, and the media tent on campus over the last few months, the media, politicos, and security began descending on our town of 20,000. (Well, if you include the students, it's almost twice that.)

Since we found out the dabate was coming to town, the papers and my email box have been full of requests for apartments, houses, and rooms for rent during debate week. Last week, Frodo received an email offering him (and every student, staff, and faculty member) $10 worth of credit at the student union food court if he didn't park on campus this week. The security fences, media tent, and closed parking lots around the debate site have caused many commuter students, like Frodo, to park off-campus and shuttle in to class. (The shuttle service into town and to some surrounding apartment complexes is actually a very positive improvement that we hope the university will continue after the debate. This town really needs a good shuttle service.) Classes are canceled Friday, debate day, and some professors are canceling classes the night before so students don't have to battle through those setting up for Rock the Vote and the increased security that will begin on the eve of the candidates' arrivals.

If I were sane, I would stay hunkered and not emerge from our lovely home until next Saturday and just survey the damage. But, I'm not sane. I'm a homeschooler. I trucked my kids to Washington, DC to attend Ronald Reagan's funeral in 2004 (Frodo was an accomplice on that one). Also in 2004, I took, alone, four kids, in the rain, surrounded by the scent of chocolate, to hear Presdient Bush speak when he was campaigning for re-election in Hershey, PA. We stood in line at security for hours, and I had to bring a note from our doctor to show the Secret Service agents (which they quite enjoyed and passed down the line of metal detectors) explaining why Terzo, just shy of 4 years old at the time, was probably going to set-off the metal detectors (he had swallowed a quarter a couple days before and hadn't passed it by the day of the speech). If I have the opportunity to allow my children to experience history and national events first hand, I'm going to take it. That's why, on Thursday, we are heading downtown to attend our town's parade, local and state politicians' stump speeches, and the taping of a radio show. Friday, assuming I have enough car seats and the couple whose kids I watch during the day decide to brave the trek to their office on Friday (otherwise, I'll just have my kiddos), I am going to take 6 kids to campus to see the Rock the Vote events and get a taste of the debate experience.

Of course, this is all assuming I don't have to parallel park. Never ask a person with bad depth perception to parallel park. Especially a Suburban.

Frodo will be staying home. He is my designated sane person.

I'm still dreading the invasion of the coming week... but, man, it's exciting!

Catching the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Friends of ours have been considering selling their extra, organic eggs at the local farmer's market. Another of our friends has a booth at a local antique mall where she sells furniture and other items. Some men in our church made really great name tags for the kids attending Vacation Bible School by cutting rounds of wood, painting the kids' names on them, and drilling holes in them and adding string to make them into necklaces.

After learning that our friends get to do such cool things as raise chickens, go yard-salling for re-sellable furniture (I'm going for a making-up-hyphenated-words-record, apparently), and make handicrafts with natural materials, our kids decided that each of them was going to learn a handicraft or skill of some kind that they would then try to market. I challenged them to come up with crafts and skills that could be done at home with as many 'found' or recycled items as possible.

Primo, Secondo, and Quarto don't know what they want to try yet. They each have a lot of ideas, but don't know how to narrow them down. (All of Quarto's ideas involve play dough and toy cars, so I'm not sure how successful he'll be, but that's another post.) Terzo has his mind set on opening a quill pen stand... well, he said "feather pen stand," but then we did a brief history and science lesson on feathers and quill pens, so now he's referring to it as a "quill pen stand." He already knows where to get the feathers. The home where the kids are attending VBS has a small flock of wild geese living on the property. Terzo has brought home four feathers already and has purposed to ask the owners if he can come back through the summer and collect feathers. I am very impressed with his determination and focus, but I have one issue... anyone know where we can find information on how to make quill pens?

Apparently, Terzo isn't putting all his organic eggs in one feather-lined basket, however. Nope. He's got a backup plan... songwriting. This afternoon he composed a song. Once I figure out how to get my videos or at the least an audio file on here, I'll post him preforming it. Frodo and I were rather impressed with the tune he came up with. Until then, I'll just post the lyrics. You'll have to provide the tune.

God Is In Our Heart
by Terzo

God is in our heart.
God is in our heart.
He is in our soul,
And He is in our heart.

We believe in Him.
We will sing with Him.
He is in our soul and heart.

I'll let you know when his CD comes out. If you pre-order now, we'll send you a free quill pen with your CD.

Little Serendipities Go A Long Way

I am a planner by nature. If I find out that we are traveling somewhere (and it doesn't have to be far; if we are going to be away from home for more than a couple of hours, that's enough) or having company, out come the paper and pencil, I pull up MapQuest and Google on the computer, and the research and planning begin. And although I get great pleasure out of planning little (and big) excursions, it is often those little serendipities that provide the most pleasure and the greatest memories. We recently experienced one of these little serendipities, and I know it is something I will always remember.

My parents came to visit a few weeks ago. They had never been to our new place here in Dixie, and since our new home is over 1,000 miles from their place, we haven't seen each other in almost a year. With the price of gas soaring as it is, who knows when we'll get together again, so I decided to try and plan some short trips that would give them a good taste of the area in their short trip plus include some places our family hadn't had a chance to explore yet. One of the places we went was the University Museum. Our family had been there before, but it is quite an impressive little museum. They have a wonderful antiquities collection that includes pottery, coins, mosaics, and busts as well as a doll collection, a Civil War (or should I say "War Between the States" or "War of Northern Aggression") collection, a small but broadly representational art collection, and a collection of historical scientific instruments that my children always find fascinating and wish they could touch. Tucked off on the side is a small room that usually houses a temporary exhibit. Terzo was very disappointed when he investigated back there this time and found that the Art of the Faulkners exhibit that we had seen on our last trip was gone. "Now it's just some old books," he lamented to me. Not connecting his statement with some information Frodo had given me earlier in the semester, I took my time moseying back to the exhibit and stood only feet from it is a I re-examined a sketch created and autographed by Kurt Vonnegut that is part of the museum's regular collection. Frodo was just behind me as I finally made my way to the "old books" and I could hear him gasp as we entered, "These are the Remnant Trust books. Remember, Hon, I told you about these? Cool."

At the beginning of the spring semester, Frodo mentioned that the University was going to host a tour by the Remnant Trust. The tour consisted of books considered significant because of their age, rarity, or influence on the world, but even cooler, you not only got to see the books, but you also got to touch them. When I went to the University Museum's website to see if I could take the kids over to leek at the books, I came across this notice:

These books are available for professors to use in their classes under supervision in the museum. The books cannot be removed from the museum. We can accommodate groups up to 70 in our [gallery], up to 40 in our classroom and up to 10 in our board room. For larger classes special arrangements may be possible. We need two weeks notice to arrange to host your class at the museum. Our regular hours are 9:30-4:30 Tues.-Sat. We will try to accommodate classes that meet outside of those hours when ever possible but we cannot guarantee that. Call... to book a class.

Drat. We weren't going to be able to go. Frodo was hoping to arrange a time for his university students to go to the exhibit, but he wasn't able to get a hold of the correct person to arrange an appointment. With the end of the semester, we figured his chance to view the exhibit had gone.

Fast forward to my parents' visit two weeks after the semester ended. The RT was late in picking up the collection, so the University Museum still had it on display! As we were oohing and aahing over the books in the display cases, a museum employee approached us and asked if we wanted the curator to open the cases for us and give us a closer look at the books. Minutes later, we were getting a personal lesson on the books on display.



This is the curator showing us a handwritten, illuminated manuscript (on parchment, I might add) of the Magna Carta from 1350. 1350!

Then, it got even better:

That's Frodo and Primo holding and casually thumbing through a handwritten, illuminated manuscript of the Magna Carta from 1350. How cool is that?!

Here is a closer view. (Handwritten! 1350! Did I mention that it was handwritten and illuminated on parchment in 1350?)

The curator shared the books in all the display cases then left them open for us to go back and pick up and leaf through the ones we wanted and to ask questions.

What other books were there? Well...

Secondo's favorite was the illuminated copy of St. Augustine's City of God c. 1494 (two short years after "in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.")



I tried to take a picture of her flipping through it, but every time she suspected she was being watched, she took her hands off the book. See, here she is doing the "Me? I wasn't touching the book. I was just standing here rubbing my eye" move. I think she had "don't touch the exhibits" going through her head no matter how many times we were told to feel free to pick up and examine the books.

A first edition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense... printed in England in 1776.


If you ask Primo which book was her favorite, she will tell you it was this one, Summa Theologica Pars Secunda c. 1497. From the accompanying plaque:

"One of only three known copies in the world. One in the British Museum in London and the other in the Newbury in Chicago. This is the most perfect of the three."

See the large blanks in the copy? This copy was supposed to be illuminated, but apparently no one got around to it.


Although she says Aquinas' book was her favorite, Primo spent most of her time paging through this 1862 copy of William the Conqueror's Doomsday Book.


Terzo's favorite was this print of the Boston Massacre made from the plate created by Paul Revere and his silversmiths. (The curator was impressed that Primo knew that the Boston Massacre was instigated by the children of Patriots, and some Patriots, throwing snowballs at the British soldiers... although something was bound to happen sooner or later after months of military occupation in Boston.)

Frodo had a hard time nailing down a favorite. Besides City of God, the Magna Carta, and Summa Theologica which I have already shared, he probably would list the two works by Frederick Douglass that were included in the display.


Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1945)



My Bondage & My Freedom (1855) signed by Frederick Douglass

On the top of a list of Frodo's favorites, if he had been forced to rank them, would have been the copy of John Calvin's Institutes printed in 1578. William Shakespeare was apprenticing at the print shop where this edition was printed and probably set some of the type for the volume. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the book. I got a picture of the plaque, but not the book. (Mom, do you have a picture of Calvin's Institutes?) Not sure how that happened. I was probably distracted by my favorites in the collection.


William Penn's The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience c. 1670.


I was also amazed to see the Minutes of the Second Continental Congress from 1778 and the Illinois broadside of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln. (Each president signed all broadsides sent to his home state.) I couldn't get a good picture of the broadside because it was framed under glass, and I have no idea why I don't have a picture of the minutes. (Mom? Did you get one?)


Other books in the collection were William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Law, 1771 (above), Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication on the Rights of Women, Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Document (1787), and Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733) by Voltaire.

What a great day!

Fly on the Wall

Terzo: Mom, can we do that game where you read me stuff, and I write stuff?

Me: Um, what?

Terzo: You know, that game where you read me stuff out of that book, and I have a pencil and a piece of paper and write stuff you tell me. Then you take a red pen and write some of the things I wrote wrong right, so I have to write them again, but when I get them right, you use the red pen to write big C's next to them then you hug me! Can we play that game? Please!

Me: You mean a spelling test? Sure, I can give you a spelling test.

Terzo: Yay! I like the spelling test game!

Church Membership

In order to become members of the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), as we are, you must affirm five vows:

1. Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure, and without hope, except through his sovereign mercy?

2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and savior of sinners, and do you receive and trust him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel?

3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes a follower of Christ?

4. Do you promise to support the church in it's worship and work to the best of your ability?

5. Do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church, and promise to strive for its purity and peace?

Primo and Secondo took these vows at our church's Maundy Thursday service. They are the girls in the hats. The pastor with the dark hair is our head pastor. The pastor who looks like Santa Claus is our youth pastor. We love them. The other gentlemen are church elders. (We love them, too.) I think it's funny that when each man hugs Secondo, they act as if they are afraid to break her. *grin*

I apologize in advance for the incompleteness of the videos. This was my second attempt to use the video feature on our camera. (You can imagine how sad the first attempt came out.)








After the service, we enjoyed a delicious ham dinner. The kids loved eating at the Passover Seder table. You can see the girls in their hats in the background. Terzo is the one in the black coat in the foreground. (The coat was new, and he refused to take it off.)



Here are Terzo and Quarto enjoying their supper.



This church really knows how to host a supper!



This is the Seder Plate containing chazeret (bitter herbs representing the bitterness of slavery), charoset (sweet, brown, grainy mixture representing the mortar used by the Hebrew slaves in Egypt), karpas (a simple food dipped into salt water, representing tears, to remind us of the plain foods the Hebrews ate while in captivity), z'roa (roasted lamb shank bone representing the Pesach sacrifice now fulfilled by Christ, the Lamb of God), and beitzah (representing the festival sacrifice, or chagigah, and symbolizing mourning).



And lastly, Elijah's place.

Our Church

The congregation we attend was founded by Scotch-Irish immigrants on January 11, 1835 (our landlord's ancestors were founding members). The original Session meeting minutes are kept in the vault of a local bank. The congregation bought 23 acres on which to build a church building in 1842 for $400. The building, made with bricks that were fired on-site, was finished in 1846 at a total cost of $2809.75. Worship continues in that building today.



We usually approach the building from the side. We are told that some congregants were talking after church one Lord's Day a couple years ago and the topic turned to the need for a walkway leading from the parking area to the church porch. Before you could say, "Bob's you're uncle," and without a word, our landlord (who at the time was about 70?) had laid a new brick walk.






The pulpit,



pews,


and pew doors are the originals.



It is a really beautiful sanctuary. I grew up attending an historic church, and there is something special about participating in a tradition of worship that has gone on for generation upon generation.









There used to be a balcony (inside and outside), but not anymore. The plan is to replace it eventually, but since the church is an historical landmark, restorations are tricky to get approved... and expensive.


Upstairs are the Sunday School rooms for our older three. Terzo loves Sunday School.



And he has his sisters right next door.




After service, the kids scatter... after everyone who wants to takes a turn ringing the bell.


The girls and younger kids (when the little ones are running around in the yard) often sit or jump around the benches of the old Sunday School circle.







The boys go here.



What do they do here? Well, they don't call it "The Climbing Tree" for nothing.

Fly on the Wall

Terzo: Thanks, Dad.

Frodo: What? For breakfast? You thanked me already, but I'm glad you liked it.

Terzo: No. For everything.

*****
Seriously, it just makes me want to melt.

Fly on the Wall

I was snuggling on my bed with Terzo and Quarto yesterday morning when Terzo sighed and said in his adorable, six-year-old sage tone, "Mommy, I'm glad I'm not a girl."

"Oh yeah. How come?"

"'Cause I don't want to grow up and have to poop babies out of my butt."

Sigh.

Fly on the Wall

Yesterday at Secondo's standardized testing:
Secondo emerged from the testing room, and I asked her how she thought she did. She said she thought that she did okay but that the math was hard. "You know the minusing with the two dots? Well, I figured that since minusing without dots is the opposite of adding, then minusing with dots must be opposite of multiplying, so I think I got that one right. It was six minus with two dots two. That's three, right?"

(Like I mentioned yesterday, we changed her math curriculum half-way through the year, so there are some topics that she had had multiple times and a few she hasn't had at all yet... like division. LOL!)


This morning while getting dressed:
Terzo- "Hey! It's St. Fool's Day!"


This morning during the sermon:
Quarto was sitting on Frodo's lap during the service this morning. In his sermon, our pastor was preaching on John 12; more specifically on Mary anointing Jesus' feet with perfume. The pastor was explaining that at the time, expensive perfumes were kept in alabaster boxes that would be broken open then could not be resealed. Quarto was listening and asked Frodo, "Boxes?" Frodo explained that Mary opened a box and a beautiful scent came out. Quarto responded with a contented sigh, "Mmmm, pepperoni pizza."

Fly on the Wall

Terzo: (after finding a long-lost plastic birthday cake decoration) See, Mom. I can hook it on my button like this. Like it's a ... a... a button clipper thing!

Fly on the Wall

Conversation between Secondo and Terzo:

Secondo: "What sports are you going to play when you're seven?"

Terzo: "I'm going to play football and sports."

Secondo: "You're going to play all the sports? Well, not ballet, but all the others?"

Terzo: "Yeah. And hockey."

***************

Primo: (while watching a small woodpecker pecking at a branch he was perched on) "I hope he doesn't peck to his death."

What's in a name?

Andie, over at and the mama, gave the background behind her kids' names and asked her invisible friends to do the same, so here we go:

Primo - means "first" in Italian
Secondo - means "second" in Italian
Terzo - means "third" in Italian
Quarto - means "fourth" in Italian

And while I'm at it:
Tutor - means "a person charged with the instruction and guidance of another; a private teacher" in both English and Latin (cool, huh?)
Frodo - means that my dear husband has many of the physical characteristics of the main character/ ring-bearer in C.S. Lewis' Lord of the Rings trilogy... namely, hairy feet. (Also, my dear friend, Angel at Aduladi' & Co., and I have dh's with the same first name, and we were frequently getting confused as to who we were talking about when using first names, so we decided the menfolk needed nicknames. My dh became 'Frodo' and hers became 'Mr. Clean'. )

Okay, joking aside (mostly), since I don't use our Christian names online for a reason, I won't share them here, but I will give some background as to where our kids' Christian names come from:

Primo - named after a murder mystery movie... just like I was. Her middle name is a cool-sounding name that was uncommon, sounded good with the first name, and was picked by Frodo. (Btw, this started our "baby naming protocol". Since I have known what I wanted to name my first daughter ever since I can remember, when Primo turned out to be a girl, it was a given that I got to pick the first name and Frodo would pick her middle name. With Secondo we swapped and Frodo picked her first name and I picked her middle name. With Terzo, we swapped again, and so on.)

Secondo - Was named after the main character in a popular piece of English literature. Her middle name comes from a combination of an attribute of God and the name of my Great Aunt's best friend. Sadly, we thought we were picking a very unique name at the time, and have since met many little girls with the same combo of first and middle name. Sigh. At least our little pixie is a trend-setter.

Terzo - Was originally named after a main character in a popular piece of American literature, but we were undecided whether to use the full version or the shortened version. We ended up using the full version after I had emergency surgery while 5 months pregnant with him and decided we wanted to maintain the full meaning of his name to celebrate his coming through the surgery unharmed... and glorifying the One who brought him through. Of course, we had to use the transliterated spelling... i.e. the unusual one. His middle name comes from the Christian name of a man integral to the Reformation.

Quarto - Frodo was undecided between three different first names for Quarto, so he let the other kids choose from the three. They ended up choosing a name that Frodo liked because it was the name of a student he taught who he thought was a neat kid. Quarto's middle name comes from a New Testament figure who is mentioned because of a special place he holds in the ancestral development of the Church. It is a rather unusual name, but people don't think it is that unusual after they find out that my first choice for his middle name was "Chingachgook"... aka "the last of the Mohicans".

Well, that's who our kids are and why. What about yours? Or share why you chose the virtual names that you did. Inquiring mind want to know.

Haute Cuisine

What is the best breakfast ever? Cold, dry wheat toast lovingly made and served in bed by the kindest, most handsome 6-year-old on the planet. That's what.

Missing: One Little Boy

A little while ago, a little boy lived here. He was 5 years old and a bit of a nut, but he was my handsome, precious boy.

A few days ago, I woke up and that little boy was gone. In his place, I found this little man instead. Notice the missing tooth. My little boy had all of his baby teeth, so this couldn't possibly be my little boy.


This young man is also doing first grade math. My little boy would have just turned 6 and only be in kindergarten, so this can't be my little boy.

This young man offered me the dollar that he got from the tooth fairy when we were out grocery shopping the other day. "Are you sure you don't want it?" he asked. "Are you sure you have enough money?" Of course, before leaving for the store, this young man informed me, "You know what I'm gonna do with my dollar? I'm gonna put it in the change machine at the store and get four quarters 'cause four quarters is more monies than one dollar." Very my little boy-ish.

This young man prays the most eloquent and thoughtful prayers. "Dear God, thank you for this beautiful day and thank you for this good food that gives us strength to serve you. Thank you for Jesus being born on Christmas Day so that he can die on the cross so we can love you and be with you. Amen." My little boy was... well, little. He sang songs like Jesus Loves Me and I'm in the Lord's Army. He wasn't so spiritually astute... was he?

This young man holds doors for people. Everyone. If he is near a door, and someone has to go through it, he'll open it for them. And hold it open. No matter how many people have to go through it. Or how cold it is outside. Or how long his family must wait for all of those people to file through the chivalrously opened door. He must hold it... for he is a gentleman. A young man.

Come to think of it, maybe he is, or should I say was, my little boy. When told he could choose to do anything he wanted on his birthday, my little boy chose to help me clean out the fridge. That sounds like something this young man would do, too. My little boy did work hard to earn his first Tiger Track beads and earn a weather belt loop. This young man certainly knows the meaning of hard work, too.

Besides, this young man, who recently built a birdhouse with Frodo, looks an awful lot like Frodo. Doesn't he? And this young man just asked Frodo if they could go hiking, and my little boy went on a three mile hike with Frodo last year. A three mile hike where he insisted on walking by himself and pointed out every stick, rock, daddy long-legs, bird, tree, and blaze along the way. And that reminds me, when we took this young man ice skating today, he too insisted on doing it by himself when Frodo offered to help him... just like my little boy with the hiking. And the roller blading. And the two-wheel bike-riding. And the scooter.


Could it be that this young man is just my little boy? My Terzo? Just grown?

Gulp.