Life

Yesterday I whipped out the video camera to catch Gracen climbing onto the arm of the chair and declaring "I biggest, I strongest!" before jumping down to the cushion on the floor.  After I got done taping, I rewound the tape awhile and came across a video from exactly one year ago.  I was astounded at how much the kids have changed in one year!!  So this post is to capture what life is like for us right now, sans pictures.

 Jaron is in the middle of his OBGYN rotation and he's surprised by how much he likes it, especially the surgery part of if.  He likes it enough to add it to the "possible things I want to be when I grow up list."  There are a few other things on that list; fortunately we have a few more months, and a few more rotations, before that list needs to be whittled down.  I love that he loves rotations.  It has been so nice to have Jaron home around dinner time almost every night.  We haven't had that in a really long time in our family!  Starting Wednesday, though, Jaron will do 2 weeks of overnight rotations where he leaves at 5:00 pm and doesn't get home until 8:00 the next morning.  It's going to be an interesting rest of the month!  We'll see how much he likes OBGYN after a stint on the night-shift!

Alden is still liking kindergarten, although not with the gusto he had at the beginning of the year.  I think his homework load every night is crushing him.  Yes, that's a KINDERGARTEN HOMEWORK load (seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?).  He reads a book each night (that ain't the easy "Dick and Jane" readers that I remember!) and each book comes with three worksheets to complete.  This week, the worksheets addressed concepts like "adjectives" and "the main story idea."  I don't really understand the reading push in kindergarten.  I can see that all this homework has definitely made Alden into a better reader than I ever thought possible in kindergarten BUT to what end?  Will the gains he's making now have any lasting effect on his reading or comprehension abilities in the long run?  I'm not sure they will and so I resent the school's pushing kids beyond developmentally appropriate expectations.  Alden dreads homework and he's only 5!  I sometimes ask myself why I make him do the homework if I don't agree with it. I guess I've decided that Alden is capable of it - he's willing to persevere through 30 minutes of homework and he gets the satisfaction of having done a "tough thing" at the end of it.  So, as much as I may complain, it does seem to be an overall beneficial thing for Alden's personality.  At the beginning of the year, Alden really wanted to be an all-day student like most of his classmates but now he tells me he is glad he gets to be with our family in the afternoons instead.  Music to my ears! :-)

Eli is starting to get excited for attending school in the future.  He participates in a preschool group that some of the moms from church put on.  We rotate teaching and having preschool at our houses each week.  Eli absolutely loves going and has just started expressing an interest in learning  how to write and sound out letters.  Eli is very easily discouraged, though.  If he isn't able to master something right away, he completely falls apart.  This is partly his age, and partly his personality.  Eli loves to make people laugh and loves to be goofy.  He's a social kid who loves to have friends over.  It's so nice to live where we live, with so many friends within 100 yards of our door.  We seem to have friends over to play almost every single day.  Eli's best friend is Levi, who comes to play about once a week while his mom is in school.

Gracen is a dynamo.  She's not quite 2 1/2 but I'm pretty certain she considers herself to be as old as her brothers.  It isn't very often that she can't keep up with them.  She has begun speaking in full sentences, sometimes with clearly defined words, and sometimes with a word at the beginning, a long stint of gibberish in the middle, and a word or two at the end.  Gracie loves her baby dolls most of all.  She spends most of her time playing with babies, play food, or a cloth dress-up doll set we were given.  Gracen is so quick to laugh out loud at everything, which is a trait she's had since she was a baby.

I am on a 2-week break between classes at the moment.  My next class is Biopsychology and, frankly, I'm terrified of it.  The subject matter and the text seem intense and my apprehension wasn't helped when my professor e-mailed me a "welcome," stating that he has high expectations ("which shouldn't be a problem at this level of education") and will grade accordingly.  AACK!  Yeah, a friendly hello to you too!  As I've said before, I have a love-hate relationship with school.  Sometimes I dread it and hate the time I have to devote to it and how it eats up my time for hobbies.  But I also love that I am expanding my knowledge in an area that I'm interested in.  I can feel my brain being stretched by new concepts and ways of thinking.  I love being exposed to new things like that.  And I love that I'm accomplishing something worthwhile that will have lasting benefits throughout my life.  After this class, I'll be half-way to my degree!

Lately, I've also made it a priority to exercise 5 days a week.  I don't do anything intense, just a moderate cardio work-out on most days.  I think that exercise and reading scriptures daily are two things that have a synergistic effect on my life.  I know that both of those habits have benefits, but can't fully explain how doing those two things make my life so much better overall! 

We used some Christmas money from my mom to splurge on a three-month membership to a swimming pool and exercise facility in our area.  We've been taking advantage of it a lot and so far the kids haven't tired of almost daily runs to the swimming pool.  It's important to me that my kids are comfortable in water.  Eli has mastered "the noodle" in the parts of the pool where he can't touch.  Gracen seems to be absolutely fearless of the water, and often finds she's gotten herself "too deep."  It seems that Alden can doggy-paddle a little further each week.  All the kids are now to the point that they are completely comfortable with water on their heads and in their faces.  I really, really love the water and swimming lengths has a therapeutic effect to me.  Between the pool and a sister like Genny, I may never need paid therapy in my life. :-)

And that, my friends, is us at the moment!