Sunday: tropical storm Ben

I was looking through the tropical storm names here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone_naming).  I found Joshua's, who belongs to Australia.  I kept looking and suddenly let out and "Oh!" of surprise.  Ben asked me what was up.  I mentioned that I found his name in the tropical storm list!  He was not as excited as I was, to say the least.

His name is actually in the queue for Southern Pacific Storms (Fiji and New Zealand), so next time there's a B storm that causes significant damage his name will go in that spot.  Then we can all be in rotation at the same time.  (Although Isaac and Amanda can never happen in the same year.  Ben and Joshua are on different types of lists that go through all the names in four or five lists and then just start over, so they could come at any point depending on how many storms there are.)

Saturday: I missed it

 I missed Joshua's tropical storm.  :(  I didn't even realize they had English named storms in the Indian Ocean.  I don't know when his storm will come around again.  It makes me wonder about Benjamin, who is now the only one missing.  We're also in different oceans, so that really only leaves the Arctic Ocean for Ben too. :D  I'll need to see what I can find out about the Indian Ocean hurricanes.

Friday: absurd morning

 At 6:45 this morning Joshua yelled something at Isaac.  It wasn't the "I'm a little frustrated", but it was the "I'm really mad!"  I got up to figure out what was going on, and Isaac turned on a light that Joshua wanted off.  So we talked about it and everyone apologized.  Then they immediately went into their rooms to get dressed...and left the room with the light.  So I don't understand why either of them cared.

At 7:45 this morning I gave the boys a muffin.  Of course, they brought it to the table and then got up and did something.  Isaac came back and started eating Joshua's muffin.  I noticed, and decided that I'd move Isaac along with Joshua's old muffin to the place were Isaac had been sitting.  Joshua didn't notice that there was a bite out of his muffin, but Isaac was so sad because the muffin he had already been eating didn't taste as good.  There were tears.

Later in the morning I retired Ben's old shirt.  It's lasted about almost 25 years, but it now has too many holes.

I was late to Joshua eye appointment.  It was at three and at three I realized we were supposed to be there.  They still let us come, but it meant everything took a bit longer.  Joshua is a bit far sighted, but that's actually pretty normal with little kids.  On the plus side, kids muscles are really strong, so they can usually compensate.  So no glasses this year, but definitely going back in a year.

Thursday: all's well that ends well

Isaac woke me up from my nap saying Joshua was hurt.  They were rough-housing and Joshua had bonked his head on the floor.  He didn't just shake it off like normal, and eventually went to take a nap.  When he got up he was still a bit out of it, resting on the couch.  I called the doctor's office.  I didn't expect a concussion, but at the same time Joshua wasn't acting normal.  We went in after dinner, by the time he was acting normal, and he doesn't have a concussion.   I've looked up the symptoms for them many times, but this is the first time we've made it to the doctor's office.

Also, Ben got some new socks.  Can I tell you how much I hate sock packaging?  It's almost worse then the anti-theft shrink plastic.  These socks were especially bad.  The plastic thing that holds them in place was so tight against the socks I really thought I was going to cut the socks.  It probably took me a good ten minutes to get all the socks (two packages worth) out and the dumb plastic pieces out of the socks.  Some of them had managed to get an end inside the sock even.  I really feel like there could be a better package...or at least a slightly longer plastic thing.  I think I got them out without damage though.

Wednesday

 Isaac had to write his spelling words out of items.  The suggestion was Legos - the 2xn bricks.  When I came down he had decided to write most of his words out of assorted pieces.  I like the one out of people the best, but there are several that I really like.

We watched some of the inauguration.  I'm not sure I explained things all that well, but we watched it!

We also played outside for a bit.  The boys were not excited to go out, but they had an excellent time in the end.

Tueday: hero of the day

I was reading my book during rest time, about to fall asleep, and Isaac comes into the bedroom, tears just streaming down his face.  Now, they were having screen time, so I didn't expect that it was a physical problem.  (Let's face it, the cry was also not an "I'm in pain" cry.)

After a bit I got him to tell me the problem - he had broken Minecraft.  He's been really into command blocks lately, and managed to make one that somehow made one player stuck in place and the other player not able to get down to the command block... it kept transporting player 2 back to an undesired location.

I gave it my best shot.  I've been hearing the stuff they've been doing, so I thought we could do a substitution...command blocks for air.  But it's been a long time since I've done any Minecraft, and I couldn't easily get it to work.  I couldn't even tell if what I was doing did anything.  I told the boys we'd have to wait for the expert.  There were still some tears, but I think they were more or less controlled.

Ben worked on it this evening.  He had the same idea that I did (!!) but was able to actually execute it in a better way.  It took him a little bit, but not too long.  The relief on Isaac's face was almost palatable and he was able to go to bed with one less worry.

I know the feeling.  I understand crying about this.  The boys have poured hours into the world, making towers and fireworks and I have no idea what else.  I know it's just a game, but I also understand that huge relief that comes when Ben is able to fix a computer issue.

Monday: the morning

Dad came over this morning to help declog a drain.  The boys were willing to help because they were bribed with screen time, but Isaac seemed much more interested in the whole process than he was required to be.  Dad stayed around for a bit for a drink...it was nice since it's been a bit since I've seen him.

Tornado really, really wanted to get in the cabinet under the sink today.  It is way to full for a cat to be in though, so I kept taking him out.  I finally put a rubberband around the knobs, like we did with toddlers.

We watched some videos about MLK and discussed how it relates to current events (BLM).  The boys lead very sheltered lives, and so didn't know about the violence at the Capitol or the election fraud allegations.  But there is some overlap between the two, so they ended up with a huge civics lesson.  I'm not sure how much they understood though.  It turns out they also don't understand the concept of social media, because they don't have any accounts.  It's a bit hard to explain the impacts of losing your social media accounts when the concept of social media is foreign to you.