Friday: the day

It rained quite a bit this morning, but cleared up just in time for Cheryl and I to go on a walk after brunch.

I didn't get much done on cleaning of the office, as normal, but still made some progress.  There was a small desk that we had that I donated today along with some clothes for recycling.  So I didn't get much cleaned, but I did get quite a bit out of the house.

Joshua heard some scary (pretend) things at school today but couldn't fall asleep.  So I got some nice cuddles as he calmed down and fell asleep.

Wednesday: cleaning

Now that the kids are in school I feel like the blog posts have become a bit boring.  Well, too bad for you.  It's what I am doing right now.

Today's "interesting" cleaning was of the couch.  I thought that the couch was wearing in one place, but Ben mentioned it was actually hairspray.  Ah, well that can be cleaned.  It was a bit weird to clean it, but it looks a ton better now.  I'll admit, I had my doubts.

Horizon greeted me from on top of the fridge this morning; we think he was chasing bugs.  I finally figured out they're pantry moths.  While it sounds like they can become a pain to get rid off, these bugs are not my fault (for once).  They come in on some food packaging and then populate.  I'm also optimistic that they're not out of control yet.  I'm finding, and vacuuming, about 10/day, but the numbers have stayed pretty steady.  I also found a trap for them that will come next week.

 I told Joshua to start pulling some of the flowers out of the pots on the deck.  In response, he first took a picture of all the potted flowers.  I need to bring some of the flowers inside soon; we'll see if they survive the winter in the basement or not.

I have been working on cleaning the office too, but the progress has been rather slow.  Slow is better than nothing though, and I'll keep chugging along.

Tuesday: boring day

Today was a boring day.  I've known it was coming for a while and was rather dreading it.  It did have some interesting moments though...

*Boring: I gave a test in class.  It only took about half the class period, but I was on top of all the other work that I normally do while students take a test.

*Weird: both my officemate and I managed to do some class prep and then forget to post it to moodle.  His was a big deal but he had enough time to run home and get it.  Mine wasn't a big deal so I just posted it for next semester

*Cool: the professor after me was talking to me about excel and assorted issues with different versions and one of my old students came into his class.  I don't remember her name, but I recognized her.  Anyway, she said that she was using excel all the time...for her internship, for her classes, and helping her friend out.  "You told us we'd use this information in our internship and sure enough, you were right!"  It was a great compliment.

*Boring: Isaac has piano lessons.  It's about 20 minutes between school pick-up and the lesson, so we do homework in the car.  Then Joshua and I wait for Isaac.  I usually fall asleep.

*Boring: we needed to bring Isaac to another appointment.  Luckily, Ben was able to pick Isaac up so Joshua and I didn't have to stay the whole time.

*Normal: I also went to karate.  Since Ben picked up Isaac I was able to eat dinner ahead of time at home, which I wasn't sure was going to happen.  I was almost out of the house for 11 hours today, which hasn't happened (on a non-vacation day) in forever.

Monday: Quickly! Do the chores!

I didn't get much done this morning.  Er, I guess I should say I didn't get much done that was on my to-do list.  I helped Ben a bit and got groceries.  I sent several emails that I hadn't been planning on sending.  Emails take more time than I expect sometimes.

But there were many things on my "I should do this today" list.  (That list is a subsection of the overall to-do list.  I do like my lists.)  After my nap (not on my list but an important part of the day) I looked at the clock.  I had 60 minutes until I had to pick up the kids. The list still had about seven items still on it.  Surprisingly, I knocked out those items rapidly!  To be fair, they weren't really long things.  They just needed to be done.  

Sunday: surprise party

Ben and I woke up to a surprise party this morning.

I was rather impressed by the word streamer.

Joshua made some decorations.

Isaac's been asking us our favorite foods for a week or so.  We ended up with pizza, steak, corn, raspberries, grapes, pineapple, and cider for breakfast.

Saturday: outside

 It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so we needed to get outside today.  We ended up going to Hemlock Crossings with the scooters.  Everything was still surprisingly green, which made the walk wonderful.  It was a nice temperature and not too sunny.

Grey Bear got to come too!  He loved being in the forest.

Isaac has been asking for a while to show me the tricks he's learned on the playground.  I told him we could do it Tuesday, but there was time so we went today.  Basically, he can climb on top of everything.  He's also rather good at the monkey bars...I think his upper body strength is better than I realized.  The nice thing about this is that I know he's been doing it with at least one friend.

Friday: playground

When I picked up the boys from school today they were excited to tell me something.  (It's always a bit hard because it's really loud in the parking lot.)  Anyway, the fourth graders had several extra minutes of recess and so Isaac and Joshua had recess at the same time.  Of course, they found each other and started playing together and it was exciting.  I just loved that they were excited to play with each other at school.

I gave blood today.  They had a hard time finding my veins, but gave it a try and it worked.  Phew.  "Recovery" has been a bit harder today than it normally is.  Normally I can't tell, but today there were a few times that I needed to sit down for a few minutes.