Wednesday: pictures

It was a pretty normal day today; I did the boring chores.  I did a few interesting chores, went on a walk with Cheryl, and went to karate too.

There have been a few pictures of the kids that I didn't take but wanted to share.  First we have Isaac during youth group.  I've never been in this part of the church (and I think the mural is new).  He's in the yellow shirt near the bottom right of the picture.

Every few months Joshua takes a little test at piano and levels up.  (Kind of like a karate belt system.)  I get these nice pictures every time, but usually forget to share them.  It looks like Joshua has been there for two years!  He might get a trophy too.  He really likes the trophies but they take a little bit of time to come in.

Tuesday: bike

Isaac stayed home today; I stayed home for an extra hour in the morning but he spent most of the day by himself.  Unsurprisingly, he was fine by himself.  Also, he was doing better today so he'll go back to school tomorrow.

Joshua and I went on a bike ride this afternoon.  We were going to bike to church, but then he said he needed more books so we went to the library instead.

Monday: boxes

I got rid of a bunch of boxes today!

I also got EE-oo out, per the kids' request.  I was worried that it wasn't going to work for a few minutes, but then I popped one of the batteries back in.  Oh - Isaac ended up with a fever at 4:30am so stayed home from school.  He felt mostly fine all day, but has lost his voice.

Sunday

Isaac woke up complaining of a sore throat, and after church said he had a little headache.  We had lunch, I took a nap, and after I woke up Isaac's voice was even more scratchy.  He started walking distractedly walking around the dining room.  He's a teen boy, and he does this some times.  I told him to go take his temperature - expecting it to come back normal.  Well, it came back at 100.4F.  Well, that meant he couldn't go to the get together tonight. :(

The get together was nice - it always is.

Isaac's temperature was normal right before bed.  His voice was worse though.

Saturday: getting rid of stuff

This morning I brought the futon mattress and non-working mini fridge to the monthly trash collection.  I was a bit nervous because I've never done one of these before, but it, unsurprisingly, went just fine.  And then I was really glad to have that stuff out of the house!  Monday morning I'll be getting rid of some of the other donation boxes.  Yay!

Besides that, it was a pretty normal day.  Legos, a bike ride, nap, game, D&D.

Thursday: the drive in

The drive into school has been rough lately: the sun is at just the right angle to match the stop lights, the sun is directly in my eyes, and I always seem to end up at the front of the line for red lights.

But then today we were behind a small dump truck.  I have never been so happy to be behind a truck before.

Then, after dropping the kids off I hit a whole bunch of green lights.  It was lovely.

Wednesday: reading

After school and biking, Joshua read for 15 minutes.  Then Isaac said he was done with his daily chores and could read for 15 minutes.  Then Joshua decided he had enough time, so he read for another 15 minutes.

I came to the realization that I might be the person in this family that reads the least.  I'm not sure whether I should be happy or sad about that.  (Although sometimes Joshua and I might switch.  I think we're often close.)

Isaac just started the Bobiverse series and it has piqued his interest.

Tuesday: Triangle Day!

I didn't even think about the date until I heard about it on the radio.  It's 9.16.25.  Yay for Pythagoras!

Monday: getting things done

I got a lot of things done today!  I guess most of them were pretty short, but they needed to be done nevertheless.

I had coffee with Pat and we took a short walk; it was nice.

Karate was ok.  There was a twenty minute karate discussion in the middle.  It was on-topic, but I wasn't exercising during that time.

Sunday: forbiddens

 Last night we played Forbidden Desert.  We lost to the game, spectacularly.  We have a rule in the house that the winner needs to put the game away, so it got left on the table to put itself away.

Surprise surprise, it didn't put itself away.  On top of that, more forbidden games showed up.

Since it was out, we decided to get rid of Forbidden Sky.  I think we played it all of twice, once when we massively cheated and one when we turned into ghosts but still didn't win.

Friday: rock show

We went to the rock show today.  Joshua got an amazing geode.  They break them open for you, so you don't know what it will look like ahead of time.  Usually they're pretty solid because they're cheap, but nice and sparkly.  This time Joshua's geode had a hole inside, like the cool ones have.

As we were leaving there was a pool of rocks with a sign that said "Free! Pick a rock!"  Isaac had chosen several, and when I mentioned it was only one rock he said, in the saddest voice, "oh, I guess the sign does say only one."

Joshua and I went on a bike ride when we got home.  We didn't really want to, but the weather was perfect.  It ended up being quite enjoyable.  (We dropped off an overdue book at the library.  It's nice when there is a place to go.)

Thursday: normal

Really, it was a pretty normal day.  So let's talk about Joshua's lovies, as they all have personalities.

Grey Bear
Grey Bear is the oldest of the group, and the one who loves the most.  He is a kind soul.  He loves napping with people and going out of the house.  He's rather sad that he doesn't get to go everywhere with Joshua anymore, so especially enjoys going on vacations.  He also has a friend that is a zebra.

There were several other lovies who had been part of the core group who are now just in Joshua's bed and only come out once in a while.

Creeper
Creeper is the next oldest, but he isn't very old - about three years.  Creeper really likes explosions and anything that is even explosion-like.  He also is the grump of the group and tends to hold opinions that are opposite those of everyone else.  That being said, he is still a nice Creeper and sometimes is unexpectedly nice.

Catcachino
Catcachino is only about a year old.  He likes drinks.  Apple juice, spice tea, milk, water, he loves them all.

Snaxalotl
Snaxalotl showed up about a month after Catcachino.  He likes snacks!  Joshua only lets him have two per day.  He also has a snack shop where he can get pretty much any snack he wants.  However, he often has whatever treats we have that day tend to be the treats he gets too.  He likes to go outside and swim, but not as much as Grey Bear.  He has a pool that he can swim in too.

Catnana
Catnana likes bananas.  Since he's only been with us a short time his personality is still developing though.

Wednesday: exercise

I knew there were plans for quite a bit of exercise today, but I didn't really add it all up.

1) I biked to lunch with a friend.  Honestly, I had forgotten about the lunch and looked at my phone eight minutes before we were supposed to meet.  The restaurant is close, but there's a ton of construction and the fast way through is often closed.  I had been planning on biking (partially because the short way is closed for cars, partly because the restaurant isn't that far), but I went a bit faster than normal. 

2) Joshua and I biked to the library, taking the long way around.  It was actually pretty close to the amount of time I wanted to bike for his exercise, so that was nice.  I have been enjoying biking around with him lately.

3) I went to karate.  As with every new year, the schedule changes.  This year karate needs to be Monday and Wednesday to help drive on Tuesday and Thursday.  We worked on forms; they are my favorite.

4) Normal household chores.  Between groceries, laundry, and feeding the compost worms, I carried things all over.  I didn't get an amazing amount done, but I was happy with what I got done.

Tuesday: evening

Joshua came down to the basement for questions, and then, as normal, chose two lovies to also get questions.  Grey Bear was second, and his bad part was that he really wanted to be a parachute.  (He was just looking extra parachute-y and he loves going outside, but rarely gets to anymore.)  Joshua and Ben both laughed, but I was a bit surprised about it...it wasn't that amazing of a bad part.  It turns out that they had just had a similar discussion after books about Catachino using Grey Bear as a parachute.  I promise I did not hear that discussion and it was total coinedence.

Ten minutes later Isaac came down to discuss plans and he only had one slipper on.  "I couldn't find the other," he said.  (It was found in the laundry the next morning.)

Monday: chores

 Creeper was required to be part of nap pile today.  He was not amused.

I got through a bunch of chores today, although I'll also be honest that a lot of them were less than five minutes.  I know that per all the advice I'm just supposed to do the chores that are only a few minutes, but that just doesn't work.  But, it sure is a lot of fun to check the items off.

Sunday: D&D

We played a bit more of the D&D campaign today.  Isaac made a fun cave.

We're also watching the live action Lilo & Stitch with meals, and Joshua commented that Creeper is a lot like Stitch.  So today's bad ...and good!...parts were that Joshua made that comment.  Creeper has complicated emotions.  A few days ago Creeper's bad part was nap pile, but Joshua had thoughtfully put him on the couch so that he didn't have to join nap pile.  It turns out that Creeper hates nap pile so much that he doesn't want others having nap pile either.  But his good part was also nap pile, as he was really glad he didn't have to join.

Saturday

 It was a normal and not normal Saturday.  Ben and I didn't have any plans, but Joshua ended up spending the afternoon with a friend and Isaac has a pool party in the evening.

Friday: cleaning

Friday is my day to work on Operation: Clean the House.  While I'd love to do this more, I've kind of found that Monday needs to be "get the stuff off the to do list" and Wednesday is "do the weekly chores", for the most part.

Anyway, I cleaned up the paint can area, getting rid of several things that were there since we moved in.  I also went through two boxes that I was not looking forward to dealing with.  There was a bunch of stuff that needed to be washed, a few things to donate, and a few things to put in other locations.  But the boxes are gone!  I also got a few things off of a shelf because I had a different place to put them.

I'm working my way from the back corner towards the front, more or less.  I'm probably about 2/5 of the way done, but I did do some other things early on to make the space usable, so I'm more than 2/5 of the way through the whole clean.

Thursday: weird

Today was a weird day.

I saw a rainbow on my way in to work.

When I got to work, there was a manager loudly reprimanding one of his workers across the hall.  I could only hear half the conversation, but even hidden in my office it was rather uncomfortable.  (I'm not sure about the appropriateness.  Not knowing anything about the situation, some seemed fine and some a bit extra.  The main thing was the volume.)

I caught my first student using AI to submit a summary of some articles.  I'll be honest - I haven't really been on the look out for it.  But I decided that this semester I should look harder.  Due to other considerations this isn't quite as cut and dry as most academic incident reports, which is a bit annoying.

I picked Isaac up for PATH and saw the family that he car-pooled with last year there at the same time.  They volunteered to drive the whole year last year, which was a huge blessing.  (I offered several times.)  So now I'll probably contact them again to see if they're interested in car-pooling, but I feel a bit awkward doing so since I was the one that benefited so much last year.

The chicken nuggets we had for dinner where a different shape.  They were about half the size of a normal nugget.

Catcachino managed to dirty his bottom again.  What is up with that?

Wednesday: cats

The cats stole the camera roll today.

Tuesday: blue route

It was a rather busy day.  Not the busiest, but there were a lot of things that needed to get done.

Work was fine.  The chair-to-be found me and anxiously asked if I'm planning to teach again next year.  I am!  They are very happy to have me and I'm very happy to have this job.  I do think that another section for a semester would be a good idea to get some of the backlog through so that students are taking it at a better point in their curriculum, but finding someone could be hard.

Isaac had the first of two days of rock climbing trials tonight.  That being said, today really was optional for him.  It was an open trial meant especially for new and younger athletes.  However, most of the older athletes were there too...they're all just so excited to get started and think, "Team!  Climb!  Let's go!!"

I climbed for the first half hour.  I had a very nice time.  This is probably one of the first times I've climbed by myself - usually Isaac or Joshua is also climbing and it changes things.  Anyway, my plan was to not even look at the bouldering wall.  I was just going to do the auto-belays.  I like belays the best, but I also figured there would be a ton of kids that were climbing on the bouldering walls.  Anyway, I finished the blue route!  I've been working on it for a few days and the holds are skinny.  There is still some hold to grab on to, but they aren't great jugs.  Several times I've been one hold from the top and have just run out of steam.  I tried it several times today, not quite getting there.  Then I took a longer break, chatting with another mom, and tried it one more time.  I got it!  It was a great way to end.  Oh, the level is a 5.9.  I can do 5.9 routes, but it usually takes some work before I get them.  There is also a 5.10- that I've made some progress on, but they do get harder.

I still had some chores when I got home.  They were important and I was still going so they weren't too bad to do, but I am now tired.  Good thing it's time for bed!

Monday: labor day

It was a pretty easy day.  Joshua and I took a nice bike ride in the morning.  He resisted me all summer with the bike, but once we finally did it he realized he does like it.  Anyway, it was a nice ride.

We got some work done.  

We played some more of Isaac's D&D champaign.  We fought a dinosaur this time.

I'm not very excited to go to work tomorrow.  But off we go.

Sunday: fun chores

Once in a while chores are fun.  Today the kids started taking apart the box spring.  We didn't really know what to expect inside, so it was an interesting project.

We played more D&D today.  It was good, although not as good as yesterday.  I was a horse the whole thing and just said, "neigh" once in a while when I wanted to say no.  Giraffe got in on the action when some farie dragons polymorphed some flowers into a giraffe.  We also met a unicorn.

Saturday: D&D

Isaac has been working on his own D&D champaign for several months.  He has spent a lot of time on it.  It isn't finished, but it is far enough along that we decided that we should just start.  We started last week but it was just a introduction section.

Today we went into the forest.  We met a shady character but nothing happened.  We met a wandering traveler and didn't buy his shiny rocks.  We ran into a group of goblins.  Joshua is the most charismatic of all of us (and I was a warhorse) so he decided to talk to the goblins and see if we could just go safely by them.

They wanted his shield.  (Of course not.)  They wanted his sword.  (No way.)  They wanted something shiny.  Oh no!  We didn't buy any shiny gems.  Without missing a beat, Joshua offers them the shiny wrapper of his granola bar.  They decided they also wanted the granola bar.  And, just like that, we were able to continue on our way.

Friday: no school

Yesterday Joshua came home with his baritone.  It's so big compared to him.  Luckily though, the school has enough baritones that he can have one at school and one at home, so he doesn't have to lug it back and forth.

Today was nice.  We went on a bike ride in the morning.  The weather was lovely and the road was nice and smooth.  (There have been a ton of scooters and roller blades now that the road is smooth.  It's been fun to see.)

In the afternoon we went to the other rock climbing place.  It was a good time.  There were some fun routes.  Joshua only had a medium good time, but we did a take-away and he bought himself a donut and then read for a bit.

Wednesday: road

They've been resurfacing our road.  Yesterday the ground the old stuff out and today they put the new stuff on.  The letter that we received two months ago said that we'd have access to our houses.  They lied.

Not by much, but when Ben tried going down our road today they wouldn't let him.  He said he had a broken foot and couldn't walk that far.  The construction guy was unhelpful and said he'd have to wait a few hours.  We ended up have Ben park at our neighbor's house, since their driveway is on the opposite road that was already finished.  Then he could scooter up their walkway and only needed to walk across one lawn.  There might have been others doing the same thing.  (What would have happened if I was trying to go get the kids from school during this time?  There was a work-around here, but if things are going to be closed for more than 15 minutes I feel like we should be warned.

Isaac and I went to the Tulip City Rock Group tonight.  They had a silent auction.  There were some cool pieces.  There was also a junior table, which was only for kids 18 and under.  There were only three kids there and one only bid on a few things.  Isaac came back with some really nice pieces for $23 total.  We needed to get a bag because we wouldn't have been able to carry all of them in our hands.  Also, we talked to some people this time!  It was a little less awkward than last time, so maybe we'll go again.

Furthermore, we found out that we'll get in free at the rock show in two weeks - when you consider that it is $20 for the family to be members for a year and we can go to the rock show for free, this is an activity that pretty much pays for itself. 

Tuesday: first day

Today was my first day of classes!  They went well, except that the wireless internet was crazy slow.  And sometimes Moodle was really slow.  Since I mostly talk on the first day it wasn't too big of a deal, but it made for some annoying moments.

Also, I have a good conversation from yesterday:
Isaac: Hey Dad, what is the time you've come closest to dying

Ben and Amanda think: what what?

Isaac: ...  ... in D&D?

Ben: dude.  Phrasing.

Monday: naps

All the lovies and Horizon were ready for naps at 8:30 this morning.

Nap pile!  Creeper despises nap pile but everyone else loves it.

I also uninflated our inflatables, and used a clothes pin to help.  I'm not sure why I've never done this before.  I felt like a genius for thinking of it and an idiot for not thinking of it sooner.

Sunday: animals

Tornado was stalking something outside:

But they must have learned that it's safe to come to the deck, despite the cat in the door and the fact that I was picking raspberries 10ft away.  (They enjoy the dropped bird seed.)

I also found this amazing dragonfly on the raspberry bushes.  It is prime raspberry season, so I didn't pick all the raspberries.  Therefore, I decided I could leave him alone and get the raspberries tomorrow.

Saturday: colors

This morning Isaac had a local rock climbing competition.  The expansion was opened up (briefly) for the first time.  There weren't quite as many people either, so it was a bit less busy than normal.  Isaac was in the intermediate category this year so it was quite a bit harder.  However, he still got two tops and several zones.

My raisin bread was good.

Cheryl and I did a guided painting in the evening.  My grass looks way different from the example painting, but I couldn't get nice little thin strokes like the example (the second one below).  It ended up being a feature; you can see the moon through the grass.

Friday: a bit better

My chores today were a bit better.  I started working on the storage room again.  While it never got as bad as it originally was, over the summer it did get significantly worse.  I didn't get to the bad part (yet), but did finish the mini project that I had started before summer.

I made a new bread today - apple juice and raisin.  It smells really good, but I just pulled it out of the oven so I haven't tasted it yet.

Thursday: first day of school

I forgot to share this lovely conversation from two days ago:

Isaac: where'd you get so much cinnamon and sugar?  I though we only had a small spice jar of it. Amanda: ...I made it.
Isaac: ...
Amanda: ...
Isaac: oh! You mixed cinnamon and sugar! 

Anyway, we had some first day pictures.  Joshua was not excited about this.

I got a lot done, but it wasn't exciting.

I also changed out pictures on the picture wall.  We've done too many fun things in the last six months and I had too many pictures to change out...I got rid of some really cute ones and was a bit sad about it.

Wednesday: furniture

It was a good last day of summer.

We biked to donuts.  It was a bit misty, but not enough to stop us.  The donuts were good.

We moved Isaac's new bed frame into his room.  It was outside his room last night, which took up a lot of room.

We put some cubes together for the basement. 

We got a cute cubby for the cats too.

After lunch the local mission picked up a dresser, so that is finally out of the main area too.  Isaac and Joshua worked well together and got the electronics on Isaac's bed working.  I was a bit surprised they managed to get it working without me, but I was also pleasantly surprised.

Lastly, we went bowling.  It's been a while since I've gone.  I did a really good job of getting 9 points a frame: 13 out of 20 frames I ended up with 9 points.

Tuesday: life

We were going to bike to the donut shop this morning, but it was raining.  (We need the rain a lot, and I love rain, so it was a happy thing.)  So we switched days and made Empty Tomb Rolls instead.  I promised the kids that we would make them, but Easter was busy.

But that's ok...we should celebrate the resurrection of Christ all the time!

Well, the marshmallows didn't melt like they were supposed to, and so we all laughed about this.  And...the presence of Christ should expand.  They still tasted good.

The kids had a library event, but after a ton of traffic I managed to go to the wrong branch.  I've remembered to check every other library event, but just assumed for this one.  We made it to the right one about fifteen minutes late, but they were very kind about it.  It was for a cardboard cutting machine, and then the kids made cacti out of cardboard.  While they were doing the event one other mom and I finished up the puzzle we've been working on for a while.

And then it was meet the teacher night!  Joshua's room is very nice and his teacher seems down-to-earth.  We brought school supplies in, and left with more school supplies.  They were giving out boxes of supplies to all students.  We stopped by the art room to talk about art club - I'm hoping Joshua will be interested in it and I think stopping in helped that a ton.  Isaac is also interested, but it would also make his Tuesday's really busy so he was thinking no.  We walked around Isaac's classrooms.  He has many similar teachers as last year so that's mostly nice.  Finally, we stopped by the music room so Joshua could select an instrument for band.  He decided on baritone.  The school has some baritones to loan out and since not many students select baritone we might be able to use it for the year for free.

I got to open some great presents when we got home.

Monday: mini donuts

 We made mini-donuts with the sourdough starter today.  They were good, but not amazing.  I don't think they'll be on my list to make again soon, although the kids could probably persuade me to make them one or twice a year.

Sunday: today

Today was fine; nothing too exciting to write about.

We met the new Student Ministry Director (grades 6-12) after church.  It was billed as a meet and greet so I thought it would be about 15 minutes, but everyone sat down and it was more meeting like and took 45 minutes.

The family game was Century: Golem edition.  It's one of the games Joshua willingly plays.  Anyway, this game played out very differently as we bought almost all of the gem trading cards.  Usually we only buy a few, focusing on buying the golem cards.  Everyone had fun with it because it was playing out very differently.  (I still didn't win.  I triggered the end of the game, but didn't manage to win.  Again.  I'm not sure if I've ever won this game, but don't have any proof of that.)

Saturday: friends

We had some friends over tonight.  It was a lovely time, as always.  The kids played in the basement, in the lake, and then in the basement again.  The adults enjoyed catching up.

Friday: normal day

It was a normal day today: I had plans to get lots of things done and only got a few things done.