Friday: a day in

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.

Wednesday: a nice day

 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.

Sunday: yup

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.

Saturday: relaxing

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.

Friday: cats

 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.

Thursday: normal

 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!

Wednesday: a comment

 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.

Tuesday: Tornado

Ben is gone, so Tornado is willing to accept my lap as a substitute.

Monday: calmer

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.

Sunday: well then

Ben left on a long work trip at noon today.  The morning was pretty nice - we did some work, played a game, and lazed around a bit.

He left, and the Sunday continued on as normal.

After dinner though, was a different story.  Oh, the tears.

Of course, Ben is gone.  This always seems to happen when Ben is gone.  Although there are a few other factors, such as a rock climbing competition coupled with a big math test that also seem to happen on these emotional weekends.  So while I could say that Ben is the calming influence in the family, and he no doubt is, I'm not convinced his being gone is the sole reason we're all a bit off.

As people slowly go to bed though, we all seem to be doing ok.  Joshua always bounces back quickly.  Isaac took a homework break earlier than I was hoping, but it ended up being the right choice for him.  He brought me a math challenge and I was able to solve it, so that was a relief.  We also talked about inverse sines and inverse cosines.  I probably didn't do as much grading as I should have, but I'm working away at it.  We're getting close to the end of the semester and I continue to write the same feedback that no one reads every time, so I don't feel as though I need to be quite as on top of grading.

Now, the big question: do I let the cats sleep with me tonight?  Sometimes they sleep with me well, and sometimes they don't.  When Ben is home they aren't allowed in the bedroom at night because they love him too much.

Saturday: comp 2

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.

Route 2.  This looked the hardest to me.  He tried the beginning a lot and quickly, which he mentioned later was not what the coaches suggest doing.  He managed to get low zone during his second to last try, and we were happy with that result.

Route 3.  I think if he had two more minutes, one of which was a rest minute, he might have been able to at least get top zone in this one.  His first tries tired him out a lot, and it was basically climbing upside down so it sapped the strength quickly.  Again, he was pretty happy with this result even though it had the potential of being better.

Route 4.  This one ended up being the roughest.  There was a teeny tiny foot hold, and he just couldn't get past it.  He gave it a bunch of good tries.

Here's the thing though, he came off every route with a smile, even the last one.  He did his best.  Did he place well?  Not really.  (He hasn't asked about his place.)  Does it matter?  Not at all.  He enjoys the climbing, and did a good job for where he is.

Friday: ok

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.

weekend: Dusty

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:

They played a few video games.  Isaac really wanted to play Puyo-puyo-Tetris with him so they did that one night too.  Dusty was introduced to Space Base.  Dusty also flew the kids above his head, similarly to how he did when they were younger.

Ben was going to have a back injection Monday, so we made a last minute decision to go rock climbing...it was Ben's first time!

He did a little bit of everything and did a great job.

Thursday: busy

As with most Thursdays, it was a busy day.  This evening we had conferences instead of karate though.  It didn't make it more busy, just different busy.

Everyone's doing great!  I've been a bit curious about Joshua's math work because it sounds from his description that he's getting all the concepts, but then the test scores aren't coming back great.  It sounds like the tests are extra hard and that he is getting all the main concepts, so I don't need to 'worry' about that.  Spelling and punctuation are the things he needs to work on the most, and Ben and I totally agreed with that.  Today he was excited because his clip was on 'black'.  They have a behavior chart, and this year it changed a bit.  Everyone starts on blue and you can go up to pink and orange if you're doing an especially good job.  At the beginning of the school year there was some discussion about getting to the black part, which is really just the sign header, and if it was really a part or not.  Well, he's gotten to orange several times but today he got to black!  So that's a thing now.  He's also in a peer-to-peer group with an autistic classmate and really enjoying it.  I mean, they play games and have a lot of fun so I'm not surprised.

Isaac's teacher sees him twice a day (homeroom and science).  She only had nice things to say about him too, although had a limited perspective.  Well, we aren't really worried.  She also works at Scrapyard, so we finished with several minutes about how we love the community that's there.

We ran into Jason, one of the...helpers?...as we were leaving.  (I'm not sure what his title is.  Parapro?  Permanent substitute?  He seems to just be all over the school, but I think he has a specific thing he does.)  Anyway, he was able to give a bit more insight on Isaac's lunch and recess activities and it was actually really positive.  Isaac has always been a bit of a loner, although the last few years he made a few better friends.  This year it sounds like he's branching out even more and...playing soccer!  So while he might not have a best friend, he has friends.

I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight.  Everyone else is already asleep.  My book is pretty good, so hopefully I'll be able to read a bit extra.  Or...I'll just fall asleep.  That's more likely.

Wednesday afternoon: better

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.

Tuesday/Wednesday: COVID shot

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.

Monday

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.

Thursday: arriving

I got home today and there was a box of donuts on the counter!  They were delicious! 

Dusty arrived safely. He's here mainly to see Ben, but the kids have strong ideas of what they want to do with him too.

Wednesday: the day after

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."

Tuesday: normal

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.

Monday

 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.

Sunday: radish

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.

Saturday: celebrating Grey Bear

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.

****************

Tornado appeared in several of the pictures today.  Once just being cute:

and once being compared in weight to the Lego cat Ben is working on:

Friday: stuff done

I got stuff done today!  I just worked my way down the list and even got stuff done that wasn't urgent.   It was all in the "do this soon" section though.  The big project of the day was cleaning out drains.  They weren't as clogged as I was expecting, so the job wasn't as yucky as I was expecting either.  Everything seems to be draining better, hopefully, so hurray!

It was sleepover day for the lovies.  I was wearing a shirt that said, "There's a nap for that" which caused Isaac to remember that Giraffe wanted to join me for nap time and then all the other lovies (including the Gnome, who usually just sits in a corner) showed up too.  Creeper propped up my book while I was reading/falling asleep and he was really glad for that job so he didn't have to cuddle.

Three weekends ago: Indy/Fort Wayne

 Three weekends ago we had a big weekend and I'm just getting things under control and so it is time for the blog post.

Isaac had his first USAC competition in Indianapolis, and of course he got the morning slot so we had to stay overnight.  Ben was going to come with us, but in the end went up to Mackinac Island to have some bonding time with his mom.  We left Friday night, obviously.  I had wanted to leave about fifteen minutes earlier, but things happen and we left just a little later than ideal.  The drive was good until we got close to Indy and I saw that we had missed being able to take our preferred route by about 10 minutes due to a nightly road closure.  Oh shoot.  Well, I couldn't really look at the map very well, but we went the opposite way on a highway and only got to our hotel six minutes later than expected.  So we must have been going in a circle.  We got into the hotel and the kids got to sleep.  It wasn't all that late, so I did a little grading and then went to bed too.

In the middle of the night we had to weird things happen.  1) A car alarm went off.  After waiting a few minutes I finally got up and looked out the window.  Hmm...is that our car?  I went to find my keys to turn it off, but luckily it turned off right as I grabbed the keys.  I can imagine it though - two car alarms going off at once because I couldn't think straight in the middle of the night to see if it was my car.  2) Joshua yelled, " ZOUP!" (pause) "Ha!"  And went back to sleep.  It was our rally cry for the rest of the weekend and could always make Isaac smile.  

Saturday started out pretty well, although we maybe should have gotten there fifteen minutes earlier.  Not a huge deal.  There were six routes for Isaac, and he really wanted to top at least one.  Well, he topped the first one on his fourth try.  Ok, goal achieved.

The next two hours were...a bit harder.  The routes were hard.  Some of the lines were long.  A mistake was made.  Isaac was feeling the pressure.  We took a break and had a snack.  The coaches had been around and talking with him, but at this point they started talking with him a bit more.  

There was one route he hadn't tried yet, so after a very nice talk from the coach he went over to try it.  Aside: the coaches were amazing.  They're always amazing, but, as one put it, they want to make better human beings.  Becoming a better rock climber is just a secondary goal.  Isaac ended up spending the last half hour and all ten tries on this route and he got so, so close.  He got one hand on the top hold several times, but couldn't quite get his second hand on it.

He was disappointed.  We had another pep talk.  He tried climbing it after time was called but he was so tired by then that it just didn't quite work.  But since time was called, the pressure was also off at this point.  He had something to eat, walked around a bit, and started to shake off the bad parts.  He said, a day or two afterwards, that he enjoyed it.  I loved watching him as always.  It was definitely a good growing experience for him!

After lunch we headed over to Fort Wayne to see family!  They also had some competitions away from home on Saturday as JJ had double header soccer games, so we got to their house a few hours before they got home.  In the end, it was rather nice though.  It gave Isaac some times to unwind, take a shower, and work on a math test before cousins and all the fun showed up.

I didn't get many pictures at Fort Wayne.  The kids kind of just disappeared after dinner.  We had a fire on the deck with smores.  I talked with Nathan and Liz.  We left a bit after lunch on Sunday.  It was a short trip, but it was also really, really nice to see them!

Oh, while I wasn't with Ben, obviously, I did get one really nice picture sent to me.

Thursday: still laughing

I: what are we watching for dinner?
A: I'm not watching anything for dinner.
I: no, what are we watching for dinner?
A: I'm not going to watch anything for dinner.  I'm going to eat my dinner.
I: hahahahahaha