Thursday: school

It feels like everyone in the area is getting out of school this week and we still have a week left.  While I enjoy having the kids in school, it also is nice to have them home for the summer.  (Have I mentioned it's going to be a busy summer?)

Today's random picture comes from right before nap time.  I often eat on the couch and don't make it to the bed before falling asleep.  The cats are also more likely to nap with me on the couch.

Tuesday: zoo

Joshua had a field trip to the zoo today!  It was a bit sad that it was right after Memorial Day, but we managed just fine.

We went via bus.  This was so much nicer than driving.

I had three boys in my group; here they are being meerkats.  The zoo was busy, although not as busy as some of the stories I've heard lately.  (The meerkat bubble was pretty crowded.)

We found a zookeeper waiting to put back some tortoises and willing to answer lots of questions.  It turns out that this tortoise is named Joshua!

We finished with about an hour to spare, so we went to the playground.  By this time it was hot and the playground was hot, so they only lasted about fifteen minutes.  It worked out perfectly though, because they were just starting to board the bus when we walked up!

Joshua still held my hand many times throughout our visit...it's pretty nice that he's still willing to do that.  Isaac did not hold my hand in Lansing.  (As is appropriate.  He doesn't hold my hand much any more, but it's still a bit sad.)

Weekend: Memorial Day Camping

 We went camping at the conference grounds again this year!  The weather was pretty nice...a bit cool on Saturday and Sunday morning, but warm after that.  We also rented a different RV and it was huge!  The boys had a little room of their own in the back with a door and it was nice.  I didn't hear them as much when they woke up.

There is a beach again, so we went on Sunday to play a bit.

Scooters were a hit!  Unfortunately, Joshua broke his three-wheeled one Saturday night.  Well, maybe not unfortunately, because Ben and I would really like to get him on the two-wheeled one he got for Christmas.  It's a bit more wobbly though, so he wasn't as excited.  He practiced on it a few times, but the excitement wasn't there yet.  We'll need to put that on the to-do list for the summer.

The playground changed and while Joshua still enjoyed it, Isaac was less than thrilled.  Apparently they took away a train that was fun to climb on top of and added a boat and some swings.

Joshua took several walks with me and we found all four swinging benches, a few other sitting places, and the recycling dumpster.  It was fun to have a walking buddy.

We also played family trivia and came in 5th place out of 16.  This surprised everyone, especially since Sports and Music were two of the categories.  We did have some help as two of our friends' kids were part of our family, but there was a lot of guessing.

As always, we had way too much sugar (but it was all delicious).  It was nice to catch up with our friends and just have some time away from everything.

Tuesday: Random picture of the day

 There's an app that, once a day at a random time, prompts you to take a picture of where ever you are or whatever you're doing.  However, I couldn't get my user name to be accepted.  It wouldn't tell me why and I tried a few iterations, so I eventually gave up.

But I still liked the idea.  And honestly, putting the random picture in the blog is a better place for me anyway...then I only have one place to document everything.  So I found a random alert that can do the same thing.  I don't know that I'll post all the pictures, but it's still a fun idea.

Today we ended up in the laundry room.  I didn't do laundry last week (Friday) because of camping and then there is always a ton of laundry from camping.  Honestly, it doesn't get done very quickly even on good days.  I'm 2.5 loads in and still have several left.  (I did a small load when we got home from camping so everyone would have enough clothes on Tuesday.)

I also went grocery shopping today.  I returned a bunch of pop cans, but forgot all of my reusable bags.  The store had everything that I needed though!  Even the things on my list that had been out of stock for several weeks were back.  While I know it had to happen at some point, with all the dire grocery shortage warnings I thought it would be worse.  I did stock up on some bread and threw it in the freezer.  Now I just need to remember to change it out once in a while until the wheat shortage actually hits.  (If?  I just looked it up instead of just listening to gossip and it doesn't sound dire for the US as we export a lot of wheat.  There are, of course, other issues at hand...supply chain, worker shortages, and gas prices that could affect things.)

Thursday: Operation: Clean the house - quilting area

I'm calling the quilting area finished.  There are a few more little things I could do, but I either put them on my to do list as a separate item because I want to wait on it (one more quilt to hang) or it just really doesn't make since to do it now (put together more batting scraps).

While it's hard to tell, everything in front of the futon is actually part of the other room.

The futon did get cleaned up...it just also happens to be the best place to currently store all the soft stuff used for courses.  I'm hoping to eventually get a better shelf for them, but in the meantime I know they'll be off before too long.

                             

The bike had been in Joshua's room because he wasn't using his room much last year and so that I could exercise while being close for virtual school.  It was time to move it to a new place though.

                             

I know it looks only a little cleaner, but it is quite a bit cleaner.  It's also been dusted and the walls had a bunch of dings fixed up and some fresh paint.

I think I'm going to take a break on O:CtH.  There's only two weeks left of school, so I'll try to knock out a few of my outstanding to-do list items.  The summer is looking busy, so the goal will be to just keep things under control.  I'm not sure what room I'll do once fall starts; it'll give me something to think about over the summer.

I was a little surprised how slowly this project moved.  There were some good reasons; the painting of two rooms took extra time and the bigger rooms that I did really needed a lot of work.  I'm not sure it'll be any faster next year, but I suppose we'll find out!  Stay tuned!

Wednesday: back at it

I've decided to start wearing a mask in public again, at least for a little bit. I know that Ottawa county currently is classified as "low risk", but I'm not sure if I agree.  I feel like many people I know are getting it and people are probably taking home tests and not reporting the results.

Furthermore, I've been a close contact and not been notified properly.  I understand that people don't seem to care much anymore, but...  (I did not get COVID from the close contact.  It's been several weeks now.)

I also scheduled the boys' booster shots.  I know they're in a good position since they've been vaccinated and had COVID, but they're eligible so we're going to get them.  I was a little mean and scheduled them on a Friday after school, so if they don't feel good it's going to fall on a Saturday.  But they're doing so many fun things in school right now that I didn't want to schedule it on a school day.

This came home from school yesterday.  I'm not sure Joshua completely got the point.  "I will show integrity like Rosa Parks by not giving up my seat."

Tuesday: a day in the life

When we were at the Museum of Michigan's history, I enjoyed reading some of the journal entries that were around the early 1900s exhibit.  I know that the blog does a decent job of the normal things that happen in our lives, but at the same time there's a lot that is ignored because it is so normal.  Well, with the exception of Grocery Adventures.  Today was a rather boring day, but here's how it went.  (Note that it is also "Too much Tuesday", so we have more activities after school than any other day.)

6:45am: wake up.  Pack lunches for the kids, make them breakfast.  They chose yogurt.  Bring them to school.

7:45am: Eat my breakfast while playing an idle game on my phone.  Do my devotions.

8:15am: Decide to take my nap early.  Horizon cuddles up with me.

9:30am: wake up.  Clean the kitchen.  Always the kitchen.  This time I actually took care of all the on-kitchen stuff that was accumulating there too.

10am?: Work on vacation planning.

10:30am: take out the bathroom trash and a few other small chores

11am: Intend to get right to work on some Hope College work, but play on the computer a bit before getting down to it.  I also sent out some texts and dealt with some emails.

12:15: make lunch.  Leftover pizza, half an apple, and water

12:30pm: read for a little bit

12:50pm: continue the chores.  Bring out the deck chairs, move the strawberry plant to a better place, rinse out the bird feeders.

1:30pm: Continue Operation: Clean the House.  Put the bike back in the bike roller, clean up the stuff that's accumulated in the last two weeks, and realize that part of this should be sewing together small batting pieces into large batting pieces so that they actually get used.  I save that for a different day though.

2:15pm: decide to read again because I'm pretty happy with what I accomplished today

2:35pm: doze off

3:05pm: get stuff together, pick up the boys

3:30pm: get gas ($$$), pick up my flute from the repair store

3:45pm: start waiting in the parking lot.  Isaac has his piano lesson, I read.  Joshua does some homework and has screen time.

4:30pm: Isaac comes out, we go home for a quick turn-around.  I remember to start the rice cooking and change into my karate uniform

5pm: karate.  It was hotter than I expected.

5:30pm: go home, get dinner finished up.  Eat while watching a little bit of TV.  (Currently the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.)  Wish that Isaac would eat faster.

6:30pm: karate with Isaac.  I worked harder than expected.  Muscle memory is a pretty cool thing though.

7pm: come home, brush the children's teeth, get some audio books all set up.  I don't care that Joshua is bored.

7:30pm: Ben is in charge of bed time and plays a video game with the boys for a bit so I head downstairs.  I do some word and logic games

8:30pm: I work on some quilting, but realize that I'm about to run out of green thread and take it as a sign to stop for now.

9pm: Continue to stream some shows, work on piecing the next quilt, putz around.  Be more sad than expected by the school shooting.  I think it was because of the post below.  Pray that better gun legislation finally happens, but realize that I'm not actually very hopeful that it will.

expected 11:30pm: go to bed, read

expected 12:30am: fall asleep because my eyes close.