Thursday: book

 I'm reading a book right now that has a spell book as a minor character.  I don't think I've laughed out loud from reading a book this much in a long time.  There is just something about this spell book that tickles my funny bone.  The series is Mage Errant by John Bierce.  I'm on book 4.

Spoiler ahead. (I tried making it disappear like a nice spoiler, but it didn't work easily.  So I just put it far away.)

First, the book is found eating some coals because it wants to spit them out at children.  It thinks this would make it into a dragon.

Later the book is found trying to become a parrot.  The nearby parrots tolerate it.

It doesn't know how to apologize, so it keeps dumping slimy fish on someone.

Wednesday: Happy Pretend Birthday!

This morning Joshua made me rest on the couch while he made my breakfast.  It was perfect.

Isaac's been wanting to do a Pretend Happy Birthday for Ben for a while now.  Ben had a bad day yesterday and Isaac finished school pretty early again today, so I thought that today would be a good option.

There were several decorations and a little moving of furniture so that they could yell "Surprise!"

He even got some birthday presents (tissue paper and a small Lego set).  They gave him a few options of a birthday thing to eat, including a parfait, granola bar, popcorn, or mug cake.  (Joshua went through the whole pantry trying to find something that Ben would like and that is a little healthy.)  Ben picked parfait, but we'll see if the boys remember in the morning.

Tuesday: school

 Joshua has his picture taken with several collections yesterday.

Today he had to retell a story, and could tell it to a lovie, so he chose Spark and to do it in bed.

My classes also went well today.  It was a pivot table practice day, and one of the few days I actually suggest partner work.  Most students chose to partner up, and there was a lovely hum of voices in the room for once.  In the past, there is usually a hum as students work together and talk and try to figure things out together (with the exception of a very notable, very silent class a few years ago).  This year they're not sitting close together and it is really hard to see another's screen, so it just doesn't happen nearly as much.

Sunday: shorts

 I really like summer wear because it takes so long for the boys to grow out of it.

My six year old is still wearing 24m shorts...with darts in them.

To be fair, there have been some shorts lately that have looked too short.  Mostly on Isaac or pajamas on Joshua though.

Friday: in pictures

 Tornado was cute.

Isaac put a bunch of pencil spots on his leg.

The cats sat in the clean laundry.

Grey Bear joined up for a walk "in case something scary" happened.  I'm not sure what was going through his mind, but I'm always happy to have Grey Bear join us.

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.