Tuesday: snow

 I came out of work today to go run around town...first to pick up Joshua, then Isaac, then to rock climbing.  But wait a minute!  There was a ton of snow on the ground!  I knew some snow was expected, but I was expecting flurries.

It takes a few minutes longer to get to Joshua than I was hoping, but not too bad.  BUT THEN!  I sat in the parking lot trying to get out for twenty minutes.  I was about ready to strangle someone.  There didn't seem to be the normal traffic directors and everyone was going slow because of the snow and I don't think people were "merging" nicely.  I didn't let anyone cut in ahead of me after the first ten minutes.  I know it was a bit mean but they also weren't trying to get through the line from the very back of the parking lot, letting everyone in.  If I had picked Joshua up the other way I could have been out in ten minutes.  For reference, it usually takes about three minutes.

So I was about a half hour late picking up Isaac by the time I dealt with the slow traffic on the way to get him.  Now, the teachers were super nice about it and the kids were nice about it and I knew he was safe, but I couldn't quite get out of my own head.  Almost.  I almost calmed down, but not quite.

We went to rock climbing and the driving conditions had improved a lot by that time.  Joshua used Isaac's guest pass for the month...he enjoys being belayed due to the fun drops I can give him on the way down.  I don't blame him as I do try to make them fun.

The kids played outside for a little bit before dinner.  They tried to cover up the front window with snow, but it kept sliding off.

Monday: finishing up

I finished up a lot of little things today and it felt good.  I completely finished the little storage room in Operation: Clean the House.  I don't have pictures, but it feels so much better when I walk in there.  Next up, the basement bathroom!  The garage is ready to store the bike that's down there.

A few weeks ago I bought a king sized blanket for our bed to replace one that was currently on there.  We've had that one for so long and it always felt too small: it wouldn't easily cover my shoulders.  It still makes me happy every night when I go to bed.

Sunday: surprises

I woke up today and Joshua declared it was Grey Bear's birthday.  Since I didn't have anything on the calendar, today is now officially Grey Bear's birthday.  We had orange cinnamon rolls since it was a last minute notice.

I was cutting Joshua's hair and we were talking and I forgot to put the #4 thingy on the razor.  So now he has a stripe on the back of his head.  I felt so bad but he was so, so nice about it.  He has a plan if someone asks him about it at school.  We'll give it a week to grow out and next weekend I'll see if I can blend it in better.

We went to visit Grandma at her new home.  Although she isn't super happy about her new place, she did seem to be in good spirits.  We found the piano and she played for a little bit.

Saturday: shots

 We had a mostly normal day today, other than that we got our flu shots.  It was such a little poke.  Isaac and Joshua were both a bit scared, but realized afterwards that it's just the lead-up to it that's the worst.  They did fine.  We also made them give their birthdates for practice.  Apparently it's something we need to practice more.

Afterwards we finally got donuts.  I've struck out the last two times I've tried.

Joshua finished his Lich King (from Minecraft) recently:

...and became a panda?  I was just told to take a picture.

Friday: getting stuff done

I finally managed to get some stuff done this week.  (I know, that's a false statement.  But it's how it feels.  Having a routine colonoscopy doesn't feel like I actually did anything, although maybe I should put it on my to do list next time so that I can cross it off.)  I finished winter prep and got all the stuff to their winter positions.  I did all the laundry.  I finished several small chores.

Isaac had a good time at camp and was rather talkative about it.  That was nice.  He got me a mug as a souvenir.  I teased him that it was a reminder of when he left me and had a good time, but it was still a really nice gesture.  Everyone was rather tired tonight, although I'm not sure why Joshua and I were so tired.

Thursday: pumpkin

Isaac is gone at 6th grade camp today and tomorrow, so Joshua and I decided to carve a pumpkin after school.

Joshua made a cat pumpkin.  I made a small cat on the back, because I didn't really feel like I needed a pumpkin all to myself.  First a drilled a small hole and it went really well!  So I went with a bigger drill bit...and the pumpkin slightly exploded.  Pumpkin pieces went all over the place.  So next time, only small holes.

Wednesday: trunk or treat

We visited trunk or treat at church today.  We went right at the beginning and that was a great idea: when we left a half hour later the line was about ten times longer.  I don't have any pictures of the kids.  Isaac went as a wizard.  He had made a lego wand that lit up with a button.  Joshua was Squirtle again.

One spot was giving out things for the adults: hot chocolate and flowers.

Isaac and Joshua also got this fun picture during kitty play.

 

Tuesday: busy

 It was a busy day.  There was normal work for classes.  The kids had a half day and so I picked them up from school and ate lunch at home.  I picked up Isaac after our classes were done and he said he was disappointed about his quiz grade: 8.5/20.  That really surprised me, but I kept my cool and said that at least he could make corrections.  He told me he elected to not make corrections.  "What?!?  8.5/20 and you're not going to fix it?"  "No, no," he replied.  "18.5/20".  Phew.  I can understand a small disappointment with that number but I was also super excited about it because it wasn't 8.5.

Anyway, we rushed home so I could drop him off and go to parent teacher conferences.  We were a bit worried about Joshua.  He loses recess minutes as part of a group when he's doing the right thing, and it hits him hard.  It's usually the first thing I hear about when we're talking after school, but I also understand that the teacher has limited ways to stop talking.  She made a note.  She did say that he's a sweetheart and he's doing a great job and is on track with everything.  His lack of capitalization and periods is normal for where he is.  It was a glowing report.  (To note, he normally is fine with Ben and I, but we've had some small issues.  They don't seem to be issues at school.)

Isaac's conference was the boring one this year.  Grades are good.  His teacher was trying to tell us that it would have been better to have a higher growth in his standardized math test, but then realized that his test scores are so high it is actually hard to have that growth.  So we chatted a bit more and left early.

There were a ton of things on my to-do list because I didn't do anything yesterday.  I accomplished several of those this evening.  Several of my graders aren't putting in their allotted hours and I'm stressing a little bit about how everything is going to get graded if they don't step up and how I'm going to finish the other stuff I need to finish.  It's happened before and I know the important stuff will get done, but it still takes time.  I'm doing something very different next semester because this happens to some extent every semester and I'm sick of it.

Ben worked late.  Tornado missed him so much that he sat with me for a while.

Monday: colonoscopy

This morning I didn't do much.  A little bit, but I also just sat around a lot.  We finally got to the hospital and things went smoothly.  It turned out that the prep that I did had a high chance of bad side effects, but I luckily didn't have any.

I had a clear colonoscopy with no polyps.  So I get to do it again in five year.  I did wake up at the very end as they were taking the oxygen back off and I jumped when I woke up.  (This is how I normally wake up, honestly.)  They just pushed me back down and laughed a bit.  I don't remember going to the room, but woke up for good when we arrived.  I heard the doctor's report, drank my apple juice, and we got on our way.  They told us it would take a total of about two hours and they were very accurate.

Pat and I picked up the kids after a lunch for me and then I took a nap.  My intestines are still gurgling a bit, but at least I'm able to eat again.

Sunday: hungry

I'm hungry.

I have my recurring colonoscopy tomorrow, so today is the clear liquid diet.  The rest of the family got to eat yummy things like left over pizza and chicken sandwiches and I got Jell-o and chicken broth.

I'm over Jell-o.  Last time I made two different flavors and only ate one.  This time I made one and barely ate half of it.  It looks like it will be solid and delicious and then it really isn't - solid or delicious.  The chicken broth is always the yummiest thing.  I think the salt helps a lot.

The actual prep for the procedure has gone fine.  It doesn't bother me much.  

The procedure isn't until noon tomorrow!  Which means I get to be hungry all morning too.  At least everyone will be gone so I can be grumpy by myself.

Friday: stuff was finally accomplished

Today was the first day that I felt like I actually finished chores this week.  This isn't actually true at all: I got some stuff done on Monday and I worked well Wednesday, but groceries and mid-terms took a lot of time.

O:CtH update: I was hoping to finish the small storage room today, but that didn't quite happen.  I need to dust a crate that I put in it and take care of some things that I took out.  Next up is the basement bathroom.  It's an odd room as there isn't much in it and it should go rather quickly, but at the same time it has some big items that need to be moved out.  This includes Ben's bike.  I haven't been using the indoor bike lately because there's been more karate, so it's time to put the bike back in the garage.  Of course, there really isn't any room in the garage either.  So I need to clean enough of the garage to get the bike in.  I did a little bit of that today.  I found several large kids' toys to donate and a lovely empty box that looked like it was being turned into a castle.  It was taking up a surprising amount of room and I'm wondering how long it's been there.

I also did several outside chores.  I'm slowly bringing in all the summer stuff and I cut down most of a bush that was trying hard to be a tree. 

Thursday: good job

I got a "good job" in karate tonight and I was rather proud of it.  We had just gone through a bunch of basic actions (front kick, front punch, etc) with "here is how you make it better" instructions.  Then we were running through one of our basic combos - high block, front punch, front kick, jump front kick - and I was trying hard to put some of the new technical instructions into practice.  And the instructor noticed and said "good job".

Wednesday: watermelons and Catan

 For the third year Isaac has tried to grow watermelons.  This was our best quantity year, although we still haven't mastered getting a watermelon larger than a baseball.

Surprising me, he ate some of them anyway.  Well, at least a scoop of them.

We also started a game of Catan last night and it was going very poorly for me.  We always tell the children to be good sports, but this game always seems to have one person that isn't enjoying themselves.  We finished it up tonight and it was memorable in two ways. 1) It is probably the shortest game of Catan I've ever played.  Ben had a strong start but so did Isaac, and Isaac continued to get good rolls the whole time.  2) It is probably the worst game I've ever had.  I was just starting to make progress tonight after nothing last night and the game was done.  I ended up with 3/10 points (and you start with two points!).  

Monday: day off

The kids didn't have school today.  I forgot that fact several times, but managed to not send them to school this morning.  We went to the karate school this morning so the kids could play with the obstacle course.  They played with it for two hours, so it was a good morning activity.  I played with them a little bit and managed to pull a muscle in my neck.  It's already starting to get better.

Then we decided to get donuts.  I didn't want to go to Meijer because they don't have my favorite.  We went to one place and they were closed on Mondays.  We went to a second place and they were well picked over with just a few boring ones left.  We ended up making orange cinnamon rolls at home; they were delicious.

The rest of the day was pretty normal.  Screen time, rest time.  Last night I was reading to the kids and the story got pretty scary so we forwarded to the end of the chapter.  Today we backed up, read the scary part in the daylight, and then continued with the story a bit.

I got a few chores done throughout the day.  During laundry, Tornado 'hid' under the bed.  Horizon was nice to his brother and didn't pounce on his tail.

Thursday: pretty normal

 It was a rather normal day today.  I taught.  There was a lot of group work with pivot tables.  I very clearly stated something in a short lecture at the beginning, noting that students often forgot this thing.  Surprise surprise, several groups forgot it.  However, there were also several moments of "ah ha!" when they realized, so hopefully they'll remember in the future.

There was a short meeting after school for 6th grade camp.  I'm sure Isaac will have fun.  I'm glad to have a packing list.  It did make a busy day even busier though.  I know that's just how Tuesdays and Thursdays go, but ...they're still quite full.

Tuesday: pictures

We're doing the celery experiment with colored water.  I think it's going well, Joshua doesn't agree.  Color is coming through though.

We had to wait a bit for Isaac at Hope.  Joshua enjoys climbing all over the stuff.

 

We wore our special shirts today.

Monday: crackers

As I was making my grocery list today I saw the word crackers.  I paused, thinking, "do we need crackers?"  Then I realized that I remembered getting the crackers out for Joshua's lunch.  I remembered putting the crackers away for Joshua's lunch.  But I didn't remember actually putting crackers in Joshua's lunch.  Oh well, he'll survive.

Come to find out, I put two sets of carrots in Joshua's lunch instead of any crackers.  He was not thrilled, but ate an extra carrot at lunch anyway.  We were able to laugh about it quite a bit.

*************

Every night Joshua texts me good night.  He was into emojis, but then he found gifs.  I sent him two one night and he quickly stated that I should only send one.  The next night he sent three.  But they were all really cute.

Sunday: bike ride

 Giraffe got to go on a bike ride today.  Grey Bear was so sad not to go, but Joshua refused to bring him.

We went to Larry and Cheryl's for dinner.  Beforehand Larry brought out a toy from his childhood...a steam engine.  While still available, there's no way it'd be a kids toy anymore.  Anyway, it was pretty interesting to watch.

Friday: busy

 Today was a busy, but good, day.

I had my mom's group at church and I know the mentor mom a bit.  (The mentor mom is usually a woman who has older kids and leads the group.)

Then I went to donate blood.  Apparently there's a blood shortage and then for some reason there was extra waiting.  I don't know if they packed in extra appointments or if they were just slower today.  However, I was able to donate with only a very small hiccup, so I counted it a success.

I had lunch with Betsy!  It's been a while since I've seen her, so there was a lot of catching up to do.

I took a nap.  Unfortunately, I slept through a zoom meeting I had set up.  However, the person was nice about it and we set up another meeting for next week.  I just felt dumb, but it completely slipped my mind all day or I would have set my alarm earlier.

Isaac had an ...annoying...end of the day so we got some crumbl cookies.

Ben picked up the pizza!

It rained!

Ben and Isaac went to Magic so Joshua and I had our normal at home time.  We did some Legos and watched some shows.  I didn't eat any of my cookie though because my stomach is feeling a little off.  I'm also rather tired and might end up calling it a night early.  However, I washed the sheets today and only have the bed half remade.  Yuck.  I should have made this more of a priority.

Wednesday: book

 I found this sentence in my current book and it's been a while since I've read such an amazing paragraph.  Two friends are joking around about why one took so long to show up: if assassins attacked while they were eating. 

The book is Crystal Awakening by Andrew Rowe.

Tuesday: cheese, nice!

Last night Isaac (and I) were working on his last page of math.  All the pages are self-checking: there is a riddle and by solving the math problems correctly you get the answer.  The question was "What did one cow say about the other cow?"

There were a few math issues to fix, but those were taken care of easily because the answer wasn't in the answer bank.  We still ended up with CHSNIC.  Well, that seems wrong.  After a bit more searching we found that Isaac had removed all the Es when he shouldn't have, so we ended up with Cheese, nice.  Hmm.  Well, those are two actually words.  Cheese comes from milk comes from cows.  Maybe it's right.  Isaac elected to just turn it in instead of asking Ben.

Isaac got all the points on the homework, so apparently "Cheese, nice" was correct.  We joked about it a few times and then were telling it to Ben after dinner.  

Ben,  immediately: Did you say, 'she's nice'?

Amanda: no, 'cheese, nice'

Ben: right, "She's nice"

Isaac and Amanda, minds blown: OOOH!

We should have talked to Ben, although now we have a joke.

******************

Our painter, Rene, is doing our deck soon.  He texted me today to say that he'd be power washing today.  I responded, no problem.  A bit later I get an apology from him: 

"Please forgive me Amanda I forgot to mention that my son is power washing right now so you see somebody out there that's not me it's my son thank you"

I snarkily responded: "I'll admit, since people so rarely just come to power wash my deck I would have assumed the person was sent by you. :). But thanks for the heads up."

He laughed at that.

Tuesday: waste

One of my chores today was to deal with the seaweed that has washed up on the edge of the lake.  This happens occasionally, especially right after they've sprayed.  I usually have about a bucket's worth, maybe two if it's really bad.

This time I had about seven buckets.  And a neighbor had pulled it out of the lake to dry, so I did two additional buckets for them.  The neighbor said there had been something weird about the lake, that there was a film on it.  Whatever happened, it was a little absurd.

Aunt C was here at the same time so I grabbed her clippings and then said

A: I'm going back inside but I'll leave the lard wa...  nope, that's wrong.

A:  the yawn wa...nope, still wrong the other way.

C: haha

A: the yard waste out.  Phew.  I talked correctly.

weekend: ups, downs, and little stuff

The snap dragons are flourishing.  They weren't doing so well most of the summer, and then suddenly they're thriving.  

Saturday was a bit busy.  Joshua had a birthday party and then we went straight to another get to together with friends.  Both were fun, but it made for a bit of a long day.

Sunday was a long day because it went somewhat poorly.  Joshua was "so tired" during church, but of course wasn't tired before or after.  Isaac had forgotten that he needed to do some math until Sunday afternoon and of course it is taking longer than hoped.  It isn't due until Tuesday so he still has some time, but ideally he would have started sooner over the weekend.  Joshua wasn't holding a glass of lemonade straight up and down in Ben's car and he got mad when I called him out on it.  Joshua recovered after dinner.  I don't bounce back as quickly.

(It does remind me a lot of when Dad would tell me to watch were I was going and I would say, "I am!"  In hindsight, he was probably correct.)