Thursday: rules

This summer, we have a new rule in the house: no spraying the hose into the house.

Now, I think this should have been a rule that goes without saying.  But a few months ago Isaac sheepishly told us that the carpet by the basement slider was rather wet and it was partially his fault.  While not soaking wet, it was damp for a few hours.  Ok.  Everyone laughs about the rule and we move on.

Yesterday Joshua was by the upstairs screen door and I had to remind him of this rule!  Twice!  I don't think he actually sprayed water in the house, but he did stomp away after I reminded him that it's a rule the second time.

Wednesday: this and that

I made curry today.  I almost only made a single batch and then half way through I remembered I wanted to make a double batch.  I was just going to deal with it, but then realized I had a half onion and a half bag of carrots and plenty of meat and potatoes.  So I started the next batch.  And I ended up with eight meals.

I continued through my to do list.  It's slowly going down, but never fast enough. :)  Cleaning the bathrooms took longer than expected so I didn't get quite as much done as I was hoping.  It was close though.

Joshua used Isaac's guest pass at rock climbing and had a good time.  It involved him climbing up the same route over and over because he enjoyed how I dropped him down on the rope.  There was some swinging and some hovering and then the owner came over and I thought we were going to get in trouble but instead Joshua learned some spinning!

I forgot to even get the rice cooker out for the curry.  Usually I just forget to turn it on, and once I forgot to put the rice in.  It's a real problem.  What I haven't done yet is forget to plug it in or put the lid on, so there are still many ways I can mess it up in the future.

I went to my first black belt karate class. :D  It was about the same as the other classes, but blacker.

Tuesday: black belt!

Tonight was the black belt banquet and I finally got my black dobak and belt.  I had a good time.  I think the kids were bored but they held it together very well.

We have some before pictures:

Raelynn and I work together a lot.

We then had dinner and it was delicious.  Mrs. Galli sat at our table and was personable as always, but mentioned that I was one of the strongest candidates of this class.  That felt nice...I had put a ton of work into it.

During:

The presentation of the certificate and dobak

Not shown: They talked a little about things they appreciated for each person and it was super nice.  Mrs. Galli had my acts of kindness from several years ago and commented on how it show me balancing being a wife and mother and teacher along with helping out in the community.  How happy she is that we've become friends too.  Mr. Galli commented on how I ask questions, but that it allows them to talk more about why we do something the way we do.  (I do ask a lot of questions.)  I also ask a lot of technical questions, making sure my forms are just right.  (Or at least, that's what I imagine in my head.)

Opening of the belts

                                                 

After:

I made it!  It was a long wait from the test to the ceremony, but I am finally official.

Monday: in reverse

 Well, the pictures were imported backwards.  So I guess we're doing this backwards this time.

Isaac was giving us a Minecraft play with the little set that we just put together.  At one point I said, "Did that minifigure just kick the other minifigure [that was laying on the ground]?"  Isaac replied, "Yes.  He wanted to see if the other one was dead."  I responded, "Kicking dead people is not appropriate."  This sent Isaac into a fit of giggles.

We have a firm rule in this house: no playing on the stairs.  So what does Joshua do?  He starts sliding around on some cat stairs.

I've seen a few "my life as a stay at home mom" videos lately and they never seem to be true.  I mean, I can't clean the whole house when my kids are gone, let alone if they're around.  I don't do videos, so I did many pictures today.  It stopped around 2:30ish because the kids were about to be back home.

2:15pm: I made potato soup for dinner.  I had to get out a new container of garlic powder and it's a lot larger than the last ones.  I've been using it a lot recently.

1pm: nap time.  With my two buddies.

12:45pm: a late lunch while dealing with some emails.  I usually read during lunch but needed to send out the email.

12:30pm: leaving the dojang.  While do people always make videos in their cars?

10:45am: going to the dojang.  I offered to sew the patches on uniforms.  It can be hard to do if you don't have a sewing machine.

10:15am: trimming the wire shelves to fit a bookcase in.  We measured it prior to ordering the shelf and it should have fit.  The white leg is obviously crooked though, so maybe we measured at the wrong place.  Anyway, the shelf fits in now.

10:00am: The roomba was having none of the floor plan today.  It took a few tries to get it started, moving things around so that it could figure out where it was.

9:50am: I got my block ready to send out for my quilting bee.

9:45am: I was looking at the disaster that is the banister.  While I remind people to bring things down, I don't enforce it and so things get ignored.  I realize that people don't know where everything goes, but there are several things that they could figure out.

9:30am: raspberry picking.  The crop is amazing right now.

9am: doing a little bit of work to get ready for work tomorrow

8:45am: getting Joshua's quilt ready for quilt picture day

8:30am: taking a break from laundry to finish getting ready for the day.

8:15am: breakfast and devotions finished

8:00am: breakfast about to start

7:35am: first day of school pictures.  Isaac (6th grade), Joshua (3rd)

7:20am: working on the kitchen

I didn't get all I was hoping to get done finished today, but I did get everything I was expecting to get done.  I'll call it a win.  The kids had pretty good first days.  Joshua more so than Isaac.  Joshua loves his teacher and was all sorts of talkative.  Isaac, I think, had to deal with three teachers telling them the rules.  I don't really love the first day of classes either because of that, so I think that was part of the issue.

Sunday: last day of summer

 School starts tomorrow!  We just had an easy day today.

As I reflect on the summer, it was a pretty good one.

Downside: I heard "Mom..." too much.  It's the first time it's every really bothered me.  Most of the times it was followed by a reasonable statement or request.  The rest of the time...well, would you rather be eaten by a shark or a cat?

Upside: I felt like the summer was well balanced.  There were plenty of things to do, but it wasn't overwhelming.  I only infrequently heard the kids complain about being bored.  

Downside: we didn't play as many games as last summer.  

Upside: we saw a lot more people throughout the summer

All that being said, I am ready for them to go back to school.  During the summer I don't do as much house work and I'm starting to go a little crazy.  (It's still the correct choice, but it can be hard to feel productive if the house looks exactly the same in the morning as the evening.)

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Today during snack time Isaac and Joshua were talking nonsense as normal and I heard the following:
Isaac: Which is louder?  Eating the Lego alligator or the pretzel?
Joshua, immediately and with absolutely no hesitation: I'll try the pretzel.

Saturday: change of plans

The day started out as planned.  Ben and I slept in, got McDonald's, and played Dominion.  We dealt with a few things around the house.  We finished our movie.  As we were having lunch we learned that Isaac wasn't feeling well and that the kids were going to come home early afternoon.

It was fine, but it was a bit sad to not have the extra day to ourselves.  There might be plans to do another night soon, but nothing is on the calendar yet.

Friday: out and about

 This morning we were supposed to go on a walk with Aunt C.  We get about a third of the way there and the car starts making a weird sound...a grinding sound in the front left.  We get about two thirds of the way there and I decide that this is not a good idea anymore.  I cancel on Aunt C and call the shop to see if they can take a quick listen right then.

They can!  So we go to the car shop.  Of course, I wasn't planning on this so I don't have things for the kids to do.  They did an amazing job over the next 30-40 minutes though, taking turns with my phone and being patient.  The people did hear the noise, but everything looks ok.  The boot that covers the axle joint was still in good condition and there weren't any vibrations so I was given the ok to keep driving.

Aunt C texted me just as we were about to leave the shop so we ended up restarting our plans with her!  We were going for a walk at the Discovery Center and it was a beautiful day to do so.

There was a hawk sitting on one of the pillars in the playscape.  It was at the same place I'd put a hawk statue, so that was cool.  Joshua was excited to show Aunt C the eagle nest.

And we saw the birds of prey, walked around for a bit, enjoyed the playground a little bit more, and just had a lovely time.

We got back home, misunderstood each other a little bit as chores were getting done, and then I brought the kids to Larry and Cheryl's house for the weekend.  Ben and I had a very relaxing night: pizza and a movie, two games of Dominion, and no wrangling of kids.  It was wonderful.

Thursday: mostly Joshua

It was a rather busy day.  I got a few things finished, but there were several that didn't.  Oh well.  We went grocery shopping this morning.  By the end of the trip I was rather done.  I'm not sure why...grocery shopping is usually tolerable.

Isaac and I played my new Dominion set.  It was the easy intro, but still a lot of fun.

Isaac went rock climbing.  He enjoyed himself much more than last night, but he was by himself.

It was meet the teacher night.  We had piano lessons right afterwards, so there was a bit of a time crunch.  We made it though!  The whole place was busy, which was a little rough.

Joshua's room was nice, as was his teacher.  Ben got a cute picture.

Isaac's stuff was definitely geared towards older kids.  He put his stuff in his locker and has a schedule and I'm slowly feeling more comfortable.  I know they've done this transition lots of times, but I don't completely know what to expect.

As we were praying tonight, I started out with some adoration: "You are the King of kings" and a few others.   The Joshua jumped in: "Oh, I've got one.  You are like a killer bunny."  "Oh?" I asked.  "Yeah, God's dangerous like the laser eyes killer bunnies have, but He can also be soft and cuddly."  I'll be honest, it seems like a very apt description.

Wednesday: kids

It felt like the day was all about the kids.  It's ok, and I still got some other work done, but it was just a fine day.

Isaac was ready to work on a Minecraft set, so we did that in the morning.  It was only missing one piece!  And it was an easy to find 2x2 brick...all the fiddly pieces that are usually missing were present.  It was pretty exciting.

Joshua and a friend went to Urban Air this afternoon and stayed for 3.5 hours.  We got home and Joshua crashed, but he had played really hard.

Isaac tried out the dev(elopment) team at rock climbing.  I was really hoping he'd love it and he definitely didn't.  The timing was even going to work out no problem.  So now we have some questions we need to ask...does it get harder/more challenging?  Can he try a few more practices and then decide?  Ben and I don't want to force him to do it, but at the same time there are a lot of good parts about being part of a team.  Stay tuned.

Monday: Detroit

We were in Detroit today.  We had a small mismash of things planned, and the plan worked pretty well.  There was a bit of extra afternoon downtime in between things, but the break was nice too.

We started with Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.  It's an arcade with a mix of old things (think talking heads and old arcarde games), pinball machines, and new arcade games.  Ben and I were expecting a bit more old games and fewer new ones, but we still had a fun time.

Hit the dots was a favorite game and got played several times throughout the time.

There was also a Japanese drum game.  Similar to rock band, but Ben said that the drum heads were better.

My personal favorite was the bus one.  It is pretty much one of those silly drop a coin in and get tickets out if you drop it in the right place.  But, it was only a penny AND instead of tickets you got pennies back out, so you could drop them in again.  It was a lot of fun for only 25cents total.

Next we went to iFly, an indoor skydiving place.  Isaac has wanted to go for the last several months and Ben was excited to do it again.  It was a lot of fun!  Joshua even conquered his fear of going up high in the wind tunnel and decided to do it last minute.  Let's see...the first time Isaac got in the wind tunnel his legs pretty much flew over his head, but he got the hang of it really quickly.  Ben was able to go a bit more advanced and was able to steer himself around a little bit.  And I was happy with just being stable...or as stable as one gets in a wind tunnel for the first time.

Then we went to our hotel in downtown Detroit.  It has a little sitting area separated from the beds and I'm rather excited by it.  I'm currently sitting with the lights on, not worrying about waking up the kids.

The last surprise of the day was dinner at the Sugar Factory.  It has been Isaac's favorite restaurant (that he had only been to once prior) for a long time, although when I asked him at lunch time today he didn't mention it.  It's been several years since we've gone and I think he had given up.  Ben and I split a cajun pasta that was amazing.  (Side note, at lunch Joshua had a grilled cheese that he didn't like, but everyone else  thought it was amazing.  So we knocked it out of the park with food today.)  Then, of course, we had desserts.  In no particular order:

Joshua didn't think I'd let him get this one because of the sucker.  But since I had already told him he couldn't get the King Kong dessert that serves 12, I told him yes to this and he was rather excited.

And now we're back in our room.  The kids are asleep...Joshua told us he wanted to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.  I'm exhausted, but it's only 9:30pm and a bit too early for me to go to bed.  I didn't sleep all that well last night as the air conditioner was really noisy when it turned on.  I woke up a lot, but at least I was also able to quickly go back to sleep.