They talked with each other about it for a minute before I reached the front of the line and had to move to a different room. Such sweet people here.
A few weeks ago, I went to an appointment at Saad Specialist Hospital, and I picked the wrong day. I had only seen news reports that some of the administrative staff were on strike due to unpaid salaries. As it turns out, everyone was on strike, including the doctors. All the side offices and back doctor's offices were empty. It was kinda weird. I was wandering around back there trying to find out if my doctor had happened to stay! But he hadn't, of course. Everyone was just hanging out in the foyer.
No one I talked to knew when the strike would be over, so it looks like I ended up finding a new doctor at a different hospital. Hopefully these people get their salaries paid and get things worked out. One receptionist there said they haven't been paid in seven months!
On the bright side, I was in and out in 10 minutes. Fastest "appointment" ever! Below you can see all the nurses, doctors, and administrative staff on strike:
Sam is our early riser. He usually gets up between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. every day. Multiple times a week, he will come into my bedroom before I wake up, and hand me a note that he has just colored that morning. They are always the sweetest notes. This one says, "Dear Mom, I love to help you." Seriously, how could I ever be mad at him for waking me up for that?! He drew little pictures of some presents he got at a recent birthday party: bubbles, a rainbow slinky, and a Rubik's cube:
Avery had bought a police officer accessory set at a store. Sam accidentally broke a part on it. He woke me up the following morning to show me the note he had made her. He had taped it inside of a folded and taped piece of paper. It says, "Dear Avery, I love you and your police officer set. I am so sorry that I broke it. Will you forgive me?"
My heart melted. I hope this tenderhearted quality always stays with him. I want to do as much as I can to help him to continue to develop it.
In other news, it finally happened! Each day for homeschool, the kids read aloud for 20 minutes. Avery sometimes complains or drags her feet, or will try to sneak books that I know don't challenge her. Or only consents to reading a page if Nathan or I read one in between. We did our best not to be over-the-top pushy, and we tried to let her develop at her own pace.
Last night before bed, I was reading Magic Treehouse's "Tonight on the Titanic," to the kids and I stopped at the end of a cliffhanger chapter because it was bedtime. As she walked past the book to go upstairs, I saw her sneakily grab it and run up the stairs to bed. It was one of those times as a parent that I was happy to turn a blind eye. This morning, she told me she had finished that book, and was almost done with the next one on the series. I asked her, "Oh, who read them to you?" She looked at me with her proud little half-smile and said, "Me!"
She won't stop reading on her own. It was sometimes a struggle for all of us to help her get to that point, but now that it is finally here, it is worth it! It makes our hearts happy to see her sitting on the couch reading to herself now whenever she gets a spare second. She has been telling me, "I love to read on my own!"
Now we have a new problem: she won't go to bed because she stays up reading by lamplight late into the night. But those are the kind of problems we like around here.
She even found a new favorite reading spot. In our only tree, a Plumeria tree in our front "yard."
We saw this interesting place in the food court in one of the malls. It was called rolls and yogurt or something strange like that. It piqued my interest, and so we ordered one. It was fun to watch. You pick your "base" ice cream or frozen yogurt flavor (I picked Mango), and then order whatever fruit/toppings you want. I got mango again, strawberry, Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a Kit-Kat bar, and blueberries.
First, they throw your toppings on a plate that has freezer elements beneath it.
Then they pour the mango "ice cream" liquid on.
Then they chop it really fast with [what I can only assume are] paint scrapers.
Then he flattens the mixture out and lets it sit for a minute in order to freeze a bit more:
Lastly, he slowly scrapes the now-frozen ice cream up as it rolls itself up into perfect little cylinders.
They were able to fit all of it in one little cup. And they put a few chunks of each topping I ordered on top of the ice cream. It was delish. It was also overpriced, since it didn't taste any different than your average ice cream. But it was fun to see.
See behind me? This mall has a little ice skating rink in the food court. Amazingly, when I went up to the edge of the rink, it wasn't even cold! I have no idea how they keep the ice from melting.
One evening we were learning about the dream of Pharaoh that Joseph of Egypt interpreted. We had the kids get out paper and draw the baker's and butler's dream after we read it. Here was Sam's:
And then after we learned about the sons of Jacob, we had them draw their associated tribal totems. Nathan the got out this great game we have called "Feast and Famine" that has "Egyptian artwork" of each of the sons (plus Dinah) and their wives. The artist for the game incorporated the tribal totems into the artwork, and so the kids got to look at all the cards and see if they could tell which card depicted which son. It was a fun little reading that night!
Did I mention that this is one of our all-time favorite games? It was a Deseret Book exclusive, and I don't know if they sell it anymore. But if you like games, you should get this one. The artwork is incredible and the gameplay is fun!
Hey! It's your lucky day! It looks like it's on Amazon here.
The kids also got to go to a big gathering at a friend's house on Aramco for a fun drive-in movie night. They got to decorate cardboard boxes as cars and watch the new Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie.
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