Her Royal Gimpyness

Yesterday I fell hard and twisted my ankle. So today, I've been sitting in the recliner with my very swollen, blue foot elevated. I've felt loved and rather royal as Tim and the kids have waited on me and taken over portions of my daily routine. A special call out to Anjali for making breakfast and lunch for she and Mark this morning and to Tim for making unbelievably good chocolate pudding from scratch tonight.
Special thanks you guys from Her Gimpy Majesty.

Growing up

Today Mark visited our neighborhood preschool. He walked in, greeted the teacher, started playing, followed directions, and joined right in like he'd been there all along. He's going to attending preschool Mondays and Wednesdays starting next week. My little boy is now a growing up boy.

While Mark's in preschool, Anjali and I will be having a writing intensive. We're going to be working 2 1/2 hours twice per week on writing and spelling. My growing up girl is really maturing.

Mark is a clever boy

The other day TJ, our neighbor boy, came to the door and asked Mark to play. Mark turned him down so TJ asked for Anjali. Mark walked upstairs and called to Anjali, "Anjali your friend is here!" And when Anjali asked, "Who is it?" Mark replied, "Hodan" who is Anjali's favorite friend on the block.
Tim and I burst into laughter. We could so clearly see the wheels turning in his mind. What especially cracked me up is that TJ is a stocky, Italian first grader and Hodan is a tall, lithe, Somali girl in a hijab. Ooops, my mistake. I thought it was Hodan!
Not.

Art Show by Mark and Anjali

The kids have been making a lot of art lately so we decided to have an Art Show for you. We'll be mailing these to family and friends starting Monday so if you have a favorite, get your comment, email, or phone call in first, and we'll send it to you.
Enjoy!

"Practice Piece"
Anjali 10/10
This one was a practice piece for me to practice using objects to paint.
The circles were bubble wands.
I did the ocean waves with the top of a can.
I stamped a circle over and over for the ground.

"It's A Road"
Mark 10/10
It's a road that has lots of people in it.
The orange road had only snakes and spiders.
The blue road has coconut trees and fishies that can bite you.
They can clamp you- clamp, clamp- down below.
The red road, I forgot. Wait. It's our house, the middle one.

Mark 2010
That one's an elephant that can walk and talk and that can do some tricks like upside down and go to the moon.
He can jump really high like the moon.

Rainbow
Anjali 2010

"It's Daddy's Rake"
Mark 10/10
It's Daddy's rake that can help people rake leaves. 'Cause we have 3 rakes.
My favorite color of leaves is pink.

View from My Room
Anjali 10/10
This is the view from my window.
I used water pencils.

"South Dakota Mountains"
Anjali 9/10
This is a picture of me and my family going to South Dakota.
We used rubbing and I created the hills which we climbed.

Untitled
Anjali 10/10
At Grace Homeschool Academy, we learned about painting with objects.
The flower was painted by me putting red paint on a cookie cutter.
I drew the hearts by my finger.

Practice Art for using water pencils
Anjali 10/10

"Two Police Cars"
Mark 10/10
I want to go to Minneapolis.
I made this at my school, Grace Homeschool Academy.

Anjali's upcoming concert and Mark's quotes

Anjali has her Sounds of Praise debut this Sunday, October 17 at Wooddale's Edina campus at the 9:00 and 10:30 services. This is her first concert of her first choir. Look also for Tim who will be wearing SOP shirt and corralling munchkins. Hope to see you there.

Mark is fast approaching his 4th birthday and seems taller and more grown-up daily. My favorite recent comments have been these two. I was slow and distracted in getting out the door to the park and Mark said to me, "Mom, you're taking ages!" A couple mornings ago he got up with a runny nose and I suggested a Kleenex. He said no and I asked, "So how are you going to solve your runny nose?" He replied, "Avoid it." Yep, that's my boy.

Dishes the old fashioned way

Our dishwasher doesn't these days. So we do. Amy washes, Mark rinses bubbles, and Anjali dries and puts away. It's been interesting to watch the kids learning how to do dishes by hand and although it's a bit time consuming, it's also a chance to work together. My favorite today was when Mark yelled, "Quality inspection!" and pointed to a cruddy I'd neglected to wash off.

And ironically, after years and years of reminding people to load their dishes in the dishwasher, now I'm reminding them not to. :) If and when we get it back in action, I think we'll all be a lot more grateful.