Kateism

Readative: [adj] of having a great interest in reading.

e.g. "Whenever I bring books to school, the kids in my class who are readative always take them to read."

Lefse!

Made lefse this week.

First time ever. And it took ALL day.

The children helped, and we had a blast. 
There was flour everywhere.

The Saturday before, I attended a lefse-making class. That was a blast, too. But I was the only non I-Grew-Up-Inhaling-Lefse-Like-Oxygen-Because-My-Norwegian-Grandmother-Made-It-All-The-Time participant. When we were introducing ourselves and explaining how much we couldn't live without lefse, I said that I was there for the husband, who, unlike me, is Norwegian, and whose grandmother did indeed make it.

Then came home and whipped up (in a manner of speaking) a batch while the instruction was still fresh in my mind. Needs some tweaking, I think - our lefse is more like flatbread than the popiah skin  I'm used to seeing on the dinner table when the in-laws get together for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Emily says our crispy version is reminiscent of roti tisu. 

I suppose there's a lefse for every culture. And starch.

My favorite is the sweet potato kind, with brown sugar and butter. Which we also made. Yum.

It's That Time Of The Year Again

Yes, the children are off to school.

New shoes, new backpacks, new bus drivers, new classrooms, new friends, new teachers - tremendously exciting for everyone. Except Bunny, who sits on the stairs as she did last year, slightly pining. Or maybe that's me. 

What a summer we've had. Packed till the very last day. Yesterday, we went swimming at the water park and stayed till they blew the whistle to close the season for the year. Nothing like hanging on to the very last seconds to show how much we've loved being in the water.

But while the holidays are over, we get to enjoy the weather for at least a couple more weeks. And the kids are jumping into a new routine of after-school sports now that term has begun again: swimming (of course) and ice-skating. They'll think they're still on vacation (if not for the homework). We can hardly wait!

And I have about 30 errands to run and jobs to do. I've been making lists since last week, because I've put work on hold for 3 months to enjoy being with the girls. Now it's caught up with me and there are dolls and toys to sew, bags to document and blog about, costumes to draft, people to call, stories to write, and food to cook. And lap swims begin again at the indoor pool, as do the cool-weather 5Ks and 10Ks so I must put away the bikinis and dust off the racing suits and swimming caps and running shoes. 

But first, I'm giving myself an hour to marvel at the unnatural stillness in the house, and pray for the kids and give hugs -and baths -to all the suddenly-companionless stuffed animals. If only they'd hug back - I already miss the little voices and busy feet and dancing. 

This is just the First Day of School. Tomorrow, it will feel like we've always woken up at 7 am (instead of 9) and I'm always packing lunches (instead of eating them with children) and the house is always exactly the way I left it 5 minutes before. How quickly we find our new normal.

School Art 2014/15- Kate

Some school and home art by Kate -

Sometime in the school year, Kate decided she needed to attend art enrichment class, so she had me sign her up for an after-school community art program. Normally very socially-motivated (i.e. "I'll only go to this-and-that if my friend X is also attending") she was so determined to do art that she didn't care if she was the youngest in the class, or if she didn't know anyone in it.

These first five images are her work from that class. 

Father's Day art.

More Father's Day art.

Mother's Day school art.

Mother-and-child squid home art that Kate drew for me.

Close-up of the bunnies that Kate's head is ostensibly full of.

Clay turtle, handformed. I got to help in this class, too!

Kate updates: Like her older sisters, Kate is enjoying ice-skating lessons. Being the youngest and least self-conscious, she tried the most enthusiastically initially, and fell hardest and picked herself up the miserablest and continued the uncaringestly. And now glides on the ice the bravest.

Together with Jenna, Kate resumes swimming lessons in the fall. She still does a lot of home art, and her latest craze is drawing Minecraft skins (players' individual online avatar outfits). She still does wicked still life and regularly begs to "do crafts". We'd tried to pull together a plan to have her and a close friend attend a summer clay class at the nearby art school but life got in the way.

This is also the summer that Kate is fully and independently riding her bike, so we've been enjoying family bike rides to nearby parks and around the neighborhood. 

Writing-wise, Kate is continuing her suspenseful Detective Bunny series (she's up to Book 4), in which the intrepid sleuth solves mysteries and thwarts the dastardly plans of evil villains. And Bunny herself, Kate's beloved white floppy sidekick, still goes on every single one of Kate's real summer adventures.

School Art 2014/15 - Jenna

Here are the highlights of Jenna's artwork from school -

Clay owl, handformed. I got to help out in this class, and we had a blast. 

Relief printing

Leaf relief

Leaf relief print

This was one of four scenes Jenna made for a project on tornadoes -
hers was a cardboard puppet theater with changing backdrops
and a single stick puppet protagonist who survives the disaster.

Other Jenna updates: Jenna has also started ice-skating lessons this summer. Initially not interested at all in this particular sport, she became very enthusiastic after trying it out for herself at a friend's ice-skating theme birthday party. 

Jenna is continuing to write her Color Girls stories and attended a writing workshop at the library with Emily and two older neighbor friends this August. She wasn't quite old enough to meet the recommended entry age criterion, but they let her in anyway, because she was so interested in it, and she enjoyed it.

After taking a break from swimming lessons during the school year (the two younger girls wanted to just do gymnastics), Jenna will resume them in the fall. She's very excited to once again swim with instruction - we've been enjoying recreational water-splashing at our water park, but it's nothing like real swimming!

Finally, Jenna has fallen in love with Enid Blyton (yes!). She's finished the Secret Seven series and is a thirdway through the Famous Five. After trying out different series on and off for the past couple of years, she's found an author she really enjoys and is thrilled at the prospect of going through my entire (and very extensive) collection of childhood Blyton books.

School Art 2014/15 - Emily

Last week, the girls received their "Your Teacher For Next Year Is. . ." letters in the post. This is always a very exciting letter for the kids to get and everyone waits with bated breath around the time the hear the notifications have been sent out. Then they call their friends, or bike over to their friends' houses to compare teacher assignments and collect information about whom else to expect as classmates in the coming year. 

The girls are all thrilled that they will be getting wonderful teachers in the 2015/16 school year - these are teachers their older sisters have had and loved, or teachers they've heard wonderful things about and in whose classes they secretly hoped they'd be. 

The Teacher Letters are also a prod for me to get started on back-to-school prep: buying school supplies (done!), getting medical exams done (done!), signing them up for after-school activities in the fall (done!) and clearing the art basket and documenting last year's art, for example. I may procrastinate on everything else in my life, but not school stuff. There's just so much of it, in so many forms, that it's just easier to do it now than panic during (and thus waste) the last few days of the precious summer hols.

Here, therefore, are the highlights of last year's school art.

First up is Emily's - Jenna's and Kate's will be in the next two posts.

Research project on an animal of choice

Earlier this winter, Emily and I joined other amateur potters at a nearby high school to throw clay bowls for Bowls for Brain Power (previously called the Empty Bowls Project). It's been 8 years since I last threw a bowl so it was a comedy of errors until, with some assistance from the other potters, we found our groove and turned out a bowl or two each. Emily enjoyed working on the wheel so much that we want to do this again, perhaps next winter when there isn't a lot else to do.

Other Emily updates: she is playing the trombone in the school band along with her other 5th-grade classmates. The music teachers have begun band instruction in the summer, to get the kids used to their instruments so that by the time the school year is in full swing in the fall, they are already comfortable playing on them.

Emily is also finishing swimming team prep sessions next week - this is the preparation step before trying out for competitive swimming, if it is something she wants to pursue later. Because the hours are late in the evening, she only does team prep in the summer; doing it during the school year, which she would dearly enjoy, would simply be too exhausting.

And finally, she has started ice-skating lessons along with her sisters! One can't live in Minnesota and not know how to ice-skate - it'd be like living in Singapore and not being able to swim. She loves it, and is excited about continuing lessons in the fall after school.