Sunday-ish: in pictures

Friday: Isaac has been wearing this hat, named Flippy-Floppy, since kindergarten.  We'll all a bit surprised that it still fits and that it hasn't been permanently lost.

Friday: A new SMTWRFS showed up and it was too big for jail, so it is under the jail.  It seems like it shouldn't be able to escape.

...all the SMTWRFS escaped Sunday morning.

One was trying to shoot themselves into the Christmas tree.

Two were trying to climb into the Christmas village.

The Christmas ruiners are also coming out.  They have a TV in their jail.

...oh, just kidding.  It's a portal to the basement.  I put this portal in the SMTWRFS's jail, so they can portal between the two areas.

I left the SMTWRFS jail open while snow blowing, thinking they only moved at night.  This was a false assumption and they started to escape again!

We're also working on putting arms and hands back on mini-figs that have lost them.  No one wants to play with an armless or handless mini-fig unless it is really, really the piece they need.  Isaac arranged the ones that have received arms and hands so that they are cheering.  (It really makes me so relieved to finish up a torso with all it's parts.  It's just so sad when parts are missing.)

Friday: lovie tower.

Wednesday: it's that time of year again...I just buy butter because I think I might need it and end up with way too much butter.

Saturday: funeral

I went to Uncle Dave's funeral today.  It's been a while since I've seen a lot of the Fremont crew - I think 2016.  I missed one family reunion and a wedding since then because I had other plans before hearing the date.

Anyway, it was nice to see people, but the funeral itself was unexpectedly hard.  It wasn't hard because Uncle Dave died; it was hard because Mom died.  

It is sad that Uncle Dave died.  He was a fun uncle, a kid at heart, and loved God so much.  But at the same time he was recently moved to a memory unit and was dealing with macular degeneration...things were not going well and he was not the person he used to be.  He lived a good life and the funeral was truly a celebration of his life.  Two things can be true at the same time.  We can be sad he's no longer with us and happy that he is in heaven with Jesus.

Oh, the funeral reminded me so much of Mom.  I went into the sanctuary fully expecting to be ok: I hadn't even brought tissues.  But as we were sitting there all the memories and the grief came back before the service even started.  The grief isn't less, life has just grown around it.  But the flowers, the front row, and Mom's family just brought back too much.  Honestly, I felt a little silly about that.  This was not a funeral for Mom and my tears were not for Uncle Dave or his family.  They were just an overflow of my own grief and it sometimes hits unexpectedly.  Then as Dean was sharing a personal reflection he highlighted the fact that Uncle Dave "was in heaven and could see his parents, his sister Julie, and his nephew Bryan.  And, best of all, he could see Jesus."  I pretty much lost it again.  (Although it was also one of the first things I thought when I heard he died.)

But that's ok.  I know that I will be ok again.  They are tears of grief and loss, but they're also tears that show love.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Friday: busy

It was a busy day!

I had breakfast with Betsy.  I tried a new item and it was good.  I'm always a bit worried trying new things because I like my standard options so much.

I donated blood.  There was a small hiccup, but overall it went well.

I proctored an exam.  No issues.

I took a nap.  Horizon joined me just as I needed to get up.

I worked on a puzzle with a friend.

I picked up the kids and made food.

We played Saboteur 2.  Isaac has wanted to play all week.

I sent some emails that I should have sent earlier in the day.

I joined a video chat with friends.

Thursday: classes

Today was the last day of classes.  Yay!  My graders have been really on top of grading this semester and several expressed interest in grading the final, so I'm hopeful there won't be a ton of grading over the next two weeks.

That being said, there are still several late assignments to catch up on and I did quite a bit of grading today from assignments due this week.  We'll see how everything pans out.  I also managed to send the instructions for the final to the printer.

Tomorrow is busy.  I have lots to do - some fun, a blood donation, and a lot of work.  Don't worry: I'll be annoyed at how few chores I got done but will enjoy time with people and take a nap anyway.

I still need to do one fold of the bread and put the laundry in the drier.  Oh, the tragedy of it all.  The biggest problem is that I don't want to get out of my chair.  I just want to be in bed.

Wednesday: meh

Today was just meh.  It wasn't really bad, but when I was giving my good part to Joshua it took me a while to find one.  (It snowed out today.  Although I could have also said the cheap donuts I found at the store.)

I did a few chores.  They felt like they took a long time.  I woke up from my nap so, so sad.  I can't completely remember why, but I think I was lonely.  Karate was self-defense the whole time and that isn't my favorite.  My partner, while really nice, didn't challenge me a ton.  In some ways that's nice because I don't feel old for doing all the moves slowly, but after a few times it would be nice to be able to make it a bit harder.

Tuesday: snow on the driveway

 I set my alarm 20 minutes early in case I needed to snow blow this morning.  About a hour ahead of the alarm, I started to  go in and out of sleep as I waited for the alarm to go off.  However, at one point I had 100% convinced myself that I could see that there was no snow on the driveway because I could see there was no new snow through our glass floor.  Therefore I didn't have to get out of bed!  Yay!

It was surprisingly hard to convince myself it was a dream.  

The alarm went off and there was only about an inch, so I went back to bed for twenty minutes.  I did end up snow blowing because I had time and it was fast.

Monday: Christmas decorations

Joshua has been the mastermind of Christmas decorations this year and it has been wonderful.  Other people have stepped in here and there, but he has done a majority of them.  I like the decorations, but I was not very excited to put them up this year.  I'm so glad he did it for me!

I didn't put many of my ornaments on the tree, but Jaq was not only put on the tree but also had his picture taken.  I rather wish Mom was around so that Nathan and I could include her on the text message we send every year to each other to confirm the silly mouse is on the tree.  She would be dismayed, but in a happy way.

Sunday: snow

We got a lot of snow overnight!  On the deck there was probably about 14"...most of that had fallen after 6pm when it got dark.

I snow blowed the driveway.  The snow blower worked well, but it was so slow.  I could only remove about 5 linear inches at a time, otherwise I'd overwhelm the auger.

Then the rest of the family came out and we played outside for close to two hours.  We started with a snowman and then made a fort with the snowman as a corner.  The snow was odd.  It was wet and packed well, but it didn't stick to itself well.  So when we were rolling snowballs for the snowman it mostly just compressed the snow under the snowball.  For the fort, I was in charge of making the bricks.  It was really satisfying to take them out of the mold.  (I did learn that I needed to pack the snow tightly but not too tightly, otherwise they wouldn't come out.)

The plow came through about ten minutes before the fort was finished, but after I had finished making bricks.  Luckily, I had snow blown extra in front of the mailbox and so barely any snow was put into our driveway!  Unluckily, our neighbors weren't so lucky.  It was also really wet snow and about to get colder.  The neighbors across from us had a huge pile so I shoveled enough that they could get out in the morning.  The neighbors diagonal from us didn't have a massive pile, but I shoveled a bit for them anyway.  There is no warm-up in the forecast, and dealing with icy snow on the driveway is not pleasant.

(This was after the plow came through!  I was so excited.)

Saturday: funny things

Today was a funny day.  Again, not a lot got done but I'm used to not getting much done on a Saturday so it didn't feel so abnormal.

This morning Ben was cooking breakfast while I was also doing stuff in the kitchen.  He rinsed his hands after cracking open the eggs.  I got the dishwasher started.  He rinsed his hands again, but this time was taken aback by the water temp.  I had made it hot to start the dishwasher but the sudden change surprised him.  Then I decided that the oven towel needed to be changed so I grabbed it from the handle, and two seconds later he asks in disbelief where the towel was.  I found the whole thing hilarious.

We're watching a TV series based on the Lego sets "Elves".  The show is really quite bad, but we only have one episode left.  My favorite part from today was when the antagonist says to a void creature, "Oh, that's right. You don't have any pockets." I thought it was such a weird flex but it turned the void creature into one of my favorite characters. I feel for it. Women's clothing often doesn't have pockets either.

The SMTWRFSs showed up today. They're going for the star on the tree, as they previously threatened to do. The ladder is now in jail. Joshua thinks the ladder might be a SMTWFRS, but unless it has eyes I think it is just a ladder.

Ben and I finished going through the cords in the storage room! Now I just have to neaten them up, Ben needs to neaten up some cords in use, we will move some shelves over a few inches, and finally put in new shelves.

Friday: behind

I felt a bit behind for most of the day.  That doesn't mean that I didn't have fun and good day though - we still did Lego in the morning and nap time and family game.  But then one thing on the computer took an extra 40 minutes and by the time I was done it was lunch time and I had wanted to make mashed potatoes.  And maybe clean the kitchen.  And put the laundry in the drier.  And oh! The bread needed to be folded.

We had instant potatoes instead.  They were fine.  The kitchen well...is the kitchen.  The laundry eventually got in the drier.  Family game was fun.  We played the Minecraft game, and last time Ben had really bad luck defeating monsters.  He had slightly better luck today, but when Isaac and I had bad luck we called it "Dad luck" which really, also sounds like "bad luck."

The SMTWRFSs left me a note in their Christmas jail...but they weren't in it.  They aren't very educated, so it's a bit hard to read: "you locked us up for over a lot of times so uses [us-es] will steal the shiny crown atop the green cone"

Thursday: Thanksgiving

"Your place in God's family was never secured by the strength of your faith, but the strength of His grace.  God loves you because of who he is.  God loves you because it's his character.  God loves you because it's his joy."  From church

Tuesday: errands

I had a surprising number of errand for a work day.  I dropped off the compost.  Dad cut a long stick into five sticks.  I dropped off the household donations.  I got gas.  I picked up groceries.

Now, Meijer was really busy so I couldn't park in my normal spot of #2.  I had to go around and ended up in #6.  Imagine my surprise when Joshua complained about it because 6-7.  He thought I should move to parking spot 5.  (Isaac mentioned that kids aren't saying 6-7 at school as much anymore, but I feel like I still hear it from him a lot.  Not necessarily in the random way it was apparently often used, but the sequence comes up more often than one might expect.)

Last night was a bit rough, stepwise.  I was almost asleep when I started coughing, and I couldn't stop.  I finally moved out to the couch for a few hours, but it still took me a while to get it under control enough to go to sleep.  I think I'll just sleep in the guest room tonight; it's annoying but then at least Ben will get some sleep.  I thought I was getting better, and it suddenly hit.

Tomorrow looks like an odd combination of busy and relaxing.  The kids don't have school and we have some fun (and some boring) things planned.

Monday: stuff

I got a pretty good amount of stuff done today.  Not quite as much as I was hoping, but it did include cleaning my computer desk - that took longer than expected.  

There was a health insurance thing I was dealing with...the system has recently changed, so I needed to set up a passkey.  That involved an app, which I had already downloaded.  Ok.  The computer sent the message to my phone and I approved the request.  Nope.  It didn't work.  So I needed to log into the app and it told me that I didn't have a passkey and I needed to set it up.  So I set it up.  I got an email saying it worked.  It didn't work; I repeated that whole thing again.

I did this four times until giving up and doing what I needed to do in the app.

The game we were playing involves a place in the lid for a cat to sit.  It is hard to get the cats to sit in it, but we caught one.

Sunday: Great-Grandma

We stopped by to visit Grandma for a bit today.  We several games of Uno.

For the last few minutes we got out some blocks and had building competitions.

Couches:

Houses:

Bears:

Saturday: sweatshirts

Today was karate's annual Christmas sale, and I always go to pick up the annual membership.  They were also trying to get rid of some hooded sweatshirts.  The sweatshirts have been $10 for a while; I picked one up several weeks ago.  However, they were now $8 - so I picked up two more.  For something that is normally $40, it was too big of a steal to pass.  They're all black, so I'll just wait until I want a new soft sweatshirt.

Friday: a good day

It was a pretty good day today!

I finished cleaning the storage room!  However, there are still a few things Ben needs to look through so I haven't taken pictures yet.  Furthermore, Ben and I talked a bit more on Saturday and decided to add a few more shelves but it involves moving things around a bit.  Not too much work, but it means things are completely done.  So...I'm almost finished with the storage room.  I also think I need to deal with some of the items we want to list on eBay before I can consider it finished.

I brought Heather rock climbing after lunch.  It was her very first time and she came into the gym not knowing at all what to expect.  For the first time she did really well.  I also managed to get the 5.9 route that I got several weeks ago and then haven't been able to get again.

After picking up the kids we had a few errands to do.  In order to try and make things go fast the kids went to one store while I went to the other store.  It didn't end up saving much time because the kids had a hard time finding their item and by the time I got to them they were only standing in line.  I had been hoping they would have been walking back to the car, but at least they had some independence.  Then we also stopped at the shoe store.  It was only half of a success but added to the total time.

And we had a relaxing evening with some online games.  It was a nice way to end the night.

Thursday: car

Well, I went to drop off the compost before picking up Joshua at school only to find out the hours had changed.  Again.  I like the new hours better, but they happened to be closed when I dropped by.  The compost was rather stinky and it was annoying to have it in the car while I waited.  I was annoyed because I had the compost and the household donations all sitting in the car, trying to be dropped off but failing.

If this is the worst thing that happened today though, we're doing pretty well.

Wednesday:

 I volunteered at Kids' Food Basket this morning; we got out early which was nice.  I then tried to drop off some donations, only to find that donation drop-off was closed for the day.  So now I have a bunch of boxes in the back of my car.

There was a black belt ceremony for Ms. Anne tonight.  I didn't feel comfortable going since I've been sick, but I joined on-line.

Tuesday: cough

My cold has turned into a cough.  I'm doing ok, but it is not ideal.  I ended up taking a nap for an hour in my office because I couldn't keep my eyes open.  That's a rather long nap, because my office is not a comfortable place to nap.

Isaac had fundraiser items to pick up at school today - well, a parent had to pick them up.  I got there right before I had to pick up the kids and they didn't have a record of his stuff.  It turns out his order was exactly the same as another order and so it was misplaced.  I went back to school to pick the stuff up because that is just what worked best.

For all these annoyances, my day wasn't bad.  It wasn't amazing, but I'd call it a strong normal.

Sunday: guinea pig

Yesterday night I had a dream that we had a Guinea pig.  We did not take care of it like we should have, and yet it survived.

Fast forward to my nap, when the dumb Guinea pig was still alive.  

I'm not sure I've ever had a dream that had characters from previous dreams.

Saturday: e-Foil

This morning was rather relaxing.  We built with Legos, and then I did a slow clean of the basement while the boys talked about the latest Magic cards.  They were Avatar: The Last Airbender themed and Joshua got into them too.

After nap time Ben brought his e-Foil out for a short ride.  The controller needed to be replaced in the middle of the summer, but since Ben's foot was broken he wasn't able to see if the new controller fixed the problem.  While it was a lovely afternoon and he had a good ride, he is unsure if the new controller fixed the problem.  There were no sudden power outages, but there may have been a few power decreases in the middle of the ride.

I attempted to get a few more things done in the evening.  I'm only feeling about 85%...not that terrible but also not that amazing.

Friday: more ups and downs

I went to bed last night with a sore throat and woke up feeling rather yucky.  I woke up a little early and didn't have to make any lunches, so I worked hard to get my chores started.  And after I brought the kids to school, I took a nap.  Oh, I felt so much better after that nap, although I think the ibuprofen had kicked in.

I worked on the storage room again today.  I'm actually getting close!  I cleaned the smaller portion of the storage room today including one box I was not looking forward to.  Turns out the box wasn't too bad - I think we had thrown a lot of stuff in it ten years ago and ignored it after that.  It did make it significantly easier to deal with because it was all old.  I was able to make a list of all the stuff I still need to do...it isn't too bad.  It's nice going from not having any clue what to do next to have a short list.

Isaac and Joshua had a half day today, so one of Isaac's friends came home with us so they could go rock climbing.  He ended up spending the whole afternoon here and it was nice that Isaac had a friend to hang out with - it hasn't really happened before.  Joshua also had a friend and his mom come over so we all had friends.

By the time they left I wasn't feeling great again.  I picked up some pizza, only to realize that I had ordered two of the kind that I like and zero of the kind that Ben likes.  (The ordering system is terrible and it always has been.)  Luckily there was a really good sale, so we might pick up another one tomorrow for Ben.

Thursday: Mom points

Here's the best picture from last night.  We could see a few of the green spikes but they were faint.

The rest of the day was fine.  It had some ups and downs.  Isaac gives me "Mom points" for chores that I do and for making food that he likes, but it can be hard to spend them sometimes.  I didn't want to get the laundry started after we got home so I paid Mom points to Isaac and he got it started.  I took a really short nap before leaving to pick up Joshua from school.

Wednesday: ups and downs

Down: we woke up really early.

Up: Ben was getting up early, so I also got up and got quite a bit done before I needed to bring the kids to school.

Down: I had forgotten a few groceries on the order and had to go inside to get a few more things.

Up: When I brought the groceries inside the kitchen counter had been cleaned already so there was room for the groceries.  It's nice not needing to bend down to get the bags.

Up: I had a donut.

Up: I had a nice nap.

Down: someone from karate ended up in the hospital (not related to karate) and the prognosis is really bad.  As in, possibly 10 days to live bad.  Even if the short term treatment works, there are still major health issues long term.  I would say that she is a very good acquaintance and we chat a bit and wave to each other, but never became all that close.  At the same time, she does a lot at the dojang and she would be sorely missed.

Up: I saw the northern lights, barely.

Down: my camera doesn't have the right filter and can't see the lights.  Ben's phone could see them easily, but sharing them to me takes a few hours for some unknown reason so I can't share them yet.

Tuesday: dates

Today we talked about dates in Excel.  My lecture for dates is uninspired.  Dealing with dates is important, absolutely.  And it is so boring.  Half of the lecture is, "watch your formatting."  Now, there are several important things you can do with dates and a few almost important functions, so they are worth talking about.  But...they're still boring.

However, it did lead to several interesting conversations later on in the day as I complained about them!

Monday: stuff

 We got another picture of Tornado in a Tornado picture.  He has the same annoyed expression.

I got through a bunch of my chores today.  Not only did I actually get through a lot of things, it looks like I got a lot of things done.

Hmm.  I thought there was something interesting that happened today, but it isn't coming to mind.  Oh!  It was our first good snow.  It was during the afternoon, so I was able to enjoy it.  It's that lovely time when the snow sticks on the grass (and leaves) but not on the roads.

Sunday: D&D

 We played some more D&D today.  Isaac changed it up quite a bit and a spider that I was controlling scouted out a big dungeon that we need to go enter.  The best part was when a sentry saw the spider and proceeded to think to himself that he needed to call in the cleaning people because some of his bad guy group was scared of spiders.

Friday/Saturday

 

Thursday: pickleball

Today was supposed to be another Captain's Ball day, but not enough people showed up.  Last time barely enough showed up, but we couldn't even fudge it this time.  However, there was a pickleball net in the back and someone had the paddles in their car.  It was my first time playing pickleball.

It was fun!  Easier than tennis, and not quite as fun as racquetball, but still a lot of fun.

Wednesday: pictures

 I don't know what Isaac and Joshua were doing, but Ben and I found this hilarious.

The professional pictures from senderpics.com came through from the competition.

Tuesday: not much

Not much of note has happened in the last few days.  The kids didn't have school yesterday.  Today they were back to school and I was back to work.  

Oh!  There was something I wanted to mention.

I realized that pop cans can go in the 12 pack box the "normal" way or perpendicular to the normal way.  It's much easier to repack them for recycling if they're perpendicular.  I can't believe it took me so long to realize that this was an option.

Saturday: rock climbing comp

Isaac had a rock climbing competition today!  It was near South Bend and he was in the afternoon session.  It meant that we could have an easy morning and we were home by dinner.

The format of the competition was four minutes on every route, but Isaac got to see someone climbing the routes last night and he could look at all the routes in the gym ahead of time.  He started watching them last night and laughed.  The first one he watched had a start parallel to the floor - they were difficult!  He was a bit worried going into them.

He ended up doing a great job.  He got points on three of the four routes - and he could tell he was making progress within the four minutes so he was very happy at the end of the competition.

The videos are the best try that he had.

Ben and Joshua spent a lot of time working on their spaceship.

We also had our yearly mummy dogs.

Friday: field trip

I went on a field trip with Joshua today!  I'll be honest, I didn't really want to.  We went to Outdoor Discovery Center and I have been there a lot.  It is always cold.  The end of October is just not a great time to have a field trip that is 60% outside.

I also thought I was off the hook - I was just the back-up driver.  Well, it turns out that most of the other confirmed drivers only had seats for three and another driver was needed at the last minute.  So I stepped in.

It was cold.  It was cold right away and my toes never warmed up.  We did get to go inside for a few of the parts, so there was at least a reprieve from the wind but I wouldn't call the insides warm.

However, the content was new.  (I think the 3rd and 4th grade trips are almost the same and having done at least three of them and had no desire to do another.)  It was about indigenous cultures and the leaders were good.  I learned some things which is always fun.  I also got to throw a dart with an atlatl.  My second throw almost hit the turkey that we were aiming for, although I'll admit that I was really just trying to get it to go as far as possible.  I think I was the closest person to the turkey, so I was happy with the goal change.

I got home and took a short nap before picking the kids up from school.  It was enough time to go home for the nap, but not enough time for a good nap.  So after I got the kids home I continued my nap.  Field trips wear me out.

I made pizzas for dinner, brought Joshua to a trunk-or-treat, finished up dealing with some food...although I didn't actually finish dealing with it I now realize...and finally got to be done with the day.  It was a good day, though not my favorite type of good day.