Update January 28, 2023

News

Saturday

Saturday was a good day. Aaron and M10 were gone at camp, and after D&D, D13, IL4, dad and I went out to eat. Then D13, IL4, and I went to the Minnesota Ice Maze. Most people take an hour (partly because they want to find all the statues, but we just followed IL4 and let him choose our direction. He got us out in 15 minutes. We should have gone back in, but IL4 was on a mission to exit, and got to the parking lot before he decided he wanted to go back in.

Sunday

Sunday was a lot of fun. I went to the Snow Sculpture World Championship with D13 and IL4. I didn’t agree with the winners – all of whom were from the US. First place really was quite good, but second and third place were, by far, not the best and were probably chosen by small-town American judges based solely upon the primary language of the sculptors. M10 and Aaron returned from Cub Scout camp. They’d had a great time. They then went to baseball.

Monday

Monday was fun. I took M10 to a couple of appointments and went to lunch with Aaron and dad. Then, I went to pack food at Feed My Starving Children in Eagan with D13. Afterwards, we had dinner.

Tuesday

Tuesday I was super tired, and I’m not sure why. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. I cancelled a few things, but took D13 to her appointment. I also managed to stay awake for M10’s band concert. He was so excited because he had a speaking part. They actually played a lot better than I expected for a bunch of kids who just started learning in September. (We actually have the biggest, and most well known, high school marching band in Minnesota in my town…for what that’s worth. They marched in the Rose Parade in Pasadena this year.)

M10 loves playing his trombone. He’d wanted the trumpet – but so many people wanted the trumpet that they put a call out to ask if anyone was willing to change. He begrudgingly changed to the trombone, thinking I was making him do so (I didn’t realize he thought that). But now he’s quite pleased with it. It’s totally cooler than a boring old trumpet.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a good day. IL4 loved his Inspector Flytrap book so much, I took him to the library to get the next 2. When we returned the first one, he was so sad to watch it slide away on the conveyor belt. I felt bad about returning it. When we got home, he immediately wanted me to read the second, and then part of the third one. At that time, he wanted to switch to one of the books he had picked out himself with his brand new yellow library card.

Thursday

Thursday was a bit of a pain. I’d found out the night before that my friend was intubated in the ICU. So I went there to visit him and glean the reason why he was in the ICU. They wouldn’t tell me much. Then, I took D13 to a doctor appointment. Afterwards, I met my friend’s mom at the ICU, as I had been the one to inform her that he was there, and she was worried she wouldn’t ask the right questions. It turns out it was really his fault he was in the ICU. 🤦‍♀️

On top of that stressful day, M10 has been not handing in assignments regularly for months now. I finally told him Thursday that he’ll lose 2 hours of his 14-hour weekly allotment of tablet time for every missed assignment from now on, and that he needed to work on his overdue project that night. I did ask him if he needed help, and what exactly was the issue keeping him from handing the work in. Maybe it’s his ADHD? I will ask his teacher at conferences.

He spent an hour crying. Then I told him D&D was starting in an hour, and if he didn’t start his late project, he couldn’t play. I honestly thought that would influence him to start, or at least tell me what he needed help with. But, alas, he just wailed for the next half hour. I told him he should start in 5 minutes when there was a half hour left before D&D. He continued wailing. 5 minutes before D&D started, he asked me for help. I told him I would later, but D&D was about to start.

D&D was cancelled anyway because D13’s and M10’s biomom forgot it was D&D night. But not before M10 kicked IL4 in his frustration. I lost my temper at that point – I had actually been quite calm before that. Anyway, M10 asked for help after we’d abandoned D&D, and he actually finished everything he could finish. I didn’t even provide that much help. I just helped him get through the brick wall he’d built, and he was perfectly fine after that.

Friday

Friday was a relaxing day. I took IL4 and dad to an indoor park, and then to Perkins for lunch with Aaron. I spent the rest of the day checking things off my to-do list.

Reading to IL4

Sassy’s Vacation, by Sue Leant Kies & Ric Genthe
A Poor Excuse For a Dragon, by Geoffrey Hayes
Inspector Flytrap, by Tom Angleberger and Cece Bell <- IL4’s first-ever chapter book.
Inspector Flytrap in The Presidents Mane is Missing and other Thrilling Adventures co-starring Nina the Goat, by Tom Angleberger and Cece Bell
Baby Shark, Goodnight Baby Shark

M10 reading