Chicago Sunday: day 2

The next morning we decided to go to MSI.  We went two years ago, but it's a good place, we could get it basically for free, and it was super cold outside.  We didn't want to be outside longer than necessary.

We spent some time in the storm chaser area - it has so many cool displays.  We also talked talked to someone by the plasma globe who was talking to us about magnetic fields and how the body can act as a conductor, etc.  She had Joshua move her special stick away from the globe to see how it turned off about two feet away.  Then!  We all made a long line holding hands to see if we could still get it to stay on farther away from the globe and it worked so well.  The employee just looked on with amusement.

We met up with the others around the UBoat.  All the kids took a turn playing a really long video simulation about trying to not be a UBoat that gets sunk. 

After that we had our coal mine tour.  I know I've done it before, but I didn't remember most of it.  As with most things at this museum, it was super interesting!

We had lunch and ...missed the Telsa coil firing.  We briefly went over to space to see the Dragon Capsule, and then headed back for the Telsa coil (on the other end of the museum) because Joshua really wanted to see it.  Joshua said all the walking was worth it!  He really enjoyed the Telsa Coil.

We debated going back into the city to go to the LEGO store, but decided that we didn't really want to deal with the hassle.  It was a good choice: the other family said the pick-a-brick wall wasn't amazing.  The drive home was fine.  As we got closer to home it got snowier, but roads were ok.

Saturday: the day

 The day had its ups and downs, but nothing too up nor too down.

Isaac and I went rock climbing.  We went up and down there too.  He wore his new shirt, and did one route with each type of hold.  He also wanted an action shot; it works best with three shots though.

Friday: post-Christmas

I know I have a lot of blog posts to catch up on - I'll get there eventually. :)

Today was a nice combination of relaxing and working.  We played two new games, worked on some Lego sets, and put stuff away.

Joshua put his light kit in one of his sets.

The Christmas Ruiners are still trying to ruin Christmas; this time by stealing my bread slicer.  Over Christmas I heard that Christmas Ruiners are confusing: so here we go...

Christmas magic has come from my childhood...Nathan's house also has Christmas magic.  In our house the nativity animals move at night, looking for Baby Jesus.  

Christmas Ruiners showed up a few years ago.  They are moved by Isaac, although he denies it.  They are single colored Lego creations, usually pretty small.  They must have eyes.  There are also some baby Ruiners that are really small and only have one eye; they tend to stick together.  In the past they've just been hidden around the house and I slowly find them and put them in some sort of jail.  This year they're making more mischief.

SMTWRFSs showed up even more recently.  They are moved and made by Joshua, although he denies it.  They must have eyes too and tend to be a bit larger and have very varied body shapes.  They tend to have a bit more of a story.  They also aren't very smart, so any notes they leave are poorly written.  I need to move them back to a jail whenever I find them.

Today all the baby Ruiners went on the lights.  I haven't taken them down yet.

I took down the Christmas tree because Horizon keeps eating it and throwing up.  I put a little Lego one there instead and Horizon seemed very sad about it.

Monday: Christmas

We started out the day with bagels.  I had kept the toaster because last year it took so long to get them all toasted, and Dad and Pat brought their toaster.  It worked well.

We kept things moving.  After breakfast we had a spice tea testing.  It was a lot of fun.  I had five different teas: the original one, an expensive tea with two containers of tang, an expensive tea with three containers of tang, Lipton with lemon, and 4deg with lemon.  I found the 4deg with lemon absolutely disgusting.  I had made some of it earlier and dumped it down the drain.

Anyway, the results were that the expensive with three tang was the overall winner.  However, if you consider kids vs. adults, there were some stark differences.  The kids really didn't like expensive with two tang...it was much more tea-y than the other.  The adults really didn't like the lemon options.  Nathan convinced me to get one more tea, so we'll need to do a few more tests at a later date.

After this we opened presents.  I received a bunch of bread supplies!  Liz (and family) got me some good flours...I've only been using Meijer brand.  It's been good!  But I've heard that good flour makes a difference, so it seemed like a good thing to get for Christmas.

I also got a bread slicer!  It makes me so happy.  It works amazingly well.  I was really glad to have so many people around so that I could slice lots of bread.

The rest of the day was just having fun and playing games.  Oh!  We finished a game and I read the clock wrong, so I started making dinner.  I thought it was already 4:30 but it must have been 3:30.  Dinner was just about done when I saw a clock.  I looked at multiple clocks before admitting my mistake...and of course, no one cared.  A lot of people eat dinner early and Ben just thought that cooking it might take a while.  However, since we ate so early we ended up going rock climbing in the evening.  It was a little less busy than normal for Christmas break, so that was really nice.

Sunday: family

Nathan and family came up today!  Yay!

They arrived mid-afternoon and the kids immediately started playing in the basement.  They played down there a lot - in the evening there was some game they were playing that may have involved a ball and definitely involved a lot of laughter.

I attempted to make dinner in the instapot but it was not loving me.  I prepped the chicken yesterday and put it in the bowl and I think that was a mistake.  The bottom kept burning.  The chicken eventually cooked because the liquid got hot and that cooks the chicken...it was just a bit annoying.

The adults also got caught up with life.  It sounds boring but is lovely.

Saturday 2: funeral

I went to another funeral today.  Ms. Anne, from karate, passed away last Saturday.  Although it was sudden, it was also expected.  About a month ago she got a horrible diagnosis and was given 10 days to live.  She did really well, health-wise, for about the next ten days and then slowly got worse.

As far as I knew, she wasn't a Christian.  I wondered how the funeral would go - I haven't been to many funerals but they have all been for people whose faith is in Jesus.  There was a minister officiating and he frequently used Bible passages.  Maybe I didn't read the situation correctly, maybe she chose God at the end of her life, maybe the family/minister just decided this was the way to conduct the funeral.  While the whole situation is very sad, I find myself not as sad as I think I should be.  However, I'm also going to give myself permission to feel how I feel and that's ok.  (I brought tissues this time but didn't need them.  A friend did, so I was glad to have them.)

At the same time, I want my funeral to point so clearly to God that there is no doubt at all that I loved God, He loves me, and he loves everyone there.

So, here are my current suggestions for items in the ceremony. They're only suggestions and can be skipped as appropriate.

1) Heidelberg Q&A #1: 

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

2) Westminster Catechism #1:
What is the chief and highest end of man?
Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.

3) This is my Father's World, but only verse 3:

This is my Father's world:
O let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!

4) Goodness of God (song)

5) Untitled Hymn by Chris Rice.  I like all of it, but this verse gets sung a lot:

With your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side

6) Great is thy Faithfulness

I still need some Bible verses.  There are just so many good ones - I'll need to think on those some more.

I'll also expect some stories.  I've been writing them all down for years now, so there are no excuses.  Well, maybe I have too many stories.  If that's the case, search for rice cooker...but I expect you can come up with something better.

Saturday: the fun parts

I've decided to split today's blog post into two parts - they just really don't belong together.  We'll start with the fun stuff.

The morning, while doing Legos, I asked everyone if they saw words, picture/word combos, or pictures in their brains as they were talking.  I think it was a mix for everyone, although the kids leaned toward only pictures.  I am firmly in words, and I've known this for a while.  It's not that I don't see pictures as conversations are going on, but there are always words.  They don't have to be spelled correctly but it's like reading a book.  There have been several times I've been surprised on how a word is spelled after hearing it because there was a spelling assigned to it in my head.

This led Ben to look up weird spellings.  Most of them were weird, for sure.  The funny part for me was Wednesday and mortgage.  In both cases, after Ben said the word, I said, "oh, I just sound that word out.  Wed-nes-day or mort-gage."  Only after I said them did I realize that isn't actually how you say the word.  Oddly enough, I need to sound out these two words almost every time I write them.

Ben found the kids wrestling after nap time.  

Isaac and Joshua both tried to pick up Ben.  Isaac succeeded easily; Joshua is getting close.

Friday: finishing things

It was not a snow day, probably because the roads didn't get bad until 6:30 and by then it was too late to cancel.  Isaac was sad, Joshua was happy.

I felt like I finally was getting things fully done today.  I finished things in the past few days, but it would be step 1 of 3.  (I.e., hard boil all the eggs for the deviled eggs or wrap the presents that I have, knowing that they weren't all there).  I only have a few more kitchen things that I need to do: hurray!

I picked Isaac up early from school.  They have a sing-along at the end of the day that Isaac really, really doesn't like.  I picked him up early last year because he had homework over break.  This year he doesn't, but I picked him up early anyway.  He helped me put up a little search-and-find at the dojang and then did some work at home.  (That was the deal.  I'd pick him up early, but it wasn't fun time.)

Joshua had too much screen and sugar at school so he voluntarily skipped screen time after school and didn't have a snack.  Instead he worked on all the cleaning chores that we have before Nathan comes up and honestly, it was amazing.

Last Saturday: Chicago Day 1

We went to Chicago with some friends for the weekend!  Fifteen people with nine boys in 4th-10th grade.

We went to the Field Museum first.  I think I've been there before, but don't really remember.  I loved it!  I was nice to go with a large group.  Joshua went pretty quickly with most of the kids, I went at a medium speed but somewhat close to Joshua, and Isaac and Ben went a bit more slowly.  They skipped a few things that weren't quite as interesting to stay with the group.  It worked well.

We all showed up at the back entrance, so we went through the "shrink yourself and go underground" first.  The kids really, really liked the shrinking machine.

There was a giraffe for which you had to pump blood from it's heart to it's head.  It was pretty hard but all the kids were rather entranced by it.

I enjoyed the animals and birds.  In the bird exhibit I tried to find two birds that matched a game we recently got.  We've been calling them Cu-bird and Vanilla Wafer bird, but those are obviously wrong.  Joshua didn't take Grey Bear, so we at least got a picture with him and bears.

The boys.  They didn't have to smile, but they did have to look at me.

With Sue.  (Although I think Isaac at least enjoyed the rocks and gems more.)

After a stop at the hotel and a very short nap, we got ready to go to ZooLights.  It was super cold out - I think around 9F, not counting the wind chill.  There wasn't a lot of wind, but it probably made it a bit colder.

We dressed warmly, but the bus was also warm so we were advised to not to wear too much at the beginning and we'd find a place to finish up.  It actually worked pretty well, although it took a bit longer than expected to find a building.  Everyone was happily warm after that, although taking pictures was cold because I had to remove my gloves.

Joshua didn't get his picture with any lights, but said it was his favorite part.  There were great light tunnels and a little light show.  The light show had good lights and terrible songs....only one of the three was actually a Christmas song.  As we were leaving a forth started, but it was just a different version of one of the other three.  

There were also several building that were open so we could see a few animals.  It was a nice way to warm up too.  I felt proud of myself for keeping track of Meredith's glove: she dropped it once in a dark hallway and I saw it and she dropped it once while walking behind me and I saw it.

We got pizza delivered to the hotel afterwards.  It was supposed to show up at 7:15 but didn't show up until 7:45, somewhat reminiscent of experience two years ago.  This time we at least had comfortable seats.  I thought the pizza was delicious, but I think I was getting a bit hangry too.  The kids finished and went to the room by themselves; it is wonderful letting them do this.  They got ready for bed but didn't put themselves to bed like I had been hoping.  We didn't give them any instructions though, so I was pretty happy that they at least did that.

Thursday:

I made so much sourdough starter that it -almost- overflowed.  It didn't though.  Also, it wasn't enough to make two loaves of bread so it was an odd amount of too much and too little all at the same time.

The Christmas Ruiners are trying to get their babies out of jail.  It took me an extra day to find it, so it turns out the jail is really secure.

Other than that, it was a normal pre-Christmas day.  Spend quite a bit of time in the kitchen.  Wrap some presents.  Take a nap.  Finish the laundry.  Pick up the kids.  Wonder where the day went.  I finished two new routes at rock climbing, so that was fun.  One was a V0 but it was really interesting (and close to the ground).  The other was a 5.9 on the inverse incline.  I need to do a small, controlled jump near the top and I missed the hold the first time I tried tonight.  I decided to give it one more try before going home and got it!  ...although that meant I had to keep going up the wall.  It was not the easiest route I've ever climbed.

Wednesday: Christmas magic

 The sheep was found in the flour this morning.

I'm not really sure where the day went.  By the time I started laundry, got groceries, went to the library, and came home it was already 10am.  I started the potatoes for dinner and the eggs for potlucks on Friday.  I attempted to clean the kitchen, but half of it needed to come back out within a few hours so there was no reason to put it away.

I forgot to halve the twice-baked potato recipe, with the exception of the potatoes themselves.  I added some instant potatoes into the soupy mixture and they turned out fine.  Now we have lots of the yummy part for left overs.

Luckily, I don't have to work tomorrow so maybe I'll actually get some things finished.  Or maybe not.  We'll see.

Tuesday: grades

I finished the last of my grading this morning and put in grades!  I'm done for the semester!

I wrapped a bunch of presents.  I cleaned the kitchen.  And I took a nap.

Kristen and I met up for rock climbing.  However, there are now two routes that we couldn't really start; two weeks ago there was only one.  We watch someone else do it and they just go up-up-up.  I go up-pause-down.  It was still fun overall though.

Friday: the stuff

Once again, it was a rather busy day.

Cheryl and I went for a walk at Lowes.  However, by walk, I mean we did a bunch of errands in that strip mall.  Christmas is coming and the pets need food.  But we walked to all the stores.

I had lunch with the CS department and then, luckily, was able to pick up Joshua's coat from piano.  The building doesn't open until 2pm, but someone was going to be there until 1pm and I was able to stop by.  Joshua was not very happy that he didn't have a coat today (he had to use one that was too big and too thin), but it was his fault so there was only minor complaining.

After I picked up the kids we stopped at Target to get long underwear.  I also looked for mittens, but apparently that isn't a thing that adult women wear...Old Navy didn't have any either.  I have other options for tomorrow but will keep my eyes out for what I want.  Ideally they would be fleece-ish.

Ben and Isaac went to Magic in the evening.  Joshua had some extra screen time and then we played a game.  It went a bit longer than we were expecting, but we both had fun with it.

blast from the past: songs

I was singing our life this morning and Isaac told me it was one of my worse songs.  He wasn't wrong.  I don't remember what I was singing about, but probably something like, " Josh-u-a!  Don't forget your gloves."  (I don't know how to type notes.  Put any notes you want with it, but make sure to sing it in your head.)

That lead us to the donut song, that stayed around for a while.  I tried looking for the lyrics, but couldn't find them on the blog.  The tune, this one at least has a tune, is to head-shoulders-knees-and-toes.

Donuts go in mouths not toes,
mouths not toes,
mouths not toes.
Donuts go in mouths not toes,
but you smell them with your nose.

I don't remember the context of why we needed to make up such a song, but we did workshop it a bit before getting to the final version.

Thursday: the day

Tornado was cute this morning.

Christmas Ruiners were trying to steal Ben's present.

Christmas Ruiner babies teleported to a different container.  Joke's on them though; it is my backup jail.

This morning Cheryl and I volunteered at Kids' Food Basket.  I cut everything close...we go there just in time with just enough gas.  (ok, I still had 14 miles left.  I was going to get gas yesterday when I got groceries, but then there was a snow day and I forgot that I needed to leave early enough to do it today.)  I got home just in time to start an on-line exam.

Horizon wouldn't stop eating the Christmas tree, so he went in jail.  It was the place in the house with the easiest to clean floors in case he threw up again.  He doesn't really get along with the Christmas tree, or any greenery for that matter, but he is addicted to it.

I wrapped a bunch of presents.  They're not under the tree because they aren't for our first Christmas.

We got a surprise gift tonight from some friends!  We've been looking for an expansion to one of our favorite games, Space Base.  It's out of print and pretty much impossible to find.  Well, we were talking about it to our gaming friends and they just happened to have an unopened copy sitting on their shelf.  Since it had been sitting there for a few years, they sent it over to us.  It was probably the best part of the day.

 

Wednesday: snow day!

It was a lovely snow day.  While I'm not sure that it was needed in the end, I was still glad it was called.  Overnight we had a bunch of melting and it was supposed to freeze mid-day, so the roads could have been really bad during pick-up.

On top of that, it felt like a productive snow day.  The kids slowly worked through some chores.  I got quite a bit done, including shoveling the end of the driveway twice.  I also played games with both kids, they played outside for a bit, and I took a nap.  I decided not to go to karate.  The roads probably would have been fine, but sometimes it's ok not to go too.  We were all putting together some Lego sets by the fire, so it was a lovely family time.

Monday/Tuesday

Aunt C dropped by to get some boxes.  Horizon ran right up to her and meowed so loudly and so much.  She brings out something special in him.

 

The Christmas Ruiners escaped this morning.  Who knows how they found TNT...Isaac thinks it was Ruiners that hadn't been put in jail.  I found one in my rock climbing shoe tonight.

All the exams have been taken!  I have five more individual tests to grade (as in 10% of an assignment) and about 60% of the finals.  I had several graders that sounded interested in grading this week, so I'm going to pause on the finals and see if they happen to all get done.  At least, that is my goal.  I know myself and if they aren't very far by Thursday or Friday I might start grading some.  It's amazing how much time I have when I have exams early in the week instead of at the end of the week!

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.