First Day of School ... and Sick Day

Today was the first day of school.  Yay!  This is Luke's first year in Middle School, so he was pretty excited.

However, as we set out for the bus stop, no sooner than halfway to the stop, Eddie said he wasn't feeling well (and had the digestive problems to prove it), and ended up not going to school today.

The bus stop was fun... especially when Phil tried to kiss his son, Andrew, goodbye for the day.  That went over real well with Andrew!  And my boys think I'm bad for showing up in a kilt!

In the end, Luke very much enjoyed his first day at Middle School, and was pretty happy with his new teachers.  He was also jazzed to have a number of his old friends in his classes, which could have been an issue since many of his old chums were heading off to different school districts after our county got re-zoned.

For Eddie's part, he spent the day at the distillery doing sketches.  Honestly, based on these sketches, I think his time was pretty well spent too!

Eddie's Latest Art

Really, this is quite good.  I'm very impressed.  He was inspired by an H&M catalog.

Nice Abs!

Brad Pitt is going to have to watch himself. Found this on the white board at the distillery.

Eddie's Vogue Report

The following is Eddie's report from school.  He had to do a fact-based report, but he had the freedom to do it in any form he wanted.  So, Eddie, being pretty nuts about fashion right now, designed a Vogue cover and did a report on the fashion trends of the 1920's.

I especially like his attention to detail in the cover.  I mean, not only did he draw the model from scratch, coloring her very carefully with pencils, but he even designed his own typeface!  Very cool, Eddie!

And even cooler that he got a 108 on the project!  Bonus!!

Click on the images to read the report.

Pre-Guitar Recital Legalities

Tomorrow, Luke has a guitar recital... his first.  We're all very excited, but perhaps Luke knows me too well.  Tonight, he thrust the following under my nose and waved a pen at me until I was forced to sign it.

Notice that he said nothing of waving a lighter and yelling "Freebird!" at the event... unless that is predictably rowdy behavior.

The kid is really cramping my style.

Click the below image to read it more clearly:

Luke's Weekend Section

I love reading Luke's schoolwork.  He has an amazingly clear view of things:

The Weekend Section: The Udvar-Hazy Center

By

Luke Harris

The Udvar-Hazy field trip was so amazing. Everything was great, except for the prices of food, but we will come to that later. I finally got to ride on a simulator. I liked it a lot. I got to see the Atoll and Sidewinder missiles, I did my report on them. The SR-71 Blackbird was cool, but my favorite thing about it was that over to the side there was a video of it transforming in the Transformers: Rise of the Fallen movie. The Enola Gay was way bigger then I ever thought that it would be. I got to see a cool racing plane called the “Nemesis”. Little Stinker was hung upside down in the main entrance, how cool is that? I have seen the Enterprise before, and it was just as grand as before. I liked listening to reports way better than going around reading the signs, I mean who does that?

Now about that McDonald's. They charged me $8 for a quarter pounder w/ cheese. The gift shop was good, but it was expensive too. The class that we went to was cool, but it wasn't the highlight of my trip. I didn't know that the wing shape was called an airfoil.

The IMAX movie that we saw was called Blue Planet. I liked it, but in one part they showed people burning down forests for farm land. Do you know what was in those forests? Monkeys. Do you know what was happening to those monkeys? That's right, they were dying.

Other than that one sad part in the movie, the Udvar-Hazy center is a must-go!

Letter to Mr. Korman

How cool would it be to write a book for young readers, and then to have those kids be inspired enough by your work to write you about it? I think that would be pretty cool.

Here is a letter Luke wrote to Gordon Korman, author of Swindle, for his school book report.

Fun stuff... Uncle Chuck, I think you'll like this.  Click the image to enlarge.

I should also mention that Luke's rock collection was deemed good enough to be featured in the Smithsonian Naturalist Center in Leesburg! Photos coming soon.

Back to School

The boys went back to school today.  We have very high expectations for both this year.  Eddie is in 7th grade, and Luke is in 5th!  (Where DOES the time go?)

Luke scored a big win with Mr. Jenkins, who is one of the coolest teachers in his school.  Mr. Jenkins won a prestigious teacher-of-the-year award from the Commonwealth a year or two ago, so we're thrilled to get Luke into his class.

Eddie seemed pretty pleased with his teachers too, especially one who uses an invisible friend as an alter-ego.  Eddie thought he was quite nuts!

Already, just the first day, and we have some schoolwork coming home.  Here is an amazing sketch of a cockroach that Luke did in Mr. Jenkins' class today.  (Mr. Jenkins' keeps LIVE Madagascar cockroaches in his room and the kids got to handle and inspect them!)

After the sketch is another piece of Luke's writing--clever and entertaining.

Luke's End of Year School Work

I love the end of the school year. All of Luke's school work comes home for review. I get such a kick out of his writing.  Click the images below to download the two different projects.

Luke's Virginia ABC's Project

Luke did a splendid job on his Virginia ABC's history project. He and I really enjoyed researching the project together, and he did all the writing and composition himself in OpenOffice.

Really nice project, Luke. Well written!

Nature Song

More Fun from Luke

Cute little story by Luke, The Line of Evil Stuff:



And for those of you who are not aware, I took the boys to the local Greek deli. One of their favorite things to purchase is Greek Delight. This is exactly like Turkish Delight, except, being a Greek restaurant, can never be called Turkish. It is a nice gelatin-like snack hinted with rose-water. Very delightful, as you might guess.

The Adventures of Link in EFF

Here is another nice little book written by Luke. "The Best Book of the Summer!" according to his friend, Nick.

A Poem for Sunday

As you may recall, Eddie, Frank and I have been serving the residents of Heritage Hall nursing home in Leesburg with our therapy visits. This small act of service on our part is very rewarding, but also very emotionally demanding. There are often small rewards in the deep sadness that permeates the home--intangible rewards, like the flicker of happiness from a resident's eyes when they pet Frank, or a resident fawning over the beautiful and young Eddie, or the joy of recognition when a resident is truly glad to see you return and remembers you.

A poem came over the radio this week. It really struck a chord with me about these visits, and the mixture of emotions and trepidation that swirl about when visiting the elderly in a nursing home like Heritage Hall.

The Perfect Black Blazer
by Bobbi Lurie

The head nurse called to say
Mom threw a potted plant,
smashed the TV set, banged
her head against the wall.
When I got there I saw the deep
         bruise on her forehead.
She could barely speak so we sat
     mute for some minutes.
I watched her slide to the side
of the couch as she scratched
her arms, pulled at her hair.
I needed to bring her back
        so I told the story of
our Saturday excursions,
searching for the perfect
black blazer.
                  I exaggerated
the futility of finding
something immaculate like that,
something slim-fitting and neat,
able to match any pair of pants
or skirt we wore.
                         We never found it
of course but kept searching
as we watched other women
more glamorous than we were.
           When I asked if she
remembered that, she laughed
                 and said, "oh yes."
I looked around the room
into the distant faces,
haunted hair, blank stares.
"Time for lunch," a nurse yelled.
I walked Mom to her chair,
           watched the aides tie
bibs around the residents’ necks,
       leaned to kiss
Mom gently good-bye on her cheek,
   trying not to notice
she no longer smelled like
           my mother.
She had taken on the scent
of the urine-ammonia halls
and the talc caked heavy
                  on her body.
I walked out, then felt
       something strange
like a voice without words
tell me to return so I ran
                quickly back
to where she sat, her hands
         on her lap.
They were the same hands,
so I squeezed them tight,
kissed her for a second time.
Only this time I hugged
   her close,
            inhaled deep,
   took her all in.

"The Perfect Black Blazer" by Bobbi Lurie, from Letter from the Lawn.
© Custom Words, 2006. (buy now)

The Oxen and The Wheels

I love Luke's writing, and this fable he wrote is my new favorite. He really captures the essence of the fable in the tone of his writing.

The Oxen and the Wheels
by Luke Harris

One day some oxen were about to pull a heavy load of silver in a very old cart. Their master was still getting ready. Then finally, they were ready to go to the market.

Not five minutes after they left, the wheels started to groan really, really loud. Yet, the oxen are silent. The master gets really mad at the wheels.

Then the master gets so mad he hollers at the wheels, "Why do you groan so loud? You aren't even carrying any weight and do you hear the oxen? They are completely silent. They are the ones who are carrying all the weight. Why can't you be like the oxen? Next time if you are not quiet, you are firewood!"

Moral: He who groans loudest is often least hurt.

Eddie's DARE Report

Eddie did a nice job on his DARE report. I really enjoyed reading it when I got back from Chicago.

He also got a perfect score on his science fair project. He was pretty proud of that, since he worked so hard on it mostly by himself.

The Most Normal Zoo

For those of you who enjoy Luke's writing, this is sure to satisfy. Luke's handwriting is absolutely impeccable, and his writing is creative and clever as always. And he's right: anything with three toes is cool!

American Airlines Flagship

Another one of Eddie's drawings, an American Airlines Flagship DC-3.

Fish and Bones

I'm really digging this fish that Eddie drew at school today. I'm hoping it wasn't done at the expense of his math test.

And the following is an X-ray of Luke's knee. No, it's not broken or anything. In fact, the doctor can't find out what's wrong with it. But lately, Luke has had real problems straightening it out, bending it, and it hurts him a lot when he's sleeping or idle. This has been going on for a couple of years now, and we thought at first it was just growing pains. But now Luke limps every morning when he gets up, favors the other leg considerably, and is visibly tight through the hamstring ligaments. We're pretty concerned, so we took him to the orthopedist, but the doctor couldn't find anything wrong. So, next week, we have Luke scheduled for an MRI on his knee. I'll post the pictures if I get any good ones, and let you know how he's doing. In the meantime, say a prayer for our little fellow.

Boys' Artwork

Here are some cool drawings the boys did yesterday while sitting in church. Clearly, they got quite a lot out of Fr. Tom's sermon. And if I'm being totally honest, I might have helped Luke with the helicopter gunship and the multi-rocket launcher, but I SWEAR I was listening to the sermon. Really.