Monday: fun things

First of all, I finished cleaning the downstairs bathroom!  It might be a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but I scrubbed the floor, repainted the blue shelf, and touched up some paint.  (The paint touch up is a little obvious, but it's better than what was there before.)  I also cleaned off a ton of marks from one of the doors.

Before and after:

I'm most excited about the cabinets.  They went from a huge mess to useable.

While the volume of clutter wasn't huge, things that didn't belong have been moved to better spots.

I haven't been biking for a while so the bike got moved.  It might come back at some point.  In the meantime, the tables and ladders are being stored in that awkward area.

This only took me 4.5 months!  However...November and December were especially busy for me.  January had a ton of snow days which always throws the routine off.  So in some ways it's only been 1.5 months of frequent work.  Next up is the master bedroom.

Isaac was telling me about how he used Excel to sort some data to get frequency numbers from it more easily.  I had him show me.  And then I taught him about pivot tables!  And then about conditional formatting.  He said he had used an IF statement before, but he just kind of puzzled it out.  So we briefly looked at those and he realized that between the IF statements and the conditional formatting, he could make the "color by square" math puzzles he did during the pandemic.  (Note: I know you don't need an IF statement, but it was what was working for him.)  So he made this nice message for when I solved the math equation:

By the time Ben came home, Ben had to solve three equations.  One for each word. :)

Sunday: low-key

It was a pretty low-key day for me today.  We watched church from home and Ben brought the boys to visit Grandma without me.  Right now I'm feeling better, but we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Saturdays: ups and downs

 Let's start with the down: my cold is worse.  I've had it for several days now, but I was quite worn out today.

Then the up: the car just needed a jump start and it seems to be working again.  We got it back to the house this morning and took it out later this afternoon with no problems.  The battery is probably getting old, so we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Friday: popcorn

Joshua and I decided on popcorn for our evening snack.  I have a ton of normal popcorn...hmm...not the microwave kind.  Anyway, I decided to give it a try.  

Here's how it started...

And here's how it ended.  I forgot to account for the volume change in the kernels.

We added our toppings and it was delicious.  It was more work than I was hoping for, but also more delicious than I was expecting.

In other news, my car isn't starting.  We don't think it's a dead battery but is acting weirdly.  It's sitting in a parking lot by the kids' school because obviously that's when it decided to die.  I suppose there's never a good place though.  We're going to try again tomorrow and then I guess we'll need to get it towed if it doesn't miraculously fix itself.   I called Ben several times while trying to troubleshoot and it turned out he was giving a presentation.  Oh, I felt so bad but not having the car start is a small emergency.  There was a friend still in the parking lot so she brought us home.  Also, I want to note that I'm always the one with car problems and Ben is always the one to bail me out.  It doesn't seem fair, but he's always so nice about it.

Thursday: oops

 Oops.  I keep forgetting to post.  Maybe because nothing too exciting is happening.

I had PT today.  She said that I was straightening out nicely!  I have a few appointments every two weeks for the next month and then I get to go down to once a month.  I also learned how to do a push-up correctly.  I have known that I've always been doing them wrong, but now I know what it was.  At karate tonight I attempted to implement the change and well, I was only able to do about a third of the amount I normally could. 

Today was also the day before spring break.  Classes weren't attended well, but they were attended better than I expected.  For the students that didn't come, most of them at least sent me an email so that they can watch the recording later.

Monday: to do list

I got so much done today!  I finished most of the items that I "needed" to do by 11.  I was about on track as expected.  I went on a walk with a friend - it was a beautiful day today.  I had lunch and took a nap.  I finished a few items on my "need" to do list and then had more time!  So I just kept checking stuff off, hence all the blog posts today.  I picked up the kids and they had some screen time, so I got some more done.  Then it was a beautiful day, so the kids played outside for a long time...and I got some more done!

I even made an new dinner tonight and it was a hit.  Joshua liked it, which was a bit surprising.  Ben and I really liked it.  Isaac thought it was ok...but that's ok.

The worst part of the day was when I thought I had lost Ben's new swimsuit.  It had ended up with Joshua's clean clothes and he put it in his dirty laundry basket to cycle through.  This is normally a good plan, I just happened to be too on top of it.

life: an assortment of things

I have a bunch of pictures and whatnot in my email that I've forgotten to share...

Joshua got his first trophy at piano.  About every quarter they have a little test and usually achieve a bracelet, but it's been about a year and he got a trophy.  He's really been looking forward to this.

Last blood donation I achieve 3 gallons donated and received this official .gif.  (I could also order a pin, but I don't really need that.)

Isaac received a behavior report:

Encouraged Behavior

Observed Behavior: Working Hard

Behavior Date: 2024-02-13

Notes: Way to go on your ELA quiz! You always work so hard and do your best! So proud of you! Keep up the hard work!

Joshua during reading groups.  Joshua's teacher does a great job sending pictures.

A nice day outside

Math bowl (around super bowl time)

Multiplication practice:

Playing in the snow: