Fire!

Can I yell, "Fire!", in a crowded blog? I guess it doesn't apply in my case. It's not so crowded around here.

Alex spent most of yesterday helping out at the volunteer fire station, getting ready for, and then working at, the annual Fireman's Carnival. The other kids and I got stopped by roadblocks, coming home yesterday afternoon, due to the parade that kicks off the carnival. I think every fire truck within 50 miles was in that parade. Alex could've ridden on a truck, but he decided to come home for dinner before returning for his evening shift. It's pretty scary thinking he's become so acclimated to his new role that the thrill of riding on the firetruck has become old hat.

He told me he was mostly a go-fer all day, which suits him just fine since it lets him do a variety of things. At then end of the evening he was working the Gold Fish Game. He said they gave away a lot of goldfish. That's fine as long as he doesn't bring any leftover fish home. About 10 PM he called, all excited, to tell me one of the fireworks they were setting off caught something on fire. How convenient that they were at the Foreman's Carnival! He wasn't even calling for a ride home; just to tell about the fire. He called when the fire was out for a ride home.

I think he found his Calling. Everything about working at the firehouse excites him, from an actual fire to emptying trash cans for the firemen. He even sacrificed a day at The Shore! It's so nice to see him enjoy something that is not a video game. Even though it worries Vicki a little, there are worse fields to get into than firefighting.

Homeschool Update

Alex has shown a lot of improvement over the past week, at least in the amount of effort he's willing to put into his work. I know that he has a lot of trouble with studying. He just doesn't understand how to do it. I, personally, never had to put much effort into learning stuff at his age: things came kinda naturally. So, even though I can teach the 'stuff', I'm not great at teaching how to get the 'stuff' into the head. This past week, Vicki has been working with Alex to help him learn methods for doing this. I know I didn't do much of what she had to do, because she and Alex have been spending many hours together, going over material for Alex to learn. He has done much better on some of the re-tests I have given him, even the science test I had make up from scratch. I hope this trend continues. I'm going to help it along by limiting, even more, everyone's "electronics" time at home. I already try to limit their electronics, but hopefully less time in front of video games should give everyone more time in front of books.

On another note, Alex attended his first meeting at our volunteer fire department last night. As he submitted his application to become a Junior Volunteer, they asked him if he'd like to stay for their bimonthly (semimonthly? twice a month. I always get those two prefixes mixed up. so much for my learning stuff without studying...) fireman's meeting. Naturally, he stayed. I guess all went well, because when Vicki picked him up, he was in the middle of a crowd of volunteers, looking like he already belonged. Plus, they all said, "See ya next meeting", as he left. They still need to vote on his membership, but that seems to be only a minor formality. I still have no idea what a Junior Volunteer does, but I know he won't be going on any emergency calls. He's allowed to hang around the firehouse and, I guess, begin learning about what the volunteers do, and helping out around the station. The fire chief also told me Alex may be allowed to go on non-emergency calls (no clue what that would be: maybe a house fire, or brush fire, or something) where he could help the firemen in the background, getting them drinks and stuff.

I had my doubts about adding something else, like this, to his schedule, but, like with SSPP, it's something he's getting more and more excited about all the time. Maybe it'll be some motivation to get, and keep, his grades up. I also think it's the kind of thing where he can put in as much, or as little, time as he can manage. We also have another surprise for him coming up soon that I can't mention because he might read this. I'll bring it up later, and let you what it is and how it went.

Another Recital, And Other Ramblings

That's right, another piano recital. Tomorrow afternoon. Kenzie and Connor both get to play at this one. It's really close to home, for a change; only about a half hour away, so I'm hoping Vicki gets to go see them play. She needs to get to do something besides work or take care of Kearsyn, and she hasn't seen the kids play at a recital for a while. Next weekend, Connor has another recital, in Cambridge, and that's a good hike for us: a little farther away than Kenzie's softball practice, so I'll probably be taking Connor to that one. I might try to talk him out of that one, but I never seem to win those battles. I guess it's good that he likes to perform, even though it scares him to death.

I have to remember that Alex has a public speaking event on Thursday. He's going to recite that poem I wrote in high school in front of his 4H club. I wish there was a way I could be in two places at the same time, because that's also softball night. I'll have to find Alex and Connor a ride to 4H unless Vicki can get them there.

Alex told me the other day that he'd like to look into becoming a junior volunteer at our local volunteer fire dept. I think that would be cool. I mentioned it to him last week as something he'd be good at (unbeknownst to him, I emailed the fire chief to enquire about the minimum age: it's 14), but didn't push it. He actually must have been listening. I told him we'd stop by and pick up an application the next time we drive by the firehouse. Yet another thing to squeeze into our lives. Well, he'll be driving in a couple years; that might help somewhat. When you think that he'll be able to get his learner's permit in summer, 2008, it sounds awfully close, doesn't it?

People have told me that I need to pick fewer things for my kids to do because we seem to be always running around like crazy. The problem is, there's so many of them, even if they only do one thing each, it amounts to a lot of stuff. And, unfortunately (or not), they are all good at so many things, I don't have the heart to say no until every second of every day is all used up.

Don't forget, today is the feast day of St. Blaise. Head to your local Catholic church and get your throats blessed! My kids know St. Blaise to be the patron saint of sore throats because of the brief ritual of blessing the throats that our priest does this weekend of every year. He's also considered to be the patron saint of wild animals. That kind of applies to my pack of kids at times, too (especially in church :o). Other than that, I have no idea why wild animals need a patron saint. Alex thinks he's special because, as an altar server at this evening's Mass, he was the first to have his throat blessed.

As the title of this entry suggested, this has been a collection of ramblings. I hope I didn't disappoint.