Update September 28, 2024

News

Saturday

Sunday I worked a good chunk of the day. Then I cooked salmon, drank several of IL5’s “potions” (concocted mainly of water and food coloring, though one of them had a suspiciously savory taste), read to IL5, and slept.

Sunday

Monday was a good day. After sending IL5 off in the bus and making white chili for my lunches this week, Aaron and I ran to Target, Kohl’s, and two Schuler’s to buy clothes for the kids. We had burgers for lunch, then ran one more errand. I relaxed for a couple of hours, then was disappointed by the movie “Uglies.”

Monday

Tuesday

Tuesday, I went directly from my overnight job to my day job. The day job was a bust. There was a complaint about my client’s son that he might not be caring for my client well enough. I had been there last week when the police arrived to do a wellness check on my client, so I already knew that this was going on.

A social worker rang the bell while I was working Tuesday and insisted on being let in. I told her that my client’s son wasn’t home, and I didn’t have permission to let her in. She stood there and tried to bully me into letting her in. Her: “You don’t understand. I’m a social worker from the county.” Me: “Well, I’m a respite worker. I can’t let you in without permission.”

Now, my client’s son’s phone was dead because he’d left it on the roof of his car a couple days ago. So finally I called my client’s other son to ask permission to let the social worker in. He wanted to talk to her, but she refused and said she’d call him later. She met with my client, whose dementia is progressed enough that no information can be garnered from her, then the social worker interviewed me. She did so in an entitled and supercilious tone of voice, though by that time I was already annoyed at her entitled behavior at the door, so my opinion of her tone was probably colored. During this time, my client’s other son called twice and M12 texted four times.

Then my client’s son came home early for a nap, but, of course he didn’t get one. She took on an even more supercilious, entitled tone when interviewing him. I asked if he wanted me to leave, and he said “no.” He lost his temper and yelled at the social worker, and she stomped out of the house. So I don’t know if I’m going to have this job by my next shift. And as I said before, I need this job while Aaron is unemployed.

At 5:30pm, I arrived home and ate dinner (Aaron cooked hamburgers and corn-on-the-cob). Then I cooked M12 some pork chops, filled pill boxes for 3 people, read to D14, and then helped her with her homework. It was stupid homework: she had to write a description of galaxies using 6 of 8 words. The description had to be precisely 20 words. What was the point in that? How did those 20 words help her learn?

Immediately after helping her, I went to work.

IL5 had been on a field trip Tuesday. He caught some grasshoppers and tried to catch a dragonfly, but it was too fast. I also sat with him in his room while helping D14, and that was all my time with him.

Wednesday

Wednesday after my overnight job, I took IL5 to a doctor appointment. Then Aaron and I ran some errands and went to Perkins with dad. Aaron then dropped dad and me off about 2.5 miles away and we walked home. In the evening, dad, Aaron, and I took IL5 to the playground. Then I helped D14 with her homework. This time it was comparative religions.

Thursday

Thursday I went from my overnight job to my day job. Then when IL5 got home, we took him to the open house at his school, then to his first-ever Cub Scout meeting. He got along with the kids – I don’t know where he gets the confidence to make new friends. They worked on learning the scout oath, though I’m pretty sure he wasn’t paying attention. He doesn’t need to earn his bobcat anyway. 藍 D14 went to the outside movie her school put on.

Friday

Friday after work, I took IL5 to an appointment, then did a virtual appointment with D14. The rest of the day was spent preparing for the Cub Scout camping trip. As soon as IL5 got home from school, Aaron and I hopped in the car with him and went to the campground. Aaron set up the tent in the near-dark and I struggled to keep track of IL5. In fact, at one point, he ran off and navigated the group campsite on his own because I couldn’t see him.

M12 stayed home with my dad for the weekend and D14 went to her mom’s.

Week’s Photos

Reading to myself

Mr Ballen Podcast
New Scientist: The Language of Reality
The Week: Hitting Russia
Maskerade, by Terry Pratchett
The Wrong Daughter, by Dandy Smith
Alan Turning: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wlkerson
Lost Sci-Fi Anthology

Reading to IL5

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, by Mo Willems
Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late, by Mo Willems
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, by Mo Willems
Minecraft: Deep Dive!, by Nick Eliopulos
Campfire Stories, by Andres Miedoso

D14 reading

Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her)
The Dead and the Dark, by Courtney Gould

Media Completed

Desmond and Andres go camping and tell scary stories. They meet a campfire ghost. Not the cutest of the Desmond Cole books, but good all the same. IL5 liked it.

In a dystopic land where at the age of 16 people undergo a surgery to make them beautiful, a girl nicknamed Squint learns what it is to be beautiful on the inside. I liked the movie up till the ending, which left the story hanging for a future movie.

This was an excellent biography of Alan Turing. It painted him in a sympathetic, yes honest light. It seemed well-researched, though sometimes I wondered where he got such private information. Did Turing have a journal? The descriptions of Turing’s theories and discoveries were well-written and clear, though math and computer science are not something I am particularly interested in, so I found my attention lagging during the very long descriptions. Overall, a great book.