Biology

This year Aliysa and Jace are taking a a great biology class from Brother Butikofer who is a superb teacher. He has inspired our kids to think about, love learning about, and discuss biology.

One of their assignments is to periodically update their class blog, which you can check out at: http://havbioscience.blogspot.com/

At first, they learned a little bit about Latin scientific names. They each chose a Latin name for themselves (Aliysa is Animalia, and Jace is Fungi.) You can check out the name they gave to their blog. There are also some fun pictures of their field trip to the lake to get pond water specimens for an upcoming experiment, etc.

Jace had so much fun looking in the microscope the first few weeks. He has simply loved being a part of this class. At first, we let him be included just so he could pick up a little bit, while the focus was going to be on Aliysa and her friends, because it is high-school level biology. I have been surprised how much he has learned! I'm sure it has to do a lot with the small class size and one-on-one tutoring he receives. The other day, I overheard Jace teaching Spencer about osmosis. Often he discusses in depth what he has learned with Bob and I. For Christmas, we gave him the biology textbook, audio book version, on MP3. He loves to listen while he reads along in the textbook. Jace is quite an auditory learner, if he hears something, he rarely forgets it.

Aliysa has also been inspired to read and study diligently on her own. This has been a great experience. We're so grateful for Brother Butikofer, and his efforts this year!

The accumulation of dirt

We have been starting the New Year off by dejunking and cleaning up a storm. I think I may already be having a nesting urge, and my body knows that it will take at least 6 months to get everything how I want it before the baby comes. It's funny how much longer it takes to get everything ready with each additional child! If anyone has a deep desire to wash and re-paint all the walls in my house, let me know. (I'll bake you some cookies)

So, I finally tackled a task I've really been dreading- a complete detailed deep cleaning of our big 15 passenger van. We've never had the carpets cleaned in it since we've owned it, and I've always wanted to. Our van had started to smell musty, and it seemed to be getting worse with all the wet and snowy feet that have been getting in and out of it. So.....reluctantly, I had the kids get me started. Jace helped by taking all the benches, except the fourth row, out of the van and bringing them inside. All the kids cleaned every single item out of the van, and Aliysa did an amazing vacuuming job inside. Courtney vacuumed all the benches that we brought inside. What great workers they were!

I then realized that there was no more putting it off. So, I went out and, thanks to the blessing of owning one of these fabulous machines: I cleaned all the carpeting and the back bench of the van. Emptying the container of dirty water out over and over and over was the worst part. Realizing that a vehicle can collect that much dirt makes me seriously want to go and join the likes of Howard Hughes and live in a sanitary, air-purified bubble. I wanted to just keep steaming and cleaning until the water came out looking completely clean, but I've tried that before on home carpets, and I've found out that there isn't a carpet machine on the planet that will ever be able to suck up all the dirt.

Anyway...the carpets look so nice and clean! One trick to cleaning carpets is to just use super hot water and white vinegar, not soapy solutions. You can never get all the soap out, and it will collect dirt afterwards. Only use a bit of soapy stuff if you have a real difficult stain to get out (spot clean it). White vinegar kills about as many germs as bleach, and the vinegar smell disappears when it dries (At least, I sure hope it does, because now our van smells like vinegar and vanilla Febreeze) We have two space heaters going full time to dry everything quickly, so it won't mildew.

Then I tackled the four car seats/booster seats. Again, it just is not fun to see how dirty these can get. Two of the seats I removed and washed on a "sanitary cycle" in my washer, and two carseats I put in the shower, turned it on hot, then scrubbed them with a scrub brush & vinegar/soap/spray & wash/oxyclean, then rinsed. Wow, what a job! I think I'd rather wrestle a hog than do that very often.

The next part I was really dreading. Cleaning out the little parts on the floor of the van where the seats hook into. They were filled with caked on dirt & crumbs, etc. Well, this turned out to be the easiest part of the job. I filled them with hot soapy water, scrubbed down in them with a toothbrush, and then sucked them out with my mini shop-vac. Here's my sales pitch for this amazing little machine:
I think every home should own one of these. It is tiny, but I have used it for so much! We keep it in our van, along with an extension cord, and when I need to vacuum the van, I just plug in the cord, and vacuum everything up with this. I bought it on Amazon.com for less than $30. It has an amazing amount of power for something so little. And, it can also (when you remove the filters), be a wet-vac, too. It's amazing.

We also cleaned all the windows, and shined all the surfaces with Armor-all protectant. Now I just need to steam- clean the three van benches that are sitting in my family room, wait for everything to dry, and put it all back together.

Whew. We'll never allow food in this van again. Or kids, for that matter. :)