IAC Results Sessions 590-594

 The following referrals were issued in IAC session 590 which was held on September 13, 2023:

1) Spanish dossier from September 2016 referred a male child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from July 2022 referred two sisters aged 4 years and 7 months & 7 years and 4 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from August 2023 referred a male child aged 4 years and 3 months with features in health status

4) US dossier from September 2023 referred an identified waiting child

5) US dossier from September 2023 referred an identified waiting child

6) US dossier from September 2023 referred an identified waiting child

 The following referrals were issued in IAC session 591 which was held on September 28, 2023:

1) Spanish dossier from May 2015 referred a female child aged 2 years and 5 months with features in health status

2) US dossier from April 2019 referred twins, male and female, aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from December 2020 referred three sisters (twins and single child) aged 2 years and 11 months & 3 years and 10 months with features in health status and a family history

4) US dossier from August 2023 referred a male child aged 1 year and 10 months with features in health status

5) US dossier from September 2023 referred an identified waiting child

6) US dossier from September 2023 referred an identified waiting child

 The following referrals were issued in IAC session 592 which was held on October 5, 2023:

1) Italian dossier from January 2015 referred a female child aged 10 years and 6 months with features in health status and a family history

2) Italian dossier from March 2016 referred a female child aged 8 years and 8 months with features in health status

 The following referrals were issued in IAC session 593 which was held on October 19, 2023:

1) Italian dossier from April 2014 referred a male child aged 4 years and 9 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from February 2016 referred a female child, age not disclosed, with features in health status

3) US dossier from July 2022 referred a male child aged 3 years and 3 moths with features in health status and a family history

4) Canadian dossier from December 2022 referred a female child aged 1 year and 4 months with features in health status

5) Italian dossier from February 2023 referred sisters aged 6 years and 10 months & 8 years and 10 months with features in health status

6) US dossier from September 2023 referred three identified waiting children

7) US dossier from October 2023 referred an identified waiting child

 The following referrals were issued in IAC session 594 which was held on October 26, 2023:

1) Cyprus dossier from January 2016 referred a male child aged 7 years and 2 months, healthy

2) Italian dossier from April 2016 referred a female child aged 1 year and 3 months, healthy

3) French dossier from March 2021 referred a male child aged 7 years and 4 months with features in health status

4) US dossier from February 2023 referred a female child aged 6 years and 1 month with features in health status

5) US dossier from July 2023 referred a male child aged 1 year and 11 months with features in health status and a family history

6) US dossier from October 2023 referred an identified waiting child

7) Italian dossier from October 2023 referred three identified waiting children

Sourdough

Something I've always wanted to try is bake with sourdough so for Christmas 2022, I got a dry starter and on January 1, 2023, I began to activate it.  Thus started a Bubba Blue like journey to all things sourdough.

Here are some of my creations.

Sourdough bread

Sourdough coffee cake

Sourdough pizza

Sourdough biscuits

Sourdough focaccia

Sourdough pancakes with baked apples and whipped cream

More sourdough bread

Sourdough lemon cake

More sourdough pizza

Sourdough breakfast rolls with dark chocolate

And sourdough Christmas cinnamon rolls

As Bubba Blue says in the movie, "That's about it."

Road Trip October 2023

We embarked on our longest road trip yet - 2509 miles - and it was a success.

Departing home early on October 20, we arrived that afternoon in Lancaster County, PA to spend a couple of days with our friends for our annual autumn getaway.  As always those too short hours included lots of good talks, delicious food, campfires, and the search for the perfect pumpkins.  This year we also had basketball, a fall hike, and Amish icecream.

On October 23, we hopped back into the van and made our way toward Boston.  As I think I have mentioned before, Craig and I have a goal of visiting all 50 states and while we have been able to check some Northeastern states off our list, this was our chance to knock off the rest and let the kids expand their own lists.  

On the way to Boston we stopped in Connecticut to pick apples (in order for a state to count we have to do something in that state - just driving through is not enough).  Craig and I had been to Connecticut a long time ago when I was a summer camp counselor at Yale University, but we figured why not make a quick excursion to let Connecticut count for the kids on this trip, too.

On Monday evening, we reached our trip's VRBO home base where we met our friends from Germany whom we had not seen in six years.  They traveled from Berlin just to be with us.

October 24: Kittery Point, Maine (Fort McClary); lunch at River House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where the epic cat drawing contest went down in history; and Salem, Massachusetts

October 25: Freedom Trail in Boston

October 26: Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts and lunch/shopping in Vermont

October 27: Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower and Newport, Rhode Island

The two days it took driving back home after all of these great adventures were pretty rough, but it was worth it for many reasons.  We were really proud of how the kids held up through so much daily activity and had a wonderful time re-connecting with our friends.  

Thirty-five states down, fifteen to go.

The Lottery

Our first short story for the high school home school literature class was The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.  I read this story in college and since Big Girl likes horror movies, I thought why not dive into a sort of horror story.  With The Lottery we had the following assignments - trying to write this without too many spoilers:

1) Comprehension and analysis questions, including the concepts of superstition, authority, continuity, fear

2) Writing an obit for one of the characters

3) Writing a front page newspaper article about the annual event

4) Comparing and contrasting the lottery with the reaping in The Hunger Games

5) An essay explaining why even children are included in the tradition of the lottery

6) Watching the 1996 movie inspired by the short story

For the rest of November we will be studying the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson and then we'll slow down a bit in December with some holiday selections (The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry and Robert Frost's winter/Christmas poems).

During her Christmas break, Big Girl will be reading Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, so she's ready to roll with that big unit at the start of January.

Understand Her

 

Emily Dickinson

After reading and studying Eli Wiesel's Night in September (and yes, I do realize that Wiesel was European, but he lived in the US for a long time), we moved on to the poetry of Emily Dickinson for October in our US Lit high school home school class.  While Big Girl had access to the entire collection of Dickinson's work, I chose six specific poems to analyze further.  In the process of doing so, we learned about Emily Dickinson's biography, slant rhymes, critical literary lenses, and new vocab.  Among others, there were a compare and contrast assignment, an assignment to re-write a poem into today's language, an assignment to write at least one original poem in Dickinson's style, and an assignment to create a piece of visual art that represents one of the poems.  We watched the movie Wild Nights with Emily and as the grand finale (a surprise to Big Girl), we visited Amherst, MA, including the Emily Dickinson House and Museum.

In November we will spend some time comparing Dickinson's work to her contemporary Ralph Waldo Emerson's and also read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson as our first short story selection for the class.  Big Girl likes horror movies, so this story seemed fitting to introduce on Day of the Dead.

Under One Roof

Big Girl was once again a participant at the Under One Roof community art exhibit at our Jewish Community Center.  This event is held annually in celebration of Sukkot.  This year we even managed to attend the reception and enjoy the art, music, food and company.

The 2023 theme was Dream

We're enjoying watching Big Girl explore her artistic voice and talents and are excited about what the future holds.