J+M+J
We got this kit for making the stations of the cross last year. Landon, Maria, John, and I never finished making them. Also, in the storing, the got a little broken. So a few days before Lent, I got them out, fixed them, and finished them. Now they are sitting on the mantle above the fireplace.
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J+M+J
Joseph and Alexander picked up the train tracks and the duplos all by themselves.
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J+M+J
Dad got a model airplane for us to build together. Here are pictures of out progress
It is thrilling to look at this pile of sticks and say, ‘I’m going to build a flying airplane out of that.’
Clamps holding the fuselage together. I glued the sides together.
Mixing up the epoxy. (Extremely strong glue.)
The tail is not glued on, just sitting on top for show.
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J+M+J
For Alexander, the topic of the morning was, “Getting atet from the peet.” “Ashes from the priest.” That was all he could talk of the whole morning. After mass, later in the afternoon, I made pretzels to eat for supper. This recipe was for the yummy, thick, mouthwatering pretzels you get at the mall. Mmm… I didn’t know what I was doing when I was kneading the dough, and so I hoped the would be good. The recipe said to get the pretzel dough three feet long and thinner than the width of a pencil, and then shape it. I don’t know what the person who wrote that recipe was thinking. I made the pretzels thinker than that and only 1 1/2 feet long, and some of them came out of the oven hard because they were to thin. Three or so of them did turn out good, but they were not made as thin as the rest. I am going to try those again.
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J+M+J
Today marked the start of the chinese new year. To celebrate, Mom made Chinese food and we made Chinese Lanterns. Dad was supposed to bring home egg rolls, but he had choir practice and didn’t get to the restaurant before closing time. We said a prayer for the conversion of China, and then we ate by candlelight. Ooh, the food was soo good, but I had to eat small pieces carefully because I got my braces tightened this morning. The Chinese Lanterns we made were strung from one side of the kitchen to the other. Joseph really liked the lanterns.
Later Alexander fell down and scraped his knee. It was a very small little thing, but Alexander was about to cry. Joseph was very sympathetic. I told him to stick up his chin, grin, and bear it like a man. Then I started taking pictures. Alexander soon focused on the camera and completely forgot about the tiny wound.
I can’t believe Maria got Joseph to do this. He must have been tired, or he wouldn’t have sat still long enough for Landon to take the picture.
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J+M+J
Today is Shrove Tuesday, which we celebrated by having ice cream. It is Lent already, earlier than it has been in almost 100 years. (Why?) We will be giving up television and candy, like we have for a couple years.
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Today it was St. Blaise’s feast day, so we got the blessing of the throat in Latin after mass. I was holding Joseph, and while he was getting his throat blessed, he did not move a muscle. He merely stared at the priest with a look that said, “What on earth are you doing? I don’t know you to well.”
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J+M+J
Our family was walking out of a Chinese restaurant today, and Alexander wanted some candy in in a dispenser that took quarters. He asked me for one of the pieces of candy and I responded, “No, Alexander. I don’t have any money.” Alexander looked around, and saw a statue that had coins on its lap and in its palm. Alexander ran and grabbed a coin and tried to put it into the place where the candy comes out. We took the coin from Alexander and put it where it belonged, at the same time getting Alexander out of the restaurant fast so he wouldn’t have time to cry. Alexander must have thought, “Are you blind? There’s a whole pile of money right in front of your eyes! Oh, well. I guess I’ll just have to do the obvious myself.”
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J+M+J
Saturday was lovely. The temperature was 34 F, the sky was clear, the wind was not extremely bad, and even that died down later in the day. On this lovely day, Dad took Johnathan, Landon, Alexander and I to fly model airplanes with Mr. Wilson at a place for model airplane flyers. (The same Mr. Wilson that took me in the air balloon.) Mr. Wilson owns two model airplanes. One without a motor called the Gentle Lady, and one with a motor called the Cessna 170. We flew the Gentle Lady first.
This is the remote control. The same control is used for both planes.
To Launch the Gentle Lady, we thread a little string through a backwards hook on the bottom of the main body, or fuselage. Then the holder of the plane steps backward until the string is taut. The string is fastened on the ground across the field. The end of it is rubber.
We let go, and the string pulls the plane quickly and it sails into the air with the string still attached.
The string falls off when it is not pulled tight anymore, and the airplane is free to glide for a couple of minutes.
The airplane gets closer and closer to the ground.
Then it lands.
When it does land, Landon runs after the plane to bring it back, and Alexander or John Paul runs to get the string. Once Alexander bent over and grabbed for the string. He thought he had it in his hands, and so he went through all the motions of pulling it (he has to put his weight into the string because it doesn’t want to be stretched tight) without having it in his hand.
Sometimes Alexander with his little legs can’t keep up with us.
Dad readies to launch the plane.
Then Mr. Wilson got out the Cessna. He filled it up with fuel, and tried to start it, but it wouldn’t start. Mr. Wilson figured that he had plugged the tube that was supposed to be plugged into the fuel into the place for exhaust, and the tube for exhaust into the fuel.
He fixed that and then started the airplane with this thing that spins the propeller fast and starts it.
After a few crashes, it took off.
Vroom!
Neeroom!
Zoom!
This airplane really doesn’t have a limited time of flight, (except for running out of gas or crashing, of course.) You can steer it close to the ground and then back up into the air, unlike the Gentle Lady. It is also very fast.
The Cessna crashed and broke a propeller, so Mr. Wilson went home to get a spare. In the mean time, we went to eat lunch. Mom came to the restaurant to take John Paul home, because he was cold and did not have snow pants. He was a little tired of watching Dad and Mr. Wilson fly the airplanes. I could not believe Alexander did not want to go home, because he should have been needing a nap and usually little kids have short attention spans in watching stuff.
We met back at the field, and Mr. Wilson flew the little Cessna.
But first Dad and Mr. Wilson had to search for the perfect runway. Dad played with this picture a little.
Later we got out the glider.
A perfect landing.
Mr. Wilson showed me how the controls worked, and then he had me fly his hand pretending to be the airplane. Then he tossed it up in the air and let me control it down onto the ground.
I crashed, nose down. On my second try, I stalled and forgot which way was up and which was down and the planes wings flew off. Fortunately, we were able to put it back together again.
To give you an idea of the wingspan…
I got to launch the plane into the air for Mr. Wilson to fly. It bumped my head gently because I wasn’t holding it level.
Alexander never tires of tracking back and forth to collect the string.
Even at the end of the day, the airplane is still a source of fascination for him. Alexander behaved himself quite well considering his age.
By the time we got home, Alexander proved how much fun he had had in a predictable way.
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J+M+J
Today my science and literature classes were canceled because of the snow, which is not coming down very hard. Many people have to drive in from other towns and the country. I suppose the road conditions are worse for them.
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J+M+J
My blog got a makeover, can you tell? It took Dad all of about thirty seconds to change it! The birds in the upper right and lower left are European Robins. I also added a page called Nature Notes that I will update frequently.
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J+M+J
This week has been, is, and will be soo cold. The mornings have started out at negative numbers, and warmed up to single digits. Oooh, This is the kind of bitter cold that makes my fingers tingle. It calls for some hot tea or cocoa.
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J+M+J
Today I spent a lot of time with Alexander. I was getting afraid that he was having too much Star Wars play. So first I helped him get dressed, then I showed him how to fold his pajamas and put them away. Next I danced with him to music, which he really liked. Then I had him help me sort clothes by handing him some clothes and then telling him which pile to put it onto. After we had taken our piles of clothes and put them away, We started to make cookies. I took pictures and had Mom take pictures.
Mom making dinner.
After lunch I took Alexander downstairs and we looked at a book with pictures of birds and listened to my Identiflyer. He loves doing this and pressing the buttons. I am teaching him to know the names of common birds. He knows robin and blue jay well, but he sometimes calls cardinals ‘red jays’ and today he called a red-winged blackbird a ‘red blackbird’. Johnathan took these pictures, and he did fairly well.
I added this effect to this picture. I like it.
After he woke up from his nap, we peeled apart a chicken together.
After that we ate supper, and then I helped Alexander into his jammies and put him to bed. He was extremely tired from everything we had done that day.
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J+M+J
This winter week of January is very cold, so here is a little reminder of the summer. This rainbow came very early in the morning, and I was up because I was sick.
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