One more thing

Jacob and Joseph got their scores back from the ACT. Jacob (grade 8) got a 30 and Joseph (grade 7) scored 23. This was Jacob's second time taking the test and Joseph's first. They get the opportunity through the Midwest Talent Search, a program from Northwestern University that provides educational opportunities for gifted students.

By the way, this is what a gifted kid looks like in his native habitat.

65 degrees

Rebecca turned the thermostat down to 65 degrees a couple of weeks ago when the weather warmed up a bit outside. Then it got cold again, and we've had to adapt to the cooler indoor temperature by increasing the number of layers we put on. It only gets really cold after the sun goes down and the air seeps through the uninsulated walls of our 89-year-old home. Lily sleeps on the sun porch, and it does not have a vent connected to the central air, and she has neglected turning on the space heater, so her room is usually the coldest.

At school, Lillian and her friends have been given access to the district's Moodle account, and they have been using the discussion boards. This week, one of the kids listed several reasons why one should not eat pigs (they're cute and they are a lot like humans; therefore, do not eat them). Lily noted that this is a stupid argument, and it is. Probably the best reasons not to eat pigs and other animals have to do with impact on human health and environmental degradation from modern agricultural techniques.

Emma has adapted to the cold house by wearing a fleece hat. We purchased this one at Old Navy for 50 cents during an additional 50% off men's clearance sale. Women's and children's clothing were not on sale. Fortunately, Jacob is now big enough to wear the small men's sizes, and we were able to get a couple of pairs of pants for $7.00. Anyway, the hat has kept Emma warmer, and it gives her a cute Euro-girl look.

Abby seems to be the only one not affected by the lower indoor temperatures, at least in her choices of clothing. Her favorite dresses are sleeveless sun dresses. She does tend to be more cuddly now. Rebecca's other huge accomplishment was to clean out the attic. It took about a week to go through all the toys, separate them into keep, toss and garage sale piles. It's really nice to be able to move around in the attic again. We're trying to simplify our living conditions because we will not be moving to a larger home in Cleveland Heights. We need to make do with the space we have.

Sam finished making his fleece blanket quilt this week. Rebecca has been teaching the kids how to sew, and these blankets came as precut kits we found on clearance at JoAnn fabrics a few years ago. Our home becomes occupied by blanket monsters during the winter. It's often difficult to distinguish one from another, though couch lump size is a key indicator.

Our other big news is I have been invited to participate in the Oral Assessments as part of the Foreign Service Officer selection process. This means that out of the 5,000 or so applicants that applied for the jobs last fall, I am one of the ~500 that make it to the final round. During the OAs, applicants go through a series of practical exercises that assess candidates' abilities to analyze data and present solutions and work in group settings. There is also an interview. The goal for candidates is to show how well they demonstrate the 13 dimensions that the State Department looks for in their FSOs. The OAs for this round take place in May and June. Check out www.state.gov for more information.

Orchestra, MyPod and Dog Tag

Jacob was selected as one of thirty middle school students to get to play with the Heights High School Symphony Orchestra this week. He has attended rehearsals the last few weeks, and the performance was Friday. They performed "Pines of Rome" by Resphigi. Jacob says that it was fun to play with four other horn players. It was nice for me to be able to hear music that sounded cohesive and melodic. The middle school band is not nearly as pleasant to listen to. Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools has a nice music program with very talented performers and directors. They also make quite and effort to get younger kids integrated and excited about doing music at each grade level and in various ways. Instrumental instruction begins in fourth grade. Lillian is taking flute lessons once a week at school now. Jacob is involved with the middle schools honors orchestra, solo & ensemble, as well as the band at his own school. He even qualified for a one year scholarship through Reaching Heights to get private lessons. (By the way, this picture was taken during the performance from the middle of the auditorium without a flash. I like zoom cameras that can be adjusted for low light levels.)

Just before we went to the concert, the girls were watching a preview of the film "Coraline" on the iPod. Abby calls this device "MyPod." It's is a very cool tool. The problem is that the kids think that they get to use it more than the official owners, Mom and Dad. Too many fun game apps.

Another thing my kids like to do is play "Dog Tag." Here are the rules: run around the living room and dining room, scream, bark and don't stop. Every once in awhile try and get caught. It's a fun game. It's a loud game. It's a crazy game. My mom said that kids need a home with a loop. If there isn't and architectural loop, then the kids will create one. The primary loop in our home goes through the living room, past the stairs, into the dining room and back to the living room. If you add the dining room table, you get some interesting variations of the loop. There are also portable obstacles (chairs), pit stops (stairs, den, kitchen), and hiding places (under the tables or in the broom cupboard). One can even slide on the wood floor, with or without help. It's pretty funny watching the dog try and change directions since her paws and claws don't grab the floor.

Beautiful Day

Last Sunday was really pretty. The sun was shining and the snow was still white because it was not quite warm enough to melt. I took the camera outside and snapped a few photos. Here is our street view from in front of our home. The snow is piled up about three to five feet in places. It was the second snowiest January on record for Cleveland. Rebecca did much of the shoveling this year, and she was wondering where we were going to put all of the snow.

This week, most of the snow will melt. I am seeing all the trash that got plowed under start to appear. There's a CD at the end of my driveway. I also get a pretty good idea of how much poop our little dog produces in a week now that her excrement is exposed on the driveway. I haven't been able to clean it up much the last couple of weeks because 1. it was buried in snow so I couldn't see it, and 2. it was frozen to the snow piles.

One of things I love about our now very blue house is that I can see it against the snow. I still may pass the driveway entrance (from the road, it's like searching for gaps in walls), but I never miss the house. I can now see it from the corner. The bad part is that the clean surface now has reddish streaks from condensation and roof drippings. It will need a wash in the spring.

New camera

I got a new camera this week, a Canon SX10IS. It is a pretty nifty toy, and I look forward to learning how to use it. Here are a couple of shots from the first day, mostly playing around with the 20x zoom while sitting at the kitchen table. Here is a rare shot of Joseph looking at the camera.

The camera arrived on Wednesday, day of the snowstorm that shut down every school district except Cleveland, East Cleveland, Shaker Heights and Cleveland Hts. Our children were not too happy to have to go to school. The interim superintendent even recorded a message that went to all the phones that evening explaining why she didn't close the schools. Evidently, 8 to 10 inches in a couples hours wasn't quite enough snow. Jacob said she must have looked on Google Maps street view decided that the weather looked fine. My work sent us home early, so that gave me a little more time to play with the camera (and shovel the walks and get the minivan unstuck from the street and try and pick up kids from school). The roads were a mess, but the parking lots at the schools were worse. Also, the kids that walked use the streets since sidewalks were buried by the mounds of snow pushed on them by the plows. We survived, and we are fortunate that this storm did not knock out power in this area.

Abby is my most enthusiastic model. She found the lens shade, and apparently, this is how to use it. One of the days I'll have to take the camera outside at some point today and see if the shade makes a difference. Today, the sky is clear and the sun is shining. It's really beautiful and a nice respite from the gray clouds that normally fill the sky over Cleveland this time of the year.
Emma also enjoys posing for the camera, but I caught her in a pouting moment here. She had a writing assignment to do, and it was making her very sad. Her topic was to write on something fun from Christmas vacation, but she didn't know how to start it. Over the course of the evening, we narrowed it down to "making candy" and then ended up composing an essay on making caramel. It took about five hours to work up to a ten-minute writing assignment. I ended up interviewing her and putting her thoughts on paper, then she transposed them into a final document. Writing can be more fun as a team, especially on the brainstorming part. Our children have this idea that the first things to write should be perfect (just like their parents), but that's not good writing, and it ends up stressing us all out and leads to writer's block. Anyway, if we had tried the interview strategy earlier, it would have saved us five hours of grief.