Update August 19, 2023

News

Saturday

Saturday was fun. Aaron and I had a 4.5 hour D&D session followed by a date – Mexican food and a local tavern within walking distance.

Sunday

Sunday was family day (Aaron’s choice of what to do). We ate pizza and watched Grey’s Anatomy. IL4 told me he wanted to be a chef when he grows up.

Monday

Monday was another good day. Dad, D13, M11, IL4 and I went to the Mall of America. All 3 kids bought some LEGOS. For IL4, it was his first set ever. D13 helped him put it together later. Then, D13 accompanied me to soccer to help wrangle IL4 if he ran off while I was coaching. But IL4 was well-behaved and played pretty well. I think he was tired from the trip to the mall, though. M11 was at acting class and the Boy Scouts.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a calm day that I mostly spent working. M11 had swim lessons. Then my friend Liz came over and we watched Doctor who and cross-stitched.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, IL4 stayed home with a slight fever. I had been going to run a bunch of errands, so this was very inconvenient. However, I did manage to get some housework done while he was watching TV. D13 had her orthodontist appointment and got a whole bunch more Invisalign trays.

Then after Aaron got home, dad and I went shopping for school supplies. I started out in a bad mood, because dad spent the entire drive to Target claiming that anyone can walk a half marathon. Even he could walk a half marathon. (Untrue. He can walk 3 miles and then sleeps the whole next day) and that he was doing 13 mile walks since he was 8. That was in response to me telling him I was going to walk a half marathon in September. So much for support in my weight loss journey.

Then the shopping itself was horrible. They are very specific at this school about what color highlighters and notebooks and folders the kids get, and everything had been picked over – presumably by other people needing very specific things. Like a red, grid-ruled composition notebook. SERIOUSLY?! Is that to keep it straight from all the other grid-ruled composition notebooks she has?

I had to buy a pack of 15 variety color chisel-tip highlighters to get one orange, blue, and yellow. I had to buy a pack of 10 variety color fine tip highlighters to get one yellow one. I was livid. Now I’m going to have to figure out what to do with all the extra highlighters (not to mention the added cost). $200 down, I left the store and gave up on my previous plan to also go grocery shopping. I needed to be home. Luckily, my lovely husband went out and got the groceries for me.

Thursday

Thursday was busy. I went almost immediately from job 1 to job 2. Then I directed M11’s packing for camp until.Aaron got home. D13 and I were meant to go out to eat and then to Feed My Starving Children, but after dinner she said she might be getting sick, so we went home.

Then, the most awful thing happened. My dad, who really, really wants me to know how easy it is to walk 13 miles, has decided he may just go on the race with me. He made me show him the webpage for the walking half marathon and insisted that he could definitely do it in 8 hours. It takes him 2 hours to walk 3 miles, and then he sleeps for the rest of the day and the next day. So, uh, no. Not only is he physically incapable of walking a half marathon, even if he could walk it, he’s too slow to do it in 8 hours. I just wanted to listen to my audiobook while getting in a good walk. If he comes along, my registration money is wasted, because we won’t finish, and I lose the opportunity to listen to an audiobook while walking. Not to mention potentially dealing with a medical crisis.

Friday

Friday was exhausting. After work, I took IL4 to speech, out to lunch with my friend Liz, and to feeding therapy. Then I took M11 to tap, went to Target to pick him up some supplies for camping, then drove him 45 minutes each way to camp. D13 was picked up by her mom at some point during the day, but I did not see her nor have any interaction with her all day. Dad is still talking about going on the walking marathon.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

1 letter California
1 letter Virginia
1 letter Maine

Reading to myself

Throne of Glass, by Sarah J Maas
Educated, by Tara Westover
Death with Interruptions, by Jose Saramago
Cursed, ed by Marie O’Regan
Loki and Sigyn, by Lea Svendsen
How to Read the Bible, by James Kugel
Bible
Great Courses: Saint Augustine’s Confessions], by William R Cook & Ronald B Herzman
The Well-Educated Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer
Zombies vs Unicorns, by Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier

Reading to IL4

Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt, by Ben Clanton
Super Rabbit Boy World, by Thomas Flintham
Unicorn and Yeti Cheer Up, by Heather Ayris Burnell

D13 reading

Stellarlune, by Shannon Messenger
Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

Aaron reading

The Dragon Republic, by R. F. Kuang

Media Completed

This is the second Narwhal and Jelly book, and it’s just as cute as the first. In it, Narwhal and Jelly decide they will be superheros and help the sea creatures.

Death takes a break from taking lives as a thought experiment. Chaos ensues. Wow, this book was clever, funny (in a dry way), and definitely interesting. I have only read one other book by Saramago, and I remember loving it, but I think this one was even better.

Celaena is the world’s best assassin until she is caught and thrown into a prison camp. But then the crown prince comes to retrieve her so she can battle people in an attempt to become the king’s champion. However, things become comex when the other competitors start dying. This was a fun first book to a teen fantasy. I’m not huge of love triangles – I find them to be an insipid plot to lure girls who don’t know any better into thinking their sexual desirability is an important part of who they are. So, I have a negative bias that comes forth in the rating. Story-wise, I’d say it was some pretty good fluff, though.

Cursed is a pretty good adult fantasy anthology that has a theme of curses. Most of the stories in it are very good. The only reason for the mediocre rating is that I personally don’t like short story anthologies much. I prefer more character and plot development than a short story is able to include. I listened to this as a way to engage one of my clients during downtime.