Today I went to the orthodontist to get my permanent retainer removed and get a removable retainer instead. I've liked the permanent retainer, but I don't floss those teeth and decided it was not the right fit for me.
Afterwards I went out for lunch with a friend and we were rather chatty! We had a nice lunch and covered a lot of topics.
For the last 24 hours, there have been a lot of fish flopping around near the drain to the river. They periodically flop over the rocks and swim away.
Anyway, when I went to actually investigate I see 7-10 fish in this small area and they're flopping around a lot. I moved a few rocks so it was easier for them to get out and encouraged several to move towards the exit, but there were a few that refused to leave. I left them because at least it wasn't overly crowded now.
I remembered what I wanted to post about.
A few nights ago I was awoken from sleep by a crazy sound. It sounded like one of the cats was dying. I waited a minute and it didn't stop, so I got up and found both cats by the downstairs slider, perfectly ok. I went to the furnace, because we get a lot of strange noises from that, but the sound got quieter. I decided it was outside.
The next night, thankfully before I went to sleep, I heard it again. I had the presence of mind to search around for it, and I'm pretty sure it was a fox. It sounded just like the first sound in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtmiL2fffY
Lego Group was at our house today! We had baked potato bar and it went better than expected. Joshua was especially helpful today during cleaning time - he did a lot of cleaning without being prompted.
The kids decided to go in the lake. All the adults were a bit surprised as the water is still cold. I'm pretty sure that all the kids fell in the lake at some point. They also played car tag with Lego cars in the basement.
The weather was nice, so we also sat outside for a while. (Also because we try to monitor the kids while they're on the lake.) It was just a lovely time.
There was something interesting to talk about today, but I've forgotten it. I thought the interesting thought while I was at the kitchen sink. Hmm. I guess next time I should write it down.
I did a lot of running around today. It did mean that I had a lot of time to read my book, which was excellent. I'm really enjoying the series (Dungeon Crawler Carl) I'm reading right now, and it makes it so much easier to pick up the book instead of playing a game.
Besides that I did a lot of normal chores. I'm hoping to get a bit more on top of chores before the end of school, but I don't know if that will happen.
Once again, I attempted to save my flowers over the winter. It went better than previous years, but still not amazing:
The strawberry plant lasted until about February.
The succulent bucket lasted until early April, with the exception of one that is still alive
The big succulent lasted until early May, when I think I left it outside on a cold (but not freezing) night. It might survive, but it is not looking good.
Anyway, we went to the greenhouse today to get some flowers. The kids always enjoy this more than I expect. I got some dragon leaf begonia because they are a hardy flower that can take some abuse. We got some marigolds, snap dragons, two succulents, and a few small miscellaneous things. I gave both kids about $20, and ended up with unexpected plants. Isaac got something that is hopefully a pineapple plant and Joshua got a tall spiky cactus. We'll see how it plays out!
Grades are in! It took a bit longer to finish up than expected, but they're done.
Most of my graders are seniors (which is too bad), but two of them wanted more work during exam week so they graded almost all of the final exams. It was lovely.
Today was Horizon and Tornado's eighth birthday.
We got a screwdriver for Tornado. He is always stealing Ben's.
Horizon just got some normal toys.
I had the kids bike to Lowes with me again today. We needed to get a screwdriver, but I also wanted to look at curtain rods. The hardware to mount the curtain rods was surprising expensive, so we just got a new one instead. I thought this might happen, so I brought velcro to mount it to Isaac's bike. He was a bit scared it would fall off, but I mounted it well.
Today was Catnana's birthday! Joshua got him out of a claw machine exactly one year ago and Joshua was so happy after getting him.
We also got this one of Horizon a few days ago.
After a low-productive week last week and working the first two days of this week, things have fallen behind. The kitchen was in a "how high can we stack dirty dishes?" mode.
I ran the dishwasher twice today, so the kitchen is back on track. I did other things. I wouldn't say that I caught up, but things are under control. For now.
Joshua made a large fort.
Today was the second, and last, performance of 'Freaky Tiki'. The students did a great job. Joshua did a great job with the lights.
There was a really nice blurb about Joshua as the only crew member too.
Well, the lip is getting better.
Wednesday I went right back to sleep after everyone left for school/work. I slept for most of the morning and ended up going to the dentist around noon. I thought the swelling was slightly worse and there was a bit of leakage/crusting. The dentist gave me some antibiotics.
Thursday the lip looked better but what I thought was fever-ish symptoms turned into cold symptoms. I don't know if they were related or if I just happened to get a cold at the same time. I got through teaching, which wasn't all that hard because it was a review. I got home and crashed, electing to skip my two activities that had been planned for the evening.
Friday the lip is looking even better. I'm feeling a little better but the cold symptoms are still present.
In other news, Giraffe had his birthday on Wednesday. He got a Lego set of a giraffe having a birthday party and it has been played with more than I expected.
There was not much change in my lip today. I did stop by the dentist, who seemed rather surprised by how my lip looks, but he thinks I may have accidentally bitten it. I'm not convinced of this, but the main thing is that it doesn't seem like an allergic reaction and he expects it to go down within the next few days.
I made it through most of the day no problem, when I got home to make dinner I crashed.
I had a routine filling done today. I also have a canker sore near where they were doing the filling. They numbed everything up, did the filling, and said it would be back to normal in about an hour.
I woke up from my nap, about two hours later, and noticed that my lip still felt really funny. My cheek and gums felt ok, but my lip was not. It turns out that it had swollen to about twice it's normal size. I'm guessing it was mostly from canker sore plus instruments, but it was annoying.
Around 4pm it lessened in size - maybe to 1.5x. Around 7pm it went down a bit more, but it hasn't gone down since then. It isn't quite as annoying now, obviously, but it still does not feel right.
Here's hoping things are better tomorrow.
After a cool morning, it got very nice out. Ben went out to eFoil
The boys and I biked to Lowes for some paint cards. It was a short but lovely bike ride.
I tried to make a focaccia tonight. It was more of a thick flat-bread. It was edible, because warm bread is edible, but we probably won't finish it.
One of the assignments in my class is to do something with a picture. (There's more to the assignment to make it worthwhile.) Anyway, it's fun to see what the students come up with. Some put a lot of time into it, some put the bare minimum. This one is actually a bit in the middle but the first one I've seen with a title.
I got a lot of errands completed today. I didn't get much else done, but oh well.
It started at the dentist. It was an ok appointment, other than I had a "large gag" reflex. I'm going to be honest, it felt like a normal gag reflex. When you stick something large in my mouth and all the way to the back we should be happy I only gag twice. Also, the fact that you can't get a picture of the root of one in the middle back doesn't seem like my fault. Anyway, it is done for six months.
It turned out that I only had 11 items to get at the grocery store, so I had enough time to get groceries. I give myself a gold medal. I came in just under $100.
I got gas. It was the first time I've had to wait for gas in quite a while, but I usually don't try to get it at 11:30.
I had lunch with a friend.
I stopped by the library.
I finally got home and took my nap. There were a bunch of friends waiting for me. I had a bit more time to do some chores, but I really didn't get much done before I had to pick up the kids.
Between dropping off the kids at church in the evening and karate I also stopped at GFS, just to round out the errands.
Tonight we had middle school move up night. Joshua had his first band concert. There's a chance it will be his last too...he's having a hard time deciding between Spanish and band next year.
After the concert Joshua elected to go around to all the stations by himself and get his card stamped. I felt a little bad for not joining him, but he wanted to go by himself and I have a good idea of what will happen next year since Joshua is the second child.
The frequency that these rocks show up has gone down a bit in the last few years, but it also happens more than I would expect.
We've had a lot of storms recently and Horizon doesn't like them. He usually hides behind a toilet. Last night we found him under the sink, but he did seem rather relaxed there when I checked on him.
We also had Lego group tonight, although I'm not sure much was done with Legos tonight. The kids played outside quite a bit on the trampoline and ghost in the graveyard and the food was delicious. It was just a really nice night.
I don't use AI very often. What tends to happen is I'll try something I think is rather straightforward and it will fail completely. This leads me to not use it as often.
There are some things I've asked of it that work.
The other day though, I asked it to do something that I thought was very simple. It needed to look through a table on Wikipedia and return the image URL. It would not work. It just made up links that looked very realistic.
Ben uses AI on a more regular basis, so he gave it a try. Not because I needed the information anymore, but because I wanted to know what I was doing wrong. Well, Ben tried pretty hard and couldn't get it. It turns out that part of the reason was that Wikipedia was blocking the AI generator.
I was rather relieved. I was glad that it actually didn't work and it wasn't just me.
I've been staying up too late. Then today was a busy day - I didn't really stop until 9pm and I am exhausted. I should go to bed but that involves getting ready for bed.
We play a card game called CuBirds and one of the cards looks like a vanilla wafer to me. So I finally got some vanilla wafers to eat while we play the game.
They reminded me of Sunday after church while growing up. Joshua did not enjoy them. Ben and Isaac didn't say much.
It was a pretty normal day...Joshua and I dropped Isaac off for rock climbing and went to get groceries and to the library. It was nice to have company while shopping.
We came home, had lunch, then screen time/rest time. Afterwards the kids set up an obstacle course in the basement for a little bit while I prepped some chicken. I had gotten two family packs because they were on sale and we didn't have chicken, but it did take a while to do everything I wanted to do with it.
The washing machine stopped working today too. I got two loads done with no problem and went to do my third load and it just wouldn't start. There are still a few more items to look at to try and troubleshoot. This washer is 18 years old and I'm rather attached to it, so I hope we can figure it out - it's worked really well for us.
After dinner I went rock climbing all by myself. I think it's the first time I've gone without kids.
The climbing session was nice, but I didn't really climb well. There were several routes that I've topped in the past that I was unable to get today. It was a bit disappointing, but I tried really hard. Talking with people was nice.
He is Risen indeed! Happy Easter!
It was a nice day. We watched church from home today, partially because church was going to be crowded and partially to be with Ben.
The boys and I went on a walk/scooter ride after nap time because they haven't been out of the house in a few days. However, Joshua hit a pothole about 1/3 of the way around the lake and faceplanted. Really, the fall wasn't too bad. A small scratch on his knee, a very small scratch near his hip, and a small patch of skin on his hand was peeled off. There was blood, but not too much. Ben came and picked up all up.
Luckily, we were decorating our graham cracker creations after that and so the injuries were mostly forgotten.
Amanda - an Easter basket with a book and grass around the outside. The book reads "Once upon a time there was a sea serpent. The sea serpent was flung a land preserver, so that it could go up on the land and smell the flowers."
Ben - a skyscraper with a King Bear attacking it:
Joshua - a castle with a draw bridge:
Isaac - a climbing gym with a path around it and a bear arch:
As always, Holy Saturday is a weird liminal day. Jesus has died but has not yet risen but we know he will! We did our secular Easter activities.
Isaac and Joshua dyed Easter eggs. I didn't get a picture of the results yet, but they had fun. Isaac had been planning on only doing a few eggs, but he did his whole allotment. They also got out some pipettes and dotted a few of the eggs with mixed results.
We also started our graham cracker houses! Hmm, I guess this is usually Christmas thing, but Isaac gave up candy and store-bought baked goods for Lent so by the time we found a free weekend after Christmas he wouldn't have been able to eat the house. We did the structure today and will decorate tomorrow. Joshua made a classic mansion, Ben a skyscraper, Isaac a sculpture, and I an Easter basket (with a book). We went through more graham crackers than I expected and I had to go get some more frosting today so that we could have enough colors tomorrow.
It was still spring break for me, but I didn't really do anything special. I got a few chores done (or at least started) that have been hanging around for a while, so that was nice. There was very rainy today, which was excellent. I also joined a friend for rock climbing during Isaac's last team practice - there are several good routes right now and several routes that we need to work on.
Tonight I attempted to make a dish that we had in Disney - a sweet potato hash with chicken and a creamy herb sauce.
I found it delicious. Ben said it was ok, Isaac started out ok and decreased it over time, and Joshua didn't like it at all. (Although he did like the mango boba that is part of the recipe.) I also spent a bit of effort to velvet the chicken well so that it was nice and tender.
I'll probably make it again - although I might try with pasta for other people in the family.
