Wednesday: a lot

There was a lot to do today.

I started off blind-folded.  I had been hoping to go on a walk with the kids, but it was rainy all morning so that didn't work out.  However, they were playing well in the basement when I got up so I stumbled to the couch and took apart a lego set.  Not very exciting, but it could have been worse.

Once the kids were upstairs Isaac made me breakfast.  The dryer broke a few days ago in the middle of laundry, so I've slowly been getting all that on the line and that was the one thing that couldn't really wait.  So I made the kids help with that.  It was a group effort.  I did my exercises.  I worked through my forms.  Actually, I kind of liked doing my forms blindfolded other than that we don't have a large enough space.  The kids tried to help me not run into walls, but it only kind of worked.

There wasn't much time left, but it felt like a long time.  Isaac made me draw things and laughed at me.

 

However, I think the joke's on Isaac because when Ben came home he could tell what I drew right away!  (Sunflower, bridge, giraffe)

Next, and this is my favorite part, Joshua made me an Easter egg hunt.  While I was blind-folded.  I told him what room we should go in.  Then I told him where I wanted to search.  He got me to the right place and I proceeded to knock down all the stuff.  He finally resorted to just putting my hand where it should go, which was a relief.

What did I learn from this?  I'm still not sure.  Perhaps that I've been raising my kids well - they can do things by themselves and were willing to help me.  I don't think that was the point of the exercise though.

We went to the beach to get a picture of Joshua with Big Red.  It was warm out today, but still rather windy by the beach.

And then rock climbing.

Tuesday: class

Registration for next semester started yesterday.  There is a shift from 4 credit classes to 3 credit classes and so students are all registering for an additional class to get a full load.

It's causing some angst, to put it mildly.

I have two classes, and usually during spring registration they hit about 20/28 by the end of the week and they get filled in with incoming freshmen.  Already today I have one class completely full and the other at 25/28.  Students that are going-to-be-juniors (ish) were registering today, although I'm not sure if they finished and going-to-be-sophomores started or not.  The bulk of my classes are usually sophomores with many juniors, some seniors, and some freshmen.  

At one point there was talk of adding a third section, but we'll see what happens.

Monday: stuff

 This morning it felt like we did a bunch of the stuff on the kids' lists that we haven't had time for recently: finishing up an art project, making root beer, playing games.  We had an early lunch and after rest time started Joshua's Holland Scavenger Hunt.  Since they had eye appointments, we selected a few of the items that were sort of on the way.

It started in the graveyard.  I didn't know which side of the street to look on, so that lead to some frustration.  (Especially since there was a time limit.)  Eventually we got on the other side of the street and found the correct gravestones.

We then had to find a house with Veneklasan brick. The first one, to which we were given a location, was probably the right bricks but didn't have the distinctive two colors.  A bit down the road was another one that seemed more representative.

The appointments went fine.  When we got back I made the kids go around the lake with me.  My goal for the next test is to be able to run 1/8 mile, fast walk 6/8 miles, and then run the last 1/8 mile in under 12:55.  (I know, this isn't an amazing goal.  But it's mine, and I do not enjoy running.)  I did hit the time goal, which is the most important, but I did have to pause it a few times for the kids to catch up.  They were on their scooters so I thought this wouldn't be a problem, but apparently the roads were bumpier than I remember and so they kept getting off the scooters.

Saturday: aftermath and kitties

In the morning we saw the aftermath of the weather.  A trampoline blew through Nathan's yard.  The basketball hoop fell over.  Luckily, first the wind turned the hoop before knocking it over, otherwise it would have hit the car.  Many trees were down; we took a walk down the street and saw a bunch.  (There were some tornados nearby, but not in the same town.)  We had driven down this street about an hour before the storm.

In the afternoon we went to a cat café.  First we pet and played with the cats and then had a treat.  There was only one active cat at a time, but petting cats is pretty fun too.

The kids played some game off the balcony with stuffed animals almost all the day when we were home.  I didn't really understand the rules, but they were all playing well so that was a bonus.  Isaac didn't play it quite as much, but he did play a lot of games.

Friday: a busy evening

The evening started out with Black Belt Test #1.  I was a bit nervous going in about the physical fitness portion...I needed to do a mile in 15 minutes.  While I was able to fast walk a mile in 12:55 yesterday around the lake, I expected that trying to do it after the bulk of the test was going to be hard.

For me, the test went well.  However, we wasted a lot of time as some of the students were not doing things correctly and we spent extra time doing some things over.  (And for some of the forms, over and over and over.)  I was trying to leave to still get to Fort Wayne tonight, so they let me submit my time from yesterday, do the physical fitness portion on my own, and call it a night.  I still got out a good 30 minutes late, but I wouldn't be surprised if the others were there for at least another 30 minutes since it takes a while to wrangle everything.  I also wouldn't be surprised if not everyone is invited back for the next round, since this was the easy round.

Anyway, I took a quick shower and ate quickly and left.  There was more lightning than I think I've ever driven through before.  There were a few stretches of heavy rain, but I stuck with some cars that were going a bit slower and it wasn't a problem.  I did have to take a quick stop to go to the bathroom thanks to all the water I had drank (drunk?) earlier.  Even with all those issues I only pulled in about 15 minutes after my original ETA.  Also, as expected, my check tire light went on around Allegan.  It always has for the last many years, and so I was happy to see that it knew exactly where to turn on.

The kids went right to sleep and Nathan and I were talking only to have his phone alert go off.  Hmm...a tornado warning.  Then my phone went off.  We debated if we needed to move to the basement for few seconds, then went to ask Liz.  After another minute or so we decided we probably should.  I tried waking up Isaac with no luck.  I tried waking up Joshua with no luck.  I was trying not to alarm them, but that might have worked better.  I finally got Joshua to respond, but he immediately fell back asleep.  Then I told him to wake up again, only to have him fall asleep again.  He finally got up on the third try and I got him moved to the basement.  Then I went to get Isaac and had to yell at him to get him to up and at this point things were getting a little scary outside.  But Isaac was slowly taking one step at a time and was not waking up enough to go any faster, even as I was loudly and strongly encouraging him to do so.

The adults hung out in the basement for about 10 more minutes, but all the kids were back asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows.  We then realized that the tornado alarm had been going off but we couldn't hear it.  I'm not sure if there was actually any tornados, but there was some very strong winds that knocked over a lot of things (more on that tomorrow).

Lesson that I've learned: if the phone warns you of weather, moving to shelter should not be up for debate.

a while ago: Ben's second new car

So remember at the end of January Ben got a new car?  Well, there was a minor issue with it and so we brought it back to the dealership while we were in Florida, after having it for about a week and a half.  Without getting into details, there was an accident as they were bringing it through the car wash.  We have heard the actual story now and there wasn't any negligence, just a series of unfortunate events.  

They ended up getting us a new one.  They tried to say they'd just fix it, but Ben negotiated a new one.  Sure, this whole process could have been a bit easier but as a whole it hasn't been bad.  The sales guy that Ben worked with was especially helpful. Ben wanted a specific color and so that took a bit longer, but we finally got the new one about a week and a half ago.  I've driven this one too!  The roads were snowy with the last one and so I didn't want to be the one to get in an accident...which does seem a bit funny in hindsight.

Tuesday: wax museum

 It's been a busy few weeks as Isaac has worked really hard on his wax museum speech and paper.  Tonight was the culmination, with all the students dressing up and doing their thing.

Isaac was Benjamin Franklin.  He did a really nice job.

During his speech:

After his speech, posed while waiting to do his speech again:

They did half the students at a time, so we walked around during the first half; Isaac was a character for the second half.

Saturday: a busy day

Today was rather busy.

First I volunteered with the black belt candidates at the Children's Advocacy Center.  It's a really cool place, although also really sad that we need it.  We learned about what they do and then helped them do an assortment of things.  It felt like we had slightly too many people, but for the most part everyone had something to do.

After a somewhat fast lunch I took the kids to the school play.  It's a 5-8th grade play and they did a good job but at the same time it wasn't amazing.  We could hear them better this year and the kids loved it so it was a nice time.

I came home and crashed.  I'm not completely sure why, but I was going to take that nap and no one was going to stop me.

This evening we played some games online with some friends, which is always fun.  Tonight was Spacebase and 7 Wonders.  We think Joshua might enjoy Spacebase, so it might be added to our collection

soon.

Friday: kitchen and boot camp

I continued working on the kitchen today.  I went through another cabinet and got rid of several old mugs.  The shelf was running out of room and so some had to go, so I chose the ones I don't care about the most.  There was only time for one cabinet today after everything else, but it was still nice.

Black belt boot camp was this evening.  I like boot camp.  I'm still bad at several things, but I'm all set for the first test next Friday.  At the end I was sparring with someone and we don't have pads on so we're trying not to hit each other (too much).  Well, we did manage to hit each other and now I have a huge bump on my leg.  I probably should have put ice on it right away, but everyone is always so worried about not hurting each other that I just shook it out and continued on.  (And really, it will be fine.  There's swelling but not an absurd amount and then I'll have a nice multi-colored bruise.  And then it'll go away.)

Thursday: the mundane

I did my chores this morning along with taking a walk with a friend.  After nap time I continued working on the kitchen, doing two cabinets.  I didn't get rid of much, but they were pretty dusty because I never wipe them down.

I also spent way too much time arranging these shelves.  I took the stuff off and moved the shelves more times than I care to admit, but it was hard to figure out a plan.  (Also, why don't the shelving holes go all the way to the top and bottom?)  I wanted to move the instapot higher as it was on the bottom shelf with the lid on the second-to-bottom shelf with the lids.  I don't use it that often and the top was a bit annoying with the lids.  So now things are in a somewhat better order how how often I use them, although the top shelves were more just by size.

Wednesday: O:CtH, pinewood derby

This morning I ignored several of my to-do list chores and worked on the kitchen.  I feel the most productive when I get some of Operation: Clean the House done, I think because the results are so visible.  I know my other tasks are important, but half of them will show up again the next day.  I'm also ready to be done with the kitchen.  The deep clean is important so I'll keep going, but seriously.  It's a small space with so much storage.

Anyway, I started with the freezer (in pretty good shape), moved on to the cabinet above the freezer (I got rid of a bunch of stuff from the back), and finished up under the fridge (dusty).  I did finally get rid of two sticky notes that were in the freezer.  Some child had put them in the fridge for a while, and then a child wanted to see what happens if you freeze them.  (Spoiler: not much.  I was surprised they stuck the whole time though.)

This evening was Pinewood Derby.  Isaac got first place and was excited.  Joshua didn't place and while he expected that going in he was rather sad afterwards.  Joshua does have big plans for next year already.

Tuesday: errands

Well, I did a lot of errands today that I was only partially expecting.  They were important errands, but errands nonetheless.  Then I forgot Isaac's piano books.  I brought everything else we need to wait for piano lessons, but missed the most important thing.  I remembered this ten minutes in advance, so Isaac stayed at the school and I ran home to get the books.  We hit the lights well and I was back in 15 minutes.  Annoying, but successful.

Monday

I was a bit tired after getting groceries this morning, so I laid down for a bit on the couch.  I enjoyed Tornado's shadow.

I still managed to get stuff done today, but not nearly as much as I was hoping.  Oh well, it happens.  My book is good and I'm on spring break so I feel as though I should take that into account too...even though I normally wouldn't be working today.

Saturday: life

Joshua had made leprechaun traps at school on Thursday.  Friday they all shrunk into hats.  I'm not sure how the teacher did it, but it was cool.

Tornado enjoyed a short ride with Ben today.

We were going to see some friends for dinner and we were in charge of fruit.  I decided we'd bring assorted apple types.  But I didn't have a good divider plate; so I made a divider out of Lego.  I was rather proud of it, even though it was really pretty easy.

Isaac took his PATH math assessment this morning.  The instructions for proctoring it could have been a little better, but Isaac persevered and finished.

Friday: no talking day, Leprechaun day

1. Today was my no talking day for karate.  Well, eight hours.  It was not too bad, although it was a bit more annoying than I was expecting.

*It turns out that my kids don't understand my hand gestures well.

*It is rather hard to write/text in real time during conversations.  

*I also tried not to talk to the cats; that was rather hard

*My conclusion is that even though I was able to communicate easily, the time it takes to do so was often prohibitive.  (Although if this was a permanent condition I think several things would change, so I need to remember that too.)

2. As Joshua calls it, "Happy Leprechaun Day!"  The kids were surprisingly into wearing green.

3. Our evening discussion was surprisingly productive:

It is probable that the mythological dragons were actually ruminant animals whose methane breath would ignite causing the perception that they breathed fire.

Abstract:

Dragons are legendary creatures that have puzzled researchers and enthusiasts for generations. Throughout history, dragons have been described as having the ability to breathe fire, and although it was commonly assumed that this ability was a mere myth, this paper will explore the possibility that it is based on fact. In this article, we propose that the mythological creatures known as dragons could be ruminant animals whose methane breath would ignite, thereby causing the perception that they breathed fire. This paper presents an analytical review of this theory, including both scientific and historical evidence to support this claim.

Thursday: into Spring Break

Ahh, the classes before spring break.  They're always poorly attended.  But there's still learning that needs to be done!  

I'm excited to have a few days off.  Nothing will really change for me, but a slight change of pace is always nice.  

 I found out from Facebook today that Isaac managed to earn himself a Crumble Cookie today.

Apparently it wasn't interesting enough to tell me about.

Tuesday: slow news day

 

Monday: Joshua

 Joshua lost a tooth today!  I didn't even realize it was all that wiggly, but I got a picture from his teacher this morning.  He was super excited.  

We won't talk about the mark on his neck and how it makes us look like terrible parents.

Sunday: flower

 Ben made me a flower.

Saturday: melting snow

I took Tornado out for a quick walk this morning.  The snow in all the yards melted in a weird pattern.

Friday: snow day

I was awoken early this morning with a phone call saying that it was a snow day.  I knew we were getting a fair amount of snow, but I wasn't expecting a snow day.  Honestly, I was hoping it wouldn't be a snow day as I had things to do.  My things to do were just around the house but they were also by myself.

And so, I found myself rather grumpy today.  Hopefully I didn't take it out on the kids too much, but I know I did a little bit.  To be fair, they did do some stupid things.  Isaac was going to put the hair on his hat for wax museum.  I said everything was in a bag in his room.  He found the hat and then was wondering where the yarn was...I don't think he even looked before asking.

The kids did play outside for quite a while because the snow was amazing.  It was light and fluffy while still packing well.  Isaac made a climbing snowman.  Joshua emptied out a section of the lawn of snow, but we forgot to get a picture of that.

In the afternoon when everyone was grumpy (except Isaac, and I think he should have felt more remorseful because he did something mean to Joshua (but I don't know what that mean thing was)) we went rock climbing.  It took a little bit, but it did shake off all the resentment.  Yesterday I was helping Isaac do an elimination game: every time I get to choose a hold that he can't use anymore on a route.  In this case, it was the blue route.  Isaac told me my goal was to make it so he couldn't climb the route anymore.  Challenge accepted!  I told away most of the initial foot holds thinking that would make me win.  He came back to it today and kept working on it and eventually got it!  Joshua did something similar with a green route and had a really good time.

I had black belt boot camp tonight.  Honestly, I am really enjoying boot camp.  We go quickly through a lot of stuff and it's fun to remember everything (even if I can't remember all of it well) and it's a good workout.

Thursday: middle school move up and animals

1. The penguin.  Ben and I hide it around the bathroom.  Then it disappears somewhere until it's found again.  Anyway, a week or two ago there was something in the shampoo bar.  I thought it was a whale, and it seemed really weird that a 'green' company would put a little plastic thing in their soap and also not advertise it.  Well, a few days ago the shampoo bar broke and the penguin fell out!  Ben had spent a rather long time making a square mold out of Lego that was the correct size, melting some soap, hardening the soap, melting more so that he could put the penguin in the middle.  It felt like true love.

2. Cat.  Tornado went in the cat carrier this morning.  It was a poor morning to choose, as I'm always rushing around trying to get everything finished.  I usually just carry him around in the house when that happens.  Well, he didn't want to put his tail in.  So I left it out.

3. Tonight was middle school move up night.  The band played a few short songs and the choir sang.  It wasn't professional, but it was a nice length.  We got a bit of info about middle school, walked around the classrooms, and saw some of the extra-curriculars.  There was nothing all that earth-shattering, but it was nice.  (As we walked into the math classroom another family was asking about PATH.  So we exchanged contact info.  I don't think this boy and Isaac have been in the same class, which somewhat makes sense but is also a bit sad.)

Wednesday: O:CtH

I cleaned one cabinet drawer and a normal drawer today as part of O:CtH.  I'll admit, I had been hoping to do more but, well, there are other chores that need to be done too.

I started off with the cabinet drawer.  It was the last, and bottom, drawer in the cabinet I did on Monday and I'm pretty sure that it was sad that I didn't get to it.  I get rid of much, but underneath the shelf and in the back was a mess.  So it was a very good thing to take out and clean up.

Joshua ended up choosing the second drawer for me.  It was a full drawer, but still functioning ok.  That being said, I actually ended up getting rid of most of the stuff in the drawer.  There were many bibs and some spring form pans that I rarely use.  Most of the bibs are being recycled and the pans are being put in a different place.  I'm not sure what will go in that drawer now, but the drawer underneath it is a bit of a nightmare so maybe it'll get some of that overflow.

Tuesday: homework

Today Isaac had some writing homework he needed to finish, along with a few other items of homework.  The writing was a bit weird, but after not understanding each other for a while he got what he needed and estimated 20 minutes of writing if he worked well.

Less than two minutes later he was finished.  We were both so excited.

Monday: a cabinet

There was a lot of normal stuff today, but I made some time to work on cleaning a cabinet.  The kitchen is taking so long to get through.  There are a lot of little victories and it's easy to do a little bit at a time, but there's still quite a bit to go.  I almost feel as though by the time I'm done it'll be time to start all over.

The exciting part was that when I took the drawers out of the cabinet I realized the rails could move, just like normal shelves in a cabinet.  I ended up not moving them because I was happy with where they are, but it was an interesting discovery.

I got rid of a medium amount.  Enough to make the cleaning very worth while, but not so much that I'm awed at how different the shelves look now.

Sunday: family time

Today we had official family time.  It's not much different from most of Saturday other than it's mandatory.  Usually we do a game, but Joshua has never been a fan of that and it was his turn to choose.  So we opened up the options for him today and he chose a Lego challenge: everyone had to make a boat.

Due to time restraints, we had about 35 minutes before dinner.  Ben said we'd try to finish in 15 and then maybe do another challenge.  

At the 15 minute mark Isaac was done and no one else was close.  So, as I expected, we extended the time.  Isaac made a second boat.

Ben made the black boat.  I missed most of the story behind it.  I made the Christmas raft in the front.  It has presents!  It also has holes in the bottom of the boat as it turns out making the sides and then trying to backfill the bottom doesn't work all that well.  Joshua has a boat bathhouse on the right.  He has a tiny boat in a bathtub in a house.  There's also a red towel that you can barely see.  Isaac first made the back right boat: I think it's supposed to be underwater with a bunch of animals on it.  Then he made the top left boat.  The boat that you can see above water is a decoy; the actual boat is a submarine underneath.

Saturday: yesterday

Well, yesterday we finally got the schedule and some of the extra requirements for receiving our black belts.  I'll admit...it was a bit much.  I know they have a tight schedule with everything that they're trying to do at the school, but they put one test on the first Friday of spring break and one on Memorial day weekend.  There's a note that says no retests, although I'm not really sure that they'll be able to accommodate that.  There also feels like a ton of extra things to do on top of the extra practices.  I understand the reasons for almost everything, but this commitment has added about 2.5 hours/week that I need to be at the school.  (For some weeks.  Some weeks won't be as bad.)

There's also a requirement for "Empathy Training" because they want us to understand how to put yourself in others' shoes.  So I'm not supposed to talk for eight hours and supposed to be blind-folded for a different eight hours (although that can be broken up).  Again, I understand the logic behind it.  But being blind-folded will be boring.  If I was actually blind I'd have a system in place, technology to help me, and hobbies to fill the time.   This one requirement is annoying me the most out of everything.  I think I'll give it a good try and then possibly write my paragraph(s) on why I stopped.

The family talked today because I'll obviously need a bit more support - if nothing else than being gone more.  They were all on board.  The kids really stepped it up and are helping me with training too.  Joshua "made" me do my exercises this afternoon and Isaac set up a ticket system to help reward me for what I do.

Thursday: conferences

We had parent-teacher conferences tonight.

They both went very well.  Joshua seems to be harder on himself than I realized.  He's working hard, doing well, and participating appropriately.  A very normal conference for Joshua.

Isaac's conference seemed a little different than normal as we looked at his grade report, saw it was good, and moved on to other things.  In the past teachers have always had examples of work to show us.  (This wasn't good or bad, just different.)  The teacher has been keeping him sitting together with one other student because they're getting along well and they balance each other out: Isaac is quiet, the other kid is loud.  But apparently the other kid is also funny, and Isaac self-reported that he has to work on not laughing at inappropriate times.  Anyway, for the first time we heard that he's becoming more social which is amazing.  

One of the most interesting things of the night was as we were leaving the teacher across the hall was standing outside and mentioned that she loves Isaac too.  It's one thing for your own teacher to enjoy you, but it was surprising to have another teacher say it.

Wednesday: plugging away

I didn't get all my "I hope to finish" tasks finished today, but I was honestly kind of expecting that.  There was a lot more computer work than normal and that usually isn't quite as fun.

But a friend came over and we started a new puzzle, so that was nice.

vacation Wednesday: leaving

We had an evening flight so we had most of the day to enjoy.

We had a delicious breakfast first.  And saw some friends.

Afterwards we went back to the room and I took a nap.  I wasn't feeling terrible, but I also wasn't feeling normal.  The kids had some reading and screen time.

Around the time I woke up it was getting close to lunch.  We went to the pool for a while and ate there.  I came back about 20 minutes before everyone else and finished packing.  Packing to go home is so much easier because everything is close and all I have to do is find everything, not decide I need it and find it.

We flew out of the small Orlando airport and it definitely was a small regional airport!  There was no line for security.  There also weren't many food options, so we ended up getting a bunch of snacks.  The kids were excited about it.  This airport also had the coolest faucets I've ever seen.  They were wide, and on the left was the soap dispenser, then in the middle was the water, and the on the right was a blower.  The blower blew right into the sink which seemed so smart.

The flight was about 40 minutes late, but we didn't have a connection so it worked out.  I had pjs and toothbrushes in the carry ons, so the kids got ready before we left the airport.  They fell asleep in the car and only needed to move themselves to their beds once we got home.  It was around midnight when I crawled into bed.  I had been hoping for closer to 11pm, but it at least wasn't too far off.

Tuesday: students

Today I had a funny story about one student and a sad story about another student.  I don't really feel it's appropriate to write the funny story down (and especially not the sad story) so you'll just have to ask me when you see me.