Friday: O:CtH - storage room

I'm continuing to remove stuff from the storage room.  I had about thirty minutes to clean stuff out, and that included a crumbling piece of drywall.  The drywall was on the floor and we've just been walking on them for a while.  I got the drywall to the trash can and then had to vacuum up all the little pieces that fell off while I was bringing it upstairs.  I also vacuumed up some sand that had fallen out of a decorative piece.

Joshua doesn't want to get rid of the easel, but we haven't used it since the pandemic.  We compromised on I'll keep it around for a bit and see if anyone uses it.  I mean, it'll take me a bit before I bring everything to a donation center.  

Overall, the storage room doesn't feel much cleaner than yesterday, but ...it is.

Thursday: another normal day

It was another rather normal day.  The first class had a few bumps because I moved some content around and didn't dot my i's and cross my t's.  It wasn't a big problem, but it was annoying.

I got a fair amount of work done in the afternoon.  Sometimes I get tired but I actually got up enough and so I got a lot done.

My travels around town to taxi kids around went a bit faster than normal.  

Karate was just ok.  The class I like was co-opted by stretching and information instead of exercise.  Then we had self-defense and it isn't my favorite.  But I don't have to pick Isaac until 6:30 and Isaac really likes a few extra minutes after his practice so I've stayed the whole self-defense class.

The evening has been nice as always.  Some computer stuff, some quilting.

Wednesday: more normal

I love the normal days, although they aren't very interesting to blog about.  I mean, doing three loads of laundry is pretty good, but for once they all got dried and separated too!  I even put 2/3 of my laundry away.  We had cheddarworst for dinner and it was not as filling as I expected.  The cats had their vet appointment and are doing well.  Both cats weigh exactly the same as last year.  We were hoping Horizon would lose a bit of weight, but the vet was happy with no increase.  Isaac had a lot of homework, but worked on it well after school.  The snow is melting, sadly.  Both cats escaped while I was re-hanging* the bird feeders, but they didn't get very far.  They're willing to walk on snow but not to go in the deep stuff. 

*There was a wind advisory the last two days so I put the feeders on the deck.  One is really heavy and I didn't want it toppling over and the other is really nice and I didn't want it falling to it's doom.

Tuesday: homework 5

It was a normal day.  I went out to lunch with Natalie, which was really nice.  The only thing of any note is that I finished a rewrite of homework 5.  I've needed to rewrite this homework for several semesters but have just kept putting it off.  So hurray!

Monday: snark

I've been trying to get an account set up under our trust.  It's been a bit of a battle with a lot of automated responses.

So Friday I sent an email instead of trying to use the messaging system on the website.  It was all of about three sentences: 1) I submitted an application on this date.  2) It's been longer than expected.  3) Can you please tell me the status?

Today I got a response.  "Sure, we can help.  When did you submit your application?"

I snarkily responded with, "per my first email, it was on this date."

Then they told me what was missing on the application.

I am about two poor interactions away from moving my business somewhere else.

Sunday addendum: Bruce

The middle name Bruce runs in the family, and I know that Great-Grandma told me in the past where it came from and I couldn't remember, so I finally asked her.

She said that her husband had a good friend in Ohio, where he grew up, named Bruce.  He was a banker.  Her husband wanted that middle name for their son and so she went with it.  It kind of seemed like she was glad he was involved with the naming of their son, but she didn't directly say that so I might have been reading into things.  It also didn't seem like she ever met this Bruce.

Sunday: normal

 It was a pretty normal Sunday.  We helped out with nursery at church and there were a ton of kids, but they were pretty good.

We visited Great-Grandma and painted some new rocks.

Saturday: rock climbing

Isaac had a local rock climbing competition today.  He was in the intermediate level, which was definitely more challenging.  

This route was his favorite.  It took him a ton of tries to get to this position, but he got it!  There was a tricky bit at the end too, but he got that on the second try.  There was a lot of cheering; the route was located in a less busy spot but a lot of people he knew were there at the same time.

This route was also tricky...again for two reasons.  The first was the start - it was a jump on the wall.  Secondly, it was in the middle of two sideways routes and Isaac had a hard time being able to start the route at a safe time.  Once the gym had emptied out a bit it was a bit better, but he still only had two good tries.

We came home and I fell asleep on the couch.  I really didn't do much work today.  We built Lego sets in the morning, I cleaned a box from the basement, helped Joshua with a few things, did lunch, and then went to the comp.  It was lovely.

Friday: not a snow day

The morning started out with this lovely text.  Our kids were in school, but I understand wanting to take the week off.  Only one day of school is a bit weird.

A cardinal came to the birdfeeder today!  I usually get sparrows and juncos, so I was very excited for the cardinal.

I spent some time cleaning the storage room, as is my goal on Fridays.  Today's goal was to get some easy stuff out of the basement.  I also put a few things back in the right place: gift bags had fallen out of their spot and tissue paper was out of its bin.  It wasn't super long, but it was still something.  Some of the stuff needs to be cleaned and will be put back in, while some of the stuff will need to temporarily go back in because that's where donations are kept.  By taking some of the stuff out I was able to put some suitcases under the shelves and free up more floor space.  Hurray!  I also brought all of last week's books to the bookstore, so they're out of the house!  I think next week I'm going to do the same thing; there are still a few obvious things that could be removed.

Ben and Isaac went to play Magic tonight, so Joshua and I had our normal night too.  It's nothing special, but he really seems to enjoy them.  We played two games, had some screen time, and he got hot chocolate with a candy cane.

Thursday: snow day 3

Although this snow day wasn't called until 5:30am, it was still the right choice.  The snow was rather drifty, but the end of the driveway and road had 6-8".  Driving wasn't terrible, but it was far from good.  Only the very major roads were plowed this morning.

So work went fine.  I finally picked up groceries and a minute before I was going to leave Isaac texts to ask if I'm going to get groceries.  I mention that I'm at the store, and he sends me a kitten licking an ice cream cone.  So I went back in to get ice cream.

I also text him that I was unable to find a kitten in the grocery store, so I wasn't able to fulfill his request.

When I get home, Joshua and Ben were playing outside.  Ben dealt with the driveway and then stayed outside to help make the snow sculpture the kids continuously work on.

Isaac wanted to go somewhere, but we settled on a short ski trip around the neighborhood together.  It at least got him out of the house for a bit.

Wednesday: snow day 2

Today was another great day, but for different reasons.  I didn't get much work done and forgot about the laundry a lot.  But!  I played a lot of games, went cross-country skiing, and had Joshua help me with a few small projects.

The projects Joshua selected included putting up the milky way and changing a toilet handle.

We just went skiing around the neighborhood.  It took Isaac a bit to pick it up, but by the end he was doing well...and only fell three or four times.  It's times like this I'd love to get back into cross-country skiing but then I remember that I need 1) time, 2) snow, and 3) someone to go with me.  I rarely have all three of those.

Joshua was complaining about snow getting into his boots, so I added some tubes.  They're old socks and in the past I've used them as wrist protectors.  They worked pretty well, although not perfectly.

Tuesday: a nice day

Well, I had a very nice snow day today, and it culminated with another snow day tomorrow!  My week was going to be quite busy and, honestly, I wasn't very excited about that.  But both things for tomorrow have been canceled and I had time to get several things done today.  Doing my other things would have been good, but I can also be happy that I don't have to do them now.

Isaac is only medium-excited about the snow day tomorrow.  I think he'd prefer it next week...which we have absolutely no control over.  He might have this idea in his imagination about what a snow day should look like and in reality they include more work.  Joshua was excited though!

I sent Laura a Happy Birthday picture and she wasn't sure if I photoshopped it or actually went to the store and put party hats on chip bags.  I'm just excited that someone thinks I would do such a thing and now I think that'll be my goal for her next birthday.  The chip bags and I can go around to all the different foods that say "party size" on them, put a party hat on them, and get a picture.

Monday: extra weekend day

Today was a lovely day.  Ben stayed home and the kids were home because of MLK day.  We put together Legos.  We fixed a light switch.  We did a Lego challenge a la Joshua.  We worked on the D&D puzzle.  There is also a snow day tomorrow!  I am rather jealous: I'd like a snow day, or at least a virtual day, too.

The Lego challenge was to make something for a lovie.

Isaac got Snacksalotal.  Isaac was going to make five treats, but only had time for 1.75...a Danish and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Ben got Creeper.  He made an exploding cat hospital.

Catcachinno got a coffee dispenser with a coffee cup that would move from the dispenser to his mouth.

I got Grey Bear!  He's my favorite.  Grey Bear likes taking naps so I made him a new bed.  I was going to make a really fancy bed!  I ended up with a basic bed because I didn't have much time.

BREAKING NEWS!  Hope just canceled classes tomorrow.  How exciting!!  It will mess up the schedule a little bit, but I don't love 'date day' and the lab computers now have TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER which is so much easier to understand than LEFT(, SEARCH()) and RIGHT(,LEN()-SEARCH()).  I'll probably combine the two.

Saturday: Lego and friends

 Isaac has been working on a Lego radio set that he got for Christmas.  He asked for this one because it is supposed to be a really interesting set to build.  It's been a kind of funny set though.  Isaac will build about five pieces and then fiddle with the latest thing that he made for a while, figuring out how it went together.  Then he would roll on the floor a bit, then he would play with Joshua a bit, and then he would do another five pieces.  And repeat the process.  It's been hilarious, and wonderful.

Friends came over this evening.  It was lovely.  We had tacos, played Space Base, and talked Legos.  

Friday: Operation: Clean the House - Storage Room

Today I started cleaning the storage room.  I originally was planning on doing the storage room last, but it's gotten really hard to move around in the storage room so it needed to be moved up.

Today's project was to get rid of one bookcase's worth of books so that I could stuff that is currently on the floor in the empty bookcase.  We don't use actual books anymore, so for the most part we would just read these books on a kindle if we wanted to read them again.

Before:

After.  I know it looks neater too, but that wasn't really the goal.  There's still a lot of dust and some spider webs, but I was able to move other stuff out of the way.

I grabbed a few other easy things, and this is how much I took out.  It's still a mess, but I feel like it's a lot easier to walk around in.  I'm not completely sure what to next, but I'll contemplate it for the next week and do something.  The goal is about two hours a week.

As I was dealing with some books I had grabbed from Cheryl's house, I found a pack of cards.

I opened them up to see if they were all there, and to my surprise they weren't playing cards!  Ben was happily excited about finding them.

Thursday: traffic

Thursdays are my 'run the kids around in the car' the most day.  However, the trips went faster than normal because there wasn't any traffic.  Well, there was some traffic, but not nearly as much as normal.  It was kind of weird.

Giraffe joined me at work.  Apparently he wanted to watch students go past.

Wednesday: book

I'm listening to an audio book, as normal.  It's not a very good book.  One of those, "I did something wrong so instead of fixing it I'll just ignore it."

Anyway, one of the quotes is when the main character is saying how she needs to get out more, but her favorite activity is reading.  'And reading, by its very nature, is a solitary activity.'  Honestly, this person is doing it wrong.  My favorite way to read is next to someone else.  Yes, can be solitary but it doesn't have to be.

Other things interesting things that happened:
1) The humidifier people came.  They said there was one small mechanical value that they opened and they changed the programming so that the humidifier works independently of the furnace.  The humidity in the house is already up to where we want it.

2) I removed the piece of flooring between the kitchen and dining room.  It popped up a day ago and it was a trip hazard.  I glued it once before, but as I was looking at it again it was really beat up.  So I took it all out and will get a new piece tomorrow.

3) Ben and I went out for dinner while the kids were doing church things.  It was lovely.

Tuesday: snow

This morning we opened the garage and there was a surprising amount of snow.  Ah, well, that happens.  The drive to Hope was pretty bad.  I texted Ben to make sure that he had also gotten to work ok.  

Ben said the following, "The conversation in the car was: [Dad says almost anything]. Boys respond: "And that's why we should have had a snow day!"

To be fair, it really should have been a snow day.  I think the snow started too late to call it though.

There was a new alcove up...there were really interesting routes and the kids talked about them a lot.

Monday: PT

I went to PT for the first time in a while today.  My shoulder got messed up in December, I think from too much grading.  How dumb.  Anyway, it feels a little bit better and I have a special stretch because of my special scoliosis.  

I also made baked oatmeal for dinner.  I have three cartons of eggs in the fridge.  I opened two and saw this:

Good thing I have three cartons.  Although I don't think that carton was full either.

Sunday: an odd sad

It was an odd day today - there is a sadness due to Jennifer's death and the normalcy of everyday life continuing on.

Isaac and Joshua went outside to play in the snow.  (Yesterday I went out to snow blow and there was so much more than I expected!  I was expecting about three inches, but there were at least 5".)  Isaac ended up shoveling the driveway so that they could make a snow chair.  The snow wasn't good enough for a snowman but is was good enough to pack with slight pressure.

There have been more birds at the bird feeder.  The kids really get a kick out of the bird butts.

Saturday: ending sadly

Most of the day was lovely.  Isaac is working through a final exam for math and making better progress than I was hoping for.  We played some games.  We put together some Lego sets.  We laughed about the bird butts we see on my new bird feeder.

And then this evening I got an email from Hope saying a student had died in an accident.  More surprisingly, I knew this student.  We actually spent quite a bit of time together last semester and the world was a brighter place with her in it.  She was so full of joy that it was a delight to see her.  And while I never expected to see her again, I will still grieve.  As the email said though, we will grieve with hope. (1 Thes 4:13)

Friday: Operation: Clean the House - Laundry room

I finally got back to Operation: Clean the House!  I had started the laundry room in September and October.  I thought it would take two Fridays worth, but I finished in about an hour and a half!  Huzzah!

Here are the pictures, because that really is what helps understand what's going on.  The big things that happened, besides a general cleaning, is that I cleaned very well behind the washer and dryer.  I removed a cabinet door.  I also reorganized the upper cabinet in October and have been enjoying the new locations of stuff.

Next up?  The storage room.  I was going to wait until the end of Operation: Clean the House, but it's gotten really bad.  

Thursday (and Wednesday): life

 Yesterday:

Ben: What are you having to drink [for dinner]?

Amanda: I have a mountain dew in the ...laundry.

Ben: Um...oh, so you do.

On my way into the house I grabbed a mountain dew from the fridge.  But then I didn't have enough hands while taking off my coat so I dropped it in the clean laundry basket.  It wasn't anything I had ever been expecting to say though.

Today:

It went pretty well over all.  However, I was trying to make a video for my graders and it took me three times.  The virtual meeting kept stopping without notification and then my laptop died.  I was pretty annoyed by the end.  But I think I have a full instructional video now.

Wednesday: down the list

Oh, it's time for bed so this is going to be short.

I felt like I got a lot done today, and it wasn't all just "what absolutely needs to be done" stuff.  For example, I was able to take a moment to clean Joshua's electric toothbrush and holder.  He lost his toothpaste cap, and apparently this means that toothpaste goes all over the bathroom.  I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm really not.  Most of it gets cleaned up, but the toothbrush holder was disgusting.

Tuesday: first day

Another day, another new semester.  First days are the worst.  They're almost as bad as the last day.  To be fair though, it was pretty good as first days go.

Then I needed to go to Eagle Crest to give Isaac some medicine.  It was a bit annoying, but understandable.

I went back to Hope to have lunch with Natalie and continue working.  I may have taken a short nap too.  Being in the office during nap time may be a problem.

Rock climbing went well - I climbed a lot with Joshua and helped belay the team a little bit.

Isaac went to the doctor this evening for his toes.  There is a probable diagnosis for his weird colored toes which isn't a big deal, but also doesn't account for the itching.  We'll continue to monitor.

Monday: 2024 reading stats

Since I'm tired of talking about the chores I'm doing (which really aren't that interesting), I thought I'd talk about my 2024 reading stats instead.

I read (or listened to) 57 books*

This is also the same as 29,486 pages.

I read the most books in February, but the most pages in March.

The longest book was Iron Prince by Bryce O'Connor.  (This was also one of my favorites.)

My average rating was 3.64/5.  I only gave 6 books the five star rating.

*This doesn't count about three weeks worth of reading on Royal Road, which is an app that somewhat pre-publishes books.  I was loving the book series I was reading and wanted to continue it.  I enjoyed it for a bit, but then it started dragging and I gave up.  However, the content wasn't divided into books yet so I don't know how many books worth it would have been.

Sunday: the day before

Oh, the day before going back to school.  We didn't really have a long enough break - three more days would have been just right.  Enough time to get fully bored and actually ready to go back.

At the same time, I have a lot to do.  I really need to attempt to actually do work and not just have fun.  These errands don't run themselves.

Isaac started one of his crochet kits recently, but we decided that maybe starting on a dishrag would be a better choice first.  There's something about getting the motion down before trying to do it in a circle.

We also played the Axolotl game.  Snaxalotl enjoyed watching.

Saturday: visit

This afternoon Elizabeth and Jonathan stopped by for a little bit.  Elizabeth and I finished our puzzle while the boys played.  (It was good timing, because I have other puzzles from Christmas that I want to start!)

Other than that, it was a normal Saturday.  I still have a cold.  We got some work done.  I snow blowed.  The birds ate my suet but wouldn't move eight feet over to my special feeder.

Friday: a nice day

Today's plan was supposed to be similar to yesterday's, although we didn't have any errands to run.  However, we ended up playing a longer game and so I didn't get as much done.  The game was fun though!

We got more snow that I was expecting.  I was expecting less than an inch, but there's about five inches on the picnic table.

Thursday: stuff

Ben went back to work today, so the rest of us also (sort of) went back to work.  We got about half the Christmas stuff down, Isaac worked on some of his math, and I continued to work on the kitchen and laundry.

We also played some games, went rock climbing, and enjoyed some time without too many things.

Since it was the time after Isaac's birthday, he got to wear a birthday hat during dev team.  He was surprisingly excited about this and they made a nice amount of fuss.

Tuesday night: NYE

We said good-bye to my family and promptly started to flip the house for an evening party.  They left a little earlier than normal due to weather, which was rather sad.

Anyway, we weren't sure how long people were going to stay in the evening and neither were they.  Since it was potentially a longer time than normal, Ben came up with a few Lego challenges.  The first one was "build a firework".  We took most of our bins out of the stacks so it was easier for 13 people to move around and get the pieces they needed.

The next challenge was build in a polybag.  While it seemed impossible at first, several of us got it!  A few people got it in a sandwich bag, and a bunch that just didn't care and left pretty quickly.

Kids were getting tired so we decided not to do the third challenge; we're seeing them again in a few weeks anyway, so we'll do it then.