Saturday: booby traps and scavenger hunts

It was Joshua's turn to choose the family time activity, and so he chose Lego Challenge: make a booby trap for Indiana Jones.

Amanda: half way down the hallway there's a stone that when you step on it missiles come flying out.  The other missiles are there as decoys.

Ben: When you step near the treasure the floor moves and the bolder comes crashing down.

Isaac: when you pull the diamond away from the stand the steps turn into a ramp and you slide down

Joshua: two with when you step on a piece missiles fly and one fake floor that sends you into a pit.  (Two of these he made yesterday.)

Here's the video of them in action:

Joshua and I also finished his scavenger hunt (and went to the Peanut store).  None of the pictures are amazing, but I did have a very nice time.

Friday: car

We sold the Ford Focus today.  It was bittersweet.  But the car change was also a good choice.  Anyway, Ben found a third-party seller to sell it to and the whole process ended up being so much easier than I was expecting.

So hurray!  We're back to two cars.

Black belt boot camp was this evening.  As previously, I did enjoy it.  We have five forms for the upcoming test (in the end of April) and I'm currently really bad at #5 and not great at #2.  However, we spent a ton of time on #1 because apparently some people were still not getting it.  I think it's a hard balance of having to study by yourself and polishing up the form in the class, but it also seems like something needs to change.  We did spend quite a bit of time on #2 and that was helpful for me, as I'm currently polishing up the form and still making small mistakes.

Thursday: home

I worked today.  Aunt C came over for a bit to break up the day for the kids, but they were still home several hours by themselves.  I found this on my camera roll...

Wednesday: a lot

There was a lot to do today.

I started off blind-folded.  I had been hoping to go on a walk with the kids, but it was rainy all morning so that didn't work out.  However, they were playing well in the basement when I got up so I stumbled to the couch and took apart a lego set.  Not very exciting, but it could have been worse.

Once the kids were upstairs Isaac made me breakfast.  The dryer broke a few days ago in the middle of laundry, so I've slowly been getting all that on the line and that was the one thing that couldn't really wait.  So I made the kids help with that.  It was a group effort.  I did my exercises.  I worked through my forms.  Actually, I kind of liked doing my forms blindfolded other than that we don't have a large enough space.  The kids tried to help me not run into walls, but it only kind of worked.

There wasn't much time left, but it felt like a long time.  Isaac made me draw things and laughed at me.

 

However, I think the joke's on Isaac because when Ben came home he could tell what I drew right away!  (Sunflower, bridge, giraffe)

Next, and this is my favorite part, Joshua made me an Easter egg hunt.  While I was blind-folded.  I told him what room we should go in.  Then I told him where I wanted to search.  He got me to the right place and I proceeded to knock down all the stuff.  He finally resorted to just putting my hand where it should go, which was a relief.

What did I learn from this?  I'm still not sure.  Perhaps that I've been raising my kids well - they can do things by themselves and were willing to help me.  I don't think that was the point of the exercise though.

We went to the beach to get a picture of Joshua with Big Red.  It was warm out today, but still rather windy by the beach.

And then rock climbing.

Tuesday: class

Registration for next semester started yesterday.  There is a shift from 4 credit classes to 3 credit classes and so students are all registering for an additional class to get a full load.

It's causing some angst, to put it mildly.

I have two classes, and usually during spring registration they hit about 20/28 by the end of the week and they get filled in with incoming freshmen.  Already today I have one class completely full and the other at 25/28.  Students that are going-to-be-juniors (ish) were registering today, although I'm not sure if they finished and going-to-be-sophomores started or not.  The bulk of my classes are usually sophomores with many juniors, some seniors, and some freshmen.  

At one point there was talk of adding a third section, but we'll see what happens.

Monday: stuff

 This morning it felt like we did a bunch of the stuff on the kids' lists that we haven't had time for recently: finishing up an art project, making root beer, playing games.  We had an early lunch and after rest time started Joshua's Holland Scavenger Hunt.  Since they had eye appointments, we selected a few of the items that were sort of on the way.

It started in the graveyard.  I didn't know which side of the street to look on, so that lead to some frustration.  (Especially since there was a time limit.)  Eventually we got on the other side of the street and found the correct gravestones.

We then had to find a house with Veneklasan brick. The first one, to which we were given a location, was probably the right bricks but didn't have the distinctive two colors.  A bit down the road was another one that seemed more representative.

The appointments went fine.  When we got back I made the kids go around the lake with me.  My goal for the next test is to be able to run 1/8 mile, fast walk 6/8 miles, and then run the last 1/8 mile in under 12:55.  (I know, this isn't an amazing goal.  But it's mine, and I do not enjoy running.)  I did hit the time goal, which is the most important, but I did have to pause it a few times for the kids to catch up.  They were on their scooters so I thought this wouldn't be a problem, but apparently the roads were bumpier than I remember and so they kept getting off the scooters.

Saturday: aftermath and kitties

In the morning we saw the aftermath of the weather.  A trampoline blew through Nathan's yard.  The basketball hoop fell over.  Luckily, first the wind turned the hoop before knocking it over, otherwise it would have hit the car.  Many trees were down; we took a walk down the street and saw a bunch.  (There were some tornados nearby, but not in the same town.)  We had driven down this street about an hour before the storm.

In the afternoon we went to a cat café.  First we pet and played with the cats and then had a treat.  There was only one active cat at a time, but petting cats is pretty fun too.

The kids played some game off the balcony with stuffed animals almost all the day when we were home.  I didn't really understand the rules, but they were all playing well so that was a bonus.  Isaac didn't play it quite as much, but he did play a lot of games.