COVID-19

It's not really 19 COVID anymore, is it?   You don't hear people saying, "I got COVID-23 this weekend". Regardless, I have it.  I went all this time and thought I was going to make it through without contracting it, but today, it got me hard. 

I felt like the words flu-like pains in all my joints.  I wasn't stable walking, and really needed to lie down.   I had to do some things around the house though that couldn't wait.  My daughter wanted help and me play with her, but when I said I was almost certain I had it, she decided she didn't want to be near me.  

The 1% Battery Boy:  My son can wear out a battery.  He'll get it down to three percent and only then think about charging it.   I should write a whole blog post about it.  

The Bored Girl Updates:  My daughter is bored, wants us to play with her, wants help with this or that thing, and the list goes on.  She doesn't want to clean her room and put up her laundry.  I said I would play with her, but she had too put up her folded laundry from the hamper.  All she had to do was put them in drawers.  Suddenly she was sleepy and her leg hurts and she kept on about it.   So she didn't get played with today.   

3:30AM

My flight in the morning is at 6:15, which is early enough.  My husband and daughter's flight is at 5:15.  What in the world?  That's new and earlier than ever.  Yikes.   

I have to go pack.  And sleep.   Whew, it's already 10:30.  

MRRF Planning

We have so much going on.  I should be packing for MRRF, planning everything so that I can head to the airport, knowing I planned everything and got it all ready in good time.   Gone are those days.   I don't know when I'll pack, but tonight it's not going to happen.   I really feel like I'm a mess sometimes.  

I am trying to get details on another trip I'm taking in less than a month.  I'm going to help another company and they're sponsoring my trip in part.   It's a big event with 3D printing a small part of it.   I don't know the hotel yet, I don't know the schedule aside from very vague general blocks of time things are happening.   I'm okay with a lot of things being unknown but the lack of hotel bothers me because I don't want to have to stay somewhere far from the venue without a car.   They are sure it will all work out.  I hope so

I'm trying to coordinate a time to see my sister-in-law and I think we have a confirmed time the day I arrive.  I'm going to corner the company when I see them at MRRF this weekend and get some facts, darn it.   That being said, I'm very excited about MRRF.  Now, I have to go do something to get ready

The Boy At Home:  My son is staying with my in-laws this weekend and coming back to the house to take care of the guinea pigs.   He says he doesn't mind being left at home with them. 

The Daughter In The Finals:  My daughter and husband are off to Las Angeles so she can compete in The Braille Challenge Nationals for her second year running.  We are so proud of her.  She has blue hair for the event.  It looks wonderful!

Umbrelda

I don't like umbrellas.   In theory, they have a good purpose.  In practice, you're dealing with the umbrella far more than the umbrella is helpful to you when it's raining.   I was a staunch refusor of umbrella help for much of my life.  I would rather get wet than deal with an umbrella. 

Then I found an umbrella I love. I keep it in my car.  It's black and red and opens ut upside down.    Today, coming back from getting groceries for the special Father's Day dinner my son wanted to make for his father, it suddenly was pouring.  I had groceries, and I had to film, and I didn't want my hair to get drenched, which would mean frizzy after it dried.    

I have named this umbrella "Umbrelda".  I have never named an umbrella before.  I must really like it. 

The Big Boy Update: In the pouring rain at the store this afternoon, I sent my son to the car to get the umbrella.  He was so sweet to get it for me—especially because he didn't know where it was, and I had to mime how to get to it in the under-storage area.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's hair is the most gorgeous shade of blue now.  It is just so beautiful.  I had Sue bleach out two little bits right at the top front (where bangs would be), and they just set off her face with that amazing blue hair.   I love it so, so much.   

Gardenias

I wrote about these recently, I know, but it's the season of the gardenia flowers around the house, and I love how they smell.  I'm not sure if the kind I have here is the same as what my parents had at their house when I was growing up.   Mine seem to last only a day after picking them, no matter how much water you treat them to.   The ones my parents had seemed to last much longer.  

They also don't seem to have a very long season here, so I try to make the most of them while I can.  If someone could capture the true smell of gardenia flowers in a candle, I would buy stores of them.  One time, years ago in an airport I smelled exactly that: a candle that truly smelled like gardenia flowers.   It was expensive, and I didn't buy it.  I regretted that decision but I knew I would be going back to the location soon and I'd buy it then.  

When I returned, the candle was gone.   I looked every time I went back in hopes of finding it.  I've been looking for years and have never found one.   Maybe someday. 

The Happy Angry Children:  The children play so well together.   They get along and are making up games and really having a nice time.   Until something goes wrong.   And then they end on very bad terms.  They are particularly angry at us when we won't solve their problems for them.

The Father's Day Dinner

Dinner was delicious on Father's Day.   This was because we all went out to The Melting Pot and overate together.   My mother- and father-in-law were there with us, and we had our friend JC come join us too because he was down working with me on some things in preparation for the Midwest RepRap Festival coming up this weekend. 

My mother-in-law and I are there for the cheese.   I love the cheese.  I could eat cheese the whole meal while other people cooked their meats, had a salad and ate the chocolate fondue.   I could happily watch them do all of that while I ate more and more cheese.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter likes the meat part of the meal the best.  Which is interesting because she still contends that she's a vegetarian.   Some days. 

The  Big Boy Update:  My son could not stay in his seat.  He had to bop around and move while we ate.   The interesting thing was that the restaurant was almost empty.  On Father's Day I wouldn't have expected that.  So it was okay for him to move around since there were no people to bother. 

Father's Day Preparation

My daughter and I have a Father's Day present/surprise planned for my husband tomorrow.   Only I don't know if the thing I got for him won't work because because it's too small.   I'll see if I can get her to help me in the morning, but even if it doesn't work, it will still be a cute present.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is well-prepared for Father's Day (she's always prepareed for any holiday that involves being grateful to a parent, grandparent or other person in her life.)  She loves doing complicated things to say she loves you.   I do love seeing her get excited about her gifts!

Cracked and Crumbling

My son broke his iPad screen.  It was bound to happen, and for the amount he wanders around with it, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before.  What he's been doing though has been worrying me:  he's still using it.  I was hoping the cracks would start to bother him, especially if the glass started to shed sharp little fragments.   A natural consequence of sorts. 

It did not bother my son, who has continued to use the iPad.  Tonight I noticed it was in much worse shape than I had thought.  I've taken it away.  He'll have to pay for the screen to be replaced.   He knows this.  I think we're going to have him pay for a case as well.  

Lexulous

My daughter and mother are going to play Scrabble together online with the Lexulous website.  I'm very excited about this.   My daughter loves Scrabble, and my mother loves it as well.  Setting them up to play a game together was lots of fun. 

My daughter wants to win, but what she wants to do more than win is play a word she's gotten in her mind. She simply must play.   She will hold off the letters and play small points words so she can hopefully get the letter(s) she's missing and play it the next round.   

This will only work for here with a friendly opponent, which my mother is right now.  Hopefully, she'll pick up some tactics from my mother.  She's already beating me at Scrabble.  I'm afraid to play her after she's been playing with Mimi for a while!

Paperwork Priority

I've had a lot of paperwork on my desk.  Every time I tried to get to it, something would come up.   It was possible to get things done, but other things just took higher priority.   It grew and grew until, finally, I had to shut the world out and get things filed and documented.   None of it was hard; it was just a lot of little things that all needed to be managed without interruptions.  

But today I did it!  I got it all done, save for a few things that need extra attention.   It just made my day.   

The Children Going Out To Dinner:  You would think we'd asked the children to go for a week without audiobooks or something with the fit the two of them put up when we said we were all going out to dinner.   Unfortunately, they didn't have a choice in the matter.   What happened when we got there (to the surprise of neither of the adults) was they had a good time.   I do like spending time with everyone when we're all happy and happy to be together. 

Capstone Day

Today was my son's last day at his school of eleven years.  Technically, we were supposed to have this completed a few weeks ago, but there were a few complications so we did it after school was out, which sort of turned out to be a nice thing because no one was in a hurry and we could take the day at whatever pace we wanted. 

I think in a different time, my son would have done a trip and this whole Capstone trip would be more than a trip to the Natural History museum downtown with his teachers and parents, lunch at Char Grill and then an escape room event with the five of us, but it worked for us and we all had fun.   

It was a lovely day.  I was sad when it was over.  

 

Family Foursome

My son was in his first golf tournament today.  He was the fourth in a foursome of his grandparents and father.   He wasn't into the event at first, mostly because he didn't have much experience in golf, but he did get into the game and had a good time by the end.   If he became interested in golf, I know he would have a lot of support from his grandparents and father.  I'm not sure how much he liked it, although he did do an after school golf group for a while last year and seemed to like it. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  In the car today, the first thing my daughter said when the door shut from school, "Can you take me somewhere to go to the bathroom?"  So we stopped to get smoothies.   Then she asked if I could take her to the same museum she wanted to go the day before.  They closed in less than an hour and it would take twenty minutes to get there.   We're going to have to make a trip soon; she really wants to go.

I Almost Did Nothing

I did get up and do some things, but for a decent portion of the day, I tried very hard to do nothing.  And by nothing I mean nothing useful, meaningful or on any list of things I needed to do.   I was fairly successful.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son loves to have all the lights on.  He wants all the lights on at max brightness.   I don't think we live in a dim land in the house here, but he seems to think we do.  Perhaps we're too concerned about energy consumption and turning lights off when you're not in a room makes sense, or maybe some of the overhead lights are harsh and we never turn them on.   My son likes them all on, regardless of brightness or harshness. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My son asks to go to a place that takes preparation to go to at a point in the day when it's not a good time for anyone.   Then when you say no, you feel bad for it.  We always tell her to plan ahead with us and yes, we can go to the children's museum or trampoline park or wherever, but last minute, right now just doesn't work well. 

Thick Toothpaste Lines

My daughter had a friend over today who is also blind.  They will be going to the same school next year, which will be very nice.   They had the best time playing together and eventually asked if they could continue it as a sleepover, which we said would be fine.   They didn't need any interventions by us; it was just a great day. 

I was busy a lot of the day on a live stream with a special printing mode that showed a nearly clear filament with loads of rainbow glitter coming out of a huge nozzle that almost looked like toothpaste.  Everyone thought it was crazy and exciting looking at the same time.   It was interesting to have the filament company on the live stream as well, talking about their filament.   We all had a great time. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son has screens.  Lots of them, all day.   It's the first day of summer, why not, right?

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter's friend had had a seizure the night before and became worried she might have one again and decided she wanted to go home.  Her parents had gone out to dinner and their other child was on a sleepover too so I hated bringing her back home, but I assured them to not hurry, no one was upset, in fact, we were all having a great time.   She was worried about the sleeping part.   The cutest thing was she said to my daughter, "I want you to know I'm reliable when it comes to sleepovers.  I've only ever bailed two times before."  We said she needed to listen to her body and if she felt safer at home, then going home made sense. 

School's Out (I'm So Not Prepared For This)

After eleven years at the only school my son has ever known, he is now a graduate of what is considered sixth grade in all other schools aside from Montessori.   Montessori has different names for things, but everyone knows the translations. 

I can't believe it.  I'm sort of confused about not having to go back to that school when the new year starts in the fall.    My son will be going to the same school as his sister, which is probably a good thing, although it's not what he wanted.  There will be benefits I'm sure, although the other school was certainly nice. 

I suppose it's happened, and the time has come.  We have said goodbye to our family's first school.  In two weeks we'll say goodbye to my daughter's school in the same way 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was in a horrible mood when school was out on Friday.   Was he upset?  We don't know, but he did not want to go to the after-school party in the park with pizza and threw a fit in the car.  We wanted to see the other parents and didn't understand. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I got a message that my daughter's pants had a hole in the crotch and could I came bring her more pants.  I left before going to the picnic only to find they had given her loaner pants at the office and she was eating lunch and I didn't need to come.  

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

My son's "passion project" as a sixth year happened today.   There were going to be cookies given out to the families at school as they came for pickup.   My sweet daughter to the rescue.  She made cookies after cookies for the whole school aside from those that needed gluten-free or were vegan.  Those we bought to make sure we met all qualifications.   

My daughter cooked not only loads of cookies for her brother's event, she even brought me a little bowl of uncooked cookie dough—my favourite.   I do love my children.  Even if they're about to be middle schoolers!

So Sleepy

I have no idea what happened to me today.  I couldn't stay awake after a long morning meeting.   I was so asleep that when my husband woke me up to get the children, I was so groggy I had to blast the cold air on me to wake up when I started driving.  

I got home, told my daughter I was still tired and went back to sleep.   I'm fine now, But I don't know why I was so tired.  

The Most Understanding Children:  My children don't think I'm lazy when I sleep during the day.  They know I need to take a break, usually because I'm in pain.  I wish they didn't know I was in pain, but I can't hide it from them at this point.   Still, they're very sweet. 

Mouse Up!

Okay, it's still a trackpad, but it's working again.  Apparently, it was at 0% battery, and the charging cable I plugged in wasn't charging it.  When I put a proper cable in it, it started working straight away. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son went to school for career day in slacks and a button-down white dress shirt.   He wanted to be a Real Estate agent just like his father.   Two generations of real estate agents in the family.  I am so proud.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter loves those little eggs or plaster blocks that you pretend to be the archaeologist and dig things up.   She got a dozen eggs from Aunt A for Christmas, and she loved them.   She got her father to get these big gold blocks of yellow sand, and you could get actual gold for one in twenty, it said.   She bought several of these things, and I fear the table is permanently marred from the fiercely stuck-together sand that made up this block.  She got three, and it's taken her the better part of a week to get them opened.  Wouldn't you know it, the last one had the actual gold in it.   A teeny tiny bit of gold protected in some cardboard paper.   She was thrilled. 

Mouse Down!

Well, it's not a mouse, it's a track pad or touch pad or whatever Apple calls it.   It just died.  I thought perhaps I'd missed the messages about the battery being low on charge and could I please charge it up overnight.   It's plugged in now and nothing is working.   So I'm trying to use as few motions and clicks as possible to get this post done since the laptop is way off to the side from the monitor and keyboard. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter ended her year with the Capital City Girls Choir by singing the national anthem for a baseball game here.   We ran into her music therapist and she might want to do some work with her to train her voice if she's going to try to do some voice acting. 

The Angry Big Boy:  My son was so furious all day today.  Then tonight he felt horrible and had a stomach ache.   He had multiple fairly major things he needed to do for the last week of school.   He made it to eleven and got it all done with the help of two adults hovering over him trying to help

My Daughter, The Older Younger Child

My daughter is very mature for her age.  She has to be given all she's been through.  She takes care of her homework and anything else she needs to know for school, although she can be forgetful about things and then panic when she remembers.   But she is also my youngest child by a number of years in many things.   

If she's uncomfortable in a situation, like this most recent visit with her psychiatrist, she sat on the floor and played with trucks, and I mean played with trucks like she was a toddler.  She can be thrown off by things and it reverts her.   I suppose we can all do this to a degree.   I know she's really uncomfortable when this happens with her. 

My son is similar.   He is super mature when he's thinking about the friends he has over all the time.  But sometimes he acts like a little boy in bed who only talks in baby talk.  Not that my son has any less reasons to feel insecure, but I always feel more for my daughter when it happens to her.   The world is much harder on her in a lot of ways.    

About My Daughter—Questions

When I get in a call or in a meeting or anything online with people the conversation of late is almost always about my daughter first.   People have questions about different things, number one being if she's completely blind, why does she wear glasses? 

All of the questions are valid and I've told my daughter the next video we do is going to have to start with a Q&A discussion.   It's been very sweet that people are asking questions and worried they're going to offend us or her or that it's an inappropriate question.   We all need to learn and the good news is we're not easily offended.   

Hopefully we can educate people about  blindness, or at least our experience with blindness.   

300 Plus

My son was very happy today.  For his Passion Project, they have sold more than three hundred dollars to go to the American Cancer Society with his Luminary event.   It will be at school the night before the last day.   We're going to have something to eat and drink hopefully to have children and families come to see the event and say goodbye. 

It will be the night before my son leaves his school forever.   He's been there for eleven years.   It's all he really knows.   I'm going to miss the school a huge amount myself too.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has a smattering of new canes.  She didn't want to go to a tapping cane until we found one from another company that was very light.   But it didn't fold up.   Now she has some folding canes that are so tiny and light.   They'll fit in your back pocket.