Saturday: Happy Halloween

 We had mummy dogs for dinner.

For Halloween we did an in-the-dark candy hunt.  I got way too much candy, but it was fun.  Isaac found a lot more candy than Joshua, but at the same time Joshua sometimes left candy for Isaac to find.  They boys got more candy than normal, but their treat boxes have been pretty empty and needed to be refilled.

Friday: out and about

Th people at karate kindly let us come to use their obstacle course again.  The boys were so excited when we pulled up.

We got the climbing wall out because Isaac wanted to climb.  But then it was Joshua that went up it a bunch of times.

 Isaac started making a fort and it was quite the thing by the end.

After that we went to the library.  There were a slightly absurd number of holds for us, but holds work so well!

Joshua played his first thumb war today and cracked up.

Thursday: suprise!

So with "all that" extra time that we had today, we moved around furniture in our bedroom.  It was super easy to get the kids to help, which was nice.  The bed went from the right side of the picture to in front of the window.  We don't use this window for much, other then telling if we should get up because it's sunny, so we'll see how it goes.

 

Both boys decided this bed-moving surprise needed more surprises for Ben!  Joshua made a little Lego boxes with messages that he tried to sound out but were completely unreadable.  (They were cute, and once we were told what the message was we could see his thinking behind them, more or less.)  Isaac made a rocket that spun around and said "Dad" on one side and "USA" on the other.  It took him a while, but it was pretty cool.

I'm not sure I love the layout, but can always change it if needed.

Wednesday: busy

It was a busy day today.  (Today's business means tomorrow isn't quite so busy though, so it works out.)

Joshua wanted to hold the cat.  I didn't see until just now that Tornado's tongue is sticking out.  That really is how he felt about the whole situation.

I had to play a math game with Joshua working on even numbers.  It was the most boring game ever, but Joshua was so cute.  He explained all the rules to me (several times) and how to make tally marks and what the diagonal one means, etc.

This picture shows my amazing multi-tasking.  I'm making soup (although the instapot and I did not get along later), proctoring an exam, and trying to help Isaac make a chocolate lollipop.  His chocolate wasn't melting well though, and I'm not really sure why.  Our microwave has been weird with melting butter before, so I'm wondering if this is the same thing.

At karate tonight it was dress up in your Halloween costume, and then they went around to different stations, did some sort of exercise, and got a treat.  It was perfect, especially since we won't be doing any trick-or-treating outside the house this year.

They also got to stay up late, in their costumes, to play a special game of Dominion.

Tuesday: pets

 Spark has faithfully been going back and forth between my night stand and Joshua's bed.  I'm starting to get more attached.  Joshua's plan might be working.

Tornado was on the ground begging for pets and Isaac was doing this awkward 'watch the computer on the desk and pet the cat on the floor.'  So I put Tornado in Isaac's lap, and he stayed for a bit.  However, Tornado's expression cracked me up..."what did you just do to me?"

Monday: reading

 I read way too long last night.  So I wore my "I read too much t-shirt", even though I had to cover it up because it's cold out.

Sunday: threat

Ben and I had Joshua pinned on the bed.  His threat to Ben if he wasn't let go?  "If you don't let me go I'm going to make a hole at the end of the universe and throw you into it!"

We let him go.

Saturday: Groceries and Spark

 I got my own groceries today.  It was nice, although my phone gave me a few issues.  It was nice to look at all the options and pick the best, not dealing with someone if they were out of the exact thing.  (There was no toilet bowl cleaner and no bake tortillas.)  The grocery store also decided to restock in the middle of the morning, which seemed a bit like a foolish decision to me...Saturday morning is already busy, so why add extra boxes and extra people to the mix?

Yesterday I told Joshua that Spark was ready to go sleep with him again.  Instead of just taking him back, Joshua said I needed to ask Spark how long Spark wanted to stay with Joshua.  So I asked last night, after Ben reminded me, and unsurprisingly the answer was he wanted to stay with Joshua for all the nights.  When I told this to Joshua, Joshua somehow decided immediately that it wasn't a good solution and Spark would go back and forth every night.  This means that Spark's holder gets to stay in my room. This was not quite the answer I was looking for.  I love Grey Bear more, although I suppose the Spark is starting to grow on me a little bit.

Friday: It's Friday!

Today was packet pick-up at school.  Both boys wanted to say hi to their teachers and give them a small something, but the teachers were only available 20 minutes apart.  So we packed lunches and had them in the car while waiting.  Joshua was very excited to use his new lunch box, and I realized how nice it's been to not have to pack lunches!!

 

Cheryl got the boys some new clothes earlier this week.  They've been wearing the matching pajamas every day, but finally did their requested photo shoot.  (The footie pajamas were the clothing item that both of them cared the most about.  I've had to resole most of them, and Joshua just managed to wear another hole through the resole.  Luckily I have plenty of soft scrap fabirc.)

Thursday: Brain challenge

 Joshua was challenging his brain during one of his group meetings today, trying to sound out words.  (He told me that he was helped with key.) (The top one is leaf, not IEF)

Wednesday: this and that

 Well, last night after being so tired I couldn't fall asleep.  I wasn't even thinking about anything important or distressing or even new, but my brain refused to turn off.  It was rather annoying.

Isaac finished all his work today before lunch.  Joshua didn't quite finish, but he takes more and longer breaks than Isaac does.  He only had about 15 minutes left anyway.  

We had lunch with Cheryl and the boys were so talkative!  Not really about anything interesting, but they chatted away naming all the "How to train your dragon" characters and describing their dragons...Joshua's memory surprises me sometimes.  

I did get to take a nice nap.  A bunch of other things didn't get done because of it, but I got the most critical things done.  The nap was the next most important. :D

Tuesday: tired

I'm tired.

Isaac's computer wasn't working this morning, and of course the first thing he needs to do is log on for a video call.  I had him on my computer while I restarted his computer about four times before it connected well to the internet.  I'm pretty sure the problem is his computer; my laptop and Joshua's computer seem to work fine.

Then Isaac had a reading assessment.  They do it by having a bunch of kids on the video call read out loud.  Each student only takes about three minutes, but it adds up when there are 15 students.  This is the second time it's happened and the second time Isaac's been about last.  The teacher suggests reading while waiting, but it really isn't that easy to read while someone else is reading out loud and you need to listen for your name.  So I had his headphones on so that Isaac could do other work.  I can get work done with that background noise, but it meant that I was stuck on my computer instead of doing the other things I had planned for that first hour.  (I still got important stuff done so I shouldn't complain too loudly, but still.)

The rest of the day really went fine, it was just busy.  There was a short break after work before doing some more work and a twenty minute break after dinner.  And, of course, once the boys were in bed I was done working too.  That's how it usually goes, although not always.

I've been trying to pick raspberries for days now and it keeps not working well.  Either I get too cold after going through half the patch, it's raining, or it's too dark.  However, since it's so cold I figure the raspberries won't really go bad like they would during the summer.  There also aren't as many, the peak of the crop has definitely passed, but there's still a decent amount.

Joshua needed to take a picture of Pokeball to reference as he made a paper Pokeball for me.  I'm not sure why he couldn't just reference Pokeball itself, but that apparently wasn't an option.

Monday: decisions

 Well, we made a decision.  We're going to keep doing virtual school for the next trimester.

Most of September I wasn't expecting this decision.  Things were looking stable and at least under controlish.  But there is now community spread.  Some things that were were worried about in August might not apply any more, but numbers are still going up and we've just hit the beginning of winter/Thanksgiving/Christmas and several factors that we considered in August are still applicable.  Virtual school also isn't going too poorly.  Isaac gets more time to do his work, so if he needs to go slowly sometimes it's ok.  Joshua still loves his teacher.  The whole pace of the day is somewhat slower (for the boys) which isn't bad at all.  They're learning fine.  They don't have as much social interaction as they would in school, but neither is anyone else.

So I think this continues to be a good decision for us.  The boys are fine with it.  I still understand why parents would send their children to school and think that can be a good decision too.  

Here's to another four months at home.  (Although note my lack of an exclamation point.)

Saturday: things

The garage refrigerator is up and running!  I'm super excited because it makes leftovers so much easier to deal with.  It also means that we don't need to restock pop in the fridge.

Isaac made new rules for Sleeping Queens.  The game wasn't exactly fun, but since there were specific rules it wasn't too bad.  It was also short, which is always a bonus in made-up games.  (Note, while there are a lot of arrows, we only followed about half of them.)

Joshua also made up a Robot Turtles game.  Several times he told me that he wasn't going to tell me the rules, but then I had to do something obscure like laser a little gem from just the right square so it bounced and got the big gem.  Needless to say, I cajoled the rules out of him quickly.

 

on being an adult

 I think part of being an adult is hearing the strange noises in your house and immediately figuring out what they are and if you need to fix something

Art and Robes

 A while back Joshua made a bunch of signs so that we know what we're supposed to be doing in different rooms.

Sleeping in the bedroom:

Cooking in the kitchen:

Studying in the classroom:

He made a cat named Pumpkin for his teacher.  He asked her during his small group what she would name a cat (any cat) if she got one.

On Monday the boys had their swimsuits on a bit early and were cold.  I gave them my robes.  Isaac has been wearing it a ton.  It's a bit of a problem because that is my main robe.

I was reading on the couch today and Horizon kept joining me.  Of course, it was always after he checked to see if he could get in the bedroom where Ben was sleeping.  I was just the second choice, but I'll take it.

 

Saturday: groceries

 I might be done with grocery pick-up.  I'll admit it has its perks, like being able to order the groceries at any point, but I've been starting to miss actually going into the grocery store.  I know, it surprised me too.  I was excited to actually get a subscription for pick-up in February and while it has been really nice some weeks today was annoying.  It wasn't bad, but it took a bit longer to have them bring the groceries out than I was expecting.  And I don't like dealing with all the substitutions over text.  And I really like being able to see all my options...especially if the exact thing I want isn't available.

I'm not completely sure when grocery shopping will happen.  It might have to be on the weekend, which is normally busier at the store.  Some weeks I might be able to take the boys with me.  But I'm ready to find my own items and get the items from the store I normally shop at.  

I guess we'll see what happens.  We'll see how I feel next week about grocery shopping.  We'll see how I feel in the store if people aren't wearing masks properly (or at all, even though it is still mandated by law).

I also got a picture from yesterday.

Friday: corn maze

 Today was supposed to be a beautiful day (and it was!) so we made plans to go to a corn maze with Cheryl.  It was smaller than the "popular" one in the area, but it was still fun.  I'll admit, the size was just about right.  There was also a playground that the boys played at for quite some time.  I thought they were going to get bored rather quickly because it had a bunch of toddler castles (along with a large boat play structure) but they played hard for quite a while!  (Yes, I know the masks are being worn improperly, but it's because there were no people in sight.)

It was also packet pickup day for the boys, which I find rather fun.  It's like getting a present every two weeks.  I'm not sure the boys feel that way since it also includes a lot of work, but I don't make them look at it.  Anyway, Joshua received the moral focus award for Wisdom this past month.  I didn't hear why, but often another piece of paper comes home in a month that is on the wall at school.

Thursday: normal

 It was a rather normal day.  I was pulled in several directions at once in the morning.  I taught.  We went to karate.  We picked up I-HOP for dinner.  The boys have wanted it for a while.  Well, they always want it but it's been a while again.  I've been asking them lately what we should have for dinner because I don't want to deal with it and they always say pancakes.  It isn't helpful.

Wednesday: oops

 Oops...I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted.  It's been a weird week...either nothing to really talk about or stuff I don't want to talk about.

Today the boys made a tower.  They were excited that it was taller than me.

Found

I was cleaning the quilting area yesterday and decided that my trash can box should be emptied.  The area doesn't make much trash, so I don't think I've emptied it in the seven years that it's been there.  While doing so, I found some long, long lost items.

Once upon a time, when Isaac was about two, he received some old keys in one of his Easter eggs.  I was especially proud of this idea, because it was a time that he was really into keys and he was able to get a non-treat item.  However, about an hour later he had lost his keys.  I was disappointed because I thought that he'd really enjoy playing with them, but in the end it wasn't a big deal since they were old keys anyway.

I've now found them, but don't know if I should feel happy for finding a lost thing or sad that no one wants to play with them anymore.

A play

Thursday

We finally did it.  We bought our own set for fraction stacks.  It's been such a hit from the Hope library, but we can only check it out for 2 weeks at a time.  Looking ahead at some work for Isaac he might need them a bit more.  Both kids were playing with them after I had them out and I had to threaten stuff if they lost any of the pieces.  Because I know how this goes.  The 1 block turns into a bad guy and brings the 1/12 blocks all over the house and the 1/2 blocks need to look for all the 1/12 blocks and then there are only 11/12.

While I was making lunch the cats were staring at me very intently.  It was a bit creepy.