Sunday: cleaning time

This afternoon was our house cleaner's last day, as she is off on new adventures next week.  However, the past...year and a half?...I loved having her come.  It gave us a time that was blocked off as cleaning time.  Most of the time the house looked incredibly better after she left.  (The times it didn't weren't her fault...it usually meant that something weird was going on that I needed to take care of.)  I also enjoyed not needing to do some of the monotonous chores all the time.  Anyway, it worked very well and so a new high schooler is starting next week.

During this time Isaac needs to clean his bedroom.  Hmm, I should rephrase that.  Isaac is strongly encouraged to clean his bedroom, as there are consequences if he doesn't.  (No screen time or playing with parents until it's clean.)  Joshua is starting to clean his room.  He still gets some help and a lot of guidance, but it's coming along.  Today the boys decided to play together instead.  I regularly reminded them of the consequences, which helped them clean for a few minutes, and then they starting playing together again.

It was almost dinnertime and they realized that they wouldn't get to watch Ben and I play our ten minutes of video games because they hadn't cleaned their rooms.  Needless to say, the rooms were clean within about fifteen minutes.  Oh!  Isaac got some new dressers.  I have a few plans for rearranging Joshua's room too, as his current set-up isn't working well for me.  Isaac's dressers are still mostly unfilled, as we haven't moved the stuff back into his room yet.

Saturday: Laura Ingalls Wilder

I've read the Little House on the Prairie series a dozen times or so.  I just finished Pioneer Girl, which was the original basis for most of the stories.  It is geared towards older readers and has more truth and less fiction.  It is also annotated, which was lovely.  The annotations gave glimpses of what really happened or just a little more information that modern readers wouldn't know.

It kind of makes me want someone to write up my life.  I've kept journals on and off from around eighth grade, when we were required to do it.  Readers wouldn't get everything that happens in my life or some of my deepest thoughts, but sometimes the most interesting things are what happens in a normal life.  So if you know of someone looking to write an endearing biography (semi-fictionalized or not) about a normal person, send them my way.

Friday: opening

Today was a day of openings.

Joshua opened the fridge by himself for the first time.  So I now have a separator in the bottom shelf, and they can both put their own drinks away.

Isaac opened the rear hatch of the car by himself.  (He got it all the way up, not just unlatched.)

Thursday: family

Nathan and his family came up for most of the day.  We started with some donuts.  Since it was cold and lightly raining, we had to rethink some of our plans.  We went to one church playground only to discover that they are closed during the summer.  So we went to the Nature Center, but then I remembered that there was another church playground across the street from it.  Happily, it was open.  Happily, it was perfect.  Not too big, not too busy, and the kids could run around.

At one point they were playing follow the leader.  (This was Isaac's favorite part of the day, by the way).  Later one only Isaac was playing follow the leader...he lead and didn't seem to care that no one was following him.

We picked up lunch and ate at home.  The kids played.  It was nice.

Wednesday: cuteness

Amanda: Isaac, you're cute.
Isaac: Well, when I look in the mirror...I don't think I'm cute.  But I'm glad you think so.

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We received a boxful of Legos yesterday and the boys really wanted to inventory it.  So that was their activity of choice several times today.  I figured if they did it then Ben and I didn't have to later.

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After lunch the boys decided to try and make the TV come alive.  They did a dance and a yell/chant.  It didn't work.  The TV remained inanimate.

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We cut down some tree branches.  I dragged them up to the driveway where Isaac cut them into smaller pieces.  Joshua pushed them to the other side of the driveway on his riding toy.  Since the branches were now on the opposite side of the yard waste bin, Isaac moved the yard waste bin so that pushing the branches to the other side made sense.

Tuesday: puppy dogs resting

...although not for very long.

At story time last Wednesday the leader asked if we had any dogs at home.  (Joshua said his name was Puppy Dog.)  Isaac said, "Two."  I almost smacked my forehead.

Sunday: Wild Chef

We went to Wild Chef for lunch for my birthday today.  It was fun.  The boys seemed to enjoy it too.

The fire was a bit scary, but they made it.