Daley Ponderings

Where is Elbereth?

jondaley — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:18:59 -0500

Last weekend, Heather took all of the girls on a retreat and had a lot of fun together. Those of us at home had a work day at Grammy's and another friend's house and then had a really great day at home with a friend from church. Elbereth, Jonathan's snake, was out and various people were holding her and then she was resting on the olympic rings in the kids' bedroom. Apparently, when we dispersed, no one remembered about Elbereth and so at some point, she must have gotten tired of hanging on and dropped to the floor (probably a four foot drop), and then looked for a nice dark place to hide, which was in Nathaniel's bed! We didn't notice until today, two days later, because she often hides in her wood shavings, so no one thought much of not seeing her, but Jonathan went to clean the cage and found she was gone.

Faith found Elbereth at the foot of Nathaniel's bed, and Jonathan discovered that she had wedged herself in between the bunk bed and the wall and was unable to go further forward, and snakes aren't capable of going backwards, so she was completely stuck.

We used a crowbar to move the bunk bed (6 beds all connected to each other) a little bit so Jonathan could extract her. She appears to be fine and none the worse for wear.

Waiting for results

joyful — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 06:41:55 -0400

Screenshot of a video call on Thursday:

Friday's procedures went well. They got plenty of marrow for their tests. The endoscopy showed the esophagus healthy. The sigmoidoscopy showed her colon quite inflamed. The surgeon could not tell the cause, but was confident that the pathologist would be able to. She woke up fine, though with some cardiac irregularities that settled themselves.

A dear friend visited all day Saturday, and this is what Grace looked like on a video call that evening:

She was eating a bagel, laughing at her brothers, talking, playing.

They are now just waiting for the colon biopsy results. There's some conflict of advice between GI and nutrition. Hopefully, with results there will be a clear path for what to do with her diet.

The rest of us went to an On Belay family activity day on Saturday, which was nice. It's been a good program for the kids these last several months. www.on-belay.org

However, Faith was in pain by lunch and could not participate in the high-climbing activities. She was really bummed about that.

Sorry about the orientation, I can't fix it on my phone.

Today is our 23rd wedding anniversary. Plenty of ups and downs for our family in those years!

Pocket Notes

joyful — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 00:00:00 -0400

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

2/1 - Jonathan, "Even Einstein didn't have a triple-digit IQ." Noah, "Isn't that the guy with screws in his ears?" Jonathan, "No, that's Frankenstein."

Noah is losing teeth all the time, I have trouble keeping track of them all.

Dropping elbow on frozen shredded cheese. [This is a karate move, and it really works to break up the frozen chunks.]

2/7 - Faith started to whistle!

2/12 - Nathaniel: "Say-too" = thank you

2/16 - Nathaniel, "Way-ma" = Grandma

2/16 - How old are you, Nathaniel? [holding up one index finger on each hand] "Doo!"

2/18 - JPD doing joyful noise "p-p-p, t-t-t" with Nathaniel

2/25 - Joy, "It's a happy day every day at Grandma's house!"

3/2 - 10:30pm - Noah stands up out of bed, looks around confusedly, "I forgot how to do it."
Me, "Do what?"
Noah, "Go to the moon."

3/5 - Jeremiah knows almost the whole alphabet.

3/5 - Jeremiah, to Nathaniel, "Good morning, sweet boy!"

3/7 - Joy lost her second tooth. Lower right 1st incisor.

3/26 - JPD write first name all by self

3/27 - JPD, "Mommy, that says 'NO'".
"How do you know?"
"I seed the 'O', and I seed the 'N', so I knew it said 'NO'."
[flips switch]
"And this says 'YES'."

Pocket Notes

joyful — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0500

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

1/4 - The whole family plays Cousin Memory. Nathaniel repeats incessantly, "I turn! I turn!"

January - Nathaniel knows where all the dishes go. He loves helping to unload the dishwasher and he is good at sorting silverware.

1/9 - Nathaniel, "Self!" (as in, "I want to do it myself!")

1/10 - Jeremiah saw a picture of a galaxy on the computer and exclaimed, "Look! The Milk Bottle Way!"

1/13 - Noah, while washing dishes, about the dish soap, "Mom, I think this is running out. It DEFINITELY didn't last Seven Generations."

1/15 - Jeremiah, "i'm not a little boy! I'm a big boy! But my SIZE is little."

1/18 - Nathaniel now jumps with both feet.

1/22 - Joy read hymn 366 (I Live) with only minimal help and is so proud and happy, she found it again in the hymnal at home and she is singing it
over and over again.

January - Nathaniel, learning to say people's names. "Doah" = Noah; "Djon" = Jonathan; "Sase" = Faith; 1/26 - "Sho-shuh" = Joseph; 1/27 - "Miah" = Jeremiah; 1/28 - "Joy", with the j sounding like the j in Dijon.

1/27 - Nathaniel pinworms. Only treated him.

Discussion of "thet" vs. "that" [added 6/6/2020: This is an intermittent discussion that is ongoing. Apparently, I say it sloppily, so that's how Jonathan learned, and now several others say it that way also.]

Pocket Notes

joyful — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 00:00:00 -0400

I am posting my backlog of pocket notes. Sometimes details are sparse.

9/3 - Referring to two years ago, Jeremiah said, "The other day of the
oott-her day (stretched out, and louder) we tipped over in the big boat."
He wanted to know if the motor boat was going to tip over or not. So he
was glad to hear that this boat wouldn't.

9/11 - Jonathan put an ant in a spider web.

9/11 - Jeremiah said, "I not like you, but you still my buddy."

10/2 - Me: "Steroids are drugs that make your muscles stronger." Noah,
striking muscle-man pose, "Like cheese!!"

10/4 - Joy dictated a story and Noah typed it up. Self-initiated

10/6 - Jeremiah, in reply to my request that he not scream, "I wasn't
screaming, I was shrieking."

10/8 - Jonathan, making cookies when he has a cold, "My olfactory organ is
severly disfunctioning. I can't smell the vanilla."

10/11 - Noah sees this giant two-window spread of freaky clown skeleton
skull in neighbor's window. Jeremiah goes over to look and says, "Hee
hee, he is a funny clown! [pause] Oh, he has angry eyes."

I suggested he tell the clown to take a deep breath and not be angry
anymore. So Jeremiah decided to write him a letter! [Added 6/6/2020: He
didn't actually bring the letter over to the neighbor. But that clown was
a trial until at least a week or two after Halloween when they finally
took it down. It scared Joy especially, and Jeremiah had a
scared/fascinated attraction to it. Glad they never put it up again!]

Ocotber: NPD, "I see" (usually when trying to see the kindle)

NPD gives kisses to help people feel better.

Taking an Interest

joyful — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 18:38:51 -0400

Or: How This Mom Started Playing Minecraft

They say that a good way to show love is to take an interset in what the other person is interested in, even if you wouldn't care about it on your own.

I'm a busy mom and wife of an entrepreneur, right? I don't have time for video games. I have a house to clean, school to teach, dinners to make, diapers to change, invoices to prepare, bills to pay, laundry to wash ... blah, blah, blah.

But one day, my little Joy asked me to try Minecraft. All my kids love it. They play nearly every day, they collaborate, they watch each other, they coach and help each other. I have already put in the effort to be interested in their creations. But there is only so far you can go with intelligent questions without jumping in yourself.

I started in creative and peaceful. Joy and Faith taught me some things, and my generated world was interesting to explore.

Then Jonathan asked me to try survival and coached me through the steps. (Though I still insisted on peaceful at first.)

It has been fun to play around and discover things, build a house to my own liking, raise a rainbow flock of sheep, etc.

My questions now come from experience. Jonathan remarked, "It's so fun that you are actually interested in Minecraft now!" How to connect to your pre-teen? Maybe try Minecraft.

On vacation, I let them and myself do extra. We discovered the collaboration of multiplayer over wifi. We can be a team. I also see the different personalities of my children coming out. Each one approaches the game differently. Jonathan works for speed and efficiency, mining carefully in the right places. Noah thinks mining is mind-numbingly boring and avoids it when he can, preferring to get his treasure by killing monsters. Faith is matter-of-fact, cautious and deliberate. Joy makes beautiful, patterned structures. Jeremiah likes digging and building, digging and building, digging and building (and he is getting more deliberate, too.)

I also discovered the phenomenon that some other part of my brain works on real-life problems while I play. In a conversation with my sister, she remarked that I had been doing a lot of thinking. I replied that I thought I was just doing a lot of Minecraft. But she's convinced they're related. And that gives me a deeper appreciation for Jon's game playing as well.

In Minecraft, my kids are the teachers (even my five-year-old: "Mom... your inventory is full, that's why you can't pick that up.") I am the one learning, making novice mistakes, disregarding wise advice to my peril, and taking advice to my advantage. This is fun for them and it's fun for me. I'm glad I decided to take the plunge.

And now excuse me. I have to go shear a yellow sheep.

Mother's Day 2016

joyful — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:30:09 -0400

Highlights from my Mother's Day, in addition to playing handbells:

Nathaniel went in to the bid kids' room to give Jeremiah a morning hug and "hewwo!"

Nathaniel belly laughs.

Jonathan sang all the verses of Fairest Lord Jesus while washing dishes.

June 2016 Pocket Notes

joyful — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 14:47:36 -0400

6/1 - Nathaniel was playing with the nebulizer, dripped some of the leftover liquid, said, "Uh, oh." Then he walked to the bathroom, opened the cabinet, got out a hand towel, came back into the bedroom and wiped up his spill.

6/2 - I asked Nathaniel to put the toy cars away and he did it right away!

6/3 - Noah lost his first molar - lower left.

6/4 - Nathaniel got on the rocking moose all by himself.

6/6 - Jonathan, "Anything that's meant for school isn't as cool as something that isn't."

6/7 - Jeremiah, with finger movements, "Open the steeple, see all the guys!"

6/8 - Joy, "Hold your horses, Jeremiah!" Jeremiah, "Where my horses?!?"

Joy pronounces her friend Naomi's name as "Wyoming." (We're working on it, but it's still more like "Nyoming".)

March 2016 Pocket Notes

joyful — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 16:08:34 -0400

3/4 - "It's like somebody chewing on a guitar string lengthwise." Jonathan was commenting on a squeaky artichoke.

3/11 - Faith lost lower left 2nd incisor. (R one was a couple of days earlier)

3/12 - Nathaniel was interested in the potty and went a couple of times. I have not been consistent helping him be on it, though.

Jeremiah sings "Butterfly Amazing Grace" and asks me to, also. I didn't know what he meant when he first asked me, so I just sang "butterfly amazing grace" to the tune of amazing grace, over and over, and he liked it.

3/13 - NPD "here ya go" giving Jeremiah a piece of paper. (sounds like hah-ya-doh)

3/15 - Joy can wink both eyes.

3/22 - Jeremiah asked for "some of those green berries." He meant grapes.

3/22 - We were talking about how pencils keep disappearing from our house. Noah said, "The Greeks would say the pencil gods were mad at us."

3/23 - Nathaniel can run.

3/30 - Overheard, Joy explaining to Jeremiah, "'Obstacles' means 'stuff in your way'."

3/31 - Nathaniel pointed to a raisin and said, "Ray-rih". Jonathan asked, to be sure he heard right, "You want raisins?" Nathaniel replied, "Yeah." And he also said "more" later.

Karate Tournament, Standish Maine

joyful — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:14:26 -0400

On Saturday, March 26th, Jonathan, Faith, Joy and I participated in our first karate tournament. The whole family rose bright and early so we could drive the two hours and 15 minutes to Standish, Maine. This tournament is relatively small, with only about five dojos participating. Each division had two to eight participants, with an average of about four (though I didn't do the math.)

Faith's division, 5-7 year old purple belts, was first. There were six other kids competing with her, including her friend Evelyn from our own dojo. In the sparring category, she lost her first match, so that one ended pretty quickly. But when it came time for forms, that is when her practice and hard work shone. She was confident and crisp in her movements. She remembered everything and performed smoothly. She was first to go, and for whatever reason, they allow the first person to go again if he wishes, so she did it again after all the other kids had gone. She told me later that she almost told them that she had already had her turn, and then realized by how they said it that they knew she had gone already, so she just did it. It was so fun to watch her. And then the judges, not her partial mother, awarded her first place! Evelyn got second place.

We had a short break and then it was Joy's turn. Her division was girls ages 5-7, white and yellow belt. She was the only white belt, the other three girls were yellow and all over five also. In the sparring, she got a bye because only three of the girls registered for the sparring event. And she did pretty well, but the other girl being more advanced and bigger, she lost her match. This did get her to second place. There is not an official form until you get to orange belt, so Joy showed half-moon footwork with blocks. The only thing I was concerned about ahead of time was if she would start with the correct hand on the blocks. But she remembered and did a great job. She got second place out of the four, right behind the other girl from our dojo.

After that, we had a long break for our family, but we did watch other kids from our dojo. Jon took an interest in how the sparring was scored, and it seemed to him a bit arbitrary. Maybe he can elaborate in the comments if he wishes.

We went to a local pizza place for lunch with our Sensei and his family. It took a long time and we did not make it back in time to watch the weapons event. But we did watch some young black belts, which was quite interesting.

When we were getting our gear out of the car to get ready for Jonathan's and my divisions, I realized that I did not bring my gi! I had made sure everyone else was taken care of, but forgot my own. However, I did bring my sparring gear and even my belt (since I always keep the belts in a separate bag since they do not get washed.) I happened to be wearing my white jeans which look quite like gi pants. And our Sensei had an extra gi top in his car. So that worked out, but was a bit of excitement for a while.

Jonathan's division was 11-13 year old green and green/brown. His three opponents were all girls, and big ones, too. He was not as aggressive in his sparring as I usually see him, but he usually does not get to spar with bigger people than him. He did a good job and even got some tips from the judge as they went along. He got two rounds in and ended up with third place overall. He did not participate in the forms part, though now that he has seen how it works, he said he'll do it next time.

My division was the next one after Jonathan's. It was women 18 and up. I was against three other ladies, two blue/green and one very intense brown. As in Joy's, only three of us did the sparring. I was glad to not have to spar with the brown belt. The blue/green woman I sparred with was a mom just about my age, whose two children had competed with Faith. She was good, but she was nice. I even got two points against her before she won. So I got third place in sparring. I, like Joy, do not have a form yet, so I did half-moon footwork with strikes going forward and blocks going backwards. I was nervous ahead of time, but I had practiced enough, so I just stared ahead of me and did what I knew to do. The only problem was that the ring was a bit small, so I got close to the judges at the peak of my footwork. I got third place in that part as well.

It was such a great experience, we all had a fun time and learned some things, did a good job, and even came home with a bunch of trophies.