Friday: flowers

Today it felt like I got a lot done.  The curry was on it's last simmer by 9:30.  I finished unpacking and putting away groceries, so the floor is mostly picked up.

After school we went to get some flowers for the year.  We all have things that we like to get along with a random assortment.  This year Isaac ended up with a large and small succulent, along with zucchini plants.  He was going to try watermelon again, but we were pretty late in getting our flowers and they were all gone.  I think he's excited about zucchini bread.  Joshua got some (small) strawberry plants; I hope they thrive for him.  He also got a succulent and a bright red tall flower and his normal snapdragons.  They only had one flat of snapdragons left, so we were a bit lucky.  I got my normal dragon leaf begonia, some leafy things, some white things to go with the red flower, and some marigolds.  There is no rhyme or reason to what we get, other than it catches our eye.

Well, this would be a good place to put a picture of the flowers but of course I didn't take one.

Tuesday2: teacher photos

 Joshua's teacher sent out a few of her Lansing photos...

Thursday: better

While today was rather boring, I did finally make headway on the chores.  The laundry is almost complete, the entryway has been picked up, and all the groceries are purchased (although not put away).  I'm hoping to do some more interesting chores tomorrow, but we'll see how things go.

I stopped by Hope before Isaac's math class to drop off some things for their last day.  His teacher is so nice.  Isaac had a gigantic final exam, and it would have been nice to have more than a week that didn't include a holiday, but otherwise the class is run so nicely.  There are plenty of chances to fix work, the teacher loves math and is excited by it but also can run a classroom.  She is also incredibly responsive via email.  And she loved having Isaac!  The program really does work well for him, in more ways than just learning math.  There is a ton of time management and responsibility that Isaac has figured out too.

We went rock climbing right afterwards.  Isaac completed the V5 that he's been working on.  He hasn't completed many of that level, so it was extra exciting.  I didn't get to see it because I was belaying Joshua, but his coach was watching and cheering him on.

Wednesday: the day

I am still working through getting stuff done.  I still don't have a clean kitchen, I've barely unpacked, I didn't finish the wash (although that's normal), and it took me until the evening to get half the groceries.  It's a big grocery week so I need to go to two stores and I only got to one.  I have a bit more time tomorrow, so I'm optimistic things will get done.

The food situation has been 'dire'.  Carrots were gone a few days ago.  There were three florets of broccoli left for dinner; the lunch vegetable was peanuts.  There is no fresh fruit...although I found two apples hiding as I put the groceries away.

A friend brought Isaac back from church this evening and even though it only saved me twenty minutes, I used those twenty minutes well.

Tuesday: field trip

Today was Joshua's 4th grade trip to Lansing and I went as a chaperone.  While there were many similarities to Isaac's, there were a bunch of differences too.

First of all, we had a bus.  I'm not sure I would have gone if we needed to drive.  I know it isn't that far, but it isn't my favorite thing to do.  Anyway, the bus was really nice.

We were on time!  This meant we got to see the whole capital tour instead of just 2/3rds of it.  However, congress wasn't in session and so it wasn't as busy or quite as interesting.  The docent for the tour kept emphasizing how we had to be really quiet so they don't get complaints.  Ok, I get it.  At the very end she was looking down a hallway (presumably with actual workers) and said we had to be extra quiet.  The fourth graders did a great job.  One of the students in the high school class that was with us went "lalalala" and the docent came back and glared at the 4th graders.  Kind of funny, kind of not.

Next we went the museum.  Last time a docent walked us through a large part of it; this time we were on our own.  I tried to keep my group somewhat slow; we had over an hour and the only thing that happened if we went quickly was more time waiting.  We ended up being the last group out (just by a bit) and it worked perfectly.  I thought the kids did a pretty good job engaging with the exhibits.

Lunch was fine.

We also got to go to the Supreme Court, which wasn't on the schedule for Isaac's trip.  I thought the docent did a very nice job and there was some nice interaction on how a court room worked.  That being said, the kids were also starting to be a little done with listening.

I realized what a joy it is to have kids that listen.  How they ask if they can do xyz and then do as expected or ask a reasonable follow-up question.  (Can I get my ball out?  No?  Ok, can I get it out when we go outside?)  How I can expect to go into a gift shop and not have them go crazy.  I know some of that is that we know each other, but it is good to be able to trust them.

The other big difference with this field trip is that Joshua interacted with his peers a ton more than Isaac did.  He didn't sit next to me on the bus.  He didn't eat lunch next to me.  He walked by me sometimes, but not always.  It was different, but good.

Monday: e-Foil

We got Ben out on his e-Foil today for the first time.  It was a bit of an ordeal getting it to the beach, but there are plans to make that easier in the future.  It was a lovely night.

Thursday: life

This morning I went on a walk with Cheryl.  There were a lot of ducks.

 

I went rock climbing with Isaac after his math class.  He's had a lot of work lately but has really been doing a great job managing it.  During rock climbing he decided to show me something he thinks is a figure 4.  It was interesting to watch him move his legs all around, but especially when he decided to do it one-handed.  There was a different pink route that we watched a few people do without their feet in the cave (i.e., hands only).  So he decided to do it and totally crushed it.  Everyone was excited for him.