Tuesday: Joshua, again

Amanda: ok, what happened in the beginning of the story?

Joshua: I don't remember

Amanda: what happened in the middle?

Joshua: I don't know

Amanda: What happened at the end?

Joshua: I don't remember.

A: ok, watch the story again so you can answer the questions.

Amanda: ok, what happened in the beginning of the story?

Joshua: I don't remember

Amanda: what happened in the middle?

Joshua: I don't know

Amanda: What happened at the end?

Joshua: I don't remember.

Amanda: well, I need to go to work.  We'll deal with this later.

Four hours later...

Amanda: ok, why don't you watch the story again and...

Joshua: I know some of the answers!

Amanda: what happened at the beginning?

Joshua: gave an answer

Amanda: what happened in the middle?

Joshua: gave an answer

Amanda: what happened at the end?

Joshua: I don't remember that part.

So he watched the last part and was able to answer it.  

Monday: Joshua

 The boys had swimming lessons today.  They both did very well.

Joshua and I played Sleeping Queens.  While we play it on a regular basis, his is the first time he used the addition option to get rid of cards.  I was so proud of him...he worked at it really hard.

Sunday: cooking and phone

 My phone had an update yesterday and now the camera seems to be working!!  I can see the pictures without waiting three minutes and they upload without me having to open the camera app.  Woot woot!!

We did some food stuff today.  Isaac finally made Ben's parfait.  He's wanted to make chex mix for a long time and Joshua's been loving Rice Krispie bars.  We had some extra Rice Krispies, so it worked.

Friday: raspberries

 It was school material pick up day, and so the boys picked some raspberries to give to their teachers.  (Not only is it a healthy gift, we have too many.)  We saw Joshua's teacher and she did a lovely job of thanking him and even showing him the classroom.  She also said that raspberries are her favorites, but her raspberry patch stopped around July.  So I could see some more raspberries in her future.

We didn't see Isaac's teacher, but she recorded a lovely video thanking Isaac for the raspberries and the maze that he had drawn for her.  He worked quite hard on the letter and maze and insisted on picking the raspberries himself, so the video was very much appreciated.

Thursday: book

 I'm reading a book right now that has a spell book as a minor character.  I don't think I've laughed out loud from reading a book this much in a long time.  There is just something about this spell book that tickles my funny bone.  The series is Mage Errant by John Bierce.  I'm on book 4.

Spoiler ahead. (I tried making it disappear like a nice spoiler, but it didn't work easily.  So I just put it far away.)

First, the book is found eating some coals because it wants to spit them out at children.  It thinks this would make it into a dragon.

Later the book is found trying to become a parrot.  The nearby parrots tolerate it.

It doesn't know how to apologize, so it keeps dumping slimy fish on someone.

Wednesday: Happy Pretend Birthday!

This morning Joshua made me rest on the couch while he made my breakfast.  It was perfect.

Isaac's been wanting to do a Pretend Happy Birthday for Ben for a while now.  Ben had a bad day yesterday and Isaac finished school pretty early again today, so I thought that today would be a good option.

There were several decorations and a little moving of furniture so that they could yell "Surprise!"

He even got some birthday presents (tissue paper and a small Lego set).  They gave him a few options of a birthday thing to eat, including a parfait, granola bar, popcorn, or mug cake.  (Joshua went through the whole pantry trying to find something that Ben would like and that is a little healthy.)  Ben picked parfait, but we'll see if the boys remember in the morning.

Tuesday: school

 Joshua has his picture taken with several collections yesterday.

Today he had to retell a story, and could tell it to a lovie, so he chose Spark and to do it in bed.

My classes also went well today.  It was a pivot table practice day, and one of the few days I actually suggest partner work.  Most students chose to partner up, and there was a lovely hum of voices in the room for once.  In the past, there is usually a hum as students work together and talk and try to figure things out together (with the exception of a very notable, very silent class a few years ago).  This year they're not sitting close together and it is really hard to see another's screen, so it just doesn't happen nearly as much.

Sunday: shorts

 I really like summer wear because it takes so long for the boys to grow out of it.

My six year old is still wearing 24m shorts...with darts in them.

To be fair, there have been some shorts lately that have looked too short.  Mostly on Isaac or pajamas on Joshua though.

Friday: in pictures

 Tornado was cute.

Isaac put a bunch of pencil spots on his leg.

The cats sat in the clean laundry.

Grey Bear joined up for a walk "in case something scary" happened.  I'm not sure what was going through his mind, but I'm always happy to have Grey Bear join us.

Thursday: starting them early

 I started Joshua on two monitors today for school.  There was a book he had to listen to and then put 10 animals in the correct order as seen in the book.  I'm not sure that's something that I could do without a lot of back and forth.  I know kindergartners can have a surprising memory, but he got the order wrong once and needed to redo it.  So I set him up so that he could have the story on one and do the activity on the other.

Isaac did an excellent job of keeping himself on track today.  There was a lot of stuff that he wasn't very excited about, but he kept at it without prompting.

I actually made dinner today.  (Actually, I made two dinners but one needs to marinate for a day or so.)  It was a new recipe and way to salty.  Oh well.  I at least tried something different.

Wednesday: masks

 Everyone is wearing masks at Hope.  It's good.  However, I've realized that I'm made assumptions about what the students look like under the mask and when I video chat with them they almost always look different.  It is a weird feeling.  Some faces get wider, some faces get narrower.  Ok, I haven't done a video chat with a ton of students, but enough that it's weird.

I'm giving a quiz tomorrow and it's turning into a small nightmare.  Out of 46 students, I think I'm up to eight (maybe nine?) that can't be in class or can't take it during class.  The plan that I had was good when I just needed to deal with a few students, and it isn't terrible for many students, but I think I need a different one for the next quiz.  The number ballooned rather quickly, catching me off guard.  (Please keep in mind that there are a large variety of reasons for the students to not be in class: they are not all COVID related.  I usually have at least two or three students that need to take it at another time.)

The other news is that Isaac signed his first check today.  It's next to a Lego set that he bought with some of the money and he and Joshua have been playing with it all day.

Tuesday: dress

 Cheryl got me a new dress.  She said it hollered "Amanda" to her and she was completely right.  It has books on it and I cut the style.

In other news, Isaac's teacher is letting me be in charge of his math homework again.  I am going with the slightly easier route of buying a pre-algebra workbook instead of making my own pages.  I know it isn't quite as engaging, but this is what needs to happen this semester.

I also ordered groceries, finally!  The house still has plenty of food, but the shelves are looking more bare than normal.

Monday: meh

 It was just a meh day.  Nothing really bad, nothing really good.  I'm trying to get remote desktop into a PC set up for a Mac and I couldn't figure it out.  It's a bit awkward because everyone I work with has little experience with Macs and almost all the students have macs.  To make the class work with COVID isolation and quarantine in a few weeks I need to have it up and running, but I couldn't get it and CIT was surprisingly unhelpful.  (They're usually great.)  I have the request in to someone else, but feel like a bother.

Isaac had a dentist appointment.  Joshua had karate.  Several of the observers didn't have masks or weren't wearing them correctly and it makes me feel unsafe.  If it continues I'll mention it, but don't really feel like I have the authority to say something.  I just moved to a different location. (People are spread out well, but...)

I feel about two steps behind and that I'm missing something major.  I think rather than that actually being the case it is just how the semester is going to feel.  Multi-tasking is hard.  I'm trying to accomplish teaching-work, house-work, Isaac's school, Joshua's school, and remembering miscellaneous things all at the same time (often very literally).  It's usually more compartmentalized.  If I remind myself of this sometimes maybe it'll help.

Sunday: play

 I moved Isaac's bed into Joshua's room this morning.  I put it at a 90º angle under Joshua's loft.  I was immediately reprimanded by the boys because it wasn't good for jumping.  After being annoyed at them because moving the bed would take up so much floor space I let them do it anyway.  Jumping commenced.

Joshua tried a new recipe today: Crispex with tasty water.  He didn't like it.

We helped Larry and Cheryl move some things from the boat to their house today.  The boys especially loved the wagon.

Saturday: the day

 I started by doing some work around the house.  I'm slowly getting rid of some of the planters on the back deck because they're heavy and they only grow weeds.  I found out today that one of them had three huge rocks in it.  Why?  It made the thing SO heavy when it needed to be moved.  And it was large enough that it wasn't in danger of tipping over.

I then pretended that as long as the washing machine/dryer was running I was doing work and read my book.

We briefly went to the dojang for promotions.  We all got new colors for our belts.  I've heard red is hard...there are a lot of levels in it, but it is the last one before black.

Isaac and I are now Christmas trees for a short while until the red uniforms come in.

We had a rainbow of belts when we got home.

Tonight Isaac and Joshua told me, in stereo, that they both sleep better when the other person is in the room.  This has been the case for Joshua for a long time, but apparently Isaac has been having some bad dreams lately.  (It's apparently going around.  Ben complained of it a few days ago and I woke up three times last night due to bad dreams.  I'll sometimes wake up once, but three is a bit much.)  I think we're going to move Isaac's bed into Joshua's room and see how that goes for a bit.  I don't want to be continually moving the bed, but I also see no reason not to let them sleep together as long as they can get good sleep. 

Friday: absurd

On the only slightly absurd end of the spectrum today, Joshua made a s'more.  Except that it only had two mini marshmellows and a tiny amount of Nutella, so calling it a s'more was a stretch.  He enjoyed it though.

On the more absurd side, Isaac was making a small cup out of Legos.  He put some tape over the Legos to make it water-proof, but it had a small drip in it.  The tape was in his bedroom, so he went into his bedroom to fix it and realized he didn't want water in the cup anymore.  So he poured it on his carpet.  We have been having several water issues with Isaac lately, and every time I say that spilled water is going to ruin something if it isn't cleaned up.  Every time.  Sometimes I yell it.  This time I laughed it.  But I have said it over and over and over again.  His only saving grace was that he told me without me having to pull it out of him. 

Thursday: school

 Joshua had some reading on Epic today.  That is on the Ipad, so he finally got to use the comfy cozy spot in the classroom.

Isaac had a writing assignment that included places that he could write.  He really wanted to do it on the floor, so I let him this time.  Most of the time I've been making him sit at the desk, but there are always times to 'break' the rules.

Tornado (and Horizon) both felt the need to check out the chip cabinet this morning too.

Besides that, the rest of the day went fine.  The normal craziness, but it was a controlled chaos.  I even managed to trim a bush-tree that was hitting the house during windstorms after accusing Dad of not giving our tree cutters back.  He had.  I took them out of the car and put them in the wrong place.  I trimmed the bush-tree in time for yard waste pick up tomorrow, and then realized that due to Labor Day pick up isn't actually until Saturday.

Wednesday: creeper

 There was a creeper at school today.

We also had karate back inside today, since gyms opened back up.  It was busy, but not too busy.  They did a pretty good job of keeping people distanced.  It is much easier to spin on bare feet on the mat than in shoes on asphalt.

Tuesday: survived

 Well, I felt a low level of stress all day.

We were running a minute or two late and then Isaac's computer was SOO slow and then it wouldn't let us join his morning video call.  He had several other technology problems throughout the morning too.  I'm pretty sure once we figure out all the places to put stuff and get stuff we'll be fine, but getting started is difficult.  He also had to post a picture of his spelling before he was allowed to leave a video call, but the instructions needed access approval for some reason so I had no idea how to do it.  The teacher walked us through it (and I realized I had the app on my phone), but ugg.

Joshua's stuff went smoothly.  I'm totally on board with how she organizes stuff, but again, there aren't quite as many different websites that Joshua needs.  So it isn't quite comparing apples to apples.

At 'real' work I gave a small exam.  It went much better than last time, at least in the number of questions during it.  There was one student who stressed me out a little bit for some odd reasons, but we managed.

Isaac did some spelling tonight, after we reviewed some rules for long A and short a yesterday.  He spelled all the words correctly!  I'm not sure I've ever seen him spell so many correctly in a row.  I know it isn't a huge deal, but they also had a spelling assessment today and it was not so good.  (I don't know how many he was expected to get right though, as they seemed to get pretty long near the end.)  I'll take the little victories.

Monday: normal

 It was a rather normal day today.

We had cleaned the basement yesterday, so the boys had put up a running course (immediately).  This morning as I was coming out of the bedroom I saw Joshua run downstairs in his swimsuit.  Then he yelled up, asking where his water shoes were.  I had kind of been hoping to ignore the swimsuit, but couldn't quite ignore the water shoes.  They know they shouldn't go to the beach without at least telling us, either.

It turned out that Isaac was adding a water feature to the course, and so when Joshua was on a certain pillow he got wet.

It wasn't as sopping wet as I feared, but it was wet enough to put in the sun to dry.  The carpet was relatively dry.  We had a discussion (for what seems like the second or third time this week) about how water causes damage to stuff easily.  I'm not holding my breath that it has sunk in yet.

Saturday: to do list

 This is what half of my to-do list looks like:

*Clean front porch
*Clean storage area
*Clean office

At this rate I might as well put on "clean the whole house" because it would get done about as quickly as the individual rooms.

Friday: out

Isaac has been wanting to go to a specific playground for a while.  He wasn't able to do it with the babysitter yesterday so we went this morning.  It was cool out, so we were all in long sleeves and long pants.

 

We haven't seen Ben much lately, but he invited us out for lunch.  It was the first time we've been to a restaurant for quite some time too.  There was a tornado warning practice, and Joshua thought about tornados the rest of the day.  I wouldn't say he was worried, but he wasn't not worried either.

Thursday: made it

 I made it through the day.  It was a pretty easy day, but I'm now exhausted.  Isaac and Joshua both did a good job of figuring out what needed to be done in a few cases and just doing it.  It also helped that it was a short day and there wasn't any writing.

Wednesday: second day of school

Day 2 is in the books.

Kindergarten still went well.  Joshua had a bit more work than yesterday, but was still finished around 11.  He also made Grey Bear a hat to match his.

Isaac had a slightly more challenging time.  He had more work than yesterday, and there was a lot of writing.  He's slow at writing.  The non-writing parts went well, the writing parts were a struggle.  I'm also now talking with his teacher a bit about his spelling, because he's a bit behind.  It's a bit awkward, because I need to be involved more at a time I'd normally mostly let things run their course.  Everyone survived with minimal tears.  The teacher was also posting to-do items throughout the morning which felt awkward to me.  I think we need to change our way of thinking a bit and instead of following the to-do list she gives every day follow what is available and just make sure we've done everything at the end.

I even got the kitchen cleaned up.  Just in time for lunch, so it's a bit of a mess again, but at least the dishwasher was run.

Tuesday: first day of school

Welcome to the first day of school...at home.

Kindergarten went well.  Joshua was medium excited and all of his class stuff was well organized.  He needed help with the transitions, but that was expected.

Isaac's first day of  3rd grade went ok.  The assignments weren't quite as organized.  (There were a few times we were like, 'ok, he watched the video.  What is he supposed to do with that?')  There were a few links that didn't work either, although those got fixed pretty quickly.  To be fair, Isaac has more interesting websites that were used and classmates that can type, which fills up the chat window faster but also makes one page more cluttered.

The kitties enjoyed being back in the school room and honestly, made a small nuisance of themselves.  If it continues one or the other may be banished to a different room.  Oh, also shown is Isaac reading in our comfy cozy spot.

The chrome books were a bit annoying.  They go to sleep after about 30 minutes of inactivity and then you need to start everything over...any tabs that may have been opened are gone.  This only happened once today, but if it happens on a regular basis I might call the help desk and see if I can get it changed.  The chrome books were nice though in that they go right to a page with links.  We were also done around 10:45 (although Isaac had one more class at 11:45).  It was a bit earlier than I was hoping for, but it was also only the first day.  There's also no specials, so we might add some of those in ourselves.  I was able to get some work done, but it was rather interrupted.  I'm hoping Isaac will be able to eventually figure out a lot on his own, but I expect Joshua will continue to need help.  Which is fine, I just need to plan my work appropriately.

I'm expecting house work will suffer even more than it has in the last two weeks while I've been working.  As normal, I feel like I'm just adding things to my to-do list instead of actually doing them.