Today has been pretty smooth. Elijah seemed a little ill this morning, but is acting normal now. I guess he was right yesterday. He’s hard to read. He sees someone else get medicine and thinks it’s a treat sometimes, so when he was saying that he needed medicine, but looked fine, acted normal, ate well…it was hard to believe.

I like to have the boys prepare their own breakfasts, since it tends to be a simpler meal. Isaac did a waffle. Ian made oatmeal on the stove. Elijah cooked an egg wrap on the stove. It took a little prodding to get them to remember to clean up thoroughly, but they did a nice job. Tidying up seems to come a little more naturally to Isaac.

Next, I told the boys we are coming up on our Thanksgiving trip, made them a visual packing list and told them they could pack whenever they were ready. Isaac and Elijah hopped right to it. Ian went to work on the Geotrax rail system the boys are setting up around the Christmas tree.

School has organically drifted toward afternoon and evening time lately, since the boys are bursting with creativity and play in the morning. I laugh as I write that, because I understand the value of play in learning. One evening, we explored a fairly old cemetery and got to refresh some knowledge of several wars. At home, we’ve been doing a lot of reading, writing/drawing, educational board games and dismantling old computers and learning the parts & functions.

We are participating in a church ministry that helps buy Christmas toys for kids in financially-tight situations. Each child has an ornament with his or her name and Christmas wish on it. Yesterday, I took the boys out shopping for the three boys we picked. Before we left, I couldn’t find one of the paper ornaments, but Ian, interjected, “Oh, it’s *Jeff. Don’t worry, I memorized it. He’s nine and likes Iron Man and cute little puppies.” I was pretty impressed that my 7-year-old took the time to study the kids like that. The boys seemed to enjoy choosing the toys, and knowing they were helping someone. They practiced reading prices, calculating deals and sticking to a budget. Granted, the budget got a little excited too.

Before bed, Ian and Elijah drew pictures for those boys and I was especially impressed that Elijah was asking for help spelling out names and sentences. He’s been the latest to really get into drawing, but seems to be the earliest to have an interest in writing words. I do recall the older boys’ drawings becoming legible some time during their fourth year too, though, so maybe he’s not far behind.

When I’m on the phone, or when he’s upset, Ian has taken to writing me “urgent” questions or opinionated messages. I love that. He still has a very short endurance for writing, and is not enamored with worksheets, so I appreciate seeing him volunteer opportunities to write and incorporate text into his drawings. It’s fun seeing his phonetic spellings and his aversion to using vowels.

Recent amusements. Isaac made up a huge measurement yesterday called a “gigaquatt.” Sounds good to me. Elijah says he’s becoming a fully-grown man. He has started frequently wanting to call people just to chat. His latest “victims” were an adorable 6 year old girl (friend) who was like, “Why did you call me?” But she conversed for twenty minutes or so – incredibly cute. The other was a good family friend & mom who “had him” a couple years ago when she made him some cardboard safari binoculars.  Ian was being randomly philosophical yesterday. It went something like:

I’m very special. (Oh?). Yes. See, God made me to be the only one who can feel me. You can feel you, and other people can feel themselves, but I’m the only one who can feel me. It’s very hard to explain. My thoughts are in my head. But…I love you so much, it’s like I can feel you. I don’t know if that makes sense.

Actually, that makes complete sense. My “babies” completely feel like a part of me, and it’s amazing to hear him express a similar sentiment. Ian probably has the most closely-held thoughts of our three. He also confided a really precious “private” thought he was having about another topic. It felt like it was divinely inspired, because that very day I was feeling a much-too-soon worry about the future — a worry that relies heavily on emotional safety and open communication — and his spontaneous sharing of his private thoughts brought me so much peace that we’re on the right track.

Oh, I’m not sure what took so long, but I just now introduced the boys to pomegranate. I think it’s a winner.

Speaking of food, I’m starting to miss eggs. And I guess it’s not that I obsess over bread, but it’s such a great conveyor of yummy stuff, and I’ve not found great replacements yet. I did roast a turkey that came out pretty well for my inexperience. I was getting irritated at the sugar, phosphates, nitrates, and so forth in all the deli turkey, so I decided to make some fresh. I am still convinced I’m not replacing the breads and sugars with enough veggies, because that blasted scale won’t move. But then again, my big exercise has been doing mountain climbers between Candy Crush Soda Saga levels and shoveling laundry around. Not exactly fat-smashing, eh?