News
Saturday
Saturday Aaron and I played our Escape the Underdark D&D campaign for the first time in 6 weeks. Then he played Spore with IL5 and I cooked dinner. In the evening, Aaron and I had a date at a board gaming cafe. We only stayed a little over an hour because my brain was fried, but it was fun.
Sunday
Sunday, I worked all day. Aaron cooked burgers, fries, and corn cobs for dinner. In the evening, IL5 watched M12 play Spore, and Aaron and I watched a couple episodes of Supernatural. At bedtime, I finished up a Minecraft book that IL5 was really excited about.
Monday
Monday, I woke late because I had had a hard time falling asleep. I felt like half the day was gone. Aaron played Spore with IL5 and I made some chickpea curry and cooked M12’s pork chops for the week. (He warms them for dinner.) Then I took a short nap before D14’s high school orientation
The orientation consisted of an activity fair, which D14 found frustrating since she couldn’t find the D&D club table, a pep rally, which D14 found stressful because of the noise and crowd, and walking through her schedule so we could listen to each teacher talk for a while. The orientation was supposed to be 3 hours long, but they let us out after 2.5 hours due to severe weather. D14 and I had to walk around the parking lot searching for the car in the rain and wind because we couldn’t find the car. D14 was pretty stressed at the end.
Tuesday
Tuesday, I came home from work in the morning and filled dad’s, M12’s, and my pillboxes for the week, as usual. Dad was out of a prescription that had one refill left, but the automated system gave me an error message, and sent me to a human. The human said that dad’s doctor “closed.” I’m like: “What? He’s not closed!” So I called dad’s doctor up, and the phones were out. So I don’t know what’s going on, there.
After that wasn’t cleared up, Aaron and I rented a tiller. Aaron tilled the ground where the tree stumps used to be. When he was done with the first one, I began laying manure down on the tilled soil and mixing it with a pitchfork. I had moved 1880 pounds of manure before I was staggering around and decided I had had enough. I hadn’t even finished the big tilled area.
Aaron had finished tilling the other stump area, and had a meeting with his placement agency. When he was done, I’d stopped working, so he called it a day, too, since tilling was hard work and he was exhausted, too.
The family went out for steaks later in the evening, and then D14 and I sorted school supplies for the kids.
Wednesday
Wednesday was D14 and M12’s first day of school. Both went well. D14 auditioned for the school play and didn’t make it to callbacks, but still hopes to do crew. M12 signed up for wiffleball as his “Irish Time,” which is his mid-day break.
Aaron took dad to his audiologist appointment, and then to the clinic that we were having difficulty contacting. Their phones and computers were down. They tried to relay my message, but unfortunately some more info from me is needed, so I’ll have to try calling until their phones work.
Then Aaron and I mixed the rest of the manure with dirt on the tilled land. He used a roller to flatten the area as much as possible, then put down the grass seed. We used some cloth that has seed in it, and apparently the cloth will dissolve and the seeds plant themselves. I helped by pinning them to the ground so they don’t blow away. We will water 3x daily until the grass comes in I guess?
I then picked up IL5 for his literacy assessment. I sat on the floor of the gym while waiting and he curled in a ball in my lap and tucked his head in. I don’t know if he was tired or overwhelmed by the people and noise. But he seemed to like his teacher. She said he did well, though didn’t listen to instructions well – which problem I forewarned her of in an email (warning her not to assume he doesn’t understand the instructions, which is tempting to new people). I also warned her about his speech, refusal to poop in the toilet, ADHD, and dislike of eating at school. She seemed to appreciate the warning. But she may have just been being polite, of course.
After his literacy assessment, I went to the library to pick up the next minecraft book in the series I started reading to IL5), then to the grocery store and to pick up cupcakes to add variety to M12’s high-calorie snacks (he has to eat one a day to keep his weight up).
I read to D14 – Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger – and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Thursday
Thursday morning was rough. I got off work at 9am and drove home a different route than usual because of construction. I missed my turn, which dumped me off somewhere that added 10 minutes to my trip home, then I got stuck behind a train for another few minutes. I only had 15 minutes to prepare to leave for my next job. When I left for my day job, I stopped for gas, but had trouble with the chip reader in the gas pump, which means I can’t get my card out of the pump till it reads the chip. So I had to wiggle the card around for a while until it read. Frustrated, I decided to take my anxiety meds because I was getting all worked up. But when I opened my bottle, it exploded red Crystal Light on my favorite sweatshirt. So I told my client I’d be 15 minutes late and went home to take care of the sweatshirt.
I worked till 5, but it was a calm day, and I was able to calm down and get a few things done like sending emails, making some necessary purchases on Amazon, writing letters, and reading.
There was a severe thunderstorm watch on the way home, but I was only sprinkled on. However, the roads were flooded and a signal out when I got to my city. The electricity was out at my home when I arrived. Aaron had been cooking chili. So we went to Olive Garden for dinner because he couldn’t finish in the dark on an electric stove. On the way out the door, Freyja, one of our kittens, made the usual dash for the door and experienced rain for the first time. I hoped he would show an ability to turn around and ask to get back in, but instead he hunkered down and waited for me to rescue him.
After dinner, the electricity was back on, and Aaron finished the chili. We sat and chatted about the book I was reading, and eventually D14 and M12 joined the conversation, because my book is a conversation-starter. Then I left for work at 9:30pm.
Aaron had managed to get several errands and tasks on his honey-do list Thursday
Friday
Friday after work, I took IL5 to speech therapy. Then I took a nap and did some reading before helping D14 in a virtual appointment, then taking her to an in-person appointment. Upon returning home, the older kids left with their mom for their grandpa’s. I sat and chatted with Aaron until he went downstairs for his weekly gaming session. In a while, I put IL5 to bed, and collapsed under my blankets.
Letters Written
- One letter Michigan
- Two letters Massachusetts
Reading to myself
- The Week: Wave Rider
- Newsweek: A Class of Their Own
- New Scientist: Mission to Europa
- Mr Ballen Podcast
- Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
- Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
- Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
- Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
- Maskerade, by Terry Pratchett
Reading to IL5
- Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles: Into the Game, by Nick Eliopulos
- Desmond Cole and the Scary Library Shusher, by Andres Miedoso
D14 reading
- The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
- The 57 Bus, by Dashka Slater
Media Completed
Morgan and his friends get VR goggles that transport them into Minecraft for realsies. Cute book which was mostly character and setting development for a series.
Mr Osaka is having a midlife crisis. He quits his job and explores his purpose in life. Life seems surreal and out-of-control. He meets strange women who twist his life in unexpected ways. Like all other Murakami books I’ve read, I was kept interested by the narrative even though I was often thinking “What? Really?” It’s a suspend-your-disbelief sort of story. Very well done.
Desmond and Andres have a school project at the Kersville Public Library. They are both excited about the books. But then they start flying off the shelves. As usual, this Desmond Cole book was appealing to IL5. Cute story and black-and-white drawings. About second grade reading level.
Games Played
Hibernator's Library 