Sunday, January 4, Monday, January 5, and Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Chase and Mama worked on a a school project on Sunday evening. Everybody in both classes had the assignment of making a recipe from a different country or a different part of the USA. Chase chose Miso Ramen from Japan. During the Christmas break, Chase and Mama went shopping at World Market and Trader Joe's to get all the international ingredients they needed for the recipe. Chase did the grating and chopping and a lot of the other work. Nanaw came over to watch and that was a lot of fun for her. Chase was very excited about the project. They all had the Miso Ramen for dinner, and it was a success. Nanaw only ate a couple of bites because the Ramen noodles have gluten in them, and she's trying to avoid gluten. Chase read a list to Mama and Nanaw of what his classmates had chosen to make, and there were some interesting sounding recipes. On Monday morning, Chase took the crockpot with the Miso Ramen into the garden level at church. That was where they were going to have the big tasting event. Nanaw went along with him to open the door. She got to say hello to the teacher, Mrs. T. and tell her what fun Chase and his mom had had making the recipe. Nanaw also told Mrs. T. that her favorite-sounding recipe was Lorelei's black forest cake, and Mrs. T. agreed. Mama sent Nanaw a picture from the school Facebook page of Chase and his friends (the crew) sitting around a table and trying out the food and rating what they were eating. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told how much fun the project was and how he was still full. He told Nanaw there was only one dish he didn't like but he didn't tell her what it was. On Tuesday, Chase had lots of homework. Wednesday is the last day of the quarter so the teachers are trying to get in additional grades. The main thing Chase had to study for was a final exam in science, covering six chapters. He brought home the science books to study from. They could only find two of the past six science tests so they decided to concentrate on the study guides in the books. They got through studying the six chapters, and Nanaw instructed Chase to go over them again Tuesday night, and he said okay. He also has to finish his vocabulary assignment that's due tomorrow and turn in the worksheet for chapter 4 of the Christmas Carol. So far he has all A's and A-'s as his final grades. The A-'s are in reading, science and religion.