The Budding Chef

 Mama was too tired to cook, so Quinn took over the kitchen. He created a marinade by following a Gordon Ramsey recipe, and then broiled himself a delicious steak.  Then he made homemade steak fries as a side dish.   Super impressive.

Getting Ready to Drive

 The boys get their drivers' licenses in January.  Not super excited about new drivers starting out on icy/snowy roads, but we will see how that all goes.  Regardless, the offspring need something to drive, and my old Impala has been waiting patiently in the yard for a few years for just this time.  Grandpa came over to get the thing running again, and the boys "helped".  Kind of. 

His First Real-Paying Job

 Quinn is now officially the organist for the 7:45 am Mass at St. Anne's Catholic church.  This is a paid, weekly gig... enough to give him spending money, but not enough to interfere with school.  PERFECT!  And he's doing a fabulous job.  I'm so proud of him!

Random Act of Kindness

Quinn has been riding his bike to the park nearly every day, and practicing his flips and dives.  There's a big sandy hill at the park in town, and it works well as a diving simulator for him.  Apparently, as he was practicing one day, an elderly lady was watching him.  Flip.  Over.  And over.  And over.  Finally, she came up to him and asked him what he was doing and why.  He told her he was practicing for the upcoming diving season.  She asked him what his goal was, and he told her "to win the U.P. Finals for diving."  She looked him in the eye and said "think bigger."  Wow.  This random stranger told Quinn that, with the determination he was showing this day, there was nothing keeping him from the Olympics.  Then she went back to her car, wrote him this note, and came back and gave it to him with a $20 bill.  The kid was suitably impressed.  Such a wonderful, random act of kindness!!

 

His First In Person Job Application

 Quinn was all dressed up for church anyway, so he stopped by to deliver his job application to the local ice cream shop.  His mother, hiding discreetly in the car snapping photos of this momentous occasion, would have hired him!!

16 Year Old Stats

At 16 years and 20 days old, Quinn Aho hit 6 whole feet, and 135 pounds.  Colby is right behind him, at 5'11.75", and 135.8 pounds.  BMI in the 17th and 19th percentiles respectively.  The doctor said the boys started their growth spurts late compared to other boys (most boys 12-14, these boys 14-16), which means that their growth plates will be open longer, and the odds are they will be even taller.  Right now, both boys are in the 90th% for height, and still have a good 3-4 years left of growing to do.  We will see where they end up!

The doctor ALSO said he doesn't recommend "impact" sports like trampolines, diving and pole vaulting because of their single kidney each, but when I told him that both boys were GOOD at those things, and LOVED those things, he said "OK.  I'm not going to tell them no.  It's a calculated risk."  Yes.  If the boys couldn't hurl themselves from great heights, I think they would be severely depressed.  This is what they do.  It's their thing.  We can say we're "being careful", but I don't know what that means when  free-falling through air.  There's no "being careful".  They fall well?  I guess there's that.  They DO fall well, and rarely hurt themselves.

Bring on 11th grade!  We're ready!

Their First Job Applications

At 15 years 11 months and a spattering of days... my boys have applied for their first jobs.  Both have applied to be stockers/clerks at the new Dollar Store opening soon here in Chassell.  A sign of the times, they filled out their job applications on their phones.  The whole process just cracked me up.  Here are some of the answers they had to the questions they were asked.

Previous Employer:  "Uhhh.... my mom?"

Reliable Transportation: "Yes.  My Bike."

Have you ever been late for work/school: "Yes, a lot."  I told Colby this was not a good answer, but he was proud of being honest.  He said he would explain it to whoever if he got an in-person interview.  We live far away from the school, and in the winter we run late, and it's almost always Mom's fault!!

Address: "What's our address again, Mom?"  Uhhhhhh... this one they should know by now!

Age: "How do I answer this?"  Honestly, son.  "But I'm not old enough to work legally yet!"  You will be in two weeks.  Just answer honestly.  No... DO NOT say you're 18.

Position:  "What's a position?  What am I supposed to say?"

And to sum it all up.... "I literally have NO experience."

Too funny. 

They're growing up, these men!

The Big Boy

This quarantine has had an... interesting... side effect on my husband.  Now that he's working from home, Rob spends much of his day sans clothing (boxers only).  He says he gets too hot in clothes, and so gets dress somewhere around 2:30 pm each day.  "Dressed" now means a pair of shorts, but if the sun is shining, that's about it. 

It's going to be a big adjustment when we have to go out in public again.

Retribution

The boys really don't like it when I turn off the internet at bedtime.  They are under the mistaken assumption that wi-fi is a civil right, and they should have access to it until the wee hours of the morning, because "they aren't two anymore" you know.  They feel that bed times are superfluous in these days of quarantine and no-school except  staring at computer screens.  This is how they get back at me when I turn off the internet:  they try to annoy the heck out of me until I turn it back on.

This tactic doesn't work, by the way.  I'm a mom.  It takes a WHOLE LOT to irritate me to my breaking point.  I have years of innoculation.

You Have My Pity

The news came via email that the high school teachers were going to clean out all the kids' lockers and prepare the contents for pick up today.  Quinn looked distressed at the news.  WHY?

Quinn: "No, Mom!  You don't understand!  I had FOOD in there!"
What the what?  It's been nearly a month since the last time that locker has been opened. GROSS!!!

Colby filled me in on the rest of the story.

Colby: "It's been longer than that, Mom.  He didn't open his locker after we got back from Hawaii, because he had left food in there from before we left!  It stunk so bad at that time, that he just carried everything around with him and refused to open it!"

So.... uhhh... we left for Hawaii on FEBRUARY 22nd.  It is now April 8th.  His locker was a Hazmat zone.  OOOOOOHHHH goodness.

I am learning that they don't pay teachers nearly enough.  All the way around.

Truth

Grocery shopping is limited these days, what with the global pandemic and all.  Lots of empty shelves, few choices in the things Walmart does have.  The kids prefer "Clear" brand sparkling water, which I normally buy them as an alternative to pop.  But Walmart was all out of Clear, in every form, every flavor.  Quinn was reduced to a can of my LaCroix, which he hates.  I buy it because they all hate it.  I don't even really like it, but at least I don't have to share it with anyone.

Tonight at dinner, Quinn cracked open a can of Lemon Lime LaCroix, and took a swig.  After a hot second, he put the can on the table and just laid it plain.

"This is disappointment in a can."

Truth.  But it's MY disappointment in a can.

Echoes of Pink Floyd

The boys are having to do an excessive amount of "preparatory" homework in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Hawaii.  They are NOT pleased with this, at all.  When I picked them up from robotics at 8:00 pm last night, they let loose.

"I am going to be up all night doing my English assignment.  School is horrible.  It's all about the grade.  It's not about learning at all.  The American school system is ridiculous.  Everyone says so.  WHY do I need to know about somatic cells?  Who cares?  Why do I need to memorize minute details?  School should stop after you learn to read.  Everything from the 8th grade on is completely pointless.  All I need to know is what I'll need to do my job, and I will never need to know about somatic cells."  This went on for a good long while.  The boys were really working themselves up.

"Well," says I.  "It's not just about having enough knowledge to do your job.  You should have a basic understanding of the world around you.  You should have critical thinking skills.  You should know enough to ask questions and know how to find answers.  And you should be exposed enough to things to find what you have a passion about."

"We've done all that.  The rest of this stuff is stupid and pointless.  I should just take the classes I want and do them online."

(The boys will be angry that I'm lumping them together in this blog post, and not delineating who said what, but they were both piling on, and saying essentially the same thing, and so it doesn't matter. This next thing, though, I remember was specifically from Colby....

"Mom, do you know that it's been proven that we are the smartest generation in all of human history?  Research has shown that we have the highest IQ of any previous generation.  And there's this thing called the internet.  Anything I'm curious about, or anything I need to know, I can just Google."  Essentially, he was saying that because he's so smart, and he has access to the internet, he doesn't need to go to school.  Hmmmm.

OK.  Stop right there.

"Colby, they've only been doing formalized IQ tests for the past 100 years or so.  And IQ is highly diverse.  The intelligence required to survive in the jungle without prior knowledge vs the intelligence needed to make good economic decisions on Wall Street are incredibly different.  Humans are highly adaptable and respond to the problems they face in their daily life.  You cannot tell me that the inventor of the arch in ancient Rome was dumber than you.  I just won't believe it. Scientists today still haven't figured out how Stone Henge was constructed thousands of years ago, or the statues on Easter Island erected.   People may be better at taking tests on a computer now, and solving those puzzles, but the genius of people in the past shows that they weren't any dumber than we are.  We are where we are today because of the store of knowledge that THEY discovered for us, and generations have built upon."  The arrogance of such a thought was astounding to me.  But neither boy  was buying it.  They were very vocally (and loudly) disagreeing with me.  Everyone is apparently full of angst in the middle of February.

Quinn has sent me two follow up videos on the horrors of the modern education system.  This has led to a branch-off discussion on knowing which sources to trust and which ones are essentially "fake news".  The boys purport that "they can tell" when something's not true.  Because they can.  They're not stupid.  But when I pressed them on what criteria they used to determine whether something was factual or not, they couldn't even begin to say.

"What about you, Mom?  Just because it's from a certain news source, it has to be true?  Or because it comes from a website followed by .edu or .gov???"
"Absolutely not," says I.  "I do rely on trusted sources, but that can't be the end-all be-all.  That's the importance of the scientific process - peer reviewed, repeatable, scrutinized.  I usually go straight to peer-reviewed journals for a lot of factual information."  But even that has it's limitations.

((SIGH))

Bottom line, the boys are NOT dropping out of school in the 10th grade.  I don't care if they don't like it.  I will not raise ignorant children.  I agree, however, that the education system is not all it can and should be.  It would be great if we lived in a reality where we only had to learn the stuff that meant something to us personally, but then we would be very deliberately illiteraete about a whole lot o' stuff, now, wouldn't we?

Another Note from the Teacher

It's so nice to get these little notes through the mail.

Just for Fun

Quinn came home from school and wanted to show me his project.  He apparently had worked all day on this geometric figure - a 72 point thing that connected each point with every other point.

"Oh!  Was this a geometry project?" asks I.  Apparently no.
"Extra credit?"  Still no.
"So.... why are you doing it?"

Quinn informed me that his geometry teacher, Mrs. Hocking, had a 36 point picture hung on the wall of the classroom from a student who had drawn it several years ago.

"If I do a 72 point one, she told me she'd frame it and replace that other one."

Ahhhh.... legacy.

Nice job, son!

A Note from Quinn's Teacher

I thought this was super nice.  Quinn's science teacher sent a note home to us.  Hopefully you all can read sideways.

They Make Me Tired

These boys.  On top of swimming/diving, solo and ensemble preparations, pep band, semester exams,  and robotics build season, (which keeps us ALL super busy at a pace that is hardly survivable) I get an email from the director of the school play, with the cast list for the upcoming performance.  Luckily I clicked on it, because I wasn't going to.  SURELY my boys would not have tried out for the play, given their hectic lives at the moment.  SURELY they would realize that there are a mere 24 hours per day, of which school takes 8, swimming takes 3, robotics takes 3, studying takes 2, and sleep?  Family time?  Travel back and forth from school?  YOU understand the math.  They apparently don't.   That's right.  They signed up for the school play and both got parts.  When I expressed my dismay/concern/surprise/incredulity they simply said "OH!  We told Dave if he needed us we'd do it.  We didn't even try out!".  Well, apparently Dave needs them.  I said "Does he realize that you'll be gone to Hawaii for two weeks in February as well?"  Yeah.  He knows.  Reportedly.

I'm thinking they've invented a time producing machine somewhere, to churn out more hours per day.  Because I am certainly not seeing how this all is going to work!!  I mean, I'm glad they like to join things, but COME ON!

What I needed to hear

So, I'm gonna be honest here.  This week has been hard.  This past month has been hard.  Over the holidays, the busyness and go-go-go, and never feeling caught up. Making magic for everyone else is exhausting.  And then my husband in the hospital, then my father-in-law in the hospital, and the start of swimming and robotics build season, and running around my mother in law, and worry, and the house being a mess, and and and, sun up to sun down, constant rush.  Just... I've been overwhelmed and cranky and ready to just toss in the towel (is that an option?  Can I do that??).  So today, a Saturday, I got up at 5:30 am to run the boys into town to catch a bus for their swim meet, then came home, showered, ran to pick up Reagan and my mother in law to take them to the hospital (Reagan had spent the night so LaVerne wouldn't be alone), then went to work for a few hours, brought Reagan and LaVerne home, then started cleaning the kitchen, and eventually made my way to the living room, by 5:00 pm.  I was getting ready to sweep, when I found a piece of paper on the floor, which has probably been there for a good long time, given how far behind on housework I am.  I make it a rule never to throw away random pieces of paper without reading them, just in case it happens to be a missing assignment for one of my children.  This is the voice of experience.  WELL.  I reached down to glance at this assignment, and look what I found.

It was exactly what I needed to hear, exactly when I needed to hear it, and I am just so so thankful.  Maybe I won't throw in the towel just yet.