News

Saturday

Saturday I forgot to do anything. I worked in the morning, vegged until it was time to go to laser tag with M10, then went to work. The kids didn’t do anything interesting (besides M10’s laser tag), either.

Sunday

Sunday was fun. I cleaned the livingroom – or tried to. I got the floor half swept and then didn’t have the energy to do more. I guess I needed to take it easy despite feeling a lot better. Aaron finished sweeping for me, though.

In the afternoon, Aaron and I took IL4 to swim lessons. After that, we played a couple of games, had dinner delivered, and watched Psych as a family.

Monday

Monday I was super, duper tired. Apparently I’m still sick. 🙁 I took D13 to an appointment, and then IL4 to Urgent Care. He’d had an ear infection the night before, with a fever that didn’t immediately respond to Tylenol. (Suppositories apparently take longer, and he refuses oral.) He still had an ear infection in the morning, but it didn’t hurt anymore. 🤷‍♀️ D13 had Willy Wonka rehearsal, as well as rehearsal for her middle school play. M10 graduated from Cub Scouts to BSA, so he missed Willy Wonka rehearsal. I took IL4 to the library in the city of D13’s rehearsal while waiting, and it was HUGE.

Tuesday

Tuesday was frustrating. It started with me taking M10 to an appointment. But the appointment didn’t exist once we got there. The woman seemed quite certain I had made a mistake and wrote it down on the wrong date, but our last appointment was two weeks before, and our next appointment was two weeks after, and none of my other recorded appointments were wrong. Logically, that seems more like they made a mistake in scheduling (told me they made an appointment but didn’t finalize) or that it had been cancelled and only biomom (not me, the stepmom) was notified (that’s happened more than once in the past.) The rest of the day was strangely open, too, because I moved an activity from Tuesday to Thursday.

TRIGGER WARNING

But while I was pondering my suddenly open day, it occurred to me that my friend Todd hadn’t replied to me in two days, and in fact the last time I talked to him he had been pondering suicide, had the means to do it, and had packed up all his belongings so that it was easier to move them when he was gone. The last conversation had ended with me believing he was going to go to his mom’s. Besides, this isn’t the first time this has happened. So I contacted his mom, who also hadn’t heard from him in two days. After a bit of worrying, I finally sent a message to Todd saying I was going to send a wellfare check on him if he didn’t answer. He immediately answered and told me to go away after I suggested lunch. Very Todd. One sure way of getting an answer is to threaten to send the police. I should have thought of it sooner. I went to lunch with Aaron instead. Then I took dad to the doctor for what may be pneumonia.

Then, in the evening, I got this call from someone claiming to be a cop with someone he said was my sister. (The “sister” was blubbering incoherently in the background.) Not having any reason to doubt this story, I started driving to pick her up. Then, they changed their story and said they were The Mexican Mafia. (“Have you heard of us?” He asked. “No.” I honestly answered. Sounds vaguely racist, I thought. Is this a real thing? People call themselves the “Mexican Mafia? That’s kind of lame. He explained that they were a drug cartel.)

Anyway, so they told me they’re going to kill my sister and her kids if I don’t bring them money. I immediately pulled over. Because. Uh. Sounds like I would just get killed myself? What’s the point in that? And before you laugh too hard, keep in mind my sister has been arrested 4 times for dealing cocaine, so the ball wasn’t entirely out of the arena with the idea she’d gotten in above her head.

Anyhoo, I dialed 911 on my dad’s phone and let them listen in on the conversation with 911 operator muted. Hey, I thought it was a good idea and was under duress. The “Mexican Mafia” guy was threatening to kill my sister if I hung up. 🤷‍♀️ What was I supposed to do?

So the 911 operator hangs up and calls me back so many times that I finally hang up in mafia guy out of frustration. (I guess my sister is dead now?) The operator yells at me for not talking to her, telling me it was a scam. Well, now that she says it, the whole thing was rather suspicious. Howvee, she continues to rudely scold me for the way I handled the situation and I said “I thought my sister was going to get killed if I hung up, do you understand that?” The b**** said “No, I don’t understand that.”

You know what pisses me of? Her. She pisses me off more than the scammers. She is supposed to be a decent person to people under duress, and she was a b****. She’s paid to be patient. She’s supposedly trained to be patient. Training fail. Yeah. Still pissed off at her.

I adrenaline crashed the rest of the night and couldn’t stay awake.

END OF TRIGGER WARNING

Wednesday

Wednesday morning I had a tough discussion with M10. He wrote a short comedic story about summoning Lucifer.  I told him that I know I watch Supernatural, Lucifer, and Good Omens, but that he has to realize when he writes something like that for a classroom, some people are going to be offended. He claimed no one he knows in his school is religious. I explained that he didn’t know that. He was offended. I suspect he was offended because he’d wanted me to praise the story. I didn’t much because I think I was a little offended, I guess. It took me a while to figure out that Lucifer from Lucifer and Crowley from Supernatural are likable, but they are evil. They are nuanced characters. And Crowley from Good Omens is even more nuanced that Lucifer and Supernatural. M10’s story lacked nuance, and left me with the icky feeling that he didn’t understand that devil worship entailed worshiping evil (as I understand it – never met a devil worshiper, I guess).

Other than that, I did nothing. D13 had middle school rehearsal. M10 auditioned for a solo in the musical production he’s in. He doesn’t have much skill at high notes, but good on him for trying.

Thursday

Thursday was a lot of paid work, but no appointments. D13 and M10 had their first Willy Wonka dress rehearsal. IL4 took some toys from the school – he snuck them into his backpack when no one was looking. When he got them out, I said “Oh, an excavator!” This little man, who can’t even hold a conversation schooled me though. “Not excavator! This on back! Backhoe.” I Googled it. He was right. Does that count as a conversation? It almost felt like one.

Unfortunately, my sore throat and fatigue returned Thursday. I’m going to try to make a doctor appointment. Urgent Care wait times are so long!

Friday

Friday I decided to reassert myself in cross-stitch and scrapbooking once a week. This time, I watched a video on how to cross stitch instead of assuming it was easy. Although this nice Southern gentleman made it look easy, he also gave some tips (like how to thread a needle and how to tie off the first stitch) that would have been helpful my first time trying cross-stitch. 😂🤣 Next week (on Thursday) I will start sorting pictures for my scrapbooking.

The rest of Friday was pretty laid back. I read to IL4, wrote two letters, got out my 20lb vest so on Saturday I can wear it all day for extra exercise, and took IL4 to the library.

Week’s Photos

Reading to IL4

• Attack of the 50-Foot Fluffy, by Mike Boldy
• Boo Who?, by Ben Clanton
• The Bad Seed, by Jory John and Pete Oswald
• DJ Funkyfoot Butler for Hire, by Tom Angleberger
• Dona Esmeralda, Who Ate Everything!, By Melissa de la Cruz & Primo Gallanosa
• Llama Destroys the World, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox

M10 reading

• Fuzz, by Mary Roach
• Dragonbreath, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-wiener, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Lair of the Bat Monster, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: No Such Thing as Ghosts

D13 reading

• Wizardmatch, by Lauren Magaziner
• The Doldrums, by Nicholas Gannon

Wrote

• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Michigan Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Maine
• 1 letter Maine Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Louisiana
• 1 letter British Columbia

Media Partaken In

Posts

• Escape the Underdark Episodes 3-4

Games Played

Productivity

Weight loss journey

Enraged by Giovanni’s sneakiness, I shot an Eldritch Blast his way, and we had an epic battle in which Bonkers and Haga tragically lost their lives. I, too, almost died but was brought back to health just in the nick of time by a beautiful albino minotaur named Raazmi Ironhoof. Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my attack, because I suspect Giovanni is part of the Resistance, and I’m very fond of the Resistance already (more on that later). But maybe we can be friends again. I hope so. He was very charming.

Raazmi took us to the temple, where we were offered food and a clean room to sleep. But only a few hours into the night, a nothic started taunting us. He sneaked around and announced our deepest secrets to the whole room. (Raazmi has a crush on fellow cleric Nigel, but I don’t think he returns the interest.)

We tried to talk it into submission, but it finally irritated me by harming Adalene, so I Eldritch Blasted its ass. Another battle ensued, and we managed to knock him out. Nigel apologized profusely, and he and Raazmi sent him back to his original plane with an incantation. I was originally suspicious that Nigel had put him in our room to suss out our secrets, but I’ve since then decided he’s pretty cool.

In the morning, Raazmi let us know she wanted to join us on our travels. Nigel obligingly told us a few ways we could try to get out of Vlyn’darastyl, but he seemed to think it was pretty unlikely we’d manage, since all the routes seemed impossible. I didn’t really pay that much attention – I was people watching the crowds of people eating at the temple dining hall. I figured the others knew what they were doing.

After eating, we went to the docks to look for a ship that could go upstream. We spoke to the Dockmaster Captain Dirge Sunder, who was kind enough to set up a meeting with the merpeople who control these special ships.

The merpeople, Gold Lips and Kaza Mom, told us we had to be vouched for – and a good person to vouch for us would be the former politician Eel of Gold.

Now at a loss for anything better to do, Raazmi led us to a board with job listings. We saw some guards removing contraband fliers, and managed to grab one up – they were advertising the Resistance. There were a bunch of jobs, including a 5000 gp reward for dead Eel of Gold and 10000 gp reward for live Eel of Gold. Good to note.

We chose a job posing for a statue. Briefly as we were on our way there I had the fleeting worry that we were about to be petrified…and what do you know, the bitch had a basilisk. In our battle worthy of epic songs, we killed the basilisk and “artist.” Grok was almost petrified, but managed to crack out of the stone encompassing him just in time. Kinda serves him right opening his eyes. But I’m happy he made it. Losing Bonkers and Haga really shook me.

Feeling a little put out by the battle, and unsure of what to do next, we decided to go back to the temple and ask Nigel about the Eel of Gold. He was wary to talk to us, but we persuaded him that we only needed Eel of Gold to vouch for us to the merpeople – we didn’t intend on turning him in to the authorities. After all, it’s none of our business.

Turns out Eel of Gold leads the Resistance against the tyranny of the Blackwater family, who rule Vlyn’darastyl. And, much to my surprise, since Nigel seems so insipid, he is the right-hand man of Eel of Gold. I’m seeing that there’s more to Nigel than I suspected. I may have a crush on him, too.

Nigel agreed to take us to meet Eel of Gold.

News

Saturday

Saturday, I worked till 11:30am, then immediately started playing a 5 hour session of D&D. Then I pretty much crashed for the day. M10 had a great time at the Pinewood Derby with his mom.

Sunday

Let me tell you, by Sunday I was sick of being sick. I understand the lingering cough, but the 2-week-long sore throat? The shortness if breath? I wonder if I had the flu…but I had no fever. It’s not strep or COVID, that’s all I know.

Anyway, Sunday I relaxed through the first half and had family day through the second half. We played Uno (IL4 is really getting to understand the rules!) and Charades for Kids, which has pictures of what you’re supposed to act out so that kids who can’t read can play. About half the time, IL4 would tell us what it was before acting it out. Then we watched Hunger Games while IL4 hid in his blanket fort with the computer.

M10 had rehearsal for his musical show. D13 had been with her mom, and was feeling a bit glum after leaving her.  ☹️

Monday

Still sick on Monday with this never-ending virus. I’d been hoping to go to Urgent Care, but the daycare called and said they thought IL4 had pink eye. I didn’t agree. Yes, he had eye crusties, but his eyes weren’t pink. So he, dad, and I went to Perkins for lunch.

Before that call came in, D13 had a doctor appointment and I had someone look at the basement to give us a quote on fixing the flooding. His quote was very reasonable considering the gigantic quote we got from the other guy. I’d been thinking of cancelling the basement guy due to illness, but decided two weeks in I’m probably not contagious, and I could just wear a mask.

In the evening, D13 had middle school play rehearsal followed immediately by Willy Wonka rehearsal. M10 skipped Willy Wonka rehearsal to go to his dress rehearsal for his graduation from Cub Scouts into Scouts BSA. IL4 slept most of the evening, and I crashed early.

Tuesday

Still sick on Tuesday. I wanted to go to Urgent Care, because I’m sick of this, but I had IL4 home due to the maybe pink eye. Instead, I took him to the doctor, who decided to treat the eye just in case. Aaron, dad, and I went to Outback Steakhouse after D13 got back from rehearsal. She didn’t want to come, and neither did M10.

I guess one benefit of being sick more than two weeks is that I’m not hungry, so I’m losing weight. Probably just dehydrated and have an empty gut, but I’ve lost 6lbs in 2 weeks.

Wednesday

Still sick on Wednesday. Ugh. IL4 had an audiology appointment since they had trouble testing him at his Well-Child visit in February. The older kids had Willy Wonka rehearsal in the evening.

Thursday

Thursday. Guess what. Still sick. M10 had a play at school based on the story Fly Away Home, by Eve Bunting. He did great. Then D13 had an orthodontist appointment – another “few weeks” of alligners upcoming! We thought we were done. We pick those up in a month, so we have a break from scanning her mouth weekly, at least. It’s a hard task with IL4 around, and we both hate doing it. Then I napped for 2.5 hours, and awoke with a worse sore throat than when I went to sleep. We ended the evening with our family game of D&D.

Friday

Friday was excellent. Despite a slightly sore throat, I felt almost normal. I even got some cleaning done! If this keeps up, I’ll be able to start exercising again on Monday. I took the day to read and relax. M10 had rehearsal for his special villager part in Willy Wonka.

Reading to IL4

• Tiny T Rex and the Impossible Hug, by Jonathan Stutzman and Jay Fleck
• We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, by Ryan T Higgins
• Don’t Feed the Coos, by Jonathan Stutzman and Heather Fox
• Little Good Wolf, by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
• Off to See the Sea, by Nikki Grimes and Elizabeth Zunon
• Eva’s Treetop Festival, by Rebecca Elliot
• The Case of the Weird Blue Chicken, by Doreen Cronin
• Peppa Pig George’s Race Car

M10 reading

• Fuzz, by Mary Roach

D13 reading

• Waiting for Unicorns, by Beth Hautala
• The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskel

Wrote

• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Michigan Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Maine Department of Corrections
• 1 letter California Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Alberta, Canada

Media Partaken In

Posts

• Tiny T Rex and the Impossible Hug, by Jonathan Stutzman and Jay Fleck
• Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, by James Dean and Eric Litwin
• The Invisible Boy, by Trudy Ludwig and Patrice Barton
• Sixteen Scandals, by Sophie Jordan

Games Played

Productivity

EXPLANATION: I have separated my productivity time into life, body, spirit and mind. My goal is for the month of March is 60 hours mind, 12 hours body, 80 hours spirit. I don’t have a life goal, because the purpose of this exercise is to spend less time on life, and more time on personal development. I consider all structured necessary productivity to be life. I make the goals challenging, and reward myself for 80% or more completion.

Weight loss journey

When Prim turns 16, she expects to be put “out” in society by her mom. But, alas! Her mom has other plans. So Prim decides to take her life into her own hands by sneaking out of the house and going for a night on the town. Romance and comedy ensues. This was a cute Regency romance-style book for teens. It’s clean humor, sweet, and fun. It would be a good way to introduce young teens to Regency romance.

Brian is invisible. His teacher only sees the loud students. His classmates only see their friends. But when a new kid joins the class, Brian is kind to him. And suddenly he’s not invisible anymore. This is a cute story with wonderful pictures and a good moral for kids to empathize with.

Another great Pete the Cat book. This one is about how Pete remains calm as his groovy buttons pop off his shirt one by one. Pete sure is smooth!

Tiny would love to give a hug to his friend Spikey, who’s having a bad day. But his arms are so short! This is an adorable book about problem solving and being a good friend.

News

Saturday

Saturday my voice was pretty much gone for the first half of the day. I figured I had caught strep from IL4, but when I went to urgent care, I tested negative. I took the day off – asking Aaron to do things I normally would have done like run to the library. He also went to the Little Women play D13 and I had planned on going to. D13 really enjoyed the play. 😊

Sunday

Sunday I was still feeling a bit sick, but quite a bit better than Saturday. M10 had rehearsal for his dance/singing show that he’s in, and D13 and I watched a couple of movies while M10 and Aaron made his Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts.

Monday

Monday was a productive day. I tried out getting up at 4:30 to go to the gym, but I’ve now decided that if I go to bed too early, I can’t read to IL4, and that’s important too. I’m still struggling to find a time to exercise. I think I’ll try 7am next. Problem is, my dad wants me to walk with him, too, and that’ll all take up a good chunk of my morning. I feel like I should, because he keeps falling down on his walks. But it’s not much of a workout. I have a weighted vest for such walks, so hopefully that’ll help.

M10 and D13 both had an appointment Monday morning, D13 had rehearsal for the middle school play in the afternoon, and M10 and she had rehearsal for Willy Wonka in the evening. Getting IL4 to bed was a pain. But after 4 pieces of bacon he settled down enough to at least sit in bed.

I found a mole on my face that seems to be growing, but nothing too worrysome – if anything it’s only a basal cell carcinoma, and I may just be paranoid. I got a dermatology appointment next Tuesday due to a cancellation – they’re booking out to September.

Tuesday

Tuesday I was feeling mostly better. I had taken off productivity goals for the rest of February (just did what I felt like doing) due to feeling sick, but given a downturn on Wednesday morning, I decided to go through goalless till Friday.

M10 had two appointments, D13 had rehearsal for the middle school play, and IL4 had swim lessons. M10 is up to 66 lbs (his goal weight), and D13 chose to make her play character into a 6 year old girl. She has a lot of artistic freedom with her role as “applause girl.”

Wednesday

Wednesday I went downhill again in health. Not horribly bad, just feeling lightheaded and tired. After IL4’s special education, my dad, IL4, and I went to Perkins and grocery shopping. I took IL4 to the dentist. He was reluctant to sit in the chair, but finally agreed and got his teeth cleaned. Then the older kids had rehearsal for Willy Wonka. While they were doing that, I planned out the family’s summer activities. D13 will take a cooking class and a water safety assistant class, M10 will take swim lessons and an archery camp. They’ll both audition for a part in a Little Mermaid production. And IL4 will have an art class. I am considering a mud run and walking half-marathon, but want to train a little first to gauge my readiness.

Thursday

Thursday started out with my client desperately asking if I could work for her in the evening because she had COVID and had exhausted her resources. (She knows I don’t like evening shifts because I lose family time, and that I’m sick.) I picked up the shift, and spent the entire day either sleeping or resting so I’d have energy when I went in. I didn’t see D13 all day, and barely glimpsed IL4 and M10.

Friday

Friday was a full day. I got up early to talk to D13 because I hadn’t seen her the day before, then took M10 to school with his trombone. On our way home, IL4 and I stopped by the library, then went to speech therapy. Not long after that, we picked up M10 from school for an appointment. I had about an hour break after that, followed by an overnight shift with my client. I barely glimpsed D13 coming home from middle school play rehearsal.

Week’s Photos

Reading to IL4

• Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox
• The Invisible Boy, by Trudy Ludwig & Patrice Barton
• Tiny T Rex and the Impossible Hug, by Jonathan Stutzman and Jay Fleck
• We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, by Ryan T Higgins
• Chicken Squad, by Doreen Cronin & Kevin Cornell
• Eva’s Treetop Festival, by Rebecca Elliott

M10 reading

• Fuzz, by Mary Roach

D13 reading

• Skandar and the Unicorn Thief, by A. F. Steadman
• The Tail of Emily Windsnap, by Liz Kessler

Media Partaken In

Wrote

• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Maine Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Michigan Department of Corrections

Posts

• Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, by mo willems
• Knight Owl, by Christopher Denise

Productivity

I have separated my productivity time into life, body, spirit and mind. My goal is for the month of March is 60 hours mind, 12 hours body, 80 hours spirit. I don’t have a life goal, because the purpose of this exercise is to spend less time on life, and more time on personal development. I consider all structured necessary productivity to be life.

Below is this week’s productivity stats, which isn’t bad since I was sick all week.

Weight loss journey

In this colorful little book, a young owl dreams of being a knight, and when knights start disappearing, he gets his chance. Night watch is easy for him, but things aren’t always what they appear. This is a cute story about bonding with your perceived enemy over common ground.

In this classic picture book, the pigeon really, really, really wants to drive the bus. Will you let him? Cute and silly. A good book for little kids.