News

Saturday

Saturday was a hard day. It started out with an oh, $*** moment when I looked at my schedule for the day. I’d had trouble the day before focusing on tasks, but I wanted nothing to do with my schedule on Saturday.

I woke D13 for her all day dress rehearsal, and then headed off to help with the costume preparation for M10’s musical show. I had to come home early, though, because I was so tired I felt like I was going to faint. Then, I kept falling asleep during D&D, and finally bailed on the game. I say “finally,” but I only made it about a half hour in. It was a hard day to miss, because we almost lost two characters, which may not have happened if I was there.

After that, dad, Aaron, and I tried out a new restaurant – and it was fantastic. Then D13, Aaron, and I watched a couple episodes of X-files.

Sunday

Sunday I had a bookclub bruch with my friends Liz and Estelle.Then Aaron and I cleared out the room in the basement that has flooding. Afterwards, Aaron, D13, and M10 went to the new Dungeons and Dragons movie.

Monday

Monday we had the asbestos tiles removed from the basement room that has flooding. While that was going on, I ran to the pharmacy to pick up four free COVID tests before insurance stopped paying. I should be able to get them next month, too. Afterwards, IL4 and I poured baking soda in a shot glass of vinegar. D13 had a dress rehearsal for her upcoming play.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a day of delicious nonproductivity. Instead of trying to get everything done that I could, I planned summer (trying to figure out if I’d saved enough money to have fun with the kids – and I have!) Then, I went to the classy new pizzaria and walked a mile each way from there to Joann Fabrics to buy some floss and aida fabric. D13 says she’ll learn to cross-stitch with me. I have a little kit picked out for her to start on, and I’m doing a Baby Groot.

Wednesday

Wednesday was my scheduled day of rest (yes, I rested Tuesday, too. So what?) I took IL4 for an eye appointment – apparently his eyes are 20/30, so, slight prescription, but not enough that they want him to wear glasses.

Then I played D&D. It’s my first in-story day for a full moon, and I’m curious if I’ll get to privacy before I turn into a were-leopard. But it was 2pm (in-story) when we stopped, so I won’t find out till next week.

After that M10 and I went to the Mario movie.

Thursday

Thursday I meant to be a big productivity day. I had plans. Big plans. Great plans. But instead I ate lunch with Aaron. (I mean, I needed to bring him his forgotten phone, right? That was necessary?) Then I took a nap. At least I ran some errands first. A new productivity week starts Saturday. D13 had her opening night of her play, and Aaron and M10 attended.

Friday

Despite the endless potty jokes (dad says I was cleaning the $*** out of IL4, bowel evacuation day went poorly. I tried giving IL4 a quarter-square of exlax, to no avail. He was absolutely not convinced it was chocolate. He did put it in his mouth and pretended to chew when I tried bribing him.

Next, I tried powdering it in the pill crusher and poured it in some chocolate milk, but it just formed a sediment. So I bought an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen – that was me going through the drive through the minute DQ opened – and sprinkled the crushed exlax on the top. He licked around the sprinkles and made the icecream teeter over because he was licking from the bottom.

I decided maybe I’d gotten some into him. Maybe? So I started the 4 capfulls of Miralax. I was supposed to put it in Gatorade, but he doesn’t drink Gatorade, and I decided after the Exlax fiasco, I’d stick to nice familiar apple juice. Not a perfect solution, but whatever.

At this point, my online productivity accountability group made me feel so much better with this conversation:

Me: I’m about to give him 4 caps of Miralax.

George: I hope the 4 cups of Miralax goes better.

Me: OMG! 4 caps! 4 cups would be a $***-ton.

George: Just how much is a $***-ton?

Alex: I believe it’s slightly less than a metric $***-tonne.

Anyway, the evacuation was not complete at the end of the day, so we’ll have to try again Monday. I was happy to go to work at the end of that day.

Week’s Photos

Reading to IL4

• Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox
• Tiny T-Rex and the Very Dark Dark, by Jonathan Stutzman & Jay Fleck
• Superfly, the World’s Smallest Superhero, by Todd H Doodler
• Pugicorn, by Matilda Rose & Tim Budgen
• The Adventures of Caveboy, by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen & Eric Wight
• Press Start: Game Over, Super Rabbit Boy, by Thomas Flintham

M10 reading

• School of Fear, by Gitty Daneshvari

D13 reading

• The Thing About Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin
• Exile, by Shannon Messenger

Wrote

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

Media Completed

Posts

• Esmeralda’s Journal 22.2.6828
• Dona Esmeralda Who Ate Everything!, By Melissa de la Cruz & Primo Gallanosa

You know all that food that kids don’t like eating? Well Dona Esmeralda, the tiny woman with a huge bouffant, gobbles it all up. Until she discovers that there exists food that kids actually do like. What do you think happens then? This is a cute, silly book that my 4 year old likes.

22.2.6828

Today was a productive day. It was my first full day in the city of Bad Luck. I was at the inn run by Outreach Guild – you can’t get jobs around here without being a guild member. I was questioning innkeeper Jills about how to join the guild (there’s a challenge on 27.2 that gets a first-level membership) when suddenly a couple of metal monsters crash into the inn.

I, Aqua Aqua (the innkeeper’s partner) and a bunch of non-guild members – Thibedoux (Tabaxi), Ozymandias (Dhampir), Avet (???), And Caspian (human) – attacked the two metal things. Ozy has an interesting spider gadget that can crawl around and attacks monsters, too. We were victorious in vanquishing the creatures with the help of several spells including one that paralyzed them momentarily and another that grew a thorn barrier between them and us.

Jills explained to us that these attacks have been occurring for 3 days and asked us to question the other patrons of the inn to see if we could find out what was going on. I was unfortunately a bit distracted (my scimitar needed sharpening) so I missed this explanation, but I eventually caught on to what the line of questioning was about.

I questioned Le’ Nalo, Bounty Hunter of the Primal Evils and his companion Swivel. But since I didn’t know what I was supposed to be questioning them about, I just asked if they were looking for a monster-hunting companion. They were jerks.

I then questioned Lia, a woman who, like me, is interested in books. One particular book, in her case. She had taken an arcane book of rituals and was now being chased by machine monsters. Thibedoux (who had helped me question her) and I went to tell Jills, who was quite miffed that Lia hadn’t given this information.

Suddenly, our conversation was interrupted by a clamor in the other room. When Thibedoux and I rushed in, there was a monster in Lia’s place (apparently she’d attempted a ritual, as I discovered later). It was a hideous plant that was viciously attacking the other newly-fledged members. We rushed into action, and a few of us were injured as we defeated yet another monster in one day. I was severely pissed that Aqua Aqua didn’t join in this fight.

Afterwards Jills gave each of us non-members a rank 1 membership in the guild (though I’d still like to participate in the challenge). I went exploring the inn, and discovered a tall woman named Lyra in the garden. I went to buy her a tea and invited Avet to join us. He seems like a trustworthy guy, and I need one of those.

We chatted about the garden and medicine and a gigantic rat problem in a nearby tavern. Avet said nothing at all, but that’s ok. He’s the quiet type. All the better.

The other new guild members and I checked out the quest board and picked out a couple that looked doable. One was to try out some “new remedies” as healthy test subjects. The other to fix the giant rat problem Lyra had told me about.

It turned out Lyra was the person who wanted test subjects. She gave us each a “remedy” it was this weird sparkly color, and I decided not to try it. Ozy’s turned him into a sheep and he also took mine, so he started floating away, baaing like mad. Avet’s did nothing.

After Ozy turned human again, we all took rooms and settled in for the night.

News

Saturday

Saturday I was still feeling pretty burnt out. But I went to Hamilton with D13, and that was a lot of fun.

Sunday

Easter was a beautiful day at first. After getting off work at 8am, I went to church with dad. Then we had my friend Liz, her brother Ben, and her nephew L8 come over to hunt for eggs and play. Aaron helped me cook dinner. I cooked vegetables/sausage/potatoes mix (made them too spicy) & the corn casserole. Aaron cooked the ham and the mashed potatoes. Then we watched Notting Hill.

Monday

Monday started with an appointment for M10. After that, dad, IL4, and I walked to the park. The trip was crazy intense. I forgot how dad is on trips like that. First, I broke the stroller trying to adjust for a bigger child. We took him in the wagon. But the nut was missing on the wagon, and IL4 pulled out the bolt, and dad screamed at IL4 about it. Then, I assembled the kite wrong, so I had to jerry-rig it. By the time that had happened, the wind had dissipated.

We went to the playground, but IL4 ran off because he wanted to go to the gas station. I dropped the kite and chased after him, catching him just before the busy street. I took him to the gas station and got him a sprite, but he also wanted a candy bar and was difficult to get away.

Then dad walked to the hardware store and bought a nut, but he stabbed himself really deeply trying to get it put together, swear-yelling in front of all the kids in the playground.

IL4 then peed behind a tree (with my permission), and after hanging out for a while, we left. I had taken 4 books from the little free library, but lost two on the walk home.

Later we went to Outback in order to get an extra steak for M10’s feeding therapy appointment the next day.

Tuesday

Tuesday started out with M10’s appointment being cancelled – so now I have an extra steak lying around. It won’t last two weeks, so we’ll have to go get another steak then. Yes, I COULD cook one, but I figured I was better off making sure it’s a well-cooked steak rather than my rather amateur attempts. D13 had an appointment, and after that, I took a nice long nap. I’m burnt out from these 60 hour work weeks.

Wednesday

Wednesday I spent the day rushing around in an unstructured manner. I got to play D&D, but in a distracted sort of way, as I was multitasking. Then I went to work.

Thursday

Thursday D13 had 2 appointments, so we spent the whole day together – having lunch with her dad and running some errands. We all played family D&D in the evening.

Friday

Friday started with a GI appointment for IL4. The doctor decided that IL4 had a classic case of fecal impaction, where he’s so constipated that a rock solid stool has collected in his gut, leading to all the GI problems, stool withholding,  and lack of appetite. She says it’ll take months of household poop obsession to clear him out and get him pooping normally. Yay. I’ll find out more about what that entails when I get my detailed instructions. Later, he had speech therapy. Then we went to the park and had icecream after some running around.

In the evening Aaron grilled, and then D13 and I watched Heathers. She’d been really wanting to watch it for a long time and I finally succumbed. It was even worse than I remembered it being. Disgustingly rapey and homophobic. It made me feel sick that this was ok movie material in the ’80s. I mean, I guess you can’t expect much from a movie where the plot is two teens killing their classmates and making it appear like suicide.

Week’s Photos

Reading to IL4

• The Legend of Spookley, the Square Pumpkin, by Joe Troiano & Susan Banta
• PJ Masks: Operation Easter Egg
• Owl Diaries: Eva Sees a Ghost, by Rebecca Elliott
• Nelly Gnu and Daddy too, by Anna Dewdney
• Berenstain Bears and the Truth, by Stan Berenstain
• When You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff & Felecia Bond
• Llama Destroys the World, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox
• Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox
• Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox

M10 reading

• My Teacher is an Alien, by Bruce Coville
• School of Fear, by Gitty Daneshvari

D13 reading

• When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller
• The Thing About Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin

Wrote

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

Media Completed

Posts

• Pebbles and the Biggest Number, by Joey Benun & Laura Watson

Weight loss journey

Pebbles the butterfly decides he wants to find the biggest number. So he flies around the world asking various animals what the biggest number they know is. This is an educational book with fun facts and big numbers. It has great illustrations. Suggested age 4-8.

News

Saturday

The thunder-blizzard snowpacalypse dropped 6 inches of snow and blew down some branches. When I got up in the morning (at work) there was a snowdrift in front of the door so I had to exit through the garage when I left. Luckily, the people who clear the driveway had gotten most of it – except the stuff surrounding my car, so I only had to dig out immediately around my car. But as I was driving out, the street snowplow went by and left a huge berm blocking the end of my driveway. However, the person who had cleared the driveway was across the street with her tractor snowblower, and she came back and rescued me. But when I got to my street, I couldn’t turn in because it hadn’t been plowed yet and my car is tiny. So I parked at the park / city hall a mile down the street and trudged back through the snow.

I missed D13 and M10’s production of Wizard of Oz, which I hear was excellent. M10 forgot his jacket at the middle school where the play was, and I’m hoping it’ll still be there on Monday.

We played D&D, where my character did something very naive and foolish, but it was in-character to be naive. Anyway, she got herself captured.

After that D13 and M10 had a production of Willy Wonka, and Aaron and my mother-in-law attended.

Sunday

Sunday we played Uno and Ticket to Ride. Then we colored eggs.

Monday

Monday started out with dropping my mother-in-law at the airport. I went to the grocery store 3 times, took D13 to an appointment, went to an appointment for myself, and ran some errands. I should have worked out, but instead I made a new D&D character so I could have it ready for a new campaign that I have no time for on Wednesday. I really wanted to do it, though.  I see I’m going to feel guilty about spending this me-time. In the evening, I started another 60 hour work-week.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a productive day. I cleaned up the house of my friend’s hoarder mom for a while, took M10 to an appointment, and went to work. D13, as usual, had play rehearsal for the middle school play, and both kids had a cast party for Willy Wonka. Apparently everyone brought cupcakes.

Wednesday

Wednesday, after an appointment for M10, I played D&D for my new Wednesday campaign. IL4 pulled some withholding poop stuff on me, but luckily didn’t poop his pants till after the game was over. There was just a lot of trips to the bathroom and “My tummy hurts!” “My butt hurts! I need cream!” He thinks aquaphor is the solution to constipation apparently. Anyway, as I was picking the poop out of his undies, I noticed blood. I knew it wasn’t a  big deal – constipation can do that, but I took him to urgent care since I got yelled at when I didn’t immediately respond to the blood when M10 had the same problem. Then I went to work.

Thursday

Thursday I helped the Easter Bunny make baskets. One for each kid and one for 3 adults to share. Each person gets a book from the Easter Bunny. That was very thoughtful of her. Then I went out to dinner with Aaron and IL4 (M10 rejected us, and D13 was at rehearsal). Afterwards, Aaron and I headed out to a concert – a string group playing theme songs from fantasy and science fiction movies. Then Aaron and I dropped the car off at home and walked to a bar for a little drink.

Friday

Friday IL4 had speech therapy. Then we tried to go to the Mario movie, but he didn’t want to stay. I was feeling pretty burnt out from working so much.

Week’s Photos

Reading to IL4

• Pebbles and the Biggest Number, by Joey Benun

M10 reading

• My Teacher is an Alien, by Bruce Coville

D13 reading

• When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller

Wrote

• 1 letter Virginia
• 1 letter Main Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections

Media Partaken In

Posts

• We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, by Ryan T Higgins

Games Played

Weight loss journey

In the morning, we decided to check out the city hall, to see if we could figure out how to get blueprints to the Blackwater estate in order to rescue the lady. While Adalene and Zepher were checking out the bathrooms (gross), and Grok and Raazmi were chatting up a rather boring civil servant, I walked upstairs to scope it out.

I saw a board with the same jobs and wanted posters I had seen before. I decided to ask a passing guard about Giovanni. He didn’t give me any new information, and I basically told him I knew all that already, and suddenly he decided he needed to take me into a private room.

You know who walked in? Sharzar Blackwater! He seemed rather nice (and handsome!), so I chatted him up thinking maybe he would eventually see reason and release his prisoner. But he didn’t like me nearly as much as I liked him, and he had a guard escort me to his estate and into a locked bedroom. The beds were delightfully soft, but I didn’t like being locked in.

On the way to this room, I met a lovely, and very sexy, woman with 5 dragon heads named Mother Ish. She suggested she could do me a favor if I converted to the cult of Tiamat. I think I’ll convert. I mean, what can I lose now? She told me to meet her in the East wing, but I’m locked in this room.

She also told me that Bouncy Inferno used to be owned by the Blackwaters. Bouncy seems pretty worried right now. We couldn’t find any vents for him to escape, but there are some loose bricks in the ceiling. I will try breaking out through there.

Penelope Rex is excited to go to school, but then she discovers that her classmates are all delicious human kids! This is a cute and funny story.

News

Saturday

Saturday, I went to the kids’ Willy Wonka play with my dad and my friend Liz. They did a great job! And the play was really well done and professional.

Sunday

Sunday was a relaxing day. I slept in, took IL4 to swim, went to watch the Willy Wonka play with the kids (they are only in half the productions, and they wanted to see the play from the audience), then went to dinner with the family.

Monday

Monday was pretty uneventful for me. M10 and D13 had auditions and then rehearsals for their spring break play-in-a-week Wizard of Oz. Deirdre got the part of Uncle Henry. She thinks she got it because she’s the oldest participant in the play. The age limit is 17, but I think 13 is about the upper maturity level of these things. She probably won’t do it again.

Tuesday

Tuesday the kids had a Willy Wonka performance.

Wednesday

Wednesday, my mother-in-law came to town. The day started by dropping the older kids off at their play-in-a-week activity, then I took IL4 to the library to distract him until it was time to pick up MIL at the airport. But he knew it was a distraction. He wanted grandma. And he wanted her NOW! So we drove to the airport early and wandered around the arrivals area for maybe an hour – which kept him occupied with all the new sights. All three kids were thrilled to see Popo.

Thursday

Thursday was a SNAFU for me. One of the members of my productivity group suddenly ghosted us – blocked us on all social media accounts and we had no idea why. Because of the chaos surrounding this change in my productivity routine, I forgot to check my calendar and totally blipped on an appointment for M10. 🤷‍♀️ But we’re starting to regroup the productivity group with a new member, so hopefully I’ll be back on-game soon. D13 and M10 had another Willy Wonka production that night.

Friday

Friday was difficult in the morning. I had forgotten to take my meds for a couple of days – and I was feeling waves of dizziness. They went away as soon as I realized what the problem was and took my meds, but it still ruined the morning. In the afternoon, my MIL, dad, and I took IL4 to an indoor park, after which I was exhausted. That night, the thunder-blizzard snowpacalypse began.

Reading to IL4

• Love Monster, by Rachel Bright
• The Yeti Files: Attack of the Kraken, by Kevin Sherry
• Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox
• Knight Owl, by Christopher Denise

M10 reading

• How to Speak Dragonese, by Cressida Cowell
• Dragonbreath: the Case of the Toxic Mutants, Ursula Vernon

D13 reading

• The Doldrums, by Nicholas Gannon
• When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller

Wrote

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

Media Partaken In

Posts

• Escape the Underdark Episode 5
• Attack of the 50-Foot Fluffy, by Mike Boldt
• Love Monster, by Rachel Bright
• The Yeti Files Series, by Kevin Sherry

Games Played

Weight loss journey

Weight Loss – 8lbs lost this month

This is a great series to read to my 4 year old. It was long enough to have a little plot, but had funny black and white drawings on every page with only a few words to make it a fast read. It was funny and cute.

Blizz the Yeti is excited when he learns there will be a family reunion of the Bigfeet. But a nutty photographer gets in the way.

When Blizz’s friend Nessie gets lonely, they travel back to the time of the dinosaurs to find someone like her for a friend.

Blizz goes to visit the merfolk and save them from some kracken attacks.