Wonders All Around

Learning Alongside My 5th Grade Wonders

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#SOL21 – Day 22 – Cribbage

One thing that we always look forward to when we get together with my husband’s parents is a good game of cribbage. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do this with them, and one of the games this weekend was a great one!

The two boys sat down with Grandpa to play a game of three-handed cribbage. The scoring pegs were close to each other down the first stretch of the scoreboard, but then Grandpa had a few good hands in a row and took the lead. In the second length of the scoreboard, Grandpa stayed in front with Nik close behind.  With each hand dealt, Eoin said, “This is going to be my comeback,” but it never was, and he kept getting a little further behind.

I went to check on laundry and came back as Eoin was moving his pegs onto the final length of the scoreboard. I don’t know exactly how many points he got, but he was now in the lead! Grandpa counted his hand…nothing. Then he counted the points in his crib…another zero. “I’m going to win!” Eoin cheered.

After two more hands, Eoin was just a few points from winning the game. Grandpa was close behind. Nik was happy that he made it to the final length and was past the skunked mark.

It was Nik’s turn to deal. He shuffled and placed a single card in front of Eoin. “This is the one that’s going to win the game,” Nik said.

As it turns out, it was the card that won the game, but it won it for Grandpa, not Eoin. The last card Eoin played was that 5, and then Grandpa followed with another 5. “A pair for 2,” Grandpa said as he pegged out.

“No!” Eoin said. But it was a great comeback, and a lot of fun to watch everyone play together once again!

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#SOL21 – Day 21 – Golden Slice

As I typed in the title for this Slice, I realized that this is our Golden Slice…the 21st Slice of 2021! Writing every day for a month is definitely a commitment, so we should all celebrate!

I look forward to my writing time each day. Sometimes I get to it first thing in the morning, hot cup of tea beside my keyboard as I work. When I write in the morning, it means I already had an idea in mind when I went to bed the night before. I like to think that the ideas swim around in my dreams and arrange themselves in neat little groups so they are ready for me in the morning.

When I write in the evening, it’s different. On these days, I am a careful observer, a silent storyteller. I collect story seeds and record them in my pocket notebook. One lucky idea becomes the Slice of the day. Today’s idea just happened to come to me at the last moment.

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#SOL21 – Day 20 – Cake Pops

Today’s my daughter’s 13th birthday, and she requested cake pops just like she has for the past few years. They look so easy to make in the videos, and, while ours taste really good, they aren’t even close to Pinterest-worthy. Still, we keep trying, and we are slowly improving our technique.

The first time we made cake pops, we added too much frosting to the crumbled cake, so the cake balls kept falling apart and slipping off of the sticks. In the end, we had chocolate-covered cake lumps. The next time, the cake balls kept falling off into the melted chocolate. We later learned that dipping the stick into a bit of melted chocolate and then into the cake ball really helps with this. On our third attempt, the sticks wouldn’t stay upright in the cardboard so made, so after we dipped the cake pops in the melted chocolate, we just laid them on a sheet of wax paper to set. No one minded the extra lump of flat chocolate on the back of each one.

In a quest to make this year’s cake pops our best yet, I asked my husband if we had any styrofoam in the house—that’s what everyone recommends for holding up the cake pops as the chocolate sets. He went off to see what he could find. As I was forming the cake balls in the kitchen, I could hear him rummaging around in the basement. After about 15 minutes, he walked in holding the perfect cake pop stand!

This year, no cake balls crumbled. All of them stayed on the sticks. Thanks to the stand that my husband put together, the cake pops got to set in an upright position. Now, we just need to work on our chocolate drizzling technique.

Cake pops

 

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#SOL21 – Day 19 – Family TV Night

No vemos mucha televisión en familia, pero recientemente encontramos un programa que a todos nos gusta: Young Sheldon. Todos los fines de semana, nos sentamos juntos en el sofá y miramos esto. A menudo hay montones de mantas, generalmente palomitas de maíz, y siempre muchas risas. Este es un momento especial porque los niños son todos adolescentes y usualmente prefieren a pasar mucho tiempo en sus habitaciones. ¡Me alegro de que tengamos muchos episodios para disfrutemos juntos!

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We don’t watch a lot of tv as a family, but we recently found a show that we all like: Young Sheldon. Every weekend, we sit together on the couch and watch this. There are often piles of blankets, often popcorn, and always lots of laughter. This is a special time because the kids are all teenagers and usually prefer to spend a lot of time in their bedrooms. I’m glad there are a lot of episodes for us to enjoy together.

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#SOL21 – Day 18 – Blackout

Six minutes before my class was to head to the cafeteria, the lights went out. We all paused for a moment, staring at the lights, wondering if they were going to come right back on. They didn’t, but, fortunately, our cafeteria is also our gymnasium, and there are lots of windows running along the top edges of the two side walls. Eating and going out to recess don’t really require power.

When it was almost time for the students to return to class, the power was still out, and I decided to have a little fun with the situation. From my stash, I pulled out a package of glow sticks. I put one on each students’ desk and waited for them to come in.

Of course, they found them immediately and cracked them open. We only have a few small windows on the wall that faces the woods, so our classroom wasn’t bright, but I was prepared to make it better.

After everyone was in their seats and almost settled down, I closed the blinds. The chatter of kids and the waving of glow sticks made it feel like a party, something none of us have been able to have in a very long time.

“Hey, everyone! Wave your sticks altogether!” one of the kids shouted out. “Start on the right, like this!” And with that, it was like we were at a concert. I sat there for a few moments, watching them have fun together.

Then, I pulled up our class read-aloud on my phone and read a bonus chapter.

I know that this is going to be one of my favorite memories of the year!

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#SOL21 – Day 17 – Dessert for Lunch

I'm sorry, salad
You're healthy and refreshing
But I crave comfort

Quick bakery run
This will get me through the day
Oh, chocolate eclair!

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#SOL21 – Day 16 – Ping!

Tomorrow, E is baking monkey bread during her virtual *LME class, so she asked if we could go out after dinner and buy a couple of packages of refrigerated biscuits. Since she made Italian bread from scratch for last week’s cheesy garlic bread, I almost suggested that she make this dough on her own, too, but it would be a good idea to fill my car with gas tonight, so one more quick stop wouldn’t be a problem.

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Sure enough, we were out of the store and back on the road in 5 minutes. In another 5, I’d be plopping down on the couch to begin a quiet evening of crocheting while listening to my audiobook. Enticed by the warm sun, I opened the moonroof, and we enjoyed the ride home.

All of a sudden, we were startled by a ping from the back seat. E and I both turned to look at each other. “What was that?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” E said, turning around to investigate. Lifting herself out of her seat, she turned further, and then started laughing.

“What?” I asked.

E stayed turned around, trying to get something from behind the passenger seat. After a few seconds, she sat back down and, still laughing, held her hand up for me to see. In it was a mound of dough. Somehow, the metal top popped off the top of the biscuit package, hitting the handle of the ice scraper in my car.

I started laughing, too, and as I did I realized that I hadn’t written my Slice for today. Well, this seems to be the perfect thing.

 

 

*LME is a middle school Life Management Education class, formerly known as Home Economics

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#SOL21 – Day 15 – Recess Then and Now

Enjoying a break
Masked faces play together
Sun warms and revives

Clouds blanket the sky
Cold wind numbing cheeks and hands 
When can we go in?

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#SOL21 – Day 14 – A New Gadget

When we were shopping for a kitchen sink faucet, the new one we liked best would only use one of the four countertop holes. Actually, it would use two if we installed the soap dispenser, but I don’t think we’ve refilled the current one once in the 6 years we’ve lived here. Still, there were holes to cover, so we were about to head to the aisle with the caps when another item caught my attention. “What do you think about…that?” I asked my husband, pointing a finger at the top row of the display.

And that’s how we ended up with a glass rinser on our kitchen sink.

After it was installed, everyone in the family had to try it out. One kid takes a couple of sips of water. Whoosh! I finish my coffee. Whooosh! Another kid has chocolate milk. Whoooosh! Then there’s a smoothie. Whooooosh!

As we are sitting down to dinner a few days later, the middle child comes up with another way we might be able to use the glass rinser. “Can I rinse out the milk jug with this?” After a brief discussion, we decided that the spray would probably stay within the narrow opening. Whoosh! Game changer!

Then the eldest child asks, “How high up do you think that can spray?” It’s one of those questions that can only be answered by demonstration, so we give him the go-ahead. It takes another nod from us to him to know that we’re serious before he walks over and tries it. Whoosh! Our kitchen is filled with wows, laughter, and a few wet spots on the ceiling.

Delta 4 in. Glass Rinser in SpotShield Stainless-GR150-SP - The Home Depot

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#SOL21 – Day 13 – Stuck on the Couch

My computer is on the dining room table, and I’m here on the couch. It’s a good thing my phone is close by; otherwise, I’d have to disturb two very content cats to go and write this Slice. When you have a good thing going, don’t mess with it!

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