there’s nothing wrong with kids that trying to reason with them won’t make worse

Monday, November 7, 2011

Gutenberg


Located in the heart of Altstadt Mainz is the Gutenberg Museum, built to honor Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the moveable type press and most famous for producing the first printed Bible.  Considered the most valuable printed book ever made, a complete set (2 volumes) is worth somewhere on the order of 25+million dollars.  The museum has one and a half copies, plus several other valuable books all held in a maximum security vault on the top floor.   We dragged the kids there this Saturday, and they were all less than impressed.  Although, Zak pointed out that the vault doors were the same as the doors on the vaults at the national museum of Rome, where we saw old money.  
The museum is full of exhibits on the history of printing in Asia, Europe and Islam along with replicas of things like the Rosetta Stone.  You can see that Deanna was not impressed.  However, Zak, who recently read The Red Pyramid, was totally thrilled.  Until he realized it was a fake, and then he asked me when we are going to the British National museum.  Hopefully he doesn't intend to blow it up. . . 

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Autumn Colors


My favorite season is full of reds, browns, yellows and more browns.  I love Autumn, especially when there is wind in the air and sunshine abundant.  My kids don't understand my obsession with hiking up the hill just to look at leaves, although No was easy to convince as long as there were acorns to find.  The only cloud on the horizon on these glorious, sunny days is the oncoming dark of winter.  We're already down to 10 hours of light, which will only decrease in the next 2 months.  I love that the communities around us all celebrate the harvest, the end of the sun and try to save up happiness for the oncoming winter, each in their own way.

As for me, I'm trying to savor the colors, and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Columbus Day

I was hit on by a man old enough to be my grandfather.  It was the highlight of my day.  Of course, the rest of the day looked like this:

kids whine about being woken up to eat delicious homemade muffins
general complaining about being prisoned in the car
children whine in the car about being forced to travel to Luxembourg
Eating frites in Belguim causes fights
Got lost in Malmedy, where no chocolate shops are open on Monday
More fighting about who is breathing who's air, etc

Ben enjoyed visiting the national museum of military history in Diekirch, Luxembourg, and I was happy to look at all the pretty houses and fields on the way.






Monday, October 10, 2011

Family pictures


An attempt to capture all of us photographically.  These are the best shots out of about a billion tries.  Zac delights in pulling weird faces or giving his neighbor 'bunny ears'.  I'm just glad I wasn't paying for the pictures!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

September

Somebody turned 10

Something old
This month we learned that the ceiling is not level in our house.  NOT ANYWHERE.  There was only one spot in the entire downstairs where the ceiling was high enough and level enough to fit the new furniture.  Everywhere else there were dips, curves and swoops which made it impossible to fit.  Now my main goal in life is to get us out of this house before it falls down on top of us!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Why my kids don't watch a lot of TV

Because Mr Rogers isn't on AFN.



http://www.pittsburghinwords.org/tom_junod.html

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Cub Camp

no more archery for Joyful
Last week I made the tactical mistake of volunteering for cub scout camp.  Monday was volunteer training, and I volunteered to 'help' out with science only to be handed a printed out 'experiment' (dancing spaghetti) to try with the boys.  This was supposed to fill 3 days of science classes for 50 boys?  Being the type-A person I am, this was completely unacceptable and I planned 3 days of fun curriculum that actually taught SCIENCE.  (I know, the boys only come to camp to shoot BB's, so I'm silly to care so much).

I know I'm not supposed to brag, but science class totally rocked.  Even the Tiger cubs learned the steps to the scientific method, and I was scolded by scouts when I was carrying my metal umbrella in the thunderstorm Wednesday.  THEY PAID ATTENTION AND LEARNED STUFF!   By the end of Thursday I had 3 helpers who wanted to join the cool science class, and on Friday more than one cub was mad at me that we didn't have science class.  You know what?  I'm a good teacher!

On the other hand, I am not good at things requiring coordination.  See the bruise on my arm?  This was from my attempt to shoot at the archery range.   And, while I was not the only leader to end up with a bruise, mine was the most colorful and biggest.  At least I win at klutz?

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