Rebekah's Insights

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Last week Liam explored the letter K. :) Here is a brief overview of his Pre-School activities:

* began learning Catechism Q. #9: What is God? A.: God is a Spirit and does not have a body like men.

* began learning Psalm 56:3 & 4 "When I am afraid I will trust in You. In God, whose Word I praise, in God I trust."

* reviewed la casa & la cucina in Italian.

* reviewed the first 3 Ten Commandments learned previously.

* learned a new Christmas song: Christmas is Coming

* helped Mummy make an advent paper chain (I forgot to take a picture) and so we have replaced our usual reading our way through the book of Genesis to read the daily advent passaged instead. :)

* generated a K word list throughout the week and practiced writing the letter K.

* acquired many new favorite books, including the Blue Kangaroo series by Emma Chichester Clark and the Kipper books by Mick Inkpen.

Since Liam's third birthday was this past Sunday, we had seven little friends over for a Dinosaur party on Saturday afternoon. We wanted to be sure he had a party with friends since this is the first year he REALLY was aware of having a birthday and was excited to celebrate it, coupled with the fact that we have moved so far from family with whom he was used to celebrating. He really had a wonderful time playing "Dinosaur Walk" and "Pin the Horn on the Dinosaur!" With making all the arrangments for the party last week, we did not get around to cooking or baking anything together for K week, but with Christmas baking just around the corner, I'm sure we'll quickly make up for it! :)

We are exploring L this week, so I should have the low down sometime the end of this week!

The forecast is rain with a heavy helping of wind. Be on the look out for flying sheep!

We were warned England was windy, rainy, and dreary. Until a few weeks ago, its been nice. A little cooler than the states, but hey, we are at the same latitude as Sweden. Now it is daily rain with wind. The UK may not get many hurricanes, but there is a good dose of gale force winds. If I was not already bald, I would swear that the wind would blow the hair off of my head. I see why the locals warn against using umbrellas.

See you blowing by...

Since I devote a recurring post to Liam's learning and accomplishments, I thought I would take a moment to talk about our little daughter. Although she is a tiny little girl (undeniably taking after Momma with respect to body size and weight gain) Aine seems to be growing up so quickly!

She loves to run around all over now and keeps her brother on his toes! And her parents! :) Aine's vocabulary just expands by leaps and bounds each week and I can hardly keep up with all the recognizable words she can say. She LOVES babies and is on the lookout for them wherever we go and on food packaging and books! :) While we trimmed our tree last week, she found a small bear a relative had given to Liam last Christmas and Aine has adopted it as her own. She carries it around hugging it and cradling it in her tiny arms. If you walk past her she proudly holds the bear out and says, "Ohhh, baby bear! Baby bear!" Aine also enjoys tearing up scraps of paper, putting them into her mini-serving bowl and stirring it. She then serves "salad" or whatever it is to anyone who'll take it.

Lately, if we wonder what she wants she is typically able to tell us what it is. She loves to sing the Veggie Tales theme song and knows many of the words! She also loves to join in singing Liam's Scripture memory songs and is doing a great job.

Here is a short list of her words: Jesus, God, Daddy, Mommy (she doesn't call me Momma anymore, but Mommy instead!) cracker, cookie, doggie, kitty, sheep, baaaa, cow, moo, baby, bear, Bob, Veggie Tales, up, down, get down, lay down, Liam (ee-um), noodles, slippers, juice (joo), car, purple, blue, pink, (and she knows these are colors)...you get the picture. :)

She loves the little slippers my mom made for her last year--even insists on wearing them over the feet of her blanket sleepers--so today my mom asked her if she wanted any more slippers and she nodded yes. When asked what color she wanted and she said, "Purple!" :) It is so wonderful being able to have little conversations with her already and hearing her and Liam have discussions during the day is hysterical!

Well, I could go on and on as every mother could and would if you give her half the chance, but my laundry is finally done so I am going to BED! :)

G'night all!

Given all the interesting little differences I am encountering in keeping our home here in this land that is new to me, I am considering beginning a separate category for posts entitled "Adventures in Home-Keeping." We'll see...maybe after the holidays. Anyway, my chosen topic THIS time is...

LAUNDRY!

In retrospect I SHOULD have been tipped off in my second week here when, while in temporary housing I needed to go to the laundromat to wash our clothing. You meet all kinds of interesting people at a laundromat and your life becomes interestingly entwined with them as you negotiate the use of multiple washers and dryers and wait and fold and visit with them. On this particular occasion I met a woman who has lived here for four or so years and she told me she brings all her laundry in to use the multiple washers (some with a larger capacity) and dryers every month or so in order to get caught up with laundry. I thought that odd at the time, but remember, I had only lived here for less than two weeks.

I have mentioned in a previous post about the capacity of our washer (a very typical British washer) being roughly the size of an extra-small to small load in a typical American washer. I have also mentioned that the dryer takes a very long time to dry. The first several months we lived here I JUST managed to keep up with the laundry by doing multiple loads every day. The problem is that that really means EVERY day and since it is hard to get those couple loads done on shopping day when I am gone most of the day or on a weekend when we go off to visit a sight or have friends over for a party--the laundry starts to get just a little bit behind. (You can typically attribute my ability to update you on the blog to the fact that I am waiting on going to bed most evenings in order to attend to that last load of laundry that must be done.)

Well, this brings us to two weeks ago when I was sick for six days and...that's right! No laundry got done! Let me just say that it made for an overwhelming back-up in the laundry department. I have been steadily working since then to catch-up on the laundry--while we steadily generate new laundry that then is backed-up! I have felt for the last week and a half like I am drowning in laundry! Now that the weather is sooo cold and our clothes are necessarily bulkier, I can only dry certain types of laundry in the dryer. This is because one of those tiny loads of clothing will now take six or more hours to dry in the dryer! No! I am NOT exaggerating at ALL! Needless to say, I am NOT going to dry ANYTHING FOR THAT LONG--imagine the electricity bills if I did! So I have gone the old-fashioned route and am hanging clothes everywhere and anywhere I can! I dry on two drying racks, guest room wardrobe, outsides of bedroom wardrobes, and radiators. This is very typical for around here from what everyone tells me.

In talking with other wives regarding this subject of laundry I have learned some interesting tips. I have also learned that it is the least favorite chore of most everyone I meet. We all lament how much extra ironing is required for these drip-dried clothes, but it is simply the way it is. I have even been told by a woman that has lived here for four years now that when they go on a vacation or trip home, they must budget for having the clothes washed at the laundromat when they arrive home because the time it would take to catch up on the laundry from a full week of being away, would never be made up since so much new laundry is generated while you get all that laundry done. My heart actually sank at this because it gave new rise to the fear that has been nagging at me for the past week or so...What if I have passed that point of no return where I CANNOT catch up on the laundry unless we go do it at a laundromat all day? Suddenly I remembered the woman at the laundromat my second week here! She was a working mother, so she could not keep up with laundry only being able to do it in the evenings and weekend.

So, my darling husband has suggested that we take the laundry to the laundromat next weekend to try to get ahead and if I cannot get to the bottom of it during this next week, that is exactly what I will do. Oh well, it all adds to the charm of living this new experience. :) I have been working REALLY hard at it and if I have done my math correctly, I THINK I can catch-up finally by early next week. But the price I have to pay is in lost sleep--that is why I am writing this post for you at midnight here! And hopefully no one else is the house gets sick and generates more laundry in the week than my calculations account for. :)

So now if I post next week, either that we are going to a laundromat or that I am doing the "happy Dance" because I got my laundry done--you will understand! I hope everyone else is having fun doing laundry this week! When we return to the States there is a great deal I will miss about living here, but I will be thankful everyday for a larger washer and I will NEVER again take for granted being able to catch up on laundry in one day! :)

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

This proved to be one of Liam's favorite weeks yet, although it was the most unusual! The study of J was split between two weeks, because of my six days of sickness over Thanksgiving week. Also, it was his first experience in having Daddy step in as primary teacher while Mommy was in bed all those days. It was good that I keep a list of the things we do each day, because Liam WANTED to do school whether or not I felt up to it and it was great that Will has able to take a more active role than usual. :) Anyway, without further adieu, here is J week at a glance. Liam did the following...

* learned to sing most of the first verse of the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and the Psalm 117 as they were our focus in family worship for the month of November. It is really amazing how much he is picking up on and we are really proud of him! :)

* reviewed the first 8 Catechism questions and answers, as well as the 4 Scripture memory verses and two Commandments he has learned so far.

* practiced making the letter J and generated a J word list.

* reviewed the letters he has learned so far and read his alphabet to Aine and Mommy.

* enjoyed a variety of J foods such as jam, jelly, jelly beans, and Jell-o.

* practiced jumping and counting how many times he could jump. :)

* reviewed "la casa" and learned that "la cucina" means kitchen. He also is continuing his exploration of house geography in connection with the Italian word.

* sang "Jesus Loves Me," "Jack and Jill," "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt," and "Jimmy Cracked Corn."