Tuesday: made it

Well, I made it through the day.  I guess it wasn't that hard, but I was especially feeling the lack of work/home/school balance today.

It's probably in part because I didn't feel great about the lecture today.  It was a good topic, but super short.  The boys did a good job of giving me some time in the morning and later in the afternoon to finish up some stuff though, so I feel mostly prepared for the next several classes.

Horizon came to help me teach for a few moments.

Joshua had a lego challenge of a horse or a tree house.  He made a rainbow horse and a treehouse.  The person took all the leaves off the tree though.  The tree house has an inside floor and a roof floor that had a rope for climbing up to.

Although the window is at the same height as the horse's back, it is not for getting onto the horse.  Apparently that was a silly idea.

Joshua and I also got on each other's nerves tonight.  I was telling him to hurry up with the chores and he basically told me that he didn't want to.  (I'm not sure exactly what he said.  It hurts to do chores perhaps?)  So I told him that we'd have to stop screen time with Dad after dinner if that was the case.  This of course sent him in to tears.  And he spilled the Legos he was trying to put away.  I was helping him clean them up but he wasn't sorting them well (it was an easy sort) because "he couldn't see" through the tears.  I told him to finish his chores and he cried all the way through them.  He finally came up and sat on my lap and said that he was sad because it seemed like I was mad and he didn't want to do his chores because he has done them so many times.  I told him I was mad.  And that I do the same chores all the time too.  But I did agree with him that they're boring.  Anyway, all that to say something will need to change tomorrow and he won't like it.  I think I'll give him a choice though: nap, no screen time, or sleep in his bed instead of the tent.  I expect he'll choose nap, but we'll see.  At least, that's what I hope he chooses as I'm pretty sure he hasn't been getting enough sleep.

Monday: back to school

I thought Isaac would be starting the school packets that he got over break this week, but it turns out that it doesn't start until next week.  In anticipation I set up a table in his room so that he could not be as distracted.  Of course, he also hasn't been using his bed lately so he moved it over for a chair.  And a room would be incomplete without a ducky chair for reading time.

Joshua hit a whole bunch of Lego challenges: an empty tomb (that is empty inside), a lake (top part) and a chair (with a person watching a battle)

Sunday: Happy Easter!

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

We had church on-line.  It's still a bit weird, but getting normalish.  They did a nicer job with the playlist today so we didn't have to go back and forth between different webpages.

Joshua made ...oh, what was he calling them; I can't remember...ginormousized snakes.  With a little snake on top of them.

The day was a bit rough...I was a bit grumpy which was probably the main problem.  Joshua wouldn't make up his mind about what he wanted to eat.  I don't want to decide what cereal he wants!  (Mainly because I always choose incorrectly.)  Then he couldn't decide what he wanted for lunch.  The boys always ask for things that aren't really options like pancakes and it gets so annoying.

I finally put candy in the Easter eggs.  The boys were very good about not asking too much about the Easter egg hunt.  They did a good job of both finding eggs...Isaac was a bit faster than Joshua but not by as much as in the past.  Afterwards they made an Easter egg hunt for us and it was the best they've ever made!  There were several eggs that we weren't able to find.

Saturday: Easter parade

We had and Easter parade in front of Grandma's house today.

The boys made cards to go in the mailbox.  They both put more effort into them than I was expecting.  I didn't get a picture of Isaac's, but he was making an intricate maze.

Friday: vacation

Today was another screen time day for the boys.  Isaac played Mario Rabbids all day.  Joshua stayed on the couch by him, but did a variety of things.

Ben and I also took it pretty easy and it was lovely.

Thursday: too busy?

It was a busy day today.  Most days feel like that.  Today though, I wish it hadn't been quite so busy.  A bit more time to remember would have been nice, but I've also found that memories come when they come and that is fine too.

Wednesday: back to school

Joshua's Lego challenge was to make a pizza.  First, he drew a picture of a pizza monster.  Then he added a guy the pizza monster was chasing.  Then he made it out of Lego.  The guy is smiling because he doesn't realize the pizza monster is behind him.  The pizza monster can shoot sauce out of his mouth.

The floor got sticky again, so Joshua got to clean the kitchen this time.

Isaac worked diligently on his math and reading packets.  Well, pretty diligently...better than Monday.  I'm now optimistic that he'll finish his required things by Friday.  He ended up in this corner while trying not to be distracted.  Of course, he let the vent distract him.  "Why isn't there an ant trap in the vent?"  "There's nothing in there that ants want."  "But couldn't they come in anyway?"  "It's not connected to the outside, but to the furnace."  "Oh."

I had the possibly stupid idea of using water in the marble run for today's water activity.  I think that if Joshua hadn't put the straight long down pipe in the set-up it wouldn't have been too bad.  Maybe.  A lot of water splashed out and the floor got a second cleaning of the day.

It turns out that when I'm not teaching I can handle the boys' school and keeping the house clean.  But I can only do two of the three.  The kitchen has been especially bad the last few days.  Also, Hope College canceled next Monday's classes (Friday was already off.)  I don't have strong opinions on whether or not they should cancel classes, but it feels a little unfair to have another MWF class off and not an TR class.  I'm a bit short on material.  I know, I could cancel.  And my classes have gotten rather short.  But still...  (Also, I've heard from some of the students that they are spending a ton more time with remote learning than if they actually went to a classroom.  I'm not sure why this is, but perhaps my short classes will give them a bit of a breather.  At least, that's what I'll tell myself.)