Monday: venting, a bit

After feeling someone productive yesterday, mainly because we all worked hard during our extra half hour of cleaning, today felt the opposite.

If I think about what I did accomplish, it was quite a bit!  I even put a new toilet seat on, although admittedly that isn't a very hard task.

In the morning I had finished raking the edge and clearing out all the seaweed that had washed ashore.  I was glad Joshua had helped on Sunday, as it was one of the largest seaweed volumes we've had.  I looked back at the lake in the afternoon only to see a significant amount of seaweed back by the shore.  Six hours from clear to not clear.  Laundry at least gives me a week before it requires more attention.

That's not really true.  I'm still working on last week's laundry.  I try to finish by Saturday, but there was a lot of bedding that needed to be done this past week.  Everything is now clean from last week's wash, but not put away.  And the new cycle starts on Wednesday, so there'll be more to do again.

Am I on top of things?  Yes.  The important things are getting done.  Do I feel in control?  Not quite...but I do expect to eventually be back in control and so I'll hold out until then.

I also found a spider in my refrigerator this morning and I felt like it was taunting me.  "haha.  Things are so dirty in your house that there are even spiders in your fridge!"  I was running behind this morning and so I left it.  I told it, "haha.  Fridges aren't good places for spiders because they're cold."  I did finally save it this afternoon because I was afraid Joshua would see it and it would be an ordeal.  Laura suggested that maybe, since it was an itsy-bitsy spider, it just climbed the wrong water spout.

Sunday: happenings

 For the third year, Isaac grew watermelons.  Today he picked his harvest.

To be fair, there were two watermelons on the vine.  The other one was a tiny bit bigger, but a pest got into it recently and so it remained out there.  I thought this was going to be our year because the melons were visible early!  Yes!  And then they just stopped growing.  Not enough sun?  Maybe the raspberry bushes covered them too much??  I don't know if he'll want to try again next year.

We finished up our Lego D&D campaign today.  The dragon came to collect its egg that a bad guy had stolen and we got caught in the cross-fire.  It turns out that we were "supposed" to let the bad guy help us wound the dragon so that it would leave with its egg, but we killed the bad guy really quickly.  Also luckily, the dragon had a bad roll and so didn't see three of us hiding in almost plain sight.

It was a fun game and the kids loved it.  Their imaginations have gone crazy making spin-offs.  Ben did a great job being the dungeon master, but it's also a lot of work to DM so I don't know if we'll do something similar again soon.  Well, besides the stories the kids have come up with.

Saturday: dinner

 We had dinner with Ben's family.  Isaac sat by Larry.  There were water bottle shenanigans happening.

Friday: rock climbing

 The sky was pretty this morning.

Night mode picture actually added a lot of colors that weren't yet visable.

Tornado has been sitting in cute poses.

We brought Grandma to the Scrapyard today to see us rock climb!  I was a little surprised that she wanted to come, but also very excited that she was willing to.  It was a great time to go since the gym was rather empty - it made it easier to roll around the wheelchair.  (Which was surprisingly easy to get on the mat, so I was also excited about that!)

She said she was scared for us a few times, but no one got obviously hurt so that was good.

Thursday: I did it!

 I got Wordle in one try!!  I was so excited all day about it.

Also, there's another Tropical Storm Isaac.  The last one was in 2012 - it was pretty bad, but not bad enough to remove the name from the rotation I guess.  This one might spend most of it's time in the ocean.

Tuesday: rain

 It was a beautiful, rainy day today.  The rain was sporadic, but sometimes barely there and sometimes torrential downpour.  They had the garage doors open during rock climbing, so you could see and hear it well.

One of the many good parts of the day was flu shots.  (I heard the flu is coming a bit earlier this cycle, so we got them today.)  We went to the flu shot clinic at our doctor's office and we were probably in and out within ten minutes.  This is so much more amazing than doing it at a pharmacy, where it always feels as though you have to wait forever.  By the time we got there there was no line and it went nice and fast.

I also went out to lunch with Natalie.  I probably would have gotten chicken salad on a bagel, but they were out.  So I got the veggies on a bagel...it was delicious.  I'll probably get it again.

Ben is starting to feel better.  I wore a mask at work though because those poor students have about 100 illnesses going around and they can't catch a break.  I don't need to accidently get them sick.  (And to be clear, I am currently symptom free and feel fine.  It's been about 48 hours since Ben started feeling sick, so I'm hoping to be in the clear.  But I didn't know that when teaching.)

Monday: oh Creeper

Tonight I was doing good part/bad part of the day for the lovies, as is normal.  Creeper loves anything to do with explosions, and usually this means that he says inappropriate stuff.  Joshua and I just sigh and say, "Oh Creeper."

Amanda: Bad part?
Creeper: When Dad stopped throwing up
Amanda: Good part?
Creeper: When Dad threw up all night!!!  *nods head vigorously to emphasize*

On the other hand, Grey Bear is very loving.

Amanda: Bad part?
GB: Dad being so sick
Amanda: Good part?
GB: When Dad stopped throwing up!!

So then I put Grey Bear over Creeper's head and Grey Bear pretended to talk for Creeper.

Grey Bear, as Creeper: Dad being sick is not good.
Grey Bear, as Creeper: Dad not throwing up is good.

Joshua found that last part funnier than I expected so I did it a few times.

And, in case you're wondering, Snackalotl's bad part was Dad being sick and his snacks for the day were a spice bar and a Snickers Ice Cream bar.  He only gets two snacks per day, otherwise he gets in big trouble.

Catcachino's bad part was not coming with me to the coffee shop today and his good part was that Grandpa Pat drank coffee.

Giraffe's bad part was Dad being sick and his good part was taking a nap with me.

Snowfoot's bad part was having to spend the whole day in a sick room with a sick person.  His good part was that someone was going to get him and not make him spend all night with a sick person.  (Cue Joshua to the rescue.)

Sometimes bed time is exhausting.

Weekend: stuff

It was a pretty normal weekend.  We did go to a friends' house yesterday evening and everyone had a good time.  The kids played really well, and Ben and I got to play some games.

Isaac did better than I expected with his time management this weekend.  I felt like I kept gently reminding him to stop flopping around and do something.  (Whether that was something fun or something work, I didn't care.)  We made it through the weekend though and I don't think either of us was too annoyed with the other.

Oh!  I wasn't asleep before Isaac got home on Friday.  He and Ben pulled in about 10minutes before I would have fallen asleep.  I was just getting into my sleeping position with my book and didn't expect my eyes would stay open long.

Friday: a first

 I think we're going to have another first tonight...I think I'm going to be asleep before Isaac gets home. 

He and Ben are at a magic event and I'm so tired.  It's been close a few times in the past, where I've been in bed when they get home, but tonight I might actually be asleep 

Stay tuned 

Thursday: story time

 A few weeks ago I was at the library during story time.  And they started doing the Bunny song.  ("See the little bunnies sleeping til it's nearly noon..."  Oh, that was my favorite song at story time.  The kids were so still, trying to sleep.  And then so excited to hop.  Anyway, it got stuck in my head today.  I told Isaac about it while dropping him off at rock climbing.

Then at karate we were doing some finger stretches.  "Open,  shut them.  Open, shut."  ...which of course reminded me of another story time rhyme, "Open Shut them"  So I told Isaac about it when I picked him up.

(Also, having Mr. Rob do the songs instead of random internet channels was 100x better.)

Wednesday: by the numbers

Yesterday at bed time I had 101 items on my to-do list.  This is rather high, but I also had put all my weekly Wednesday items on it already - laundry, groceries, etc.

Today at bed time I have...99 items on the to-do list!  Oh my goodness.  Today it felt like for everything thing I did I put at least one thing on the list, and that was pretty accurate.  I also didn't finish nearly as much as I was hoping, so most of my "really fast" items are still on the list.

Oh well, I still got stuff done.  It just wasn't the stuff I was planning on.

Isaac was trying to trick the facial recognition on the laptop.  It still recognized him.

Tuesday: in the kitchen

 We had about an hour between getting home from school and going to rock climbing.  I had to get dinner ready.  The kids were trying to eat a filling snack and were blocking the way out of the kitchen.  So I sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor.  It hadn't really been a long day, but I talked more than normal during classes.  Isaac joined me, because when you do something funny he joins in.  So then Joshua joined in, because now sitting on the kitchen floor is cool.  Joshua was trying to stop eating the peanuts and having a hard time...he would have just one more.  I'm not really sure what we talked about, but it was the best part of my day.

There was a new 5.9 route up at rock climbing that I got on my second try, but boy was I tired afterwards!  I sat for several minutes, being happy that I made it.  About 2/3 of the way up I thought about quitting, but the next foot placement was solid enough to keep going.

Tomorrow I'm working on the normal Wednesday things, but also trying to get as many things off my to-do list as possible.  I've prioritized them by estimated length of time instead of importance like normal.

Monday: plot twists

 This morning I found Tornado on my chair when I started work.  He didn't stick around very long.  A bit later I got up for a five minute break and what do I find when I come back?  Tornado on my chair.

Later I found this on my ground turkey and thought it was a bit hilarious, so I texted it to a group of friends.

It seemed like a weird brag.  "3 larger LB size!"  33% more than the 2.25lb tray...what a weird thing to say.  Who sells 2.25lb trays?  Apparently Aldi/Kirkwood does!  I thought it was just a random fact that they put on for selling purposes.

Lastly, an actual plot twist.  The lab for this week has the x-axis in the horizontal direction, but there were some typos in the procedure such that sometimes the vertical axis was y and sometimes it was z.  So my co-teacher and I made a decision that twisted the plot for some of the steps.  (Hahahaha.  I've been waiting all afternoon for that one.)  In case you care, y is now vertical.  I was a bit intimidated by my co-teacher at first, but she's super nice.

Saturday: laundry & rock show

I put down a basket of clean laundry next to Horizon.  He looked at it with disdain.  I agreed.

The boys and I went to a rock show this afternoon.  We went in the afternoon instead of the morning - it was a good choice as it wasn't as busy as last year.  There was a nice scavenger hunt and the kids enjoyed figuring out what to buy with the money that I gave them.

The scavenger hunt prize was some crack-you-own geodes.  Joshua's turned out really cool.  (He's saying "oooo" in the picture.

Friday: Operation Clean the House

Today I was purposeful about spending some time on Operation: Clean the House.  I had plenty of things I was supposed to do, but O:CtH makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing things, especially things that don't need to be done again the next week.  Anyway, I worked on the laundry room.  I cleared off the dryer, cleaned the inside of the washer, and mostly finished cleaning the cabinet.  I got rid of a bunch of random things along with several bottles.

I also used a coupon for a sleep over with three of Joshua's four stuffies.  I also got to sleep with Giraffe.

However, Creeper was really sad to be left out and gave me a coupon for a sleepover with him.  Note that Creeper is just learning how to write.

Thursday: blog

Isaac's math class at Hope lets them stay for up to 45 minutes after the class to make homework corrections, get more help, or just hang out.  It's super nice for me because Joshua gets out a few minutes later than last year and it gives him a place to be until I get there.  I think I showed up about 10 minutes after class ended, and I was able to drop Joshua off at home.  It only adds a minute or two to the drive to go get Isaac, but let's Joshua not be in the car for at least 20 minutes.

Anyway, he had some minor homework corrections so he had time for those, and then he made a puzzle for his teacher.  It was a good one.

After rock climbing he asked me if I remembered that other puzzle that we worked on earlier in the summer, that a and b...  I immediately said yes!  I even blogged about it so we can read that to help remember.  Isaac seemed pretty happy about that.

Wednesday: lecture

 Stuff got done today.  Today is my boring weekly chore day, so I was happy that I was able to get a few other things done too - that doesn't always happen.

My arms are sore from rock climbing yesterday.  It's probably the first time I've actually been sore; Joshua worked me hard.

This evening Ben and I went to the Gentile lecture at Hope College.  It was given by one of the guys that he lived with senior year in Reese, Dr. Chris Avery.  It was interesting and not too long...no one fell asleep. :D  But really, it was pretty interesting.  Afterwards we went to dinner with Andy and Natalie and that was really nice too.  It's nice to be able to leave the kids for a while, but Joshua was also really happy that we were back in time for books before bed.

Tuesday: rock climbing

Joshua and I climbed while Isaac was practicing with his team.  This was probably the best climbing session I've had with Joshua.  I felt like he helped me more than normal...

*We worked on the rock wall of the week - apparently it's a pretty easy one.  Well, neither of us got it but Joshua climbed the middle part really well and give me a bunch of tips.  I got zone and several times got farther than the last time.

*There was an auto belay that I could only get half way up.  I watched Joshua do it and got an idea for how to get a little farther.  I didn't get much farther because my arms were tired.

*Joshua convinced me to try a new route in the cave.  I flashed it!

*Joshua tried a few new routes on the auto-belay based on my recommendation and enjoyed them.

It's a slight running joke that Isaac and Joshua enjoy bouldering more than the belays and I enjoy the belays more and neither of us can understand the other.  We talked it out in the car and I like belays more because it isn't as scary to fall.  They don't like dealing with the harness and safety checks that come with the belays; they just want to climb.

Monday: we'll make it

Today felt odd, but I'm not really sure why.  Grading went a bit faster than expected today and I had coffee with Pat this morning.  I was just sitting down after that to finish the last two lab reports when I got a call saying Joshua wasn't feeling very good.  

So I went back out to get him.  He didn't look amazing, but he wasn't all that sick either.  We both had lunch and took a nap; it seemed to help him out.  I feel like he always has one of these days in the first few weeks of school and I'm not really sure why.

I finished grading along with a few other small random things after nap time.  I don't feel like I got a ton of stuff done today, but it really was pretty productive in the end.  I am not winding down like I normally do at night, which might be a problem.  We'll see I guess.

Sunday: D&D

So, in our last D&D round Joshua had managed to get a potion of acid resistance.  (Not at all ominous, right?)  Today's fight was against some puddings that dealt acid damage.  A lot of acid damage.  What does Joshua do?  Drink the potion?  Oh no.  He throws the potion at one of the puddings.  (Isaac and I did not really agree with this action, but not too vehemently.  He gets to decide his own actions.)

Our fearless dungeon master was not expecting that.  The internet was not expecting that and had no guidance on what happens when an acid monster drinks an acid resistance potion.  So Ben made it up.  The pudding globbed over it, eroded the container, and reacted very poorly to the potion.  It didn't quite kill it, but almost.

Was this the best choice?  Still unclear.  There were two other puddings to deal with and they rolled well, so a lot of damage was given by them.  However, they were also very strong, so getting one out of the way quickly was helpful.  Either way, it was a fun choice.

Thursday: busy day

 Thursdays will be our busy day.  The other days all of have aspect of busy, but Thursday is the day I have extra help sessions and in the evening we're all going in different directions.  (However, I did make all my appointments today!  On time without reminders even.)

And so we finally reached 8pm and time for books.  I did fine with the prayer and the Bible reading and then started reading our story book...and also falling asleep.  There were a few words that I stretched out a lot, but then the kids would start laughing at me and I'd wake up.  I could tell the whole thing was a bit rough...normally I read a few words ahead to help with context and voice and whatnot, but tonight that wasn't working.  I was reading one word at a time and it was not going well.  

It's been a while since I've read out loud and fallen asleep, but there were a few times when the kids were so small that it happened.  I always felt bad about it because I love to read, but sitting down, snuggling with warm bodies on not quite enough sleep just did me in.

Wednesday: chores

I was able to work on chores today.  It's amazing how it can sometimes feel like a luxury to have time time to do them.  For the most part though, they were boring chores.  I did make some raspberry jam, although it didn't seem to be setting very well.  Oh well, I'll use it like jam anyway.  My to do list has gotten slightly smaller, but there are still a lot of things on the "this is important to do soon" list.

I put the baby gate back up today.  After asking people multiple times to please take stuff downstairs and put it away and everyone, including myself, 95% ignoring me, I put it up as a reminder barrier.  It has an aggressive sign that says "BRING SOMETHING DOWNSTAIRS."  It's been amazing in the four hours it's been up - about a third of the stuff has been brought down.

I also got a jury summons for next month.  Of course.  It's been a crazy week so let's just add that on top of it.  I asked for a deferral until December and they granted it.  I know December is often busy too, but teaching wise it's easier to hand off to someone else.  Don't worry - I'll complain if I get called on a week I didn't want to be called on.  (The first week of December would actually work really well.)

Tuesday: 300

Today was crazy busy, but otherwise fine.  I just finished the stuff I needed to get done, but it's now done.  I do expect that following weeks will be better, but the fact that the kids had Friday and Monday off along with it being the first week of college required some extra work.  I'm going to be optimistic about it at least.

We were all at rock climbing tonight - Isaac for dev team and Joshua to climb and me to climb and have a parent meeting.  Since we were going to be there a while, Joshua decided to climb one of the routes 300 times.  It isn't a high route, but 300 times is still a lot.  He climbed and then jumped off the top.  Half way through the time I told him his rate was a little slow and he needed to pick it up, and he did!  He was a ball of sweat that barely wanted to move when we left, but he was proud of himself.

Monday: D&D, pool party

I was in Isaac's bedroom this morning and he said, "When Joshua is done on the Switch can you come and take me out?"  I said, "take you out like hit you really hard?"  No.  He just wanted me to get him out of his bedroom...which makes more sense, but his phrasing was so weird.

This morning we did another segment of our D&D story.  There was a mimic that surprised us, although we really shouldn't have been surprised.  I think mimics are my favorite monster right now, although that is partially because they've been coming up in a lot of good stories recently.

This afternoon we went to a pool party.  It was really fun and wore everyone out.