Thursday: relaxing

 Today was a relaxing day.  Joshua was happy to go on a few short walks with me, we played with ducks in the hot tub, and played a few games.

Joshua's school activity was to find a duck that started with every letter and put them in a row.  He was trying not to get his clothes wet, but after one step where he forgot he completely gave up.

Astronaut, Blue, Cheese, Donald, Elephant, Fun, Giant, Hot, Icky, Jeep, Killing, Liberty, Mom, New, Octopus, Pirate, Quacking, Rudolph, Super, Tunes, Unclear, Vacation, Witch, teXting, Yummy, Zebra

Ben went on a few Vespa rides.  Joshua loved going with him.  I...tolerated it.  I'm not in control and while I trust Ben (a lot!) it is still hard.

Isaac was not excited about being thrown in the pool, but bounced back quickly when Ben wrapped him in two towels.  He's getting big.

We looked for lizards on both of our walks, but really only managed to find one.

Wednesday: travel

Today we went traveled to Florida!  We got up early to get to the airport on time, but it did relieve my anxiety a lot.  (Although really, by the time we parked and ate breakfast there wasn't a ton of extra time before boarding started.)  We recently got TSAPre check and it was nice to not have to take shoes off or stuff out of the bag.

The flight went really fast and we arrived an hour earlier than expected!  But then there wasn't a gate for us so we sat waiting for an hour, so we really arrived right on time.  It was a little annoying, but I'd rather wait in Florida than wait in Michigan.

Once we got to the house Joshua was in the pool within about ten minutes.  He knew what he wanted!

Isaac and Joshua were also working on some logic puzzles that had a Minecraft theme.  Joshua has had this game for a while, but he's really taken to it right now.

Tuesday: now nouns

The conversation in the car today, while going to school, was slightly absurd.  The question was, "what would not-nouns look like if they were a thing?"

I.e., what would 'cold' look like if it was a thing?

What would 'however' look like?

What would 'so far so good' look like?

Monday: busy day

It was a rather busy day.  I set reasonable expectations for myself though, so I'm coming out the other end having accomplished what I needed to do.

I stayed up way too late last night reading my book.  Usually I just fall asleep, even if I don't want to, but that didn't happen this time.  A cliff-hanger was coming for the last hour, and I 1) really wanted to know the outcome and 2) didn't realize it would take so long to get there.

Saturday: Lego challenge

Today's Lego challenge theme was Minecraft, but the scale was rather large.

Ben worked on a spider.  It took him a little longer than the hour, and the finished product looks more complete.

I worked on a Creeper...and only managed to get the head done.

Isaac made a redstone piston that moved.

Joshua made a Drowned, or a water zombie.  To be fair, he had about an extra half hour because we were interrupted in the middle.  But it looks amazing.

Friday: waiting

On the days that I'm not working, I've been napping on the couch.  Creeper and Grey Bear are always waiting there for me, and I find it super sweet that Joshua puts them there for me.

 

In other news...I met someone at church today that took the class I'm teaching before I took it over.  Before I said that that was my class she said it was the most useful class that she had taken.  It was a fun connection.

We had a tune-up on the furnace today because there was an intermittent minor issue.  I pulled all the stuff away from the furnace so the technician would have room to work, but now I need to unclean the area and put it all back.  It was a weird item to put on my to-do list.  The kids tried telling me that I should properly clean it, but I told them that would take too long and I'm not on O:CtH - storage room yet.

Thursday: band concert

Tonight was Isaac's band concert.  They worked really hard on it.  Isaac had two pieces and played set for both of them.

Joshua gave a speech on his favorite snack, Cheetos, during school.

Wednesday: groceries

Do you know what I hate about groceries?  After getting groceries I make food and inevitably find something to add to the grocery list.  I know it's the normal cycle of things, but at the same time I get frustratingly annoyed when I have to add groceries after just getting groceries.

Tuesday: rock climbing

After school we went rock climbing, as normal.  What was not as normal is that one of Isaac's team members climbed at the same time.  I won't say that we went together, but at the same time he came because he knew Isaac would be there at that time.  There were also a bunch of new routes and Isaac had a great time.

Joshua had a good time too, as the kids' wall had new routes and his favorite coach was there.  He was ready to go at the end, but we did stay longer than normal too.

Monday: cleaning

Today was a pretty productive day - although it didn't feel overly productive.  So I was a bit surprised when Isaac came upstairs and mentioned that I had gotten a lot down today!  Apparently there were a lot of visible things finished today.

I did find a part of a game that has been missing for a while!  The game hasn't been unplayable, but with the missing part it will be a lot easier.  Operation: Clean the House proves useful again.  The basement bathroom is getting closer to finished - I just have a little bit to do a normal clean on, some hardware to fix, and some paint to touch up.

Saturday: graham cracker creations

 Today we made our equivalent of gingerbread houses.  I know that's sort of a Christmas thing, but there's already so many sweets at Christmas and not enough time, so we do ours a little later.  Instead of all making houses though, we made assorted things.

Joshua did make a house, but it's a cool triangle house.

Isaac made trees for Giraffe.  That being said, the trees are basically storage areas for candy.  He put a bunch of candy in and then covered them up.

Ben made a cave for Grey Bear.  Note the sign.  

And I made an explosion for Creeper.  It's kind of supposed to be like this meme.

Wednesday: chores

The day started out productively.  I didn't put too much on my chore list for the day, so I got to Operation: Clean the House.  I scrubbed some of the floor and worked on the sink cabinet.  The front of sink cabinet was really dirty so that felt good to clean.  I'm about half way through the room I think, but it also needs a bit of paint work.

Around 11:30 I got a call from the school saying Joshua's stomach was hurting.  This didn't surprise me a bunch, as Joshua hasn't been eating well this week.  He rested, ate a tiny bit, and took a nap.  He naps more than Isaac but still not a ton, so coming home was probably the right choice.  However, I wasn't able to get groceries and it's messed up my plans a bit.

Tuesday

Joshua went to school today!  He's still whispering and a bit under-the-weather, but well enough to go to school.

I didn't have to teach today, so I was able to get several errands done that have been hanging out.  They weren't long, but I wanted to be in the area to do them and not go out of my way.  I took it a little easy today, but got things done too.

Hmm, I was trying to think of something interesting.  I have some extra pepperoni that I want to use up, but it turns out there aren't many recipes with pepperoni that aren't pizza-y.  I think we're going to try Italian subs.

Monday: in the kitchen

Let's start with Joshua.  Last night was rough and he was having a hard time breathing.  The nebulizer didn't help much, so then he sat in the cold air for a while.  It wasn't really helping so we were about to go to the hospital.  I got everything ready but by then he was starting to feel a little bit better.  So we sat in the car for a bit longer and then moved inside.

Today he wasn't super active, but also not really sick.  Other than whispering the whole day.  So maybe school tomorrow??

I took two naps today.  Joshua started having problems around 4am, I was up for the next two hours, and just dozed the last hour.  It reminded me of when the kids were babies.

There were still a few things I had to do today though, including cook the turkey.  I did it!  However, I did cook it upside-down.  Not really a big deal, other than it was a bit harder to cut.  We had open face turkey sandwiches for dinner, so I also made mashed potatoes.  Everyone likes applesauce, so I made that.  Lastly, I made some healthy oatmeal raisin cookies so that Isaac can have a different option for lunch.

Look how clean it looks too!  The other side isn't as clean, but it isn't as bad as normal after cooking.

I still need to finish dealing with the turkey, but I packed it up and it's in the fridge for the night.  Dealing with it took longer than expected and I had other things to do.

Sunday: still sick

Joshua is still sick.  He doesn't like taking medicine, which is a bit of a problem.

After lunch is usually screen time.  Joshua didn't take the medicine I had given him at the beginning of lunch.  His fever wasn't really high enough to require it (100.4), but high enough that it would help him feel better.  Anyway, Joshua really didn't want to skip screen time, even if we told him he could do it after a nap.  His eyes were closing as he refused.  So we elected to all wait for screen time until after the nap and he proceeded to fall asleep a minute later right where he was sitting.

He finally took some medicine after his nap, but it still took him a while to perk up.

In other news, the theme of the weekend of Lego puzzles.

Saturday: unexpected

The day started out mostly normally.  Joshua made a cat out of Legos that we named Storm.  We relaxed, finished up last weekend's game, and worked on some Lego sets.  

However, Joshua started acting a little funny during the game and slowly declined.  By 4pm he had a fever and was "finally" as sick as he had been acting.

However, it meant that we had to postpone graham cracker houses until next weekend.

Friday: blood drive

 I donated blood today.  I drank my water and took my iron.  I got to the beds and the nurse was deciding which arm to draw from.  I mentioned I have small veins and got the same "drink a lot of water" speech I get every time and almost decided not to come back.  But then it was the smoothest donation I've had in a really long time.  Getting the donation started went really smoothly and the blood came out really quickly.

Thursday: went better

Today seemed to go better for everyone.

I had my second PT appointment today and she keeps finding things that are slightly wrong.  Nothing major, but apparently I'm using all my back muscles incorrectly.  And I forget to breathe, which means I'm using my abs wrong.  I forget to breathe a lot.

Fast forward to karate, which ended up being a core workout day.  I thought about my PT person a lot as I tried to remember to breathe the whole class.  I have no idea if I did anything correctly, but I did breathe.

Wednesday: could have gone better

Today wasn't necessarily a bad day, but I do feel like it could have gone better.

*I was going to cook a turkey today.  I got it on sale at Thanksgiving, gave it four days to thaw (per the calculator), and was ready to try.  It wasn't thawed.  I wrapped it in a cooking bag and put it back in the fridge.

*I had a bit of a hard time with the children this afternoon.  They weren't being purposefully hard, but I felt like I was placating or talking them through things significantly more than normal.

Tuesday: book

Last night I finished Patrick Stewart's "Making it So."  I'm going to be honest, in my mind I was expecting a book about the life of Jean-Luc Picard.  I had a really hard time with a normal person being the character I've come to know.  Usually I feel like I can separate them better, but this combination just stays together.

The book was ok.  Interesting and not too slow, but also not the memoir of a starship captain.

Monday: around the house

I felt like I got quite a few items checked off my list today, and it was nice.  I had a hard time waking up from my nap, but I also had a hard time getting to sleep last night.

Isaac got 7/14 place in the rock climbing competition.

Yeah.  It was a very normal day.

Oh!  Let's talk about the wheelbarrow.  The neighbors across the street have a wheelbarrow full of stuff sitting in their back yard from when they redid the deck this summer.  I feel comradery with them whenever I see it because I too have things that should be taken car of but aren't.

Sunday: Halfy Birthday to you

Today was Joshua's birthday, so while he was getting the mail after church we quickly lit the candles and when he came inside we surprised him with a "Halfy Birthday to you" song.

Saturday: Isaac and Joshua

Isaac participated in his first rock climbing competition today!  It was a bit of a last minute thing, but I was really excited that he decided to do it.  I was only able to be there for about 40 minutes (out of 120), but I found it super fun to watch.  Isaac didn't place in the top three for the youth category, but we weren't that surprised about it.  I think he still did well, had fun, and said he'd be willing to do it again.

This evening Joshua was having a hard time getting to sleep so he came down to fall asleep on my lap.  This has been happening often lately, but I'm not going to complain.  He's getting large though, so I might need to move to a different location next time.  Anyway, it was time for him to go back to bed so I tried putting his arms around my neck so I could carry him up.  His arms immediately curled back into his chest.  So then we talked..."Can you put your arms around my neck?"  "Yes."  "...now?"  "Yes."  I moved his arms to the right spot...and they immediately curled back into his chest.  I gave up and carried him that way, although carrying him wakes him up pretty well too.

Thursday: pretty normal

Today was pretty normal.  Classes went well.  I had lunch with a friend.  Karate was good.

I didn't have any pockets today.  It was rather rough.  My door code at work was also changed recently and I'm having a hard time remembering it.

Tuesday: snow day

 It was a snow day!  Really more like an ice day.  I don't think it ended up being icy out, but it was right on the edge in town and was probably a good call.  Surprisingly, I didn't get a phone call...just a text.  

We left the kids home for the day.  There was a plan.  It involved too much screen time, extra chores, and some play time.  Isaac had his math class virtually.  Really, they did a great job  - stuff got done and they stayed safe.  I can't ask for much more than that sometimes.

Ben and I went out for a dinner date too.  It was nice.

Monday: rather uninteresting

Today was rather uninteresting.  I did a lot of dishwasher loading/running/unloading.  We had friends over Saturday and it was taking a while to get through the dishes.  Then it was a the day to make curry, so that was several more pots and dishes.  They aren't all in the dishwasher yet, but good progress was made.

I paid bills and just worked through the to-do list.  I'm hoping to take a fair part of Wednesday and just work on O:CtH - bathroom basement edition.  I do need to do laundry and get groceries too, but I should still have several hours.

Sunday: Great Grandma

 At bedtime, Joshua described his day as busy.  I thought about it a bit.  It was busier than normal, but I wouldn't have really called it busy.  After all, there was time for screen time and a nap in the middle.  At the same time, that's good.  We don't need to be going all the time.

One of the things we did today was visit Great Grandma.  She recently got a digital picture frame and I couldn't figure out how to link to it before, so I did it today.  And I took a lot of pictures to figure out how it worked.

The kids playing with the linking blocks.

While Ben and Grandma were at the piano I gave the kids my phone and told them to take some fun pictures of each other.  They didn't disappoint. 

Friday: alone

Today was my first day home alone since before Christmas break.  It was nice.  (Although I will admit that one of the days only Ben was home and he mostly hid in the basement.)

Ben also found our first Lego paper bag in the set that he's working on.

Thursday: a sweet conversation

 I was bringing Joshua to piano tonight and we were talking about Minecraft adjacent things: is platinum or diamond more expensive? (I have no idea).  Are diamonds or emeralds more expensive? I also have no idea because I don't know anything about emeralds, but I know a little bit about diamonds.

J: I have another question you won't know.

A: Ok.

J: How do you ask your wife to marry you?

A: (oh, that turned differently than expected, but we were talking about wedding rings with diamonds) What part?

J: The ring.  How do you know what to get?

A: Well, you'll probably talk with your girlfriend at some point and find out what she likes.  She might like diamonds, so might not.  Either way is ok.

A: You also need to figure out if she likes gold or silver for the actual ring part.  You can often look at her other jewelry to figure this out.

J: Who gets the guys ring?

A: Well, usually you get the wedding rings together.  Grandpa Paul and Grandma Julie got a set and they had similar designs on them, but Mom and Dad just got plain bands.

J: hmm.  ok.

A: any other questions?

J:  No.  This was just one of those things you have to know!  I need to learn it somewhere.

A: Absolutely. I'm happy to answer any questions.

J: Although it was a little early.  They'll probably teach it to me in high school.

A: Mmm, they don't teach this kind of thing in school.

J: oh, I'll probably have to ask again then.

A: Sounds good.

Wednesday: snow day

 As expected the kids were excited about the snow day.  Also as more or less expected, the day went well.  We made a list of homework/chores that they needed to work on throughout the day, and they did!  I'd suggest a break, and they'd take the break and then they'd work on a chore.  I was rather amazed - not that they were willing to help but that I didn't have to remind them throughout the day.  We're having friends over on Saturday, and this should make Saturday prep go a lot better.

Tuesday: school

 There was school today!  I was about 90% sure that it would be canceled, but since I work and Ben had meetings it actually worked out well.  I did end up making the kids walk through some really deep snow after dropping them off at school because the sidewalks hadn't been plowed yet.  They were both a bit grumpy about it, but they survived.

It should have been a snow day though.  I did a lot of driving and while roads weren't terrible, they also weren't good, it was cold out, and it was snowy.  

After rock climbing the kids voluntarily helped me shovel half the driveway.  Then Joshua, who hates the snow, played in the snow for the next half hour.

Around 10pm I received a phone call: school is canceled tomorrow.  I have mixed feelings - snow days are fun!  The kids will be so excited! But at the same time, how am I supposed to finish my chores?  I'm staying afloat, but I'm definitely adding more things to the to-do list than I'm taking off.  Also, I "blame" Ben for the snow day.  Whenever he's going to bring the kids in to school something happens so he gets to skip it.

Monday: no school

It was a nice day.  Joshua went to a friend's house in the morning.  Isaac worked diligently on his homework and we played a game.  (He won by a ton of points - 47 to 5.)

The forecast looked like this all day: it's currently snowing but that's going to stop soon.  Apparently they can't predict the lake effect snow well at all.  We didn't get a ton during the day, but a good inch plus about two from last night.  School hasn't been canceled for tomorrow (yet), but we're still hoping.  There isn't as much snow predicted but it should be a bit colder than today.  It was in the single digits most of the day, but when I was snow blowing I got hot so I wasn't the best judge of cold today.

I got an auto-page turner for my kindle with some Christmas money.  This way I can keep my hands warm while still reading.  It also takes pictures without the timer.

Sunday: snow storm

It finally felt the storm finally came in today.  Church was on-line only this morning.  Snow blowing was back normal - it was snow and nothing else.  There was between 0 and 12inches on the driveway, thanks to the wind.

We played a nice game of Space Base in the afternoon.  Everyone (including Joshua) was enjoying themselves, the snow was coming down, and the birds were at the feeders.  Speaking of birds, we had a lot of mallards and Canada geese the last two days.  I thought the geese at least would go farther south; I don't remember seeing any in the past.

We also have a mimic problem in our house.  It has caught Joshua's imagination.

Apparently area schools have a snow day tomorrow, but since it's MLK day we already didn't have school.  I wouldn't be surprised if Tuesday was a snow day due to cold, but we'll see what happens.

Saturday: shoveling water 3, dishwasher

 We got a fair amount of snow over night and a very small amount during the day today.  I think we've gotten more since nightfall, but it's hard to tell how much.

Last night I went outside only to hear the drip-drip-drip of melting snow.  It was beautiful because it was so wet, but seriously?  It was the middle of the night!

I snow-blowed today and it only went ok.  The end of the driveway, where the plow had come through, was half slush, again.  The snow blower doesn't like slush.  I got some of it, but had to spend quite a while shoveling by hand.  I finally called it good enough since I figured I'd need to deal with it again soon.

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

Yesterday I put dishwasher detergent in the dishwasher and was surprised that it was white.  Last time I put it in the color was blue...and then I remembered being a little surprised that time too because I thought it was supposed to be white.  I thought about it for a little bit.  Did I actually put dish soap in?  No.  That would have been obvious.  Could it have been a dream?  Yeah, that's plausible.  Let's call it a dream.  Then I opened up the other side of the cabinet to throw away some trash and found another container of detergent...and it was blue.  Well, at least the mystery was solved.

Friday: the blizzard?

 The blizzard was supposed to start around 10am.  At 11am there was still no snow.  12pm: no snow.  2pm: finally snow!  I woke up from my nap to snow and was rather hesitant to actually get up because I was afraid it still wouldn't be snowing.  There's some snow right now, in the evening, but it's just a normal snow storm, not a major one.  (Although there was a lot of wind earlier.)

Isaac probably didn't have a great snow day.  He worked hard on getting caught up on some of his homework.  He had some fun too, but since he said he was a little bored a few times he ended up working on homework - his future self will appreciate it when he doesn't have so much to do later this weekend.

Joshua said he had a boring day, but lately I feel like he says that about 50% of the time.  His day might not have been too exciting, but I'm not sure he seemed bored most of the time.  He did have one exciting part though!

He was reading in his bedroom and I came in with a sheet ball (sheets in a pillowcase) that I was supposed to be putting away and whacked him with it instead.  This started a pillow/sheet fight full of laughter.

Thursday: snow day!

While there was school today, there's no school tomorrow!  The snow day was called around 5:30pm, although pretty much everyone was sure there would be one most of the day.  Joshua said his teacher had them do the normal Friday classroom clean up even.

Isaac did go to school and even to rock climbing team, but after dinner he stopped moving again.  We'll see what happens tomorrow, but we all knew he wasn't completely better and it had been a long day.

Wednesday: More water shoveling

Today was a snow day!  Honestly, it was a pretty good day for a snow day even if I'm not sure it should have been one.  I was home, Isaac doesn't miss extra school, and we had no important, or even semi-important, plans.  However, I had some personal plans for today.  I was going to carve some time out to just work on O:CtH, since it's been over a month since I've been able to do so.  I know it isn't a big deal and we still had a lovely day, but I was a little annoyed.

I expect Isaac will go back tomorrow.  He was normal for most of the day, although he decided to rest from 5-6pm which is abnormal.  So he's not completely over whatever he had, but there's been no fever.  I'm curious if there will be another snow day Friday.  One weather places says 1.5", another weather app says 10".  The snow isn't supposed to start until 8am though, so I don't know if that makes a difference.

The kids played outside for quite a while after Joshua complained that he doesn't like snow.  It was good for sledding and good for packing.  By the end of the day there were at least five snowmen in the neighborhood.

I also shoveled more water.  It was still really heavy and slushy snow.

In the afternoon Isaac did some snow experiments.

Tuesday: shoveling water

The snow of the season has just started to come, but it's been slightly above freezing at the same time.  This lead to crazy amounts of slush and standing water everywhere.

Joshua was willing to help me shovel the driveway as his exercise option today and I'm really glad he was out there with me.  We wanted to get it before it actually froze because it's going to stay cold for a while and we'd have a sad driveway.  It was so heavy and wet though.  Usually when the snow is this wet it's on it's way to melting and I can ignore it instead of shoveling it.

In other news, Isaac is doing better than yesterday but we're going to keep him home for another day because he wasn't really with it today either.  Classes started for me today.  Moodle seems exceptionally slow this semester...like click a link and wait 10 seconds.  Short enough to not really be able to do anything else, but long enough to be annoying and noticeable.  The classes themselves were fine though.  The biggest question is how someone managed to have the Euro symbol as their default currency instead of the $ when their computer settings are set to $ as default.  Still haven't figured that one out, but it isn't too big of a deal either.

Monday: a valiant attempt at normal

An attempt was made to get back to normal.

But Ben was home sick from work today.

And Isaac came home from school really sick.  Apparently he got hit with it right near the end, and had to tough out a little bit.  We got home and he curled right up in bed.  Then he went to the bathroom and curled up for the next hour on the floor.  He finally started feeling a bit better after that, although it was probably due to medicine.  

We got a new cat fountain because our old one bit the dust.  As Joshua was unpacking it he said it looked like a vault.

I forgot to talk about the Lego challenge Joshua gave us yesterday.  It was to build a microscale something.

I built a windmill.  The windmill and river was good, but the flowers are a bit too big.  I ran out of time though.

Isaac made a volcano just as it is erupting.

Ben made a tree house village.

Joshua made the white house, a city square with fountain, and two toes of a giant about to step on everything.

Saturday: mostly normal

It was a mostly normal day.  We played a game, worked on some Lego sets, and did some work.

I played a game with Isaac for his math homework.  It was one of the most boring games we've played in a long time.  It was a domino style match the percent/fraction/decimal, but there were only three options: 1/4, 1/2, 1, along with a blank.  On the up-side, we were able to speed through the game very quickly and can call it done. 

Isaac also blew up a balloon-in-a-balloon and was having a ball (a balloon??) with it.  The inside balloon often provides a suction and will stop the outer balloon from shrinking, which is not really what I was expecting to happen.  There were a lot of giggles.  He'll probably eventually knot off the outer balloon, but that hasn't happened yet.