Spring Break: Monday

Monday was the first day of Spring break for the Kawell household! Since Daddy is a professor, he gets Spring break off too, so (ah, the freedom of home-schooling) we take the same week off that he does.

The big Spring Break Project this year is the building of a tree house in the back yard. The tree was selected and the boys decided to build it off the pattern in The Dangerous Book for Boys (an incredible book by the way). Our good friends the Harpers, who have been renovating an old farm house and the fields around it, offered to do a trade. They would give us all the wood we could carry if we would come help them out on a few projects around the farm. It was a fun day! The biggest job was the burning of a huge pile of old wood in the middle of one of the fields.

Now this is a huge pile. Literally whole trees were stacked on top of each other waiting for the match!

It was quite a fire!

As you can see from this picture, the pile was truly out in the middle of a field surrounded by green grass and not much else. But when you're burning such old, dry wood the heat gets pretty intense and we had our job cut out  to keep it contained when a flaming piece of wood flew out and sparked a fire near an old oak. Thankfully, a pond was nearby and after a lot of yelling and stamping we put it out. Fire is a terrifyingly powerful force!

The charred logs look like a heap of old bones.

After spending most of the day, we piled a trailer full of boards from the farm's old sheds and drove home pretty well tired out!

Broken Bone

Well, the Kawell clan just experienced our second broken bone. Jack broke his arm playing basketball a couple years ago, and now it's Nathan's turn. Wednesday, at a friend's house, he... um... fell and broke his arm. Only readers who know boys will understand how it happened. The twins and Nathan were clowning around outside when someone had the idea that Jack could tie Christopher and Nathan up together, back to back. The idea worked flawlessly until they lost their balance and Nathan fell underneath his heavier older brother, effectively breaking both bones in his right arm. Mama rushed him off to the hospital while our sweet friends worked out a way to get the rest of us where we needed to be that afternoon. Nathan had to go under anesthesia to get it set, but he was awake and alert by that evening and came home from the hospital the next day.

 

It was a bad break. Both bones in his arm snapped and doctors were impressed by his courage.

The little invalid!

His room was gorgeous. Alabama is where all the great celebrities and sports stars come for broken bones, and the nurse told Nathan that he was next door to  an NFL player! There was a separate room too, with couches and another flat-panel television!

The desk and television in the main room.

And this is the brave brother! Jack, being the only sibling to have broken a bone before, went along in the long ride to the hospital to support Nathan's arm and courage.

    

Nathan is doing very well now, this morning he says that he feels nearly no pain!

If you are up to it the next posting is of the x-ray.

Not for the faint of heart!

This is the x-ray from Nathan's broken arm. As you can see, he broke both bones, then the back pair slid on top of the front pair. If there had been any ligaments or muscle in between the two, he would have required surgery to clean out the area before setting the bones, but praise God, that was not necessary! The break was also clean enough to not require any screws or poles.

The object at the top of the right hand photo is the doctor's hand holding Nathan's.

Update

Three inches! That's how much rain is in the gauge this morning! It's been drizzling since yesterday morning, a fine, slow drizzle, beautiful to see in the middle of this drought. The birds were bursting their little lungs with singing this morning, and a whole flock landed in our yard! It's truly amazing to see so many creatures all alike and all together, pouring from tree to tree.

Well, that's a nice thought, but it isn't much of an update. Let's see, what's new around here? Oh yes: Jesse, Samuel and Christopher played in the Solo Festival (piano competition) last Saturday and they all received the highest possible score: Superior! And of course, I must mention that Chris received a Superior plus! We're so proud of all of them. And I (Abby), having spent four days at the DMV, finally got my driver's license! Yes, I've had the permit for a year, but after my sixteenth birthday, I was old enough to get the real license to drive alone. Of course, having spent four days in a government-run place like that, I feel like I'm nearly eighteen! But everyone is happy to have me driving, especially Jesse, who is pleased that I am now able to shuttle myself to and from the grocery store for eggs and milk and that-strange-spice-that-he's-never-heard-of-but-is-absolutely-crucial-to-my-new-recipe! (BTW: not all grocery stores stock ground Coriander seed!)

But aside from those two things, nothing is really new around here, except, of course, the rain!

Ice Skating

Last Saturday, we went ice skating as a final celebration of my (Abby's) birthday!

Photos courtesy of Daddy!

Isn't this a great picture of Jack?

Nathan caught on quickly.

 

The Kawell Klub!

Here is another cool picture. Sam looks like he's imitating Christopher!

A photo finish!

Abigail's birthday

Abigail turned 16 on the second! Here are a few pictures.

Waking the birthday girl!

 

Mama and Mrs. Wheatly talk during gift opening.

 

A mini dvd player from the boys!

A puppy and kitten calendar!

Blueberry and whipped cream cheesecake for dessert.

Happy birthday!

A Kawell school day

This is a writing assignment that a good friend of ours completed after spending a school day with our family.


With eight people under one roof, the Kawell household is constantly booming with a cacophony of sounds. With the ceiling shaking above us and the dryer squawking loudly, Abigail Kawell, the only girl of the six sibling, explained that breakfast is usually the most clamorous time of the day, because the radio is blasting and everyone is yelling over each other. Everyone else agreed with her. "Someone’s always talking… or making music,” shouted Mrs. Kawell over the sound of someone playing the piano. Even as I’m writing now, she is calling out across the house, asking who is where and what they are doing. Between the melodies of piano practice, the stomping of feet, the drone of school lessons, and the humming of a vacuum, I managed to ask everyone’s opinion on the noisy, chaotic days in the Kawell house. To sum them all up, it’s not peaceful when you live with eight people, But they all agreed that they enjoy it.


By Ashley Tucker