Classrooms and labs! Loud boiling test tubes! Sing to the Lord a new song! Athlete and band! Loud cheering people! Sing to the Lord a new song! He has done marvelous things, I too will praise Him with a new song! (hymn #817-LSB , verse 5)
Greetings, once again, from Pretoria-
WOHOO!!! The grade 6 Science Expo is finished! At the beginning of the school year Abigail was told she needed to pick a project for a Science Expo that would be happening at the end of August. There was much debate in this family as to what she was going to do. I am not one for anything Science and so gave suggestions that would be easy to do with items that would be easy to find. Glenn just wanted to do chickens, which was fine by me as long as he helped Abigail. That didn’t go over to well so Abby took one of my easy, boring ideas and ran with it. Ok, she sort of crawled very slowly with it. The last two weeks she has been working hard on her project and if it could have gone wrong it did.
Which battery will last the longest? That was Abby’s question for her expo. She started out with a cheap flashlight and 4 different types of batteries. The duracel batteries burned out the light bulb on her flashlight and started to smell and leak. So, I bought her another flashlight of the same brand. Once again all the other batteries were fine but the duracel wrecked the flashlight. We thought maybe this was due to the fact that she was using an energizer brand flashlight so I bought her another cheap brand flashlight. No luck. Those duracel batteries wrecked the flashlight. If that wasn’t enough Abigail would forget to keep track of her flashlight and the light would go out and she wouldn’t know when it happened or how long it had been out so she was always having to start over from the beginning. I was getting tired of always having to buy new batteries. Then Glenn came up with the brilliant idea of having four flashlights all going at the same time plus one extra with a maglite (or a really expensive good lightbulb from a really good expensive flashlight) lightbulb to see what the duracel batteries would do. This time everything went well except for the pictures she had taken with my camera. For some reason they were deleted. We are not sure who the culprit was but Abby had to retake her pictures, after the experiment was all over. So, which battery does last the longest. That would be energizer. Even with the good lightbulb the duracel batteries went out after four hours while the energizer batteries lasted about 6 hours. The other batteries Abby used were Eveready and PNP (store brand). The energizer battery does out last, or shall I say out shine, all other batteries, according to Abby’s experiment.
On the day of the Expo Abby had to give a “speech” to those who were evaluating the projects. In other words, she needed to “sell” her project. She did not do too well on this. Her project was well done but her speech needed some work. She even had to give her speech to grade 6 parents on the night of the Expo who also evaluated her. She needed someone next to her giving her advice on her to “sell” her project and not be “shy”. Glenn had gone with her but he was too busy walking around evaluating everyone else’s projects. However, we are very proud of Abigail because she put the time and effort in and did a great job. I included a picture of Abby and her Science Expo.
I am feeling the freedom. In order to not have Eliana “cry out” as an infant I substituted nursing with a sippy cup full of milk. For over a year I would get up about every two hours and give Eliana a cup with milk in it. I didn’t “ween” her from this earlier because of all the changes that were happening in her life. I knew she and I both would need for her to have this comfort. However, we have been stable for 9 months now and it was time. But, it was not just the milk in the middle of the night that was taken from her. I also took away diapers. For about 2 weeks I got up with her once to have her pee in the potty but now I don’t have to get up. I don’t have to get up for milk, water or toilet. It is a really nice, freeing feeling. I am loving being diaper free, finally!
Some news about the work side of this family. The LTS (Lutheran Theological Seminary in Pretoria) hosted women for a deaconess program that was done by Grace Rao and sponsored by Lutheran World Relief and Human Care. It was a two week intensive and from what I understand the women worked hard, read, wrote papers, and were taught how to do an exegesis on a passage of scripture. It was an intense learning experience for everyone. Also, Professor John Pless from Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne was here teaching a two week course for the advanced students. I included pictures with the letter plus Glenn posted something on our website (www.flueggefamily.com)
Other tidbits of information. Samuel is at his first dance tonight. I hope he is having a good time. Glenn left today (Aug. 31) for a pastors conference and I am not exactly sure where it is being held. I don’t have enough information for you at this time. I am sure he will post something on the blog when he gets back. Caleb has his robotics competition this weekend and Sunday is the first day of my Bible Study. Also, on the 28th of Aug. we attended another game night. This time it was not at our house. Glenn won two games of Settler of Cattan and so is still lord. Someone needs to beat him. \”/ Jesse’s teacher is really proud of him because he can do 96 piece puzzles now. At the beginning of the year he cried if he had to do even a 5 piece puzzle. Go Jesse! I do believe I have come the end of what I can remember to share. Happy Fall. I hope you all enjoy the cooler weather as I am thoroughly enjoying the warmer weather on my side of the world. Also, I did read through this letter but it is late and I am tired so I know I have left out words and for that I apologize.
In Christ
Susan Fluegge
(Glenn, Samuel, Abigail, Caleb, Jesse, Eliana)
