Killing some new skills

Clay decided that today was the day he was going to tackle some of his life skills, and he has been killing it! First, he knocked out shoelace tying and got so good at that he eventually started saying, "Time me." He has been untying and retying his laces all afternoon and is so proud that no one will have to help him with his baseball cleats anymore.

Buoyed by the confidence that came with mastering that skill, he decided that, instead of putting back on the training wheel that had fallen off his bike, he'd just go ahead and take the other one off. We padded him up, but it was largely unnecessary. He got the hang of it right away and just took off. He is thrilled that it will be much easier to keep up with his brothers now!

My baby is really growing up, and I'm so very proud of him!

August Highlights

Just because I haven't been present in this space this month doesn't mean that stuff hasn't been happening. In fact, we've had a very busy month (which, come to think of it, could be one reason I haven't been present in this space)! Here are the highlights (not including all the football practices and horse riding lessons):

We took the big kids out to see Jeff's hometown, Wink, in west Texas.
Since we were so close, we decided to stop by the Monahans Sand Hills as well.

We spent some quality time with family and friends in the Davis Mountains.
The weather was gloriously cool, and we even had a monster hailstorm,
which was a first in my experience of attending Campmeeting.

Jeff launched his new business, Coconut Math,
and we participated in and hosted a number of
back-to-school events in the community.

I celebrated my last birthday that begins with a 3.

We bought some new furniture, which, in addition to making
our house more homey, also made eating meals
and doing school so much easier!

We started school. This year Watts Homeschool is proud to welcome its
first-ever high school student and its last-ever Kindergartner.
We also have a 5th grader and a 3rd grader studying with us this year.
 

We've been tootling around town on our bikes a lot.
Clay amazed us all by doing a seven-mile bike ride.
That may very well be a record for a bike with training wheels!

We have made some serious changes to our diet and have been experimenting
with new recipes. One of them called for buckwheat groats, which everyone
thought sounded pretty funny. Clay misunderstood and insisted on helping me look for
"BUCKWHEAT GROSS," at the top of his voice, in the fancy grocery store near our house.
We did not find the unique item there, and Jeff has been giving me a hard time for
being too "crunchy" even for the "crunchy" grocery store.

Jeff and I celebrated our 18th anniversary of (mostly) marital bliss.

We started CC on our new campus.
I only managed to snap a picture of Clay,
but the other two boys are also participating.
Ruth is not participating this year but is taking an
AP Biology class at a different homeschool academy.

Max has been really interested in cooking lately.
He checked out a cool kid's cookbook from the library
and made some delicious gluten-free, sugar-free
blueberry muffins for us.

The Visuals

Here are the pictures that go with yesterday's post:

Dim Sum in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Light Show

The Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery

Funarium Fun

Train Travel

Our first day on Koh Samui

If you need me in the next couple of weeks, I'll be here.

Xi'an Wall

Yesterday was our last day in Xi'an, and we spent it hanging out on the awesome and ancient Xi'an Wall, which was built during the Tang Dynasty (600s-900s) and expanded during the Ming Dynasty (1300s to 1600s). Jeff and the older kids rode bikes all the way around the wall, a distance of almost 9 miles. Clay was too small to ride the bikes, so he and I had a date in which we wandered through the impressive New Year's decorations and stopped for a drink. It was a beautiful day, and we all had so much fun!

The Xi'an Wall

My people, at the wall

Ready for a unique bike ride

One of the many watchtowers on the wall

Don't I have a handsome date?!

A million people stopped us to take pictures of or with Clay,
but this one was my favorite (and Clay's too!)

It's fun to go on a date with a statue lover when you are surrounded by "statues"

Day Off

I have previously alluded to the fact that we have set up our homeschool schedule a little differently this year. Instead of having "days" of school, we have "sessions." We always try to start a session* by 8:00 am and finish by 12:00. In this way, we can finish two sessions in a day. The typical weekly schedule we set up, by mutual consent of all parties involved, has us doing two full days of class (four total sessions), followed by a half day, followed by two full days, and then a full day completely off. For us, for now, this seems to be a good balance of work and play. We work on weekends, if that is when the school days fall, unless there is a particular event or activity we want to do that only happens on those days. All that to say, we have been working since we arrived in Wales, and today was our first full day off, so we took the opportunity to explore our surroundings and just have some fun.

First up on the agenda was a horse riding lesson for Ruth at a local stable. Ruth has worked very hard this summer, researching riding facilities in various places and contacting them to find out about the possibility of riding. This is the first one that has worked out, and she was so thrilled to be back in the saddle, even though it was an English saddle, and she had been used to primarily riding Western in the States. She did a fantastic job, and we all had so much fun watching her!

After that, we took the long way home (but, really not that long), so that we could drive along the Welsh coast, which is absolutely beautiful! We are looking forward to more opportunities to visit the coast and beaches throughout our stay here.

Once we had had our lunch, the boys helped me pick apples from the tree in our yard. I then peeled, cored and sliced them, dusted them with sugar and cinnamon, and baked them, with the goal of producing (at the kids' request) something akin to the baked cinnamon apples at Chili's. The jury happily claims that I got pretty close.

When that was done, we decided to head over to the leisure club, access to which is a perk of staying in this house. It is a lovely space and has plenty of fun things for everyone to enjoy. The little boys spent most of their time trying out the bikes and other ride-on toys, while the older two enjoyed the big-enough-for-big-kids swings. There was also a pony paddock, a goat enclosure, and a delightful duck pond, as well as a very nice indoor pool, which we did not take advantage of this time but will definitely do another time. The weather was amazing, so we didn't rush to leave.

In order not to stray too far from our ancient Greek theme, though, Jeff and the kids watched a movie that Jeff loved as a kid called Asterix and the Twelve Tasks, which is an animated twist on the twelve tasks of Hercules (who is the Roman version of the Greek god Heracles).

Our last act of fun for the day was an early surprise birthday party for Weston. His birthday isn't until November, but when Jeff and I found out that some of the Rugby World Cup games were going to be played in Wales while we were here, we knew we had found the perfect gift for our sports lover. The tickets were delivered to the house today, so we spontaneously decided to turn it into a party. While Weston was in the shower, after dinner, we all hid behind the couch. When he came in, we jumped out and surprised him. He thought we were just surprising him with dessert, because he had smelled the brownies baking. He had no idea what else was coming. He was flabbergasted when he found out what was going on, and when he opened the package, his reaction was priceless!

I would say we definitely made the most of our day off and are now refreshed and ready to get back to work tomorrow.

*For those of you curious about what a session looks like, it is this:
Ruth's sessions consist of Literature, Spanish, Algebra II, and English Grammar. Weston and Max have (at their appropriate levels) Math, History, Spelling, Grammar, Reading, and Language. (This last started out as Spanish, but they both recently decided to give Chinese a go. They are both very enthused about this new venture for the moment and are working hard, so they can translate for us when we visit China next year.) And, Clay works on letter sounds and reading, as well as Math "from the green book." He also sits in on whichever classes he wants to sit in on and has learned quite a lot that way. 

So happy to be back in the saddle again

Panorama of the Welsh Coast
(Note the fish-shaped shrubbery in the far left picture)

Abundant Apples

Fun at the Leisure Club

A Big Surprise

Mother's Day

We slept in this morning, and when I got out of the shower, Jeff and the older boys were just arriving back to the cabin with fresh bread and honey from the market, which made for lovely Mother's Day breakfast.

After breakfast, we rented bikes from the camp and took off on a grand adventure. Biking is the preferred method of translocating here in The Netherlands, and we saw bikers of every age and ability out and about on this absolutely gorgeous day. We rode through farmlands, crossed a major highway without anyone getting run over, and ended up in some tulip fields that were still blooming. (We're nearing the end of the tulip season, so many of the fields have already produced and are being prepared for the next season.) Then, we headed back a different way than the way we came, in order to avoid the major highway (because I don't need that kind of stress in my life), winding around through an industrial area and finally ending up at a lake, before coming back to the campground. Altogether, we estimate it was about 8 or 9 miles roundtrip, all of it so very beautiful and bucolic. But, based on how much my legs hurt, it was possibly a little too ambitious for someone who hasn't really ridden a bike much at all since I was the age of my oldest child. But, even so, if I had it to do over again, I would do it.

After a late lunch, some calls back to the U.S. to visit with moms and grandmothers, and a dip in the pool, Jeff and the kids took me out to the onsite restaurant for a fabulous Mother's Day dinner.

It was really a wonderful day! But my favorite part of all, is getting to be "Mom" to Ruth, Weston, Max and Clay, not just on Mother's Day, but every day! I am thankful and blessed!

ready to ride

bike buddies

a waning, but still pretty, hyacinth field

This scene just doesn't even look real.

We passed this beautiful church and impressive mosaic on our bike ride.

flowers for Mother's Day

Mother's Day dinner at Restaurant Taveerne

So incredibly thankful to be called "Mom" by these special people