Monday: Christmas Shepherd

 I'm enjoying Christmas Shepherd.  And the fact that Isaac can read.  

I was going to skip today's activity because I didn't really want to do it, but Isaac came in ready to do it.  If he's going to be that excited about something then we'll do it!  Today was hide the shepherd.

The house has gotten quite Christmasy over the last few days. :)  A few more lights to put up and it'll be done.  (These bulbs and stars are new for us this year; we got them free from church.  They've been a nice addition.)

I didn't really want to do anything this morning.  Getting out of bed after a long weekend was a bit rough, but not as bad as if the kids were actually going to school.  However, I did do quite a bit once I got going.

The weekend: in pictures

 Our shepard keeps leaving notes as to where the animals moved (due to Christmas magic, of course.)

This is our Christmas Lego table, although it's been added to since the picture was taken.  Joshua is especially enjoying playing with the assorted sets on the table.

Joshua wanted to make a Christmas tree.  Then he put everyone's name on it, including "I don't know" x2 [skull].  This was for his two fish that died...last year?

During Lego time Joshua just made ghost boats from the ghost school set.  They were very good.

Today's shepard activity was follow-the-leader.  The boys enjoyed it way more than I was expecting.

Friday: Christmas!

The boys wanted to put up the Christmas tree ASAP this morning.  Why not?  I let them do most of the work while I had breakfast, although I did direct a lot.

We started 'Searching for the Shepard', which is the Christian version of Elf on a Shelf that our friends got us.  Today we were supposed to make a chain.  I'm thinking the fun part of this will be to see our friends' pictures too!

We also spent some time working on Lego sets.  We moved into Isaac's room, which is much softer and isn't as annoying to walk around when the sets don't get finished.  Joshua's also had Ghost School out for months now, so I'm hoping he'll be able to finish it up with people around (both for motivation and to help).

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving

 It was an excellent day, as days go.

Ben and I woke up to three signs that Joshua had written, but we had to wait until everyone was moving to read them.  Joshua was really excited.

The first one was about Pokemon Go, but I got stuck after that and Joshua didn't tell the the rest of what he wrote.  The light pink one says 'Minecraft thing on Joshua's account' because he had something to show Ben for his birthday.  The orange one says, 'Winter Muffin Joke.  What did the muffin say when d__[I think he forgot to write the rest].  Ear muffins!"

We watched church together.  They had the lyrics working again, which was nice.

Joshua and this snake taught me to laugh like a bad guy while I was making green bean casserole.

Happy Thanksgiving!  A Lego challenge from a week ago.

The Thanksgiving meal.  Most of it brought to you by a local restaurant, which was an excellent idea for us.  

Joshua was really excited for the pumpkin pie, but what I think he was really excited about was that he didn't have to eat all his food to get it.  I handed him his plate with the food and said something like, "Here's your food.  You need to at least pretend to eat it for pie."  He took this very literally, eating his 1/2 roll and moving his fork but not actually touching any of the food.

We ate while watching a movie.  I'm very thankful for my family and love them a lot, but I see them all.the.time.

We met up with Ben's family right before dinner (but it did not include dinner) for a very responsible, socially-distanced, mask-wearing get together outside.  It was nice to see everyone.  Isaac and Joshua did their own thing, as they often do, but I understand not wanting to just stand around and talk.  By the end my toes were rather cold though.

Oh, it's also Ben's birthday!  We got him some gifts and sang Happy Birthday, but it was rather low-key.

There are a lot of things to be thankful for this year, but the one that stands out the most is for kids that play well together.  Staying at home so much has been so much easier knowing that the kids will play together for several hours every day.  I really thought they'd be sick of each other, but, with the exception of a day here or there, they haven't been.  They even like each other so much that they're still sleeping in the same room.  Well, tonight they're sleeping in the tent. But they're still together.

Wednesday: days

 Well, there's been a lot (of good stuff) on my mind.  It might come out in a few posts tonight because it isn't at all related, or I'll save it for a slow day.

First of all, this week has been terrible for me in remembering what day of the week it is.  Worse than normal.  There have been a few times I've woken up and am completely stuck because I can't remember what I'm supposed to be doing because I can't remember what day it is.  And other times it's not that I'm off by just one day, but I'm off by lots of days.  It's been rather annoying.

Joshua made a turkey had during school today.  I like the hat + earphones look.

He also passed his karate test with flying colors.

I'm not sure if you've seen any thing about a drunken squirrel that's gone viral, but our friend shot the video.  I've seen a lot about it because she and friends keep posting on Facebook the different places that they've seen it show up, but have only watched the one interview that I linked above.  Imagine how surprised I was to see it in my newsfeed this evening!

Tuesday: accomplished

 Today was rather productive.  I made cranberry sauce.  (Partially because I had gotten the cranberries before we ordered dinner from a restaurant and partially because Cheryl said it's really easy.)  I also made some Chex Mix.  It's always a problem because it is half gone and it's only been a day.

Joshua is thankful for food, house, brother, and sets [Lego].  His spelling is so fun lately.  He writes me notes for the smallest things.  The problem is that he can't spell well, has no spaces, and does crazy mountains for M/W.

Ben ended up winning two opened sets of one of the Lego sets Joshua really wants for Christmas.  He wasn't really planning on two, but that's how auctions work.  It actually worked perfectly!  Between the two boxes we have one full set that is in the unopened bags.  I think we have most of the second set, although there seemed to be a few things that might be missing.  The extra pieces will be put to good use though!

Isaac and I also tested for our next rank of belt.  I feel like we barely learned everything in time, but we did.  

Monday: the day

 It was a day during which I didn't feel like I got a lot done but what I did get done was important.

I proctored an exam.  While periodically helping the children with school.  Isaac laughed at one point when he came over to ask me a question...

One computer is Isaac's, one with exam instructions (that didn't have much use besides being the default screen for when students stopped their screen share), one to watch exams, and one that I actually did stuff on.

I also watched my aunt's funeral.  There have been a few deaths of people around me lately.  I was trying to find something profound to say about this, but they all felt flat.