Tuesday: rock climbing

Joshua and I climbed while Isaac was practicing with his team.  This was probably the best climbing session I've had with Joshua.  I felt like he helped me more than normal...

*We worked on the rock wall of the week - apparently it's a pretty easy one.  Well, neither of us got it but Joshua climbed the middle part really well and give me a bunch of tips.  I got zone and several times got farther than the last time.

*There was an auto belay that I could only get half way up.  I watched Joshua do it and got an idea for how to get a little farther.  I didn't get much farther because my arms were tired.

*Joshua convinced me to try a new route in the cave.  I flashed it!

*Joshua tried a few new routes on the auto-belay based on my recommendation and enjoyed them.

It's a slight running joke that Isaac and Joshua enjoy bouldering more than the belays and I enjoy the belays more and neither of us can understand the other.  We talked it out in the car and I like belays more because it isn't as scary to fall.  They don't like dealing with the harness and safety checks that come with the belays; they just want to climb.

Monday: we'll make it

Today felt odd, but I'm not really sure why.  Grading went a bit faster than expected today and I had coffee with Pat this morning.  I was just sitting down after that to finish the last two lab reports when I got a call saying Joshua wasn't feeling very good.  

So I went back out to get him.  He didn't look amazing, but he wasn't all that sick either.  We both had lunch and took a nap; it seemed to help him out.  I feel like he always has one of these days in the first few weeks of school and I'm not really sure why.

I finished grading along with a few other small random things after nap time.  I don't feel like I got a ton of stuff done today, but it really was pretty productive in the end.  I am not winding down like I normally do at night, which might be a problem.  We'll see I guess.

Sunday: D&D

So, in our last D&D round Joshua had managed to get a potion of acid resistance.  (Not at all ominous, right?)  Today's fight was against some puddings that dealt acid damage.  A lot of acid damage.  What does Joshua do?  Drink the potion?  Oh no.  He throws the potion at one of the puddings.  (Isaac and I did not really agree with this action, but not too vehemently.  He gets to decide his own actions.)

Our fearless dungeon master was not expecting that.  The internet was not expecting that and had no guidance on what happens when an acid monster drinks an acid resistance potion.  So Ben made it up.  The pudding globbed over it, eroded the container, and reacted very poorly to the potion.  It didn't quite kill it, but almost.

Was this the best choice?  Still unclear.  There were two other puddings to deal with and they rolled well, so a lot of damage was given by them.  However, they were also very strong, so getting one out of the way quickly was helpful.  Either way, it was a fun choice.

Thursday: busy day

 Thursdays will be our busy day.  The other days all of have aspect of busy, but Thursday is the day I have extra help sessions and in the evening we're all going in different directions.  (However, I did make all my appointments today!  On time without reminders even.)

And so we finally reached 8pm and time for books.  I did fine with the prayer and the Bible reading and then started reading our story book...and also falling asleep.  There were a few words that I stretched out a lot, but then the kids would start laughing at me and I'd wake up.  I could tell the whole thing was a bit rough...normally I read a few words ahead to help with context and voice and whatnot, but tonight that wasn't working.  I was reading one word at a time and it was not going well.  

It's been a while since I've read out loud and fallen asleep, but there were a few times when the kids were so small that it happened.  I always felt bad about it because I love to read, but sitting down, snuggling with warm bodies on not quite enough sleep just did me in.

Wednesday: chores

I was able to work on chores today.  It's amazing how it can sometimes feel like a luxury to have time time to do them.  For the most part though, they were boring chores.  I did make some raspberry jam, although it didn't seem to be setting very well.  Oh well, I'll use it like jam anyway.  My to do list has gotten slightly smaller, but there are still a lot of things on the "this is important to do soon" list.

I put the baby gate back up today.  After asking people multiple times to please take stuff downstairs and put it away and everyone, including myself, 95% ignoring me, I put it up as a reminder barrier.  It has an aggressive sign that says "BRING SOMETHING DOWNSTAIRS."  It's been amazing in the four hours it's been up - about a third of the stuff has been brought down.

I also got a jury summons for next month.  Of course.  It's been a crazy week so let's just add that on top of it.  I asked for a deferral until December and they granted it.  I know December is often busy too, but teaching wise it's easier to hand off to someone else.  Don't worry - I'll complain if I get called on a week I didn't want to be called on.  (The first week of December would actually work really well.)

Tuesday: 300

Today was crazy busy, but otherwise fine.  I just finished the stuff I needed to get done, but it's now done.  I do expect that following weeks will be better, but the fact that the kids had Friday and Monday off along with it being the first week of college required some extra work.  I'm going to be optimistic about it at least.

We were all at rock climbing tonight - Isaac for dev team and Joshua to climb and me to climb and have a parent meeting.  Since we were going to be there a while, Joshua decided to climb one of the routes 300 times.  It isn't a high route, but 300 times is still a lot.  He climbed and then jumped off the top.  Half way through the time I told him his rate was a little slow and he needed to pick it up, and he did!  He was a ball of sweat that barely wanted to move when we left, but he was proud of himself.

Monday: D&D, pool party

I was in Isaac's bedroom this morning and he said, "When Joshua is done on the Switch can you come and take me out?"  I said, "take you out like hit you really hard?"  No.  He just wanted me to get him out of his bedroom...which makes more sense, but his phrasing was so weird.

This morning we did another segment of our D&D story.  There was a mimic that surprised us, although we really shouldn't have been surprised.  I think mimics are my favorite monster right now, although that is partially because they've been coming up in a lot of good stories recently.

This afternoon we went to a pool party.  It was really fun and wore everyone out.