Monday: quilt show

Today Joshua and I finished up the raspberry plot.  Joshua finished up his stick garden.

We went to the quilt show after school.

Then we went to get some tulip pictures.  The boys...I mean Isaac and Puppy, were happy to have their picture taken several times.  (Puppies have their tongues sticking out.)

Sunday: quote

We were watching a Planet Earth show about mountains.

Joshua: I think mountains are bigger than Dad.

Saturday: race

Today was the kids' fun run.  It was advertised as a 1k, which I think it has been in the past.  This time Isaac had a 0.5mi run (which I just converted and it is 0.8km, so not that far off) and Joshua had a 0.2mi run.

It worked out quite well though.  I got tired around the 0.3 mi mark and started walking fast.  Isaac kept going...but he isn't a very fast runner.  He kept moving the whole time, although he did slow down to take a drink.  We were near the end of the pack, but oh well.  It has been rather cold and we didn't prepare for it as well as we could have.

Joshua and Ben and Grey Bear ran the whole race and finished rather near the front.  At that point Joshua was more worried about getting a snack than the fact that he had just run a race.

We then proceeded to walk a mile back to our car.

Upon getting home, but boys played out in the raspberry dirt some more.  They started by hammering it, but then used shovels and a rake.  The last time I looked at them Joshua was working again on making a stick forest near the raspberries.

half the nights: teeth

When I go to sleep before Ben, I have the tendency to ask Ben if he brushed his teeth when he comes to bed.  I know that he does, but I fall asleep in between the time that he comes in the room and when he comes to bed, so it feels as though he hasn't had enough time to brush his teeth.

It is quite hilarious how much I care about whether or not his teeth are brushed.

Thursday: raspberry prep and other stuff

It's exam week, so my schedule is wackier than normal.  I also have an exam in the last exam slot, Friday at 12:30pm.  (Note - the students were not happy about this.  However, I warned them several times not to make arrangements to go home, start jobs, etc.  For once, students listened!  I did have one change to the other section's time slot due to a job, but he at least asked first.  Anyway...)  I was working this morning and instead of grading like I should have been doing I instead worked on making a program to grade for me.  It was about 1000x more interesting than grading, and I can at least pretend that it will help the grading go faster later.

This afternoon we started raspberry prep with CC.  We got dirt and some barrier stuff and a fence. 

It turns out we only got enough dirt, but we also don't have the raspberry plants yet so there is enough time to finish it up.  Putting it all together was easier than I expected and the kids had a blast.  I think they especially enjoyed hammering the dirt.  It had clumps in it that were unacceptable.

Isaac wanted me to take a picture of his Fun Dip so that he "can remember it forever."  Since it'll get lost in the plethora of pictures, I'll put it here so there is a slightly better chance.

Wednesday: ice skating

The boys' first ice skating lessons were today.

Joshua did fine.  He started by always needing a hand, but by the end he could balance.  There were some tears, but he stuck with it.  I saw a few smiles too.

Isaac loved it.  He hadn't lost any of the balancing skills that he had learned last time, and this time even managed to move a bit!  It was a march.  It started out very slow, and by the end it was slightly less slow.  I told him that there were five more lessons and if he still enjoyed it he could have more...and he immediately wanted more.  He had lots of smiles.

Tuesday: you are my puppies

"You are my puppies, my only puppies, you make me happy, when skies are grey.  You'll never know how, much I love you.  Please don't take my puppies away.  Woof-woof-woof."

I sang this this evening and both boys liked it...until Isaac paid attention to the last part of the song.  Then he got weepy about the thought that he would go away from me.  I tried playing it as not a big deal...he'll leave to go to college and that is a good thing.  And then he said, "but when we both die we'll see each other in heaven."  Yeah.  It's true. 

So we got some snuggles in and talked about it a bit.  I mentioned that if he were to die before me he could see Grandma Julie.  It instantly cheered him up..."I can live with her!"  He was still a bit weepy, so we read in his Bible about heaven and how it is even more homier than our home.

Sunday: Grey Bear

Sunday School Teacher: Hi Joshua!
Joshua waves Grey Bear.
SST: Hi Grey Bear!

Friday: nailed it.

Joshua got a cookbook from the library a few weeks ago and wanted to make the rice krispie bears in it.  So we did that today.

...and we nailed it.  Our bears look just like the ones in the picture.  Joshua thinks some of them look a bit scary, but he was careful to make one with each color of eyes that is in the picture.  He wasn't really sure what to do when he had three bears left without eyes.

Joshua wants to make some to bring to the librarians, Mr. Rob in particular.  I think we'll do it on Monday, but with a few changes.  1) We'll let the mixture cool a bit before putting them into circles.  2) maybe we'll use a circle cookie cutter instead of guessing and 3) we won't let the toddler flatten them like the book said to do.

Thursday: engineering open house

I took the boys to the engineering open house today - senior design projects.  Isaac was interested in most things at least a bit and Joshua was interested, but just for a short time.  It was interesting to see how well the students did talking to small children about their work. :D

They both were quite interested in the SAE car.

Joshua (and Grey Bear) barely reached the top of the steering wheel, let alone able to see out of the ...cockpit?

Wednesday: chick-fil-a and dishwasher

After a busy morning, Joshua and I met Betsy and Leah at Chick-fil-a for an early lunch.  They had a nice play area for the kids.

It turns out that exactly four years ago we were together, at a play place, each with a kid.  How things have changed.

(Collage from Betsy)

Also, we had a dishwasher repair man come today.  He was scheduled for 1pm, which I was a bit annoyed about because that is prime nap time.  (But I was more annoyed that the dishwasher didn't work, which is why he was coming then.)  Anyway, he showed up about 10 minutes early, looked at it for about a minute, said he needed to order the part, and was gone.  Now I can use my dishwasher (with a leak catcher because it just has an old seal) and I got a nap!

Tuesday: last week

It's the last week of school, but due to the cold weather it doesn't feel like it.  It feels like we still have a while to go.  And because of this, several school related things seem like they're sneaking up on me.  I think I've gotten them under control, but they've surprised me a bit.

Monday: the warm day

Today reached a balmy 74deg. 

Joshua, at school, wrote an email to Grey Bear telling him that he loved him.  (Grey Bear had been lost for a day, so it seemed especially appropriate.)  While still not 100%, he was feeling much better today.

After school the boys played outside.  Joshua tried pumping air into bubbles.  It mostly just squirted him, so he abandoned it pretty quickly.

Isaac threw around a wet sock...for a surprising amount of time.  When it got too dry, he'd get it wet again and repeat the process.  I decided that I must be doing this unstructured play thing right.

Joshua also brought a bunch of sticks up on the deck so that he could throw them over the deck for the animals to eat.

Sunday: Bible presentation

Today was Isaac's Bible presentation at church.  All the kindergartners get a Bible of their own.

I told him that he could write in this book and he thought that he should underline each time the word God was used, because God is important.  While not exactly what I had been thinking, it would be a fine way to start.

Dad and Cheryl came to watch too.  Afterwards we went to IHop and had a nice time.  Joshua is still feeling a bit under the weather, but hasn't had a fever today and so can go to school tomorrow.  For once he seemed to time his sickness rather well...hopefully.  The night isn't over yet.

Saturday: still sick

Joshua seemed better today, but was still sick.  His breathing was still a bit labored and he had a fever around noon.  However, once he had some medicine in him he did much better.  He's been waking up quite a bit so far tonight, but doesn't need anything.  (Or isn't even necessary awake.)  Ben or I have often gone into his room only to be told, "I don't need you."

A few nights ago I went in and was told, "I don't need you.  I need Isaac...to move out of the way. ...oh, it was just a dream."

Friday: fever

Joshua had a cough yesterday.  It turned into a fever and labored breathing today. :(  However, it hasn't turned into croup, so I'm hoping that he's gotten big enough to not get that anymore.

He was ok most of the day, especially with meds, but by about 5pm was done.  He took a nap and when he woke up it took Ibprofin and Tyenol to get his fever under control.  His breathing is still really shallow.

Isaac played outside for a bit today...in a T-shirt since it was 60 deg.  Joshua really wanted to play, but in the end we mostly just watched.  Isaac either rode a scooter down the driveway, caught the scooter at the end of the driveway that I started, or raced the scooter down the driveway.

Wednesday: yup

Today was Wednesday.  Joshua and I went to story time and got groceries.  The attendant at the self-check almost lost our order but then after 10 minutes (and two pony rides) they found it again.  It may have been faster to rescan everything.

In the car today Joshua was talking about Grey Bear and how it's his birthday (again) today.  Isaac said that he was going to do something special for Giraffe because "he has....she has...Giraffe has missed a lot of birthdays."  It turns out the Giraffe's gender is rather nebulous and Isaac has decided to just not use pronouns.  (However, Grey Bear is a boy, Elephant is a girl, and Red Monkey is probably a girl.)

Tuesday: semester "problems"

e-mail to student: "I'm available Monday, Tuesday or Thursday mornings" (with specific times given).

student: Can I come Wednesday?
-or-
student: What time are you available?

me: *copy and paste*


This has happened several times this semester, more than it has in the past.

Monday: snow day

Well, the streets were fine this morning.  Rather as I expected, but sometimes it's hard to tell what the roads would be like in the country.  The south side of Holland didn't close many of the schools, so maybe they closed based on whether or not they had extra snow days.

Isaac had a wonderful time with Ben in the morning, and a normal time with me. :)  I emptied the mini figure house from all of the decorations that the boys had put on...including the clouds, lightning, cheese room, stairs, assorted couches, and assorted traps.  The boys immediately started putting accessories back on the house.  Isaac put in a bunch of stairs and Joshua put in two cookie rooms.

Sunday: ice

Today we decided not to go to church due to ice.  It's not very far and the main roads might have been ok (they were later in the day), but we chose not to chance it.

In the middle of the day everything was slushy. We had a half inch of slush on the driveway.

At the end of the day all the schools were closed for tomorrow.  Probably a smart move, although it's possible that it won't freeze and it'll still be slush tomorrow.

Saturday: wind

Today was windy.  It was windy ALL day.  The waves on our lake were the biggest we've seen them, and the (not full) water table just kept going back and forth on the deck.

There was a weird noise on the side of the house twice in the evening.  Ben went to investigate and didn't see anything obvious.  Then we went to look on the deck and it was just a sheet of ice.

Friday: theStudio

Today Joshua and I explored a new place.  We went to the Studio in the Holland Arts Council.  It's a place for art of all sorts.  You can do a specific craft or you can do whatever you want.  It's very open ended.

It also wasn't really open today.  The website two different hour listings on it, with one saying that it was open and one saying it was not.  I decided just to go anyway to get us out of the house.  They let us in anyway, which surprised me.  The person who runs the room was there for a short meeting and also seemed happy that we had just been let in.

Anyway, we made a jelly fish, did some water colors, had a puppet show, and played with the foam blocks.  Joshua also played in the sand they had while I did some rubbings.

It's too bad it's not open during work hours any more as we probably would have come again at some point.  I'll have to keep it in the back of my mind for a Saturday activity if we need to get out of the house.

Thursday: beach

It was 55 degrees out and cloudy, but there was a sand pile.  So the boys played in the sand for a bit.  Playing in the sand, even in the cold, obviously means no shoes.  (And, in Isaac's case, an open jacket.). It wasn't really that warm, but i want the one getting cold... Too much.

They played for about a half hour until their fingers and toes were so cold because playing in the sand also involves getting a bit wet in the water.

Wednesday: behind

I feel behind in everything and it's making me grumpy.

So I take a nap because I'm behind in my sleep too, and it makes me feel better but doesn't help with actually getting anything done.

Monday: 16 years

Once again, Mom's death day has come.  As per normal lately, it was a sad day but still a normal day.

A few weeks ago I happened to be talking with one of Mom's old friends.  She remarked that there was an incredible joy in Mom, and I realized that was an excellent way to describe her.  I've been reflecting on the statement often and how it was a blessing to have her as a mom.

Here is one of her turtles, waiting to go outside.  They always came in for the winter, but were anxious to get out again.  I'll probably let it out soon, but I'd like to wait until we actually aren't going to get snow anymore. 

Saturday/Sunday: playground, donuts, home

We had a nice rest of the weekend, although it would have been nice if it could have been a bit warmer.  We still had a lot of fun though.

Puzzles were broken out Saturday morning and the kids spent a surprisingly long time doing all of them.

In the early afternoon we went to an indoor playground.

They had a cool thing with lights that you had to hit to play assorted games.

A lot of tag and 'run away from the bears' was played too.

In the afternoon a racetrack was set up.  Joshua and JJ played well together with it for a while.  Joshua didn't always appreciate how JJ tried to play with him, so it was nice to see them together.

We had homemade pizzas and had gotten Isaac a can of olives for his.  He loved it.  I put olives on my grocery list so he can add them to pizza in the future.

The mastodon by the donut shop.

We got home safe and sound.  The boys traded 3 hours of screen time in the car for 1 hour of Mario with Ben, which surprised me a bit.  But they did well.  Joshua slept half the time and Isaac managed to entertain himself the whole time.