Tuesday: Tornado

Ben is gone, so Tornado is willing to accept my lap as a substitute.

Monday: calmer

Today was more calm.  Not completely calm, but everyone seemed to manage their emotions a bit better.

I graded, had hot chocolate with Pat, took a nap, did some chores.

Oh, I decided to sleep with the door closed last night.  The main reason was that I didn't want the light to wake me up in the morning when Joshua woke up.  It was a good choice too, because I woke up at 3am and didn't get back to sleep well until 4:45am.  (I might have dozed, but only a bit.)

Well, that's about it for my exciting day.

Sunday: well then

Ben left on a long work trip at noon today.  The morning was pretty nice - we did some work, played a game, and lazed around a bit.

He left, and the Sunday continued on as normal.

After dinner though, was a different story.  Oh, the tears.

Of course, Ben is gone.  This always seems to happen when Ben is gone.  Although there are a few other factors, such as a rock climbing competition coupled with a big math test that also seem to happen on these emotional weekends.  So while I could say that Ben is the calming influence in the family, and he no doubt is, I'm not convinced his being gone is the sole reason we're all a bit off.

As people slowly go to bed though, we all seem to be doing ok.  Joshua always bounces back quickly.  Isaac took a homework break earlier than I was hoping, but it ended up being the right choice for him.  He brought me a math challenge and I was able to solve it, so that was a relief.  We also talked about inverse sines and inverse cosines.  I probably didn't do as much grading as I should have, but I'm working away at it.  We're getting close to the end of the semester and I continue to write the same feedback that no one reads every time, so I don't feel as though I need to be quite as on top of grading.

Now, the big question: do I let the cats sleep with me tonight?  Sometimes they sleep with me well, and sometimes they don't.  When Ben is home they aren't allowed in the bedroom at night because they love him too much.

Saturday: comp 2

Isaac and I went to the Detroit area for his second competition today.  He was in the afternoon session and that was really nice.  It was also a different format from last time, which had pros and cons.  It was a modified redpoint, which basically meant that Isaac had four minutes for each of four routes and four minutes of rest in between.  He had a designated start time and was the only person on the route for those four minutes, so he could try it as many times as he wanted.  He also was able to get coaching help throughout the four minutes from the coaches.

Pros: 
*It felt more organized
*Getting to do one route over and over again without waiting for others was nice

Cons:
*Coaches were busy.  Sometimes a coach wasn't quite there at the start of Isaac's run.
*There wasn't as much time to rest, whether it was within the four minutes of the route or between routes.

We got there earlier this time and I felt calmer because of it.  Isaac had plenty of time to look at the routes, warm up, and watch a few others work on the routes.  (We also had videos of the routes, because if you were near the beginning you otherwise wouldn't be able to see anyone do it.)

Route 1.  This was his best score, as he got top zone.  Isaac is good at slab work, and I heard someone behind me even comment on his precision.  (Later the coaches were talking and one said he was slow but steady and the other said, yup, that's Isaac.)  It was a great start.

Route 2.  This looked the hardest to me.  He tried the beginning a lot and quickly, which he mentioned later was not what the coaches suggest doing.  He managed to get low zone during his second to last try, and we were happy with that result.

Route 3.  I think if he had two more minutes, one of which was a rest minute, he might have been able to at least get top zone in this one.  His first tries tired him out a lot, and it was basically climbing upside down so it sapped the strength quickly.  Again, he was pretty happy with this result even though it had the potential of being better.

Route 4.  This one ended up being the roughest.  There was a teeny tiny foot hold, and he just couldn't get past it.  He gave it a bunch of good tries.

Here's the thing though, he came off every route with a smile, even the last one.  He did his best.  Did he place well?  Not really.  (He hasn't asked about his place.)  Does it matter?  Not at all.  He enjoys the climbing, and did a good job for where he is.

Friday: ok

Today was just ok.  Laundry took forever.  I didn't want to do my chores.  Joshua and I went to family night at Scrapyard and it was crowded and ended on a slightly sour note.  Joshua brushed it off after a minute, and it was really only the slightest of misunderstandings, but not ideal.

Isaac also has a rather busy weekend.  He only had a half day today and that helped.  He was feeling a bit anxious about everything so during lunch we made a plan.  We listed everything that needed to be done and set out a schedule, which of course included breaks.  He said by the end he felt better.  There still might be some time on Sunday that isn't very fun, but there is time to get everything done.  It helps me too, because if he's just goofing around I know if he's "on break" or if he's supposed to be concentrating.

weekend: Dusty

As you read earlier, Dusty was up for the weekend!  As always, it was lovely to have him here.

He and Ben talked for hours, mostly sitting like this:

They played a few video games.  Isaac really wanted to play Puyo-puyo-Tetris with him so they did that one night too.  Dusty was introduced to Space Base.  Dusty also flew the kids above his head, similarly to how he did when they were younger.

Ben was going to have a back injection Monday, so we made a last minute decision to go rock climbing...it was Ben's first time!

He did a little bit of everything and did a great job.

Thursday: busy

As with most Thursdays, it was a busy day.  This evening we had conferences instead of karate though.  It didn't make it more busy, just different busy.

Everyone's doing great!  I've been a bit curious about Joshua's math work because it sounds from his description that he's getting all the concepts, but then the test scores aren't coming back great.  It sounds like the tests are extra hard and that he is getting all the main concepts, so I don't need to 'worry' about that.  Spelling and punctuation are the things he needs to work on the most, and Ben and I totally agreed with that.  Today he was excited because his clip was on 'black'.  They have a behavior chart, and this year it changed a bit.  Everyone starts on blue and you can go up to pink and orange if you're doing an especially good job.  At the beginning of the school year there was some discussion about getting to the black part, which is really just the sign header, and if it was really a part or not.  Well, he's gotten to orange several times but today he got to black!  So that's a thing now.  He's also in a peer-to-peer group with an autistic classmate and really enjoying it.  I mean, they play games and have a lot of fun so I'm not surprised.

Isaac's teacher sees him twice a day (homeroom and science).  She only had nice things to say about him too, although had a limited perspective.  Well, we aren't really worried.  She also works at Scrapyard, so we finished with several minutes about how we love the community that's there.

We ran into Jason, one of the...helpers?...as we were leaving.  (I'm not sure what his title is.  Parapro?  Permanent substitute?  He seems to just be all over the school, but I think he has a specific thing he does.)  Anyway, he was able to give a bit more insight on Isaac's lunch and recess activities and it was actually really positive.  Isaac has always been a bit of a loner, although the last few years he made a few better friends.  This year it sounds like he's branching out even more and...playing soccer!  So while he might not have a best friend, he has friends.

I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight.  Everyone else is already asleep.  My book is pretty good, so hopefully I'll be able to read a bit extra.  Or...I'll just fall asleep.  That's more likely.