Update , May 25 2024

News

Saturday

Saturday Aaron and I played D&D while IL5 watched YouTube and played with LEGOs. It was a good game. In the evening, we watched Turtles All the Way Down, though I missed a big chunk of it because IL5 wanted a bath and he looked like he could use a relaxing activity. I was, sadly, too tired to read to him that night. Not sure why I was so tired.

Sunday

Sunday I worked my day job, then went on an anniversary date with Aaron. We walked to a bar and sat and chatted.

Monday

Monday started with a video visit with one of my inmate penpals.

I was going to take M11 in to urgent care because his eye swelled up quite a bit at Boy Scout camp last weekend. When he got up in the morning, it was still swollen, so I kept him home from school. But by the time I was ready to take him in (after the visit), his eye was down to almost normal. 🤷‍♀️

I made some gumbo, took the boys to school, and made some phone calls (so not a largely productive day). In the evening D14 had an award ceremony for graduating from middle school with greater than 3.5 GPA. And M11 had a band concert. Luckily, the award ceremony ended in plenty of time to get to the concert, so we were able to support both kids. IL5 ended up coming along because the babysitter bailed. But he was very well-behaved.

Tuesday

Tuesday, M11 had an appointment in the morning, then I went to Perkins with dad, and cleaned. IL5 had an appointment, then I cleaned some more as D14 made meatloaf. Baseball was cancelled due to a storm. D14 brought the kittens upstairs. Sake is quite the runner.

Wednesday

Wednesday dad got his teeth! I’ve never seen him with healthy teeth before, so he looked….interesting. He wanted Cub chicken for dinner because he couldn’t eat it for four months while he had no teeth.

After getting an oil change, I intended on spraying the dandelions. But I realized I’d bought a spray that needed to be hooked to a yard hose. So I got a hose out, but couldn’t get it screwed on because there’s too much calcification in the threads. So I read a book instead of spraying the dandelions.

More bad news of the day was that the basement is leaking again. Starting literally RIGHT where they stopped drilling for the drain tiles last year. (They stopped where they did because we would have to move the water softener, and figure out what to do about the shower and bathroom.) So now we need to decide if we put drain tiles in the whole rest of the basement, or if we need to break it into more financially manageable chunks.

However, something good did happen Wednesday. IL5 went on a field trip and caught a fish. He was really excited about it.

Thursday

Thursday I worked and played D&D. M11 had a baseball game, and IL5 had a t-ball practice. M11’s team got creamed, but that happens sometimes. IL5 had Ritalin before his practice, and it seemed to help with concentrating. The kids were especially loud today, and M11 was especially argumentative.

Friday

Friday, Aaron had taken the day off work so we could go camping. First, we went to Perkins with dad and IL5, then to IL5’s speech therapy. Then we packed up and headed out. The traffic was horrendous. It was supposed to take us 1 hour 45 minutes to drive. But the traffic resulted in an extra hour being added to that. IL5 was luckily quite patient, all things considered. At the campground, we ate burgers and corn, had a fire, and slept early because it got cold. D14 and M11 were visiting their grandpa with their mom.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

One letter Belgium
One letter Texas

Reading to myself

Mr Ballen podcast
The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
Bible
Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull

Reading to IL5

Kung Pow Chicken: Let’s Get Cracking!, by Cyndi Marko

D14 reading

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V E Schwab
Hidden Girl, by Lisa Wysocky and Shyima Hall

Media Completed

Gordon and Benny became superheros after falling into a vat of glowing goo. When chickens around town start losing their feathers, the two must save the town. Cute and interesting to my 5 year old. Second grade reading level.

Elodie is guilted into marrying a prince to get a huge payout for her father – the lord of a backwaters land. But she must save herself from a dragon when things don’t go as she suspects. This was a fantastic movie.