Friday: dying mom stories

This morning I went to my Mom's group at church.  The topic was praying for your kids.  After brunch and announcements the speaker was introduced...as someone who has practiced praying for her kids and had a legacy of her mom praying for her.

She started her story.  With many of the details omitted, her mom was diagnosed with cancer when she was in high school and then died five years later when she was in college.  Needless to say, I couldn't handle it.  I tried.  But about she was talking about her mom actually dying I left.

I don't do stories in which moms die.  I don't watch those movies.  I don't read those books.  I skip those TV episodes.  Honestly, I probably would have skipped, or at least ducked out early, if I had known what the story would involve.  Is it a worthwhile story and worthy of being told?  Absolutely.   Is the point, that I left too early for, important?  Of course.  But I couldn't deal with it at the time.  The passage of time makes the hurt a smaller part of your life, but it can still show up painfully.

Someone did follow me out to the parking lot.  She gave me a long hug and prayed for me.  Later I had lunch with Betsy, who knows a similar hurt and understands the triggers and we commiserated. 

And I thought about Mom a little more than normal today, and that's not a bad thing.

Sunday: Chicago - Shedd

Today was a great day.  I think I enjoyed Shedd more than MSI.

We had a nice hotel with a great view.  The view at night was pretty, but we slept through most of it.  Joshua and I read in the window seat for a little bit, but it was rather cold and so didn't last very long.

Each family was on their own for leaving: we were going to meet up at Shedd.  Although we were told to leave around 9:30.  Well.  We all pulled into the parking lot within two minutes of each other, not having followed each other.  Timing on this trip was crazy because we all had the same clocks.

We went to the Great Reef first and that was my favorite part.  I probably could have gone around the circle a second time.  I love the eels.  I really enjoy the big tank.

We also happened to be there right as they were feeding several of the tanks.  This was the neatest part of a bunch of us.  First the sting rays.  Turns out, it isn't very interesting to watch them eat.  Then a normal school of fish.  The a group of fish that SWARMED the food.  And finally, an archer fish.  I'm not sure I had ever seen an archer fish, even on TV, so when it shot the water up to get the food off a stick I was so impressed.  On the way down from the Great Reef we were all in the elevator and someone noted that there should be a square tile for each of us.  Someone else pointed out that since it was a 4x4 array there should even be an extra title.  Then, as we were all shuffling into our square, someone pointed it that it was like one of those picture puzzles that you have to move one piece at a time within a grid to form a puzzle.  So then we started moving like that.  It was excellent.

We watched a show next and we were all a bit underwhelmed.  They've changed the format of the shows to only feature a single animal and last about seven minutes.  You don't have to reserve a time or pay for them, but you also don't know what the animal will be until one minute before the show starts.  I feel like this could be handled slightly better, but we still enjoyed the sea lion and penguin shows that we saw.

Joshua found this amazing orange fish.  It was probably his favorite in the aquarium.

We also got to pet several things!  The first was a Lake Sturgeon.  To me, it felt like a clean slimy fish.  I know that's a weird description, but that's how it felt!  Joshua managed to touch one once, but was a bit scared and didn't want to put his arm in too deep.  Later Isaac and I touched some sea stars.  They were harder than I expected, but I guess that makes sense.

Last, but not least, don't forget about the penguin exhibit!  We still tell Ben his favorite animal is a penguin, whether or not it actually is.  Joshua was especially excited to see the penguins with Ben.

We finished up around 2pm.  They had a large section under construction, which was also a bit disappointing but oh well.  It meant we got home at a reasonable time, and that's sometimes nice too.  I'm still hoping to get a few more pictures (especially some group pictures), but don't have them yet.

Wednesday: Library pics

 At the end of August we went to the library to help with some promotional pictures.  I just received them and they're really nice.

Isaac was also rather sad coming home from school.  Most of it was that he feels like he has a lot of homework.  (He does, but it's manageable.  He just doesn't have a good feel for manageable vs crazy yet.)  On top of that reading time in school was decreased from 15 to 10 minutes and that was really sad.  So obviously, I sent him to his room to read for a little bit right after school.

Tuesday: Isaac

 A few days ago Isaac told us he can't wait for Thanksgiving to be over because then he can be done writing about what he's thankful for.  Apparently he's had to do it several times over the last few days in different settings and is over it.

I taught about dates in excel today.  They're a weird subject because they're both simple and hard at the same time.  (Even Isaac, who has had a total of one excel assignment, has run into the problem of Excel turning his fraction into a date.)  Anyway, I was afraid the class was going to run short but the timing ended up just about perfect.  Starting Thursday we (finally) get back into material that has been prepped in previous semesters, and I'm excited to not have quite as much prep work.

Isaac had a really good time at rock climbing today.  A route that he finished last week was graded at V2, which is on the high side for him.  (Some he can do, some he can't.)  He finished another route that he's been working on for a while.

Monday: doing the stuff

 I just kept at my to-do list today.  I got a lot done, but there's always a lot to do.  I haven't worked on Operation: Clean the House for several weeks and I'd like to.  But between normal things and Hope work needing a bit of extra time, O:CtH hasn't gotten any time.

Saturday: Chicago

We came down to Chicago for the weekend with some friends.

We all left on our own from the Holland/Zeeland area.  Two of them found each other about four miles from the Museum of Science and Industry and we found the other two cars about a mile away.  It was a bit crazy and a great start to the weekend.

We got to ride escalators up.  The kids love escalators.

We did the U-boat 505 tour first.  I haven't been here that many times, but I'm not sure I've done it before.  The boat was crazy small for the number of sailors on it.

The jolly ball was a hit as normal.

And the mirror maze was probably the star of the museum.

We went to the space area, saw the volcano movie, and then spent some time in weather and storms.  Each family was pretty much done by that point.  We were going to just leave but each family ended up going to another small exhibit and then leaving.  Time-wise it did work out pretty well 

After arriving to the hotel we walked to the LEGO store.  Oh, the pick-a-brick wall had some really good pieces!

We ended the night by going to a Greek restaurant.  The problem was that the people that had the table ahead of us didn't leave.  They paid the bill and then sat there for over a half hour.  Our group was doing mostly ok.  The kids got some screen time and the adults held it together.  They were finally able to seat us over an hour after we had arrived at a different table.  Chris ordered for us and it was amazing.  The food was amazing and not having to figure out what to order was amazing.  For the most part he just got a lot of the same and we spread it around.  It started with bread, which we ravenously tore apart.  Then some flaming cheese, a creamy rice and chicken soup, and some gyros.  He got Ben some pasta which was ideal for him and Isaac.  By the time we were done eating it was about 10 EST and our kids were done.  We left a bit before the other families because the kids were dropping fast.  

Friday: Grey Bear

Every day that I don't work Grey Bear waits for me in the lamp for nap time.  He's there, ready and waiting, when I come out of the bedroom in the morning.  He always has a smile on his face while waiting.