The cats inspected most of the work I did today.
Nap? Inspected.
Unplugged the humidifier? Inspected for a long time.
Cooked food? Inspected
That being said, I didn't think I was going to get most of my list done today, and it was a bit of a problem as most of it needed to be done today. But I even got a few extra things that were added at the last minute done, so I was rather happy.
Ben was playing Minecraft with the boys and he and Isaac were going to spawn a monster. The monster creates a lot of damage, so they went far away to a savannah. However, they had to move to a different spot because Isaac said, "Dad, we can't do it here. I've seen a giraffe around." I know I don't write quite as much about Giraffe as I do Grey Bear, but Giraffe is a beloved member of the family.
Thanksgiving was a nice day. We did church at home and then the kids helped with the fruit for Thanksgiving dinner while I made the corn pudding. We already had the pomegranates done and were just using canned pineapple, so food prep on our side was rather easy.
The Box was brought over and proved to be a hit.
Dinner was delicious, as always. I claimed the right to carve the turkey. I'm not a great turkey carver, but I'm willing!
Afterwards we talked, played some games, and I took a quick nap. We snacked a bit near dinner time. And by snacked, I made a plate of food for myself and told the boys they had to eat something healthy before more dessert. I think Joshua listened to me, but I think Isaac just didn't eat.
Today was Ben's birthday. I had a good day - hopefully he did too.
I had some unique present ideas and I was rather excited about one of them. It was just a cutting board with Ben's name on it for building Lego sets on. It actually took me longer than expected to find the right size in the right price range.
We also went out for lunch, had a special cheesecake, watched it snow, and played Space Base.
...and I didn't manage to get any pictures.
Today was just a nice day. We finished up most of the Christmas decorations, I brought Isaac rock climbing, and did some work.
Let's see...I needed to do some grading because I was rather behind. However, one of my graders had already graded about half of what I thought I needed to do (because it had been turned in late) and it was amazing. I did it while Isaac was rock climbing, but was also able to belay him on a few courses and help out with some take-aways.
We mostly finished putting up the Christmas decorations. I think there's still a few stragglers, but just a few small items. Everything also needs to be put away. Between empty boxes and taking apart Legos the main area has been a bit of a disaster lately, but it is starting to get better. The house is fun. I ordered some new lights this year so that all the house lights matched. And I splurged and got special white/color LED lights and it has been so much fun. First of all, there's are different colors and they can fade in and out and we've been having a fun time trying out the different schemes. Secondly, the lights are about five times as long as the old light strings and so the whole house is covered with lights! I knew they'd be longer, but I was expecting about twice as long. Thirdly, the kids can do some of the stuff themselves. Joshua put up some outdoor lights and Isaac did the downstairs lights and they both look great. I'll get some pictures within a few days.
Hmmm...Joshua didn't have a fever today. He was still complaining a bit about a sore throat, but is happy that he could go to school tomorrow. He's especially happy that there is no school tomorrow!
I'm a bit grumpy tonight, but the things making me grumpy are all very small. There were a lot of good things today too, and they're even-ing out the grump. But nothing all that noteworthy.
Oh, a detail. (I always make the kids give me two details in the car ride home after school. It's interesting to see what they find noteworthy in the day...or, at the very least, what they can remember of the day.) We got some large candy cane light up decorations a few years ago and this year the lights went out on one of them. Joshua and I struggled to pull a new string of lights through and had really good team work. In the end, the lights are a bit dimmer and Joshua didn't like the new look. :( (I like the darker red, but we'll see if we can find something different.)
Joshua has a fever. When I woke up this morning he was laying still on the couch and had an elevated but not unreasonable temperature. I gave him some meds and he perked up. Then, about seven hours later he was back on the couch, this time with an actual fever. Plans for tomorrow had to be suddenly altered since he'll be home from school.
We also got some more pictures from Chicago!
Joshua had a friend sleep over last night and they had a great time. He's been here over night before, but this time schedules worked out so that he could stay a little longer in the morning. They played Minecraft last night (and were SO excited). I'm pretty sure that's all they've talked about for the last week at recess. All three boys played some game with the Legos this morning.
This afternoon for family activity time we got out our pick-a-bricks from Chicago. The pick-a-brick wall had some really nice pieces, so we all got our own cups.
I made some flowers. I had a really good time making them. The big purple one was really heavy and required a double stem to support it. And my favorite...I'm not really sure. The pink one turned out a lot cooler than I was expecting.
Ben made a seaside mansion with several different types of architectural styles.
Joshua made a house with floating islands. He used a large door as part of the roof, and it was a really neat use of that piece.
This morning I went to my Mom's group at church. The topic was praying for your kids. After brunch and announcements the speaker was introduced...as someone who has practiced praying for her kids and had a legacy of her mom praying for her.
She started her story. With many of the details omitted, her mom was diagnosed with cancer when she was in high school and then died five years later when she was in college. Needless to say, I couldn't handle it. I tried. But about she was talking about her mom actually dying I left.
I don't do stories in which moms die. I don't watch those movies. I don't read those books. I skip those TV episodes. Honestly, I probably would have skipped, or at least ducked out early, if I had known what the story would involve. Is it a worthwhile story and worthy of being told? Absolutely. Is the point, that I left too early for, important? Of course. But I couldn't deal with it at the time. The passage of time makes the hurt a smaller part of your life, but it can still show up painfully.
Someone did follow me out to the parking lot. She gave me a long hug and prayed for me. Later I had lunch with Betsy, who knows a similar hurt and understands the triggers and we commiserated.
And I thought about Mom a little more than normal today, and that's not a bad thing.
Today was a great day. I think I enjoyed Shedd more than MSI.
We had a nice hotel with a great view. The view at night was pretty, but we slept through most of it. Joshua and I read in the window seat for a little bit, but it was rather cold and so didn't last very long.
Each family was on their own for leaving: we were going to meet up at Shedd. Although we were told to leave around 9:30. Well. We all pulled into the parking lot within two minutes of each other, not having followed each other. Timing on this trip was crazy because we all had the same clocks.
We went to the Great Reef first and that was my favorite part. I probably could have gone around the circle a second time. I love the eels. I really enjoy the big tank.
We also happened to be there right as they were feeding several of the tanks. This was the neatest part of a bunch of us. First the sting rays. Turns out, it isn't very interesting to watch them eat. Then a normal school of fish. The a group of fish that SWARMED the food. And finally, an archer fish. I'm not sure I had ever seen an archer fish, even on TV, so when it shot the water up to get the food off a stick I was so impressed. On the way down from the Great Reef we were all in the elevator and someone noted that there should be a square tile for each of us. Someone else pointed out that since it was a 4x4 array there should even be an extra title. Then, as we were all shuffling into our square, someone pointed it that it was like one of those picture puzzles that you have to move one piece at a time within a grid to form a puzzle. So then we started moving like that. It was excellent.
We watched a show next and we were all a bit underwhelmed. They've changed the format of the shows to only feature a single animal and last about seven minutes. You don't have to reserve a time or pay for them, but you also don't know what the animal will be until one minute before the show starts. I feel like this could be handled slightly better, but we still enjoyed the sea lion and penguin shows that we saw.
Joshua found this amazing orange fish. It was probably his favorite in the aquarium.
We also got to pet several things! The first was a Lake Sturgeon. To me, it felt like a clean slimy fish. I know that's a weird description, but that's how it felt! Joshua managed to touch one once, but was a bit scared and didn't want to put his arm in too deep. Later Isaac and I touched some sea stars. They were harder than I expected, but I guess that makes sense.
Last, but not least, don't forget about the penguin exhibit! We still tell Ben his favorite animal is a penguin, whether or not it actually is. Joshua was especially excited to see the penguins with Ben.
We finished up around 2pm. They had a large section under construction, which was also a bit disappointing but oh well. It meant we got home at a reasonable time, and that's sometimes nice too. I'm still hoping to get a few more pictures (especially some group pictures), but don't have them yet.
At the end of August we went to the library to help with some promotional pictures. I just received them and they're really nice.
Isaac was also rather sad coming home from school. Most of it was that he feels like he has a lot of homework. (He does, but it's manageable. He just doesn't have a good feel for manageable vs crazy yet.) On top of that reading time in school was decreased from 15 to 10 minutes and that was really sad. So obviously, I sent him to his room to read for a little bit right after school.
A few days ago Isaac told us he can't wait for Thanksgiving to be over because then he can be done writing about what he's thankful for. Apparently he's had to do it several times over the last few days in different settings and is over it.
I taught about dates in excel today. They're a weird subject because they're both simple and hard at the same time. (Even Isaac, who has had a total of one excel assignment, has run into the problem of Excel turning his fraction into a date.) Anyway, I was afraid the class was going to run short but the timing ended up just about perfect. Starting Thursday we (finally) get back into material that has been prepped in previous semesters, and I'm excited to not have quite as much prep work.
Isaac had a really good time at rock climbing today. A route that he finished last week was graded at V2, which is on the high side for him. (Some he can do, some he can't.) He finished another route that he's been working on for a while.
I just kept at my to-do list today. I got a lot done, but there's always a lot to do. I haven't worked on Operation: Clean the House for several weeks and I'd like to. But between normal things and Hope work needing a bit of extra time, O:CtH hasn't gotten any time.
We came down to Chicago for the weekend with some friends.
We all left on our own from the Holland/Zeeland area. Two of them found each other about four miles from the Museum of Science and Industry and we found the other two cars about a mile away. It was a bit crazy and a great start to the weekend.
We got to ride escalators up. The kids love escalators.
Every day that I don't work Grey Bear waits for me in the lamp for nap time. He's there, ready and waiting, when I come out of the bedroom in the morning. He always has a smile on his face while waiting.
