Tuesday: grading

Today I graded.  I graded a lot and didn't get as far as I was hoping, but it could have been worse.  I took a short break to transport kids and start a final exam for a few students.  I was a bit disorganized, but got everything set within a reasonable amount of time.  Then more grading.  Then a break to transport kids and go rock climbing.  The kids are really good teachers, but the gym was really busy today and that is a bit intimidating.  There was one route I wanted to try again but didn't because of the people there.  I think it'll be up for a bit though, so I should have another chance at it.  Then home for dinner, more grading, and computer games.  

It wasn't an exciting day, but not too bad all things considering.

Monday: drums and Giraffe

 I was at Isaac's school early to pick him up after band.  (The errand I needed to do went quickly.)  It was nice; I got to see them practice outside.  I thought they were doing pretty well for a middle school band!  The drums were especially good, although I could be biased.

For Giraffe's birthday we had taco salad (because Giraffe likes leaves), pineapple, and lemon bars (because Giraffe is yellow).

Sunday: Grandma and Giraffe

We went to visit Grandma today.  Last time Ben brought Uno, so we played several games of that again.  Then, since the weather was nice we took a short walk outside.

Tomorrow is Giraffe's Birthday, so we had half the party tonight.  It involved a lot of balloon games and making Lego trees.  Ben won the tree challenge.

(Back left: Ben.  Front left: Amanda.  Back right: Isaac.  Front middle: Giraffe.  Front left: Joshua)

Saturday: walk and play and Lego challenge

This morning I went on a walk with a friend.  We found a nice walking trail and the weather was beautiful.  It was a bit windy at times, but didn't impede us too much.

We went to the Eagle Crest play this afternoon.  It was actually pretty good...the sound was much better than in past years and I could understand most of it.  Combined with a few funny characters and it was a good time.

At home we did Joshua's Lego challenge.  He had some special pieces grouped up and we each got one set.

Isaac made a cool fighting mechanism that actually moved, but then he sat on it so I didn't get a picture.

I made a garden of Cheshire cats.  I had a faces that I thought looked like Chershire cats and I couldn't unsee them, so I went with it.  The garden includes lava flowers, sawblade flowers, flame flowers, a deadly water fountain, four cats and the leaves of death.

Ben made a mystic rose.  The top opened up.

Joshua made an ice castle with a lava boat coming to attack.

Friday: impromptu visit

A friend dropped by this morning to bring some quilt tops over.  She ended up staying for an hour while we chatted...usually we get together for lunch every week or two, but that hasn't happened recently.  The visit was so much more than cleaning.

We also got some flowers for the summer.  Isaac ended up getting a stick of bamboo, so I'm interested in seeing how well that grows.  We also got a few different succulents for outside, so hopefully they all live.

Thursday: conclusion

Horizon sat on my boat this morning.  We finished the game this evening and I won!  I feel like it's been a while since I've won against Ben and Isaac.  I'm not sure that's really true or if it is just how I feel.  I had a good strategy this time and it worked.

Moving the bread to the other side of the cabinet was lovely.  It made me happier than expected this morning.

Today was the last class of the semester.  I really don't enjoy the first and last classes of the semester.  For different reasons, but neither class really involves any teaching.

Wednesday: The little stuff

 1. Ben, Isaac, and I are playing The Isle of Cats.  It's a game during which you need to fill your boat with cats and treasure to win.  Last night, Horizon was sitting on Isaac's boat to say he should win.

This morning, he was sitting on Ben's board.

Giraffe felt bad for me, so he sat on my board all day, trying hard to be a cat.

2. Isaac took the labels off three bottles of tasty (i.e., water flavor squirty stuff).  What was he thinking.  They all look the same without the labels.  He and Joshua worked well to figure out which was which and relabel them, but the process took several minutes and dinner was ready.  It might have been funnier in different circumstances.

3. I switched the side of the cupboard on which the bread is stored and I think it's going to be a life changer.  The old side required me to open two doors because one has the "don't see inside" bar on it.

Last Thursday: lines vs planes

 So I'm in my karate class, working on my round-house kick.  We're getting pretty technical with it, making sure it is being done exactly right and not just mostly correct.

The instructor tells me to make a line with my shoulders, hips, and knee.  I look at him funny, because the hip to knee is also supposed to be parallel to the floor and then I can't see what I'm kicking.  "A line?" I say.  After finally understanding what he's trying to say and he understands what I'm thinking we realize that it is more a plane.  The three points all need to be on the same plane.  The instructor proceeded to laugh at me for my technicality, because no one else in the class would have been confused.  (To be fair, I'm also about twenty-five years older than anyone else in the class.)

Monday: catching up

Today felt like a catch-up day.  I'm not really sure what I was catching up from, perhaps Friday when I was gone on the field trip?

Anyway, I started trying to make apple chips.  They're not very chip-y, but they are pretty good.  The laundry got put away.  The kitchen got cleaned.  Phone calls (yuck) were made.  Emails were sent.  Some clutter was put away.  It felt pretty productive today, but not amazing.

The best story I have today is actually from Joshua.  He spilled his morning breakfast smoothie on his blanket.  Since it isn't laundry day, I told him he'd have to wash it if he wanted it tonight.  Of course, we both forgot after school.  So at 7:14, while I was at karate, I have three texts from him.  The first asking how to do laundry.  The second pinging me: Mom?  The third pinging me: Mom??  Honestly, I usually don't have my phone nearby during karate unless the kids are home alone.  Isaac ended up helping Joshua out and it really made me feel like I won at parenting.  (Yes, Ben was home.  No, Joshua didn't ask Ben for help.)

Eclipse Monday

The eclipse was amazing.  Here we go...

We were going to try to leave at 8:30am because it was a half hour drive and the farm opened at 9am.  Packing up the car was a bit of a pain.  Joshua decided that he didn't need to help and by telling him where is sweatshirt was that was basically giving him permission to play outside.  So we were both a bit grumpy, but to his credit he did come back inside and pack up his stuff.

We left very close to 8:30am.  There were all sorts of news articles and signs saying, "leave early to get to your viewing location" so I thought we should get there at opening.  I needn't have worried.  We got to the farm at 9am and seemed to be the second group there.  The roads were not busy.  When 10am rolled around the farm was still not busy.  11am - well, there were a few more people.  It really didn't get busy until about noon.  Thank goodness we got there early.  (At the same time though, we had run of the farm for the first two hours and didn't need to wait in lines or anything like that.)  

Ok, we got there and the first thing the kids wanted to do was the zip lines.  We got distracted by the bell and getting a photo first though.

The kids finally got to the zip line and it was amazing.  There were four lines of all different speeds and heights.  I went on all of them throughout the day: one was too short and I touched the ground in the middle.  One was too fast and I didn't appreciate going parrallel to the ground and crashing back onto the seat. (This is the one most of the kids loved.)  One was a little too fast.  One was just right.  All the adults went on them at the same time.

After several runs, they moved over to the, um, running pipes.  Isaac almost pushed his off the track while getting it reset the first time.  This activity was good and they returned to it a few times, but was not as fun as the ziplines.  Ben fell out the one time he did it with Joshua.  I have a nice series of photos showing them slowly getting out of control, but I'm not going to post all of them.

Then on to the pedal carts.  This was ok for a lap or two and then everyone was done.  They weren't super easy to pedal, like most pedal cars, but it was a fun thing to do once.

Then the kids went to the jumping pillows.  They stayed on them for quite a while and thoroughly enjoyed them, but both got a little hurt after a while and were done.  They had no interest in going back later in the day.  While they were doing that, I got myself a donut.  I had missed the ones in the morning because I was loading up the car and just wanted one.  

Then we went back to the car for a break.  From there on, people would come and go.  Joshua was the mostly likely to go back in to the activities.  Ben, Nathan, and Isaac all stayed pretty close to the car; they all had good books and it showed.

Everyone was ready for lunch by the time it rolled around.  I had happened to throw in a container of Oreos that I picked up at the store a while ago.  They were Cosmic themed, which matched well with our activity of the day.  However, not everyone enjoyed the pop rocks in them.

We still had a bit of time before the eclipse started, so the kids all tried their strength.  They needed three people to lift the bag.  (I was able to do it all by myself though!)

Finally, the eclipse started.  I had an app on my phone to help us with the exact timing along with cues at other things to look at.  However, the second it started (C1) was really not all that eventful.  We all watched it, thought we maybe saw something, and then continued life.  For many people that meant reading their book and for some people it meant playing a game or hanging out.  

Periodically we'd put our glasses on, look through the pinhole box, or use a colander.  

The colander didn't work well until Ben realized we needed to hold it further away from the ground; then it was really cool.

We also looked for the parallel fuzzy/not-fuzzy lines.  We saw them, but they weren't as pronounced as I was expecting.

As the total eclipse neared, you could tell that everything was getting darker, like evening time.  There weren't many animals or animal sounds around.  Only a horse.  At one point we said, "Oh!  The horse went in the barn because it thinks it's almost night time!"  But then 5 minutes later the horse was back out so it obviously wasn't a good indicator.  There were also a few wispy clouds that came in during the eclipse.  You could see through them and they did disappear during the eclipse itself (as predicted).  A planet (or bright star) was also visible, but I'm not sure what it was.

We also looked for shadow snakes (both before and after the eclipse) and we couldn't see them.  I had a white sheet, but it wasn't pure white and it was a bit wrinkly.  I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it or not.  The temperature was cooling off.

Finally, it was total eclipse time.  IT WAS AMAZING!!  How do you know it's safe to take off your glasses?  You suddenly can't see anything through them (and the app told us).  The difference between 99% and 100% really was unreal.  Things were so much darker.  You could actually look at the sun.  Even at 99% there was a bright part that made you realize looking at it was not a good idea.  Because the moon was in front, you could see the atmosphere of the sun and so it looked a ton bigger.  Everyone's energy was sky high.  We looked at all the reds and greens around us and they didn't really look odd.  Maybe they just looked as expected in the twilight, but nothing amazing there.  Someone said it looked a bit like a black hole.  The horizon looked like a sunset, but without the sun.

How did you know it was time to put your glasses back on?  (The app told you) and there was a really bright spot peaking back out.  The temperature and lightness returned back to normal within about fifteen minutes.  People started packing up right away, but the kids wanted to go back to the ziplines.

We did stay around for the rest of the eclipse, hitting C4, but got in the car right after that.  So Ben and I estimated that travel back added about 45 minutes.  There were a few detours.  There was some construction + crash just north of Fort Wayne that added the most time.  It was definitely busy...I69 was much busier and I131 was busier than normal.  We stopped at a Culvers for dinner and I'm pretty sure that every eatery was slammed.  Once we got on M6 we thought that traffic might be back to normal, although it wasn't light either.  

All in all, an amazing time.