News
Saturday
Saturday M11 worked on his drafting merit badge with a bunch of other kids. D14 cooked some mint chocolate fudge. Aaron painted the ceiling of IL5’s room orange. In the afternoon, IL5, M11, D14, Dad, and I went to Nickelodeon Universe – the amusement park in the Mall of America. IL5 was unhappy even with the tiny “scary” rides, though M11 was fine with them and not the bigger scary rides. D14 wanted the bigger scary rides. But they all got as much as they wanted.
Sunday
Sunday I worked for several hours. D14 played D&D. Then we ate take-home Buffalo Wild Wings and watched Resident Alien as a family.
Monday
Monday was exhausting for no particular reason. It wasn’t any busier than a normal day, but somehow seemed a bit extra. It started with me getting up early to organize myself before mobilizing IL5 for his appointment, but D14 wanted me to proofread her essay, and then M11 wanted an explanation of Planned Parenthood (the subject of the essay) which somehow became a racially charged uncomfy conversation. (M11 has not matured enough to separate what his white supremacist YouTubers say and his own opinion, so every once in a while a difficult conversation happens. He’ll mature, though.) I was left without time to go through my morning ritual including absorbing my long to-do list and making an attack plan. In fact, I didn’t get to that until 2pm, meaning I missed my window of opportunity for some if the tasks.
IL5 had a good speech therapy, though. He’s up to 10th percentile in speech (from 5th last year). Yay! Then we played in the sandbox for a while before M11’s appointment. Soon, I dropped IL5 off at preschool and dad had his cardiac rehab appointment, which is when I had time to go through my to-do list.
Later, I took IL5 to swim lessons. Aaron picked D14 up from an activity, dropped her at rehearsal, took M11 to Boy Scouts, and picked up D14 from rehearsal. (All three kids had to be somewhere at the same time, and Aaron got the brunt of that.)
I was pleased to go to work at 10pm so I could sleep.
Tuesday
Tuesday Aaron and I met at the clinic for an appointment with D14. Then dad had a clinical pharmacist appointment, followed by a fitting for his dentures (finally!). Except they didn’t fit him for his dentures, they filed down a bone that was sticking out and we made another appointment in two weeks for the fitting.
M11 was grounded when I got home because, despite all the help we could give, he still didn’t finish his missing assignments by the end of the trimester. It feels like he simply chose to be grounded, when I’d given him so many chances and he knew he would get grounded.
However, he decided that he was going to go to the park on his bike, because he wanted to learn to ride. And, after Aaron pumped up his tires, he did it! He can ride a bike!
Wednesday
Wednesday dad had cardiac rehab in the morning. And, yay! He’s being discharged after 3 more appointments!!!! I’m so excited for my calendar to open up. I have a couple new regular appointments to schedule, though, including much-needed therapy for myself since I burned myself out over the past 4 or so months of non-stop appointments. So, still with the appointments, but at least I’ll have a place to vent and won’t have to listen to dad bitch and moan about all of his appointments.
Next, I had an appointment with my sleep specialist. Nothing new on my sleep disorder other than an encouragement to actually take the meds before driving. Which promise I promptly forgot by the next day.
IL5 had an event at his preschool next, and I had to leave that early (after a trade-off with Aaron) to get to an appointment with D14. The event was mainly a bonding experience in which he was supposed to show me around his classroom, but he was over that in a matter of minutes.
M11 had rehearsal for the middle school play, as usual, and then D14, dad, Aaron, and I went out to Olive Garden. IL5 was asleep and we made a deal with M11 that he could watch TV despite being grounded if he stayed home with IL5.
Thursday
Thursday after work I took D14 to an appointment, then I went to my day job. I was feeling a little sick at work – nauseated, cold, headachy. I wondered if I was coming down with norovirus since there’s an outbreak at IL5’s daycare, but after pacing around in a circle for 5000 steps my headache and nausea subsided and I was able to eat lunch and relax a little. (There was even more downtime at work than usual, thankfully. My client was just cheerfully watching TV.)
M11 had rehearsal in the afternoon. IL5 played with his Duplos all evening instead of watching TV, and I cooked a family dinner. So it was a good evening.
Friday
On Friday morning, IL5 had a poop psychologist appointment in the morning and promised to do his “exercises on the toilet” 10 times a day, but later we realized he expected that to entail hand dumbbells.
Then IL5 and I went to an indoor park and we got our play on. I concentrated on being 100% in the moment instead of playing on my phone, which is sometimes hard for me when I’m burned out…and I’ve been pretty burned out, lately. So I was proud of myself for that. Then I went to McDonald’s, where they totally messed up multiple times.
In the evening, the family watched some Resident Alien, and then I watched some Cobra Kai with dad.
Reading through last year’s journal entry, I noticed that it said the orthodontist wanted to keep D14 in aligners for another “few weeks.” Which was hilarious because she just graduated out of aligners 2 weeks ago.
Week’s Photos
Letters Written
- One letter to Texas
- One letter Louisiana
Reading to myself
- Jesus and the Gospels, by Luke Timothy Johnson
- Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor
- Great World Religions: Christianity, by Luke Timothy Johnson
- Mahabharata
- Bible
Reading to IL5
- Super Cheat Codes and Secret Modes, by Thomas Flintham
- Shark School: Deep Sea Disaster, by Davy Ocean
M11 reading
- Forest of Wonders by Linda Sue Park
D14 reading
- Heir of Fire, by Sarah J Maas
Aaron reading
- Book of Night, by Holly Black
Media Completed
Harry the hammerhead shark and his friends are bullied into entering a forbidden shipwreck, and Harry must think fast when disaster strikes. This is a cute chapter book aimed for 2nd grade level. My 5 year old enjoyed it – especially towards the exciting end
Hibernator's Library 