Sunday: the day

 The day was fine.  

The kids and I did preschool, but there were only three kids (and four helpers).  Isaac taught the lesson for the first time.

We visited Great-Grandma, bring the bubble blower.

Last Thursday: flights

 We were leaving right after work and school today, so my plan was to bring the kids to school and then come home and finish the last of the packing before teaching.  Before I brought the kids to school I was working on stuff and found out that there was no more kitty litter.  *Sigh*.  I knew we were low but I thought we had enough.

Luckily Meijer carries the kitty litter we use and luckily I found it before bringing the kids to school, so it was a quick stop after dropping them off.  It would have been annoying otherwise.

Classes went fine.  Natalie and I had lunch - we were both flying out later in the afternoon but on different flights.  We commiserated about getting ready.

Anyway, the flights actually went really well.  We had to walk to the next gate during our layover a little faster than we were hoping, but we had time and then that flight was delayed about ten minutes anyway.  The biggest snaffu was our Uber ride.  Ben had reserved a ride in advance, but when we were ready the ride was 40 minutes away and getting farther away.  Dealing with getting a refund from Uber was not the most fun thing, but Ben did manage it.  The next driver was there in about ten minutes, but the whole thing took about 30min.  Oh, and then at the hotel the kids and I had a hard time finding the hotel room, which was about a five minute walk from the elevators, and Ben had a hard time getting his scooter from the bellhop.

Eventually everyone was in the room though.  The kids went to sleep very quickly, and Ben and I went to sleep shortly afterwards.

Saturday: back

We're back!  Vacation posts will come shortly, or longly, but they will come.  There were a few minor hiccups, but overall everything went very smoothly.

Today was our rest day.  Thursday is always our busy day, but add on trying to get groceries and get some laundry done and it was a bit crazy.  Friday Isaac went to a mock competition near South Bend.  We decided last minute that Ben would bring him, but it still made early evening a bit more chaotic than normal.  (The competition was set up as a regional style, which is a bit harder than the other competitions he's done.)  He had mixed feelings on his performance, but Ben said the routes were really hard and he still got some points.

Ok, today.  My back went a bit crazy.  It felt as though it was really sore, but I haven't done anything that would make it so sore.  It has been like this a little bit, on and off, for the last two days, but it was really bad this morning.  We all just laughed about it, but it was rather weird.

We got a bunch of loose LEGO at Disney Springs, and so used it today for our LEGO challenge.

Amanda: A flower decoration, like you would see at a public area.  (I said mall, but that's not where you'd see it anymore.)  It is mini-figure scale, so rather large.

Joshua had several.  The first was inspired by my clear towers.

A flower mad so that he could say he used all his flower pieces.

The seasons - spring, summer, fall, winter

A rocket, inspired by Isaac

Ben: a geode.  Ben had a really hard time with these pieces and after 45 minutes of tinkering still didn't have anything.  He was trying to use the water pieces (we had a ton!) but not as water.

Isaac: a flower spaceship with water tanks.

Wednesday: normal

 It was a pretty normal day.  I did my stuff.

Isaac tried a bat hang yesterday.  They're scary and he didn't quite get it.

Monday: things

I got a lot of stuff done today!  It was mostly short things, but it still all needed to be done.

A new student (black belt) started at the dojang today.  He's trying to break into the pro-circuit.   Anyway, we started warming up with jumping jacks.  We're supposed to all do it in sync (and it's really cool when it works).  Oh my, he went so fast.  I couldn't keep up (and keep bladder control) so I gave up.  I obviously don't know him yet though but I'm really glad he's here for another student's sake.  There are currently only three black belts that currently show up regularly: a really good student (Will), me, and a student with special needs.  Now, I know that Will is happy to work with us, but I don't think we challenge him very well.  Hopefully this will be a nice challenge.

Last Sunday: Profession of Faith

Last Sunday Isaac made his Profession of Faith at church.  Several friends showed up and it was a joyous way to tell everyone about the commitment he has made.

"I believe that God forgave me of my sins because he sent his only Son to die on the cross. God will always love me no matter what I do. God also challenges me in ways that help me grow my skills so I can best serve him. While on Earth, Jesus set the ultimate example and showed me how I should try to live. Jesus died on the cross even though he knew he would suffer. He died because that's what needed to be done to forgive my sins. I believe the Holy Spirit moves in both powerful and subtle ways to change my life in big ways. The Holy Spirit is how God intercedes in my life. The Trinity is Jesus, God and Holy Spirit all at the same time.

My faith is continuing to grow. The church helps me by providing worship services, mission trips, discipleship groups, and ways to serve the community. I will use my gifts of discernment and mercy to help the people around me. I will continue to learn about God. A life serving God can take many forms and I want to be ready to give up everything for Him."

additional video transcript:

24:14

there's tremendous joy. and celebration. And this morning we have the opportunity to celebrate along with the Hildor family as I want to invite Isaac to come and join me on stage right now and along with Derek Wright. As Isaac is this morning uh going to profess his faith publicly and in the sacrament of holy baptism, we are adopted as God's own children in Jesus Christ and made members of the body of Christ. In our baptism, we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection in our promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our baptism also calls us to personally respond to God's promises by publicly declaring our faith in Jesus Christ and promising to live wholeheartedly for him. So, Isaac, a number of months ago, you expressed interest in taking this step in your faith journey. We've talked about it as a milestone, not a completion, but an important milestone. And so, you reached out to Mr. Derek Wright, who is right behind you, to be your mentor through the pre-profession of faith process. And that led to you developing your I believe statement, your profession of faith that you shared with myself and a group of elders along with Alex Seiffel in uh your your private profession of faith. And so this morning, we are excited for you to be able to share that publicly with your church family. You ready? All right, here you go. 

I believe that God forgave me of my sins because he sent his only son to die on the cross. God will always love me no matter what I do. He also challenges me in ways that help me grow my skills so I can best serve him. While on earth, Jesus set the ultimate example and showed me how I should try to live. Jesus died on the cross even though he knew he would suffer. He died because that's what needed to be done to forgive my sins. I believe the Holy Spirit moves in both powerful and subtle ways to change my life in big ways. The Holy Spirit is God how is how God intercedes in my life. The Trinity is Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit all at the same time. My faith is continuing to grow. The church helps me by providing worship services, mission trips, disciplehip groups, and ways to serve the community. I will use my gifts of discernment and mercy to help the people around me. I will continue to learn about God. A life-serving God can take many forms, and I want to be ready to give up everything for him. 

So, Isaac, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God sent to rescue our world? Do you personally love and trust him as the one who saves you from your sin? And do you with repentance and joy embrace him as the Lord and shepherd of your life? Do you believe that the Bible is the word of God revealing Christ and his salvation and that the teachings of this church faithfully reflect the truths of scripture? Third, do you accept the gracious promises of God signified and sealed to you in your baptism? And do you affirm your union with Christ in his church which your baptism signifies? Finally, do you promise to accept the spiritual guidance of the church in a spirit of Christian love and participate in its worship, fellowship, and mission? If so, say, "I do. God helping me."

27:54

Praise God. And congregation, would you rise as you are able as we too make commitments and vows to Isaac on this day? So, do you, the family of God, rejoice with Isaac and all the Hildor family on this day as he professes his faith? Do you gladly welcome Isaac into full membership of Calvary Church? And do you vow to continue to support, encourage, admonish, mentor, hold accountable, and pray for Isaac as he continues to grow into a man of God? If so, respond with a hearty, "We do God helping us."

We do God helping us.

28:31

So remember your baptism and be thankful. You are disciples of Jesus Christ. Live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you all. And the peace of God which passes all understanding. Isaac. Keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Amen. And amen. Well, I want to invite folks who are going to come and pray over Isaac, friends and family members, students, uh, come. Isaac, why don't you head down here onto the floor and we will pray blessing over you. All others, you may have a seat.

29:40

Well, what I would like to to spend a couple of moments listening on Isaac's behalf. So, in a couple of moments, I will pray, "Come, Holy Spirit." And we together will tune our attention to hear the voice of God as he would like to speak affirming words to Isaac, words that are consistent with the story of scripture and the character and mission of Christ. And if you feel like you hear something um that's affirming, biblical, and Christlike, then I encourage you um as we greet each other later in the service to come and share that with Isaac. Um but let's listen to what words God might want to say about or to Isaac as we pray. Come

Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Spirit, we give you thanks for this day, the opportunity for us to bear witness to the work that you are doing in Isaac's life. God, we see that work and we bless it and we ask for more. Would you continue your good work in Isaac's life? strengthen those gifts of discernment and and mercy. And Isaac, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God, we pray these things for your glory and the joy of your people and the good of those who don't yet know you. And all God's people said together, "Amen." And amen. Congratulations, Isaac.

Several days ago: an alarm

Several days ago Ben, Isaac, and I were playing a game at night and suddenly an alarm goes off!  BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!  It is a continuous beep, not a "this battery needs to be changed" beep.  It seems to be coming from the kitchen.  The only alarm (besides fire, and it wasn't that) in the kitchen is the water alarm behind the fridge.  Unfortunately, the string to pull up the water alarm had fallen too, so we had to pull the fridge out and pull out the alarm, only to find that it was not beeping.  The fridge fits in place just perfectly, so Isaac and I spent a minute pushing it back in...while the BEEEEEEEP is still happening.

Ben checks the garage, the room behind where we think the beep is coming from.  Nope.  I check the light fixture.  Nope.  Ben opens up the dishes cabinet.  Ah ha!  It is coming from there!  ...but I only have dishes in there. 

Well, it turns out I also have a digital kitchen scale in there.  Earlier in the day, Joshua decided to see if my kitchen scale could weigh itself.  It could.  However, it didn't turn off properly after that and after three hours it decided its best course of action was to emit a loud and piercing beep.  I had to remove the battery before it would stop and reset itself.

Friday: LEGO group

Friends came over tonight.  It was a lovely time.

The kids had seen each other on Sunday for Isaac's Profession of Faith and made plans.  They all made LEGO cars and played a hide-and-seek/tag game.  I think Joshua was the main force behind making the plans and I was so proud of all of them.  1) No adults were involved in the plans.  It was amazing.  2) Most of them participated!

We also played a game called "herd mentality".  I wasn't too sure of it at first, but the leader of the game kept it running well and it was a ton of fun.  It was with the adults and the kids and it was just easy.  I would totally play it again.

Thursday: will there be a snow day?

Tomorrow morning is supposed to be very cold, but we've used up our allotted snow days (without having to request more from the state).  We got a message from our school saying that while they normally follow what the local school district does, for the rest of the year they might not.  Especially tomorrow as it might only be cold and we don't have kids waiting for buses.

To be fair, there are no school districts that have school closings yet.  The prediction for our school district was "very high", so with the above information I guess that Eagle Crest is about 50/50.

I only fish tailed once today, so the roads have gotten better.  It was in a really random place and I have no idea why there would be any ice there.  Fortunately, I just needed to keep going forward and I didn't actually need to stop - it was just surprising.

Tuesday: snow day

It was...another snow day.  I've been so happy that the kids are able to stay home alone.

I came home to this.  We have a firm rule of "no toys in the kitchen" because when the kids were young they would just leave their stuff in the kitchen and I was always stepping on it.  The kids didn't do this though, oh no.  Tornado did it and even left a note.

As Isaac and I were leaving rock climbing we saw this cool snow.  It is slowly sliding off the roof, so there are multiple rows of icicles.  The blustering snow has also stuck itself to the icicles, so they look snowy instead of icy.

Monday

Today I realized that Isaac has really red hands compared to me.  Joshua's hands are also on the red side, but not as red as Isaac's.  Apparently this is a normal for him.

Saturday: rock climbing

Isaac had a rock climbing competition today.  This one was for the community, so the feel is much more laid back than the USAC ones.  He got 6/9 routes, which was a huge improvement from last time.  He got a few right away or within a few tries, worked on one for a good half hour, and then got another one easily that he originally had problems with.  Oh!  There were also a bunch of Christmas lights that had been strung for the finals in the evening.  Isaac asked...I wonder how they got those up there.  I replied with a ladder.  "Oh yeah.  I forget about ladders when I'm climbing."  Hilarious and understandable all at the same time.

Some of the holds are still new and they tore up his hands.  It meant he didn't try one route more than a few times because it was pretty much like rubbing his hands with sand paper as he fell off.

Tornado cuddled with him in the afternoon.  Right up by his head, because that's where Tornado likes to sit.

Friday: snow day

I went out to snow blow this morning and didn't find it all that cold.  (Cold, yes.  Just not that cold.)  But it turns out that I had gone out while there was a wind break.  Five minutes later I was almost done with the driveway and the wind picked up and I decided that was good enough.  I was now cold.

It was a relatively normal day.  Chores, games, stuff.  Joshua and I took a picture of Tornado and then printed it out four times.  He then drew Tornado into a bunch of monsters.  Tornado watched to make sure Joshua made them..regal...enough.

Tornado has also taken to napping on my chair.  Most of the time this is nice because he keeps it warm and is willing to sit on my lap if I do need to sit there.  Sometimes it's annoying if I just have a few minutes of work and so I try not to disturb him at all.

During my second snow blowing session I misjudged the wind direction.  (Or!!  The wind changed after I had started.)  By the time I realized it, I was committed.  By the time I finished, I decided that I shouldn't have been so committed as I really couldn't see anything.  A fine layer of snow coated my glasses.

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.