Wednesday: field trip

I joined Joshua on his field trip to Outdoor Discovery Center.  This is the third year he's gone and while they change up the information a little bit it also feels like kind of the same information each time.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing and a break from school is always nice, but it also isn't the most exciting.

It was also cold.  It was quite cold in the morning and pretended to warm up, but never really got warm.  I come dressed in a winter coat, hat, and mittens.  There are some people that only have a light jacket on and I just don't understand.

I had an hour after dropping off the kids before I had to pick them up again, and had been hoping for a nap.  However, my co-teacher had a minor emergency and didn't know how long it would last so instead I ended up answering student emails from her section.  And since I was answering those questions I dealt with some emails from my other class too.  By the time I finished all of those it was time to pick up the kids.

I had a dream of a nap after picking up the kids - once in a while it can happen.  I just lay down on the couch and get a brief snooze in.  (Emphasis on brief.)  However, I was needed and then decided I should start dinner and start a load of laundry and then nap time was gone.  

But I at least had a relaxing evening.  I'm hoping that things will be under control, or at least as under control as possible this semester, by the weekend.

Monday: work

 We had a great weekend - I'll post on that eventually.

Today we worked hard in the morning.  I had a mountain of grading (that I just finished), Isaac had a mountain of math (that he is on top of), and Joshua forgot his math packet this weekend so he had about a week's worth of homework.  He was going to bring it and work on it during the competition, but it got left at home.

Then Joshua went to the optometrist for contacts.  He got the contacts in and he got one out - I did the other one.  It was an emotional time for him, I think because he wants them so badly and they didn't just pop in and out of his eye.  But he did the minimum required at the office and it'll get easier over time.

Then Isaac had a dentist appointment.  He needs to have a wiggly tooth pulled because it's preventing another tooth from coming in, but no one seems otherwise worried about it.

At home I decided to make applesauce to go with dinner.  There was good reasoning in my brain: the fruit flies had enjoyed the smell of the apples while were were gone and I'm afraid they're about to turn.  I'm not sure that a) they're about to turn as they seem just fine and b) that it was a good use of my time.  There's a toilet that's rather high on my priority list that I didn't look at today.  But!  Grading is done ...for now.  Unless something changes on the calendar I expect this will have been one of the hardest weekends to get that done.

Wednesday: reading

While Joshua was at church the rest of us ended up snuggled under a blanket, reading.  Then Joshua came home and joined in.  It was lovely.

Tuesday: fall break

 Today was fall break.  I cleaned the laundry room.

I also found our Christmas tree and a stash of the cats' toys.  I understand how the cat toys get there, but why where there so many fake Christmas tree needles?  The Christmas tree is on the other side of the house.

I am 3/4 finished...but those three quarters are cleaned well.

Monday: ghosts

Scene: Getting the kids out of the house for school, which means making breakfasts and lunches and, most pertinent to this story, snacks.

I'm not always the cleanest lunch and snack maker, taking out food slowly and then putting it all away at the end.  I don't always close the cabinet doors.  

Ok.  Well, I cleaned up a bit and closed the cabinet door.  I dealt with something else.

Oh, the cabinet door is open again.  I must not have closed it.  I got everyone off to school.

Oh, the cabinet door is open again.  Have I really not closed it yet?  I thought I put all the snacks away.  I close it - I am certain it is closed.

Oh, the cabinet door is open again.  I haven't even been in the kitchen since last time I closed it!

I close the door and watch it.  Over the course of the next three seconds it opens all the way up.  I wasn't imagining it!  But it opened slowly enough that I had moved onto the next thing and didn't see it open.

I put a rubber band around the knob attaching it to the cabinet above.  It'll work for now.  Surprisingly, no one has said anything about it to me yet.  What changed to make it suddenly want to be open?

Sunday: D&D

After rest time we had a bit of a rocky go of things.  I'm not really sure what happened, but several of us weren't happy.  We finally made it through and decided to start Joshua's D&D campaign.

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting it to go all that well.  And I was happily proven wrong.

So far we've defeated a sewage monster, found (and opened) a hidden door/wall, found a sword in a stone, defeated a metal blaze, and defeated a mimic.  We also found some new weapons and spells.  Joshua has everything quite organized: he has a spell book for Isaac, monster information for all the monsters, and a story.  The monsters were on the easy side to defeat, but better than way than too hard.  It meant that we made progress.  I think there's also a few misunderstandings about the exact rules sometimes, but everyone just goes with the flow and it works.

Joshua's monsters are also well created and the hidden door/wall actually opened and closed.

It might be a while before we have time to play again, but it should be fun to continue on.

 

Friday: things getting done

I'm currently on fall break for a short time but it started off well.  I finally got a bunch of stuff off my to-do list.  I had time to get all the small stuff off and it felt good.  (Tornado helped by walking all over the clean clothes in the dresser.)

I was eating lunch and heard a thump.  Tornado had knocked Giraffe off the table!  Then Tornado circled around Giraffe like he was going to eat him.  It was definitely the bad part of Giraffe's day today.  (Isaac found it a little funny though.)