How it's going...

Four weeks into our school year and I figured I'd do a bit of a check in...so here are some thoughts in no particular order at all...

1. Micah's back at Options and settling in happily (though still missing having Asher there a bit). After the first day, he switched a couple of classes (from animation (which he's taken before and where the teacher said that students should switch if they'd taken it before since she wouldn't be covering much new) to world geography and from art (which he's also taken before) to brain games (math)). The switches were primarily motivated by being in classes with his friends, but I think it's all good. :) 

2. We've been incorporating some new games:

The boys aren't thrilled with this one, as I'm trying to make them learn things (in this case, where all the countries are), but *I* think it's dandy, lol.

The boys like this one better. It's an extension of the Oregon Trail game and has new ways to die. ;) So far, we haven't managed to live/win.

3. Asher, Micah and I have been trying to take morning walks more regularly (about three mornings a week so far). It's a nice way to break up schoolwork and get boys moving. Yay, us!

4. I've almost gotten to the point in this school year where I'm done looking for other things to add, lol. I try to remember this post.

5. I've bought things this year that I hadn't before...like things to dissect (wish me luck!), a 20 pack of protractors (20 cost only slightly more than a single one, so I figure it's better to have extra in case of loss), and a Peters projection map (which hurts my head but seemed good for perspective's sake). 

6. I'm back to giving grades this year. I tried it out back in 2012-13 and 2013-14 trying to prep Noah for going to school and motivate him to actually turn things in on time. After he went to off to CEC, we kinda dropped it, since the younger two didn't need that motivation. Honestly, they still don't. But. Asher's in high school now so I figure I should keep track of grades. It's going fine. :) We mostly focus on giving credit for effort and tests...emphasizing that the daily exercises and such are an opportunity to correct work and learn from mistakes.

Overall, things are going pretty darn well. We still have things we're working on, of course, but I'm happy with our homeschooling direction. :)

No surprises

I forgot! In my list of random things to tell you about, I meant to include that Nathan and I recently sent our dna samples to 23andMe, one of those ancestry services where you send them your spit and they tell you about your ancestral background and various health things.

I'd seen some chatter about the services and was curious. Being adopted, I have a definite lack of family medical history. (Backstory...I was born in South Korea somewhere, was found on some steps of a government building around age 6 months (???), went to an orphanage and foster care, and was adopted around age 11 months. Officially, I lack a birth certificate or a specific birth place...so obviously have no information about much of anything, lol.)

Anyhow, as I was saying...curious. So, when I saw during Amazon's Prime Day this summer that the kits were half off, I went ahead and grabbed a couple kits. We got them in the mail, did our part (spitting in the provided tubes) and sent everything back in. Then, we waited.

And now we have our results! (Mine came back pretty quick...Nathan's took another couple weeks. We figure this is because parts of their process involve comparing your results to similar results...and 23andMe has a lot more data from people who look like Nathan than people who look like me, lol.)

Drumroll please...

I'm Korean and Nathan's white. ;)  

LOL. We'd thought that possibly there would be some surprise ancestor in there some place, but apparently we're both pretty straight-forward. Specifically...

My dna says 100% East Asian

• 73.4% Korean
• 11.1% Japanese
• 6.3% Chinese
• and "other" East Asian

...which all makes sense given the history of the area.

Nathan's says 99.6% European

• 43.5% British & Irish (I'm assuming this would include Scottish)
• 19.5% French & German
• 30.7% broadly Northwestern European
• other miscellaneous European stuff
• and 0.4% Native American

...this all matches with the extensive genealogy that both sides of his family have done.

The reports are pretty interesting...they can gauge how long ago those various ancestries happened and all sorts of things. For instance, it says that the Korean part is the more recent and that the Japanese and Chinese parts, in keeping with the history of occupation and such, were from the 1700s and 1800s.

With the health portion of the kit (you can get a kit just for the ancestry part but we got the "upgraded" kits), we also found out that neither of us is carriers for the 42 things 23andMe tests for and neither of us has an increased risk for any of the four genetic health risks they test for. Plus, neither of us likely has red hair, neither of us are likely to have a widow's peak, I am more likely to have dry earwax (true) while Nathan is more likely to have wet earwax (also true), we're both likely to have detached earlobes (not true...mine are attached), and heaps of other strange things.

So. That's that. :) 

I know that none of these results should be taken as medical advice and all that, but I feel better having at least *some* information and being able to give that to my sons.

(If you're at all interested in the service or have questions, please feel free to contact me. Plus, I have a referral link I can send you if you're thinking about buying the service.)

Unicorns, curling and butterfly bandages

Sorry it's been quiet here...keeping busy, mostly with getting into our school year routine (which I'll update about soon). Aside from school stuff, here are three quick stories of other things going on here:

1. Micah recently decided he needed new pajamas (having previously mostly just slept in his clothes). I took him to look at choices. This is what he picked:

(Yes, I got his permission to post this.) Yup, it's a pink unicorn. He's named the pajamas "Sparkles" and loves them. He had it narrowed down to this or a Chewbacca pajama...this one won on account of how soft and comfy it is. :)  He may use this as his Halloween costume this year also...money well spent!

2. Last weekend, there was a curling tournament here in Fort Collins (through the recreations department I think). Nathan, Micah and I went and were spectators for a bit:

It's not the most exciting thing to watch but we enjoyed it, having learned the basics from watching the Olympics and then during the curling class we took a couple years ago.

3. Yesterday at gymnastics Asher had a wee mishap. I'd walked from there over to Whole Foods to grab a few things (about a 10 minute walk). I was still shopping when I got a call from the gymnastics instructor that went something like this:

Him: "Asher's gashed his eye a bit. It looks like maybe it might need a stitch or two."
Me: (after thinking about how I couldn't get back immediately anyhow) "Is he okay?"
Him: (with a chuckle and sounding somewhat surprised) "He seems fine."
Me: "Okay. Well, if he doesn't seem to want me right now and it doesn't require immediate attention, I'll be back in about 30 minutes."

So, I proceeded to finish my shopping and walk back. There was still class for another 15 minutes or so when I got there, and Asher was participating and looking like he was having a great time. (They'd bandaged him up a bit.) I waited...and had more than one mom come up to tell me that Asher had hurt himself and that they hoped he was okay. At the end of class, he was more concerned about the blood all over his shirt than about his eye. (Head wounds bleed a lot. I know this from experience, with Asher.) I talked with the instructor, who was amazed by Asher's pain tolerance and my easy attitude about the situation, then washed Asher up a bit more, added some ointment and stuck a new bandaid on him from the stash I perpetually keep in my purse. Yeah. This isn't something new for me at all, lol. 

Once home, we had him shower and clean up again (there was dried blood in other places) then rebandaged him again...this time with the butterfly bandages that I normally have in my purse (and have since replenished my supply of). (And, while we were at it, I rebandaged the big scrape on his knee from last week's trampoline park outing with his demo team friends...that one's still healing. I go through a lot of bandaids.)

Then we went to karate; and, by the end, he had blood dripping down his face again. (But I don't think he minded the attention from all the girls who gasped at his bandaging and asked him what happened when he walked in, lol.) Again, shower and butterfly bandaging. We debated but decided if he could just not be overly active for a bit it would probably not open up again...so chose not to take him to get stitches or anything.

Today, he seems fine:

(He takes his glasses off during gymnastics and karate, fyi.) He may have to skip karate tomorrow (it's a sparring class), but here's hoping the gash stays closed!

(In case you're wondering, the gash was caused by one of the rings...that collided with Asher's face while he was doing a handstand in them. Yeah, I can't picture it either. That's what he and his instructor told me. I'm just grateful it wasn't any bigger and wasn't any closer to his eyeball. Also, the swelling has gone down a good bit and it didn't bruise up like I worried it might.)

So. That's some of what's been going on here. I have a list of other things to update about and will get to them soon. Hope your September is going well!!