Update August 2, 2025

News

Saturday

Saturday D15 walked in the Leprechaun Days parade with the theater company, but her face turned beet red and she was told to sit in the car for the second half of the parade. It was still horrific when she got home.

IL6 and I were supposed to walk in the parade with the Cub Scouts, but he said his ears hurt, so we went to Urgent Care. No ear infection, but he had strep.

I had been feeling nauseated all night the night before, and was dry-heaving in the morning. I was feeling malaise, too. And my throat hurt, which I associated with the dry-heaving. I assumed I had eaten something off, but then decided I should get checked for strep. So I went back to Urgent Care. There, they lavaged my ear, which was surprisingly painful, but I didn’t have strep. The ear pain remained for several hours, when suddenly something shifted in my ear and it went away. That felt weird.

D15 went to 2 showings of Newsies. IL6, Aaron, and I relaxed.

Sunday

Sunday was relaxing (for me). Aaron mowed the lawn. I took IL6 to swim lessons. Aaron went to D15’s play.

Monday

Monday I was super productive all day. It was a good day. In the late afternoon, I took dad to cardiac rehab. In the evening everyone was home and available, which is the first time that’s happened during summer. We decided to go to Olive Garden. IL6 ate 2 pieces of calamari and D15 found out she likes chicken alfredo.

Tuesday

Tuesday was busy. Almost immediately after returning home from work, I had a phone meeting. That ended at exactly the time I was supposed to take D15 to pick up IL6 for their concurrent appointments.

Upon the heels of that, I took D15 and IL6 to the park because IL6 had a playdate. He had a temper tantrum because he wanted to go to a different park. That lasted about 30 minutes (part of it was in the car). He enjoyed meeting his friends, but then he had another temper tantrum because he wanted a spider man ice cream from the ice cream truck. We finally convinced him (after 15-20 minutes) that the grocery store had it. It did. Then, after I played Minecraft with IL6 a bit, my friend Liz came over. D15, Aaron, Liz, and I watched Doctor Who.

Wednesday

Wednesday started with a phone call meeting right after returning from work. But it was a very helpful appointment, and I was given some good resources. Then dad wanted to go to Perkins. Afterwards, I took the car to get an oil change. I got lots of phone calls made and forms filled out while waiting. Dad had cardiac rehab, during which I got lots of reading done. D15 had a show. Aaron cooked some steak.

Thursday

Thursday I had a pretty relaxing day. I dropped off dad at an appointment, but didn’t need to stay. So I relaxed. Then I had D&D later in the day. She’s not the most exciting DM in the world, so I’m struggling to make it through the entire 3 hours. But I did get a lot of cross-stitch done, though.

Friday

Friday I took IL6 to his speech therapy. I was dropping him back off at camp – sitting in the parking lot – when I played a voicemail that the people that were coming to pick up dad’s oxygen would be there in 15 minutes. (Which would be before their pickup window.) So I rushed home without dropping off IL6. I just kept IL6 home the rest of the day.

After the oxygen was handed over, IL6 and I went to his favorite park. On Tuesday I had promised I would take him there soon when he was so angry his playdate was at the “wrong” park. He only stayed about 45 minutes, though.

In the evening, D15 went to her show. Aaron, dad, and I walked to another park. IL6 rode his bike. (He’s still bad at listening to us when we tell him to stop at streets and look both ways.)

Reading to myself

Survey of Hinduism, by Klaus K Klostermaier
Dreadful, by Caitlin Rozakis
Return of the Dragon Slayers, by Brandon Mull
Sociopath: A Memoir, by Patric Gagne
Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn
To Shape A Dragon’s Breath, by Moniquil Blackgoose
Mr Ballen podcast

Reading to IL5

Dragonbreath: Lair of the Bat Monster, by Ursula Vernon
March of the Vanderpants, by Troy Cummings

D14 reading

A Darker Shade of Magic, by V E Schwab

Aaron reading

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood

Media Completed

This is the conclusion of the series beginning with Fablehaven. I enjoyed the series, and this book did not disappoint. I did wonder if the baptism allegory was necessary at the end of the book.