Friday: school pictures

 I spent some time today ordering new photos for the picture wall.  I had too many good ones, and so I just ordered some extras.  Once they get here I'll decide if they're really good enough for the wall or if they should just go in the book.

Thursday: little stuff

Well, I'm sure you're wondering what I ended up doing about the groceries.  I ended up ordering them first thing in the morning (before I brought the kids to school and right after I had finished prepping for my first class).  I picked them up after karate.  I put the cold stuff away but the rest of them are still in the car for the night.

I also used my new water bottle today.  It is a spout top instead of a straw.  This was nice because it didn't squeak.  And it was correctly insulated so the hot water stayed hot.

Wednesday: food

I'm not sure when I'm going to get groceries this week.  I probably should have dealt with it earlier, but here I am.  I've been ordering them lately, especially while I'm in between house cleaners, but I still haven't figured out when to do it this week.  I could get them after picking up the kids tomorrow, but then I'd have to order them soon and I don't want to order them tonight.  I could pick them up after karate, but then I have the same ordering problem.  I could get them Friday, but would prefer to get them before picking up the kids after school and that's the first thing on my calendar.

Oh, such problems I have.

Monday: life

Today was a slightly odd day.  Joshua came home from school.  He's had a pretty bad cough and was laying on the couch when I came out this morning, so I picked him up.  He probably could have stayed, but at the same time the kids try really hard to push through on days I'm working so I give them one or two days per school year that are on the edge.

Joshua took the cold and cough medicine and proceeded to throw it up.  Like normal.  We went out to get some of the orange cough syrup and he held that down better.  I did make the day pretty boring though.

I finished putting shelves up in the storage room.  I've started moving stuff around and you can actually walk in the room now.  Next I get to keep decluttering and putting stuff back in, both of which I'm excited about.

This afternoon I had a massage as part of a "black belt congratulations" from Ben.  It was lovely.

At karate Mr. Galli was explaining how, when preforming a low block, both arms should move with the same power.  The next time we were supposed to do a low block I was super slow.  I feel like I was thinking about something else and my movements were a bit off.  He commented that I did use the same amount of power with both arms and we laughed about it.

Sunday: homework

Joshua had some homework this weekend: to learn about a family member that emigrated to the US.  We think that my grandpa, Glenn DeKryger, was the most recent emigrant within the family and so we chose him.

And then we proceeded to make a few phone calls to actually figure out the information.  I knew the name (phew) and the origin country (Netherlands), but we didn't know the rest.  Aunt C helped us with the year: he emigrated in 1909, when he was one year old.  Aunt Susan helpfully pointed out that the reason for emigrating was because his parents brought him over.  Uncle Lee gave a more applicable reason: there was no more farm land for purchase in the Netherlands.

Saturday: LEGO challenge

It was Joshua's week to choose the family activity, so as normal he chose a Lego challenge.  He and Ben have been building a lot of castles lately, so Joshua had us all build a micro-castle (in an hour)

I made a blue castle.  It had a name that I've now forgotten.  After all was said and done I said it was supposed to be in the water.  It's a blue ombre, but it was rather surprising how hard it was to find enough of the different colors in shapes that would work.

Ben made a cloud castle.

Isaac also made a cloud castle.  His middle portion wobbled a bit which was pretty funny.

Joshua made a lightning castle.  It was pretty amazing how much he was able to build in an hour.

Friday: prayer room

Our church is doing a 24/7 prayer week as we start a series on prayer.  I signed up for an hour today.

It went faster than expected, but the church also did a nice job of setting it up so that you could move between several different options of prayer practices.  I found myself spending a significant amount of time with the liturgy books.   While the liturgies themselves were helpful, I also found just looking through the table of contents a worthwhile practice.  For every event in life: large, small, and everything in between there is a place for God and a place to connect with God.

Thursday: better

 The kids seemed to have a better day today.  Phew.

I had a fine day.  There was a small exam, so those days tend to be easier.  (Sometimes more boring, but not too bad this time.)

All the after school activities got done.  There was a slight conflict between a dentist appointment and rock climbing, so I dropped Isaac off at rock climbing right after school.  He did some homework for a while before climbing.

And now it is time for bed.

Wednesday: the kids

 I feel like I kept consoling the children today.  I don't have good solutions, especially for Joshua, so it's a bit annoying.

The first thing I heard upon walking out of the bedroom was Joshua complaining about the evening activities (Cadets at church).

Isaac then complained about not having enough time to play with Legos.  I told him that he would probably have enough time tonight.

I proceeded on with my day.  A bunch of little stuff, along with getting another little shelf up.  One more shelf and I can move on with the organizing.

I picked up the kids and Isaac was almost in tears.  Not quite, but almost.  He had more homework than expected and was so sad that he wasn't going to get his Lego time.  So we talked through it...what he had to do and what wasn't really due tomorrow.  He ended up getting an hour of Lego time before homework, which he was not expecting.  Tomorrow might be a little rough, but we'll deal with that tomorrow.

At bedtime Joshua was sad about all the extra activities and chores and how he didn't have any time to play.  Is he busier than last year?  A little bit.  Are some days busier than others?  Yes.  I haven't felt as though he has a lack of play time though.  School's been a bit...weird, so I don't think that is helping.

Tuesday: running around

This morning didn't really go as planned.  The first class...just made some mistakes during lecture and it took both me and the TA quite a while to get everyone on track.  Then my laptop (with the notes and zoom) died.  I rushed through the last part of class, but phew, it was a rough one.  (The second class was about 15 minutes faster, which considering the whole class is only 80 minutes is quite a bit!)

I knocked my water bottle off my desk during lunch.  It broke.  But it wasn't really keeping my hot water hot nor was it easy to drink from, so maybe it's for the best.

It was a driving day.  I did a lot of shuttling people around.  Isaac did mention that he's not getting all of his lunch eaten because he's talking at lunch.  I think he talks to people more than I realize and is just a quiet social person.  After years of him playing by himself on the playground this seems perfect to me.  He can be by himself but he can still interacts well.  At least, I hope that's what is happening.

Joshua had a slightly bad day again.  Not as bad as yesterday, but there are just somethings he doesn't enjoy at school and he seems to fixate on those a bit.

We took a short bike ride after school because Isaac had finished most of his homework (yay!).  Isaac tried out his new bike and it worked well.  It's probably slightly too big for him, but not unsafe.  You can see Joshua way up in front; he worked really hard to go fast on his tiny bike.

And I'm exhausted.  Perhaps because it was a busy day, perhaps because I haven't slept super well the last few nights.  I'm contemplating going to bed early, but it takes effort to get out of the chair and move.  I could also just sit here a little longer.

Monday: success

I got up the shelves in the storage room and man-handled the filing cabinet into position.

We've decided to put some small shelves above the filing cabinet while we're at it, because why not.  Otherwise it's really a waste of space.  I also finished sorting out all the decluttering stuff from this summer that the boys gave me from their bedrooms.  I threw out, recycled, and donated a ton of stuff, but I still have quite a few things that still need to be dealt with.  Some of them will be returned to their original locations or correct homes, some will be regrouped with their other pieces, and some...will be dealt with.  Those are the ones that scare me the most.

Joshua had a rough day today.  Nothing all that big went wrong, but a lot of little things.  Therefore, I didn't make him (and Isaac) eat the dinner that I had planned on for tonight.  It's a small thing, but I really felt like "one more thing" might make him lose it.  He didn't fight me on the chores at least.

Saturday: rock show

Isaac and I went to the local rock show today.  It was fun.  It's amazing how many colors and shapes rocks come in.  Isaac decided to buy a geode and have it cracked open in front of him.

We also had some friends over for games after dinner.  Isaac had a really bad first game but handled it ok.  He did well the second game.  Overall it was a fun time.

Friday: shelves and thieves

This morning I went for a walk with Cheryl.  The sun was surprisingly hot and there was a lot of wildlife movement because of that.

                              

Isaac helped me with the second shelf this afternoon.  I had marked the holes for drilling, so he did the drilling (the first time with the powered drill!), hammered in the anchors, and started putting the screws in.  I also suspended the shelf with rope, and that helped the whole process tremendously.

Last night Joshua came down because he had gotten scared of his audiobook.  This happens on a regular basis - the books at night need to have no scary elements.  This one surprised me a bit because he was about 95% done with the book, but it mentioned something about thieves trying to break in and that is definitely one of his scary topics.  So we talk a bit and then 

J: What are the different levels of thieves?

A: what?

J: the different levels.  Like robber, bandit, thief

...so then I try to explain the differences between them and that they aren't really different levels per se while trying to make it all really not scary.

Thursday: tired

The day was rather normal.  Classes went well.  Joshua's piano lesson got canceled, so the evening was less busy than expected.

I was so tired after I got home from dropping Isaac off for rock climbing.  Joshua kept talking to me and I kept trying to respond, but I'm not sure it worked all that well.

Yup.  That's about all for the day.

Wednesday: a shelf

Today was the first time in quite a while that I had nothing on the calendar.  So I started out the day finishing some chores, of course: clean the kitchen, finish Isaac's bike and clean up, clean the bathrooms, deal with some small items.

Then, instead of dealing with some of my list I continued working on O:CtH.  I put up a wire shelf.  It took a bit longer than I was hoping but not much longer than I was expecting.  I was going to take a picture but now I'm too lazy to go get one.  It looks nice.  I have two more to put up and I'm hoping to have the kids help at least a little bit.

Sometimes days are all about chores, so after nap time (with Grey Bear) I continued working on things on the list.  These items I wasn't really expecting to get to, so I'm feeling like the day was a success.  It's amazing how successful (or not) some days feel based on how much I finish.  It probably shouldn't be that way, but here I am.

Tuesday: the normal busy of a Tuesday

Tuesdays are pretty busy, but at the same time once I get home a little before dinner I'm home for the night and that's really nice.

Classes went fine.  I went for a walk at lunch time with a friend.  Isaac had PATH, and it seemed to go a bit better than last time.  Ben ended up picking up Joshua so I was able to take Isaac to rock climbing and let him stay a bit longer than normal.

There's a lot of things I want to do tomorrow (like normal), but I'm hoping that I can stop with those items mid-morning to work on O:CtH - small storage room.  

Monday: bike

We got Isaac a new bike that involved some putting together.  I worked on it on Friday, but couldn't get the brakes to be in the right place.  After fiddling with it for too long, I called Dad.

The underlying problem was that the wheel spokes were out of alignment.  So he used his fancy tool and got them straight again.  (This made me feel so much better by the way. This is a problem that I couldn't fix, no matter how hard I was going to try.)  He also noted that the instructions didn't match the bike and adjusted all the things that I had adjusted while trying to make it work.  So I had a lovely experience with a happy ending.

I paid him in with a cup of spice tea and we both continued our rainy day.  (It rained all day.  Sometimes hard, sometimes barely at all, but all day.)

Sunday: more or less fine

Today my cold was much better than yesterday, but I was still rather tired.  We took it pretty easy today.  We finished up the game Stuffed Fables, which is a campaign-like game that we've been working through for the last year or so.

Oh, I got some pictures of Joshua's micro desert town.  It's not finished yet, but at least it's something interesting to look at.

Saturday: slightly unfine

 I definitely had a cold today.  I can't say I was miserable, but I wasn't at peak health either.

But besides that it was a good day.  Isaac did some of his extra "fun" math and went rock climbing for a while.  Joshua is working on a micro desert town and it's looking really cool.  Joshua and I also went on a short bike ride and that worked well.

I also took a long nap.  It may have been the best part of the day.

Friday: fine

 Today was fine.  One of my chores took way longer than I was hoping and I didn't really finish it either.  I did have a nice walk with Cheryl and then lunch with Heather.  

I think I'm coming down with a cold; hopefully the one the kids recently had.  It disappeared really quickly.

Isaac managed to finish the Rock Wall of the Week this week and he was pumped!  It's his second one ever.  It was made almost for kids because there were a few spots where being small was helpful instead of a hinderance for once.

Old things

 1) I realized I didn't have any pictures from the program of the black belt ceremony.  I was a bit bummed that a sentence got messed up in mine, but I also know Mrs. Galli was trying really hard to make them all correct and the computer program she was using was fighting her.

2) We got home after Labor Day and the kitchen was a disaster.  It was a bit sad because it had been clean earlier that day, but between making food and eating lunch it had devolved.  I told Ben I wasn't going to do anything about it that night, and as normal he didn't care.  And then he said, but the dishwasher thinks it's clean.  And that's why I love him.  (The pronoun was vague, but I took it to mean 'the kitchen'.)

Tuesday: back to school

Today was back to school.  The short week is nice, but things actually start this week.  Isaac had his first day of math at Hope College (PATH).  He said it went really fast.  He's learned some of the material previously though, so hopefully that will help him get into the flow.  As expected, there's a lot of work.  Hopefully he'll be able to finish a good chunk of it at school.

Isaac was a bit overwhelmed today as a whole though.  There are a few transitions to middle school that he's still getting the hang of.  I'm fully confident that he'll get into a groove, but it might take a few weeks.  (This is also completely understandable.  There are a lot of changes this year.)

Joshua took an interactive field trip to the statue of liberty and was very intrigued by it.  I heard a surprising amount about it on the way home.

I was just happy that scheduling all went ok.  There's a fair amount of driving to do and times to hit.  I travelled one stretch of road three times today.  Classes went fine too...the first class has been good about asking questions, but the second class was quieter last week.  Today they had more questions, and that makes the time go by so much faster.

Monday: Happy Labor Day

 Happy Labor Day!  This morning we did some work, but we also played Space Base.  I was convinced that Ben or Isaac was going to win, but then I got some lucky rolls and pulled out the win!  I was a bit excited.

We went to Larry and Cheryl's for the later afternoon/evening.  The kids enjoyed playing in the water and going tubing.  There was also a ton of delicious food and I ate way too much.

I'm also rather tired.  It was a long day, but my back has been hurting more than normal and I've been a bit anxious about some things that are going to work out just fine.  They're just new-to-me things and I don't have a routine down yet.

Sunday:

 

Vacation Tuesday: Science Museum

Our second day of vacation started out with leftovers from the night before.  Basically, we all had dessert for first breakfast.  (Second breakfast was a bit healthier.)

We moved on to the science museum in Detroit.  It was fine.  We ended up spending about four to five hours there so it was worth it, but it also wasn't quite as amazing as I had hoped.  (They also canceled our IMAX movie because of the heat the day before.  This confused us a lot, but isn't something to argue about.)  Anyway, I didn't end up with many pictures, but we still had a fun time.

The timing was actually pretty nice because then we were able to get on the road before things got too busy.  I had found a rock shop that was more or less on our way home, so we drove a bit and then took a quick break.

It was exactly what I had been hoping for.  Lots of different rocks, a microscope in the back to look at them, and not much "new age" type of stuff.  I'd highly recommend it, if you happen to be in the area.

Saturday: Grey Bear

Joshua's Lego challenge for us today was to make Grey Bear or a grey bear.  Joshua ended up making a throne for Grey Bear.

The Grey Bears.  Mine is on the left and Isaac's is on the right.  I spent most of my time on the head, and while it's a bit hard to see I had some really cool building right above the eyes to get the ears at a nice angle.  Isaac concentrated more on the droopiness of Grey Bear's body.

Ben's grey bear and the throne.  He ran out of time to fix the one hand, but has since updated the claw and changed them to black.

Friday: to do list

 Last night I realized I had a bunch of really short items on my to-do list.  So this morning instead of ordering things by importance, I put the <5 minutes ones at the top.  I knocked out so many things today!  It was amazing.  (I wasn't going to get many things done today anyway because the kids were home from school.)

Isaac and I also hung up a display for his rocks.

And we went to the library.

And apparently Joshua made a video.