Update February 1, 2025

News

Saturday

Saturday Aaron and I slept in. Then we played D&D for 4 hours. I had told IL6 I would teach him to code a game, so I downloaded Scratch, but then was having difficulty figuring it out. So I told him I needed to watch a tutorial. However, I was too tired for a tutorial, so, despite trying to watch one, I took a nap. For the rest of the evening. And through the night till just after 4am. I fell back to sleep around 6am.

Sunday

Sunday started with me trying to program an easy game with IL6 on Scratch (A kids’ programming language developed by MIT). He actually picked it up surprisingly well. We ran into a bug I was trying to fix, but he didn’t have the patience to fix it, so his mind on what he wanted to do, and screamed at me when I continued trying to solve the original problem. I didn’t know how to do the new thing he wanted to do, either, though Malcolm rather snottily explained how to program in a very simplistic sort of way that I’d understood even before watching the tutorial, because apparently he thinks I’m stupid. I told IL6 that I would figure it out alone, and we could continue tomorrow. We stopped at 11am.

I then looked at my phone. My friend Liz had texted at 10:30 to ask if she should come for our trip to Olive Garden for our book club meeting at 11. Oops. I told her “yes?” And started to get IL6 ready, as Aaron was out. Then, Liz asked if her nephew could come along, so I invited M12, and it turned out to be a party.

A little after getting home, I took M12 to band, then headed to the library with IL6. They had gotten rid of his favorite toys, but had acquired a new one that he wanted to play with. Someone else was playing with it, so he wanted to wait. But the computer was broken, and we’d picked out books, and I was super tired again, so to IL6’s dismay we went home. I felt bad.

Then I zonked out for 2 hours in IL6’s bed, while he played on his phone on the bed. And that was pretty much the end of the evening.

Monday

Monday Aaron and I went to the gym and ran errands. I figured out how to do what IL6 wanted to do while programming the game. But then he didn’t actually want to program when he got home, despite reminding me about it in the morning.

In the evening, dad took us to Red Lobster for dinner. Then IL6 wanted to hang out in his room, so I got some reading done. My cross-stitch of the creeper is coming along much faster than the one of Groot. I think because I’m more experienced. It is a lot more complex that Groot, though.

Tuesday

Tuesday I went to the gym, then to lunch, then to errands with dad and Aaron.

Wednesday

Wednesday, I got up at 5am and started the 3 hour drive to get to my aunt’s funeral. It was a beautiful service and nice seeing everyone, but at the end my social battery was drained and I had a headache, so I didn’t socialize long. I drove back home that night.

Thursday

Thursday I had little motivation to do anything. I washed dad’s laundry and ran some small errands. I read and cross-stitched for a little while. (The pattern is difficult because there are so many shades of green in one- or two-pixel areas, making the counting a pain.) IL6 had Cub Scouts. D15 had play rehearsal. M12 went skiing after school with some friends.

Friday

Friday started with two appointments for IL6. Then I wrote a couple of letters and read for a while. D15 had the first night of her play, which she says went well.

Week’s Photos

Reading to myself

Beyond These Walls, by Tony Platt
Children of Virtue and Vengeance, by Tomi Adeyemi
Mahabharata
The Life of Elizabeth I, by Allison Weir
Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank
Master of the Phantom Isle, by Brandon Mull
Human Acts, by Han Kang

Reading to IL5

The End of the Overworld, by Nick Eliopulos
The Leaf Thief, by Alice Hemming
Beach Bummer, by Ryan T Higgins
We are Growing, by Mo Willems
Here Comes Teacher Cat, by Deborah Underwood
Hidden Gem, by Linda Liu

D14 reading

Girl in the Moon, by Terry Goodkind
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Media Completed

A squirrel wonders where all the leaves are going.

A bear is dragged along to the beach.

Some grass figures out what it’s like to grow as unique blades.

A cat has to substitute teach a class, and learns to enjoy it.

This is a major Hindu spiritual work, one of the (if not the) oldest spiritual texts as well as the longest epic poem in existence. This audiobook, despite being abridged, was about 45 hours, and it took me about a year to read. The story was interesting (to me) and ok in terms of ease of following. Not much previous knowledge was necessary.

A rock discovers it’s awesome.

In the second book of this African fantasy trilogy, the 3 main characters fight for their differing visions of what is best for their country. This is an interesting and well-written book, based on the emotions it elicited in me. They weren’t all positive emotions, but I feel like any book that gets the feels is well-written. (As long as I’m getting feels the author suggested.)