Friday: freezer

This is just not really our week.  The basement freezer went out and we discovered it today.  We made another trip to Lowes...they had them in stock!  Alright!  ...but delivery was two weeks out, which really doesn't work at all.  Ben's dad is going to help out tomorrow with their truck.  We're also getting a temperature alarm, which we probably should have thought of a long time ago.

We're also getting the roof checked tomorrow.  Based on the week this has been, I don't expect good news.  (To be fair though, we have no reason to expect bad news.  So I suppose I'm actually optimistic since the disherwasher/freezer and roof have nothing to do with each other.)

Horizon nipped Isaac today, so Isaac made it his goal to make a cat proof fort.  Of course, while he was making the the cats kept getting inside, which was rather ironic.  I also saw both of them sitting on top of the fort this evening, probably out of spite.

Oh!  We also went to a playground this morning.  In the mess of dealing with the freezer I completely forgot about that.  The boys played for a surprinsingly long time.

Thursday: dishwasher

Well, we got one more load through the dishwasher before it died again.  Now the control panel doesn't respond and the drains continuously if it's closed.  I have the power to it off overnight to see if we can get another cycle. :)

In the meantime, we purchased another dishwasher.  Of course, the one(s) I wanted weren't in stock so it'll be over a week until it gets installed.  However, I feel much more able to handle this today (now that grades are put in) versus Monday (when I wasn't sure if my graders were going to finish their part).

The really big news, though, is that I went to the store without a mask.  To be fair, I went two times.  The first time the boys were with me and so I wore my mask because it doesn't seem fair to not wear it when they have to.  The second time the boys weren't with me though, so I decided to live daringly and not wear it.  After so many dreams of not remembering my mask, it was weird to purposefully not wear it.

(Who would have thought, two years ago, that this picture would be big news?  Oh look, you're smiling in a store.  What's so abnormal about that?)

Wednesday: this and that

 I stubbed my little toe this morning.  It is still a bit sore.  It doesn't really hurt, but I still notice it.

One of Joshua's lessons at school today was that somethings you have to give away things even if it's hard.  Then he asked, "Do I have to give away Grey Bear?"  I responded with a probably not, but there might be some circumstances where it would be the best thing to do.  Tears were threatening so I said (hopefully) comforting things like 'we'd try to give a different stuffed animal first' and 'I don't really see any circumstances where we'd actually have to give away Grey Bear.'  Grey Bear got some hugs and I think Joshua calmed down.

I also wanted to show my karate partner.  He really likes to come and lay on the mat during my class.  It's sometimes a small problem, but mostly fun.  He's pretty consistent and will come back multiple times if I accidently scare him away in the middle.

Oh!  All my grades were finally put in today.  (Which is good, because they were due today.  You get a 'nasty' email if you don't get them in on time.)  I will try to get a head start on the fall semester so I don't have to do it during everyone's summer vacation, but I really only need to get a minimum of stuff ready.  I won't be hard.

Tuesday: worries

Joshua came down after bedtime and seemed a bit worried.  He had already been down a few times complaining about how there weren't any books he wanted to read.  It ended up slightly different.

J: I kind of wonder this every night, but are pirates going to come tonight?
A: Nope, no pirates.
J: How do you know?
A: We don't live by pirates.
J: Oh, ok!

If only all worries were so easy to deal with. :)

************************************

Our power went out right before the boys started their second meetings of the day.  It took me a few minutes to figure out, but I realized I could use my phone as a hotspot and then they could both go to their meetings.  Luckily the power turned back on after about a half hour, because the phone wasn't going to last long enough for them to do the whole day.  I was rather worried that it wasn't going to come on in a timely manner because it never showed up on the outage map.

*************************************

Isaac finished his math NWEA today with a rather high score.  After dinner I made an off-hand comment to Ben about calculating the standard deviations and Isaac was curious to know what that meant.

So Isaac got a math lesson in standard deviations.  The lesson never returned to his test score, so he knows he did well, but probably not how well.

Monday: all's well that end's well??

 It was a busy day.  I made curry in the morning along with trying to get some other important chores done and helping the boys as needed.  I did a little grading, but was hoping that my graders would pull through and finish the grading they said they would.  Cheryl picked the boys up around 2pm and I continued my chores...there were a lot.

I went to run the dishwasher so it'd be done by the time the house cleaners showed up, but none of the buttons would push.  I reset it at the fuse box, which is what it usually needs.  No luck.  I tried a few more things.  Ben tried a few things.  No luck.

I assume that the dishwasher died because we said mean things about it yesterday right in front of it.  And then this morning as I was emptying it I was thinking that maybe it was just time for a new dishwasher.

Well, instead of emptying the dishwasher the housecleaner washed a bunch of dishes by hand.  It was good timing, really.

I was finishing up drying the last of the supper dishes after dinner and accidently hit a button on the dishwasher.  "Beep."  Wait a minute!  I thought it was dead.  It shouldn't be beeping.  Well, all the buttons push now.

This is especially nice because Ben's on a low sodium diet for the next 1.5 weeks and I expect to be cooking more than normal.  Now, if I'm nice to the dishwasher and tell it good things, maybe I won't have to wash all those dishes by hand.  (We still might start looking into a new dishwasher.)

Also, my graders finished up all their work!  I can start putting grades in tomorrow.

Saturday: Happy Anniversary!

Ben and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary today...by having a pretty normal day.

I bought us an air fryer.  It also roasts, bakes, toasts, and dehydrates, so it'll be replacing the current toaster oven.

The picture above makes everything look clean, but the reality is completely different.

However, I did get a ton of grading done today.  If my one TA comes through with her commitment to finish grading, I'm almost done with just a few loose end to tie up and then grades to put in.  She said she would finish by Friday though, so I'll check in with her tomorrow.  After all that is done I can hopefully get back to normal a bit and only have a slightly messy kitchen.  (Is anyone else laughing about that statement?)

Blogger

 Well, I woke up to more emails from Blogger.

Luckily, they restored the posts that were deleted.

Phew.

Friday: a busy day

 It was a busy day.  I started by actually making food for dinner, although that of course got interrupted several times to help the children with stuff.  We also celebrated the cats' 3rd birthday with a Lego cake in the shape of a cat and some treats they didn't eat.  Suddenly it was time for lunch, Isaac had piano lessons, and then it was off to do the "errands".  

One errand involved going to the dojang so the boys could play with the obstacle course.  They played for about three hours!  I got quite a bit of work done during that time, although not as much as I was hoping.  

I just checked my email to find that Blogger decided to delete five of my posts from March due to malware/virus content.  Now, I have the posts sent to my email every post so they're backed up.  But it scares me a bit too.  I looked at one of the back-ups and it was just text.  There were no links, no pictures, etc. that might be suspicious.  Did someone maliciously flag those posts and then somehow Blogger agreed with them?  There is no way to dispute them either.  They're gone.  While the emails were from four hours ago, I'm a little afraid that I'm going to wake-up tomorrow to all my posts being gone, one at a time.  (I have also downloaded an official backup, and do this from time to time, but still...)  It'd also be nice to know exactly what the problem was so that I can avoid it in the future.

Thursday: finished

I finished several things today.

*I finished giving an exam.  There was a computer issue for one student that was annoying, but otherwise it went fine.

*I finished most of my grading for lab.  I just need to wait for two labs from someone who received an extension and for the grader to finish her part to put grades in.

I also didn't finish several things today

*I didn't fold the basket of clean laundry from the last two weeks.

*I didn't finish freezing the chicken, but I did at least start it.

Wednesday: exam week

It's exam week.  I feel like usually exam week is a little bit easier, but this time it feels a little crazier.  I think in part because there's more grading than last semester and the boys are at home.  

If you ask me what I did this morning, I'm not sure where the time went.  I exercised, had a short on-line meeting, took a shower, did a little grading, and ... I'm not sure what else.  Probably I answered a bunch of questions from the boys.  Oh!  Joshua read me a book and then trapped me.  I still feel like there's at least an hour and a half unaccounted for.  I'm sure I was doing something productive, but still...

Monday: in pictures

 

Ben was looking especially cute as Isaac was trapping him.

I ended up ordering my tea from Amazon because it was cheaper than the grocery store.  I'm set for quite a while now.

We're still doing karate at home and so I need to improvise a lot with Joshua.  They were crawling under somethings and then jumping over some things.  Joshua apparently really enjoyed the crawling because he wanted a picture.

Sunday: Mother's Day

 While we didn't do too much special for Mother's Day, the boys did go out and get some donuts and a Lego set.  Isaac made me a donut man out of two of them.

(Ben also took my picture with the kids, but neglected to send it to me.  Hint. Hint.)

We worked on Lego sets.

In an effort to be an equal mother to both lovies, I took a picture of the Lego set giraffe with Giraffe.  Giraffe didn't become the lovie of choice until slightly later in Isaac's life, and I never had to keep track of him during errands, so I don't have the same attachment with him as I do with Grey Bear.

Joshua made a card during his school time.

Tornado kept me company while I worked on some lab grading.  Most things have been turned in for this class, so really the only thing holding me back from wrapping it all up is the grading.  I'm not super far behind, but I also wasn't as on top of it as I was at the beginning of the semester.

Friday: downtown

 I completely ran out of tea for spice tea.  I couldn't believe I'd do something like that.  I finally found it on-line at the grocery store.  (It was under tea, not iced tea.)  The store texted and said they were out.  I "almost" panicked and was trying to figure out when to look at Meijer.  But one jar showed up!  I was relieved.

We went downtown for snack time.  The boys selected cotton candy and I selected pop corn.  Everyone ate a reasonable amount though.

I also picked my wedding rings.  Sadly, they had needed to be slightly resized to a larger size.  I just decided that keeping them the same size wasn't worth only being able to take them off once in a while.

Thursday: last day - sort of

Today was the last day of classes!  I'll still see everyone for the final exam, but I said "happy summer" to my TAs.  (Which felt odd because it was cold and rainy, not really summer weather at all.)   The end is in sight.

Finally.

Wednesday: things

I put the new bed quilt on the bed today.  Although it doesn't look like it much, it is Minecraft inspired from a floor pattern Ben made a long time ago.  It fits the theme of this household lately.

Isaac had to go to school for some testing today.  (He got in the car and was so excited to tell me he found someone else that played Minecraft and that they had both finished early and had the same mechanical pencil so they wrote notes to each other about Minecraft while they waited.)  I needed to get out of the house a bit before picking Isaac up, so Joshua and I stopped by the library.  We got a lot of books.

I found this surprise in the garage this afternoon!  A strawberry plant, in a pot, from Aunt C.  I'm not completely sure how she slipped it in there without me noticing but it was fun to find.  I'm excited for strawberries this summer!

Tuesday: work

I was so thankful to go to work today.  Joshua had just cried for a half hour because his cheek hurt.  He said his cheek hurt because he was crying.  So basically, he had no idea why he was crying for a half hour.  I was glad to hand him over to Carly and leave.  My guess is he was a bit more tired than normal and going back to reality can be hard.

I think he calmed down fairly quickly and they finished a lot of school work in the afternoon.  Isaac also finished a lot of work, and is almost caught up from vacation.

I made porcupine meatballs for dinner.  It's been a while since I've put any effort into dinner.  Ben and I liked it, Joshua didn't.  I know that Joshua doesn't like many things, but he often likes meatballs.  Porcupine meatballs have rice in them too, so the texture was quite a bit different.  It was almost a rice and ground beef stew.

Monday: home

Everybody got home safely this afternoon.  I felt a little bad because I put the kids to school work promptly, but there was little complaining.  (The little complaining that did happen was after they had worked hard for a while too.)

Ben and Isaac greeted me first; Joshua went right to Horizon.

They needed to leave the house at 8am this morning to make the flight, but Ben got up early so they could all go in the pool one last time.

Sunday: stuff

Today was my last day alone.  While I'm not lonely, the evenings are getting a little long.  Tomorrow morning I'm planning on trying to get more work done than the rest of the weekend.  (Although I did finish the few things on my "really do this" list.)

I brought some more bottles back to Meijer.  This time I focused on the bags of bottles because they don't stack as well in the garage.  I had about the same volume of returns but got $10 less.  Afterwards I went for a walk in a park.  It wasn't as fun alone, but I also didn't get asked "how much longer?" at all.

It was a beautiful day, so after nap time I put up the hammock and read for a bit.

I'm also about to finish the binding on a new bed quilt, which was one of my non-work goals for the weekend.

I just heard that the boys managed to go in the pool four times today, so they achieved their goal too.

Friday: stuff

Today went by quickly.  I did a mix of fun and work, as expected.  I returned $24.90 worth of pop cans...quite a bit, but really only a small dent from a years worth of pop cans (and fizzy waters).

Tornado rested oddly on my legs for a bit.  He was still, but his tail was always moving so he didn't really settle.  (It's good, because it was rather uncomfortable.)

I exercised.

The boys spent over six hours in the pool today.  They only went in three times though, so I guess they haven't quite hit their goal of four times.

Thursday: and they're off!

 All the boys left today for a long weekend in Florida.  There were some plane problems and so they sat in the plane for an extra two hours before they actually took off.  But they made it and were excited to get to Florida and swim in the pool.

As for me, I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend at home.  Well, the seagulls were rather loud this afternoon so I guess it hasn't been too quiet yet.

I have several errands to run tomorrow, including returning at least a few of the pop cans we've accumulated over the last year.  Our garage is really too full of pop cans.  There's also some school work...I'm not really behind in grading but almost.  The other work thing I want to get done is to deal with the game closet.  It's hard to get in and out of it right now based on how the school room is set up, and so games have been getting put outside of it instead.

Of course, there are some fun things I want to do too!  There's quite a bit of quilting and reading and we'll see what else happens.  In the past I've done a good job putzing...a little work, a little play and I'm hoping that happens again this weekend.

 

...not much happened today.   Not much has happened this week, to be honest.  We're just going along.  School, work, naps, traps, screen time, Legos.

Sunday: Bible presentation

The kindergarteners got their Bibles at church today.  Since we're not going to church right now, we had Dad and Pat over to still make it a special time.

Thursday: Isaac

Isaac's continued to work on his...battle, I guess you could call it.

Blue finally won vs. red and put it in a cage.  Grey is the new opponent.

 

I feel like there are rules, but I'm not really sure what they are.

Tuesday: vaccines and holes

Vaccines: Ben got his second vaccine today!  He almost didn't get it because Joshua got a cold this past weekend and gave it to Isaac and Ben.  Since runny nose is on some lists as a COVID symptom, including Ben's employer, they went to get tested yesterday.  The results were supposed to come back in 24 hours, but it was 24 hours and nine minutes.  I know, I know...that nine minutes shouldn't be a big deal.  But Ben couldn't get his vaccine until we heard back and the babysitter was on standby until we got the results.  It was annoying.  Not really annoying for anyone else, but annoying for us.  But they came back in time, the babysitter came over, and Ben was able to get his shot.

In other vaccine news, I'm considered fully vaccinated now!

Holes: Isaac announced after dinner that my new laundry basket has 236 [side] holes.  Then he mentioned that it's really 238 holes because of the hand holds.  So I naturally thought it should be 239 because of the top hole.  Isaac disagreed.  I think Ben disagreed too.  I stand by my assertion though.  Hmm...it's my basket, maybe I should label it.

Monday: math

 Today Joshua realized that you can write 1+4 =5 as 5=1+4 and thought it was so funny!  It was a bit of a rough day due to some colds, so this laughter was appreciated.

Sunday: the Dragon Prince

 We recently finished a TV show called "The Dragon Prince."  It's one of the better ones that we've watched with the kids in a while.  The plot was good, the kids enjoyed it, and the adults enjoyed it.  It also had some complex characters and jokes that probably went over the kids' heads.

Pirate captain: "This is my boat.  Her name is Ruthless."

Pirate captain: "Because my wife gets sea-sick and doesn't come on the boat.  Her name is Ruth."

Saturday: early morning

 I couldn't fall asleep last night.  So I finally got up.  There were some bathroom lights on, but I had heard a child get up to go to the bathroom shortly before.  Then I noticed some lights on in the basement.

The children had managed to wake up at 2:30am and decide it was time to get up.  So they started their screen time!  Of course, then they had a terrible time getting back to sleep.  We finally all went back to bed around 3:30.  And then I woke-up early.  

I did go to Meijer first thing though before it got busy.  There were a few things that I've wanted for a while but finally hit a critical mass.  I also took a morning nap because it just wasn't working.

Friday: around the house - and butter

 Today I have a few houses from around the house...

I finally got flowers for Mom.  We also have some Lego flowers, a Venus flytrap (a la Joshua) and baby fly traps (a la Joshua too).

I moved both mattresses into Isaac's room and I'm pretty sure that I just made a large trampoline.

We put Ben's bike in Joshua's room. 

Joshua was really sad about having to do chores.  "You make me do them every day!"

We gathered for games again with friends and we didn't make it to actually playing any games.  This is in part because we spent an hour talking about butter.

Wednesday: tired

 I'm tired.  Again.  I feel like I write these posts on a regular basis, but here were are.  I'm going to try and go to bed on time today.  That's one of my problems: I've been staying up too late.  (But I also don't have to get up as early since the kids don't have to get to school, so it usually evens out.)