Aiden and Lego

 Aiden has rediscovered Lego this week! 

Unfortunately his friends have Covid, which is why Aiden has time on his hands to think about Lego. It's been interesting to see the difference in sophistication level from last time he seriously spent time with Lego. 

He spent a long time on these, and then told us all about them: who the pilots where, how the weaponry of each worked, the closing door and removeable drone, etc.

He even made videos of what they can do when photos for the blog were suggested. See what you think:

Celebrating the Small

 This week:

We sold the Duplo that has sat boxed in a cupboard for over a year.

Aiden got an afternoon with his best friend who has more or less moved away (living with an uncle instead of his mom).

We managed to get in the pool after a long time - only for a few minutes as a thunderstorm chased us out.

Dad got relief from a sore neck with DNS physio.

Jasmin managed violin practices and some more schoolwork done this week.

We got out for an evening walk in the pre-rain wind.

Mom managed to get the floors done every morning.

Grace got the recording of her next song finished.

We started on Easter week plans - we're going to take it off school and make it really special.

We discovered a few new songs to worship with.

We got in a few games of Quixx and an evening of read aloud.

Mom is pleased with the start of her new crochet project.

A zoom call discussing a new ministry opportunity for Mom.

Grace and Mom watched a rain storm sweep over from the mainland from the beach.

Hot showers after a rain soaking since we watched the storm too long.

Mom made good choices of library books this time.

Mom got a few spring cleaning tasks completed.

Jasmin got 2/3rds of the way through recrocheting her rug - even after a few false starts.

The water spilled in the bedroom didn't damage the bed.

Mom heard that the books given away through a friend went to a very appreciative tuition center for underprivileged kids.

Aiden finished one of his school courses for the year.

An online transaction went smoothly - no hiccups at all.

Our balcony garden has lots of green, purple, and pink after the rains.

And so many more! Big and small. Thanks be to the One who made it so.

Forward March

 Well, Jasmin is recovering slowly - she still can't do most of her schoolwork as it is on a computer, but lots of the creative arts projects are getting plenty of attention: rug crocheting and these game pieces:

Aiden and his friend came up with a half-decent board game idea over a year ago, and Grace and Jasmin got pulled into it, helping hash out the rules, designing cards and the board. Now, as a school project, the game is getting a facelift - from cardboard circles to clay figurines, from hand written flimsy cards to digitally illustrated, laminated cards, etc. Maybe we'll even figure out the process and try to get it published... someday.

Tuesday Aiden was sick with a tummy bug. We thought at first it was the product of an unusual food combination he had for breakfast, but then he declined to go for Chinese class (even knowing that meant he wouldn't get to play with friends either), fell asleep on the couch more than once during the afternoon, and still wanted to go to bed early!

Thursday it was Mom's turn, so less likely it was a simple bad food combination for Aiden. She also did nothing all day except sleep off and on and managed to sleep all night too. After experiencing it, she was amazed that Aiden willingly attempted to get his schoolwork done while sick! Hopefully no one else will have to experience this thankfully only 24hr bug.

February March

Jasmin drew us a blep every day in February...

unfortunately, being in a high traffic area they don't look as good as first drawn. Still, we all had good fun with them all month!

March started with an online Asia-wide family education conference for mom and kids. An annual thing that mom has wanted to go to for at least 9 years, and this time we finally could! Although it had to be online, it was well worth it. The kids program had Aiden building and using a shadow puppet theatre. We are all impressed as he did almost all the work on his own despite not usually being one for creative cut and paste art work.

In other news, Jasmin got herself a concussion by slipping on some cement stairs in the rain. So this weekend has been rather slow as we accommodate her rest needs. We had church at home instead of biking there, and spent a quiet evening on the beach instead of the rock climbing beach adventure we'd half planned. In place of all her usual screen time for digital drawing, she's unraveled her crochet rug and has begun remaking it.