Monday: Halloween

Last Wednesday we went to Trunk Or Treat at church.  We didn't do anything today, and the kids didn't complain about that.

Isaac went as a wizard with a magic orb.  It would light up and not light up, but it was very hard to see.  Ben went as Isaac's servant to carry the potion bottle/candy holder or orb as the wizard deemed necessary.

Joshua went as Squirtle.  He made a Pokeball candy container where the candy dropped down into a bag.  It worked quite well.

Saturday: walk

Joshua had a sleepover with a friend last night.  It went really well.

This afternoon we went for a walk with Aunt C.  We had originally been planning on doing it without the kids on Wednesday, but it was rainy and wet.  Today was much nicer and it was fun to have the boys along too.  We ran across a story walk that made the walk more interactive.

Thursday: barrels, bare, belay

They put up several barrels on the way to the kids' school last week Wednesday or Thursday bringing a two lane direction down to one lane.  (It's especially annoying because the didn't block the turn lane.  There are two left turn only lanes but one of them runs right into the barrels so it's always a bit of a crazy mess.)  The one lane makes it harder, although not impossible, to make a left turn out of the parking lot as I'm leaving the school.  I've opted to go right several times instead.

Then on Wednesday they put up more barrels, bringing the single lane all the way through the parking lot where I drop off the kids.

Today they extended the barrels farther down the other direction, which doesn't really impact me.

Do you know what hasn't happened though?  Any work that would require so many barrels for so long.  They're messing up my routine for nothing.

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Both of my classes were missing a surprising amount of people today.  Several were sick, but several just didn't show up.  Apparently summary functions (COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, AVERAGEIF, SUMIF) just didn't seem that interesting.  It's too bad, because I use COUNTIF all the time and we had a bunch of good review for ANDs, ORs, and VLOOKUP.  Oh, I'm starting to touch on XLOOKUP too, if anyone cares.  Next semester I need to include it more, but this semester I'm trying to get a start on it.

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I took a belay class at our rock climbing place.  I passed and can now belay anyone, although I expect it'll mainly be my kids.  It was more fun than I was expecting.  I have a feeling that we'll get to know everyone there and I'll be on the floor belaying and I'll have my own equipment and...never actually climb on a rock wall.  Although since the kids are members I could go for mostly free once a month.  We'll see what happens.

Tuesday: rain

It was a lovely rainy afternoon.  Luckily, it was just misting when the kids were waiting to be picked up from school.  Shortly thereafter it started raining harder, so Joshua and I had the nice sounds of rain in the car while Isaac had his piano lesson.

Monday: O:CtH - bathroom

Today as part of Operation: Clean the House I worked on the area that contains the toilet in the master bathroom.  I've been looking at this area for a while, knowing that the window behind the blinds was going to be yucky.  It was yuckier than I thought.  Guess I should clean it more than once every ten years, but we never have a reason to lift those blinds and forget about it.

But!  Now the window is clean, the walls are wiped down, and some of the tricky places to clean on the toilet are all set.  There's still one place on the toilet that I'd like to get a little better, but need to think about different cleaning implements.

After rock climbing the weather was still wonderful and a bunch of leaves had fallen over night so the kids played in the yard for a while.  They made a leaf wall in order to hide from Ben.  It wasn't really all that tall, so I wasn't sure it was going to work...but it did!  I helped Ben find them after a few minutes or it would have taken forever.

Sunday: colors

This fall the trees seem to be especially pretty.  Several people have mentioned it, although no one seems to know if it's real or if we're all just imagining it.

Anyway, I normally notice the trees while I'm driving, so after church I gave the kids my phone to take a few pictures.

Saturday: a best part of the day

One of my favorite parts of some days is when Joshua comes down to give me good night hugs.  (I say some days because it's on days that Ben reads to the kids...otherwise I get the good night hugs upstairs.)

A while ago I started asking four questions.  How are you?  How was your day?  What was a bad part?  What was a good part?  (We don't do best and worst because that is too hard to answer.)  Anyway, in the last month or two Joshua has started asking me the same questions too.  I feel like it's a small step in becoming an actual person to him and not just a person that takes care of him.

Friday: cats

 Joshua forgot to close the garage door when he got the mail, so when I realized it 30 minutes later I closed it.  Of course, this prompted the cats to wait by the door because it was about time for Ben to come home.

So I showed them that no one was there.

Of course, Ben came home about two minutes later. so I had really messed them up.

Ben and Isaac went to play Magic tonight, so I had the only lap available.  Horizon curled up so nicely and then alerted me when they got home by leaving.  He did stay long enough to help me skip my evening snack, so I guess that was nice of him.

Thursday: pretty normal

It was a pretty normal day today.  I taught.  The kids went rock climbing.  I went to karate.  We had risotto with sausage for dinner; it was delicious (and easy).

Wednesday: quilting

I worked with my 4th grade girls on a quilting badge at church tonight.  We only had 1.25 hours, but got pretty far, especially considering some sewing machine issues and the girls having not used a sewing machine before.  I'll finish them up over the next two weeks or so.  I think they had fun and probably learned a little something.

Tuesday: cold

Today it got cold.  The rain made it feel colder.  I got Joshua's winter coat out for tomorrow, although this weekend is supposed to be nice again.

Also, Google put together a 'similar shots'.  It seems as though it's telling me that we have messy floors.

Monday: the day

Today was rather uneventful.  I worked at Kids' Food Basket.  I think half of the people that signed up didn't show, and so I thought we would be working longer than normal.  There were two organizers that were there and so they pitched in and we were done after an hour (instead of the normal hour and a half).  So I'm not really sure how that worked, but it was nice.

I stopped by Joann's to get some thread, but they were completely out.  It was an extra bummer because I ran out of that thread color today and so need to pause until I can get some more.  I don't always run the quilter Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday because the evenings are busy, but I can still be a little annoyed.

The morning was nice and rainy, but it stopped by the time it was time to pick up the kids from school.

I was tired this evening.  I'm not really sure why.

Sunday: Sunday school

Last week Isaac complained that Sunday school was boring; they were learning the same stories that he already knew.  I actually understand this.  It's been hard to find Bibles/devotionals at this point that don't just go over the 'big' stories of the Bible.  Not that they aren't important, but there is so much more to learn.

Anyway, Isaac came to the adult Sunday school today with me.  It's a different format this semester, where there is a short teaching about different ways to pray and then you pray using that method.  Today was focusing on Adoration, so as a practice we put out attributes of God following the alphabet.  Isaac participated!  He had several, but my favorite of his was 'unworried'.  His favorite of mine was 'umbrella'.  I think it'd be an interesting exercise to do with kids because they don't have the standard words that are normally used to describe God as engrained in them and you'd get some unique descriptors.  

Joshua joined at the end because it was going long.  The leader had thought that Q was going to be a problem (it wasn't) but as we were talking about it on the way home Joshua mentioned that 'you are my Q' would have been good.  I was a bit confused at first, thinking he meant queue.  After talking it through I realized he actually meant cue, and it became a good attribute.

Saturday: attic

I needed to measure the amount of insulation in the attic, so I took Isaac up with me.  He really enjoyed seeing it and doing a bit of climbing in the rafters.

He later told me that the whole experience (all fifteen minutes of it) would be a good topic for his personal narrative in writing.  :D

Thursday: rock climbing

Isaac went up several new runs today.  He said he cheated a bit on this one because he was being belayed, but he still got up to the top and it looked like a really hard one.

Joshua went up a run blind-folded.  I had to look twice when I saw it because it looked so funny.  (Actually, I think Isaac did too but I didn't see him do it.)

Wednesday: O:CtH

Today I cleaned the bathroom medicine cabinet as part of Operation: Clean the House.  I got rid of so much stuff!  This is especially amazing because Ben cleaned out the same cabinet a few months ago and got rid of a bunch of stuff too.  Needless to say, the cabinet is rather empty and ready to be refilled with medicine that we won't use again.

I also found eleven toothbrushes and tons of dental floss.  I kept three toothbrushes and a small basket of floss and will get rid of the rest.

Monday: the good, the bad, and the sleepy

Good news: Isaac won first prize in an art competition.  I'm not sure if it was just in his class or in all of the 5th grade, but I do know that he worked really hard on it.  (The theme was peace and he colored a bunch of flags behind an Earth.)  I was really proud of how he managed his time while finishing it.  He had a lot of coloring to do and not a lot of time, but he did a nice job using minutes here and there to finish.

Bad news: After school Joshua complained that he had a headache for most of the day.  I guess that using my mom intuition I had him check his temperature before giving him some medicine and surprise surprise, he had a low fever.  So he's home tomorrow.  Luckily, I guess, I have the day off.

The sleepy: Horizon settled in my lap this evening and hasn't moved.  It's rather surprising because he usually likes Ben better.  Furthermore, I usually move to much as I quilt and it disturbs the cats.  I even moved him on the chair when I went upstairs for a drink and then moved him back on my lap and he re-settled.  He's nice and warm.

Saturday: a nice day

Today was a lovely day, possibly because I didn't do much work.  I worked on my puzzle, did a Lego set with Ben, took a nap, and we went out to dinner with Cheryl. 

Friday: threads

Horizon surprisingly decided to sit on my lap most of the evening.  He ended up covered in threads.

Thursday: rock climbing

The rock climbing place had a competition over the weekend, so all the rock walls had been changed around.  Isaac said he spent a while figuring out this pink one.  Joshua, not pictured, spent most of the time in an obstacle course.  They were both enjoying it though, so that's what matters.

Wednesday: wisdom

Isaac and Joshua both received the award for wisdom as it was last month's moral focus.  (Two or three students per class get an award each month for the past month's focus.)

Tuesday: milestone

We're now paying more in principal than in interest on our house mortgage!  A milestone!

Monday: 2steps forward, pause

I got a lot done, but it didn't completely feel like it.  It felt like I got something started and then had to stop because I had done as much as I could for the time being.  I know this is a normal part of work, but it was also a bit annoying.

I put my head into the attic for the first time.  I should have done this before, although there's never been a reason.

I started winterizing and brought some chairs in.  The cats, just like kids, immediately gravitated toward them and started playing some game.

Horizon has been sitting on my lap a lot lately, probably because it's getting cold.  However, the minute he hears Ben he leaves me.

Sunday: Happy Adult Day

Joshua decided that today should be Adult Day.  It's like Mother's Day or Father's Day, but for any adult.  He had a whole list planned out.  He was going to make breakfast, we'd play a game, get presents after rest time, take an extra nap, and have a special dessert after dinner.  I feel like there was one more thing too.  In the end, we got everything crossed off the list. :)

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I helped a bit, but made them at least get them started.  

We played Dominion for the game.  It turns out that Joshua really likes using attack cards.

We didn't actually take an extra nap, but Joshua said it was a long nap.  That's probably because Joshua woke me up in the middle of the night coughing.  I also didn't like the sound of his breathing so he used the nebulizer and then we slept on the couch.  I slept, but it took a while to get to sleep and then it wasn't great sleep.

After we got up Ben opened the presents.  Joshua had made a bunch of Lego creations including a fountain, puzzle, and some hearts.  Isaac made us some hug tickets.  I told him I was going to save them for a time he didn't want to be hugged and he said that was fine.  We'll see if he feels that way then.

The planned dessert had gone bad, so I gave the boys mug cakes.  I realize Ben and I didn't have any, but I guess that's a luxury we have on Adult Day.

Saturday: testing

Today I had a karate test.  I felt like it was one of the best ones to date...I did about normal, but I didn't feel like they tested us on random new things.  With the exception of two things that we should have known* it was all stuff that we had been practicing.

Isaac listened to an audio book on the couch with cats a lot today.

*The items were part of the curriculum, but since the curriculum recently changed there's a chance we've never officially learned it.  It was just putting together two moves that we know well, but that still often takes at least a little practice before it is smooth.