Tying up loose ends.

Just two quick loose ends to tie up today. First, way back at the start of the year, I talked about the boys' decisions to not participate in spring soccer this year. If you'll remember, Micah's only concern was with the end of the season party. He didn't care about the soccer but definitely wanted the cupcakes. I thought it was a fair trade. ;) So, yesterday (as the spring soccer tournament wrapped up and we appreciated *not* being there), we bought cupcakes. (We let Micah pick them out...)

Yup, *totally* worth a few months without 5-6 practices and 3 games each week. ;)

The other loose end isn't quite so long in the making. We tested the boys' toothpick bridges yesterday afternoon (between cupcakes, lol). Here are the bridges before the testing:

As you can see, Asher went for simplicity (he had a much more elaborate sketch to start with but opted for a more straight-forward design when faced with actually constructing it, lol). Micah's bridge is his own "M" design, and Noah's, obviously, involved a bit more thought (and still managed to incorporate some "N"s after seeing Micah's plan). :) (Noah and Micah added foam "roadbeds" just for fun.)

We then proceeded to weigh each bridge and test its strength with our homemade testing apparatus:

 
As we applied more weight, the bridges twisted and sagged and ultimately failed. Noah's bridge proved strongest, as it held 65.2 pounds before giving out. We started out with a large water container...filled it with water...and then had to start adding weight in whatever way we could figure. We hadn't really anticipated that the bridges would hold that much. :) (Yes, we realize there are some aspects of our testing which may have compromised exact results, but we decided that since we used the same process for all three bridges...and since this was just for us...it was good enough, lol.)

After the fact, Noah figured out the efficiency of each bridge's design by doing math involving the mass of the structure and the mass carried. And now they're all planning their next designs... ;)

So. That was it. I'll start my curriculum reviews tomorrow. Really. ;)

Quote #23.

June already. Wow.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. –Epictetus

This quote resonates with me this week. I’ve been planning out the coming year’s homeschooling curriculum lately. I’m trying to attack it from the standpoint not of “what comes next?” but of “what do I need to cover to provide my boys with the tools to become the men I know they can be?” I’m looking for areas to encourage and ways to do that. I’m finding that it’s definitely easier and more comfortable to just move to the next step. I appreciate, then, this reminder to stop and remember to first determine and focus on what the ultimate goal is.

Yes, sometimes the most powerful tool in achieving something is simply setting and/or recognizing the goal. 

Random things on Thursday.

1. Got these awesome Ormolu goodies in my mail yesterday:

Soooo looking forward to diving in and starting some Creative Team projects! Obviously, if you've never bought stuff from Ormolu before, you don't know what you're missing...go check it out!

2. If you run, have you heard about the One Good Earbud? I love mine...such a dandy product. (I love, too, when I have a "problem" and go searching for an answer and discover that the solution actually exists!)

3. I love the saying on this shirt. I'm amazed to say that I'll be finishing the Couch to 5K running program this week and this top has actually come to be a truth. :)

4. Did you know that yesterday was National Running Day? Cool.

5. Have you seen the show Psych? I recently became addicted via Netflix. It's like a kooky Encyclopedia Brown for adults. Seriously fun. Season 5 came out on dvd earlier this week. I'll have disc 1 (via Netflix) in my hot little hands later today. ;)

6. I'm thinking I need this camera strap. 

I guess that was it. :) Don't worry. I haven't forgotten about the curriculum reviews. I just got side-tracked with preliminary planning for next year and adjusting to the summer's schedule. ;) More soon. Honest!