Thursday: snow day 2

Once again, it wasn't snowing when we woke up, so we did some errands pretty early in the morning.  The boys weren't very excited about it, but they did fine.

After we got home we had reading time.  (This time on the couch, but still completely under covers.)  The craft of the day was telescopes.

Isaac had gotten an origami book at the library (one of our errands) and again spent several hours doing that.  Ben and I now have a zoo in our bathroom.

I was quite surprised at how much it snowed in the afternoon.  Our picnic table went from just a few inches to probably close to a foot.  That being said, there didn't seem to be that much on the driveway, although I did clear it off twice today.  Karate was canceled tonight too as roads were quite bad.  (I was going to make a last minute decision about whether we'd go, although I was leaning toward no.  It was nice to have the decision taken away from me.)

Wednesday: snow day!

Well, contrary to my prediction there was a snow day today!  I was rather surprised when I woke up...we didn't have any additional snow and the wind didn't seem to be too bad.  However, it did get worse as the day went on and it was probably the right call for when school got out.

Isaac did a ton of origami.  Hours worth.  Almost every time I saw him he was working on something.  (Except for screen time, of course.)

Joshua, on the other hand, was all over the place.  He decided to make a schedule to follow what he'd normally do in school.  We followed it a bit, but I'm also the first to admit that doing 12 math problems probably took significantly less time than math would have in school.

We had a reading time.  Both boys decided to curl up with lanterns under their blankets for some reason.

Joshua lead me through a craft to make a map and a treasure box.  It turns out he doesn't have very good spatial awareness as his room is about 20 feet away from the bathroom that shares a wall with his bedroom.  I expect it's normal.

He also did a ton of bouncing and making videos of him screaming about something.

Add in some screen time and you have the day!  There's a snow day tomorrow too.  If the roads end up being ok I'd like to do some errands, but we'll see how it goes I guess.

Tuesday: more grocery adventures!

I know, grocery shopping isn't really that exciting.  But I do find it interesting how things change from week to week.  Here are this week's highlights:

*Canned biscuits are slowly coming back, although there still aren't orange cinnamon rolls and only about half the case is full.

*The spicy cheese cracker packs still aren't there, but I found that Cheez-Its make spicy Cheez-Its.  In fact, there were three different spicy varieties, which was a bit overwhelming.  I made my best guess and we'll see if the boys like them.

*Pretzel bites are back!  I thought they were gone for good, so I was rather excited to see them.

Beyond that, I took a morning nap because my class prep was completely boring and I was falling asleep.  I still have a week before classes and really only need to have a small bit finished by then as I could finish it up after classes start.  In the afternoon I did other stuff around the house.  It feels like the to-do exploded (again), but I'll keep plugging away.  I finished putting more stuff away in the office, so I'm calling that part of O:CtH.  I just have a 1.5 boxes left; I won't be able to call it finished at that point because Ben still has some stuff to put away, but I can easily move on to other things while waiting for it to be officially checked off.

Thursday-Saturday: Christmas

We had our last Christmas celebration of the year as Nathan and his family joined us for a few days.  Thursday was also Isaac's 10th birthday!  10!  How can he be so old?

We were going to go out for dessert but neglected to remember that it was a holiday weekend.  Pat found out they were booked before we went though.  I had started some mint brownies, so I finished those up and we used them instead.  We put candles on, but didn't actually have Isaac blow them out.

Everyone slept in the same room.  There was so much running and excitement through the whole day it took them a bit to wind down, but eventually they did.  (So much running.  But throughout the entire weekend only one set of tears which was resolved quickly.)

Friday morning we went to the woodshop to make a triangle peg jumping game.  It really didn't take all that long, but it was a lovely activity and way to get out of the house.  The kids also loved running up and down the hallway at Hope, so whenever they were waiting for their turn they did some running.  The game was also played with a bit more than I expected.

After a coffee break for the women, we went to get Isaac's dessert for lunch.

After that it was time for more presents!  The kids were playing well so we just kept pushing the time back a little bit.  But finally everyone was done with a small real lunch and the kids realized it was time for presents.

The boys got a cat backpack.  Tornado likes to escape outside, so we thought this might be a fun alternative.  Now we're trying to train him that when he goes in it he goes for a walk.

After some delicious pizza some of the kids painted their triangles.

Today, after some morning TV and some Catan they left. :(  It was sad, but we had a wonderful time!  The kids played so well together and it was wonderful to talk to everyone and get caught up again.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying Christmas presents and relaxing.  Tornado enjoyed several walks too...it might be a good way to get us out of the house just a tad bit more.  Silly, but fun.

Wednesday: snow

 We finally got a bit of snow!  It was rather warm, so the snow was nice and sticky.  Isaac played outside for a good two hours.

Tornado escaped at one point.  He wasn't really sure what to do with the snow and tried to dig a hole.

He also enjoyed his inside snow.

Isaac was using the screen to help make assorted shapes and the cats were having a really good time too.  Every once in a while a big chunk would fall and they'd lunge after it.

Tuesday: adventures

This morning started with grocery adventures.  There were a surprising amount of "limit X" signs around.  It makes me wonder a bit if people are hording or if it's a supply chain issue.

 
I woke up after my nap to find the boys in a competition to jump through the most hoops.  They both ended up around 412.

Besides that, I did a lot of housework today.  Our housecleaners are in quarantine, and it is an especially bad week for that.  (No weeks are all that good, but some don't matter as much as things can be skipped or I have a bit more time.)

Monday: Joshua

I was brushing Joshua's teeth in the office last night and he said, "oh, I like the curtains."  I told him they were just the blackout portion and we'll cover them with something prettier.  "oh.  I like these.  I don't like windows.  I never make windows in my Minecraft houses."  I didn't realize he had such strong opinions on windows.

Then as I was brushing his teeth this evening I noticed his bangs.  Hmm...something looked off.  I asked, "Did you cut your hair?"  "Yes." "Why?"  "I felt they were too long."  This is the first time it's happened and I suppose it could be worse.  I told him I either need to teach him how to do it properly or he can just ask me next time.  We're going to fix it tomorrow.

Sunday: day after Christmas

 In the morning Joshua made a Glitch.  It's the animal(?) that goes with one of his presents.

We also put up the kitty-sil.  I like how both sets of brothers look in this picture.

Saturday2: Merry Christmas

In the afternoon we went over to Ben's parent's house for Christmas celebrations.

Saturday: light

I woke up this morning with the thought: today we celebrate a light coming into the world.  It might be a tiny pin-prick of a baby today, but the light will grow and overcome the darkness.

Also, the animals also finally found baby Jesus.  We notice that all are welcome to find Him, including animals of the wrong scale, present-smashers, and Christmas destroyers.  It's been an interesting advent.

Friday: Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!  We worked pretty hard this morning; Isaac finished his pie and I made the deviled eggs.  We moved Ben's and Isaac's computers back in the office.  The computer filters also got cleaned and the cords were stowed properly rather than just shoved in a corner.  I also got some blackout curtains up.  Next week we'll go to Joann's and find some colorful fabric to put on top.

It's nice to have Ben back in the same room as me at night.  We don't always interact a lot, but it was boring upstairs by myself.  (Although I did learn that Joshua comes out of the bedroom a lot in the half hour after he goes "to bed".)

After lunch we opened presents.

The cats easily figured out which one was theirs and were quite obvious about it.

Thursday: productive morning

 It was a very productive morning.  We did our errand and got donuts first thing.  We finished wrapping presents.  Isaac made a graham cracker crust all by himself.  Joshua made a scavenger hunt, which started with a cute note in a bottle and then went to a pirate ship.  I got my computer and sewing machine set up in the basement, although not much else moved back in.

Wednesday: house

The office is finished!  Well...everything needs to be moved back in and set up and new curtains, but the painting is done.  I'm very happy with how it looks.

Isaac and Joshua went to Dad's house to help take apart an old organ today.  It sounds like it was a successful day; the boys actually helped and enjoy it.  It was an especially good day because I has having problems with one of the plugs I was replacing and Dad helped fix it when dropping the boys back at home.  (My desk couldn't be moved to the right spot until it was done, so while it wasn't urgent it was important.)  (Also, why paint over plugs?  I don't think I've ever seen a painted plug that looks good.)

Oh!  We shouldn't forget about the grocery adventures.  I went today (thankfully by myself) and it was so busy.  I had been hoping that I was still early enough to beat the crowds, but it didn't really happen.  However, I pared down my list to just the actual things we needed this week and used the checkout app and it wasn't too bad.  This week there were pretty much no cinnamon/crescent rolls.  I'm still not sure where the vitamin C is that I'd like...I'm being picky with that one though because there are options.  Still no pretzel bites, so I think those might be all gone.  There were also no dried chives.  Isaac wanted to make deviled eggs and Ben and I love them, so that idea was quickly approved.  I need to look in the really old spices or we'll figure something else out.

Tuesday: better

Today went better than yesterday.  

Joshua settled down for a surprising amount of the day with some Lego sets and podcasts.  He listened to the one on Bees twice.

Isaac and I made banana bread.  He did the dry ingredients, and with the exception of needing another bag of brown sugar just did it.  He'll be able to do all of it before I know it!  He also has been making a lot of sliding puzzles out of Legos, and he watched a video on how to solve them.  He worked on them for quite a while.