And now it's nearing the end of March. In the last week and a half we've had several days with glorious sunshine and temperatures in the sixties...and two days with snow and/or ice on the ground. Next week will be more of the same. But the warm days are a welcome change from our cold, cold winter, and Esther and I have spotted crocuses in bloom! Nothing in our yard is blooming yet, but the daffodils may be out by the end of the month. (In contrast, three springs ago the daffodils were almost done by now and the forsythia and cherry blossoms were out.)
It feels appropriate for spring that we've all been getting new clothes. We drove up to my grandma's house during Tim's spring break a couple of weeks ago and I scored big at a consignment sale. Tim, meanwhile, got a tip from Grandma about a Sears that was going out of business, and picked up several pairs of much-needed new dress pants at a good discount. Esther has been gifted hand-me-downs from three different friends recently that will probably get her through all of next year. And I picked up some shirts for Daniel (as well as a few more for me) for just $3 on clearance at Wal-Mart. Can you tell I enjoy bargains? ;-) I've been acquiring another batch of new clothes that I'm pretty excited about too, but I'll write more about that later!
In random news, the kids moved our little trampoline (the kind designed to be used for an exercise program) upstairs a few weeks ago and it ended up in the middle of the kitchen. I've decided to leave it there. Now, Daniel jumps up and down on the trampoline while talking to me instead of poking me while talking to me. And Esther jumps up and down on the trampoline instead of running in circles through the kitchen (yes, she can carry on a normal conversation while running in circles).
This week, our library had a free showing of the movie Frozen on a big screen. We all went as a family. It was the first time for any of us to see it. Esther has been talking about it for months, so we knew she would be thrilled. But Daniel seemed to really enjoy it too. He and Esther had previously watched the song "Let It Go" on Youtube, so when we got to that part in the movie, Tim and I could hear Daniel joining in on the refrain! Fortunately, he did not belt it out like he probably would have at home!
Daniel's latest exploit is spending nearly two hours on the line with his cellphone service provider, patiently but persistently insisting that they set right a problem with his account. He finally got passed to a manager, who was able to do what he asked. We were impressed with his phone skills, and that he didn't lose his temper at any point!
As you can tell from the story above, Daniel's conversational English keeps getting better and better. He has some characteristic mispronunciations, though, that I hope to remember once he has outgrown them, because they are kind of endearing. He often talks about his "mometer" (computer monitor), tells Esther not to "whisker" (whisper) at the table, and frequently exclaims, "That's bediculous!" (ridiculous). He also "deactivates" electronics instead of activating them.
Oh, and Esther's presentation on Louis Braille (topic of my last post) went fine. She got really nervous ahead of time, held a sit-down strike about going, and cried her way through dinner. But when the time came, she "pushed through it" (to use her own words) and was really proud of herself. However, she gave a very vigorous refusal to an offer to participate in a science fair. I would have signed her up without asking, except that after a numerous snow days, Louis Braille, and standardized testing (which is coming up in a couple of weeks), I'm ready for a stretch of normalcy before the end of the school year! I find it interesting, though, that our little extrovert has a phobia about performing in public. We have seen that this year in her reaction to gymnastics competitions and the idea of testing, as well as the history and science projects. She may be one of those people who will never love being in front of an audience, but I hope we can help her learn public performance survival skills sooner rather than later.
Daniel has applied for a job at our local grocery store, but won't hear back unless they have an opening in the area that he requested.
And that's a snapshot of what's going on in our lives as this spring creeps in.
