Besides Thanksgiving,

• Lily vomited right before the sister missionaries came over so that when they arrived she was still taking an impromptu bath in the kitchen sink,
• Elsie found out that a plastic bag placed on a hot burner will light on fire and fill the kitchen with smoke,
• Timmy talked many times about the "Golden Rule," which we gradually realized he interpreted as "if you hit me I will hit you back,"
• Abby made the bed of everyone in the family today,
• Kate recorded her voice on the computer perhaps 100 times,
• Gina took apart a cd player and had me clean off a small lens to repair it, and
• I started my first job application for after I graduate.

Posted by email from An accountable tortoise (posterous)

• Lily has started to stand perfectly still while Gina brushes her teeth at night,
• Elsie spent the 40 minutes saying “I’m not sick,” and occasionally coughing,
• Timmy wrestled and  played for 2 hours with his friend Andrew,
• Abby chose and made and wrapped several Christmas presents,
• Kate memorized “Jingle Bell Rock” on the piano,
• Gina melted a fantastic borscht, and
• my little basil seedlings put out there first non-seedling leaves.

The week when we got down to our last bowl of Halloween candy

• Lily started saying and waving “Bye bye!” to the others while being carried up to begin her naps,
• Elsie allowed Timmy, Abby, and Kate to pretend that the toy box was her tomb and bury her in blankets and toys,
• Timmy liked the hot salsa that I made out of the rest of the tomatoes from our garden,
• Abby chose to have her fingernails painted blue at a pretend slumber party because she thought that would be the color that her mother liked best,
• Kate was troubled enough by her friends quarreling while at our home that she excused herself and played alone for awhile,
• Gina made a killer orange shrimp dish with fresh ginger, and
• I made two 30 minute presentations to the youth on my mission to France.

Only in working

I’ve been asked to give a 30 minute presentation two times tonight on my mission.  In preparation, I’ve been reading through some journals from that time.  I’ve hit a few things that have really struck me.  And I think that in reading from that time I am finding guidance for this time.  Anyway, here is one passage that still rings true from October 7th, 1997:

“I realized today that it is only in working, in doing all that you can do for something that you can clearly see the hand of God.”

There is something about pushing to your very limits that makes it possible to discern the miracles and see very clearly that they are out of your control.

There’s a picture this week

• Lily ran around the house saying “Daddy, where are you, Mommy where are you,” and then “I see you!”
• Elsie refused to eat her banana muffin this morning and wanted only egg and milk,
• Timmy voted for “Barracko” because his friend Shawn and others voted for him and was happy to find out that his dad had voted for him too,
• Abby became engrossed in Greek mythology and asked for a book on it for Christmas,
• Kate did not accept the challenge to design, build and deploy a self replicating biosphere system to Mars even though she could have earned an endless supply of pineapple curry,
• Gina got our family together for family pictures for the first time in awhile, and
• I showed how a planar interface moving through a dispersive medium can reflect in two different directions that the same time.

Here’s a sample picture from yesterday:

The whole family (2008/11/08)

Elsie sleeping

I’ve been messing with The GIMP.  It’s pretty neat.  Here is a picture of Elsie that I tried to render to be like a sketch:

Elsie sleeping

Edit: Mom asked for the original.  Here is a second attempt, a bit darker with thicker lines.

Elsie sleeping 4

I tried for bolder, thicker lines.  It’s still not perfect.  And here is the original:

Elsie sleeping: original

Halloween

• Lily moved from the high chair to the table and started trying to be the centerpiece,
• Elsie announced to everyone she saw, “My name is Elsie Karen Bradshaw and I’m going to be a dragon.
• Timmy started trying to read everything in sight,
• Abby presented a poem and a joke in her class program,
• Kate posited that most people don’t have magic pumpkins like we do because they carve them before Halloween,
• Gina processed all of our pumpkins the day after Halloween in preparation for pies, muffins, chili, and other pumpkin treats, and
• I moved our laptop over to Linux Mint.