Sunday: normal

 It was a pretty normal Sunday.  We helped out with nursery at church and there were a ton of kids, but they were pretty good.

We visited Great-Grandma and painted some new rocks.

Saturday: rock climbing

Isaac had a local rock climbing competition today.  He was in the intermediate level, which was definitely more challenging.  

This route was his favorite.  It took him a ton of tries to get to this position, but he got it!  There was a tricky bit at the end too, but he got that on the second try.  There was a lot of cheering; the route was located in a less busy spot but a lot of people he knew were there at the same time.

This route was also tricky...again for two reasons.  The first was the start - it was a jump on the wall.  Secondly, it was in the middle of two sideways routes and Isaac had a hard time being able to start the route at a safe time.  Once the gym had emptied out a bit it was a bit better, but he still only had two good tries.

We came home and I fell asleep on the couch.  I really didn't do much work today.  We built Lego sets in the morning, I cleaned a box from the basement, helped Joshua with a few things, did lunch, and then went to the comp.  It was lovely.

Friday: not a snow day

The morning started out with this lovely text.  Our kids were in school, but I understand wanting to take the week off.  Only one day of school is a bit weird.

A cardinal came to the birdfeeder today!  I usually get sparrows and juncos, so I was very excited for the cardinal.

I spent some time cleaning the storage room, as is my goal on Fridays.  Today's goal was to get some easy stuff out of the basement.  I also put a few things back in the right place: gift bags had fallen out of their spot and tissue paper was out of its bin.  It wasn't super long, but it was still something.  Some of the stuff needs to be cleaned and will be put back in, while some of the stuff will need to temporarily go back in because that's where donations are kept.  By taking some of the stuff out I was able to put some suitcases under the shelves and free up more floor space.  Hurray!  I also brought all of last week's books to the bookstore, so they're out of the house!  I think next week I'm going to do the same thing; there are still a few obvious things that could be removed.

Ben and Isaac went to play Magic tonight, so Joshua and I had our normal night too.  It's nothing special, but he really seems to enjoy them.  We played two games, had some screen time, and he got hot chocolate with a candy cane.

Thursday: snow day 3

Although this snow day wasn't called until 5:30am, it was still the right choice.  The snow was rather drifty, but the end of the driveway and road had 6-8".  Driving wasn't terrible, but it was far from good.  Only the very major roads were plowed this morning.

So work went fine.  I finally picked up groceries and a minute before I was going to leave Isaac texts to ask if I'm going to get groceries.  I mention that I'm at the store, and he sends me a kitten licking an ice cream cone.  So I went back in to get ice cream.

I also text him that I was unable to find a kitten in the grocery store, so I wasn't able to fulfill his request.

When I get home, Joshua and Ben were playing outside.  Ben dealt with the driveway and then stayed outside to help make the snow sculpture the kids continuously work on.

Isaac wanted to go somewhere, but we settled on a short ski trip around the neighborhood together.  It at least got him out of the house for a bit.

Wednesday: snow day 2

Today was another great day, but for different reasons.  I didn't get much work done and forgot about the laundry a lot.  But!  I played a lot of games, went cross-country skiing, and had Joshua help me with a few small projects.

The projects Joshua selected included putting up the milky way and changing a toilet handle.

We just went skiing around the neighborhood.  It took Isaac a bit to pick it up, but by the end he was doing well...and only fell three or four times.  It's times like this I'd love to get back into cross-country skiing but then I remember that I need 1) time, 2) snow, and 3) someone to go with me.  I rarely have all three of those.

Joshua was complaining about snow getting into his boots, so I added some tubes.  They're old socks and in the past I've used them as wrist protectors.  They worked pretty well, although not perfectly.

Tuesday: a nice day

Well, I had a very nice snow day today, and it culminated with another snow day tomorrow!  My week was going to be quite busy and, honestly, I wasn't very excited about that.  But both things for tomorrow have been canceled and I had time to get several things done today.  Doing my other things would have been good, but I can also be happy that I don't have to do them now.

Isaac is only medium-excited about the snow day tomorrow.  I think he'd prefer it next week...which we have absolutely no control over.  He might have this idea in his imagination about what a snow day should look like and in reality they include more work.  Joshua was excited though!

I sent Laura a Happy Birthday picture and she wasn't sure if I photoshopped it or actually went to the store and put party hats on chip bags.  I'm just excited that someone thinks I would do such a thing and now I think that'll be my goal for her next birthday.  The chip bags and I can go around to all the different foods that say "party size" on them, put a party hat on them, and get a picture.

Monday: extra weekend day

Today was a lovely day.  Ben stayed home and the kids were home because of MLK day.  We put together Legos.  We fixed a light switch.  We did a Lego challenge a la Joshua.  We worked on the D&D puzzle.  There is also a snow day tomorrow!  I am rather jealous: I'd like a snow day, or at least a virtual day, too.

The Lego challenge was to make something for a lovie.

Isaac got Snacksalotal.  Isaac was going to make five treats, but only had time for 1.75...a Danish and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Ben got Creeper.  He made an exploding cat hospital.

Catcachinno got a coffee dispenser with a coffee cup that would move from the dispenser to his mouth.

I got Grey Bear!  He's my favorite.  Grey Bear likes taking naps so I made him a new bed.  I was going to make a really fancy bed!  I ended up with a basic bed because I didn't have much time.

BREAKING NEWS!  Hope just canceled classes tomorrow.  How exciting!!  It will mess up the schedule a little bit, but I don't love 'date day' and the lab computers now have TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER which is so much easier to understand than LEFT(, SEARCH()) and RIGHT(,LEN()-SEARCH()).  I'll probably combine the two.