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Happy Mother's Day '22
Updated: May 15, 2022
We had a sweaty week as the weather skipped over Spring, and we took a few minutes to celebrate our mothers.
Saturday afternoon, Carver played with one of his best friends at our house. Kira offered to take all the boys to a park, but Carver and his friend decided to stay home. Jesse and Merritt got in the van to go, but when Jesse realized that Carver and his friend were not coming, he decided to come back home to play with them. That worked out just fine, as the boys played really well together outside, and so I got to wash the truck and clean out the garage a bit while they played. I then baked some brownies for Carver. When Kira and Merritt came home, Carver's friend's dad picked him up. The boys and Kira then sat down to finish a movie they'd started the day before, so I left for a drive for a few minutes just for a change of scenery.
Hannah came over in the evening, and I left to pick up Avey from the school after a long day with the school choir at Six Flags. She'd had a pretty good time, although she was tired and had gotten a little sunburned. They got second place in the singing competition, and it seems like it was partially due to a brand new pianist they used when their normal one couldn't make the trip. Still, the park was pretty good. We picked her up some food on the way home. Kira went to bed early, feeling pretty tired, and then I stayed up a little later.
I woke up early on Sunday for some reason, and got the boys all fed and dressed. They were excited to give Kira her Mother's Day gifts they had put together at school.
I cut the grass once they'd left for church, then I did laundry and made lunch for when they got home. To give Kira a break, I took the youngest two with Hannah and Apollo to the dog park. The boys were rather bored with the park after a while, so they joined Apollo and we spotted a little duckling in the middle of the dog park! Apollo came pretty close to eating it, so we kept him at bay while the boys and Hannah chased it through the fence (so the other dogs wouldn't eat it either).
Once home, we opened Kira's gifts and had a brief family night lesson and activity. We played tag in the front yard, enjoying our beautiful tree.
We were all pretty wiped out after all that running.
Merritt asked to go to bed early, which was great. He fell asleep quickly, and quite early for him. After the other boys were in bed, I hung out in the backyard watching a few hummingbirds come to the feeder and then as it got darker, I watched the bats flying around. That was really neat, and got my brain going on hanging a bat house in our yard somewhere. Kira called her mom before we all went to bed.
Kira wasn't feeling very well Monday morning, seeming to have some of the symptoms that the boys have had. I let her sleep and got the kids to school. We were expecting weather in the 70s, but it easily got into the lower 80s. I got some schoolwork done and then met with the departing director of the program I took over. He sort of got me oriented to the position, but about half of the conversation was about why he was leaving. That afternoon I was already starting to get stupid emails from the students in the program. They should have been contacting the financial aid office and the computer help desk, but thought they would ask me for some reason. I'm already regretting taking the job...
Kira headed to see her clients, and I did a little yard work and took Apollo for a walk before the boys' bus came. With the suddenly summery weather, Jesse had his heart set on swimming in a friend's pool. Of course, it wasn't ready yet (and the water hadn't warmed up), so he just went to play with the friend instead. It was a standard afternoon of homework and dinner before bedtime. Merritt was unusually crushed that Kira wasn't home. He called her, sobbing that she wasn't home, and so she wrapped up what she was doing and came to tuck him in. Luckily, she was on the fence about staying later anyway. Of course, by the time she made it here, Merritt had gotten over her absence, and was acting just fine.
Tuesday continued the hot and humid trend, really keeping us on edge. It seemed like the weather had gone from the 50s to the 80s out of nowhere. I did some work once the kids were at school, and then took Apollo to Hannah's just for fun, and then I walked him around. I was relieved to have a meeting postponed until the next day, and so I took it easy before the boys' bus came. Avey stayed after school to hang out with friends. Jesse finally did get to go in his friend's pool that afternoon, but of course it was still very cold.
I set up the kiddie pool in our backyard for Merritt to try and beat the heat, and our neighbors came to join him.
During homework that afternoon, Merritt needed to do some spelling practice. Kira asked him to spell his words "aloud," and so he started shouting them. She later explained what the word means.
Wednesday, Kira still felt pretty crummy. I cut the grass again (it needs it about every 4 days), and then had my meeting to get me more oriented on the admissions process for the program I'm somehow directing now. It was nice and short. Kira napped in the afternoon, and I dropped Apollo at a playdate with his old buddy, but he did not play at all. It might be the heat and humidity, but I think that he's just sort of aged out of the rough and tumble play that he used to enjoy.
It was homework that afternoon, along with showers before dinner and bed. Avey opted not to go to a meeting at school about a Disney World trip with the choir over Spring Break next year. We still have most of the information, but she's not sure how badly she'd like to go. Hannah didn't come over when she attended a tennis meet that went late.
Kira was feeling better on Thursday, and she let me sleep in a bit. I worked and then took Apollo to a park. He had a really good time there - sniffing around and exploring to his heart's content. Kira went to pick up Carver for an appointment about his Celiac (mostly just to see how we're managing it). The doctor wants more blood work, so we'll see.
After dinner and homework, Jesse wanted to burn his math textbook that he won't need for the rest of the school year, so we did that and it turned into a little backyard fire party with s'mores and everything. In the shade, it was nice and cool, and so the boys had a great time playing tag with the neighbor, and Avey chased Apollo around a bit.
Kira tried to let me sleep on Friday morning, but my brain was going, so we got the kids to school and then I did some work before a meeting. The meeting was a thesis defense for one of my students, and I'm just glad to have it done with. Once that was over, Kira and I went to Costco for our monthly run, and stopped by a hardware store for some things to keep my project addiction at bay. Once we had everything unloaded, I built a mount for a bat house, and then put it up on the south side of the house.
I'm excited to see if any move in, although I read that only about 60% of them get occupants in the first year.
Avey went to hang out with some friends after school, walking all over downtown, and they made arrangements to meet again on Saturday.
That night, Jesse was invited for a sleepover at his friend's house, and so he came home and got all of his stuff together and went back. However, he came home not too long after once the sleepover had turned into a larger event, including a boy that he doesn't really like, and he probably felt a little too uncomfortable in the strange setting. We'll try it another time on a smaller scale, I suppose.
It was Friday the 13th, and so we tried out a suspenseful movie that night, but it was not very well done.
This morning, I got up to make pancakes, and then took Avey to meet her friends downtown. I then cut the grass again before playing racquetball with Hannah. We now have Carver's friend back over here, so the boys are all outside playing. At least today and the rest of the week will be cooler than last week!
Jesse's birthday is coming up in two weeks, and so he's talking of nothing else. I've got more preparation for my summer course, and I'm trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing pretending to be a program director. Kira's keeping busy with her calling and job, and the kids have no shortage of things keeping them busy. We'll see if we make it to next week intact...