Thursday: Snow day #3

Well, I woke up to a phone call at 5:45am saying school was canceled for the day!  I did some of my work at home in the morning and by the time I went in to work the roads were fine.  I've heard it was much worse in other places though, especially if there was any wind.  The snow is light and fluffy and blows easily.

Isaac's math class was completely canceled too, which is rather exciting.  I assume the kids did fine home alone today - the chores were finished by the time I got home and no one seemed to be going too crazy.  Isaac and I went rock climbing for a little bit and Joshua had piano, so everyone was able to get out of the house.

I've been expecting a snow day on Friday for the last week.  Everyone has been expecting a snow day on Friday - we had a meeting with a school admin scheduled for tomorrow that was moved around noon because we all expected the snow day.  Then 5:30 rolled around - no announcement from any local schools.  6:00.  7:00.  7:30.  Were they really going to make us wait until the morning?  Finally at 7:40 the notification came through that there is no school tomorrow either.  It'll be too cold and, if possible, people are hunkering down.

Wednesday: snow day

We did end up with a snow day today!  I had to go out several times today and the roads really weren't very good.  They also seemed to be worse this evening as they were icy near intersections.  I'm expecting school tomorrow (and most forecasts say a low chance of a closure), but wouldn't be overly surprised if there isn't school.  I don't think anyone is expecting school on Friday due to cold, so it'll be a really short week.

Anyway, Ben stayed home so that was nice.  I had an easier day than otherwise, but still had work and errands that needed to be done.  

One errand included a vet appointment, and it seemed like this vet was telling me very different things than previous vets.  Last year Horizon's weight had stayed the same and the vet was happy enough with that.  This year he lost a little (very little) weight and the vet was quite sure that he needed to lose quite a bit of weight.  We also have a cat that regularly throws up.  We mention it every year, and have tried a few things to combat it but nothing seems to change.  In the past it has just been ok.  This year she was very worried about it.  She wanted the cats to have a complete blood panel workup and said that she suggests doing this every year with older cats...which would over triple today's vet bill.  Um...no.  She also suggested a few other things to change that involve buying some products, but at $30 it might be something we do.  So after this annoying appointment I got home and the plow had gone through and I was rather grumpy.

I did enjoy Joshua's message to me on his math work from yesterday though.  I read somewhere that adults killed 6-7, and I'm not sad about it.  (Please ignore the wrong answer.)

Tuesday: snow day (#1?)

One of the kids' chores today was to shovel the end of the driveway after the plow came through.  So what happens?  The plow came through at 7am and I was able snow blow it away.  It was still light and fluffy so it worked well.  The kids went sledding after I got home from work, so they still got outside even though it's rather cold.

I got a text with this picture while at work.  The kids didn't get into too many shenanigans, but definitely some.

I'm really tired.

There's a high chance of a snow day tomorrow.  I personally think there's a high chance on Friday too.  We'll see!

Monday: snow storm

It was an interesting snow storm today.

The kids had ortho appointments this morning.  I was a bit annoyed at myself for making the appointments, but in a non-snowstorm it would have been the right choice.  Anyway, based on appointment times and whatnot I expected to be there for about 1.5hrs.

Twenty minutes later, we were leaving.  They got both kids in at the same time and Isaac's appointment didn't take an hour as I was told.  It was rather exciting.

The roads weren't as bad as I thought, but there weren't many people out.  There was one gust of wind that caused very white out conditions, but it passed quickly.  (The highways were much, much worse.  Due to accidents, they were closed for a significant portion of the day.)

The original plan had been to have Ben take my car to work after the ortho appointments, but he managed to move all of his meetings on-line.  Most people took the "do not travel" advisory seriously and worked from home.

At 5pm, all the local schools EXCEPT OURS had been canceled.  It's a situation where you know the school will cancel, but they haven't yet.  What if they decide not to!?!  They did cancel.  Phew.

The day as a whole was nice.  The kids played some, read some, worked some.  I actually got many of my normal chores completed since the kids were well occupied.

I made naan for dinner, but didn't decide to do so until 3pm.  Usually I take Brad out of the refrigerator in the morning so it has some time to wake up.  Instead I made the naan dough and had it cuddle between Isaac's legs and under some blankets to warm up just a little.  I didn't need it to warm up much, but sitting on the counter would be cold.

Sunday: snow

We're in the middle of a snow storm!  The kids already didn't have school tomorrow, but most schools are closed.  We do have some ortho appointments in the morning.  I have a small hope that they'll cancel the appointments, but I kind of doubt it.

Saturday: breakfast

I went to Grandville for breakfast with a friend this morning.  The roads were....not great.  We had even talked yesterday that we'd decide at the last minute, but thought that everything would be ok.  It wasn't.  ...but at the same time,  we got there and back ok.  This was my fourth meal with friends this week - a huge change from last week when I didn't eat with anyone.  

Friday

After a lovely breakfast with a friend, I started Operation: Clean the House - entry closet.  I'm really excited about a little space for once.  I cleaned the top two shelves.

I am getting rid of the puppy hat.  Joshua was so small and cute.

Ben and Isaac went to a magic thing.  Their normal place closed, so they were going to a place that was farther away and earlier, so they didn't have dinner with us.  Joshua and I had pasta - tonight's shape was elbows.

Our grad school friends met on-line in the evening in our bi-weekly meet up.  My computer would not behave.  Either I could hear but not talk or talk but not hear or it was on my phone which is not ideal.  I tried several different things and made a lot of annoyed faces and finally gave up and didn't use headphones.  Ben came home and gave me a kid's pair of corded headphones which worked but they were not very comfortable.  We'll get it fixed later, but at least there were some solutions.

Oh!  I also found a picture of Isaac on the school Facebook site.  It looks like he's having a lot of fun, but he did not tell me about it after school.

Wednesday: New Year's Eve

Today was just a stick around the house day.  It was cool, so we didn't do as much outside.  We played several games, I took a walk with the boys, and we got in the pool/hot tub in the afternoon.

During our walk we saw this pretty tree and a pencil cactus.  We may have also made sure the boat was protected by toy army men.

Joshua enjoyed jumping in the pool if someone counted for him (1-2-3!)  So we did a lot of 1-2-tree! to try and trick him.  Most of the time he caught it, but sometimes we got him.  He also enjoyed being pushed in, as long as he was in his swimsuit.  (I think he pushed Isaac in on the first day as Isaac was drying off, so that was very unexpected and resulted in a very wet towel.)

While the pool was heated, it was also rather cold.  I spent most of my water time in the hot tub.

After a nice dinner, six of us played hand and foot.  Jamie and I got really far ahead on the first hand, and it set the tone...at least for us.  We were having a great time!  Isaac and Cheryl almost caught up by the end of the game and Ben and Ashlyn...well, they were good sports.

While we were playing the game, Joshua helped Larry build the Star Trek Lego shuttle pod.  We have a video, which still requires editing, but it was cute.  Joshua did a very nice job "teaching" Grandpa how to put it together and was very encouraging.

Everyone managed to stay up until midnight - I think this is the first time either of the kids (have been allowed) to stay up.  Joshua said it was one of his best parts of the trip, but there wasn't anything all that special.  We watched the ball drop, we clinked glasses, and we went to bed.

Thursday: lunch and rock climbing

Hmm, overall a pretty normal day.  Natalie and I almost had to cancel our lunch plans, but then we realized that we could just push it back an hour.  It's been over a month since we've seen each other, so it was a very nice lunch.

Rock climbing was nice, although a bit weird.  There wasn't an official practice for Isaac, but he was expecting others to still be there.  Well, several of the people left shortly after we got there.  (There were normal reasons for them to leave.  It made sense.)  Isaac was a bit down because he thought everyone left and so didn't think he'd want to stay the whole two hours.  Ok, so I didn't leave as planned.  But then he realized that two others were there, and he semi-stayed with them the rest of the time.  We did leave a bit early, but I could have easily left, done some stuff at home, and then come back to pick him up.  Oh well, I talked to a lot of people, walked on the treadmill, and did a bit of work that I could do on my phone.  It was still a nice night, just not what I was expecting.

Tuesday: Margaritaville

Today was forecasted to be a rather cool day, but we elected to head to Margaritaville anyway.  (It was the right choice.)  

The boat ride was cold.  We could have sat inside, but we bundled up and enjoyed the outside instead.

We got there just in time for lunch.  It worked well because I was only going to get in the pool once - it was too cold to sit around in a wet swim suit.  When we were protected from the breeze it was pleasant.  I really like the picture below because Isaac looks so teenager-ish too me.  Messy hair (from the boat ride) and just a teenager look.

Ben and I took shifts so that Joshua could stay in the pool longer.  The water was perfect...as long as you stayed in the water.  Jacob was there at first so we tossed a ball around.  We walked back and forth in the pool several times.

We really liked this sign.  There were a few others that actually had a range.

Ben and the kids played monkey in the middle after I got out... And immediately changed into warmer clothes.

Joshua was all about the fruit.  He likes fruit, but he really went after it.

Isaac was willing to take a walk on the beach with me.  There weren't many shells, although still enough to have to watch where we were walking.  It was a lovely walk.

On our way home we got stopped by the coast guard for a routine check.  They were very polite as they went through their checklist.  I was really glad we had grabbed Joshua's life jacket - we almost left it at the house.  Ben also took a moment to ask about e-Foil regulations...since they were right there.

It was also Isaac's birthday!  We celebrate more in June so we didn't do much, but we did get a cake and sang to him.

Ashlyn Joshua, and I were sitting around, talking about how things have changed.  I mentioned gps, and then Joshua started talking about TVs.  There is one in the bedroom he usually sleeps in, but he's never used it.  Ashlyn said that she watched tv on it when she was young, and Joshua says, "is it black and white?" We cracked up.

Wednesday: groceries

My schedule today was odder than most Wednesdays.  I usually get groceries earlier in the morning, but today I decided to do it right before lunch because I had lunch with a friend.  I only had one frozen item and it was really cold out too, so it worked well.

I may have come home, taken care of the frozen item, and left the rest of the food in the car.  It was nap time!

Tuesday: classes start

I didn't sleep all that well last night.  There were several small stressors running through my head, along with classes starting, and having more lunches to make in the morning than normal.  Were those the things that woke me up at 4:30am though?  No.  I was worried about dinner.  What were we going to have for dinner?  Tacos.  Have I made tacos lots of times?  Yes.  But I was very worried that I needed to do some prep for tacos in the morning before work.  I told myself it would be fine!  No, I disagreed with myself.  However, at 4:30am and only partially awake it is really hard to reason with oneself.

Classes started fine.  I had a person from CIT come for the last 20 minutes to help get all the laptops set up.  We of course sent several emails ahead of time, but not everybody reads them.  It was nice she was there - I'm hoping to avoid all the "I can't get this to work" over the next few weeks.

During rock climbing I mostly succeeded on a route that I haven't even managed to start in the past.  I had to use two holds from a different route, but I was still really excited.  The routes on the tower are rather hard levels right now, so we tried some 5.10+ routes.  We got half way up two of them and couldn't start a third.  However, this is the first time we've tried such hard routes so that was exciting.

Monday

It was a nice day.  I got a surprising amount of things done, had coffee with Pat, and worked on a puzzle with Elizabeth.

We went to a high school info night too.  It might not be our top choice, but it would be a good choice.  We brought Isaac too because he's old enough to have a say in the decision, but I think he ended up pretty confused.  That's ok.  It is a bit confusing and you need to see schedule things a few times before you can even start to make sense of it all.

Sunday: Yahtzee and pick-a-brick

We visited Great-Grandma today.  We played a game of Yahtzee and she lit up.  She did a nice job playing it, although there were a few funny moments.  Namely when she was trying to get a large straight.  I think she rolled about six times before she got it...we were all confused as to what was happening but let it happen.  What does she tell us at the end but, "Now I've shown you how to win!  Maybe you'll win next time."  Yeah, no kidding.  :)

After dinner we finished our pick-a-brick creations.  These cups were a bit more interesting because we had some very on-sale Lego sets that were also added into the mix.  We had some newer parts to play with, although we all lamented that there were several cool pieces that we weren't able to use.

Amanda: while I had a bunch of large plates, meant for more of a landscape, I ended up making a water dragon and a waterfall/river.  Not the butt fluffle on the back of the dragon.  I made that up but think it describes it perfectly.

Ben made a magical bonsai.  Different kids of weather cause it to grow different types of branches/flowers, which you can then sculpt.  It takes years for these plants to grow.

Isaac made healthy and dying landscape.  (It is dying due to on of Joshua's creations, not shown tonight, but that has a butt fluffle too.)

Joshua made a bunch of mini builds to go with a story that I don't really remember.

Saturday: recital

Joshua had his piano recital today.  They're pretty low key, which I really appreciate.  That being said, while Joshua had been practicing recently I wasn't sure how it was going to go.  He nailed it though.  T

Then we went to Zeeland to have a treat with family.  The restaurant we were planning on was really busy.  So we went to Zeeland Bakery, but they don't have enough chairs.  We found a nearby cafeteria it was nice and empty.  It was lovely to see them again.

Friday: storage room is finished!

One year ago* I started cleaning the storage room.  I had been hoping to do it last in the Operation: Clean the House list, but it had reached a critical point.  It got a lot better quickly, but Ben and I spent the last month finishing up the few last things.

*I took the before pictures on January 10, 2025, it is really only 364 days ago.

And so, with lots of elation, I present before and after for the storage room.

There's not a ton of change here.  The white fridge broke so we needed a new one.  I cleaned up some of the area behind the freezer, but am now storing full boxes of donations there.

The stuff on the left stayed mostly the same, but I dealt with the boxes in front of the water heater so the space has opened up.

Look at all the stuff that was moved!  A lot was just moved to a different area, but it is now a calming experience to enter the storage room instead of a harrowing dance among the boxes.

I just like the difference for this picture.

This is one of the better pictures that shows how cluttered it was...and how much it has changed.

Same location, slightly different angle.

It is hard to show just how terrible this back corner was.  The shelves weren't being used very effectively because they couldn't always be reached.  It had become a dumbing ground.  I also couldn't get a very good picture of how bad it was because there was too much stuff in the way.

Box storage moved and I put up a few high shelves...so that we can stack things underneath later.  (Hopefully much later, but based on the rest of the house it takes about two-three years to need another round of cleaning, but nothing has dissolved to its original state either.)

The picture doesn't show well how hard it was to walk to the other side of the storage room.  It was very possible, but kind of balance beam-esque.  

There is a dedicated place for tables and ladders now too.  They had just been moving around the house and so it was always hard to find them when needed.

So the three bookshelves went down to two shelves of books.  I feel like I should do more, but it just wasn't in me.  Next time.  Ben also cleaned up the cable area so we could move everything down the wall three feet.  The black shelves are now my "get rid of stuff".  EBay, donations, electronic recycling, books for the library, etc.

We removed several large boxes for electronics, and dated the ones that we did need to keep.  Box storage also moved into this area.  It's still rather full, but it is stacked better.  We also added the indoor bike for Joshua's winter exercise.

It isn't a good before and after picture, but Ben cleaned up the cords so we could move the bookshelves.

 

And a few extra pictures, because I could actually stand in good places for them.  The white shelves that disappeared earlier got moved over here into the shelf row.  After that are some black wire shelves with our extra Lego - it is a massive improvement to the bucket we had before that was so annoying to look through.