Well played.

Attention, Universe. Yes. I get it. I know it's my own fault that my twelve year old is driving me insane with his anal tendencies. I understand that it's my own doing that he required my help to make a template in order to make all of the arches on the Roman Coliseum identical...and even proceeded to ask for a template for a miniscule square (I refused)...and that we had to dig out the light box so that he could trace a map because free-handing anything is apparently wrong. Never mind that this is a simple little timeline assignment for a class in which the grade doesn't matter in the least...wherein some of his fellow students are blatantly making stuff up and drawing modern clothing on Roman people and such. Sigh.

Well played, Universe. Well played. ;)

Ten on Tuesday (brain dump edition)

1. Backtracking to before the karate tournament...back on Feb 16, Nathan and I treated ourselves to a lovely lunch and musical out at the Candlelight Theater just south of here. (Thanks again, Deanna, for watching the boys!) We saw "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and very much enjoyed ourselves. Incidentally, if you ever need a boost and want to feel young, go hang out there, lol. 

2. Also the previous weekend (Feb 17), Noah and Micah had another JOAD tournament. I have no pictures but Micah took third (having managed to pull his composure together after a pretty bad first round, so we were all happy with that outcome) and Noah finally broke 500 over the two rounds, a personal goal of his. 

3. Also last week before the karate tournament, Noah had another swim meet (Feb 21) and achieved new personal bests in all three of the events he competed in...50 yard backstroke, 50 yard freestyle and 100 yard IM (all four strokes). Again, no pictures...since my phone camera can't handle the low light and high speed and since my good camera would get soaked since it's an indoor pool and spectators are about 2-4 feet away from the pool deck. 

4. Yes, I'm really slacking on the photo taking lately. I know this and know that I tend to have few photos for the first couple months of every year. I'll work on it. :)

5. For the record, hats off to all mothers of scouts. I hate sewing on badges/patches and can't imagine having that many to handle. The little stars and such for karate uniforms (which I managed to finish just before the karate tournament) are more than enough for me. ;)

6. Do you remember Carmen Sandiego? On a whim, I ordered the complete dvd collection of the Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego series. The boys have almost finished the entire series now (having started only a couple weeks ago). While they're not the most educational thing out there or anything, I've enjoyed watching the boys glean a bit of geography here and there. 

7. Our taxes are done! Actually, they were done a few weeks ago but we're waiting on approval to file or some such thing...should be official in a week or two. Feels good to be done. :)

8. Went to the orthodontist today for the younger two. Yup, still definitely on track to need braces but she's still pretty sure we can wait a bit longer for both of them. Whew. (Course, she also did order two more extractions for Micah. Lovely. That's gonna be fun, lol.)

9. I have a bunch of homeschooling updates as I've been shifting things around but will cover that in a later post. ;)

10. For those who so kindly responded to my post about purging my scrapbook stuff, don't worry...I'm not swearing off scrapbooking or anything. :) I did go ahead and purge some supplies and reorganize my office (finishing a few things...photos to come), which feels fabulous. Honestly, though, I had way, way more supplies than any one person needs, lol. Also, I'm likely to cover more of the recent stuff in digital scrapbooking...so it will still get documented, just don't need quite so many embellishments and such on hand to do so. ;)

And that was my brain dump for the day. ;) Will try to get back with my homeschooling updates soon!

Good news. Bad news.

I know I'm behind and am now going out of order. Too bad. ;) 

The good news.

So, on Friday, Asher and Micah competed in their karate school's annual tournament. Friday night was traditional forms and weapons forms. Both boys did a great job with their respective traditional forms and took first place in their divisions. They were pretty darn stoked because this year everyone got trophies instead of medals.

(They were actually recycled trophies from competitions past that the school had a plethora of. Rather than buy new medals, they opted to repurpose these trophies. From what I could see, the kids were dang happy about this, as they were pretty big trophies, lol. I think it was rather brilliant...the school cleared some space and the kids got bigger/better trophies than a tournament of this size would have purchased to give out. Everybody was happy.)

After the traditional forms, Asher competed in weapons forms. This was a new category this year (at least for the years we've attended) and Asher was pretty excited to be able to compete, having learned a number of weapons forms for demo team. As it turned out, though, Asher was the only one to compete. The judges gave him perfect tens and he was delighted. :)

Here's Micah's traditional form (points for the awesome mohawk, too, lol), Asher's weapons form and the two of them sporting their big ol' trophies (the middle one is Asher's from the weapons form):

Saturday morning, Micah competed in the sparring portion of the tournament and managed to take first in his division in overtime. He's pretty dang proud of himself, particularly as he's only been sparring for a month or so.

Initially, neither boy was going to compete in the sparring, but Micah changed his mind when he realized that if he sparred, he'd have as many trophies as Asher. ;) (Also, he was asked specifically if he'd consider it, as they needed more little ones, lol.) For reasons that I'll explain momentarily, I wasn't there so don't have any photos. Nathan did video it for me, so I've seen it, but no still photos were taken. Micah, though, is freakin' adorable in sparring gear. :) 

The bad news.

So, why wasn't I there Saturday morning? Well, I was busy taking Asher to the doctor and to be x-ray'd, of course. It's my own fault really. About a week ago I was commenting to someone that Asher hadn't injured himself in awhile. I even knocked on wood! Sigh. 

What happened is that Friday afternoon I had both boys put on their full karate uniform and practice their forms before the tournament. I wanted to make sure that the jackets (which they don't wear during class) didn't throw them off. During that, Asher simply scooted out of the way in the basement, to avoid getting kicked by Micah. No one touched him and he wasn't going crazy or anything. He collapsed in pain, having somehow bent his big toe. 

We iced it and gave him ibuprofen and tried to get him to rest it. Though we could see that it was swollen and already bruising, he insisted he was fine and we went to the tournament. You read about that all above. We did notice that he was reluctant to put his full weight on that right foot, but adrenaline won out and got him through the forms. After the tournament, we went to grab a quick dinner before Asher and I returned for his demo team practice. Though grimacing throughout, he refused to leave and thus practiced for an hour or so before I finally took him home. 

The next morning, then, Nathan took Micah to the sparring portion while I took Asher to the doctor. As we suspected, he'd hyperextended that big toe (commonly referred to as "turf toe"). Just to be sure, though, the doctor did order an x-ray to rule out any fractures (because that would just be Asher's luck, right?). Being now quite familiar with the x-ray department at the south campus near our home, Asher and I were in and out of there in no time and I'd had a chance to look at the x-ray to see that neither the technician nor I could detect any fractures:

A call from the doctor that afternoon confirmed this. Whew. (Sidenote. I really ought to start and keep a log of Asher's injuries and how many times he's been x-rayed. The boy is going to glow soon.) Anyhow, as the pain and swelling had now increased a good bit, we got him home after that and spent most of the day trying to convince him to sit still with his foot elevated.

So. Per doctor's orders, Asher's to try to stay off his foot for 2-3 weeks to allow that to heal. He's wearing a rigid-soled shoe to limit bending and isn't allowed back to things like karate or PE. Trying to explain to him that going back to his normal activity levels too soon will only set him back in the healing process is not going so well. He's also pretty miffed that neither of his brothers has really ever been injured. This is all made even worse by the fact that it finally, finally snowed a decent amount this winter (something Asher's been hoping for more than most)...just as Asher got orders to not run and jump and such. He's rather indignant and mad at the snow right now. The other two aren't thrilled either, since it seems unfair to take them sledding or something when we'd have to keep Asher home and indoors. (Because you know that if tried to go sledding he'd end up with a broken collarbone or something, lol.) 

Whew. So. That's at least part of how things have been going around here lately. If you have any tricks for keeping the most active of my three off his feet, I'd love to hear 'em. Even just watching movies he prefers to jump around the room. Oy.

Hugh Jackman.

Okay, so this post isn't actually about Hugh Jackman. But it is a wee, tiny bit. ;) I'll get to that in a minute.

My brain hurts. Been doing all sorts of evaluating of our homeschooling lately. Mostly, this is a good thing. I feel like it's been time well spent, even when frustrating. ;) For the most part, the primary thing to take away from this particular session of thinking has been recognizing that it's time to shift gears and more truly focus on each boy individually...on what his strengths are and how to build on those to get him to where he thinks he wants to head in the future. 

(Note, this has always been our intention, obviously. In practice, though, it's easier to have all three boys in the same curricula...so, even though I do pick and choose different programs by subject, I've tended to have the boys using the same materials...just at different levels. This has served us well so far, but it's time now to start separating more...)

Anyhow. What this all means in practice is that I've been going over and over multiple curricula choices and trying to figure out what I want to do. And then I finally decide. And then I change my mind. ;)

I've been reading online forums about this very thing and am still not sure whether it's helping (by pointing me in different directions and reinforcing recommendations and all) or hindering (by pointing me in different directions and reinforcing recommendations and all), lol. But. One particular post grabbed my attention. It went something like this:

We're using such-and-such and I'm loving it. I was all over the place about what I'd do once we were done with that-other-thing but I finally just decided to stick with a good thing and I'm so glad I did. My daughter is finding it challenging but fun.

I did feel the temptation to look for something else but frankly I think it's a bit like marrying Hugh Jackman and then going to a Hollywood party and lusting after George Clooney, Will Smith, Ryan Reynolds et all. At some point you just have to realize, "Holy Crow. I'm married to Hugh Jackman! Hugh Jackman!."

See? I told you Hugh Jackman was part of this. ;)

Anyhow, the point was that at some point I need to just be okay with my curriculum choices. And I get that. I do. And I value the advice and the momentary distraction to think about Hugh Jackman, lol. 

But. Here's the thing. I'm not actually married to Hugh Jackman or to any of these curricula. And if I'm not married to them, shouldn't I keep looking?... ;)

Tuesday's thought...

Ugh. I think I'm at one of those turning point things. Where I need to decide. Have I mentioned how I'm a naturally indecisive sort? ;) Here's the thing, though. Once upon a time I was a very productive scrapbooker. At some points, I even wrote a scrapbooking book and had a monthly column in one of the leading industry magazines and all that. :) But. I honestly don't know that I've scrapbooked a physical page in about a year...and, even back then, it was hit and miss. 

Part of me is sad by that. I love my scrapbooks. I love being able to hand the boys an album to show them that I'm not making stories about their past completely up, lol. And. I love my scrapbook supplies. ;) It took me years to collect all my lovely stash. And I've already purged a tremendous amount in the last year or so, so I feel justified in keeping what I still have, right?

But. The reality of it is that I just don't scrapbook that much any more. My days are filled with homeschooling and driving boys to stuff, and I'm good with that. That's what I want my life to look like right now. 

So. As I sit here in my office overwhelmed by the mess and trying to find that book report assignment I meant to give to Noah, I'm realizing that something needs to be done about this. About the fact that 80% of my office is organized for and dedicated to scrapbooking, yet 90% of my time in here is spent doing stuff for homeschooling. 

Because we rearranged rooms last year so that each boy could have his own room, I have no extra space to simply relocate my scrapbooking stuff to. (Okay, yes, if you get all technical, I'm sure I could find a spot somewhere, but it would throw off whatever that room was intended for and I'd rather not do that. I'm really trying to be all good about not just re-collecting a bunch of "stuff" after doing so much work to purge.)

So I think my only option is to really purge again (and probably do some reorganizing and maybe buy some new shelves from IKEA, lol). But I don't want to. So there. ;)