Journaling the day again! (I guess I lied!)

 Woke up way too early to cat scratching at my bedroom door at 4 a.m.  S must have let him in when he got back from girlfriend's at some point in the night.  Grrr.  Put cat out and tried to go back to sleep, gave up at about 5.

Coffee, fed cat, sat and thought.  Wrote up a new year's plan for organizing the house with adult children in it.  Tidied kitchen a bit.

V came upstairs.  She has old snowpants and boots from D that might fit L.  It is supposed to snow tomorrow!

Read some Winter Holiday - almost finished.  Hope to finish today and make booktube video.

Somehow need to go to 2 stores today.  Can I recruit one of my sons to run to one of them?  What to have for dinner?  No idea, don't feel cooking today.

D came up.  Gave him some eggnog.  He played on switch for a bit.  Says he wants to keep reading The Enormous Egg.  I read him a couple of pages.  He keeps saying that an egg can only hatch what its mother was!  He's not buying the premise of the book that a chicken can hatch out a dinosaur!

V left for work.  It is nice that she is getting D up, bathing him and getting him dressed in the am.

Made breakfast for R.

D not hungry yet.  He's been playing a lot with his stuffed Pokemon plushies and making up games with marbles.

Did Advent calendar.  He's still kind of upset about the Angelfish.

Did regular calendar with him.  He played some more.

The neat thing is I just have to put out his printing workbook and when he sees it he just sits down and does the page!  My kids were never like this!  

Had to wash our Christmas cookie cutters.  Activity for this morning is making playdough Christmas cookies.

D is playing so nicely this a.m.  Played a lot with playdoh, did lots of counting, built a city out of lego.  He designed it so the ocean was on one side and he had a lot of fun building a sea wall to keep it from flooding his city.  

Couldn't get him to eat breakfast so early lunch with a leftover cheeseburger from Sunday night's dinner  

11:00 Beatrix Potter storytime from Outschool.  Cutest thing ever.  The teacher read Mrs. Tittlemouse out loud.  D really enjoys this every Tuesday.  Starting in the new year though we are switching to a French class at 10:50 a.m. for him, also through Outschool.

After story,time, I forced D to go outside.  He resisted but I said just 15 minutes outside.  We wound up staying out 45 minutes.  It was cold. He was having fun playing by the stream and watching sticks float down the stream.  But he got his hands wet in the cold water and couldn't take it after a while.

Came in.  I made him and R hot chocolate.  D played on Switch again, Pokemon.  It's been a much better morning than yesterday.  Now it's 12:30.

Now he's made me help line all his stuffed animals on the couch and is leading them as a choir leader!

Lost control of things. Sean was watching him while I tried to make a booktube video but that took longer than I expected.  Then I took a shower.  D watched Moana (sp?) with S and then starting watching Pokemon tv.

4:30 Another Outschool zoom class. This is a winter camp (just 4 classes in December) for learning French.  Next year we are going to drop the Beatrix Potter (she's going to run out stories soon!)  And have another ongoing French class every Tuesday at 10:50 a.m.  D enjoyed it.

After that he immediately wanted to go back to watching Pokemon but I then I remembered that we had planned to clean up the living room to make it ready for a Christmas tree.  He was excited to help!  We tidied and then he held the dustpan while I swept.  We rearranged the furniture a bit too to make room.  Not sure when we'll get our tree but probably soon.  So that was a nice shared chore time.  I am trying to get him to do a couple of chores a day with me. With one child and so many grown ups, people do everything for him.  So it is good for him to learn to help out and that he is capable of helping.

After cleaning the living room he sort of wandered around and then wound up going up to J and playing video games there.  Sigh.

I did not plan anything for dinner.  Everyone ate meals at weird times today.  V is probably working late, S went to babysit L while H and P go see It's a Wonderful Life.  R isn't hungry - the lunch he got didn't agree with him.  So it is just me, D, B in quarantine and J for dinner.  One of my neighbors is cooking curry.  I went out to put the chickens to bed and it smells heavenly.  Can't I just go over and invite myself to dinner there????

J ordered Thai food.  I'm done.  I have been up since 4.  

Remembered to light candles again!  Yay me!

Ate late, said prayers, R was just putting D to bed when V came home.

My last post? Journaling the day

 I think I am going to abandon this blog.  Sob!  I've been at blogging for a long time, off and on, over the years but I just don't feel the impulse very much anymore.  I am enjoying my booktube channel.  I like posting photos on Instagram.  I am trying to cut back on facebook but I am involved in a couple of groups there that are still relevant to me.  I really only use this blog to keep track of my book reading but I could do that more efficiently I think if I really took my goodreads account more seriously.  

But I thought I'd journal this day.  It is December 14, 2020, a gloomy, rainy, chilly Monday.

Woke about 5:30, coffee, fed cat, sat and thought

Read some Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome

Cleaned kitchen some - mostly loading dishwasher, tidying, wiping down counters and table

Watched a little youtube, checked out facebook

V went to work

D came up (already dressed) and played on switch, made him some vanilla milk

Moved laundry, put on load of dish towels and napkins

Got dressed

Did Advent calendar with D.  It was a slow rainy morning so I didn't feel like rushing him off the Switch.

Made french toast and sausage for R and any other family members who wanted it.  No one was up though but D and I.

Read next chapter of The Enormous Egg while he nibbled some cheese.  He's not very engaged by the book though.  Might DNF it.

Did our regular calendar (wooden board with date, day, time and weather)

D carried down a pile of his clean laundry to put on his bed.

D started playing with legos but left them all scattered everywhere.  Lots of mishaps and accidents this a.m.  Must be the rainy day.

B is home from visiting A and is self-quarantining except D went in and chatted with her for a bit.  Sheesh.  Brought B up some breakfast.

Read or rather since it was in French, retold The Red Balloon while looking at photos in book.  Read Frog and Toad All Year, got interrupted because R came down with news that angel fish had died.  Very gross.  Eel was feasting off its eye.  Really impressed D.  We ceremoniously took it out (in the rain) and dumped it in the garden where it can decompose into the soil.

Got out wikkisticks and spelled the word fish in honor of the dead angelfish.

D hung out with S while I tended the chickens (late) and ran to the library.  Man, I have not had a solo trip to the library in forever!  Felt good but a little nervewracking too b/c of covid.  I went to look for cozy mysteries for the booktube Cloak and Dagger Christmas reading challenge.  I was able to get a bunch to choose from.

Came home and showered while at this time J played video games with D.  J is off this week from work because he had too many hours to roll over into 2021.  S had his piano jury this a.m.  I think he has one more exam or end of year thing before his semester is officially over.  B's semester ended last Friday and then she went to Phila for a weekend and is now quarantining just to be on the safe side.  

Came down and resumed D responsibilities again.  He's watching kids tv now.  

Heating and A/C guy arrived.  Hope he hurries.  It stopped raining and I was hoping to take some packages accidentally left with us to the proper address a couple of blocks up.  Before the sun goes down which is early these days.  Hurry up service guy!

Cleaned kitchen some more.  It is always dirty.  I never get it 100% clean - more like 40 to 80%.  

Realized J was home so I asked him to watch for the service guy and D and I took our two block walk to return the packages.  It was good to get out even though cold and raw.

Service guy left.  Humidifier is finally running.  The dry air was wreaking havoc on my sinuses.  

J and S are once again playing video games up in his room.  I need to start dinner in about 10 minutes.

Wow, the wind is really picking up!  Glad we took our walk when we did!

D is back down this time watching Pokeman.  Sigh, he gets too much screen.

Making meat loaf, roasted potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes.  I don't think I have ever cooked them before.  I might have eaten them.  Just roasting in oven with onion, garlic salt and olive oil

Have quick google meets meeting with sisters and Eileen to see how she is doing.  Then have 7 o'clock meeting (zoom) for hypothermia shelter.  Might be able to eat between those 2 things!

Lit both Advent candles and Hanukkah menorah.  Pretty proud that I've been 90% consistent in remembering to do these things!

Had meeting with E.  Ate - discovered that I do not like Jerusalem artichokes!

Looonggg meeting about hypothermia shelter.  didn't end until almost 8:30.  

R instead of doing something else with D sat and watched UP with him.  Sigh.  The kid was in front of a screen of some sort for maybe 7 hours today.  We were bad before about this but an only child during covid in the winter is miserable.  

Said prayers.  Cleaned up a bit.  Forgot to give B dinner so gave her food up in her room.  She is already hating this quarantine business.  

Went to bed very early.  So glad house humidifier is now working!