Walnuts on My Windshield #25

Friday, March 18, 2005

On Saturday morning, March 5, the report was that the daffodils looked like they were almost ready to bloom; one in particular. We had planted daffodil bulbs along the front walk last fall. Since we never had any real winter weather, they began sprouting the first week of February. It was way too early, and I was concerned that they would freeze before they could bloom, which would be a terrible shame.

I really like daffodils. When I was in 4th grade and was required for the first time to memorize a poem, I chose, "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth (what a last name!), and to this day I can still recite portions of that poem. Daffodils are my favorite flowers.

Despite nighttime temps in the 20s, the plants seemed to be surviving, and we were all eagerly awaiting the first flower. Every morning, no matter what, Andrew checked the daffodils and gave me a report. Saturday, March 5 was no different, even though we were all racing around like crazy to get out of the house in two shifts, by 7:45 AM and 8:00 AM respectively. Scott said, "You know, this is how most families have to live all the time. We are really blessed." That is true.

The reason for the race was that we had three children involved in two different competitions, in two far-flung parts of Springfield, at the same time. Scott departed on the early shift with Josiah, who thought he'd be bored at my destination, and Katie, who had entered a paper in the Southwest Missouri region of the History Day competition. History Day is open to all junior and senior high students. I planned to leave a few minutes later with Andrew and Jessica, who were both entered in the SHEM (Southwest Home Education Ministry) spelling bee, a homeschool competition.

Our family has gone digital, so capturing these various events could not be done with the handy-dandy throw-away camera that I keep in my purse. We have a digital camera and I received as an unsolicited Christmas gift a truly nifty digital camcorder that does everything but whistle "Dixie" and wash the dishes. We then bought a tripod for that. Since Jessica and Andrew would be actually standing up and spelling, we decided that the camcorder would go to the spelling bee and the digital camera would go to History Day.

Katie's paper had already been reviewed by the judges, but she was to be interviewed about it at 10:50 AM. For that interview, she was required to be present "no later than 9:00 AM." That didn't seem to make any sense, so I double-checked. "Her interview is at 10:50 and she has to be there by 9:00?" "Yes, ma'am, that's correct." Okay, whatever. So, while Scott, Katie, Josiah, and the digital camera headed to Southwest Missouri State University (north central Springfield), Jessica, Andrew, the camcorder, the tripod, and I headed to Sovereign Grace Baptist Church (far southwest Springfield).

Scott actually planned to drop Katie off around 8:30 and let her wander around and view the various History Day exhibits and presentations. Meanwhile, he and Josiah would tear across town to the spelling bee. The bee starts with the lowest grade and works up, so Scott was hoping to see Andrew's competition and then race back to SMSU in time to witness Katie's interview. I told him that the interview would be private and that there would be nothing to see, but he was adamant. He was sure he could witness it. Some husbands are stubborn, and there is no point arguing on things like that, even when the husband is clearly wrong. I let it ride. He said he'd drop Katie, watch Andrew, watch Katie, and if possible (cell phones to the rescue), return to the spelling bee in time to see Jessica spell. The History Day winners would be announced later in the afternoon, so we'd all go back to SMSU for that. I realize that this schedule may sound dizzying, but it's really no big deal; large chunks of my life are like that.

I had registered both children for the spelling bee - Andrew in 1st grade and Jessica in 7th - but it turns out that their registrations had never been received. No problem, they were signed up on the spot, and we went in, got situated, and tried to figure out the least conspicuous place to set up the tripod. I coached Andrew on a few last-minute matters of protocol. We sat and waited, knowing that Andrew's group would go first. The tension was mounting. We tapped our toes, twiddled our thumbs, and looked around. The lady in charge stood to begin reading the rules of the competition. Just then, in strode Scott and Josiah . . . with Katie! I was glad to see Scott and Josiah, but shocked to see Katie. It turns out that when they arrived at the History Day at 8:30, she was told that her interview wasn't till 10:50. Duh. Didn't she have to be there at 9:00? No, 10:50 would be just fine. Nothing like good organization and clear communication, I always say.

Andrew's group was called up at last. They were five sharp-looking, small people. They lined up with their backs to us and were shown how to step up to the (very short) microphones to spell. It started out with two-letter words. The words slowly increased in difficulty to three letters, and in a few minutes, two spellers had been knocked out. Andrew is a good reader and a good natural speller. We entered him, not because we thought he'd win, but because we thought the experience of practicing the words and standing up in public and spelling them would be beneficial. He can spell words like "everything, biggest, cannot, and happier." He was knocked out on the word "cry." He stepped up and quickly said, "cry, C-R-A-Y, cry." Poor guy! He just got going too fast and didn't think before he spoke. He turned around and bravely marched back to me, climbed in my lap and cried, C-R-I-E-D. It was a tough moment, and it got tougher at the end when he received a certificate of participation, but not a trophy. "I wanted a trophy, Mom!" he sobbed. Maybe next time.

Since Scott had been present for Andrew's round, he had run the camcorder. Now Scott and Katie departed, and Josiah was assigned camcorder duty for Jessica's round. Like his dad, Josiah also did a fine job, so we now have both dramas recorded for all posterity. Jessica's round was a long time coming. Some of those spellers were really good, and on one of the rounds - maybe 3rd grade - we wondered if there would ever be a winner. Finally, the 7th graders were called up, and Jessica was the only one! What to do?

The word lists that the kids studied were in groups of two grades. That is, one list was for 1st and 2nd grade, the next for 3rd and 4th, etc. (This is another benefit of having Andrew enter at age 5. He'll know the words well next year when he can enter again as a 1st grader, and he'll probably have the same list as a 2nd grader, by which point he should be able to spell them all, including "cry," upside down and backwards!) There was also only one 8th grader, so it was decided that they would spell against each other.

Rachel is an extremely good speller. She consistently wins her grade levels. She spells very fast, very softly, and always correctly. In Rachel, Jessica would have a very strong competitor. Because there were only two spellers, it was a double elimination, meaning that when one person misses, the other person has to spell the missed word correctly and then spell another word correctly to win.

Let me tell you, it was a bun squeezer! These girls were very evenly matched, and they spelled for a LONG time. It was probably only 10 or 15 minutes, but it seemed like forever. Rachel spelled super-fast, and Jessica spelled v-e-r-y slowly and deliberately, with (sometimes) v-e-r-y long pauses between letters. Good thing I had on plenty of deodorant. Finally, Rachel misspelled "labyrinth," and Jessica got it right. She went on to spell "tableau," and was declared the winner. I didn't realize that I hadn't breathed in a few minutes. She now advances to the LAD (Language Arts Department of SMSU) Fair in Nixa, where the winners of the spelling bees in all the schools (public, private, home) in southwest Missouri will compete. That's on April 30.

We received prizes and information and hoofed it back to SMSU. By the time we got parked, hiked to the building, and found the right room, Katie was in her interview. Not only that, but (are we surprised?) Scott was sitting in the back of the interview room, taking pictures! What a guy. Katie came out and said, when asked how it went, "fine." That's a typical response from Katie. With some prodding, she told us that the judge was really impressed with her paper and said she had the best bibliography of all the papers entered! Her paper was on the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII, and if I do say so myself, she did a great job. The judge liked the fact that she actually read a bunch of books. Evidently some of the students did all their research online. Of the 18 papers entered, only the top three had been called in for interviews, so we figured she had a decent shot at 1st place.

After a leisurely lunch at Pizza Hut, the guys went one way and the girls another, to kill time till the 2:00 PM awards ceremony. We re-convened in a very sultry 2nd floor auditorium to await the judges' verdict. There were about a zilllion categories, and they did the junior high awards first. So we waited, and sweated, and waited, and sweated. Finally, "and in the papers category, senior division, third place. . ." Someone else. More bun squeezing. "And in the papers category, senior division, second place. . ." Someone else. That meant she had won! Yippee! "And in the papers category, senior division, first place: Katie Roberts, homeschooled, teacher Patty Roberts, The Navajo Code Talkers." And the crowd went wild. It was a sweet moment! Katie's paper now advances to the state level History Day competition at the University of Missouri in Columbia on April 16.

So all was well that ended well. Saturday is normally a school day for us, but we had taken a day off academics in honor of the spelling bees and History Day. We headed home in two cars, with all but the driver(s) falling asleep on the way. It was quite warm by the time we pulled in the driveway - warm enough that we had had the air on in the female vehicle. We stumbled out of the cars and were greeted at the sidewalk by the first daffodil of the year, beautifully blooming in the breeze!

From My Bookshelf:

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, rank: 9. I listened to this book on tape. My mother-in-law had given me a book copy a couple years ago. I had really tried to read it, but the first chapter was so disturbing that I couldn't make myself do it. This audiobook was an abridgement, but it was VERY good. It tells what life is really like for Chinese Christians in the underground church. It's fiction, but seriously gripping.

Don't Know Much About the Universe by Kenneth C. Davis, rank 8. This was another book on tape. Gotta love all those miles to and from Springfield! I liked it a lot and learned even more. It is all about the universe. If you can think of a topic: Mars, black holes, galaxies, light-years, etc., it's covered in this book. Although the guy does hang with the Big Bang theory, he gives fair air time to other viewpoints. All in all, a pretty balanced treatment of a pretty huge topic.

The Code of Love by Andro Linklater. It's the true story of a British soldier in WWII who was captured by the Japanese in the Battle of Hong Kong and held for several years as a POW. Meanwhile, his finacee back home waited six years for his return. True love. While a POW, he kept a diary in code. He never shared the diary with anyone, not even his wife. When his grown son asked him about it, he could no longer remember the code to break it! Some years after his death, his wife found someone who finally cracked the code. The code part of this book is really interesting, as is the WWII history stuff. However, the totally dysfunctional life of this family got rather disgusting.

501 Ways to Boost Your Child's Self-Esteem by Robert D. Ramsey, rank: 7. A simple little book of one-line tips, some pretty useful and creative. It was a very quick, light read, but it gave me some good ideas and things to remember in my dealings with the kids. The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill, rank: 9. In my opinion, it's hard to beat a good war story, and this is one of the greatest. Amazon.com calls this, "a riveting tale of ingenuity," and I agree. I heard it on CD. Evidently there is a movie out by the same title, but I was ignorant of this whole deal till I heard the book. This is real-life Hogan's Heroes! A bunch air force officers being held in German POW camps during WWII really DID all that stuff, right under the Germans' noses. Forged documents, tunnels hundreds of feet long, complete with railroads and electric lighting, fake civilian clothing, radios, you name it. What these men did with boot polish and milk cans was beyond belief. This book is written by one of the men who was actually there. He helped with the escape and his telling of it is not to be missed.

Quote of the Week:

"Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next." ~ Franklin P. Jones

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