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.
