Year 2, Day 125: That's A Wrap!

And,.....that's a wrap on the Bible Bowl season!  At least for Justin.  Benaiah will go to Nationals with the team at the end of June.  It's at the same time as the North American Christian Convention, so he'll be going with Gary and Jared.  Then next year, the NACC and Bible Bowl will be on different weeks and at different places for a multitude of reasons.  It was a GREAT end to the season though!  Full of fun and laughs with our team and with other teams.  I don't know many people's names, but it's cool to compete against the same people every month.  The last round, everybody was stir crazy!  Good 'ol Jordan was beside herself giddy!  Don't give that girl sugar!  She did carry the team for most of the team to a 9-1 1st place victory in Division 3.  I think we could have played in Division 2 though with teams that were equally prepared.  Oh well.  There was also a quote bee where anyone who wanted to, could get up on stage and be asked to quote any of the quotes from the whole year's worth of material.  24 kids got up, including 2 of our own, Jordan and Daniel.  They didn't get past the first round, but we were proud of them for trying!  I remember both of them doing the quote bee when all of the current kids were in Beginner Bible Bowl many moons ago.  Basically, to win the quote bee, and every round in Division 1 and have the top average score on the written tests, you have to be perfect in your knowledge.  There was one of those and even the guy in charge of our regional events said that he can't remember a time in our region, nor nationally, where someone got perfect scores on all the tests until now.  There was one kind of shy high schooler who did just that!  150 points out of 150 points on EVERY SINGLE TEST this year!  Plus she won the quote bee!  Amazing!  I don't think she'll every forget what Exodus and Numbers is all about!  We also had one of the guys from HQ with us today to answer questions and see how things were getting along on our way to college tournaments and nationals.  Sweet!  It pays to be part of the Bible belt.  Actually, Gary said something last week about in the early 1980's, a group of people were commissioned to start something like 2 dozen independent Christian churches in the Indianapolis area (surrounding counties, too?), and they did.  And many of them are now megachurches.  And some of closed their doors.  And some remain small country churches based on their community's general population being small.

Anyway, it was great to see the kids having fun.  Meanwhile, Keturah had spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so I'm not sure what all she did today.  I know she finished her report on NH for Monday, watched a movie (although she was grounded and forgot to tell Grandma, and I forgot to tell Grandma), went to the library, and I'm sure she ate something in there as well.  She even check herself into Kidustrial Park while I was talking to a friend!  I was standing right there near the kiosks though.  And off she went to class, lol!  I guess I have very independent kids!  Except Justin.  I don't think Justin's ever going to leave me.  He's just like me, shy, hesitant, shadowing the more outgoing people around him.  And he's the only one who will willingly and unprompted hug me!  Abishai won't sit still.  Benaiah is all teenagerish "don't touch me Mother."  And Keturah has to be in the right mood for touches.

So, Daddy and Abishai had the day just by themselves!  That doesn't happen often when you are the baby of the family!  But boy did Abishai miss his siblings, too!  When we were leaving church, Abishai wanted to ride in the van with us, instead of Jared's truck (which he came to church in) because a) his siblings were in the van and b) Justin was eating pizza.  We asked him if he missed them and he said, "yeah."  We then asked him if he missed mama and he almost shrugged his shoulders.  Again, I have very independent kids.  I guess that's a good thing, right?  And that's why you leave and cleave to your spouse and work on your relationship with them NOW because the kids WILL LEAVE and then that's all you will have at home, your spouse!  So, Daddy and Abishai watched a bunch of TV and had some wrestling time.  In fact, when Daddy was making breakfast, Abishai got the controllers and turned on the TV and PS4.  And somehow, either Daddy got him started on YouTube and Abishai clicked on something after that show was done, or something like that, because Abishai ended up watching a couple of shows in Spanish while Daddy finished cooking!  And he didn't phase him!  Ok, genius, I guess you can learn Latin with the rest of us this year!  Actually, I don't think he's that much of a genius.  I think he has a "go get em' " personality combined with being exposed to 3 much older siblings and 4 adults constantly in and out of his life.  He's not talking in more than 2 word sentences.  He isn't potty training yet (but he seems slightly interested).  He's not dressing himself yet.  He can't write his name or read or anything.  But he's making great progress every day in the ordinary ways.  I can't wait to homeschool him!

Speaking of homeschooling, it's going to be a rough month with all this packing and moving.  I need to continue some work because we need the 180 days, but I also need to pack the majority of the school stuff.  I still don't have a "home" in my mind for everything and that makes me nervous.  I don't like moving without a plan.  Grrr.  But, it's only a little over 3 weeks away that we will be doing just that.  This week I tackle my desk and school room area, and of course any stray stuff.  I wish when I put away something, it would stay put away or be put back.  I don't understand how people can't do that.  Gotta train the kids to do more chores like a 15 minute tidy!  And make it fun.

Ok, that's enough typing.  Here's the pics:

Daniel in the Quote Bee

Hyper Jordan in the Quote Bee

All the Quote Bee participants.

Today's team and sponsors (hiding in the background).

9-1 today!  The competition was over the whole text which included all of Exodus and parts of Numbers and Deuteronomy.  1st place for today, but they didn't win a trophy for keeps for the whole year.

I love Justin's posing here.

While Benaiah went straight to work at church right after Bible Bowl, us introverts had our 1 hr of quiet time before Jared and Abishai came.  Introverts unite!  I even tried napping on the back seat with my head on Keturah's carseat.  Not the most comfortable, but at least I didn't fall asleep during the sermon again!

Love this quote: "The exponential growth of information today overwhelms the students.  The liberal arts, on the other hand, offered a particular canon of seven studies which provided the essential tools for all subsequent learning.  The subjects of the liberal arts were not only linguistic but included mathematics and mathematical science as well." - The Liberal Arts Tradition by Kevin Clark and Ravi Scott Jain.  They are talking about the trivium and the quadrivium.  The trivium is grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.  The quadrivium is arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.  All other modern categories of learning fall into these categories.  I won't try to explain it, but this where I am at in learning about education.

Abishai's position this morning when Daddy was cooking breakfast.  Go figure.

Oh, oh!  Benaiah was trying to crack a joke and asked me if I was 4 ft 8 in tall.  I said, "Say what? Try again!"  "Are you 5' 3"? 5'6"? 5' 2"? Um, no, no, and no.  I'm 4 ft, 11 1/2 inches thank you.  We were talking about his growing pains this week and figuring out how tall he might be when he's done growing.  I think he's going to be as tall as Grandpa or Uncle Aaron or Uncle Paul-Mike who are all right around 6 ft, give or take an inch or two.  Jared is 5 ft' 10" and Benaiah is head to to head with him, if not a tad taller.  Grandpa Cook was pretty tall, although Grandma Cook is short like me.  My Grandfather Howell was tall as well.  Both of my parents were on the shorter side.  Leah is fairly short as well.  So, who knows.  We also met a quizmaster who use to attend the Creek, but is involved with IAHE and when he heard Benaiah's name, he put two and two together with being Gary's grandson, and then knew I was at the homeschool conference.  Pretty neat connections!