Today wasn't necessarily a bad day, but I do feel like it could have gone better.
*I was going to cook a turkey today. I got it on sale at Thanksgiving, gave it four days to thaw (per the calculator), and was ready to try. It wasn't thawed. I wrapped it in a cooking bag and put it back in the fridge.
*I had a bit of a hard time with the children this afternoon. They weren't being purposefully hard, but I felt like I was placating or talking them through things significantly more than normal.
Last night I finished Patrick Stewart's "Making it So." I'm going to be honest, in my mind I was expecting a book about the life of Jean-Luc Picard. I had a really hard time with a normal person being the character I've come to know. Usually I feel like I can separate them better, but this combination just stays together.
The book was ok. Interesting and not too slow, but also not the memoir of a starship captain.
I felt like I got quite a few items checked off my list today, and it was nice. I had a hard time waking up from my nap, but I also had a hard time getting to sleep last night.
Isaac got 7/14 place in the rock climbing competition.
Yeah. It was a very normal day.
Oh! Let's talk about the wheelbarrow. The neighbors across the street have a wheelbarrow full of stuff sitting in their back yard from when they redid the deck this summer. I feel comradery with them whenever I see it because I too have things that should be taken car of but aren't.
Today was Joshua's birthday, so while he was getting the mail after church we quickly lit the candles and when he came inside we surprised him with a "Halfy Birthday to you" song.
Isaac participated in his first rock climbing competition today! It was a bit of a last minute thing, but I was really excited that he decided to do it. I was only able to be there for about 40 minutes (out of 120), but I found it super fun to watch. Isaac didn't place in the top three for the youth category, but we weren't that surprised about it. I think he still did well, had fun, and said he'd be willing to do it again.
This evening Joshua was having a hard time getting to sleep so he came down to fall asleep on my lap. This has been happening often lately, but I'm not going to complain. He's getting large though, so I might need to move to a different location next time. Anyway, it was time for him to go back to bed so I tried putting his arms around my neck so I could carry him up. His arms immediately curled back into his chest. So then we talked..."Can you put your arms around my neck?" "Yes." "...now?" "Yes." I moved his arms to the right spot...and they immediately curled back into his chest. I gave up and carried him that way, although carrying him wakes him up pretty well too.
Today was pretty normal. Classes went well. I had lunch with a friend. Karate was good.
I didn't have any pockets today. It was rather rough. My door code at work was also changed recently and I'm having a hard time remembering it.
It was a snow day! Really more like an ice day. I don't think it ended up being icy out, but it was right on the edge in town and was probably a good call. Surprisingly, I didn't get a phone call...just a text.
We left the kids home for the day. There was a plan. It involved too much screen time, extra chores, and some play time. Isaac had his math class virtually. Really, they did a great job - stuff got done and they stayed safe. I can't ask for much more than that sometimes.
Ben and I went out for a dinner date too. It was nice.
At bedtime, Joshua described his day as busy. I thought about it a bit. It was busier than normal, but I wouldn't have really called it busy. After all, there was time for screen time and a nap in the middle. At the same time, that's good. We don't need to be going all the time.
One of the things we did today was visit Great Grandma. She recently got a digital picture frame and I couldn't figure out how to link to it before, so I did it today. And I took a lot of pictures to figure out how it worked.
The kids playing with the linking blocks.
I was bringing Joshua to piano tonight and we were talking about Minecraft adjacent things: is platinum or diamond more expensive? (I have no idea). Are diamonds or emeralds more expensive? I also have no idea because I don't know anything about emeralds, but I know a little bit about diamonds.
J: I have another question you won't know.
A: Ok.
J: How do you ask your wife to marry you?
A: (oh, that turned differently than expected, but we were talking about wedding rings with diamonds) What part?
J: The ring. How do you know what to get?
A: Well, you'll probably talk with your girlfriend at some point and find out what she likes. She might like diamonds, so might not. Either way is ok.
A: You also need to figure out if she likes gold or silver for the actual ring part. You can often look at her other jewelry to figure this out.
J: Who gets the guys ring?
A: Well, usually you get the wedding rings together. Grandpa Paul and Grandma Julie got a set and they had similar designs on them, but Mom and Dad just got plain bands.
J: hmm. ok.
A: any other questions?
J: No. This was just one of those things you have to know! I need to learn it somewhere.
A: Absolutely. I'm happy to answer any questions.
J: Although it was a little early. They'll probably teach it to me in high school.
A: Mmm, they don't teach this kind of thing in school.
J: oh, I'll probably have to ask again then.
A: Sounds good.
As expected the kids were excited about the snow day. Also as more or less expected, the day went well. We made a list of homework/chores that they needed to work on throughout the day, and they did! I'd suggest a break, and they'd take the break and then they'd work on a chore. I was rather amazed - not that they were willing to help but that I didn't have to remind them throughout the day. We're having friends over on Saturday, and this should make Saturday prep go a lot better.
There was school today! I was about 90% sure that it would be canceled, but since I work and Ben had meetings it actually worked out well. I did end up making the kids walk through some really deep snow after dropping them off at school because the sidewalks hadn't been plowed yet. They were both a bit grumpy about it, but they survived.
It should have been a snow day though. I did a lot of driving and while roads weren't terrible, they also weren't good, it was cold out, and it was snowy.
After rock climbing the kids voluntarily helped me shovel half the driveway. Then Joshua, who hates the snow, played in the snow for the next half hour.
Around 10pm I received a phone call: school is canceled tomorrow. I have mixed feelings - snow days are fun! The kids will be so excited! But at the same time, how am I supposed to finish my chores? I'm staying afloat, but I'm definitely adding more things to the to-do list than I'm taking off. Also, I "blame" Ben for the snow day. Whenever he's going to bring the kids in to school something happens so he gets to skip it.
It finally felt the storm finally came in today. Church was on-line only this morning. Snow blowing was back normal - it was snow and nothing else. There was between 0 and 12inches on the driveway, thanks to the wind.
We played a nice game of Space Base in the afternoon. Everyone (including Joshua) was enjoying themselves, the snow was coming down, and the birds were at the feeders. Speaking of birds, we had a lot of mallards and Canada geese the last two days. I thought the geese at least would go farther south; I don't remember seeing any in the past.
Apparently area schools have a snow day tomorrow, but since it's MLK day we already didn't have school. I wouldn't be surprised if Tuesday was a snow day due to cold, but we'll see what happens.
We got a fair amount of snow over night and a very small amount during the day today. I think we've gotten more since nightfall, but it's hard to tell how much.
Last night I went outside only to hear the drip-drip-drip of melting snow. It was beautiful because it was so wet, but seriously? It was the middle of the night!
I snow-blowed today and it only went ok. The end of the driveway, where the plow had come through, was half slush, again. The snow blower doesn't like slush. I got some of it, but had to spend quite a while shoveling by hand. I finally called it good enough since I figured I'd need to deal with it again soon.
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Yesterday I put dishwasher detergent in the dishwasher and was surprised that it was white. Last time I put it in the color was blue...and then I remembered being a little surprised that time too because I thought it was supposed to be white. I thought about it for a little bit. Did I actually put dish soap in? No. That would have been obvious. Could it have been a dream? Yeah, that's plausible. Let's call it a dream. Then I opened up the other side of the cabinet to throw away some trash and found another container of detergent...and it was blue. Well, at least the mystery was solved.
The blizzard was supposed to start around 10am. At 11am there was still no snow. 12pm: no snow. 2pm: finally snow! I woke up from my nap to snow and was rather hesitant to actually get up because I was afraid it still wouldn't be snowing. There's some snow right now, in the evening, but it's just a normal snow storm, not a major one. (Although there was a lot of wind earlier.)
Isaac probably didn't have a great snow day. He worked hard on getting caught up on some of his homework. He had some fun too, but since he said he was a little bored a few times he ended up working on homework - his future self will appreciate it when he doesn't have so much to do later this weekend.
Joshua said he had a boring day, but lately I feel like he says that about 50% of the time. His day might not have been too exciting, but I'm not sure he seemed bored most of the time. He did have one exciting part though!
He was reading in his bedroom and I came in with a sheet ball (sheets in a pillowcase) that I was supposed to be putting away and whacked him with it instead. This started a pillow/sheet fight full of laughter.
While there was school today, there's no school tomorrow! The snow day was called around 5:30pm, although pretty much everyone was sure there would be one most of the day. Joshua said his teacher had them do the normal Friday classroom clean up even.
Isaac did go to school and even to rock climbing team, but after dinner he stopped moving again. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but we all knew he wasn't completely better and it had been a long day.
Today was a snow day! Honestly, it was a pretty good day for a snow day even if I'm not sure it should have been one. I was home, Isaac doesn't miss extra school, and we had no important, or even semi-important, plans. However, I had some personal plans for today. I was going to carve some time out to just work on O:CtH, since it's been over a month since I've been able to do so. I know it isn't a big deal and we still had a lovely day, but I was a little annoyed.
I expect Isaac will go back tomorrow. He was normal for most of the day, although he decided to rest from 5-6pm which is abnormal. So he's not completely over whatever he had, but there's been no fever. I'm curious if there will be another snow day Friday. One weather places says 1.5", another weather app says 10". The snow isn't supposed to start until 8am though, so I don't know if that makes a difference.
The kids played outside for quite a while after Joshua complained that he doesn't like snow. It was good for sledding and good for packing. By the end of the day there were at least five snowmen in the neighborhood.
I also shoveled more water. It was still really heavy and slushy snow.
In the afternoon Isaac did some snow experiments.
The snow of the season has just started to come, but it's been slightly above freezing at the same time. This lead to crazy amounts of slush and standing water everywhere.
Joshua was willing to help me shovel the driveway as his exercise option today and I'm really glad he was out there with me. We wanted to get it before it actually froze because it's going to stay cold for a while and we'd have a sad driveway. It was so heavy and wet though. Usually when the snow is this wet it's on it's way to melting and I can ignore it instead of shoveling it.
In other news, Isaac is doing better than yesterday but we're going to keep him home for another day because he wasn't really with it today either. Classes started for me today. Moodle seems exceptionally slow this semester...like click a link and wait 10 seconds. Short enough to not really be able to do anything else, but long enough to be annoying and noticeable. The classes themselves were fine though. The biggest question is how someone managed to have the Euro symbol as their default currency instead of the $ when their computer settings are set to $ as default. Still haven't figured that one out, but it isn't too big of a deal either.
An attempt was made to get back to normal.
But Ben was home sick from work today.
And Isaac came home from school really sick. Apparently he got hit with it right near the end, and had to tough out a little bit. We got home and he curled right up in bed. Then he went to the bathroom and curled up for the next hour on the floor. He finally started feeling a bit better after that, although it was probably due to medicine.
We got a new cat fountain because our old one bit the dust. As Joshua was unpacking it he said it looked like a vault.
I forgot to talk about the Lego challenge Joshua gave us yesterday. It was to build a microscale something.
I built a windmill. The windmill and river was good, but the flowers are a bit too big. I ran out of time though.
Isaac made a volcano just as it is erupting.
Ben made a tree house village.
Joshua made the white house, a city square with fountain, and two toes of a giant about to step on everything.
It was a mostly normal day. We played a game, worked on some Lego sets, and did some work.
I played a game with Isaac for his math homework. It was one of the most boring games we've played in a long time. It was a domino style match the percent/fraction/decimal, but there were only three options: 1/4, 1/2, 1, along with a blank. On the up-side, we were able to speed through the game very quickly and can call it done.
Isaac also blew up a balloon-in-a-balloon and was having a ball (a balloon??) with it. The inside balloon often provides a suction and will stop the outer balloon from shrinking, which is not really what I was expecting to happen. There were a lot of giggles. He'll probably eventually knot off the outer balloon, but that hasn't happened yet.
Ah, New Year's Eve: 12.31.23 I keep thinking we'll run out of fun dates and then more show up. I guess we'll run out of fun dates at some point, but then you just need to be a little more creative to get more.
We went rock climbing. I thought the place opened at 10am, but it was actually noon. It wasn't too big of a deal in the end though.
Merry Christmas! It was a busy day and I didn't quite have the energy to blog when we got home. Busy, but very fun.
Well, expect that I had to yell at the Baby Ruiners. All the animals had finally found baby Jesus, as they were supposed to. But then the Baby Ruiners stole him away! That isn't how Jesus works! Jesus is for everyone...Ruiners, SMTWRFSs, and animals alike. We got them all together to worship.
We spent the morning at home. I'll be honest, I can't remember what we did but my guess would be playing games and Legos and food prep. We went over to Larry and Cheryl's for a late brunch (yum) and then opened presents.
They once again managed to get me my most unexpected present: a large canvas of me at the black belt ceremony. (I haven't hung it up yet because it's still Christmas break, but we've figured out where it's going.)
Joshua's present theme was Minecraft, and he loved it.
After church, I split up the presents and the kids realized they were split even/odd. They then had to do a small scavenger hunt to figure out that Isaac had evens and Joshua had odds.
The pictures are really in order, but it still works.
Today had ups and downs.
Isaac and I played Space Base. I won, but Isaac put up a good fight at the very end.
I read on the couch with Joshua. I was excited that 1) he decided to read for fun and 2) I got to read next to him.
Joshua volunteered to play Space Base later in the afternoon. Isaac and I were very excited about this, as our game preferences don't always align. I won again, but Isaac had an awesome board with a bunch of left/right arrows. Joshua was slightly playing his own game, but I was happy he was participating.
The boys were wrestling and bonked heads really hard. They were both very sad/mad about it afterwards.
Isaac finished his cat from library clay. The librarian made a huge deal about it and commented about so many of the little details.
Rock climbing went well. I tossed a sock ball with Joshua and Isaac had team. Isaac had a good time.
I brought Joshua to piano lessons, only to realize that there were no lessons this week. Oops. It meant I was a bit late to karate, but that wasn't a huge deal. The karate schedule had also changed without me realizing it, but for the most part that just means it ends after forty-five minutes instead of sixty. This will probably make things work out a little bit better overall.
Well, today we won some and we lost some.
Dad came over to help with our circuit breaker. The owners before us did the basement improperly and while we've been fine we should be safer.
Fail: the first trip to Lowes I got the wrong breakers.
Win: the second trip I got the correct breakers and we were done within the time limit.
After snack time we were going to go rock climbing, but it was a fail: the gear was in Ben's car, and he went back to work today.
So we did some other errands. We failed at Staples, but I was at least able to get a better feel for what I was looking for.
We won at the library! Our favorite librarian was there, Joshua found a bunch of books he wanted to read, and Isaac got an interesting take-home art project.
We also won at the UPS store, but there isn't anything interesting to say about that.
Both boys were a little bored today, but both of them managed to find something to do so that was a win too.
Ben decided to take another day off of work today. I thought it was a lovely choice. We were able to finish Isaac's new game, work on some Lego sets, and both boys started a new video game. It was relaxing.
Around 10:30, while raiding in WoW, we heard a door close upstairs and footsteps start to come down the stairs. Joshua woke up enough to come find me, climb in my lap, and fall right back asleep. Now, I absolutely love the cuddles. At the same time, I feel like he could have just turned over in his own bed. He's been doing this a bit more often for some reason, but it hasn't been a problem so I'm just enjoying it.
