Monday - ECU was off on spring break, so no school for me this week. I was ready to enjoy myself, but Seth stayed home from school (mostly better, but still croup coughing fits). Everyone else went, at least. I was able to get a bit of cleaning done, but then Seth was really deciding to enjoy the day. He gave me two options - either he could go away by himself and I could pretend he wasn't there and do whatever I was going to do (I would have felt too heartless to pick that option!) or we could spend time together. So, he taught me to play a new board game (it was more fun than I expected). Then, before we left to pick up the boys he says all innocently, "But, Mom, don't you usually go on picnics". Well, we don't usually go on M/W/F because we carpool, but sure. So, he got out french bread and cut it up for buns and cooked hot dogs and cut cheese and made everyone hot dogs with cheese in buns. And I go together the rest. We dropped off the other boy for carpool and tried to going to the nearby park, but they were doing something there, so we went to Andrew Best park and the boys played and played and played (and didn't eat much, but that's typical for our picnics, too). Finally got them to leave in time to go home before Andrew got home. The boys had a blast playing some game of fighting and having territories with Noah running around "My territory", which was so cute. Andrew had running club so we walked over and picked him up. We had chicken noodle soup for dinner (our favorite soup, I think) and then I had prepared a family home evening, but Seth wanted to teach from the Friend magazine again, so he did and I shared a little bit out our Easter jar where we put beans in whenever we make good choices or sacrifices for Jesus (and then the Easter bunny will fill it with real jelly beans as a surprise for Easter).
Tuesday - Seth was back in school (though he told me the kids thought he needed to go to the nurses' office because of his coughing fits - I hate the lingering coughs, but at least it is all gone now). Noah and I went to story time with the puppet lady and then to the park, I think. We really need to go home sometimes - we usually stay out, but I think it is making us grumpy because we are never home. I really hate 5 day a week prreschool some times, but Logan is learning a lot and getting ready for kindergarten. He has started learning sight words at school and we are doing well at his reading practice at home. He has gone through about 20-25 reading lessons and is getting a lot better at sounding out. He can read a couple sentence "stories" now. Noah took a nap after preschool in his bed (he hasn't been taking naps in his bed for a long time, but he has been amenable this week some days, anyways), but we had to wake him up and go to Science Olympiad. I helped Andrew and Hailey get ready for the competition for Data Crunchers. The boys were pretty good about reading books and letting me help them. One more week and they'll have their competition. We all went to cub scouts for the pack meeting and the boys loved going around to all the booths and learning about other countries (although honestly, my boys just wanted to eat the food!). I can't believe how many Chinese dumplings they all ate while the other kids didn't even want to try it!
Wednesday - Finally, a morning off! Walking school bus was making me grumpy, so I spent awhile figuring out what to do about that (we aren't doing mornings anymore because the people who can do it, don't want to, and half the kids are biking anyways ...it's definitely running different than before and I am just so ready to not be in charge of it, which I won't be next year since I bowed out). I got a good run in before the kids were all awake, so I spent the morning first having a little retreat - basically planning and thinking about life and our family and goals and how things are going. Then, I did a few holiday things - worked on my Easter garland for the fire place (which I don't really love, but I do love my new Fontanini pieces). I also decorated one of the tables for St. Patrick's Day. I tried to do a bit of spring cleaning as well - I have been vacuuming out the cabinets and polishing the wood and cleaning the baseboards, but I got a lot less done this week than I would have liked. I also have been trying to keep the kitchen counters clean and dishes done (which is the bane of my existence ... I can not keep them clean for the life of me). Oh, well. I went to the store to pick up a few Target essentials (toilet paper!) and also a frame for a cross-stitch of Jesus I made a long time ago, but the boys broke the frame right after we moved here and I have struggled to replace it. I got a mat and frame and it doesn't look perfect, but it's fine and it's done and it wasn't expensive, so that works. I picked up all the kids for carpool and home we went. We had invited all the members of the church in the neighborhood over to play after school, but only one family came and the boys were having a hard time behaving and I was super grumpy afterwards. I think I am about to the point where I just won't plan things or invite people over for this or book club or anything because no one ever comes and I am tired of trying. So, general grumpiness for me this week. Fish for dinner, which was fine, but boring.
Thursday - Katsu has been leaving every day at 7 something and taking the kids to school. I took Logan to preschool and Noah and I went to the park. Then, he got bored pretty quickly, so I convinced him to see the Puppet Lady. I told him we could get Chick-fil-a afterwards because they usually have a free offer. Well, he threw a fit going in, but seemed to enjoy the show (which is good because she is moving and we'll only get to go to one more), but ran out afterwards without going to Chick-fil-a. Then, he cried in the car because he wanted Chick-fil-a, but refused to find the one in the mall and was being generally grumpy. We had an hour to kill at this point and no where to go and he was throwing a fit - we ended up going back to the library to pick up a book I didn't check out on Tuesday because it was falling apart - the Little Mermaid. We found it and then he wanted to go to "another show". Well, another storytime was going on, so we went in, but it finished in like 5 minutes and then he threw a huge fit because he didn't want to leave. I finally managed to get him out of the library, but that was a pretty typical day for Noah lately. Tons and tons of fits. Everyone is pretty much going through a rough stage now and it feels like we go from one fit to another all day long every day. We picked up Logan and then Noah threw more fits about going to Chick-Fil-A. I figured the kid needed a nap, so I was planning on just going home instead of the park (we had packed a picnic). So, they ate in the car, and I decided we go to Sonic and order a shake and play on playground. They enjoyed that, but I still wanted Noah to take a nap, so we stayed for like 45 mintues and then left. Did Noah fall asleep in the car on the way home - nope! He cried that we didn't go to Chick-Fil-a. Crying and all, I tried to get him to take a nap but it was a no go at home, so he was tired and grumpy all afternoon. Andrew didn't go to running club. He had hurt his foot on Tuesday or Wednesday to the point I was a little worried he might have broken it, but I think it's mostly fine now. There was an event at the school we were going to go to until we found out that Seth had soccer practice in the evening. I had Katsu take him because Noah needed to go to sleep early. So, he did while Andrew and Logan stayed up late playing Stratego, which made me happy because usually Andrew is so mean to Logan (just really doesn't like him for who-knows-why reasons and loves to talk about it - arg!). Good for Logan, too, since he has spent a lot of time in time-outs this week for being mean and mischievous and all other sorts of trouble. Seth enjoyed soccer practice and everyone finally go to sleep.
Friday - another morning off for me, but surprisingly got little done. I worked out, showered, and did some cleaning and that was about it! I am glad I work, because I think if I was at home while the boys were in school/preschool, the hours would just melt away. Hours without kids pass by 10x faster than when the kids are home. I also got quite a bit of trip planning done, which is what I have been working on this week. The kids are starting to get super excited about the trip, too. Kids played outside and inside most of the afternoon (it was a nice day but very windy). Logan is obsessed with Stratego and played several games with me (he won every time), the boys spent a lot of time reading all the books I got at the library (Seth is loving Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Andrew is enjoying them, too, along with his Brotherband Chronicles, and Noah is obsessed with that Little Mermaid book), and Andrew and Seth and Logan have spent a lot of time playing with these blocks Andrew got from his gifted teacher that you pick different sets of the blocks and try to make a 3x3x3 cube. Seth played at a friend's house and came home crying about getting hurt and refusing to let me look at his face, but he eventually calmed down and went back and was gone most of the afternoon. I made pizza and then went to a RS activity for the RS birthday. It was nice enough, though I am feeling a bit anti-social lately. Anyways, somehow Katsu cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the down stairs, and had the kids pick up the whole play room and all watched the Iron Giant movie and I was only gone for 2 hours! He should stay at home and I'm sure our house would be spotless!
Saturday - we woke up early-ish to get to the race downtown by 8 when you were supposed to have picked up packets. Andrew didn't want to race and we were fine with it with his injured foot, so Katsu decided not to race either, so it was just me and Seth. They gave us chips to put on our shoes and we put on our shirts and numbers and then there were bouncy things so the boys were running around doing a bunjee race, shooting arrows, and going down a big slide. As the race is about to start, Seth runs to the very front before realizing that his race chip fell off and was freaking out, but we put on Andrew's race chip instead. And then Seth took off. I didn't see him again for the rest of the race. I started off really slow because my goal was basically run the entire thing without stopping or walking. I had gotten up to 28 min/2.75 miles with the couch to 5k, so it felt about the same. Though there were hills (no hills in our neighborhood - sometimes I forget that there are hills in Eastern NC because they are so sparse) which was different, but it was a nice run. It didn't feel hard at all, until the very end when I sped it up for a little too long because you entered the town common with everyone cheering and all the music, but then you still had to run around the common for a bit. I finished in 33 minutes (yay!) which was a time I was very happy with it and Seth finished in 28 minutes. I felt great after a quick walk / cool down, but Seth always sprints and hadn't trained, so he felt awful for half the morning. We got snacks and went back to the car - Noah throwing a huge fit because he wanted fruit snacks, of which there weren't any. We had taken two cars, so Katsu stopped and got Seth a snack and me and Andrew and Noah went to Go Science for a science festival and the rest joined us a little later. It was a lot bigger than I expected with like 40 booths, lots of demonstrations (physics, chemistry, geology, water ecology, astronomy, etc). We saw live animals - turtles and snakes and lion rabbits and other things. We went to a planetarium show in a portable dome which was actually really well done and interesting. NASA was there (the one we just visited where the Hidden Figures ladies were from) and the boys liked that booth and especially loved the Kona Ice table. Noah spent the rest of the time throwing a fit about going back and getting more! Logan was sad he had to go to soccer practice, but was happy with some Kona Ice in his belly and he and Katsu and Seth went to soccer practice. Katsu ended up coaching Seth's practice since his coach was out of town. The practices have gone well so far and games start next week. Andrew and Noah stayed longer at the science festival - Andrew did a cool water purification activity, we learned about the importance of wetlands, and went to a story time about seeds and got the book to go along with it. Then, we went home. Noah took a long nap in the car and ended up having a leaking diaper in his car seat - so, I threw in a second load of laundry for the day. I cleaned bathrooms, did some more polishing of the wood cabinets, and worked on planning our trip while Andrew read a book while laying in our master tub (I have no idea why!). Katsu came home and mowed the lawn and Logan fell asleep in the car. He peed in his car seat while he slept, so a third load of laundry. We had brats and Ceasar salad for dinner (Logan's favorite which is eating leftovers of right next to me for breakfast). And then, since it was "Science Saturday" - a new thing I am trying, we watched a NOVA show after I vacuumed the upstairs. It was about gems - the boys wanted to watch a real movie, but too bad. In the end, everyone enjoyed it and then went to sleep. Katsu fell asleep putting Logan to sleep and has now been sleeping for 12 hours! Time to get ready for church.
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