Ben captured a good picture of Horizon yesterday in a cave Joshua had made.
Today was a pretty normal day - I knocked out a lot of little things on the to do list, but not quite as many as I was hoping. Part of that is that Isaac offered to work on the puzzle together instead of screen time, and there was no way I was going to turn that offer down. Joshua joined us when his screen time was done.
I had a lovely Mother's Day today. Joshua hung up some cute hearts. They gave me a puzzle, chocolate, and a small Lego set. Isaac made a scavenger hunt. We played Space Base.
We went to brunch with Ben's family, and it was delicious. It was also nice to see them again; it's been a bit. We took pictures afterwards and I included all the ones of our family. The boys were trying to hard to smile nicely, but they're vampires and can't keep their eyes open and smile. Some of the results are pretty silly.
Joshua suggested we do puzzles together this afternoon, and it was perfect. I had recently been thinking it was about time for a puzzle! We also finished our movie and played some Poyo-poyo-tetris.
While it's been a great week full of seeing people and doing things, I was also exceptionally glad to have nothing on the calendar today. As normal, I got my chores started. I worked on putting away laundry for 30 minutes, only to still have the non-bedroom stuff to still put away. (To be fair, I didn't put away any laundry last week so there was more than normal.) I decided to take a nap instead. Sure, it was a morning nap. But things were just not quite working.
Luckily, all my friends were waiting for nap time.
Today was the big day! The weather had been looking cold and rainy earlier in the week, but it was getting slightly warmer and less rainy as the week went on. By this morning it was 62deg and 40% rain. However, two hours later it was 61deg and 100% rain for the whole time. Needless to say, it changed several of my plans.
My plan ended up working quite well. I picked up Isaac and we quickly ate lunch at home. I dropped Isaac off at Hope College, putting him in my office, while I parked the car closer to the end of the parade. The parade isn't really all that long, about 1.5 miles, but I expected Isaac would be rather tired at the end and didn't want to make him walk a loop.
The rain was drizzly at this point and it continued this way through the rest of the afternoon. However, it wasn't windy so my umbrella worked well.
I dropped Isaac off and he exchanged the umbrella for a poncho. I then walked down the parade route a bit and found a place to sit. It was rather nice to be by myself. It made it easy to navigate and I didn't need to watch kids and make sure they weren't bored or wet. I saw a ton of people that I knew, although I didn't say hi to all of them since some were far away. (I also saw one friend three times! One while they were heading to street scrubbing, one during scrubbing, and one while they were coming back.) If I get to do it this way again next year I might consider doing the street sweeping. (Joshua had a full day of school since I didn't take him out for the parade. They watched a movie and I think it was the best choice for everyone.)
Isaac is the bass drum on the inside...so two people in from the edge.
This morning, around 5:45am, I awoke to a chirp. Oh bother. It isn't an urgent chirp, and I don't want a repeat of a few weeks ago, so I continue to listen. I hear four chirps, evenly spaced. Ok, I'll figure out what's going on. I stand up and reach for my robe...and the chirps stop. Well, I'm invested now. I do my house check: fridge, oven, freezer. I continue to not hear any more chirps.
I think a bird was playing a trick on me. Ben thinks the bird will be back tomorrow to show its friends the new trick it discovered, but I'm hoping the bird got a good laugh and is gone.
Joshua seems to be enjoying rock climbing more lately.
Tornado was cute.
Well, I've finished grades. Mostly - I still need to enter the grades into the system but that will only take a few minutes. I also went on a lovely walk with a friend and started to get a hold on the chores that I've been ignoring.
As normal for exam week, I'm behind on house chores. I'm currently over halfway through grading the final exam...so things are moving forward. Slowly, but surely. I finally got around to running the dishwasher (twice!) and was able to sort the laundry and put away the last the groceries.
In an order to keep it real, here's what the kitchen looked like for most of the week:
Today I graded. I graded a lot and didn't get as far as I was hoping, but it could have been worse. I took a short break to transport kids and start a final exam for a few students. I was a bit disorganized, but got everything set within a reasonable amount of time. Then more grading. Then a break to transport kids and go rock climbing. The kids are really good teachers, but the gym was really busy today and that is a bit intimidating. There was one route I wanted to try again but didn't because of the people there. I think it'll be up for a bit though, so I should have another chance at it. Then home for dinner, more grading, and computer games.
It wasn't an exciting day, but not too bad all things considering.
I was at Isaac's school early to pick him up after band. (The errand I needed to do went quickly.) It was nice; I got to see them practice outside. I thought they were doing pretty well for a middle school band! The drums were especially good, although I could be biased.
For Giraffe's birthday we had taco salad (because Giraffe likes leaves), pineapple, and lemon bars (because Giraffe is yellow).
We went to visit Grandma today. Last time Ben brought Uno, so we played several games of that again. Then, since the weather was nice we took a short walk outside.
Tomorrow is Giraffe's Birthday, so we had half the party tonight. It involved a lot of balloon games and making Lego trees. Ben won the tree challenge.
This morning I went on a walk with a friend. We found a nice walking trail and the weather was beautiful. It was a bit windy at times, but didn't impede us too much.
We went to the Eagle Crest play this afternoon. It was actually pretty good...the sound was much better than in past years and I could understand most of it. Combined with a few funny characters and it was a good time.
At home we did Joshua's Lego challenge. He had some special pieces grouped up and we each got one set.
Isaac made a cool fighting mechanism that actually moved, but then he sat on it so I didn't get a picture.
I made a garden of Cheshire cats. I had a faces that I thought looked like Chershire cats and I couldn't unsee them, so I went with it. The garden includes lava flowers, sawblade flowers, flame flowers, a deadly water fountain, four cats and the leaves of death.
A friend dropped by this morning to bring some quilt tops over. She ended up staying for an hour while we chatted...usually we get together for lunch every week or two, but that hasn't happened recently. The visit was so much more than cleaning.
We also got some flowers for the summer. Isaac ended up getting a stick of bamboo, so I'm interested in seeing how well that grows. We also got a few different succulents for outside, so hopefully they all live.
Horizon sat on my boat this morning. We finished the game this evening and I won! I feel like it's been a while since I've won against Ben and Isaac. I'm not sure that's really true or if it is just how I feel. I had a good strategy this time and it worked.
Moving the bread to the other side of the cabinet was lovely. It made me happier than expected this morning.
Today was the last class of the semester. I really don't enjoy the first and last classes of the semester. For different reasons, but neither class really involves any teaching.
1. Ben, Isaac, and I are playing The Isle of Cats. It's a game during which you need to fill your boat with cats and treasure to win. Last night, Horizon was sitting on Isaac's boat to say he should win.
This morning, he was sitting on Ben's board.
2. Isaac took the labels off three bottles of tasty (i.e., water flavor squirty stuff). What was he thinking. They all look the same without the labels. He and Joshua worked well to figure out which was which and relabel them, but the process took several minutes and dinner was ready. It might have been funnier in different circumstances.
3. I switched the side of the cupboard on which the bread is stored and I think it's going to be a life changer. The old side required me to open two doors because one has the "don't see inside" bar on it.
So I'm in my karate class, working on my round-house kick. We're getting pretty technical with it, making sure it is being done exactly right and not just mostly correct.
The instructor tells me to make a line with my shoulders, hips, and knee. I look at him funny, because the hip to knee is also supposed to be parallel to the floor and then I can't see what I'm kicking. "A line?" I say. After finally understanding what he's trying to say and he understands what I'm thinking we realize that it is more a plane. The three points all need to be on the same plane. The instructor proceeded to laugh at me for my technicality, because no one else in the class would have been confused. (To be fair, I'm also about twenty-five years older than anyone else in the class.)
Today felt like a catch-up day. I'm not really sure what I was catching up from, perhaps Friday when I was gone on the field trip?
Anyway, I started trying to make apple chips. They're not very chip-y, but they are pretty good. The laundry got put away. The kitchen got cleaned. Phone calls (yuck) were made. Emails were sent. Some clutter was put away. It felt pretty productive today, but not amazing.
The best story I have today is actually from Joshua. He spilled his morning breakfast smoothie on his blanket. Since it isn't laundry day, I told him he'd have to wash it if he wanted it tonight. Of course, we both forgot after school. So at 7:14, while I was at karate, I have three texts from him. The first asking how to do laundry. The second pinging me: Mom? The third pinging me: Mom?? Honestly, I usually don't have my phone nearby during karate unless the kids are home alone. Isaac ended up helping Joshua out and it really made me feel like I won at parenting. (Yes, Ben was home. No, Joshua didn't ask Ben for help.)
