Thursday: starting them early

 I started Joshua on two monitors today for school.  There was a book he had to listen to and then put 10 animals in the correct order as seen in the book.  I'm not sure that's something that I could do without a lot of back and forth.  I know kindergartners can have a surprising memory, but he got the order wrong once and needed to redo it.  So I set him up so that he could have the story on one and do the activity on the other.

Isaac did an excellent job of keeping himself on track today.  There was a lot of stuff that he wasn't very excited about, but he kept at it without prompting.

I actually made dinner today.  (Actually, I made two dinners but one needs to marinate for a day or so.)  It was a new recipe and way to salty.  Oh well.  I at least tried something different.

Wednesday: masks

 Everyone is wearing masks at Hope.  It's good.  However, I've realized that I'm made assumptions about what the students look like under the mask and when I video chat with them they almost always look different.  It is a weird feeling.  Some faces get wider, some faces get narrower.  Ok, I haven't done a video chat with a ton of students, but enough that it's weird.

I'm giving a quiz tomorrow and it's turning into a small nightmare.  Out of 46 students, I think I'm up to eight (maybe nine?) that can't be in class or can't take it during class.  The plan that I had was good when I just needed to deal with a few students, and it isn't terrible for many students, but I think I need a different one for the next quiz.  The number ballooned rather quickly, catching me off guard.  (Please keep in mind that there are a large variety of reasons for the students to not be in class: they are not all COVID related.  I usually have at least two or three students that need to take it at another time.)

The other news is that Isaac signed his first check today.  It's next to a Lego set that he bought with some of the money and he and Joshua have been playing with it all day.

Tuesday: dress

 Cheryl got me a new dress.  She said it hollered "Amanda" to her and she was completely right.  It has books on it and I cut the style.

In other news, Isaac's teacher is letting me be in charge of his math homework again.  I am going with the slightly easier route of buying a pre-algebra workbook instead of making my own pages.  I know it isn't quite as engaging, but this is what needs to happen this semester.

I also ordered groceries, finally!  The house still has plenty of food, but the shelves are looking more bare than normal.

Monday: meh

 It was just a meh day.  Nothing really bad, nothing really good.  I'm trying to get remote desktop into a PC set up for a Mac and I couldn't figure it out.  It's a bit awkward because everyone I work with has little experience with Macs and almost all the students have macs.  To make the class work with COVID isolation and quarantine in a few weeks I need to have it up and running, but I couldn't get it and CIT was surprisingly unhelpful.  (They're usually great.)  I have the request in to someone else, but feel like a bother.

Isaac had a dentist appointment.  Joshua had karate.  Several of the observers didn't have masks or weren't wearing them correctly and it makes me feel unsafe.  If it continues I'll mention it, but don't really feel like I have the authority to say something.  I just moved to a different location. (People are spread out well, but...)

I feel about two steps behind and that I'm missing something major.  I think rather than that actually being the case it is just how the semester is going to feel.  Multi-tasking is hard.  I'm trying to accomplish teaching-work, house-work, Isaac's school, Joshua's school, and remembering miscellaneous things all at the same time (often very literally).  It's usually more compartmentalized.  If I remind myself of this sometimes maybe it'll help.

Sunday: play

 I moved Isaac's bed into Joshua's room this morning.  I put it at a 90º angle under Joshua's loft.  I was immediately reprimanded by the boys because it wasn't good for jumping.  After being annoyed at them because moving the bed would take up so much floor space I let them do it anyway.  Jumping commenced.

Joshua tried a new recipe today: Crispex with tasty water.  He didn't like it.

We helped Larry and Cheryl move some things from the boat to their house today.  The boys especially loved the wagon.

Saturday: the day

 I started by doing some work around the house.  I'm slowly getting rid of some of the planters on the back deck because they're heavy and they only grow weeds.  I found out today that one of them had three huge rocks in it.  Why?  It made the thing SO heavy when it needed to be moved.  And it was large enough that it wasn't in danger of tipping over.

I then pretended that as long as the washing machine/dryer was running I was doing work and read my book.

We briefly went to the dojang for promotions.  We all got new colors for our belts.  I've heard red is hard...there are a lot of levels in it, but it is the last one before black.

Isaac and I are now Christmas trees for a short while until the red uniforms come in.

We had a rainbow of belts when we got home.

Tonight Isaac and Joshua told me, in stereo, that they both sleep better when the other person is in the room.  This has been the case for Joshua for a long time, but apparently Isaac has been having some bad dreams lately.  (It's apparently going around.  Ben complained of it a few days ago and I woke up three times last night due to bad dreams.  I'll sometimes wake up once, but three is a bit much.)  I think we're going to move Isaac's bed into Joshua's room and see how that goes for a bit.  I don't want to be continually moving the bed, but I also see no reason not to let them sleep together as long as they can get good sleep. 

Friday: absurd

On the only slightly absurd end of the spectrum today, Joshua made a s'more.  Except that it only had two mini marshmellows and a tiny amount of Nutella, so calling it a s'more was a stretch.  He enjoyed it though.

On the more absurd side, Isaac was making a small cup out of Legos.  He put some tape over the Legos to make it water-proof, but it had a small drip in it.  The tape was in his bedroom, so he went into his bedroom to fix it and realized he didn't want water in the cup anymore.  So he poured it on his carpet.  We have been having several water issues with Isaac lately, and every time I say that spilled water is going to ruin something if it isn't cleaned up.  Every time.  Sometimes I yell it.  This time I laughed it.  But I have said it over and over and over again.  His only saving grace was that he told me without me having to pull it out of him.