News
Saturday
Saturday IL5 and I went to The Big Bounce. He was so excited. He spent about 15-20 minutes in each of the bouncy houses, loving every one. There was a huge slide that was an effort to climb up, and he went down about 5 times. I had to come up with him to put him in the burlap sack, and to drag him out of the way at the bottom – so no rest for me. It started raining about a half hour in, and we stayed a little over an hour.
After that was Aaron and my D&D session. It was a lot of fun. I also got cross-stitch done while playing. So, bonus! I’m slow at it, but it’s still coming along.
Then, Aaron and I went to a Mexican restaurant for a date. We also went to Barnes and Nobel, for some extra spicy fun. We’re very wild.
IL5 fell asleep on the couch in the late evening, and we switched him to his bed. Usually, Aaron or I sleep with him in his room, because he says he’s afraid to sleep alone. So I got to sleep in the big bed for the first time in months (I sleep on a couch while at work 4 days a week, and share a twin with IL5 the other 3). We managed to convince him sleeping alone was a good thing on Sunday morning, though I doubt he’ll volunteer for it any time soon. The plan is to start leaving the room when he falls asleep, but Aaron generally falls asleep before him, and doesn’t wake afterwards. I think we need a united front on that plan, so I haven’t been leaving him either.
Sunday
On Sunday, I worked for a while. Afterwards, Aaron, the kids, and I lost a game of Pandemic. We had been going to win the game on the next turn, so it was disappointing. Then we ate a steak dinner, and watched a few episodes of Resident Alien. The kittens slept in the bedroom with me and IL5, and Freyja licked my face all night, making it difficult to sleep. But it was cute, I suppose.
Monday
Monday IL5 had swim lessons. I tried to go to the library afterwards, but IL5 wasn’t in the mood. He generally loves the library, so I decided not to force it. I cooked some Jambalaya for Aaron and my lunches for the week, I did dad’s laundry and scrubbed the bathroom floors. Then I cooked BBQ chicken for dinner. M12 had Boy Scouts – he finished the requirements to rank up to second class. The kittens were out upstairs all day without incident, so in the evening, we opened the basement door and let them roam free.
Tuesday
Tuesday I got a speeding ticket on my way home from work. I always speed up too high when I get on a road because I have a heavy foot. When I notice I’m going too fast, I slow down. The officer caught me right after I started slowing down. But he decreased the speed on the ticket so it wouldn’t hit my insurance, which was nice.
Then I took dad to a doctor appointment, followed by lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Their calorie contents are really high! I finally just scanned through the menu for the lowest calorie item and ordered it. And I was still really hungry by the end of the day because I didn’t get enough volume of food.
In the afternoon, I crunched numbers to see how many bags of manure I needed to buy for the grass-seeding project in our back yard. The answer was 34 40-pound bags, mixed 1:3 with dirt. This sounds like a huge project. I didn’t realize how big it was. But D14 says she’ll help me mix the soil for a “reward.” She means tablet time, but maybe I’ll pay her a bit, too. Kind of a little of both, since it’ll be hard work.
In the evening I had a bit of an anxiety attack because the boys’ baseball organization decided to have games despite the tornado watch. I realized that tornado watches usually result in no tornado, but it still bothered me that they were making the choice to have games when the watch was specifically there to tell people to stay near shelters. It really pissed me off. Aaron thought maybe my anxiety was making it seem worse than it actually was, so I was going to at least send M12 to his game (as I thought he’d be the one who would be disappointed to not go). But when I jokingly suggested we sacrifice M12 to the tornado and keep IL5 home, M12 let us know that he’d rather sacrifice IL5 to the tornado. Apparently going out in a tornado watch wasn’t worth it to him. In his words “I don’t like tornadoes.”
In the evening I sort of sat and read my book while the kids distracted me with various antics. But I finished, so apparently progress was made on the book.
Wednesday
Wednesday I started a roast in the morning. M12 had an appointment, and we got his updated goal weight (he needs to gain another 5 pounds). We also decided to try a meal plan written on the calendar to ensure some variety over the summer. We’ll see if it works.
Aaron made tacos for lunch, then I took IL5 to his opthalmologist appointment. I had to bribe him with a new stuffie to cooperate, and felt I was being manipulated. Because he could have cooperated without the stuffie and he refused – he just started struggling and saying “no, no, no.” Saying he was afraid, which obviously he wasn’t, given how easily he cooperated after I bribed him.
After that, I took D14 and M11 to choose shoes. They both had their toes right up to the ends of their old shoes, and claimed they “fit fine.” M11 had holes in his soles.
I contemplated starting some lifestyle changes to help myself not get dementia when I am older. Those would include becoming an egg-and-dairy-eating pescatarian, except on special occasions like Thanksgiving, changing from soda to tea (to get rid of the artificial sweetener), and exercising more. The exercising more goal I’ve been working on for over a year, so we’ll see. Maybe not getting dementia is a better motivator? One of my biggest fears (second only to losing a child) is rotting away in a memory care unit with no visitors. Which is probably inevitable. But I can try, I guess.
In the evening, I read to D14.
Thursday
Thursday, M12 and my dad took a bus to Perkins while I went to work. In the evening, I took M12 to his baseball game (he made good contact with the ball).
Friday
Friday, IL5 had speech therapy. Then we relaxed at home the rest of the day. I had been planning on taking him to the park, but it was raining. Likewise, the library was out because their parking lot is closed and you have to walk down the street – sitting in the library wet didn’t seem appealing.
M12 packed for his BSA camp, but then I found out through a string of circumstances that I accidentally didn’t sign him up for camp. I’m not sure how that happened, as I thought I had signed him up for the whole year. I asked if he could go, anyway, and waited impatiently for a reply. In the meantime, I found a fun activity to do on Saturday if he couldn’t go.
In the early evening, we were getting ready to play a board game, when a last minute reply came back saying someone had backed out, and Malcolm could come. So off he went.
At about 8, I started feeling super cold, headachy, body achy and really tired. I put on two pairs of pants, a hoodie covering a sweatshirt, and a blanket. I was still cold. I thought maybe I was sick. But I had a long bedtime process left for IL5 and some paperwork to fill out for M12’s camp. So I sucked it up.
The next morning I felt better, except for a residual headache, and I realized that maybe my problem was that I had switched from 6-8 diet sodas a day to about 4 cups of tea. I thought the tea would replace the caffeine without including so much aspartame. (Aspartame intake is a risk factor in dementia, and I’m trying to decrease my chances of getting Alzheimer’s when I’m older.) So I drank one diet soda, and my headache went away. I’ll continue with tea for the rest of the day and see how I feel.
Week’s Photos
Letters Written
- One letter Massachusetts
- One letter Texas
Reading to myself
- Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett
- Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull
- Mr Ballen podcast
- The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth, by Thomas Morris
- The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
- Madam Bovary, by Gustav Flaubert
- Bible
Reading to IL5
- How to Merit in Monsters, by Matthew Cody
- Super King Viking Land, by Thomas Flintham
D14 reading
- Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas
- Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her.)
Media Completed
At summer camp “Troop Dweeb” think they are losers – bottom of the barrel. Things change when they discover monsters. This is a cute book with advanced second or early third grade reading level. It was fun.
In this first book of the sequel series to Fablehaven, Seth and Kendra must go to a dragon sanctuary and try to appease angry dragons. I liked it, though not as much as the later books in the Fablehaven series. A lot of it was set-up for the following books, though there was some action, too. I’m excited to read the rest of the series.
Death is retired for growing a personality. Chaos ensues. Funny, though not my favorite Discworld book.
Games Played
Hibernator's Library 