Wednesday: bath, trunk or treat

I gave Snackxalotl and Catcachino a bath today.  They were both pretty happy about it, although Snackxalotl wanted to play in the water more.

We went trunk or treating at church tonight.  Isaac was a rock climber.  Joshua was a Creeper and made Ben go as Steve.  I'm not sure anyone realized that Ben was dressed up too.

Monday: school pictures, fall dinner

Both school pictures have come in...

Joshua wore the same shirt as last year.  We knew that ahead of time.  I like this picture better than the last one.

Isaac missed getting his picture day when he actually dressed up a bit for it.  It got cold, so dressing up wouldn't have worked as well.  This picture is also ok, but we have some better ones from the mid-summer family pictures.

I also made the once a year meal of ham and squash.  The squash went over well (which is good, because I froze quite a bit of it).  I tried putting it in the air fryer this time instead of baking and mashing it.

I didn't finish my grading today, but I did get a surprising number of other things done.  I graded in the morning, had coffee with Pat, took a short nap, and then accomplished stuff.  I'm hopeful the toilet is fixed, the squash was cubed, Christmas cards and other pictures were ordered, the kitchen mostly cleaned, a few emails dealt with, and more!  After a slow start this morning I was a bit surprised.

Saturday: lock-in

This morning before anyone got up Joshua made us a "lock-in"  (i.e., escape room).  He usually does a nice job with these things, so I was somewhat excited to do it.  I had had an itinerary of the day in my head and it did not include a lock-in, so that was the part I was a little annoyed with.  I got over it.

Anyway, Joshua had put a bunch of items on the table and there were several that I thought were going to add to the story but were complete fakes.  A large bowl of Lego dots, a stack of books, and two glasses filled with colored water, for example.  The first puzzle was a little confusing, but after that we figured things out pretty well.

In other news, the cats finally posed for a Christmas card picture.  I had on my calendar, "Christmas Cards!  Just do them! Now!" because we always get to December and I'm overwhelmed and don't want to do them.  So obviously, I'm going to do them in the middle of one of my busiest semesters in a while.  I'm only getting 25 though, so that should keep the crazy to a minimum.

Friday: status

Groceries: gotten.  I was only asked once if I got groceries.

Toilet: probably fixed.  It might have a slow inner leak.  One time I noticed the water level inside had dropped an inch and therefore the valve was slowly leaking water into the tank.  It is function for now but I need to keep an eye on it.

Black belt recertification: Done.  I wasn't going to do it, but the timing has been rather inconsistent.  It's been a while since the last one and I wanted some new material for the next several months.  I didn't feel confident in everything, but the teachers said I'd be fine.  I was fine.  I wasn't great, but I was fine.  (Think normal belt test, but for black belts.  There isn't a rank up associated with it, but I need a certain number before I'm allowed to go to the next rank of black belt.)  

Friends: Joshua and his friends got Boba tea after school.  They were all so excited.

Laundry: put away

Grading: in progress

Kitchen: almost clean

Nap: taken

Thursday: groceries? groceries? groceries?

Oh my children.  

I usually get groceries on Wednesday.  I didn't get groceries on Wednesday this week because I ended up getting groceries last Friday and wanted to work on the toilet this Wednesday.  The number of times between yesterday and today that I've been asked if I got groceries is a little insane.

We are out of milk, but that's usually not what they're asking about.  Joshua is usually asking about donuts.  Isaac...I'm not sure what he cares about.  Furthermore, they know I work on Thursdays.  They just can't wrap their heads around the fact that I haven't gotten groceries yet.

If it wasn't for being out of milk, I might not even go tomorrow.  Milk is rather important though, so I'll go.  Oh, I guess we're out of apples too.  It's an Aldi week, so there might not be donuts.

Wednesday: toilet saga

 Ok.  So Dad came over Tuesday morning before we went to work and replaced the shut-off value.  There were a few minutes of touch-and-go, but he got it!  No more leaking, which is the biggest deal.

Today I continued to work on the toilet.  I put in a new supply line.  I finished putting in the new value.  I put in a new handle, the thing that started this whole process, but it wasn't ideal.  I got a cheap one from Lowe's and it is curved the wrong way such that it rubs hard against the front of the tank.  And I turned on the water.

There was no leaking!  It was a miracle!  The tank filled and stopped appropriately.  I was able to flush.  (Which was rather necessary, since the kids forgot once or twice not to use the toilet.)  But.  The water kept draining into the bowl.  

That's right!  Now the flapper isn't working either.  I'm happy with the progress I was able to make, but it would have been nice if the flapper just worked.  I hate the flappers - they're always so finicky.

Tuesday: Grey Bear

 This notification on my phone made me smile all day. 

Grey Bear has a birthday notification.