Post-Thanksgiving Day

What a lovely Thanksgiving day we had here.  We are so fortunate to have a wonderful family.  I missed my parents, who weren't able to come for multiple reasons, one specifically because my mother had ingrown toenail surgery, which is definitely not a fun recovery from my recollection of a similar surgery I had years ago.  

My mother sent an Edible Arrangement for us to enjoy—and boy, did we enjoy it; there was barely any left.  Even the Guinea pigs got in on the action, eating the kale that was used as a decorative element. 

I love time spent with family, having Eric, Kelly, Nicole (now a college graduate, which boggles my mind), Bob, Brian, Dick, and Nancy—oh, and Daisy, the dog.   Such a good time. 

We took everyone to see the progress on the house, which is now close to being finished framing.   There was a crew working on Thanksgiving day.  They had some delicious lunch being prepared on-site.   I was hungry from the smell of their food and ready to dig into Thanksgiving dinner hours before it was ready after the smells coming from their lunch. 

The Tiny Girl Unexpected Cat Adventure:  My daughter and I were walking the neighbor's dog when we saw a cat walking casually towards us at the house next door to Charlotte, the dog.   I put Charlotte away, and we met the father and son, both named Mohammad.  The cats were some of the friendliest I've ever seen, with three of them walking straight up to my daughter and stropping against her legs as she crouched down to pet them.   After she went home, I spoke to the father, thanking him for the opportunity to pet their cats.   We can see their house from ours out the back.   I told him that my daughter was cat crazy, listening to cat fiction books and wanting to have one as a pet terribly badly, but due to my son's allergy to them (as well as my lesser allergy), we would never have one.  I told him that in that interaction alone, my daughter was able to pet cats more than she ever had in her life.   She was in heaven.   I said if he ever needed help taking care of them, to please keep us in mind.   He said they were kept inside due to some complaints from neighbors, but if they were home, they had them out, and my daughter was welcome to come over any time and pet them, something I am sure my daughter will be doing going forward.  

My Son The Teenager (almost):  My son is about to be officially a teenager.   He has an older phone we were using for timelapse video recording that he uses from time to time.  He mentioned something was on the phone yesterday and when I looked, I noticed it was a clone of my husband's phone number, ringing whenever he got a call as well as being logged into all of our social media accounts with administrator access and full control of my entire photo library with over ten years of photos and videos.  We are going to wipe the phone and get it prepared for his birthday coming up in just a few short weeks.  I can't believe we're giving him a phone, but we'll have it appropriately controlled so we can monitor things.  Thirteen is still quite young while at the same time being older than I can believe he is.  

Your Hands Are Like Mimi's

We went to the state fair today.  We love to go for the food, and the children love to go for the rides.  My daughter the most.  My son can do a ride or two and then he's done.   I think it's all too cool for him.  Being cool is really important to him right now.  

As we were walking in, I was holding hands with my daughter and she said, "mom, you have Mimi's hands."   Such an interesting observation, and something most people wouldn't be able to notice, especially from touch alone.   

Acne Control (Among Other Things)

Well I didn't expect this to be happening so early, but based on recommendations from my friends who are both physicians and obstetricians, my daughter started taking birth control today.   I realize it is a controversial stance, but the reasons for it have nothing to do with preventing pregnancy but all the other benefits that will go along with it such as less cramping, lighter and shorter monthly cycles or eliminating some months altogether and having a cycle four times a year instead.  Plus acne reduction, to name a few. 

My daughter very much wanted to reduce her acne—and she was having quite a lot of it.  After I told her about the possibility, she pestered me to please get her an appointment.   She is now on a three-month trial, after which we will access how it's going, both from her perspective and her doctor's (who happens to be my best friend's husband).     

As for pregnancy, my daughter still doesn't fully understand the mechanics necessary to get pregnant, and I'm dodging that question until she's a little older, especially since physical contact with boys is still firmly in the "eww" stage. 

What's Been On My Mind

Every day I think about something I want to write here.   But every day ends without anything written.   I'm caught in the middle of two things: wanting to write something that's happened or is going to happen in our lives, and wanting to just go to sleep.   Going to sleep has been winning. 

If I could just get to the computer and write something before the end of the night I think it would be easier.  For instance, it's 3:34PM here now.  I just returned from picking my son up at school.  I'm going to spend a few minutes writing something and then, ta da, I can go to sleep *and* have a blog post written.   

The trouble is getting here and doing the writing.  Let me do a quick update on things in general:

The Middle School Son Update: son still loves video games and screens above anything else.  He is doing well in public school we think.  He has good grades except for one class in which he has a 50, which is well into failing.   He had COVID at the beginning of the year.  It may possibly be assignments he never did from that time, but he's not overly worried in finding out and correcting it.   Otherwise he has A's and one B.   He's happy, he comes home from school and sits down to do his homework immediately.  We don't have to prompt him.  In fact, it's Friday and he is sitting at the table reading so that he completes his page reading for today before launching into what will likely be a video game heavy three-day weekend here. 

The Middle School Daughter Update:  My daughter has been at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama all week.  She didn't want to go right before but once she was there she apparently had an amazing time.  We had her bring her phone this time so she could call us, which she did.  She sounded like she was a leader of the girls around her, that she was taking a role of the experienced camper.  Whatever it was that changed there, she had a very good time.  She called me at midnight last night after their graduation celebration and was in high spirits.  I'm really happy she enjoyed the week.  I hear she's already excited about going next year.

That House We're Building:  Things have finally started.  It took a long, long time for permits to be issued after the house was designed which also took a long time.  The amount of time we've spent picking things out for the house has been far more time than I ever thought we would spend on it.  Now that things are started, it feels like it's moving fast.  Faster than I thought it would. 

Four Legged Family:  Cheerio has an infection in his ear.  We think.  After some X-Rays to look into it because he's tilting his head to the side, he has antibiotics and an NSAID.   Two weeks of feeding him medication he hates is going to be fun, but he needs it.  It may not fix the issue.   I really hope it does.   If it doesn't it could be more complicated to address. 

Demolished

We have the Land Disturbance Permit, the Building Permit and the Demolition Permit.   They're moving working on the land right now, clearing a path to the house while preserving as many trees as possible (my mission, which has been challenging as I am running into resistance from every direction).   Trees are being saved, although some may have to come down when we see what the overall placement of things will end up being. 

The road has moved quite a bit, initially away from the highest point in the lot, which would have been better from a drainage perspective but would have been nearly in the back yards of the closest neighbors.  I wouldn't want someone's driveway in my back yard and we did want to have a more private feel, so we shifted the driveway.   It became less straight because there were some very old trees we could save if we moved it left a bit here, right a bit there, etc.  

That's turned out to be a good decision because it looks just beautiful as you look at the path coming in.  The canopy of trees has been largely preserved while opening up the feel you have while you're going down or looking down the driveway in either direction.  Rob, our project manager, builder, etc. said it was one of the most beautiful sites he'd worked on.   That all goes to my husband, who found and championed the site.   It really was a find.

Today was the demolition of the existing house on the property.  My in-laws, husband, builder, and I came to watch as Shaun pulled the house down while saving two large trees that were within three feet of the building.  Our builder said it couldn't be done.  Shaun said he could do it.  And he most definitely did.  He also plucked the chandelier with the excavator so we could save the last custom glass pieces on it.   He's something else.  

My son: was sick today.  He didn't have COVID and he had no fever, but when I came to pick him up mid-day a father was picking his daughter up who had similar symptoms.

My daughter: was sad about the house being demolished.  I told her I was too, but in order for us to build our house it had to come dow.   That made her feel a little bit but not much better.   I did hate to see the house come down, even if it was in a mess of a state. 

 

I'm Still Here

I've been taking a break from the blog.   I loved doing my posts every night for years.  Of late, we're working on a video late at night after the children go to sleep, and when we're done, I want to just go to sleep—only I have a blog post to write.   I should write them earlier in the day, I know, tell me about it.  It just doesn't seem to happen that way for a collection of reasons, all of them my fault. 

But I'll be back, and I have a slew of topics that have happened since I last wrote here.  I'm going to backdate the posts and catch up on everything.   Currently, I have a project I shouldn't have accepted from a company that wanted to send us a printer.  It sounded like a good idea at the time; it was anything but.  

I have set a drop dead date of the end of this weekend for publishing the video, which won't be what I wanted it to be, but the printer is poorly documented and entirely different from anything else on the market.   I'll do the best I can to be honest while also telling the truth about what my thoughts are on the printer. I can do it, but it won't be the video I wanted to do.   I can't spend more hours figuring out things that aren't supported with documentation by the company or the small number of people who have bought the printer.  It will be something, though.  Typically, we require up-front payment, but my producer let them pay afterward since they were sending the printer, which was not inexpensive. 

Never again will I do that.  I would rather not have the printer than have a question of if they will pay us or not.  It is far, far too easy for companies to just not pay.  I have fellow content creators who have chased down companies and gotten angrier and angrier, feeling entitled to the money when they have virtually nothing to stand on and are without a legal team to pursue what is very small money in comparison to legal fees.  Couple that with the companies typically being in China, and, well,  you're never seeing the money—which is why we have an up-front payment policy in almost all cases.   

I do trust my producer and the decisions he makes, but I would rather not have the worry about the work we're doing, which is not low-quality, and not have the product to show.   Some people don't mind post-payment, but most people I know work that way.  As we grow, it will be easier because companies want exposure from our audience.   That's always the thing, though, will we see growth?  If so, how much and how fast?   So far, we've been very fortunate to have over half a million total subscribers/followers we now have across the platforms we publish on, but things could always change. 

It's a Takeover (Again)

My daughter wanted to take over and do the Filament Stories video for the night—so we let her.  She found out how hard it is to get your brain to say what you want it to say when the camera starts rolling.   Doing something as simple as bringing in the thing you're holding off camera to the center of the table while saying something can mess you up twenty times.  

It really is daunting how walking and chewing gum is something we can do easily because we've done it a lot of times.   Rolling a spool of filament on screen while talking about a model by a designer from a repository that's free to download is a lot at once.   She's having to remember things she has no frame of reference to.  I work with the designer and have spent loads of time browsing the repository and the filament I ordered and have been using.   So it comes a little more quickly to me.  

But she did a great job.   She's hired. 

The Big Boy Show and Tell:  My son gets so excited about his video games and the progress he's made in them.   He wants to tell me all about what he's done or the item he's gotten or how much in-game gold he's raised.   It's really sweet to hear him talk about it with such excitement and pride. 

Summer is Boring

My daughter is bored.   She is very bored.  And of course all the things we suggest she do she doesn't want to do.   One thing she never tires of is playing with the guinea pigs though.   Although I have a worry with them.  They are the kindest, sweetest animals you could imagine.  They have massive teeth that could tear us to shreds, but they never bite. 

Okay, Cheerio bites, but he mostly nibbles, which you can use to your advantage because it tells you when he's ready to go back to the cage (typically to go to the bathroom, but he might also be tired of being held)

The Critical Sibling:  My son really needs to work on his positivity.  He almost always, without fail, tells his sister she's doing something wrong with how she holds or does things with the guinea pigs.   She handles it well, but I wish he would look at things more positively sometimes.  

Fourth Of In Bed

There was celebration across the country.   I celebrated in bed almost all day long.  My favorite thing was the Geography Now YouTube channel's video on the United States.   He's been creating excellent videos about countries one at a time for ten years now.  His videos are so good they're used in classrooms in some places.   

In all this time, he hasn't done his home country.   I wondered how the video would cover everything and if it would receive negative feedback.   It was just right and it has been very well-received.   It was an hour long, but well worth the watch.   Especially if you're stuck in bed on the Fourth of July. 

The Children: are scared of me.   My daughter asks every time she hears my voice, "do you have your mask on?!"   If I don't and she's coming in the room or if I'm eating I tell her.  My son just makes a big display of sucking in a big breath and running away. 

July Three Blurred Together

I know things have happened.  The Guinea pigs cage needed cleaning, I was able to work for twelve hours one day, possibly this day, but I also did a lot of not doing much and sleeping or lying in bed falling in and out of sleep. 

My Children: are very sweet.  They want me to rest and feel better.   I'm tired of resting. 

Up at Five o'Clock

I got out of bed at 5PM today.   It wasn't a bad day considering, but I've had better. 

The Children Are Afraid of Me:  They run screaming from the room after making a big show of holding their breath when they run into me.   I was told I wasn't aloud out of the bedroom.   I have to eat, I told one.   My daughter just hid in her room all day.   I'll see them next week I suppose. 

It Could Be Worse

I have good times and bad times with COVID-19.   Or is it COVID-23 now?  Prior to COVID-19, I thought there was one every year; it just turned out the one in 2019 was particularly awful.    At any rate, I have it, and I'm doing fairly well. 

Considering three years ago, I would be fearing for my very life right now, it isn't bad at all.   I'm resting until I get a good wind, and then I get up and do things for a few hours.   

Then, I go back to bed.  There has been a lot of being in bed and doing sleeping things. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was very insistent I help her with things yesterday.   I told her I was feeling bad and that it could be COVID.   I got to the point that I was unstable on my feet and was pretty much delirious, and everything felt terrible.  Every single joint.   So far as of July 3rd (I'm writing this from the future), she is clear and doesn't have it, which is a relief.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is the only member of our family who hasn't gotten COVID yet.  He is very fearful and wants to stay far away from me.  Good.  I fully support him avoiding me.

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.