Downpour

We had a lot of rain at the beginning of the week. I mean A LOT. I came home from picking up Nellpea: completely soaked after 5 minutes outside, so I started out to meet up with Herbie. I didn't want him to be completely demoralized, walking home alone in a downpour. I pulled on my rain boots and sopping wet coat and ran out the door, where I discovered that my rain boots and coat are as good as useless in so much rain. Then a car zoomed pass, hit a puddle, and scored a direct hit on my entire body. 

But Herbie was even worse. He was almost home, wet through, and not even trying to hurry anymore... just a plod, plod, plod in the right direction. 

 

This kind of thing happening once or twice, and especially on the way home, is not the worst thing in the world. But it kept raining, and the kids were running out of dry clothes, rain gear and shoes. We had our little electric heater running all one afternoon with shoes stacked in front of it and jackets hanging round, but conditions were getting desperate. 

 

I briefly considered ordering everyone a bunch more rain gear from Decathlon, but that of course was ludicrous. I was just going to have to drive everyone everywhere. I drove Herbie back to school after lunch, which was a good move... lots of rain. When I picked him up and then Penelope, there was significantly less. And when I picked up Ruby and Moses the rain had stopped. They were a little confused that I'd come to get them for no reason, and that was the end of rain for the week. (Except a surprise cloud burst that Ruby and Moses caught on the way home at the end of the week.) 

 

Herbie has set up a little indexing group consisting of his siblings. I occasionally see his messages to the others, and it's cute what a good administrator he is... handing out assignments, encouragement, etc.

Woo really enjoyed surfing in the rain. He says there's a neat effect where the water droplets sit on the surface of the water until they are absorbed into the rest of the swell, and he just had a lot of fun riding his bike in the rain afterwards and already being completely soaked. 

 

When Ruby has to take a phone to class she stuffs it in a gigantic fluffy sock to protect it.

Woo: Are you going to be embarrassed about that?  

Ruby (scoffing): I try NOT to seek the praise of man.

Also, good news, the fluffy sock did protect the phone from the cloud burst that got other areas of her backpack soaked.

Ruby really loves PE this year. Her teacher seems to be effectively challenging her and there's a small group of boys that are just ahead of her in running and sprinting that she's trying to catch. 

 

A branch member got a job at one of the fish factories. He gave us a bunch of canned sardines last Sunday. Woo has been strongly encouraging sardine eating, as he feels we should whittle away at the pile.

Moses: I’m not going to eat any sardines for lunch. Ruby told me her experience.  

Me: What? 

Moses: All through class she had to smell her own sardine breath in her mask.

Moses works hard on his school work on the mornings he's home alone. His name tag for art class was so good, his teacher took a picture for her personal files. 

 

Nellpea took a wellness quiz, where she got 16 out of 16. One of the questions that she thought was so funny was: When it's time to go to bed do you whine, complain, cry or say no?

If only Penelope knew how common that is... I honestly don't think she's ever seen it. For naptime (back when we had naptime), sure, but never for bedtime. We do have kids that are excellent at going to bed.

Penelope loved the rain. She'd greet me at the gate laughing, dancing, trying to drink in rain. Sometimes she'd cackle, "Everyone's scared of the rain!"

And it was true, the funcionarios would carefully walk out each individual kid from the school to their anxious parents under an umbrella. But they know us well enough by now to just send Penelope and Archie out the door to me where they tear out like being released from prison--laughing, shouting, and stomping directly into any immediate puddle they can find. 

 

Linus is also loving PE. He won vaivém for his class on Monday. Linus said he was the only kid to run enough laps to qualify for the "athlete" category, and only two kids qualified as "healthy." Woo was disappointed that there were no lower categories... he thought "slug" would be a fun one, but there is no shaming, only encouraging towards healthy and athlete.

Linus also won the situps and push ups and PE could not get more exciting for him. He's been extremely grouchy the extra hour of his day, but he's started to get a handle on that... just in time for another extended hour because of the time change. (At Woo's suggestion, he and I are united today in a special fast to combat--or at least survive--the headache to come as a result of this time change.) 

 

Archie has gleefully jumped into all puddles anywhere near his general path. He also had just been getting a handle on his loss of concentration and attention that came with the start of school. Woo made a diligent, persistent effort to get Archie reading his scriptures very well in the morning. Archie had been doing that, and when he did, his whole day was better, of course.

I love fasting. I don't know how many times I've been praying about a thing all week and then almost as soon as I start the fast, boom, there's the solution or answer. I almost can't wait to fast for a thing when I can see that a few prayers are not getting the job done.

Woo was the fire expert who got it started in damp conditions. Yay! 

Anyway, I hope you've all had a great week!