Humorous

Happy Thanksgiving from the Sisco family.
We have spent this weeks school days learning about the Mayflower and making pilgrim hats. Of course we also blurbed inappropriate things.  Unfortunately, I had a moment on Tuesday and forgot myself.  I was telling the kids how the pilgrims gave thanks for all the things God had done for them.  They were thankful for the food they had to eat and for their Indian friends who helped them to learn how to grow some things.  Why I needed to say the next part I cannot say but the kids were happily putting their pilgrim hats on when I said, "They shouldn't have trusted them though because Americans ended up taking their land and killing most of them."  John snapped to attention and asked, "Is that true?"  And for goodness sake I couldn't say no.  So I was quite the dark cloud that day.
On that note I will say that we have made the decision to send two of our number to school.  I just can't do the whole of this job.  I have been trying to teach 3 different grades through a slight language barrier and a possible learning disorder.   Trying to man Ivey and trying to get breakfast, snacks and lunch ready on top of that has just proven to be more than I can do.  I must admit is hard for me to give it up because I feel like I failed.  I know realistically that that is not true but that is just how it feels.  I really wanted to be a super fun mom/teacher who made school so fun and exciting that they ran to the door each day to greet Andrew with the project of the day or some amazing fact that they had learned attentively.  But alas that was not the case.  I was actually snappy and super NOT fun because I almost always ran late by the time I got breakfast cleared and then I would feel a rush of getting everyone started.  We always started with calendar time and I tell you rushing 6-9 year olds through the writing of the day of the week or the month of the year is really a tedious task.   I may be a little bald on the sides now.   I am glad I didn't go with a degree in Kindergarten teaching after all.  Also, I found the cultural differences a little difficult to navigate.  For example, in Alberts books there is a writing section and it was always giving prompts like:  tell about a day at the circus, or write the rules of how to play baseball.  Then I would spend twice as long trying to explain those things just to change the instructions to something like; tell about a fun day going to the market or tell the rules of playing soccer.  Anyway, I will still be teaching 1st and then 2nd grade to Levi and John and I am hoping that I can redeem myself and maybe not blurt out crazy stuff that ruins holiday projects.

Today was humorous for several reasons.  First, I decided to make thanksgiving dinner.  That is laughable because I have proven over the years to be a not-so-great cook.  But there is no Nanny here to make the dinner so I had to do it.  We had chicken instead of turkey but I wanted to make the stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie that I always had growing up in the U.S.  We also had mashed potatoes but they were instant.  Everything had to be from scratch because neither French's nor Libby's is sold at Adnan's supermarket.  So I fried the onions and pureed the pumpkin.  The whole dinner had the potential to be awful.  I looked like a mad scientist with all my calculations on the refrigerator for the conversion of Fahrenheit to Celsius(our oven is Celsius) and substitutions for pumpkin pie seasoning.  I had to estimate 16 ounces of pumpkin puree by holding up a 12 oz dr. pepper can to the clear bowl and try to reason how much an extra four would be.  Also, when making fall cookies with the kids two days ago(before the thought vomit problem) I realized that I have no rolling pin here.  I guess I sold it at one of our yard sales or something.  So, I had to use the small one from the girls play kitchen.  It looks like an alligator on the handles and I had to laugh at myself rolling pie crust with that to the sound of Family Force 5 singing 'My Favorite Things'.  I'm pretty sure that was not the picture at Nanny's house today.
But, we had a happy day and the dinner wasn't too terrible.  It certainly wasn't up to the usual standards but that is part of what makes grandparents so grand.  We miss all of you lots today and hope that your Thanksgiving Day is full of things to be thankful for.