What Fortune Cookies and the Word “Vale” Have in Common

Last night I looked at R and said I wanted Chinese food.  He looked at me and said he did too.  Forty minutes later, it was sitting in our downstairs living room waiting to be gobbled up after the kids went to bed.  I was really excited.  The restaurant we picked had a pupu platter which was on my must have list.  We also had sesame chicken and sweet and sour pork.

Yes, my mom has me laying on a purple blanket.

I piled it onto my plate and was beyond excited by the contraband I was about to devour.  It was disgusting.  I have never tasted such chewy, overly salty with a hint of chemical flavoring food before.  How disappointing!  The only thing that ended up being worthwhile was the white rice, and it was actually very good.  I don’t know if it was just a bad restaurant or we are so removed from restaurant food, but it was a sad day.  I love Chinese food.

I didn’t completely give up on our Chinese experience though!  I still had those cute little cookies with oddly relevant messages hidden inside!  I ate two of them (Yup. TWO).  The first fortune read, “Your mind is creative, original, and smart”.  Why thank you!  The second fortune read, “You are demonstrative with your love”.  Wait a minute.  I don’t conclusively know what demonstrative means, which means my first fortune is a bust.  That means my second one is probably a bust too, which makes for three let downs in one night.  That’s fine, fortune cookies.  Who needs you anyway!  You didn’t even taste that good.

Caught snuggled up with his favorite book.

On a much healthier, refreshing sort of note, we started Latin today using the Song School Latin curriculum.  I took Latin in 7th and 8th grade and think it proved to be invaluable.  It helped a lot with vocabulary (but dropped the ball with “demonstrative”…come on!) and history.  To be frank, I have a lot of fond memories of the whole experience which makes the idea of teaching Latin very charming.  In my class, we made grape juice like Lucile Ball, pressing grapes with our feet.  We made models of Pompeii homes, and we even had a big celebration at the end of the year complete with servants, floor pillows, and lots of grapes and olives.

So anyway, we started Latin today and I wasn’t sure how well it was going to go over with the kids.  As it turns out, they LOVED it.  We learned a basic understanding of the Latin alphabet, basic pronunciation, and four new words, all by singing a few songs and reading along in a workbook.  H greeted R when he got home with a very welcoming, “Salve, Daddy!”  When we saw H and R off to gymnastics, the boys were yelling, “Vale!” to them out the window.  Sure enough, when I tucked the boys into bed, more “Vale”s were thrown my way.  Way to go, Song School Latin!  You seem to have enraptured the minds of my little ones.  I will take it!

Showing off the kid-made coffee cake by standing right in front of it.

With that said, I will close with one last comment.  Vale Chinese food.  Never again will you come near my lips, at least until next time when you have become a distant memory and I crave you once again.

P.S.  Don’t mind the completely irrelevant pictures.  Sometimes a good dose of randomness can be good.

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