Saturday: lock-in

This morning before anyone got up Joshua made us a "lock-in"  (i.e., escape room).  He usually does a nice job with these things, so I was somewhat excited to do it.  I had had an itinerary of the day in my head and it did not include a lock-in, so that was the part I was a little annoyed with.  I got over it.

Anyway, Joshua had put a bunch of items on the table and there were several that I thought were going to add to the story but were complete fakes.  A large bowl of Lego dots, a stack of books, and two glasses filled with colored water, for example.  The first puzzle was a little confusing, but after that we figured things out pretty well.

In other news, the cats finally posed for a Christmas card picture.  I had on my calendar, "Christmas Cards!  Just do them! Now!" because we always get to December and I'm overwhelmed and don't want to do them.  So obviously, I'm going to do them in the middle of one of my busiest semesters in a while.  I'm only getting 25 though, so that should keep the crazy to a minimum.

Friday: status

Groceries: gotten.  I was only asked once if I got groceries.

Toilet: probably fixed.  It might have a slow inner leak.  One time I noticed the water level inside had dropped an inch and therefore the valve was slowly leaking water into the tank.  It is function for now but I need to keep an eye on it.

Black belt recertification: Done.  I wasn't going to do it, but the timing has been rather inconsistent.  It's been a while since the last one and I wanted some new material for the next several months.  I didn't feel confident in everything, but the teachers said I'd be fine.  I was fine.  I wasn't great, but I was fine.  (Think normal belt test, but for black belts.  There isn't a rank up associated with it, but I need a certain number before I'm allowed to go to the next rank of black belt.)  

Friends: Joshua and his friends got Boba tea after school.  They were all so excited.

Laundry: put away

Grading: in progress

Kitchen: almost clean

Nap: taken

Thursday: groceries? groceries? groceries?

Oh my children.  

I usually get groceries on Wednesday.  I didn't get groceries on Wednesday this week because I ended up getting groceries last Friday and wanted to work on the toilet this Wednesday.  The number of times between yesterday and today that I've been asked if I got groceries is a little insane.

We are out of milk, but that's usually not what they're asking about.  Joshua is usually asking about donuts.  Isaac...I'm not sure what he cares about.  Furthermore, they know I work on Thursdays.  They just can't wrap their heads around the fact that I haven't gotten groceries yet.

If it wasn't for being out of milk, I might not even go tomorrow.  Milk is rather important though, so I'll go.  Oh, I guess we're out of apples too.  It's an Aldi week, so there might not be donuts.

Wednesday: toilet saga

 Ok.  So Dad came over Tuesday morning before we went to work and replaced the shut-off value.  There were a few minutes of touch-and-go, but he got it!  No more leaking, which is the biggest deal.

Today I continued to work on the toilet.  I put in a new supply line.  I finished putting in the new value.  I put in a new handle, the thing that started this whole process, but it wasn't ideal.  I got a cheap one from Lowe's and it is curved the wrong way such that it rubs hard against the front of the tank.  And I turned on the water.

There was no leaking!  It was a miracle!  The tank filled and stopped appropriately.  I was able to flush.  (Which was rather necessary, since the kids forgot once or twice not to use the toilet.)  But.  The water kept draining into the bowl.  

That's right!  Now the flapper isn't working either.  I'm happy with the progress I was able to make, but it would have been nice if the flapper just worked.  I hate the flappers - they're always so finicky.

Tuesday: Grey Bear

 This notification on my phone made me smile all day. 

Grey Bear has a birthday notification.

Monday: normal

 It was a pretty normal Monday, really.  Aunt C came over so I opened Isaac's window so the cats could say hi.  It was a beautiful day so I was glad to air out the house a bit.

I wasn't planning on doing some of my winterizing, but since it was such a nice day I spent a bit of time on it.  There's still more to do, but some is done.  That's how I felt about most of the day.  There's still more to do, but some is done.

Sunday: half week in review

I'm getting close to being on top of things.  I know, I talk a lot about how I have a lot to do lately.  But making sure I get the minimum done is often in the forefront of my mind and so it ends up here.  Last week had a bunch of good things happen that just took extra time too.

Thursday was busy as normal.  I had a few extra things going on at Hope but still fairly normal.

Friday I attempted to fix a toilet and instead broke the handle off the water-off valve.  So now we've had a bit of a leak.  Lowe's didn't have the valve I needed (really?) so I need to wait an extra day for amazon to send me one.

Saturday we went to an escape room at the library.  It was well set up, but there were a lot of problems to solve in a short time!  So we used several hints to keep us going.  It was a fun thing to do together.

Saturday evening we went to a friends house and that was a lovely time as normal.  The kids played well and the adults talked well.

Sunday was normal; we did nursery at church.  We ended up going rock climbing because that's when it worked best in the schedule.  Isaac's science teacher is at the front desk for a few hours on Sunday so it was nice to see her.

And then we get to the end of the weekend.  Do I still have a crazy amount of stuff to do?  Yes.  Am I feeling a bit more in control?  Usually.  This coming week is just normal busy, so I should be able to catch up.