Monday: Joshua's videos

Joshua made some videos with instructions on how to make a lego house.  They were rather Blair Witch Project as he ran around with the phone multiple times.  He'd also show me the finished step but instead of holding it steady he'd shake the Legos around so I couldn't really see anything.  We made it through with a bit of non-video help.

Tomorrow everyone goes back to their correct place. To put it in perspective, Isaac only went to school for nine days in January.  I'm hoping for no snow days this week, but I think there's at least a 50% chance of one.

Sunday: stuff

Sunday started out with church.  It almost didn't happen because suddenly the video and sound disappeared.  Then the video came back.  Then just the sound came back.  Then it was super small.  Then it was just the video.  Finally it worked.

The boys still don't get to sit on the couch with us.  Isaac briefly let Giraffe have his chair and blanket while sitting on the hard ground before deciding that was a poor choice.

 
The cat sil finally seems to be working and the suction cups are remaining attached.  Tornado likes to terrorize Horizon from the top shelf.

Isaac made some cool Lego silhouettes.

Saturday: Joshua

Isaac didn't want Joshua back in his bedroom.  Oh bother.  Joshua, as you may recall, hates sleeping by himself.  Well, we compromised on a fort in his room, under the loft.  It worked well because Joshua had worked really hard that morning to clean his bedroom.  It got a bit messy again once all the books were moved in, but at least while moving it in was clean.

Joshua had also been working on a present for me and made me wait until Saturday morning to get it.  He wasn't going to forget, but made me put up a reminder note anyway.  When I woke up there was a chair and the present sitting in the middle of the room.  It was a Lego brick in a necklace.  I faithfully wore it all day.

Friday: all's well that ends well

Joshua and I started out the day with a puzzle.  Isaac will sometimes join me, but Joshua seems to enjoy them more.

I also found some of his work from yesterday that I found funny.

Write an opinion piece to tell why you like a food the best.  Opinion: I love love pancakes.  Caption: Funny face pancakes  Reason 1: They are delicious.

Reason 2: You can bring them home! Reason 3: You can put syrup on them.

Fast forward to the time we were going to pick up Isaac.  I was in Ben's car because mine was having some work done.  I get to almost the end of the neighborhood road and suddenly I can't shift into gear anymore.  I try several gears.  I pull over to the side.  I still can't shift into gear.  It's a bit awkward since I don't drive this car much, but at the same time I am confident that something is wrong.  I restart the car (like a computer).  I call Ben.  We find out I can put the car in gear if the car is off, but then the car doesn't start.  He comes to the rescue, quickly leaving work to pick up Isaac.

While we were waiting Joshua did a good job of distracting me, although I managed to worry about a good many things.  We talked about the hazard lights, because I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've actually used them for a hazard.  (We were in a safe place, but it was pretty close to a minor intersection.)  I realized I had forgotten to turn off the dryer and so we talked about why you do that.  I realized that Joshua didn't have a coat because it was going to be a quick pick-up.  He told me he was warm though.

Before too long Ben arrived to save us.  (Let's be very thankful at this point that he had a work vehicle today!  There are other options and other people that could have helped, but it was nice to not bother them.)  Anyway, he gets to the car and diagnoses the problem right away: the clutch was stuck in.  He unstuck it and away we went.

While I did feel somewhat foolish for calling him home over such a slight problem, it's also never one I've encountered before.  It also isn't a car that I drive very often, so I didn't realize that the clutch wasn't moving properly.  We were both relieved to not have to deal with a bigger issue.

Thursday: back to school

Isaac went back to school today.  

He thought a rapid test before school would be a good idea, and so we did it.  It came back positive...and that threw us for a loop.  In the past I was pretty sure you needed a negative test before going back, but now there are two options...1) it is not recommended to take a rapid test - just mask. 2) Continue to quarantine or not at your convenience.  So we sent him to school.  This seems foolish, but here we are.

Joshua did fine by "himself".  He started his school work before I had even left for work at 7am.

Wednesday: home

 The day went well.  The craziness at the end of the day involved fighting with balloons.  It didn't involve hitting me, so it was mostly ok.

It's Isaac's last day home, so tomorrow the dynamics will change a lot.  Tomorrow is rather busy with trying to get everybody and everything in the right place at the right time.

Tuesday: mean parents

Today was a snow day.  Ben and I didn't tell the children.  You see, they were already going to stay at home.  Ben had to work while at home.  So they still needed some structure.

Ben did say they got more screen time than normal though, so even though they didn't know it was a snow day they still got some of the benefits.  Isaac was rather surprised that his teacher never posted any work on Google Classroom though. :)

Joshua got a bit camera happy while emptying the dishwasher.

Monday: positive

I woke up to Joshua's PCR results: negative.  Let's be honest though, I didn't really believe it.  So we subjected Joshua to yet another nasal swab for a rapid test and that clearly turned positive.

The day was fine, but by the end of the day I was done.  The kids did all their work without complaint, but they were bouncing off the walls by the end of the day and I was ...not.  They did some of their coding activities for a while and that helped...Horizon trapped me on the couch during that time so I had no choice but to read.

Sunday: normal day

Today was a pretty normal day, other than people wearing masks.  No one was sick.  

We're still waiting on Joshua's PCR results, but even if he gets a negative I will hesitate to send him to school.  It'll involve another rapid test and possibly a call to the doctor.

Saturday: fever

Joshua woke up today with a fever.  His rapid test came back negative, but we really doubt that it is negative so we brought him in for a PCR too.  The fever was gone for most of the afternoon (without fever reducers) but returned at night.

My PCR test came back negative.  I had 15 minutes of a runny nose and a few weird muscle aches.  Probably just due to it being cold outside and not getting enough sleep Wednesday night.  I'm just hyper-sensitive to anything that's wrong.

Friday: continuing on

Joshua's bed: 

Giraffe got a mask:

We skied on the lake.  Isaac enjoyed going down the tiny hill right before the lake, but not so much the hill next to our house.

Thursday: positive

Well, Isaac tested positive for COVID.  There is so much going around right now that I kind of expected this would happen at some point.  Guess it's a good thing that we kept him home.

We got the results at 11:45pm last night.  I really wasn't expecting a positive result, but between school and karate it also isn't surprising, even if he does wear a mask.  I didn't sleep well the rest of the night.  Partly thinking about what needed to happen today, partly because I was cold.  My foot warmer cooled off while I was taking a rapid test for myself.  I considered getting up to get something warm, but of course that would have made me colder in the short term so my sleepy brain decided not to.

Today went fine.  We're making Isaac wear a mask at home and trying to stay away from him, but we also haven't banished him to his bedroom.  (In some ways we figure it's probably too late since we were around him for three days since onset of symptoms.)  He was a bit sad by the end of the day, but he understands what's going on and complies.

Joshua was so sad this morning.  Mainly because he thinks that Isaac gets to play all day.  While this is a mostly untrue, Isaac does get some more play time.  We've also moved Joshua's bed out of Isaac's room.  I really wasn't sure how this was going to go, since Joshua seems to hate sleeping in his own bedroom and I didn't want him sleeping in our bedroom either.  After school he said he'd sleep under the table.  Well, his mattress doesn't fit under the table, but we rigged up some sort of fort for him that was sufficient.  I don't really understand what's going on, but it's not a battle that I care enough about to fight either.

Isaac gets to go back to school next Thursday and has to continue masking for another five days.  Perhaps we'll let him take a two month break from masks after that?  The school called to give me these dates and I was able to proudly say that Joshua is fully vaccinated and that's why we kept sending him to school.

edit: for reference later, this is probably the Omicron variant.  That is what is currently the most predominant in the area and has the highest probability of infection if vaccinated.

Wednesday: no results

We still don't have results for Isaac's COVID test and the phone nurse suggested that we wait for those.  Tomorrow will be a little annoying, but at the same time since Isaac is able to stay home alone for short periods of time it makes it so much easier.  Ben was planning on working from home in the morning a bit anyway, I'll come home between classes, and then Isaac will only have an (appropriate) block of time by himself.  He did it today with no problems (unsurprisingly).

I really think I need to look at this in a different light...at least Isaac isn't getting exposed right now.  Everyone else is, but at least it cuts the household exposure by 25%, right?  There's also a chance the results will come through tonight and Isaac can go back to school tomorrow.  Here's hoping.

Tuesday: whirlwind

Well, the day started out with Isaac telling me 10 minutes before I left for work that he had a headache.  And that he still had a sore throat.  Couple this with 1) Ben having some symptoms on the COVID list and 2) these being two of the minor things that we're not supposed to send him to school for, we didn't send Isaac to school.  In some ways it worked out well since Ben was working from home today anyway.

On the way to work there was a pop-eye coming toward me as I was turning left.  Since it was a pop-eye I misjudged how far away it was when I made the turn.  Now, I got through the intersection just fine, but it scared me a bit.  I proceeded to take several wrong turns on the way to work and found out there is a new stoplight at Michigan and 12th street.

I taught.  It went fine.  The normal things went wrong, but it went smoothly for the most part.

I went back to my office in search of a PCR test for Isaac.  Normally we'd just do a rapid test, but since there were two people with symptoms we thought maybe PCR would be better.  I must have found a canceled appointment because it was the only one available until tomorrow at 4:30pm.  It wasn't ideal for Ben, but he brought Isaac anyway.  I need to vent: signing up for a COVID test is 100% utterly terrible.  For most of the sites you need to fill in a significant amount of your information (name, birthday, address, covid vacinations, symptoms, why you need a test, etc) before they let you see the schedule.  This is idiotic because you want to shop around for the best appointment and so instead of taking a minute to see the appointments you spend five minutes filling out info only to find out there are no appointments until Thursday anyway.  On top of this, CVS needed our insurance information, which was in the car.  I only had eight minutes left to hold the appointment, so I ran out to get it...and promptly locked myself out of the building.  Without my phone.  I banged on a door when someone was passing to let me in, but it is not what I wanted.  I got the appointment with two minutes to spare.

I then realized I needed to alert the housekeepers and piano lesson.  The housekeepers still elected to come (Ben and Isaac stayed hidden away) and we did a virtual piano lesson.

I got a little bit of work done and it was time to teach again.  Teaching went better this time because I fixed some of the issues from the first class.  This is pretty normal.

While I've normally been coming home after teaching, I elected to stay at Hope until it was time to pick up Joshua from school.  I had gotten almost nothing done during my set-aside hours and really needed to get some stuff done.  I figured I'd be happier later if I just did it.  (I am.)

The rest of the day was busy but uneventful.  The virtual piano lesson went very well.  Joshua's karate class went well.  They had to run a bunch of laps and he kept up with a kid twice his height...his little legs were pounding the ground so fast.  I went to karate...they started late and I almost wished I had just stayed home due to the short class, but it was fine in the end.  Ben had a rapid test at the doctor's and it was negative.

So yeah, that was the day.  A bit weird since Ben and I sort of switched roles, but we can't completely because of knowledge that the other has.  We called and texted a lot more than normal.  We've decided to keep Isaac home at least one more day.  If we don't get the PCR results we'll probably give Isaac a rapid test and then hopefully send him to school Thursday since Ben's result was negative. 

Monday: MLK day

Today there wasn't any school due to MLK day and we had a rather relaxing day.  (We didn't do any appropriately themed activities, but we did watch Hidden Figures over the weekend.)

Isaac finished his juice recipe.  It doesn't make much, as he noted.

Isaac's been helping me fill a few holes over the weekend. Today we painted one (and we can barely tell it was ever there).  The other two we don't have paint for, so a Lowe's trip is needed first.

Joshua worked hard on one of his Lego sets a significant part of the day, although I don't have any pictures.

We also had some colored cookie dough, so the boys made some cookies.

This was the first batch.  It was actually good to bake a few first, because they flattened more than the boys were expecting.

Friday: Grocery adventures

I find myself talking about mundane things a lot.  Butter gets talked about a lot.  Today it was groceries.  I had lunch with Betsy and she casually asked if I had gotten groceries this week.  I had actually gotten them Wednesday morning, but didn't post about it for once because things were mostly normal.  Crescent rolls were still only half full and there were no frozen potatoes, but otherwise I was pretty happy with the trip.  In fact, it seemed like many things were on sale so I ended up with a bit more than normal.

Today she told me that she was only able to get half her order because Meijer was sold out of so many things.  And it wasn't that she couldn't get the exact thing she wanted but there were substitutes...they were completely out.  We both wondered what changed in two days.  Where in the supply chain did the issue(s) happen?  Are a bunch of stockers out sick?  I'm sure I'll never find out, but it'd still be really interesting to know.

Speaking of things I'd like to know, with the Omicron variant here we're being told that surgical and KN95/N95 masks are better than cloth masks.  I'd like to point out that there seems to be a huge range in cloth masks.  Are they making this comparison with a single layer gater?  A double layer homemade mask?  A three layer mask?  There are significant differences in those three options.  While this doesn't mean that the statement isn't true, a bit more information would be helpful as I try to figure out what to buy (or not buy).

Thursday: Grey Bear

Today I found a picture of the day we brought Grey Bear home.  It said 14 years ago today, but that is obviously wrong.  It was a baby shower for Isaac from Mom's family and I was maybe 6-7 months pregnant.

Anyway, it was exciting to see the day we got him.  Joshua didn't care.

Tuesday: classes start

Classes started today!  Everyone showed up to the 7:30am class, but one person has already dropped.  The first day is always a bit annoying, but overall it went pretty well.

Joshua was finally promoted at karate after a bunch of delays.  He ended up being a yellow stripe instead of a plain yellow belt which was pretty exciting.

Monday: not a snow day

While snow days are fun, I also felt like I wasn't getting much done.  So...I was glad for school today.  I managed to get everything on my "do today" list done along with a few extras!  I did take an extra stop at Eagle Crest because Joshua called saying his tooth hurt.  He didn't sound all that out of it, but I said I'd stop by with some ibuprofen and he could stay in school.  He seemed ok with this plan and I didn't hear anything about a toothache later in the day.

I made a new orange chicken recipe today.  (Everyone loved it except Joshua and he doesn't like anything I make.)  It involved squeezing some oranges, which Isaac was excited to do.  He then proceeded to do more fruit squeezing and juice experimenting.  (I had gotten some oranges at the store and they had way too many seeds in them, so he was free to use those.  We also had a few lemons and some old apples.)  He made several different version of his juice, trying to find the proportions that are just right.

Sunday: cat sill

We've had a bit of a hard time getting the suction cups to stay on the window, but the cats seem to be using the cat sill.  Joshua said he saw both cats on it and after I fixed it today Tornado went right back on it.

Saturday: sledding, house

Today we went to the sledding hill for a bit.  Besides being sunny, it was the perfect day for it!  It wasn't too crowded (as I was afraid of) and the snow was well packed but not too bumpy yet.  Both boys went down many times and both finished around the same time.

O:CtH was supposed to have progressed greatly this week; but was instead mostly put on hold because of all the snow days.  I am slowly continuing to unpack my boxes for the office though; today I got rid of all my old spools.  They were fun toys when the boys were young, but have just sat in a drawer for a long time.

I also got some new scissors and designated one as drawer scissors!  I hate when I go to the drawer and can't find my scissors.  It'd be ok if it was just on the counter, but they always seem to end up far away in the house.  This one is supposed to go immediately back in the drawer...we'll see how it goes.

Friday: snow day 3

 It snowed out last night more than expected, so there was another snow day!  

Isaac did more origami.

Joshua made a fort.

We went outside.  The boys sledded for a little bit, and then Joshua got suddenly cold and was done.  (This was not all that unexpected.)  Isaac and I tried out the cross-country skis Dad gave us last year since the road still wasn't plowed...they worked really well!  It took Isaac a bit to get the rhythm down and we didn't do that much, but we'll go again.

Lastly, for reading time we had a comfy-cozy read-a-loud.  Joshua wants to do it again, so it must have been a hit.

Thursday: snow day 2

Once again, it wasn't snowing when we woke up, so we did some errands pretty early in the morning.  The boys weren't very excited about it, but they did fine.

After we got home we had reading time.  (This time on the couch, but still completely under covers.)  The craft of the day was telescopes.

Isaac had gotten an origami book at the library (one of our errands) and again spent several hours doing that.  Ben and I now have a zoo in our bathroom.

I was quite surprised at how much it snowed in the afternoon.  Our picnic table went from just a few inches to probably close to a foot.  That being said, there didn't seem to be that much on the driveway, although I did clear it off twice today.  Karate was canceled tonight too as roads were quite bad.  (I was going to make a last minute decision about whether we'd go, although I was leaning toward no.  It was nice to have the decision taken away from me.)

Wednesday: snow day!

Well, contrary to my prediction there was a snow day today!  I was rather surprised when I woke up...we didn't have any additional snow and the wind didn't seem to be too bad.  However, it did get worse as the day went on and it was probably the right call for when school got out.

Isaac did a ton of origami.  Hours worth.  Almost every time I saw him he was working on something.  (Except for screen time, of course.)

Joshua, on the other hand, was all over the place.  He decided to make a schedule to follow what he'd normally do in school.  We followed it a bit, but I'm also the first to admit that doing 12 math problems probably took significantly less time than math would have in school.

We had a reading time.  Both boys decided to curl up with lanterns under their blankets for some reason.

Joshua lead me through a craft to make a map and a treasure box.  It turns out he doesn't have very good spatial awareness as his room is about 20 feet away from the bathroom that shares a wall with his bedroom.  I expect it's normal.

He also did a ton of bouncing and making videos of him screaming about something.

Add in some screen time and you have the day!  There's a snow day tomorrow too.  If the roads end up being ok I'd like to do some errands, but we'll see how it goes I guess.

Tuesday: more grocery adventures!

I know, grocery shopping isn't really that exciting.  But I do find it interesting how things change from week to week.  Here are this week's highlights:

*Canned biscuits are slowly coming back, although there still aren't orange cinnamon rolls and only about half the case is full.

*The spicy cheese cracker packs still aren't there, but I found that Cheez-Its make spicy Cheez-Its.  In fact, there were three different spicy varieties, which was a bit overwhelming.  I made my best guess and we'll see if the boys like them.

*Pretzel bites are back!  I thought they were gone for good, so I was rather excited to see them.

Beyond that, I took a morning nap because my class prep was completely boring and I was falling asleep.  I still have a week before classes and really only need to have a small bit finished by then as I could finish it up after classes start.  In the afternoon I did other stuff around the house.  It feels like the to-do exploded (again), but I'll keep plugging away.  I finished putting more stuff away in the office, so I'm calling that part of O:CtH.  I just have a 1.5 boxes left; I won't be able to call it finished at that point because Ben still has some stuff to put away, but I can easily move on to other things while waiting for it to be officially checked off.

Thursday-Saturday: Christmas

We had our last Christmas celebration of the year as Nathan and his family joined us for a few days.  Thursday was also Isaac's 10th birthday!  10!  How can he be so old?

We were going to go out for dessert but neglected to remember that it was a holiday weekend.  Pat found out they were booked before we went though.  I had started some mint brownies, so I finished those up and we used them instead.  We put candles on, but didn't actually have Isaac blow them out.

Everyone slept in the same room.  There was so much running and excitement through the whole day it took them a bit to wind down, but eventually they did.  (So much running.  But throughout the entire weekend only one set of tears which was resolved quickly.)

Friday morning we went to the woodshop to make a triangle peg jumping game.  It really didn't take all that long, but it was a lovely activity and way to get out of the house.  The kids also loved running up and down the hallway at Hope, so whenever they were waiting for their turn they did some running.  The game was also played with a bit more than I expected.

After a coffee break for the women, we went to get Isaac's dessert for lunch.

After that it was time for more presents!  The kids were playing well so we just kept pushing the time back a little bit.  But finally everyone was done with a small real lunch and the kids realized it was time for presents.

The boys got a cat backpack.  Tornado likes to escape outside, so we thought this might be a fun alternative.  Now we're trying to train him that when he goes in it he goes for a walk.

After some delicious pizza some of the kids painted their triangles.

Today, after some morning TV and some Catan they left. :(  It was sad, but we had a wonderful time!  The kids played so well together and it was wonderful to talk to everyone and get caught up again.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying Christmas presents and relaxing.  Tornado enjoyed several walks too...it might be a good way to get us out of the house just a tad bit more.  Silly, but fun.