GimletBlog

While he’s working at scout summer camp, Thing One gets to come home Saturday afternoon, spend the night at home, and then The Gimlet drives him back to camp Sunday morning.   His usual work assignment is in the Trading Post, where he makes a lot of popcorn and reports that pocket knives are the top selling item.  He also does extra work around camp as needed, with the result that for the time he is home, our utterly exhausted Thing One does little more than sleep and eat.

The past two Saturdays he’s fallen sound asleep in front of the television after dinner.  It’s a milestone in parenting when mom or dad (or even mom + dad working together) can no longer pick up a sleeping child from the couch and carry him to bed.

All teenage first year staffers have to take a turn running the industrial dishwashing machines for the camp, otherwise known as working in the Dish Pit.  Last week was Thing One’s turn.  It was also the week that the camp was filled to capacity, with over four hundred scouts and scoutmasters using plates, bowls, cups, forks, knives, and spoons for breakfast, lunch, and dinner … and the cooks using pots, pans, and cooking tools to prepare food for them all …

Needless to say Thing One is very glad this week is over, and if he had ever entertained thoughts of a career as a commercial dishwasher, he is now considering other options.   Doing dishes at home doesn’t seem so bad now, either.

Thing One was able to come home a little earlier this week, so he arrived home just as we were heading out to pick up Thing Two from a friend’s birthday party in the park.  Thing Two was delighted to see his big brother and show him off to his friends (a few of whom have big brothers, but not BIG brothers).  And after his long week, Thing One didn’t mind playing with his little brother for a while.

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One of Thing Two’s new favorite creatures is the diatryma, also known as a giant prehistoric terror bird.  We discovered them while reading an encyclopedia of world history, and then he was able to examine a diatryma fossil during dinosaur day camp earlier this month.  When it was time to celebrate Thing Two’s birthday, generic dinosaur-themed desserts were too mainstream for the birthday boy, who specifically requested diatryma cupcakes.  This was a bit of a challenge (the bakeries within our budget don’t offer post-Cretaceous prehistoric designs), but Thing Two was very pleased with the flock(?) (herd? throng?) of diatrymas which greeted him at breakfast that morning.

Some of the cupcakes accompanied Thing Two to summer preschool.   While the original terror bird may have hunted small mammals, today the small preschool-aged mammals eagerly devoured the cupcakes.  Contrary to the expectations of some, diatryma cupcakes don’t taste like chicken.

Thing Two was so excited all day long and his cheerful enthusiasm was contagious.  He had a wonderful birthday and has been enjoying his gifts.

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It’s been a couple of years since the blog was last hacked, but it happened again this week.  Fortunately we’d been backing up the blog weekly, so once we identified the most recent clean backup it was a relatively quick process to restore the blog and reclaim a clean bill of health from Google.  Captchas have been added to the blog comments form for an additional layer of security.  We’ll be working on other ways to keep the blog secure, but for now it’s good to be back.

Thing One may or may not be swinging from the rafters in the Quartermaster’s store, but this weekend he reported for duty on his first day of staff at Camp Pigott.  But first, we had to take a base measurement so we can see if he grows any taller while he’s away for the summer.

We discovered that Thing One has grown half an inch in the past two weeks, putting him at 5’11½”. (Since he spent last week doing little but sleeping, eating, and catching up on Doctor Who, this growth spurt is not too surprising.) Thing Two is fast approaching the 4′ mark as well.

Then, it was time to load up the car and take another picture.  Thing One is already getting into the staff spirit.

We had originally invited Bopa to come along to see Thing One’s camp, if he were feeling well enough to make the trip.  Instead, Hå joined us.

While Thing One and the Gimlet were signing in, the rest of us took a walk along the lake.

| …continue reading There are staffers swinging from the rafters

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Our first official day of summer vacation, and the big guys are already heading out.

The Gimlet and Thing One are working on NYLT staff in August, and their final training session is this weekend.  Next week, it’s off to camp staff for Thing One.  While picturing (1) scout camp subsidizing a teenager’s food intake and (2) Thing One doing his own laundry are happy thoughts, we always miss Thing One when he’s not at home.

Meanwhile, Thing Two and Your Humble Narrator are keeping vigil at the local fruit stand:

We’re down to our last container of homemade strawberry jam, so we really hope “Soon” means soon!

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Today was the last day of Thing One’s sophomore year of high school.  Note the soggy rhododendron, the rain jacket and umbrella.

At the beginning of the school year we mentioned that Thing One would be replacing several high school courses for BYU Independent Study online courses.  How did that work out for us?  Quite well!

With the help of a very patient math tutor (Uncle B), Thing One managed to do much better in geometry than in last year’s algebra.  He also did very well in European history, economics, geography, and language arts.  Meanwhile, his grades at school were great; he made the honor roll!  The last part of the school year was difficult as we were mourning Bopa, so we don’t know yet how that will affect Thing One’s grades for this semester, but his grades look quite good pre-final exams.  He also passed three of the standardized tests required for graduation, which was a relief, as Thing One doesn’t test well.

We were very happy with the organization and content of the BYU courses, and felt that Thing One learned a lot of useful information that the high school fails to provide in its curriculum.   Throughout the year we’ve all had to rethink and learn how to help Thing One with test taking and time management.  While he’s stayed on schedule with BYU’s timeline – students have one year to complete an Independent Study course – he’s two courses behind the school’s semester timeline (although he has earned more than the required credits).  That’s partially due to the extra time it has taken to rebuild Thing One’s confidence; he procrastinated writing papers and working on math because he thought he would fail.  When he received an A for his first writing portfolio in the online language arts class, a large mental obstacle was removed and he was able to move ahead.  We expect that the second semester language arts and math classes will proceed much faster than the first ones.

Independent Study has been a great stress reducer for Thing One and our entire family.  His grades improved substantially, his attitude towards school and studying has improved, and he has more time for the activities he’d rather be doing (Scouts, sleep, etc.).  We’re looking forward to a good and successful junior year.

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Yesterday’s long day of sunshine must have done the trick:  after today’s end-of-preschool picnic, Thing Two headed out to the south forty the back yard to check on his garden.  He ran back to the house, shouting, “I have tomatoes!”  When we last watered the garden we hadn’t noticed any blossoms, much less tomatoes, so we thought Thing Two was being overly optimistic.  However …

The plants are now covered with tomato blossoms!

Thing Two’s great-uncle, an avid gardener and Thing Two’s inspiration in all things horticultural, toured the little planter boxes two weeks ago and suggested that Thing Two’s five year-old attention span might be well satisfied with growing radishes.

As you can see, the radishes are looking great as well.

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The last day of preschool is traditionally a picnic in a local park.  The sun didn’t shine, but it didn’t rain either, which is about as good as it gets for fair weather this year.  Thing Two went to preschool every afternoon, and he was especially excited for the days when he got to play with his best friend (pictured above).

Most of the games today involved a lot of running, spinning, and yelling.  Good times.

Thing Two has had a wonderful time at preschool and made many friends.  He’ll attend the special program this summer, but this was the last day with his teachers and his class.

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