Thursday: getting ready

Today was a day of getting ready.

I woke up to a message from the Christmas Ruiners.  They like to hide around the main area and somehow ruin Christmas.  Not really sure how.  They're similar to how Christmas Magic moves the Nativity animals every night, but Isaac moves them instead of the magic.  Apparently there was one that I was supposed to find and have missed for several days.

It continued with 1.5 bags of potatoes turning into mashed potatoes.  I had peeled them last night, but then realized that I really, really would regret it if I tried cooking all of them in the instapot at once.  So I did it in two batches and it took longer than I was expecting.  I really feel like the name instapot is a misnomer as it is far from instant.  But they didn't get done too late and I sent a very full crockpot of potatoes to work with Ben.  Now.  During previous potlucks most of the food I make comes home.  I don't mind this at all and since I only make food that I like it works well.  So I was planning on bringing half the potatoes with us to another party.  However, much to my surprise, they were all gone!  So I need to rethink that plan and remember, for better or worse, that mashed potatoes are good at Gentex potlucks.

The morning passed.  Joshua and I have been giving each other a lot of massages, enough that we got a library book to learn some new methods.  (Side note, we got it from the main library because that's were we were.  The librarians were helpful, but not as helpful as my wonderful north side librarians.)  I also put out more bird and squirrel food due to the upcoming blizzard.  While I was coming back inside, Horizon escaped.  This was a big surprise, since he's never the one that escapes.  I let him escape as about four inches away from the house there is a hill of snow that I didn't think he'd be interested in getting over.  About thirty seconds later Tornado followed.  Tornado quickly realized it was not fun and went back inside.  Horizon tried going over the hill and, as expected, turned around and came back inside.

Next it was time for errands!  We met a friend at Anna's House, and she gave the boys a large gift certificate to B&N.  It was quite unexpected.  We headed to rock climbing, and stayed a bit longer than normal.  Joshua and one of the kids' instructors were trying to balance a stuffed rat on their head while climbing...apparently it'll be a new challenge for the kids' group.

We got gas next, including gas for the snow blower.  The boys twisted my arm and we went through the car wash too.  We stopped by the library to pick up a hold, and then to B&N.  We got a new game.  I called our game expert about two games.  We decided on one, but Joshua was adamant that he didn't want it so we went with the other.  We played most of it before dinner and I think it was a good choice. 

Right as we were finishing our errands and pulling into the driveway we saw five snowflakes.  The blizzard was starting!  For those of you not in West Michigan, we are supposed to get 10-20" with high winds Friday and Saturday.  The snow didn't start quite as early as it was supposed to, but by 4pm when the blizzard was supposed to start hitting it was snowing well.  The flakes were small though so there wasn't much accumulation.  I was thinking about snow blowing after dinner but decided not to.  I did look about an hour ago though and there is obviously more snow, so it must have gotten a bit worse.  Everything is shut down tomorrow, so I really hope there's a good storm with no power outages.

Wednesday: first day of break

Well, I only heard that the kids were bored several times today. :p  To be fair, there wasn't much going on this morning anyway.

This afternoon we had stuff to do at least.  We went rock climbing, then I dropped Isaac off to play Dominion while Joshua and I did some errands.  We stopped by the main library and there is a turtle there.  Joshua mentioned that the turtle was following him and I didn't think much of it.  But then Joshua kept walking around the tank and the turtle kept following him...it was not a coincidence!  It turns out that the turtle is getting some medicine on it's shell and it has made the turtle follow all people hoping to get his medicine.

Tuesday: the details

This morning I picked up a food compost bag.  The county takes food scraps for composting and since the worms do the best with fruits and veggies I wanted to give it a try.  We also have a lot of food that needs to be discarded from food boxes we got during the pandemic.  We're just not going to eat it at this point.

The grocery store was rather busy.  Still no mint extract, but everything else was there.

I've found the best way to keep my toes warm during piano lessons is to use my gloves.  They stay warm enough while not getting too hot.

Today was the kids' last day of school!  Isaac had a party and said he had too much sugar, and he came home with a bag of treats.  

Monday: grading, O:CtH

Grades have been entered!  It took me most of the morning to finish up, but I'm now done for a while!

I also cleaned the toaster oven corner of the kitchen.  I started last night, when it was *obviously* the best option of things for me to be doing.  Anyway, it really needed to be cleaned.  I wouldn't really call it clean now, but it is still so, so much better than it was.  I got a lot of the brown cooking residue off the door.  I don't know how to clean up the outside though...I tried a few cleaners and none seemed to work.  So I guess I'll just leave it for now.  

Sunday: low key, sort of

Isaac was kind-of feeling better today, but it's been a weird weekend.  He's developed a cough.  There was no elevated temperature, but there was a bit of a headache.  And he was a lump all morning.  That alone pretty much tells me something is wrong, but nothing hurts.  I'm voting for a bad cold and hoping to send him to school tomorrow.

Joshua was feeling fine (and was very helpful when Isaac needed something).  He made some castles on the couch that he was proud of.  He joined Ben in a Christmas party this evening and it sounded like they both had fun. 

Grading update: it's moving along!  I was woken up early due to Isaac's cough and got a bit more grading done today than expected.  I had been thinking about going to the library tomorrow to work, but right now I think I'm 'close enough' that I can not be too distracted at home.

Saturday: more grading

I wasn't really planning on grading over the weekend, but then I looked at all the stuff I'm supposed to do (work and home-wise) and decided I should do some.  I got a little farther down the list.

Isaac had a low, low fever in the morning and in the evening.  He was doing ok for most of the day though.

It snowed a nice amount today!  I got the snow blower out for the first time of the season and surprisingly didn't have to ask Ben to help me with it.  Usually I can't remember were all the knobs are supposed to go the first time but I got it!  I was oddly proud of myself.

Friday: still grading

I had both my exams today.  The day didn't drag quite as much as I was expecting though, so that was pleasant.  I had two students show up late but not too late and since I knew a different class wasn't coming early for the next exam I still let them have the whole two hours.  Really, I could grade in the classroom or grade in my office, so it was easy enough to do.

During the second exam I got an email from Isaac's teacher that he wasn't feeling well.  There was no fever so he could stay at school, but was looking miserable.  Ben had meetings all day so I tried my other options first.  Aunt C was able to bring him home and he was just snuggled in bed when I got there.  I was rather proud of how he dealt with it, honestly.  It was a weird sickness...no fever, but he was acting like he should have had one.  He finally complained about a headache so I gave him medicine for that.  He perked up a bit after that, but was never 100% and wasn't hungry.

We called off our evening plans.  We didn't need to participate in them so it wasn't a big deal.  The boys played Zelda with Ben and I - you guessed it - graded.  I'm finished with the non-final exam stuff and 1/8 through the final exam.