Thursday: work

So it turns out I just don't have much to say on Tuesdays/Thursdays when I work lately.  The most interesting thing I have today is that the second class went much more smoothly today.  The first class had a review of graphs and how to make them.  Please keep in mind that there are about five different paths you can take to do any one single thing with graphs...it's actually a bit annoying.  Anyway, during the reviews I call on students to tell me what to do next.  One student started the graph in a completely different way than I was expecting and I couldn't see my screen well enough to make the slight correction that would have made everything work just fine.  It wasn't a huge problem, and I'm a firm believer that working through mistakes in lecture is actually helpful, but it was annoying.  I felt a bit off for the rest of the class.

On the other hand, the second class went really well.  

Wednesday: O:CtH - guest bathroom

Today I finished cleaning the guest bathroom.  I was a bit surprised at how much stuff came out of it.  (To be fair, quite a bit was old medicine or empty boxes.)  The boys' drawers were especially messy, so I added some containers.  Joshua was rather excited this evening when he discovered it.  

I was also surprised at how much toothpaste I cleaned off the door.  I understand toothpaste on the cabinet, but was surprised to find it on the door.  But at the same time, knowing my kids, it didn't really surprise me that much.

I'm not sure the before/after pictures will show the work well since most of the clean up was inside cabinets, but here they are anyway.

From the door-ish:

One of the cabinets:

I think the office will be next.  We're still hoping to get it painted this fall and it needs quite a bit of work.

Tuesday: bugs

We have some bugs in our house. 

They can fly, but they just sit in one spot most of the time.  A month ago I was hoping they'd just disappear, but they haven't.  For the most part they aren't too annoying, but they do seem to be slowly multiplying.  

I'm vacuuming them up as I see them, but that doesn't really seem like a great plan.  However, they don't fly enough for fly traps, they don't seem to congregate around one thing (i.e., left out food) or in one place so I don't really know what else to do.

Monday: domestic things

Well, this light fixture is as clean as it's going to get.  There are a few spots of bright pink around the bathroom (as though it used to be painted bright pink), but I'm ignoring them because they don't come off easily.  I also made it down to around the back floor of the toilet today.  

 

And I made a meal!  I love this one.  No one else loves it though.  Ben likes it, although it was a bit salty for him today.  Isaac ate it but didn't enjoy it.  Joshua, unsurprisingly, didn't eat it.  He doesn't eat anything I make though, so I've given up on him.  Joke's on them though!  I froze enough for two more meals.

Sunday

I made an apple cake yesterday.  It's half gone already today.  (It is delicious.  And while there's a lot of sugar in it, I skip the frosting because it is plenty sweet.)

I told the boys they had to go outside for a little bit this afternoon.  Joshua wanted to go swimming or kayaking with me.  I said no to swimming...I felt a little bad because I had promised that I would at some point this summer, and then didn't.  But the water is now rather cold.  Or at least, too cold for me.  So we went for a kayak ride.  The wind was a bit strong, but we made it around the lake.  After he did a few chores he wanted to work on a puzzle with me.  Sure!  I was happy to have two things to say "yes" to that I also enjoy.

Saturday: book review

Today I finally finished "Pandora's Star" by Peter Hamilton.  It was recommended to us and it sounded like a funny scifi, so Ben and I read it.  It was not funny, and we realized that pretty quickly, but it was still scifi so we continued on.

It turns out the genre is actually "space opera."  I'm going to admit that it did a fabulous job at putting me to sleep.  It probably took me a month to finish because some times I would start reading and literally didn't get more than a paragraph before I fell asleep.  It was a good book and the stories in it were very interesting...and very good at putting me to sleep.

It is book one of a two book series.  I think I'm going to try and listen to all 41 hours of the second book.  Most of the story lines were not tied up very well as the book ended and I'm quite curious as to how they will resolve.  In some ways I think this is the option Ben is hoping for too so that I can give him the cliff notes as I go through it.  He can then enjoy the story without all the extra...extras that a space opera includes.

I ended up giving it a 3/5 stars.  I wanted to give it 2, but the stories really were interesting.  It was just a really hard read.

Friday

 Isaac's watermelon never grew very big.  He finally picked it and then made a throne and crown for it.  Obviously.

Most of the day was normal chores: grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning the fridge to be specific.  I did work a bit on dusting for O:CtH, which resulted in vacuuming the top of the cabinet (I'm pretty sure it had never been done since we've been there) and taking off the light fixtures to be washed.  I absolutely felt weird doing it, but they were so dusty that the duster wasn't doing anything except moving dust around.

We also stopped by the thrift store after I picked up the boys.  I was pretty happy with what we found.  Joshua ended up with several pairs of "soft" pants and Isaac got a nice fall coat.  We didn't get everything that we needed, but it was still worth our while.  Speaking of picking up the boys, this year they have something called "early release" days, where the kids are let out two hours early.  I understand that it's important for staff development and whatnot, but having half days, early release days, and normal days seems a bit over the top.  I'm sure there are good reasons for it though, so I'll just say it's a bit weird but doesn't really affect me otherwise.

Toothbrushes

While cleaning yesterday, I found that Joshua has 5 toothbrushes in his drawer.  One is unopened.  Only one is used on a regular basis.  Anyway, I told him his lightsaber toothbrush is going to disappear soon.  I understand he likes it because it makes sounds, but it's old and not used that often.  So we took a picture of it.  (He looks a lot sadder in this picture than I think he actually is.)

Wednesday: O:CtH - guest room

It's officially finished!  It's been dusted, vacuumed, and decluttered.  The furniture was moved.  And so, I present to you...the Guest Room!  (I don't have pictures from the worst of it...but just imagine the whole floor covered in some game and the edges piled a little higher.) 

From the door:

 

From the window:

I don't have a full picture of the game closet before, but it was full.  Not really messy, but I added three shelves on the left side and got rid of several games so that it isn't so full anymore.  

Now...to keep it clean. :D  Next up, I'm taking Annette's advice and tackling something small: the purple bathroom. 

Monday: game closet

Today's O:CtH project was to deal with the game closet.  It also involved adding some shelving that I've been waiting to do for about two years now.

I got the laundry started and then started on the game closet.  I had some of the parts I needed, but had to make a stop at Lowes.  Then after getting one rod up I realized that I needed better drywall anchors because I only had one stud...and so I went back to Lowes.  It felt like the days of my childhood, helping Dad do the house chores and going to the hardware store multiple times.  I was also surprised when I took a break near the end only to realize it was already 11am.

I don't have a before picture.  I'll wait on the after picture until I do the whole room.  The closet looks better and the games are more accessible.  However, the only reason it has a bit of room in it now is because I got rid of several games (vs having more room because the games are stored better.)  I expect it'll be good for a few years until it fills up again, at which point Joshua will have outgrown some of the younger games and we can get rid of those.  I'm not sure what we'll do after that, but we'll deal with that then.

It was also exercise day for the boys and they elected to run in the rain.  Joshua loved it; Isaac put up with it.  I gave him an alternative, but it was warm out and I was glad he elected to run.

Saturday: orchard and corn maze

Today we picked up Aunt C and went to the apple orchard and the corn maze.  I was trying not to get too many apples but absolutely did.

Joshua has one lost tooth, one front wiggly tooth, and a missing side tooth.  Apples were tricky.

Then we went to the corn maze.  It was a little longer than Joshua wanted it to be, but I think everyone enjoyed it.  It was the perfect day to be outside, so that helped.

Friday: mop

 Ben and Isaac were horsing around, and Isaac decided it would be a good idea to open Ben's water bottle to get things wet.  So Ben used Isaac as a mop; Isaac was laughing so hard.

Thursday: behavior report

We received a behavior report for Isaac today.  This is the first one he's ever gotten, so I don't know if it's a new system or if it's just that he's never gotten one before.

"Behavior: Respectful Behavior

Recognized By: K. GRUPPEN

Notes: I am so pleased that Isaac is in my class this year. He is such a respectful kid. Today he was working in a small group that required some extra patience. He remained calm and gentle throughout the work time. I'm so proud of him :)"

Tuesday: morning surprise

When I woke up this morning, I found that the boys had cleaned off the table.  It was a part I told them they didn't have to clean up because they were still working on a project, but apparently they decided that they were done with the project and just cleaned it up.

I reciprocated their kindness by not making them clean as long for their evening chores.

Monday: photos of nothing

Over the summer Isaac colored water, froze it, and then froze it in bigger chunks.  It was getting in the way in the freezer, so I melted it today.

The tooth fairy keeps forgetting to give Joshua money for his tooth, so he finally left a note to remind me to tell the tooth fairy.

It poured around noon!  We've really needed the rain, so that was good.  It was a lovely sound.

I found Tornado camouflaged as laundry.

I was looking through my old blog pictures for my new digital picture frame, and there are a lot of Flurry.  It's a good thing the kids aren't around as much so that I get more pictures of Tornado and Horizon.

Sunday: imagination

 The boys played their imagination game...most of the day today.  Here is Isaac telling a little bit about the different things in it.

Saturday: happy

At naptime I was startled awake because in my dream I was too happy.  I've been often scared awake, and periodically sad/mad awake, but never awakened because of happiness.

In my dream I was having a dream and I was talking to an angel (who looked a lot like a normal business man).  He was talking about the amazing party that happens when you get to heaven and how happy God is to see you and I couldn't stay asleep I was so happy.

In other news, Joshua finally lost the tooth that's been bothering him.  That was happy too.  He's pretty cute.

In sad news, Isaac got completely squished by pillows.

Friday: around the house

I continued O:CtH today.  I finished decluttering the white bookshelf and most of the piano.  Part of this involved putting all the lost game pieces back in their boxes.  There was really only one game piece that was critically missing and that was found.  (Usually what happens is we find the piece but are too lazy to deal with it so it goes in a pile.  Next time the game comes out, we just get it from the pile.  The pile is actually mostly made up of instructions.)  So all that is left with this room now is actually making the bed, dusting the piano and the shelves, quickly finishing up the piano, and the game closet.  The game closet is going to take a bit of work because I really need to add some more shelves.  But the end is in sight!

I also froze some raspberries.  I labeled them "frozen raspberries" as though my future self wouldn't realize they're frozen as I find them in the freezer. :p

Thursday: opposites

This afternoon I had a few sets of opposites.

I was giving a quiz to a person who gets extended time, but she finished much earlier than expected.  I was able to get a last minute ortho appointment to reglue my retainer.  The whole process took about three minutes, so I went back to work for 20 minutes.  It was close to work, so I was very glad that I didn't have to make the trip on Monday just for three minutes.

But then...I was on my way to pick the boys up from school and ran into two trains.  TWO.  I'm not sure I've ever had such bad luck.  The second one wasn't moving (although honestly, I couldn't really see it), but I ended up having to find an alternate route.  It was so slow.

At home, I received my new phone!  It doesn't feel like that long since I've gotten my old phone, but apparently it has been.  It does have some issues and apparently it needs to be replaced because they're going to stop the updates too.  Anyway, I transferred all the stuff from the old phone to the new phone, marveling at how wonderful it is to be able to do that.  (There have been a few phone changes where it wasn't possible, and that was so sad.)

But at the same time, there are still some passwords and accounts that need to be logged into.  That is annoying.  It seems like it should just be able to work.

Wednesday: not much done

It didn't feel like I got a lot done today.  I'm not sure that's actually true; it's just how it felt.

I mean, I cleaned the kitchen (twice!), got groceries, put the groceries away (not a given), made dinner, did some school work, and assorted miscellaneous things in between.

O:CtH didn't get a lot of love today, but between Monday and today I did go through two of the cubby drawers.  I'm putting the stuff I don't think we need in a small box and letting the kids each pick out about three things they really want to keep when the box is full.  I also have a box with things that I want to keep, but that the kids don't really play with anymore.  I'll just put those in the basement for...whenever I'm ready to get rid of them.  I'm just not at that point yet.

Tornado did a wonderful job of snuggling with me during nap time.

  

Tuesday: bag day

Tuesday is our biggest bag day.  Isaac and Joshua have their backpacks, I have my lunch and whatever, and there's the stuff for piano (and waiting during piano).

And while it's a lot of stuff, it isn't as bad as it was in daycare!  On days that I laundered the bedding I feel like we could easily get six bags.  Six big bags.  And I was the only one to carry them.

Monday: truck parade

We went to the truck parade this morning!  My favorite is hearing the different horns.

 

Joshua mentioned that it had been a while since we worked on our donut survey, so we stopped at Tim Horton's afterwards.  The boys really enjoyed their choices, but mine was only ok.

Saturday: StarWars

We started watching StarWars, Episode 4 with the boys.  Ben is working on a StarWars Lego set and so it was appropriate for multiple reasons.

It was surprising how much the boys already know about the movie.  It's just so pervasive within our culture that they know half the story already.  At the same time, they were asking so many questions.

Then Joshua started working on a different Star Wars set and finding all the Lego Minifigs that are StarWars related.  It was cute.

Friday: no school

We made zucchini cake this morning; Isaac grated the whole zucchini for it!

 

This afternoon was apparently closet time.  I yelled that it was snack time with no response.  I yelled a few minutes later and there was still no response, nor was there a response to knocking on the door.  I finally went in to discover they had the marker/crayon/pencil box all over Joshua's floor and were playing "Keep Joshua in the small closet."  There was a lot of laughter though, so it seemed pretty easy to keep him in.

After snack they moved to Isaac's slightly bigger closet and played some board games.

Thursday: work

 Work went well today...but I got home and crashed.  It happens at the beginning of every year and unsurprisingly this year was no exception.  I had been planning on going to karate tonight, but gave myself a pass.

Wednesday: bed

Today's Operation: Clean the House (OCtH) was to get the bed put back together.  Check.  It took longer than I was hoping, but about as long as I was expecting.  (It doesn't have sheets yet; the blanket it to protect the mattress from cat hair.)

I also had lunch with Betsy!  It's been a while since I've seen her, so it was nice to get caught up.