The plan this year was to keep all the Christmas Lego sets put together and do a better job aranging them all. The arrangement shown on the bottom isn't the final arrangement because Joshua wanted all the north pole stuff together, but it's close. Ben did an awesome job dealing with the boxes and putting together some cute details.
I wrapped almost all of the presents for Dec 24 and 25. I consolidated the presents for next weekend. And ended up with a big box pile!
Today went well. The kitchen is mostly clean. Many presents got wrapped.
While I was picking up Isaac from rock climbing, I was talking with one of the other moms. She mentioned that she needed to dethaw the meat. Dethaw! That's a word Mom used to use. I used it for a while until Ben mentioned that it actually means to freeze meat, although it is a combination of defrost and thaw.
The 'professional' pictures from the last rock climbing competition came out and Isaac was caught for once.
Ahh, my thoughts were pretty swirly today. There are a lot of things with Christmas that need to be remembered.
This morning I frosted the brownies, made peanut butter cookies, dealt with shredded chicken, and made mashed potatoes. I'm not keeping up with the dishwasher, so that made things a bit difficult. There is only a short food thing to deal with tomorrow though, so maybe it'll happen.
I worked on getting Christmas presents ready.
Oh! Laundry! I did that too.
So yeah - it wasn't all that exciting of a day, but it was fine.
This lego pencil fooled me. I thought the eraser looked weird at a glance, but I only glanced at it.
Well, now that grades are in I can start working more on Christmas prep. Although really, the day was pretty boring.
I got groceries, went to the library, and dropped off the compost. I made brownies, chex mix, and started getting some Christmas presents prepped.
I took a nap. It was a lovely nap.
I made dinner. I feel like I did a few other things but I'm not sure what. A few emails, cleaning up a few things, stuff like that.
We went to rock climbing. Joshua came up with a new game. I don't always love new games, but this one turned out pretty good! There is one off-limits hold on a route, choosen by person 1. Person 2 gets three guesses as to which hold it is. If they guess it, great! It gets skipped as you do the route. If Person 2 doesn't guess it correctly, they have do the route with as few holds as possible so that they don't accidently use the off-limits hold.
By the time we get back from rock climbing, Isaac takes a shower, and we eat, it is pretty much time for the kids to go to bed. Yesterday I finished a quilt top, which usually means I at least pretend to clean up my desk and deal with odd things. Isaac really needed some clothes alterations done, so I did two of his three items.
And then it turns out it is time for me to go to bed. Yesterday my to-do list was at rather high, and I think I added as many things as I took away today. But maybe tomorrow I'll be extra productive!
I put grades in today! I finished up what I needed to finish and put grades in by 11am. A bit longer than I was hoping, but still done.
I had lunch with a friend. I took a nap. I made dinner. I got rid of some of the short tasks on my list.
Also, I realized today that I forgot ear day! Ear day is Dec 13 and it's when ears are the best for eating. It's a cyclical thing, and July 13 is the day when they taste the worst. Anyway, I forgot the day until I was teasing Joshua during nightly questions. So I ate his ears. Then Isaac showed up and I called him in a for a hug. He was rather suspicious, but came for a hug anyway. And I ate his ear. But! Everyone was laughing!
This morning was a bit rough. The kids and I had different expectations about breakfast and time management, and so Isaac was sad I rushed him out the door and Joshua was starving because he didn't eat second breakfast.
But then it started to get better. Isaac finished all the pages of a math test that he needed to finish faster than normal. Joshua went to a fun birthday party while the rest of us played Apiary. (Isaac and I tied, but I won on the tie-breaker. So, per tradition, I had to put the game away at the end.)
I send Isaac some desmos equations that returned swirling hearts. He gave me a single heart back:
I gave the last final exam today! I finished grading the physics labs and was also happy to find that I'm over 2/3 of the way through the final exams. I've been pecking away at them at night; it isn't as efficient, but somewhat more enjoyable.
I went to get groceries and was in and out of Aldi in about 15 minutes. This is much shorter than I was expecting. I was pretty pumped about it, but at the same time it just meant that I had to go wait in a parking lot because I was too early to pick up the kids.
I don't have jury duty next week. This would have been the best week to have it; I'm really hoping not to get it the week of Christmas. It seems like a mean thing to do.
It was a snow day! Isaac likes snow days, but wishes they would be on a day other than Thursday. He still has to do his math class. (However, we learned a lot from last Thursday and came into the day with different initial conditions, so I think the day was still pretty good.)
Joshua played outside for over an hour. I think he sled...sledded?...went sledding down the hill most of the time. The neighbors joined him for a little bit.
I got some stuff done. Not as much as without kids, but still stuff. Including a few things that I wouldn't have otherwise done, but that I needed to do with Joshua. I did figure out how to postpone all of my errands because I just didn't want to go outside. I don't have groceries...yet...but can hopefully do a speed run tomorrow after picking up the work Christmas gift.
I went to karate, as normal, this evening. My shoulder has been hurting lately. (I have a PT appointment scheduled, but she books pretty far out. A dose of ibuprofen usually takes care of it.) Anyway, I was attempting to do push-ups and my shoulder just said, "no". My shoulder has never said that to me before. My legs have, on occasion, but not my shoulder. I double checked with it two more times, and then decided that "no" really was the best option tonight.
First off, there's a snow day tomorrow! I don't have to work, so it's a good day for it.
I got stuff done. I took a nap. We got a ton of boxes.
Horizon slept on the bed most of the day. It was a problem because I needed to change the sheets, but you can't move a sleeping cat.
It was a pretty normal day.
I got through a bunch of chores in the morning. It included putting my decorative pot back up. Of course, then we were looking at the forecast and it is supposed to be windy soon. So Joshua decided to move the pot to the front where it might not call over.
Yesterday we put boxes under the Christmas tree to stop the cats (well, mainly Horizon) from eating the tree. Horizon has a love / throw-up relationship with all plants but apparently can't stop himself. So I decorated the boxes today. Joshua didn't love how I did one of them and so rewrapped it, but that's fine.
Finals week started today. I had one today and have one on Friday...I'm just glad they're not both on Friday because that is the worst.
My to do list for Hope is getting smaller. I know everything that I still need to get done. Today I drastically reduced the number of emails in my inbox. The last normal assignment in CSCI is almost finished being graded. I finished the final exam grading rubric. I have 3/4 of a physics lab to finish. The final exam finishes up the list and then I'll be all set!
Overall, it was a boring day. That's really the best outcome for exam week.
Joshua had his piano recital today! We brought Great grandma and that was nice.
Afterwards we went to a Christmas party. Isaac and Joshua joined in the grab this year and it was fun. Joshua opened a blanket. We don't need more blankets. Ben kindly stole the blanket from Joshua so he could get something more fun. And what does Joshua do? Steals another blanket because it was super soft. Ben and I rolled our eyes at each other.
In the end I got some mind teasers, Isaac picked up a game (that we brought), and Joshua had a blanket. Ben had the blanket at the end, but the candy that we brought ended up with some people that didn't want candy. So we switched and were both very happy.
We all went to South Bend today for Isaac's final competition. It was so nice to have a comp 'close' to home! We were able to get stuff done this morning and still be home in time for dinner.
This was yet a different format: complete isolation. He went in through a different door and wasn't allowed to even look at the wall until his four minutes started. It wasn't my favorite format. I haven't asked Isaac what he thought about it yet. Also, scoring seemed a little off during this competition. There were several routes that we all thought Isaac should have gotten the next milestone but he didn't get credit. He coach was very supportive afterwards; giving information as to why things might have been scored like they were.
He was in the zone. He completely ignored us while waiting for his turn.
Route 1: Isaac did well and got low zone. I thought he got zone but he didn't actually use the hold so it didn't count.
Route 2: I don't have any pictures. This was a rough one for a lot of climbers. His coach thought he should have had low-zone, but the judges didn't. It was a jump to a big, hard to grab onto hold. Isaac was trying a different way that worked as well as jumping, but he used the hold.
Route 3: this was a run and jump, and Isaac is still working on dynamic moves.
Route 4: oh, this was probably his best one. He learned some things, and really got pretty far. If he had two more minutes he would have probably gotten zone, but he works through things slowly. However, he did make progress with every attempt and it was a fun one to finish on. He got low zone and thought he had zone, but the judges didn't give it to him.
Luckily, while the competitions are done, team isn't! Isaac enjoys the practices more than the competitions. Some athletes will get to go to regionals in January and then a top rope season starts. Isaac doesn't love top rope, so we probably won't go to any competitions. (Also, there are only a total of three. The closest in Indy and Detroit, but those are still a drive.)
The week: classes finished. There's a ton of grading to do. There was a snow day. Ben stayed home with the kids. Isaac has a lot of work. We have a busy weekend coming up.
I made some porch pots with Jamie and Cheryl this evening. It was pretty fun. I thought it'd be interesting, but it was more fun than I expected. I decided to put it on the deck because then I get to see it more. As I was bringing through the house Horizon was very excited to eat it. Very excited.
It was a lovely snowy day today. We didn't get as much snow as they were forecasting. So I guess that not having a snow day was the right call.
The Christmas Ruiners showed up today.
Today was a lovely stay-at-home day.
First of all, it snowed on and off throughout the day. (I thought it was going to melt, but now it might not happen right away.) While we did have a dusting last week, this is the first real snow.
We finished up Joshua's D&D campaign. It had a few quirks, but overall was really cool. Isaac, the mage, got a spell called "fire surg". Instead of reading it as intended, Isaac kept saying "fire surg". After correcting him several times Joshua finally said that Isaac would lose health if he said it wrong again. Well, I had a question and used fire surg (it was somewhat appropriate for the question, but also I wasn't thinking), and so I suddenly lost a health point! It was fair.
We also were attacking some purple gems. I hit it with one of my golden drumsticks: 1 pt of damage for me. I hit it again: 2pts of damage for me. Oh well, I was done at that point. Then Ben said, "so how does this increase? Plus one damage each time? Double? ...Exponential?" At which point I had the loudest hiccup and everyone laughed at my surprise. (It was double by the way.)
I also have a cold. Probably the one that Joshua had earlier this week. It's not much fun.
The kids didn't have school today, so we had a pretty easy day. We got the Christmas decorating started. Joshua was excited to put stuff up; he just kind of put of this or that but slowly made progress. He also put up the Christmas tree!
Isaac did the upstairs lights. They're awesome. I didn't get any pictures (yet), but lights are everywhere.
We finally gave Ben his birthday presents, although we haven't actually sung Happy Birthday yet. Maybe tomorrow.
We went rock climbing, hoping to see some of Isaac's friends. However, it was busier than normal. Joshua didn't love it, but it meant that Isaac was willing to belay me.
We went to Red Rock with family to celebrate birthdays for dinner; it was lovely.
It's been a normal month. Things just aren't all that exciting.
I had an oil change and tire change this morning. I was half way home and got a call that Joshua wasn't feeling very good. He was a bit out of it this morning - cold symptoms, not fever or anything like that. Anyway, I was glad that I was still in the car so I detoured to go grab him. He wasn't great at home, but after a bit of extra rest he was at least ok. We'll try again tomorrow! (Honestly, the kids try really hard to not be as sick on days that I work, so I come pick them up when I'm not working without question.)
I graded for most of the morning. I wanted to get up and do other chores, but Tornado had made himself comfortable in my lap so I was trapped. I did finish grading the lab though, so I only have one left!
I putzed around with chores after nap time - I cleaned the kitchen, thought the office light was fixed (but it isn't), paid some bills, etc. I worked on a Lego set while Joshua worked on a different project in the basement. We didn't really talk much; I think he just wanted some company.
I'm not thrilled with my chore list at the moment. It's all boring stuff or big stuff.
We relaxed most of the morning. It was a lovely morning. There were some work done.
Hmm. Well. It was nice having Ben back around and we traded stories throughout the day.
I let the cats sleep with me last night.
Horizon wandered in as I was falling asleep and politely settled himself by my feet.
Tornado wandered in some time later and tickled my face. Eventually he settled down, I think by my feet. Or he left.
Tornado decided to attack Horizon. Horizon ignored it for a surprisingly long time, or at least what seemed like a long time when I was half asleep, but finally had to retaliate and they both ran out of the room.
Horizon eventually came back in and settled at my feet.
Tornado may have joined in a bit later, but I'm not sure.
As Thursdays go, I got a lot done. I only have two more labs to grade! As driving goes, I did a lot today.
The kids were more talkative than normal, and mostly about things I found interesting. That was nice.
Isaac's busy week is done as he turned in his math test and homework today. He doesn't have his math class next Thursday because of Thanksgiving, so a little bit of extra time to get caught up will be really nice. He isn't too far behind, but there are some loose ends to be finished.
I have a lot of plans for tomorrow. This is a bit of a problem since I haven't been all that motivated recently. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Ben gets home tomorrow! Late tomorrow, but still tomorrow!
A child: Wednesdays are the best days because of laundry and groceries! Nothing else is good about Wednesdays.
Hmm, Joshua has something on Wednesdays that he likes, so it must have been from Isaac.
Today was more calm. Not completely calm, but everyone seemed to manage their emotions a bit better.
I graded, had hot chocolate with Pat, took a nap, did some chores.
Oh, I decided to sleep with the door closed last night. The main reason was that I didn't want the light to wake me up in the morning when Joshua woke up. It was a good choice too, because I woke up at 3am and didn't get back to sleep well until 4:45am. (I might have dozed, but only a bit.)
Well, that's about it for my exciting day.
Isaac and I went to the Detroit area for his second competition today. He was in the afternoon session and that was really nice. It was also a different format from last time, which had pros and cons. It was a modified redpoint, which basically meant that Isaac had four minutes for each of four routes and four minutes of rest in between. He had a designated start time and was the only person on the route for those four minutes, so he could try it as many times as he wanted. He also was able to get coaching help throughout the four minutes from the coaches.
Pros:
*It felt more organized
*Getting to do one route over and over again without waiting for others was nice
Cons:
*Coaches were busy. Sometimes a coach wasn't quite there at the start of Isaac's run.
*There wasn't as much time to rest, whether it was within the four minutes of the route or between routes.
We got there earlier this time and I felt calmer because of it. Isaac had plenty of time to look at the routes, warm up, and watch a few others work on the routes. (We also had videos of the routes, because if you were near the beginning you otherwise wouldn't be able to see anyone do it.)
Route 1. This was his best score, as he got top zone. Isaac is good at slab work, and I heard someone behind me even comment on his precision. (Later the coaches were talking and one said he was slow but steady and the other said, yup, that's Isaac.) It was a great start.
Today was just ok. Laundry took forever. I didn't want to do my chores. Joshua and I went to family night at Scrapyard and it was crowded and ended on a slightly sour note. Joshua brushed it off after a minute, and it was really only the slightest of misunderstandings, but not ideal.
Isaac also has a rather busy weekend. He only had a half day today and that helped. He was feeling a bit anxious about everything so during lunch we made a plan. We listed everything that needed to be done and set out a schedule, which of course included breaks. He said by the end he felt better. There still might be some time on Sunday that isn't very fun, but there is time to get everything done. It helps me too, because if he's just goofing around I know if he's "on break" or if he's supposed to be concentrating.
As you read earlier, Dusty was up for the weekend! As always, it was lovely to have him here.
He and Ben talked for hours, mostly sitting like this:
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Isaac and I were both feeling better by about 4pm. It was a bit weird; like a switch flipped and we suddenly felt better.
So Isaac went rock climbing while Joshua was at cadets. I got a little bit more work (home and Hope), since I didn't move well during the day.
The kids had a half day of school today, so after I picked them up we went to get COVID shots.
It was fine. I went back to work and stayed a bit longer because I didn't have to pick anyone up.
Late in the evening though, I could feel it. I went to bed about 20 minutes later than I should have, although still before my actual bed time, because I was finishing a show and didn't really want to move. But by the time I started moving I had a low grade fever. I took some medicine, brushed my teeth, warmed up a bed warmer, and got into bed. It's such a nice feeling because I know I don't need to move anymore. I was still very cold and not feeling good, but at least I didn't have to move. The fever broke in the middle of the night.
Today I'm feeling ok. My shoulder still hurts a bit and I am tired. I was going to take an early nap before a quick meeting at noon, but as a sat down I got a call from Isaac saying he wasn't feeling great either. I think we're both in the same spot. Sluggish. I picked him up, ate lunch, and am hoping that the meeting doesn't take too long so that I can go take a nice nap.
Today happened. I got a lot but not all my grading done. I went out to lunch with a friend. I cleaned the kitchen. We were out of bowls. We had more bowl food items than normal the last few days, and just ran out. We've run out of plates a few times, but never bowls. I came upstairs to find Ben eating his cereal out of our four cup glass measuring cup.
Don't be fooled; the kitchen isn't clean. I ran the dishwasher, but there was over a load on the counter. I'll get around to it.
I helped with homework. I made dinner. I went to karate, where we did self-defense, again. I looked at my to-do list and thought, "well, none of that sounds like fun."
And so, in the end, it was a fine day. A little boring, a little productive. Tomorrow will be an odd day, so hopefully I remember everything.
The election has been called for Trump.
I'm going to copy someone else's post from Facebook, because it is the kindest way to put this that I've seen.
"Well, I did my part -- thoughtfully formulated opinions that I hope are data driven and rational and then submitted my ballot. That's all the power I have in a democracy.
So, now that my preference did not come to fruition, I'll wish Trump well and hope his policies have a net positive affect on the country.
Obviously, his winning doesn't change my strong opinions about how vile of a human he is -- but what are you going to do? I certainly don't hope for his failure, because his failure is our failure."
Really, it was a rather normal day. I thought classes went pretty well - there was good engagement. I had lunch with Natalie and that was fun. It was lightly sprinkly all day. Rock climbing was ok - I was feeling slightly dizzy so I didn't climb as much as normal.
I've been watching all night as the election results roll in. Eight years ago I woke up to a surprise result. so maybe I should have just waited a little longer to look.
I finally got pictures of Grey Bear's cave from Saturday.
This afternoon Isaac had a dentist appointment to remove a tooth that wasn't coming out quickly enough. Isaac was not excited about this, especially since it was a little loose. So while he was brushing his teeth he pulled it out himself. It was a weird call to the dentist - sorry for the late notice, but Isaac just pulled out the tooth that you guys were going to pull out, so I think we need to cancel.
Nothing amazing happened today, so let's talk about the use of the word "radish" in our house.
Anyone can say it when two people are arguing about something nonsensical and they need a break. It's an argument that no one can win and people will just be frustrated and annoyed. (Either the people arguing or the people around them that need to listen.)
When someone says, "RADISH!" the conversation stops. Immediately.
'Radish' must be used carefully and only for unimportant discussions.
This came about when Isaac was about two years old. We needed a word that would stop the conversation. There were some radishes on the cup he was using, and so that's what was chosen. It has worked surprisingly well since then, although I'll be the first to admit that I'm the one that uses it the most. It gets used on me once in a while, always to my chagrin, but it's easy to bounce back because no one is super frustrated yet.
Grey Bear's birthday was on Tuesday, but we were rather busy so his celebration was today. There were two activities.
The first was fishing for Grey Bear. Joshua made us all fishing poles, we 'fished' over the banister, and slowly fished up our bucket of 'fish'. Whoever finished their bucket first then fished up Grey Bear and won! While a bit repetitive, it didn't take too much time and Ben won.
We also did a group Lego challenge to build a home for Grey Bear. We made a cave because it doesn't have to be exactly the same and so it made it easy to all work on. I don't have pictures yet.
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Tornado appeared in several of the pictures today. Once just being cute:
