Update July 15, 2023

News

Saturday

Saturday, I had an early lunch with D13. Then the whole family went to an outdoor adventure park. M11 didn’t weigh enough to zipline, so Aaron and the older kids did the aerial course (an obstacle course up in the trees) and IL4 did the ground course. They all had a lot of fun. Afterwards, Aaron and I went out to dinner.

Sunday

Sunday, Aaron and I drove M11 and a couple carloads of Boy Scouts to camp in Wisconsin. That took a good 7 hours out of the day. After a short time at home, I then went to my sleep study, where they hooked me up with wires on the scalp, chest, legs, finger, and face and told me to sleep. Surprisingly, I slept well.

Monday

Monday was sleep study day. I was awakened after 8 hours of sleep that night (6am), and told I would take a 20 minute nap at 8, 10, 12, 2, and 4. In the between times, I paced the hallways (I got a lot of steps in!), made phone calls, and caught up on my LibraryThing threads. I rushed home after my final nap, washed the goop out of my hair, and went to my first day of PreK/K soccer coaching. IL4 seemed a bit less mature than the rest as far as listening to instructions went, but he did better than I feared. So it was a good practice. I knew IL4 was a bit behind his peers on this level, but I thought putting him a team sport might help him gain maturity.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a calm day. I worked for most of it. Then my friend Liz came over and we grilled and watched Enola Holmes with Aaron and D13.

Wednesday

Wednesday IL4 had his second soccer practice. He played at first, but got really tired in the middle and stopped playing. I think he doesn’t eat enough at school to give him energy on Wednesdays. I will start picking him up early to give him food at home on soccer days.

Thursday

Thursday, I went on a 3 mile walk in the woods with dad. He brought his walking stick and went slowly, and he made it. It took 2 hours. After that, I took D13 to Valleyfair, which is a medium-sized amusement park. She wanted to ride all the rides that M11 won’t ride. Which was all the horrendous ones. The two that were super scary when I was a kid (Corkscrew and Wild Thing) were the tamest of the rides I rode with her. There was one where we hung upside down for what felt like 10 seconds, but was probably more like 5. It was long enough for me to ponder and then say aloud “You know, this part isn’t fun.” And for the person across from me to laugh.

At the end, D13 went on a “flying” ride where she dropped from an unbelievable height in freefall, and the swung out when the cord attached to her vest tightened. She loved it, but I think the adrenaline was too much because she threw up an hour later.

Aaron, IL4, dad, and I went to Olive Garden afterwards, and brought D13 Culver’s, since she was feeling better.

Friday

Friday, after speech therapy, D13, IL4, dad, and I went to Build-a-Bear and then had hibachi at Bennihana. D13 knew what was coming, but IL4 was horrified when the chef set the stove on fire. He jumped out of his chair and hid in a corner. But I coaxed him onto my lap, and then he immediately got back in his chair and was fine. He loved it when the chef juggled the eggs and landed one in his pocket and one in his hat. He asked: “Where’d the egg go?” So the chef pulled it out of his hat. To be entirely honest, I missed where the egg went too. 😂🤣

I relaxed for the rest of the day, which was well-deserved since on Fridays and Saturdays I try to take it easy. D13 and I finished up the evening watching the new horror movie M3gan. Aaron heard what we were going to watch and quickly exited the room. He doesn’t like horror, which still makes me laugh because he agreed to go to IT when we were dating. 🤣😂

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• 1 letter Wisconsin
• 1 letter Massachusetts
• 1 letter Maine

Reading to myself

• Don’t Turn Out the Lights, ed by Jonathan Mayberry
• Babel, by R F Kuang
• How to Read the Bible, by James Kugel
• Bible
• Cursed, ed by Marie O’Regan
• Mahabharata
• Loki and Sigyn, by Lea Svendsen
• Mr Ballen Podcast
• Throne of Glass, by Sarah J Maas

Reading to IL4

• Super Rabbit Racers, by Thomas Flintham

D13 reading

• Flashback, by Shannon Messenger
• Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

Aaron reading

• Homeland, by R A Salvatore

Media Completed

Steps