Homemade guitar and sick kids

 On Tuesday Charlotte read a story for a school assignment on her iPad that included some kids making homemade guitars and drums to make a band. So Charlotte decided she really wanted to make her own guitar. I kept telling her she had to wait until she got her other school work done. It wasn't until after dinner that she got to work finding materials to build one. She found an empty Ramen Noodle box with the plastic still covering most of it and used that for her base with red construction paper taped on it. I was busy compiling a new playlist for some Christmas music on my phone so she just decided to do it herself. It wasn't until she was cutting out pieces for the neck that I started to help because her hands were getting tired of cutting through the thick cardboard. She basically designed it herself and I just helped with a few ideas for the string. We were out of box tape and clear scotch tape so we used duct tape, which is stronger anyway! We didn't get to bed until after 10pm that night but since she didn't have school the next day it was just fine. It was fun to watch her build this and to see how much she could do on her own. Sometimes I get a little too involved and sometimes take over too much so it was good that I was busy doing something else for awhile so that she could build her own crafting skills.

We used fishing line for the strings so they're really hard to see but there's four of them.

 She has since added more tape because the red construction paper kept tearing. Then I was having her practice some sight words yesterday and she started writing sight words on her guitar. Funny girl! Hopefully it helps her learn them!

Well, our van is still at the shop and it's been a big blessing to be able to use my in laws truck. They don't use it a lot. We're expecting the van to be done today but it's about an hour from closing and I have no idea how close they are to finishing. Crossing my fingers.

Jack had stayed home from school on Tuesday because he had the sniffles and a little cough. He was starting to feel better Tuesday evening and Wednesday but then he started playing around too much and started coughing and making it worse again. So today he stayed home again along with Nikki and Charlotte. Nikki had thrown up on Monday after getting home from school but she only did it once and slowly felt better. Tuesday she felt great and even went to work but then yesterday (Wednesday) she started getting the sniffles as well. Her friend Logan had come over and they made some chocolate mug cakes to eat. I told her that probably wasn't the best thing to be eating when she had the sniffles because of all the sugar in it but she didn't care. They also went on a walk afterwards in the cold air. I also warned her that she shouldn't be out very long because she has the sniffles (really shouldn't be outside at all). She slowly started feeling worse after that and when she woke up this morning she had a sinus headache. I've been giving her sinus congestion/headache medicine regularly today and let her sleep most of the day. That seemed to help since her headache is gone and she's feeling better. Hopefully she'll learn from this. There's reasons moms tell their kids not to do things, lol.

As for Charlotte, I debated on whether to send her to school or not. Last night Charlotte, Alice and I decided to go play in the garage after dinner to get some exercise since I had just swept it out earlier today. It was cold but not as cold as being outside and I did bring the heater out and turned it on full blast. Unfortunately the heater is one that is slow to heat up so it didn't do a lot of good but some. I rode Jack's scooter around while the girls switched from skates to scooters to bikes. We brought our radio out and listened to The Polar Express. It was a great time but I think maybe we overdid it a little because when we were putting the girls to bed Charlotte started coughing. This morning she was a little stuffy at first and coughed a little. I kept asking her how she felt and she said she felt like coughing but I think she was just saying that so that she could stay home. After breakfast I didn't hear her cough or even sniffle all day long but I figure it's better to be safe than sorry. Usually her asthma flares up when she gets a cough from a cold. She's been fine all day and acting totally normal, thankfully.  I was able to get her work from school that her teacher sent to the front office so she wouldn't be too far behind when she went back to school again, which will be Monday. 

Garrett was the only one that went to school today. He's one that would prefer going to school every day because band is so much more fun at school and I think he learns more when he's there. I think it also helps that he's in two band classes this year, concert band and jazz band. He has steadily improved on his drumming skills. I love listening to him play! 

Since Charlotte was doing some homework papers for school today I got a preschool workbook out for Alice to do a few pages in. I think I've had this workbook since Jack was in preschool. It just hardly gets used because most of the time the kids would not be interested, so I seized the opportunity while I could. Alice is loving preschool and I can see the difference. She's speaking more words and can count to 4 by herself. She'll even color more with crayons. She's also learning to memorize my phone number. Thankfully she has had no signs of sickness and hopefully it stays that way!