News

Saturday

Saturday we relaxed at the campground for a long time. Then we went on a short walk, and went to a bar and grill at a nearby town for dinner. It poured rain in the night. M12 couldn’t sleep because of his allergies, so after trying a few different things, he decided just to sleep in the car. He then woke us up at 6am because: “The sun’s up!”

Sunday

Sunday we packed up camp (after letting IL5 and Aaron sleep in to 8:30). The evening at home was pretty relaxing, with not much going on. IL5 was pretty thrilled about the second Desmond Cole book, so I promised to get more from the library.

Monday

Monday IL5 had swim lessons. Aaron met with HR about his severance package, and got a call-back about a job. The gastroenterologist got back to me and said that hospitalization won’t be necessary to get IL5 clear. They want us to give him yet more daily laxatives. I’m not 100% certain giving him 3 Exlax, 1-2 Dulcolax, and 2 tsp of Calm Magnesium a day is good for his gut in the long-term. I read to D14 in the evening.

Tuesday

Tuesday was calm. D14 had a video appointment with Aaron and myself. I had 3 hours to relax – I took a nap and read. Aaron had an interview with a placement company. He also ran errands and weeded so I could rest.

I used to pay myself 25c for every task completed on my to-do list, $1 for every weekly goal, and $2 for every monthly goal. The money goes to my fun budget for the family (and myself). But while Aaron’s looking for a job, I switched to a point system where each dollar converts to a point, and I pay 25 points an hour for time off where Aaron does “my work.” He has kindly agreed to this.

In the evening my friend Liz came over, and we all watched Doctor Who (except M12 and IL5 who were playing Spore and Creature Creator respectively). IL5 was thrilled when the new Press Start book arrived in the mail – I had pre-ordered it months ago. Instantly, he saw the ad for the next book that won’t be out for another several months. He paused his video so I could read the new book to him (usually he only wants to read at bedtime, so I only get to read to him on the three days a week I don’t work nights). So that was fun for both of us.

Wednesday

Wednesday felt a bit long and lonely. I went almost directly from my overnight job to my day job, and didn’t get home till 5:30pm. There’s no one to talk to at either job, due to my clients not really being verbal, and the day job is simply sitting around (though I bring books, work, and cross-stitch with me).

When I got home, I really wanted to stay home, but I also wanted to talk, and Aaron was taking IL5 to soccer. So I went along. IL5 didn’t do what the coach told him to do at all. I’m wondering how he’s going to handle kindergarten. I guess he really belongs in a Montessori that actually follows the original Montessori structure (letting kids pick their educational activity) rather than the college-prep-during-kindergarten structure that so many people associate it with (not sure when the spirit of the teaching structure changed). But we can’t afford a private school, so IL5 is going to have to learn to do what he’s told…which I don’t see happening quickly. I don’t know if he doesn’t hear the instructions (his ADHD), doesn’t understand the instructions (his language difficulties), or just doesn’t like the instructions (personality). Plus he is hyperactive – gets up and runs around in circles for no reason – so how is he going to sit still for kindergarten? Plus his inability to clearly talk. Plus his fear of the toilet. I’m actually scared of kindergarten.

Thursday

Thursday was another long day of going directly from overnight job to day job, and then arriving back home at 5:30pm. Dad was out of bed – he’d been bedridden by a virus for a couple days. We had a quick dinner, and then I started feeling super tired. Then the awful chills. I put on long underwear under my clothes and still felt cold. Finally, I decided the responsible thing to do is take a COVID test so that I don’t expose my overnight client (again). The test had a very faint pink line that Aaron couldn’t see, but D14, M12, and I could see. So I called in to work and went straight to bed.

Friday

Friday I was very sick. Aaron called his mom and they decided we would not have our trip to Oregon in the morning. Aaron started having symptoms by Friday evening.

Letters Written

• One letter Pennsylvania
• One letter Texas
• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Maine
• One letter Belgium
• One letter Missouri

Reading to myself

• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
• Mr Ballen podcast

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy World, by Thomas Flintham
• Mega Mole Girl Digs Deep, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas

Media Completed

In this humorous anthology Holly and Justine introduce stories which demonstrate each of their points – which are better: zombies or unicorns. I listened to this with M12, and both of us found it funny and refreshing.

Andres and Desmond have another ghostly adventure, this time with haunted bikes. IL5 absolutely loved this book, and its ghosts. He asked me to get more of the books.

Mega Mole Girl must rescue Super Rabbit Boy and all the other heroes of Super World. IL5 has made us read this book to him 3 days in a row.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday I continued my readathon, but I got close to the same number of minutes read for all day Saturday as I did on Friday night from 7pm till midnight. It was fun, though. I’ve been trying to take days off for reading once a month for a while, but haven’t found the right day. Maybe I should take a “relaxation weekend” once a month where I don’t try to be productive – I just do my hobbies.

In the evening, D14, my friend Liz, and I went to Little Shop of Horrors at the Guthrie theater. They did a fantastic job! It was the Aquacentennial in Minneapolis, though, so we had to compete with traffic that slowed our trip home by 30 minutes. 20 of that was just sitting in line at the parking ramp.

Sunday

Sunday, I exercised on the stationary bike for a short stint, then went to work. Afterwards, D14 and I went to Frozen Junior, which was well-done. I took her to dinner, then home. We might have had family night afterwards, but one and then the other adolescent was occupied. So I called an early night for IL5 and myself. (Since IL5 cooperated, I guess he was tired, too.)

Monday

Monday was a difficult day. I had to cancel all of IL5’s activities because he hadn’t pooped properly in 8 days and I was trying really hard to get him to poop. No success, though.

On top of that, dad started the morning screaming at me because I asked him to tell me how far he walked and for how long so that we could keep track for the next peripheral artery disease physical therapist. I guess it reminded him about how angry he was at the last therapist, so he took it out on me.

Because the day was so stressful, I mostly relaxed, trying to keep myself functional. In the evening, I read to D14 for over an hour, and she had a fun time listening to my theories about her book. We did that while sitting with IL5 in his bed because he wanted to cuddle under a blanket in bed, as he wasn’t feeling well.

Then, the hard day continued when I got a letter telling me one of my pen pals had died. He’d been sick for a while and hadn’t been answering my letters, but I’d kept writing because I knew how much letters can brighten up a life. That makes two non-RL friends to die recently.

Tuesday

Tuesday was busy. After arriving home for work, I tried to fill the pillboxes for dad, M12, and myself, but only finished dad’s because I realized that I had forgotten to pick up his prescriptions last week, and I had to go get them. (So of course I never got to mine or M12’s, which became apparent when M12 went to take them in the evening.)

Then dad and I went to his dermatology appointment, followed closely by a virtual appointment with D14. I had to leave that appointment early to get to dad’s balance PT intake. Dad, thankfully, seemed pleased with with the therapist, and actually did his exercises later that night.

Before driving home, I needed to call dad’s doctor’s office to tell his clinical pharmacist that we would be 15 minutes late to her phone appointment, but luckily she was running late, too.

I was relaxing after that busy day, when IL5’s gastroenterologist’s nurse called and suggested we try magnesium citrate to get him to poop, and that she’d talk to the gastroenterologist and get back to me Wednesday. I told her I would do my best, and rushed off to the drug store.

IL5, of course, didn’t drink the magnesium citrate after any amount of cajoling and bribing. He didn’t even try it. And because we cajoled him to drink that, he decided not to drink anything we wanted him to drink…so we switched to trying to bribe and cajole him into drinking his normal daily laxatives. That became a big argument, because he wanted Dairy Queen, and we wouldn’t give him Dairy Queen until he drank his daily laxatives. That went on over an hour until finally he said “ok, I’ll take ice cream from the freezer instead.” That sounded like a stalemate-breaker to me, so I gave him some ice cream from the freezer. After eating that, he agreed to drink the medicine. I went to work before seeing that happen. He thus completed his 9th day without pooping.

While the cajoling was going on, M12, Aaron, and I played a game of Settlers of Catan.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a tough day. Aaron’s work downsized and he got laid off. Everyone was stressed about that.

IL5 pooped overnight, but not 10 days’ worth. I got a call from his gastroenterologist and they ordered an x-ray and told us to go in on Thusday or Friday if he didn’t contine pooping.

Aaron and I took M12’s trombone in for maintenance ($400, and they’ll have it for 6-8 weeks. They gave us a loaner, though.) M12 hadn’t been taking it apart and putting it away daily, despite being told to, and I suspect it was stepped on. New rule: put it away, or he’s grounded.

Then Aaron and I picked up some cupcakes – something we’ve been buying from a bakery to help M12 keep his weight on. I don’t get any, but I color code the rest so there’s no confusion.

And then we spent some of my saved up for-fun money to go out and eat and get lunch and a beer. We needed to discuss plans for insurance, etc. Luckily I can get insurance through my job. Probably not great insurance, but we’ll get by. We left D14 babysitting, and when we got home, D14 was babysitting while on a video call appointment. I felt so bad that I forgot about her appointment. It was supposed to be a private appointment, so it wasn’t on my personal schedule, and I just forgot. But both she and the provider were very understanding.

Then I had a bariatric MD appointment. She prescribed a med she thought my insurance might cover, since the ozempic is a no-go. This one has a generic, and isn’t necessarily a weight loss med, so might slip by. Of course, my insurance is about to change, but I doubt it’s better than what we had.

Then I called insurance and made sure my insurance covers step-kids, as they need to be on my dental and will qualify for Minnesota care through the state for medical (they’d have to switch dentists with Minnesota Care dental). My insurance will cover them, thankfully.

After that, I wasted time sitting around feeling stressed. Soccer was cancelled due to rain, so now I have 12 kids’ worth of snacks to get rid of.

Thursday

Thursday, I took IL5 to an appointment and then Aaron took him to get an x-ray while I was at work. I worked a couple hours extra to help save money, and it was a bit disorienting to get home at 5:30. But if they let me do so while Aaron is searching for a job, I’ll do that.

D14 had a friend E spending the night, and M12 was playing a fun computer game that IL5 really wanted to play and felt left out with E around, so Aaron got out his computer and we played the game with IL5 for the rest of the night.

Friday

Friday morning after work, I took IL5 to speech therapy. Then we packed up the cars and headed out for our last camping trip of the year. (Just the guys and me, again. D14 is with her mom.) We set up tent and chatted for the evening. IL5’s x-ray results came in while we were lounging. Apparently the radiologist found a “small-to-moderate stool burden,” but the gastroenterologist disagreed and said it was “a larger burden.” They will call on Monday with further steps, so I get to worry all weekend about potential hospitalization.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Louisiana
• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Michigan
• One letter Washington

Reading to myself

• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

Reading to IL5

• When Glitter Met Glue, by Karen Kilpatrick
• The Three Little Guinea Pigs, by Erica S Perl
• Super Rabbit Boy Blasts Off, by Thomas Flintham
• Super King Viking Land, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Mass

Aaron reading

• The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

This is a sweet story of friendship where each friend brings out good qualities in the other. IL5 wanted me to buy him glitter glue after reading this book.

The Three Little Guinea Pigs was a twist on the three little pigs. Cute

Games

News

Saturday

Saturday we mostly relaxed. I spent campground lounging time to write 6 of the 9 letters I need to write this week. We went to the playground and got overheated, then we sat in the Air conditioning in McDonald’s and got Dairy Queen. Aaron and IL5 had a water fight. Aaron, M12, and I played 2 games of Exploding Kittens. We played a form of flashlight tag, but IL5 didn’t like the rules once he got tagged, and threw a temper tantrum. I got him in the car to take him home, and he said he was ok to go back to his sleeping bag, now. So we all went to sleep.

Sunday

Sunday, we woke up to rain on the tent. We quickly broke camp and drove away. We had about enough time for us to unpack the car and me to take a bath before it was time for me to go to work. When I got home, I cooked a quick dinner and then I DM’d our first family session of D&D. IL5 bailed about 15 minutes in, but that’s ok.

Monday

Monday was relaxing. All three kids had a virtual appointment in the morning. Afterwards, we met with Aaron at Buffalo Wild Wings for a lunch date. I tried to convince IL5 to play outside, go to the library, and play with crafts, but he wasn’t interested and I didn’t push. I cooked pork chops for M12, split pea soup for Aaron’s week’s lunches, and meatloaf for dinner.  I washed dad’s laundry. And I relaxed.

Tuesday

Tuesday started with a virtual appointment for D14. After that one, we were supposed to talk to the orthodontist tech for her final appointment, but we were having trouble getting pictures of her teeth to send to them. But they helped us figure it out, and we ended up scanning her teeth with my phone and rescheduling the appointment for later in the day.

I took M12 to get a haircut – he’d been annoyed at the length of his hair. I then picked up IL5 for a virtual appointment. Afterwards, he and I went to the library. He played with the toys and on the computer, then picked out books.

D14 had her orthodontist appointment, and was told she’s good, no more appointments. Yay! She’s done! Then my friend Liz came over and she helped D14 learn the magic loop in crochet and we watched a couple episodes of Doctor Who. David Capaldi made his appearance.

Wednesday

Wednesday, pretty quickly on the heels of arriving home from work, I jumped on a virtual appointment for D14. Then, I took dad to see his vascular doctor, who said dad’s peripheral artery disease is a lot worse than last year. He wants dad to start physical therapy three times a week, and to do further testing.

Because we were a distance from home at that appointment, and in two hours dad had another appointment that was in the same area, we just stayed in the area and went to the fancy upscale Perkins to kill time.

His second appointment was just a follow-up with  his primary after his hospital visit, so nothing new there. Then we rushed home, and I shoved three cats in cages. Puck didn’t fall for the tuna-in-cage trick again. He saw me put it in the cage and skedaddled. I had to recruit D14 to close the cage. I risked my arms and hands to grab Puck and shove him in. Freyja was easy, but he was so terrified at the vet he was shaking. Then Sake also scrambled and struggled. I think I may do one cat at a time with the vet from now on because they see another cat going in a cage and run.

After the vet appointment, Aaron and I took IL5 to soccer. As usual, he ran around in happy circles a lot, but this time he ran after the ball a few times – and kicked it again. He also was goalie once, and was great at paying attention. Though not at stopping the ball, but there’s nothing wrong with room for improvement. He’s enjoying himself, which matters more.

Thursday

Thursday I went from work to work, with a half hour break in between. Then I ran errands, relaxed, and went back to work. Aaron stayed home from work, so he did the school shopping! I had been DREADING that task.

Friday

Friday morning I had a meet-and-greet with the petsitter that will be coming during our vacation in August. She is pet CPR certified. I wonder how many pets she does CPR on? Then I horribly lost at a game of Magic against M12.

In the early afternoon, dad had peripheral artery disease physical therapy. I had been dreading it, because I didn’t want to take him to three appointments a week again. I managed to set up medical transportation for him (for future appointments – this was his first), but he was resistant to trying it out. However, at the appointment, he was acting confused and wobbly, making me hesitant to be sending him on appointments alone, anyway. The therapist didn’t want to work with him, because she said he was too wobbly. She wanted him to go to physical therapy. Probably for the best, because dad took a disliking to the therapist and refused to ever go back. I suppose if we ever get the referral again, we’ll go to the facility farther away to get a different therapist. I’m a little skeptical the wobbliness is going to go away with physical therapy, and don’t know if dad will consent to the physical therapy, because it was the other therapist who referred him. Maybe I can manage not to tell him who referred him.

After the appointment, dad wanted to go to lunch. I wasn’t in the mood, but dad really enjoys going to lunch. I could have told him the truth – that I had been planning on taking IL5 out on his bike, and I’d really rather do that, but I felt bad about being annoyed at him when he wasn’t feeling well…and who knew if IL5 would actually want to go? I wasn’t in the mood to drag IL5 kicking and screaming to a bike ride, and if I told dad that I didn’t want to go to lunch because I was taking IL5 on a bike ride, then I actually had to make it happen regardless of IL5’s feelings on the subject. Then, of course, dad pressed his luck and asked me to go for a walk, but Deirdre wasn’t in the mood to babysit more and I didn’t think dad was steady enough. Besides, he was really stressing me out.

In the evening, I was sitting on the couch waiting for my 24hr readathon to start, when D14 started asking me questions about it. I asked her if she wanted to join. She seemed excited by the idea. Then Aaron agreed to join us too. (Though then he bailed after one hour to play his weekly game with his friends.)

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Virginia
• One letter Maine
• One letter Pennsylvania
• One letter Maryland
• One letter Arizona
• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Alberta
• One letter New York

Reading to myself

• Mr Ballen Podcast
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
• Ophie’s Ghost, by Justina Ireland
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Nurk, by Ursula Vernon
• Journeys through the Radiant Citadel

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy Blasts Off, by Thomas Flintham
• The Haunted Library, by Dori Hillestad Butler
• Super Rabbit All-Stars, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas
• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her)

Aaron reading

• The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

Media Completed

When Kaz is blown away from everything he knows, he meets Claire, a young solid who can see ghosts. They solve a mystery together. This was a cute book with nice pictures.

Henry goes on a field trip and digs for dinosaurs. As usual for this series, cute and engaging. Good ratio of pictures to words.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday I spent the morning cooking – baked beans for this week’s lunches for Aaron and me, quinoa salad for meals for me, and pork chops for M12’s week. In the evening, Aaron and I had a date. We went out to dinner at a new (to Aaron) restaurant where we had a coupon, and then walked from home to a tavern.

Sunday

Sunday I worked, and then Aaron, dad, and I had dinner out. I got to bed after midnight due to IL5’s dawdling. Then at 3am, dad woke us up saying he had chest pain and pressure. The EMTs wanted him to go to the hospital, but seemed to want me to drive him there. So we are sitting in the ER as I write this.

Monday

Monday, I spent from 3:30 – 6:00am at the hospital with dad. They decided to admit him and do an angioplasty, so I went home to sleep, as it was unlikely they’d rush to get that done. It wasn’t really easy to sleep, though, since at 8am my phone started beeping and ringing away.

I kept myself busy during the day. IL5 had swim lessons. Then I worked on cleaning the house. I even read for a little while.

In the evening, I took IL5 to soccer. I found out that I had missed the first week. Apparently it started last week. 🤷‍♀️ Oh well. IL5 did better than last year – he stayed on the field when he was supposed to be on, and stayed off when he was supposed to be off. Maybe by the end of the season, he’ll notice the ball.

M12 had a Court of Honor at Boy Scouts and was awarded his tenderfoot rank, and the climbing and astronomy merit badges.

Tuesday

Tuesday, I rushed home from work and did a few necessary things, then had a virtual appointment with D14 and Aaron. Immediately afterwards, I went to the hospital, in hopes they’d release dad. I was there all day. I took a nap by pushing two chairs together and curled up in a ball. I went through my phone to-dos. I read. I watched YouTube. Finally, at 6pm, they released him, only having done a stress test. Which came up uninteresting.

On the way home, we popped over to a hotel to help my homeless nephew J20 a room. Then, we went home, and I did a few more necessary things before work.

IL5 had soccer pictures, but we think they’ll not work out because the coach gave another kid IL5’s order sheet, so there will be two under his name. Oh well. We have T-ball pictures.

Wednesday

Wednesday, I went to Perkins with M12 and dad. Then dad and I ran errands. Dad had an ultrasound on his leg, checking for peripheral artery disease, and I didn’t like the sound of the results, but we won’t follow up with the doctor till next Wednesday. After the appointment, dad and I ran another errand.

In the evening, I took IL5 to soccer. He kicked the ball (in the correct direction) and he was very proud. Most of the time he was happily running around in circles on the wrong part of the field. But he seems to enjoy being out there, as well as going to the playground afterwards. (We played “monster” in the bushes.)

Thursday

On Thursday I went to my day job, then we all watched Whose Line is it anyway after a salmon dinner.

Friday

Friday, IL5 had speech therapy. Then I spent the day preparing to camp. I cooked swordfish steak for the first time that evening, and it was quite delicious. Then M12, IL5, Aaron, and I left for our camping trip. It was a campground only 15 minutes from home, so we still had plenty of time to have a fire after the tent was set up. M12 burned some of his old math homework

Week’s Photos

Two bizarre instances of Hero coexisting with another cat. There was a third time, where Hero was on the bed with both Polyphemus and Sake. She doesn’t like other cats, and this bed is her territory.

Letters Written

• One letter Maine
• One letter Netherlands
• One letter Missouri

Reading to myself

• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Nurk, by Ursula Vernon
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy World, by Thomas Flintham
• Super Rabbit Boy’s Team-Up Trouble, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas

Media Completed

In this book from the witches arc of Discworld, the witches deal with some elves that are released by wannabe witches. Funny, as usual.

Games Played

We showed Malcolm flags from various countries and had him guess. He got most of them. He didn’t get Sri Lanka and Djibouti.

News

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day for me. I had lunch at Olive Garden with my friend Liz. I took IL5 along for the ride. Liz and I discussed Poor Things, by Alasdair Gray and picked our next book. Then we picked up D14 and went to Michaels for crafting supplies. Usually I let IL5 craft with whatever is lying around the house, but I thought maybe he’d have fun with some pipecleaners and construction paper. He had a lot of fun when we got home.

Then Aaron and I ran a bunch of errands, including getting a new tent (the old one broke), popping by the pet store to get clippers for the kittens, going to get some manure for our yardwork, and stopping by two pharmacies for prescriptions.

In the evening, I met another friend, Estelle, at a brewery and had a nice chat. I got a flight, and really liked all the beers I tried.

The next morning, dad said he’d probably had a heart attack while Aaron and I were running errands, but he didn’t call 911 because “it would scare D14.” More likely, he just didn’t want to go to the hospital.

Sunday

Sunday M12 left for his week-long Boy Scout Camp.

I worked during the day. In the evening, I had a another date with a friend. This was someone I met on the app Bumble BFF. I started chatting with people one day when I was stuck somewhere with my phone. This person and I got along well. She wanted to meet up, so we made plans for dinner.

On the day of, I messaged to see if we were still meeting, and she didn’t answer. I was worried that if I skipped, she would go and I would stand her up. So I drove a half hour to have sushi alone. About a half hour after she was supposed to meet me, she messaged with the excuse that she only got 5 hours of sleep, and then spent the day doing things around the house with her boyfriend. (She only said sorry for not meeting me, not that she didn’t tell me she wasn’t coming.) Then she changed the topic. When I didn’t answer, a few hours later she said sorry (again, no mention that she could have told me she wasn’t coming), but her legs really hurt, and she wouldn’t have been good company. Could we meet up during the week?

So I answered and told her that I was annoyed that she didn’t tell me she wasn’t coming, and that wasting people’s time is really rude.

Aaron went out with his good friend Genevive for dinner. She was in town for a convention.

Monday

Monday I took it easy. IL5 had swim lessons. I was thinking of taking him to ride his bike somewhere, but it was supposed to rain (it didn’t). Anyway, I was tired from not sleeping well. So we relaxed except for some minor housework.

Tuesday

Tuesday was productive. It started with a virtual appointment for D14. Then Aaron and I cleaned the garage. He took the day off especially. It would have taken me (alone) 5 hours to clean that garage, instead of about 2.5 hours with Aaron. It was quite the workout, and I didn’t feel like cooking afterwards, so we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. After that, Aaron and I watched a couple episodes of Supernatural.

Wednesday

Wednesday D14 had a virtual appointment. Then I rested during most of the day. D14, Aaron, dad and I had lunch together. Dad and I took the old garage chemicals and some old computers to the county recycling center, and ran a couple other errands. I cooked shrimp for dinner. 

Thursday

Thursday IL5 had an appointment. I was feeling very fatigued and thought maybe I was sick, so I called into my day job. I got some reading done.

Friday

Friday I still wasn’t feeling well, but it was clearly a mental health thing and not a virus, so I went ahead with my day. Not that I had much choice for some of it.

First, I took IL5 to a playdate with his friends at a splash pad. They had a lot of fun. D14 made some chocolate chip cookies while we were gone. Then I left and picked up M12 from Boy Scout camp. We had a pleasant ride home.

When I got home I was exhausted from my tumultuous mental health that day, and struggled to stay awake while I was putting IL5 to bed.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Maryland
• One letter Michigan

Reading to myself

• Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Alan Turing: The Enigma
• Mr Ballen podcast

Reading to IL5

• Robo Rabbit Boy Go, by Thomas Flintham
• Super King Viking Land, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas

News

Saturday

Saturday Aaron and I had D&D, then I watched a couple hours of Monk with D14. I had been going to take her to an amusement park, but they were under 14 feet of water (but still open). We went out to Olive Garden, then I became super tired (sleeping disorder) and just lay on the couch. I couldn’t even read to IL5 before bed, but he didn’t think to ask. Maybe he saw I was tired. He was actually very good at bedtime.

Sunday

Sunday I worked in the afternoon. Then we had family day and watched Resident Alien.

Monday

Monday, Aaron’s sister Kate was in town, so the kids and I went bowling with her family. IL5 really enjoyed learning to bowl. The older kids enjoyed seeing their cousins. In the evening, we went out to a “gaming restaurant” which had pinball machines and arcade games. It was a fun time.

Tuesday

Tuesday, D14 had a virtual appointment, then I went to work. In the evening, my friend Liz was over and we watched Inception with dad and the kids. Aaron was at a Twins game with his sister Kate.

Wednesday

Wednesday started with an appointment for D14. Then I had lunch with dad and ran errands. Feeling super tired, I took a nap with four cats. In the evening, Aaron grilled.

Thursday

On Independence Day it was raining. I cleaned some rooms (avoiding IL5’s room because it’s overwhelming). The family played M12’s game The Goonies: Never Say Die. The rules made it seem scarier than it was. It was fairly easy and fun. It’s a progressive game, with 5 sessions. In the evening, Aaron and I watched Supernatural. We’re on season 15. That’s only taken 6.5 years.

Friday

Friday I took IL5 to his speech therapy and then we went to the pool with M12. They really enjoyed themselves, but M12 wanted to leave before IL5 was ready. After dinner, I read to D14.

Letters Written

• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Maryland

Reading to myself

• The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
• Behave, by Robery Sapolsky
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
• The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy vs Super Rabbit Boss, by Thomas Flintham
• Super Rabbit Boy World, by Thomas Flintham
• Llama Destroys the World, by Jonathan Stutzman
• Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse, by Jonathan Stutzman
• Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos, by Jonathan Stutzman

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Mass

Media Completed

Dom Cobb is recruited to introduce an idea into someone’s head. This movie was mind-bending and a bit confusing.

Games Played

Cross-stitch

News

Saturday

Saturday was another relaxing day. Aaron took the Toyota in for a recall – now our front bumber won’t fall off. I got some reading done, both to IL5 and myself. We went out to Red Lobster.

About halfway through the day, my headache got worse despite my increased intake of tea. So I ran a Google search and found out my tea doesn’t have caffeine. That would explain the withdrawal. So I drank soda the rest of the day, and ordered some appropriate tea. I also found some sweetener-free water flavor to disguise the taste of our tap water.

Sunday

Sunday I worked my day job. I got a couple of letters written. Aaron cooked chili. Dad went on a walk and got super tired – he came back tilting to the side and lurching. We started setup for M12’s new board game, but 45 minutes in to setup, it seemed obvious that setup was only half over, and it was getting close to IL5’s bedtime, so we put it away with expectation that it would be easier to set up now that we’d done it once.

Monday

Monday IL5 woke up at 5am. I tried to keep him in bed, but he got up not too much later. I did some cooking for the week and did dad’s laundry, then I took IL5 to swim lessons in the late morning. We were going to go to the big pool with M12 after I dried out IL5’s swim suit. But he fell asleep. So instead I just bumbled around the house getting stuff done, read, and got sucked into the black hole that is Grey’s Anatomy. (D14 is on season 6.) I should have ridden the Peloton bike while IL5 was asleep, but I got pinned by Puck, and that seemed a good reason to watch Grey’s Anatomy. In the evening, I cooked the family chicken, and I ate a salad. Then I read to D14.

Tuesday

Tuesday I ran errands and took my dad to lunch. In the early evening, I had a 4 hour training for my work. I had been dreading it for over a month because my ADHD makes such meetings torture. It was better than my last training, at least – they didn’t give breaks last time. Aaron dropped M11 off at his baseball game (they lost), then took IL5 to his t-ball game.

Wednesday

Wednesday was an unproductive day for me. My brain was still recovering from the 4 hour work meeting, so it was hard finding motivation. I had lunch with Aaron, then took the kittens to the vet for vaccinations.

In the evening, I got a call from my dad’s cousin Joanne. She had been trying to call my aunt Anne (who doesn’t have a phone any more), and finally called my aunt Virginia, who told her to call me. We talked for about an hour, and then I gave her my cousin Bob’s phone number, because Anne lives with him.

M12 played D&D instead of going to his playoff game for baseball. I let him do that, since it’s only his second D&D game. But his team lost, so there’s no more left of the season. His DM thanked me afterwards for adding M12 to his game, since he’s a really good fit.

On a side note, I have interesting news. Polyphemus, my 1yo cat, used to literally stalk Hero, my older cat. Hero found it really stressful. Polyphemus has stopped doing it now that he can stalk the kittens, who love being stalked. So Hero is better off with the kittens here. And my dad likes them, and they get along with Loki. And they’re cute. So maybe 5 cats aren’t so bad.

Thursday

Thursday was a calm day. I went to my day job pretty quickly after my night job. Work was a little less relaxing than it usually was, but I made it through. In the evening, it was raining for IL5’s last t-ball game, so Aaron didn’t take him. Instead, Aaron, M12, and I played a game of Magic. Then I went to my night job early because a coworker had a family emergency. My client at my night job was already in bed, so I just sat and read a book, then went to sleep early (making me wake up early, so oh well – at least I know I got enough sleep? I could have used that extra hour on Wednesday night…)

I had time Thursday to partially estimate the cost of the 10th anniversary road trip Aaron and I were going to save up for. But, as usual, I planned too big. Just looking at hotel costs and car rental added up to a fortune. It was a bummer because the trip would have been a lot of fun. We’ll have to just save up a reasonable amount of money and decide at that time what we’ll do for the anniversary.

Friday

Friday, I took IL5 to an appointment and then to a playdate. He was excited about the playdate, then wouldn’t play with his friends, then asked for another playdate immediately upon getting home. In the evening, we went out to eat (I tried a black bean burger, it wasn’t particularly tasty). IL5 volunteered to go to bed an hour early, which was nice. 

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Maine
• One letter Oklahoma
• One letter Pennsylvania

Reading to myself

• Mr Ballen Podcast
• Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
• The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, by Dungeons and Dragons
• The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordon

Reading to IL5

• Press Start: Super Game Book! by Thomas Flintham
• Looniverse: Stranger Things, by David Lubar
• Super Cheat Codes and Secret Modes, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Mass
• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her.)

Media Completed

Madame Bovary learns that men suck, and she’s terrible at finances. Yup, that’s what this book is about. I was disappointed, because I had expected a story of a strong woman who took control of her sexuality, but nope. However, the book was well-written and was more pleasing to me than Anna Karenina because all of the characters in Madame Bovary were more likable than all but one character of Anna Karenina.

Ed finds a coin that makes everything stranger than before. This is a cute little book about self discovery that is about second grade reading level.

Classic scientific literature about genes/evolution.

I didn’t like this book. It wasn’t what I expected. I DID expect Dawkins to come off as pompous about religion (expectations met), but he was just generally pompous. He had numerous humble-brag footnotes. Like, for instance, one rather long one was in the meme chapter. Apparently, he made a mistake in his first edition of Selfish Gene‘s bibliography that was also made in Edward O Wilson’s book Sociobiology, which came out slightly before Selfish Gene. Gasp! Did he adopt an error from someone else’s book? Oh, horror of horrors! But, (sigh of relief), the mistake was also in a bibliography he had handed out to his class before Sociobiology was published. Really? We needed a commentary which put him above being humanly influenced by memes?  Just fix the mistake and stick to your point – which is that humans are influenced by memes. (I may have over-emphasized the emotion he put into that footnote, but not by a lot. He made it known how mortified he was at the idea of picking up a mistake from another author.)

I also felt this book rambled a lot about things that were not biological. Like a whole chapter on chess programs. I mean, I understood that Dawkins was trying to explain a concept by using a similar concept in another field, but if it takes a whole chapter to explain the other field’s concept, then it’s not a good example. That amount of time should have been spent talking about the field of evolutionary genetics with simple examples that are easy to relate.

Finally, (and this is my problem, not a problem with the book), I was confused at first by some of the statements he made because they were in contrast to what I had learned in college 20+ years ago. Then, he started repeatedly saying that he didn’t agree with Stephen J Gould’s theories, and I realized that’s the disconnect. It’s not that I didn’t understand what Dawkins was saying, it was that I had learned from Stephen J Gould’s theories in college (in fact, some of his essays were required reading).

Ummm. So. This is a classic that I feel I should have read with my interest in biology, but not one I enjoyed reading (except maybe for the differing theories, which were interesting).

Weight loss

I didn’t lose any weight this first month without Ozempic. But I learned some things about effectively restricting calories. First, I need to program in a little extra deficit each day to allow for cheat days when I go out to eat or feel very hungry. Otherwise the diet isn’t maintainable. Second, I need to eat when I am hungry before I get very hungry, because once I get very hungry I cheat big instead of only a little. It’s better to eat a few extra calories that can be soaked up by my planned deficit than to just pig out because I tried too hard to wait until lunch-time.

News

Saturday

Saturday IL5 and I went to The Big Bounce. He was so excited. He spent about 15-20 minutes in each of the bouncy houses, loving every one. There was a huge slide that was an effort to climb up, and he went down about 5 times. I had to come up with him to put him in the burlap sack, and to drag him out of the way at the bottom – so no rest for me. It started raining about a half hour in, and we stayed a little over an hour.

After that was Aaron and my D&D session. It was a lot of fun. I also got cross-stitch done while playing. So, bonus! I’m slow at it, but it’s still coming along.

Then, Aaron and I went to a Mexican restaurant for a date. We also went to Barnes and Nobel, for some extra spicy fun. We’re very wild.

IL5 fell asleep on the couch in the late evening, and we switched him to his bed. Usually, Aaron or I sleep with him in his room, because he says he’s afraid to sleep alone. So I got to sleep in the big bed for the first time in months (I sleep on a couch while at work 4 days a week, and share a twin with IL5 the other 3). We managed to convince him sleeping alone was a good thing on Sunday morning, though I doubt he’ll volunteer for it any time soon. The plan is to start leaving the room when he falls asleep, but Aaron generally falls asleep before him, and doesn’t wake afterwards. I think we need a united front on that plan, so I haven’t been leaving him either.

Sunday

On Sunday, I worked for a while. Afterwards, Aaron, the kids, and I lost a game of Pandemic. We had been going to win the game on the next turn, so it was disappointing. Then we ate a steak dinner, and watched a few episodes of Resident Alien. The kittens slept in the bedroom with me and IL5, and Freyja licked my face all night, making it difficult to sleep. But it was cute, I suppose.

Monday

Monday IL5 had swim lessons. I tried to go to the library afterwards, but IL5 wasn’t in the mood. He generally loves the library, so I decided not to force it. I cooked some Jambalaya for Aaron and my lunches for the week, I did dad’s laundry and scrubbed the bathroom floors. Then I cooked BBQ chicken for dinner. M12 had Boy Scouts – he finished the requirements to rank up to second class. The kittens were out upstairs all day without incident, so in the evening, we opened the basement door and let them roam free.

Tuesday

Tuesday I got a speeding ticket on my way home from work. I always speed up too high when I get on a road because I have a heavy foot. When I notice I’m going too fast, I slow down. The officer caught me right after I started slowing down. But he decreased the speed on the ticket so it wouldn’t hit my insurance, which was nice.

Then I took dad to a doctor appointment, followed by lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Their calorie contents are really high! I finally just scanned through the menu for the lowest calorie item and ordered it. And I was still really hungry by the end of the day because I didn’t get enough volume of food.

In the afternoon, I crunched numbers to see how many bags of manure I needed to buy for the grass-seeding project in our back yard. The answer was 34 40-pound bags, mixed 1:3 with dirt. This sounds like a huge project. I didn’t realize how big it was. But D14 says she’ll help me mix the soil for a “reward.” She means tablet time, but maybe I’ll pay her a bit, too. Kind of a little of both, since it’ll be hard work.

In the evening I had a bit of an anxiety attack because the boys’ baseball organization decided to have games despite the tornado watch. I realized that tornado watches usually result in no tornado, but it still bothered me that they were making the choice to have games when the watch was specifically there to tell people to stay near shelters. It really pissed me off. Aaron thought maybe my anxiety was making it seem worse than it actually was, so I was going to at least send M12 to his game (as I thought he’d be the one who would be disappointed to not go). But when I jokingly suggested we sacrifice M12 to the tornado and keep IL5 home, M12 let us know that he’d rather sacrifice IL5 to the tornado. Apparently going out in a tornado watch wasn’t worth it to him. In his words “I don’t like tornadoes.”

In the evening I sort of sat and read my book while the kids distracted me with various antics. But I finished, so apparently progress was made on the book.

Wednesday

Wednesday I started a roast in the morning. M12 had an appointment, and we got his updated goal weight (he needs to gain another 5 pounds). We also decided to try a meal plan written on the calendar to ensure some variety over the summer. We’ll see if it works.

Aaron made tacos for lunch, then I took IL5 to his opthalmologist appointment. I had to bribe him with a new stuffie to cooperate, and felt I was being manipulated. Because he could have cooperated without the stuffie and he refused – he just started struggling and saying “no, no, no.” Saying he was afraid, which obviously he wasn’t, given how easily he cooperated after I bribed him.

After that, I took D14 and M11 to choose shoes. They both had their toes right up to the ends of their old shoes, and claimed they “fit fine.” M11 had holes in his soles.

I contemplated starting some lifestyle changes to help myself not get dementia when I am older. Those would include becoming an egg-and-dairy-eating pescatarian, except on special occasions like Thanksgiving, changing from soda to tea (to get rid of the artificial sweetener), and exercising more. The exercising more goal I’ve been working on for over a year, so we’ll see. Maybe not getting dementia is a better motivator? One of my biggest fears (second only to losing a child) is rotting away in a memory care unit with no visitors. Which is probably inevitable. But I can try, I guess.

In the evening, I read to D14.

Thursday

Thursday, M12 and my dad took a bus to Perkins while I went to work. In the evening, I took M12 to his baseball game (he made good contact with the ball).

Friday

Friday, IL5 had speech therapy. Then we relaxed at home the rest of the day. I had been planning on taking him to the park, but it was raining. Likewise, the library was out because their parking lot is closed and you have to walk down the street – sitting in the library wet didn’t seem appealing.

M12 packed for his BSA camp, but then I found out through a string of circumstances that I accidentally didn’t sign him up for camp. I’m not sure how that happened, as I thought I had signed him up for the whole year. I asked if he could go, anyway, and waited impatiently for a reply. In the meantime, I found a fun activity to do on Saturday if he couldn’t go.

In the early evening, we were getting ready to play a board game, when a last minute reply came back saying someone had backed out, and Malcolm could come. So off he went.

At about 8, I started feeling super cold, headachy, body achy and really tired. I put on two pairs of pants, a hoodie covering a sweatshirt, and a blanket. I was still cold. I thought maybe I was sick. But I had a long bedtime process left for IL5 and some paperwork to fill out for M12’s camp. So I sucked it up.

The next morning I felt better, except for a residual headache, and I realized that maybe my problem was that I had switched from 6-8 diet sodas a day to about 4 cups of tea. I thought the tea would replace the caffeine without including so much aspartame. (Aspartame intake is a risk factor in dementia, and I’m trying to decrease my chances of getting Alzheimer’s when I’m older.) So I drank one diet soda, and my headache went away. I’ll continue with tea for the rest of the day and see how I feel.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Texas

Reading to myself

• Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett
• Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull
• Mr Ballen podcast
• The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth, by Thomas Morris
• The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
• Madam Bovary, by Gustav Flaubert
• Bible

Reading to IL5

• How to Merit in Monsters, by Matthew Cody
• Super King Viking Land, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas
• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her.)

Media Completed

At summer camp “Troop Dweeb” think they are losers – bottom of the barrel. Things change when they discover monsters. This is a cute book with advanced second or early third grade reading level. It was fun.

In this first book of the sequel series to Fablehaven, Seth and Kendra must go to a dragon sanctuary and try to appease angry dragons. I liked it, though not as much as the later books in the Fablehaven series. A lot of it was set-up for the following books, though there was some action, too. I’m excited to read the rest of the series.

Death is retired for growing a personality. Chaos ensues. Funny, though not my favorite Discworld book.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday we relaxed at the campground for the first and last parts of the day, with a short hike in the middle.

Sunday

Sunday we headed back home from the campground. In the afternoon, D14, M11, and I went to The Big Bounce, with the world’s largest bounce house. They bounced for about one hour, and got tired. Then I dropped M11 off for his weeklong visit with his mom. D14, Aaron, and I watched the first episode of His Dark Materials.

Monday

Monday after some errands with IL5, I made some sausage and potato stew for our lunches this week. The kittens were in IL5’s room for the day, which meant he wanted to spend a lot of time in his room, but I didn’t want him in there alone because he’d let them out and then we’d have to hunt them down. It was a balance between me getting stuff done, and sitting in the room with him. But at least he enjoyed the kittens. Maybe I should bring them up more often. IL5 had swim lessons in the late morning. D14 started summer school at the high school.

Tuesday

Tuesday I worked my day job. My client was very spunky. In the evening, I took IL5 to t-ball. He did a great job. He was on task the whole time and even stopped a ball that rolled his direction.

Wednesday

Wednesday I had a maintenance on the car, followed by a session 0 D&D session for M12’s new game. His Tuesday game collapsed, so I searched for another game for him and found this Pokemon D&D session. D14 went on a field trip to Feed My Starving Children, and really enjoyed herself.

In the afternoon, I had a dentist appointment (no concerns). Then I spent a few hours putting away laundry and cleaning the livingroom. I have now completed deep cleans of our bedroom, IL5’s room, and the livingroom. I will now focus my spare time on preparing manure/soil for seeding the bare spots from stump removal. We’re also seeding a couple of spots that we removed rocks or a sub-par fire ring from.

M12 had his new D&D session in the evening, and really enjoyed it.

Thursday

Thursday I worked my day job. I found an exercise routine that I can split up into 5 minute chunks here and there, and mostly completed it. I generally hate online exercise routines because they make my knees groan. My knees literally make noises, and I worry that the exercises are harmful rather than helpful. But these exercises were from the Mayo Clinic, and they were very gentle on my knees.

I realize I’m supposed to get some certain number of continuous aerobic exercise daily, but I’ve been trying to work up to that. My bariatric physical therapist wanted two half hour chunks of time, and this was at a time when I had a lot of appointments to take the kids to, so I only managed that amount at about 3 times a week, and she expressed disappointment in me and told me I just wasn’t prioritizing exercise, which is true…but isn’t my kids’ health more important? I deserved a “good job, now try to increase it to daily” instead of “you aren’t being good enough.” That put a bad taste in my mouth about exercise that has lasted over a year now. I’m trying to get over it, but I’m making slow progress.

Anyway, if I do those exercises on days I have work (because I can do it in small chunks while at my day job) or days I’m watching IL5 (because I can’t go downstairs to the exercise bike while watching him), and then do the exercise bike on the other two days, I’ll actually be exercising daily. It’s worth a try.

IL5 had t-ball in the evening. While Aaron and he were doing that, D14 and I played Ticket to Ride. Then I read to her.

Friday

Friday IL5, D14, and I went to Perkins for breakfast. Then D14, IL5, and I went to the pool. IL5 did a great job moving in chest deep water, and I think it’s helping him learn to kick and move independently, instead of being held by the coach, like he is in swim lessons. We’ll go to the pool as much as we can this summer.

After the pool, I got McDonald’s for IL5, and a one pound cookie for D14, Aaron, and dad. I relaxed at home later, as I try to do on Fridays and Saturdays.

I had been planning on going to Olive Garden on Sunday, as I promised IL5, but realized that Sunday was Father’s Day, and I didn’t want to fight the crowd, so we went with dad, IL5, me, and Aaron. It was beyond my calorie budget, but I was already ahead from last week, and subtracted a few calories on my planned meals for the next week’s plan – which seems doable given last week’s experience. I’m only trying to lose half a pound a week.

Letters Written

• One letter New York
• One letter Louisiana
• One letter Virginia
• One letter Maryland

Reading to myself

• Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull
• The Book of Dragons, ed. Jonathan Strahan
• Mr Ballen Podcast
• Poor Things, by Alasdair Gray
• The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
• Bible
• The Mystery of Exploding Teeth, by Thomas Morris
• Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett

Reading to IL5

• Bok Bok Boom, by Cyndi Marko
• Super Rabbit Racers, by Thomas Flintham
• Super Cheat Codes and Secret Modes, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her)
• The Storm Crow, by Kalyn Josephson

Media Completed

Max McCandles falls in love with a beautiful young woman who has been brought back from death through brain transplant. But the lady, Bella, must learn what it is to be human. This was a fascinating book that held me to the end. It is “literary” in nature, but not so much that a fluff-reader would be turned off.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday M12 went to an 8 hour party. That mom must be a saint – putting up with 6 middle schoolers for 8 hours. He really enjoyed himself, though. Aaron and I played D&D in the afternoon. In the evening, M12 and Aaron went to his birthday surprise (a virtual reality cafe).

Sunday

Sunday I worked my day job – it was a calm workday. D14 had her D&D session in the afternoon. In the evening, M12 and I had his birthday D&D session. M12’s character insisted I was the bad guy, and refused to fight with me. But I guess if that’s the way he wants to play, it was HIS birthday activity.

Monday

Monday, Aaron, IL5, and I awoke early and drove both cars to the mechanic. Then I drove Aaron to work and went to Perkins with dad and IL5. Then dad grabbed a bus to the Mall of America and I took IL5 to the library. He was REALLY excited about the books I got out, so instead of hanging out in the library, we went directly home to read both books immediately. That felt good.

About this time, the mechanic called to say that they didn’t have the parts they needed for the car – they’d ordered it, but the package that arrived was missing some parts. This mechanic has been helpful in the past, so I wasn’t angry.

Then, I worked on my spring cleaning of the livingroom. (The house hasn’t had a good deep clean, clutter removal, since maybe September, when D14, dad, IL5, and I all had major health issues for several months, and my days were packed with 2-3 appointments a day.) I’ve finished my bedroom and IL5’s room (which got messy again), and started with the livingroom. I also did dad’s laundry….so I was productive.

After dropping IL5 at school at 1:20, I picked up Aaron at work, and we went to pick up the car at the mechanic. Then I ran errands.

M12 watched his documentary on the US (he’s into history now). D14 chatted about her field day. When IL5 got home, he wanted to get out a large toy, and I said he had to clean his room first. So he moved the blanket, pillow, and bedroll that we sleep on because he won’t sleep alone in his room yet (we’re working in that.) He put the blanket and pillow on his bed, and dragged the gigantic bedroll into our room. Then he told me his roon was clean. I thought it was a good effort, even if it wasn’t what I was looking for, so I helped him clean the toys off his floor and vaccumed the room. Then I brought out his castle toy.

Shortly after that ordeal, he wanted to play in his sandbox outside, so I got him dressed in his swim suit for lessons, then we went out and played. At swim lessons, I dropped my phone and broke the screen. I chose not to be pissed off and to be excited about buying a phone with a longer-acting battery. I mean, I’m a little pissed at myself. But it was an accident, and I do my best.

After swim lessons, IL5 wanted more time in the sandbox, so Aaron and I weeded while IL5 played in the sandbox for an hour. Then I was done with the day, so I did the minimum for a couple of hours before going to my night job.

Tuesday

Tuesday, after arriving home from my overnight job, I immediately took dad to his doctor appointment. I then ran errands and did some yardwork (slowly preparing some spots for seeding grass in the fall). I was going to remove a shrub stump – I’d cut it down to a nub in early spring, but it has since become a leafy shrub again, so I have to cut it down again before I remove it. Disgusted, I went in the house and amused myself in other ways for my last free half hour.

I picked up IL5 from his water day at school and took him to an appointment. Upon getting home, I hit my productivity limit for the day and, besides making dinner, I was unproductive until I left for my night job. D14 and I watched the first two episodes of Monk and IL5 slept all evening.

Wednesday

Wednesday I took Sake and Freyja to their first vet appointment. They were both negative for feline leukemia and heartworm. Sake is female and Freyja is male. I ran errands after that. And that was pretty much my day. Again, I crashed in productivity towards the end. It was the kids’ last day of school. D14 is now a highschooler and IL5 is a kindergartener. I harvested IL5’s carrots

Thursday

Thursday I worked my day job. On my way home, I picked up IL5 at daycare. At that time, dad texted to ask if I could take him to the ER. He thought he had a broken rib. The day before, he’d been standing on the bus waiting for the bus to stop, when the driver slammed on the brakes and dad went flying forward into the windshield. He hadn’t told me the fall was that bad, or I’d have taken him in right away. After an X-ray, a CT scan, and 5.5 hours in the ER, he was diagnosed with a broken rib.

I missed IL5’s daycare graduation, for which he wore a cap and gown, but Aaron made it. M12 also hit a pitch in baseball, which he was proud of.

Friday

Friday after speech therapy, the family went to Olive Garden for lunch, then Aaron, IL5, and I went camping. It was a relaxing evening…with a little “officer – bad guy” and IL5 calling mommy’s phone, saying he was the mailman. About midnight, I left the tent and sat in a chair, but hid in the tent in fear when a large animal (deer?) started snuffling around several feet from me. I couldn’t tell what it was without my glasses, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a bear. But I’ve never heard a deer snuffle.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Pennsylvania
• One Letter Maryland

Reading to myself

• Dragonwatch, by Brandon Mull
• The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth by Thomas Morris
• Poor Things, by Alasdair Gray

Reading to IL5

• Let’s Get Cracking, by Cyndi Marko
• Super Rabbit Boy Blasts Off, by Thomas Flintham
• Heroes on the Side, by Cyndi Marko
• The Birdy-Snatchers, by Cyndi Marko

D14 reading

• The Storm Crow, by Kalyn Joseohson
• Exile, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her)

Media Completed

My 5 year old loved the first book of this series so much that he wanted to rush into getting the next ones. I still haven’t gotten the second book, but this is the third. Kung Pow Chicken and Egg Drop fight zombies. Very cute.

In this fourth installment, Kung Pow Chicken and Egg Drop fight baddies in New Yolk City. Cute.

Sophie’s adventures in the lost cities continue as she is given the job of taking care of an alicorn and helping Alden on an errand. But she has to deal with the black swan. I liked this book better than the first in the series, which was weak on plot. Not that this plot was deep…but it existed.

Kung Pow Chicken and Egg Drop face Dr Screech when he chickennaps an opera singer. My 5-year-old is loving these books.

Kung Pow Chicken and Egg Drop fight Dr Strangebok as she kidnaps dinosaurs. Cute book.