Weekend: sleeping in the living room

Yesterday Joshua tucked in all his stuffies.  There's apparently an order.  Start with the smallest, then put Square on top of them.  Then continue in smallest to largest order, because the smallest ones get coldest the fastest.  His slippers are included in this because they have characters on them.  After everything is tucked in, add the other baby blankets. 

I like this picture because Isaac's all covered and Joshua is all out of the covers.

Saturday: April 9

This wasn't going to be a depressing post.  It was going to be a post about how it's Mom's death day, but it wasn't a bad day.  There are still bad times, and there are often times I wonder what it would be like if she was still around, but most of the time is just ...normal.

And then, as I was writing this, I realized that it is the 20 year anniversary.  It means I've now been alive longer without her than with her.  

update: I was looking through past blog posts on this day, and a few years ago I put a few pictures of when Nathan and I were the same age as Isaac and Joshua.  It was in 1992.  Apparently we got two new trees that year.

A redbud tree to replace an ornamental cherry tree.

And a tulip tree.  I think they decided to just put one in the yard; I don't recall anything being there before.  This poor tree almost didn't make it.  If I recall correctly, the first year it just sat there without leaves.  Then it sprouted the next year, so it was kept.  The tree is gigantic now.  I periodically go by the house and can't believe it used to be a scrawny little thing.  We also had the neighbor boy join us (closest to the tree).

Friday: library

Today wasn't really that exciting, but it was at least interesting.

We're having the carpets cleaned on Monday.  I feel unprepared to move and clean everything on the weekend, so we started today.  The boys knew this and already had their mattresses in the living room by the time I woke up.  I think they just wanted to bounce.  The rest of the clean-up in their rooms went well.

Then we picked up groceries and went to the library.  We didn't get much at the library, but Miss Adrienne and Mr. Rob were there so we said hi.  Joshua asked to see the book drop, so we got our own special VIP tour of the back staff area.  I'll admit, I found it very interesting.

Back at home I did some boring house work and we started emptying out the basement.  This too went better than I expected and we got everything that I wanted into the storage room quickly and with time to spare.  Last time we did this we had a bunch of baby toys and the storage room as filled to the brim.  We're not done putting stuff back there yet, but there should be plenty of room.

Two days ago we did an at-home escape room, which led Joshua to make one himself.  It was more of a hide-and-seek the Lego piece, but he gave rather specific clues so it went quickly.  He forgot where the last piece was, so it ended on a bit of a downer.

There was pizza for Pizza Friday.  It's one of my favorite dinners of the week because I don't have to think too much about it and it's always delicious.

Thursday: today

 Nothing much to talk about today.  Classes went fine.  We're done with the material that I find the most interesting, so that is a bit of a let down.  There's only three weeks left though, so we're on the home stretch.

I'm slowly feeling better.  Still a bit tired and with a runny nose, but it's lessening.

Tuesday: particle accelerator

Today Isaac got to participate in an experiment to see if he Gadolinium was actually Gadolinium.  (I'm not sure if I've relayed the saga.  Gd changes magnetic properties at 68F.  Except that it's actually a curve, so it's not like flipping a switch at 68F.  So doing the experiments in winter was a poor choice, because the house wasn't warm enough.  We finally boiled it for a few minutes and got a few seconds of non-magnetism.  I think experiments in the summer will be more fun.)

Anyway, during the time that we weren't sure if it was actually Gd Dad offered to check with the particle accelerator.  So Isaac joined me at Hope for a few hours while they did some tests (of Gd and a few other elements.)  It seemed to be mostly fun, but had some boring times too.  Isaac's wanted to see the accelerator in use, so this was a fun way to do it.

Long story short, it is gadolinium.

Sunday: donuts

 Sunday morning we went to a donut bar.  You could choose your type of donut, a flavor for the chocolate or vanilla frosting, and toppings.

The kids were all excited about their selections, but honestly they all sounded a bit disgusting.  The adults all got "normal" donuts, and I was very happy with my decision.

Saturday: Fort Wayne

Yesterday we went down to visit Nathan and family for the weekend.  The cousins immediately started running around together, which is wonderful.  There's a lot of laughter and pattering feet.

We had been thinking about going to a state park, but it was a bit more of a day trip and it was rather cold.  So instead we went to a nearby park for a little bit in the afternoon.

I thought this part of the forest was really pretty; many of the leaves hadn't dropped in the fall.

We got home and I took a nap on the couch.  I really did crash...the kids were loud and although I woke up a few times to do a quick check I also went right back to sleep.  

The children are being put to bed a little early.  They woke up at 5:15 and ran around a ton.  Isaac, Nathan, and I are going to play a game of Catan after bedtime because Isaac's been asking for a while and there's never been enough time.