Saturday: window take two and Giraffe's birthday

I forgot to tell you the funny window story from yesterday!  While I was cleaning the windows they were open and the screen was off, so it was open to the outside.  Horizon was curious and sticking his head out the window.  Then he put his front paws out.  He usually isn't very adventurous, so after trying to move him back inside I just thought I'd see what would happen.  He slowly put more and more of his body outside and then he jumped!  Silly cat.  I went to the front door and he was still on the porch.  Once I opened the door though he came right in; I didn't even have to go outside.

Five minutes later he comes back and again jumps through the window.  By the time I got to the front door he was right there waiting for me though!  I laughed, feeling like a butler.  Luckily, that was the last time.

I am still enjoying my clean windows.  I should probably do it more often, but there are so many things to clean.

On to Giraffe's birthday.  A few weeks ago Isaac decided today would be a great day for Giraffe's birthday.  It's now on the calendar with a recurring notice.  Isaac planned the 'whole' day.

We played Stuffed Fables because it had stuffed animals in it.

We made giraffes out of Lego.  Isaac started over near the end, so his isn't shown (yet).  Joshua, on the right, ran out of time before the picture.  He was trying to make a big giraffe.  Ben had the nicest body and shaped it really well (on the left).  Mine was the middle.  It is a bit blocky, but I used some slopes.  Giraffe gave my giraffe first place, mainly because of the head.  Ben's head looked a little weird.  Well, my head looked weird too but not quite as much.

And we had a birthday dinner.  Isaac made a lemonade pie and we had a yellow curry chicken, pineapple, and yellow pepper.

Friday: window and belt testing #2

Today I spent quite a bit of time on the kitchen.  Unfortunately, I mostly only finished the windows.  The window screen is inside instead of outside and so the screen just gets dirty and not cleaned by the rain.  I cleaned the windows too, but there are still a few streaks.  I also cleaned the windowsill really well and I'm so happy looking out the window now.

I also had black belt test #2.  It was a different crash and burn than the last test.  Basic actions went well, combos went fine.  Forms went ok as a whole.  I had a few issues, but did ok overall.  Then we moved on to self-defense.  I've been making the kids help me practice the self-defense as part of their chores.  So I knew what I was doing.  Apparently there were only about three-ish (out of twenty) people that knew the self-defense and it was so bad that they stopped half way through.  They started by just giving us the name of what we were supposed to be doing.  Then they added on the short description of what we should be doing.  Then they stopped us because it was so bad.  Apparently I'll get to finish up my defense at some point and everyone else will need to finish up next week.  (The official plan was a little confusing.)  But...it means I need to remember my stuff for a little bit longer.  I was able to give them my mile time from yesterday, so I was excited about that.  We finished up with some sparring, and I enjoyed it this time.  I often don't enjoy sparring, but this time was fun.  We got out about 20 minutes later than expected, but that is about what I was expecting.  I did get a special thank you from one of the instructors for knowing my stuff and that was appreciated...and then I knew that I at least did well enough.

Thursday: last day of classes

We finally reached the last day of classes.  I'm always ready to be done every spring, and this year was no exception.  Especially since there was a 7:30am class.  I shouldn't have to do this again, and so I'm rather excited about that too!

I received my first physical gift and thank you card.  It was from the sweetest student; I had been hoping that she'd want to TA next year, but she's graduating.  

Isaac was super excited about rock climbing today.  He did several new routes on his first try.  (The correct terminology would be that he flashed them.)  He had a new move too that involved letting go with both hands too.

Wednesday: Operation: Clean the House

My to-do list has somewhat gotten under control.  So today I started out with one or two random things from it along with the normal things, like cleaning the kitchen.  Then I moved on to Operation: Clean the House fairly quickly.

In so doing, I put up a bunch of shelves near the TV.  The weight limit lied and so I need to get two more sturdier shelves (hence the blue tape still there).  But this is uncluttering the kitchen counter.  I haven't removed all of them yet and the counter already feels better.

I still want to better secure them to the shelves for safety, but we're happy with how it's looking.

Tuesday: another normal day

It was another rather normal day.  There's only one more day of classes which is pretty exciting, but my graders are a bit behind.  I think they'll get most of the stuff graded this coming week, but I'm expecting to have to do more grading than I was hoping.

At karate they helped us with our forms.  There are people that know them well, people that know them well enough, and people that don't know them.  This isn't unexpected, but we'll see how the test goes Friday.

Monday: life

It was a normal Monday.

I got groceries.  There seemed to be a lot of things out of stock.  I now can't remember if it used to be like this before the pandemic or if it's gotten worse.

I did my exercises.  I finished my mile at exactly 12:30 which is my goal for Friday.  I'm not sure I'll make it after everything else that needs to be done, but we'll deal with it then I guess.  My forms were feeling pretty good so I didn't spend much time on them.

I did my other chores.  There were a bunch of short ones so I felt like I made good progress.  

I ate lunch, read my book, and took my nap.  Grey Bear joined me.

I worked on O:CtH.  I put up a shelf for one of my Lego flower sets and cleaned the door by the trash can.  It was rather yucky.

I picked up the kids.

I made dinner, a blueberry almond oatmeal bake.  I gave instructions to Isaac to put it in the oven.  I've been doing this a bit more and love it.  Having Isaac put dinner in the oven adds a lot more meal options.

I helped out at karate.  The little kids are cute but there's a lot of them.

We ate dinner.  The oatmeal bake turned out pretty good.

I did a few more chores/stuff for kids/miscellaneous stuff.

I worked on my quilting and watched TV.

And now it's almost bed time!  I'll read a bit again and probably fall asleep while reading.

Weekend: this and that

Today at church I doodled this...

 
Then Joshua (tried) to copy it and added some colors.  It was interesting to see the differences between the two.

Yesterday Ben made pick-a-brick cups for us out of Legos that have been waiting to be used.  Ben made a temple and then Joshua added to it.

I made a wall.  Well, first I made a dragon-plane, but that wasn't amazing.  I had a bunch of the arches, so I made a wall that I rather liked.