Thursday: rain

Since talking about how we're all a bit sick but slowly getting better, I wanted to share a story from yesterday.

It was raining out when I picked up the boys after school, but luckily I had remembered to pack umbrellas.  I was approaching Joshua from behind and there he was with his little umbrella and three other kids crammed under it, and he was saying, "huddle up!" in his cute little voice.  I felt a bit bad for taking him away.

Wednesday: still under the weather

I didn't have a fever still today, but this has transformed into a bad cold.  I was able to get several things done this morning before I crashed.

The boys also had eye appointments today.  Isaac's eyes are great, while Joshua is slightly far-sighted.  I think the plan is to get him some cheap glasses to use when he's going to be doing a lot of close up work and see if he notices a difference.  

Tuesday: hmm

After waking up from a restless night, I took my temperature.  It was high for me, but not really considered a fever.  As the heat felt like it was rolling off my body I decided it was wrong.  It might not be a high fever, but I had a fever.  In a winter morning it's supposed to be cold to get out of bed, not a relief.

So I taught remotely.  It's not my favorite thing to do because there's no feedback on whether the students are understanding something or following along, but it isn't too hard either since everything is on a computer.  I think we all survived.  I was really tired during the second class though, and found myself yawning several times.

The fever hasn't returned, although I do seem to have some more cold symptoms now.  They're annoying, but easier to deal with.

Sunday - Tuesday: Florida

One of the things Isaac really wanted to do while in Florida was to go to the cake restaurant.

So we did.  (The boys had such low expectations for this vacation that we were able to get them all done.  They included things like "Play Mouse Trap" and "Swim in the pool".)

Excitement at going fast on the boat:

Watching the train.  I was surprised at how many times their heads moved together.

Cake!  In the past the favorite has been orange crunch, but this time around it was the pineapple one.

We picked up some shells.

We also saw dolphins (unpictured) and a ton of manatee.

Tuesday we had to go home. :(  It was a later flight, so we had a nice morning and we were still able to get some gelato.

Joshua showed us why he wanted to find a spiral shell on Sunday.  I was surprised that he had such a specific thing in mind, but it turns out he saw it on the floor of the airport.  Oh, that was a bad picture.  Oh well.  The flights back went well, although Isaac was not feeling well at the end.

Monday: ha, just kidding

The day went pretty well.  I remembered to take the correct car to get the tires changed, although I do have to admit that I sat in and turned on the wrong car prior to looking over my shoulder and seeing the tires in the other car.  I knew this was going to be a problem, so even if I had pulled out of the garage I don't think I would have gotten very far.

Then last night I got a fever.  It's a bit funny because about two hours prior I was telling Ben that I felt pretty good and must be over the gunk.  

Sunday: belated Leprechaun Day

Joshua had a food craft project in mind for the last several weeks and kept remembering it, so today we finally made it.  He was so excited.

As you can see from the pictures if you zoom in, it was a pot of gold with a rainbow.  (From L:R, Joshua, Isaac, Ben, Amanda).  I think Isaac's came out the best.

Saturday: art by Joshua

Joshua made me a house with a chimney and a garden.  The yellow dot on the blue stick is a sun, which I thought was a creative way of getting it in the sky.

I had a bridal shower this afternoon and when I came home all the groceries were put away and the table was clean!  It was wonderful!

Friday: the day

It was a pretty normal day.  I did some stuff.  Isaac still had a temp in the morning, but by the end of the day he was fever and medicine free.  I'm hoping it bodes well for tonight and tomorrow.

Joshua took his karate test for the next belt.  (Isaac and I will take it another time since he couldn't go tonight.)

I saw a duck on the deck!

Tornado was really affectionate today.  He even climbed all over Isaac a few times.

Thursday: getting better

We're slowly on the mend around here.

Joshua was fever and medicine free all day, so I'm expecting him to go back to school tomorrow.

Isaac had a temp early in the day and was still on medicine later on the day due to a headache.  For the most part the medicine worked pretty well, but since we knew early on that he wouldn't be in school tomorrow I didn't try to push not taking medicine.

Ben went to work, he had a headache though.

I was better for most of the day.  There was a small headache in the late afternoon, but that was all.  It's amazing how much more motivated I feel to do things when I feel fine.  I almost just need to look at what I have (or haven't) accomplished and base how I'm feeling on that.

I also picked up my sewing machine from getting a tune-up and plugged in my new iron!  Oh!  Right before vacation my iron unexpectedly died.  I was using it, then left it for a bit, and then it wouldn't start heating up again.  There was no warning, it just stopped.  I'm trying a cordless iron this time.  The old one was nice, but the cord was always in the way.  So far so good, but I'm only used it for a few minutes.

Wednesday: sick

Well, everyone was some degree of sick today.  It was nice that it mostly waited until after vacation, but still annoying.  I feel weird telling school the kids are still not going to be there after we just took a vacation...but it was definitely the right choice.

Isaac probably ended up being the most sick.  He wasn't doing all that well before school, but just complaining about being tired and we did get in very late last night.  He finally had a fever right before we left.  It was a low fever, but still a fever.  He proceeded to sleep for the next three hours.  He woke up for a bit, came down with a migraine, and then slept for two more hours.  He was doing well right before bed, but the medicine would have just been starting to wear off.

Joshua was the loudest.  He's had a cough the last few days that seemed to start all of this.  He also woke up in the morning and was doing poorly, but had a temperature right away.  Some ibuprofen quickly cured him.  Unfortunately, he did have a temp of 101F later in the day so he won't be going to school tomorrow.  He was doing ok at bed time.

Ben wasn't feeling great also with a very low fever and a headache.  He went to bed early and wasn't feeling well.

I've probably been the best out of everyone.  I was achy on and off throughout the day.  I ended up taking a five to ten minute nap after dinner and it really seemed to snap me out of it.  (Possibly combined with some ibuprofen, but that really should have kicked in quite a bit earlier.)

Here's hoping tomorrow goes better!  As a whole it wasn't terrible today, but it's hard when no one is feeling well.

Thursday-Saturday: Florida

We're down in Florida!  We left Thursday right after classes/school.  Our connecting flight was slightly delayed, so by the time we got to the house it was 1:30am.  (It probably would have been at least 12:30am without the delay.)  The boys did a really good job dealing with it though.

Friday the boys pretty much lived in the pool.  Ben and I lived on the couches reading our books.  (Except for a short break to get gelato.)

Saturday was similar.  It's a rough life.

The boys (and ducks) had a movie in the hot tub in the evening.

Wednesday: elements

Isaac is still enthralled by his elements book.  I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up reading it cover to cover at this rate.

Tuesday: car conversation

Isaac: what is your favorite kind of milk?

Amanda: depends on the day

Joshua: Thursday!

Amanda: No, it depends on how I'm feeling that day 

Isaac: sleepy

Amanda: sigh.  No, it just depends on if I feel like chocolate or normal milk.

Monday: tired

I was tired all day.  Thanks daylight saving time.

Sunday: goings on

A while ago Ben made a Lego H and filled it with greebling.  Isaac made an I shortly after and the two have been on our wall for a while now.  I finally made an A to join the family.

Isaac went down a rabbit hole today.  It started by looking at one of Dad's books on nuclides and wanted to know more about element 118.  He looked it up on-line and found information and continued clicking links.  I had happened to see a pictorial element encyclopedia at the library yesterday and grabbed it, not sure it would catch anyone's attention.  Well, it definitely caught Isaac's attention.  He spent an hour or two with it today.

Friday: around the house

 Isaac came out of his bedroom this morning with a pile full of single socks, some of them dirty.  Of course, I have collecting the single clean socks in a different location.  No wonder there seem to be so many singles in my clean, lost sock collection.

Horizon does a good job of telling us when the humidifiers are empty.  It's a bit eerie, honestly.  Ben is wondering if there's a sound it makes when empty that people can't hear but cats can.

I continued to work on the quilting area as part of O:CtH.  There's actually a place to sit on the futon now!  I also starting looking at the walls and noticed they were a mess!  I got a rag and tried to clean the spots, but only a few came off.  (This surprised me a bit, as a rag usually works pretty well.)  Next up is the magic eraser, but I also found the paint for the walls...there's a few spots that will need some touch up.

Thursday: conferences

We had parent-teacher conferences this afternoon.  We actually got to go to the school and have them in person, which was nice.

Both boys are doing great.  Joshua's conference was once again a bit boring and we didn't stay the whole time, but that's ok too.  We talked with his teacher, learned a little about his friends, and were glad everything is on-track.  (Not only on-track, but going very well.)

Isaac's conference was a bit more interesting, but nothing new.  He still doesn't like to write, but he knows that and we know that.  He's working on it.  His spelling is getting better, although could still use some work.  He's reading harder books and math is going well.  He often plays by himself at recess, but I think that is more of a choice and less that he has no one to play with.  (I still hear about people at home, so this doesn't really bother me.)

As a side note, I found Isaac's classroom much more comfortable to be in than Joshua's.  I think his teacher might have put some light green fabric on the ceiling and the whole room didn't scream bright primary colors. Joshua's classroom felt like a normal classroom.

As another side note, the boys weren't able to connect the IPad to the internet at Hope to watch something during lunch.  (I had checked the laptop, but forgot the IPad.)  Anyway, after trying a few things they made the very reasonable decision of just eating and then extending their screen time by ten minutes.  I was proud that 1) they didn't come get me and 2) they figured out a reasonable solution.  Yay for growing up!

Wednesday: annoying things

First let's talk about groceries.  I felt reprimanded at the checkout because I hadn't printed stickers for all my produce.  I've never needed to before; I've just scanned the barcode on my app.  The lady said that they're cracking down on checking produce and checking the bottom of the bag.  While I completely understand this, also understand that I am only going to print out a ticket upon request.  I don't need extra stickers filling up my house.  So anyway, I go to get a bar code for the pears and the first two machines were out of stickers.  I finally got a sticker, we go to scan it and it doesn't show up as something I've scanned.  Instead of immediately saying something like, "oh, sometimes the two weights are slightly off so it doesn't notice it" she makes me feel dumb like I forgot to scan it and I apologize and whatnot.  She eventually gets around to telling me this and we find it in my list and it was $0.01 off.  Since I was all flustered I forgot to add my coupons.

I also forgot to get apples, although that's only my fault.

I also organized our tax stuff today.  I'm a bit annoyed with a few charities that don't send out year-end receipts or put the donated-to-date on each statement.  I also had one that didn't send me any receipts all year.  There's one that I had asked to stop sending paper mailings but send me a year end and of course that didn't happen.  Anyway, I sent out two emails to the "worst" offenders today.  I think that if they can't get something a little closer to what I'm looking for we might switch where our donations go.  There's a ton of good work being done in the world (and to further God's kingdom), so I can choose one with contribution receipts.

Tuesday: maskless

Today was the first time we were allowed to go without masks at Hope in two years!  

For the record, I've been on-board with all the masking decisions.  They seem to make appropriate decisions at the right time.  I'm sure not everyone agrees with that assessment, but I've been happy.  There's also been some autonomy within classrooms.  I could have required N95/K95/surgical masks at the peak or even now could require students to continue masking.

Anyway, I'm going to have to relearn everyone's name because they all look different now.  The good thing is that they all sit in the same seats, so I can go by that instead.

Monday: O:CtH - quilting area

Today I started cleaning the quilting area.  I didn't spend a lot of time on it, trying to get some of the big and obvious things, but it does already feel a bit better.  There was still some trash from when we got the new freezer last summer, so that's all been taken care of now.

I got a bunch of other stuff done on the to-do list too.  It was a pretty productive day.

Sunday: morning

The boys woke up over an hour before they were supposed to.  This meant that our fan wasn't on and I could hear them and woke up.  I rested a bit after that, but never got back to sleep.  We had a good morning, but it started so much earlier than I was hoping.

Saturday: pictures

The cats were cute today.

I took Isaac's quilt picture and couldn't bear to move Horizon.

Isaac then decided he needed to take quilt pictures of me.

Isaac was helping me find some blue LEGO pieces and noticed there were lots of blue chairs.  We've been watching Phineas and Ferb, so he proceeded to make a blue-chair-inator.  If the item is a chair, it turns it blue.  If the item is blue, it turns it into a chair.

This afternoon we hit an amazing 65F!  There was still ice on the pond, so the boys crushed some of it.  Snack time was also outside.  Tonight it's supposed to cool back off though.

Friday: blood

 I tried giving blood again today and my iron was still too low. :(  I'll try again in a month and add an iron supplement in the meantime.

Wednesday: minifig me

I made a minifig of myself today, looking all professional and stuff.

Tuesday: grocery adventures

I didn't have many groceries to get this week, so I thought I'd do it after work instead of tomorrow morning.  I'll probably really appreciate it tomorrow, but doing it today was just a tad annoying...I didn't get my nap.

Frozen cubed potatoes are still not on the shelves.  Neither are orange cinnamon rolls, although those don't surprise me quite as much.

I also stopped wearing my mask again!  The CDC risk level for the county suddenly dropped from high to low, so I don't feel the need to wear it (for now.)  I've been expecting the level to drop, although I wasn't expecting it to drop so suddenly.  I think there was a backlog of positive tests that just dropped off the 7-day average which in turn dropped the 7-day average.  It was nice to not wear it to karate too.