Jude turns 4

Oh Jude, you are something. 110% personality Exhausting a lot of the time. Humorous just as much. Our family wouldn't laugh half so much if you weren't around. You keep me on my toes! And humble. You certainly keep me humble at times. But just when I think there is no possible way I could tame you and I might just stop trying and let you be a wild monkey, you snuggle up next to me and give me a hug. Or you want to talk to me about God and Jesus dying and how sometimes we see crosses with Jesus on them and sometimes they are empty and since they are empty, that must mean Jesus came back to life and then you melt my heart. When we were in Italy and I mentioned going somewhere from the Bible you asked "Are you talking about the real world or the bible world?" and when I told you the Bible world WAS the real world, you were amazed! "From the bible? Here? in Real Life!?" I just love seeing your brain make connections! 

You've become so sociable this year. Last year you were a preschool drop out because of separation anxiety but we took a break (from preschool and church nursery and all the leaving mom things) and now you love preschool! And "church school" (homeschool co-op, its held at a church). And if someone starts talking to you at the airport, watch out because you'll just keep chatting! You just want to be in the thick of things. Which is probably the reason you're such a monkey. It's hard being the littlest sometimes. But you are determined to keep up with everyone else - and I'm pretty sure you'll succeed at that!

What is your favorite color? All the colors

What is your favorite toy? the toy where you kick and punch it (punching bag) and monkey

What is your favorite game? pillow fight game

What is your favorite song?  cocomelon songs

What do you sleep with at night? my monkey! my favorite toy monkey

What is your favorite animal? cat and dog

What is your favorite book? angus mcangus...Henry the explorer

What is your favorite movie? Encanto (Jonah likes encanto so he calls out "Encanto too?" and Jude says "No, Encanto 1!"

What is your favorite thing to eat? Muffins (he means cupcakes) and Cake

Where is your favorite place to go? To our playground

What is your favorite outfit? My lizard shirt and my church shirts. My jeans but pants are my favorite green pants and my favorite shorts are my yellow shorts. My favorite undies are the cool ones with different stuff on it.  

What do you like to learn about? Nothing. "What about stories?" Yes! Those are the only things.

What have you learned in the last year? Nothing. 

What is hard for you? Disobeying....like not touching other people's stuff, doing what mom says. (I think he means Obeying)

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? Watch movies like When Calls the Heart!

What do you like about Mommy? You always like to take care of me. 

What do you like about Daddy? He always poops on me (Uhm, no he doesn't. No potty talk)...He always takes me to the post office and coop and playground. And drops me off at preschool....and the moon!

What do you like about Lucy?  She always has to read me a book. 

What do you like about Jonah? Jonah always lets me have his special Legos. And plays with me and drops me off at the Sun. 

What do you like about Norah? Norah always puts heavy stuff like bookshelves and books on top of me. She REALLY does be naughty and she's a person who needs to be in real jail. She makes me dead, real dead.  

 

 What do you like about yourself? I always makes a fort for myself and nobody can ever look in it. 

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be naughty. I want to be a rude-y butt. I want to be a fireman and a policeman. 

Lucy turns 12

Lucy turned 12 while we were in Majorca this year. She loves the beach so this was a fun way to celebrate with her. But then I forgot to publish her birthday answers. And then I kept waiting to publish the next kid's until I finished hers. So here we are in November with 4 kids birthday questions undone! Ahh, how did I used to blog so much? Where did I find the time? 

But on the plus side, I can write the final wrap up with a bit more perspective on what twelve year old Lucy is like! 

Dear Lucy,

I love you at twelve. You're still straddling that girl/teen line but in all the best ways. You're hardworking and helpful and mature. You love your younger siblings and are always willing to twirl Norah or help Jude draw a picture or write a word. You were a great teacher at VBS with all the 4-5 year olds. You're such an artist and always have an amazing way of viewing things. You're very creative and passioanate about your art and will work tirelessly to make your visual come to life. You don't love big groups of people but you are an amazing friend and listener. You sometimes are a bit of a puddleglum in our family - but like puddleglum, you add to our family in ways that we need and we wouldn't be the same without you. You have such a way with words. I love that you know what you like and what you don't and you aren't bothered by others opinions...and just when I think I have you figured out, you surprise me! It's such fun watching you grow and become even more of yourself. 

What is your favorite color? Light Teal, light blue and navy

What is your favorite toy? Puzzles and Art Supplies

What is your favorite game? Carcasonne and Clue

What is your favorite song? Peter Hollen's Hobbit and Lord of the Ring inspired songs

What is your favorite animal? Wolves, Foxes, All big cats. 

What is your favorite book? Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Mysterious Benedict Society series, and Enola Holmes series. 

What do you like to snuggle with at night? Live Lizzie. 

What is your favorite movie? The Harry Potters

What is your favorite thing to eat? Gyros and Creamy Potato Soup

Where is your favorite place to go?  Greece

What is your favorite outfit? Jeans and t-shirts. 

What do you like to learn about? What I like to learn about that is not a school subject is the language of flowers. My favorite school subject is greek language. 

What have you learned in the last year? Greek 

What is hard for you? Latin

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? Travel

What do you like about Mom? That you travel with me and spend one on one time with me like in Belgium.  

What do you like about Dad? That he drives us places like Tae Kwon Do and is involved in our activities. 

What do you like about Jonah?  That he let's me play with "his" legos. 

What do you like about Norah? Because she is hilarious and she always wants me to play with her. 

What do you like about Jude? He is even more hilarious than Norah is. 

What do you like about yourself? That I am "like okay" at art. 

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Author and Artist

Classics Challenge - Lilith

Lilith is one of those books that shows me how much I've grown as a reader in the past few years. It's been on my to read list for a while but I'm glad I didn't get to it until now because I really don't think I would have made it through it even 5 years ago and would have dismissed it as weird. 

And yes, it is a odd, no doubt about that. Lilith is an otherworld fantasy novel about a man who magically stumbles into this old world of Adam/Eve/Lilith (the supposed first, and ultimately unfitting wife of Adam). Their are parallel stories where man slowly wakes up and learns who he is while Lilith learns about redemption. Just much much weirder with more imagery and symbolism than what I just said. And I  didn't quite know what was going on for a fair portion of it. But having really pushed myself (and gotten some good guidance from the Literary Life podcast and sitting in with Lucy's Good Books class), I am able to read it as a fairy tale and to see past some of the superficial weirdness a bit more to the symbols and that's pretty encouraging.  I still probably only got a fraction of what was in this book but I'm okay with that. Even that fraction gave me plenty to think about on the topics of repentance and forgiveness. 

Lilith is my Back to the Classics 19th Century Selection. 

Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris

This was so cute! I actually had The Picture of Dorian Gray in this category before I realized it was actually written in 1890 so ten years too soon! And I already have that category done. So I read it for nothing.  Just kidding. But it was such a rookie mistake - and I've been doing this challenge for years so I really have no excuse. Although I must say that while Dorian Gray a perfectly fine book, I do think this one will be more fun to blog about anyway so all is well. 

So as I said, this was adorable. I actually read this before I even knew they were making a new movie version. I've heard good things about the movie version but I have such vivid pictures in my head of all the people that I'm a bit afraid to mess that up by watching it.  Mrs 'Arris is a lovely little down to earth cleaning lady who suddenly decides she wants a Dior dress. So she starts to scrimp and save. And with a bit of "movie magic" type situations, she get it and off she goes to Paris. I love Mrs. 'Arris. I love the way she interacts with everyone she meets and the relationships she forms on her journey. As someone who first visited Paris this summer myself, and who, despite all my traveling, still feels that bit of fish out of water, what am I doing here stuff, I just thought this couldn't be more delightful. 

As soon as I finished it, I checked out Mrs. 'Arris goes to New York which is even more far fetched and therefore not quite as charming but definitely still a decent pick for when you need something safe and cozy but still worth reading. 

Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris is my Back to the Classics 20th century selection. 

Classics Challenge - To Sir, With Love

To Sir, With Love is a book about a teacher in England but this is not Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Braitwaite is not teaching in a classic boarding school but in East London where things are a bit rougher. One of my local friends is from East London and I've enjoyed hearing about her experiences growing up and raising children there so I found this especially interesting. And of course, books that ponder what education is are always interesting. There are a few things that are a bit dated (like his descriptions of some of his female students) and I'm curious as to how much of this autobiographal novel is autobiography and how much is novel because he does wrap things up nicely in just a year - but overall I found it enjoyable and thought provoking.  

To Sir, With Love is my Classic by a BIPOC author selection in the Back to the Classics Challenge