Thankful Thursday

Yup. It's Thursday again. Here are things I'm thankful for today...

1. Facebook. I know many don't like Facebook, and I definitely have my moments. But, in general, I'm mostly thankful for it and the way it allows people to connect. For example, last week one of my cousins shared this...

That's my dad in the back row...third from the left in the glasses. This was taken in junior high, and a historian at the Prosser Museum was trying to identify all of the people in the photo. Through Facebook, she was able to get all the names and made families happy with the memories in the process.

2. Backyard space. I mentioned before that Asher and Micah have been doing karate again via Zoom. I'm particularly thankful recently that our backyard has enough space for the two of them...

 
This is them doing an escrima stick lesson/workout in the backyard in the rain. (The umbrella is protecting the laptop.) After that, Micah stayed outside for a check in for his second degree black belt testing. Now that they're bigger, the basement doesn't work when they need to do forms or combinations. ;)

3. Emoji Charades & other games like that. We enjoy family game nights...mostly always have. Our latest find was Emoji Charades. Micah introduced us to it and we had great fun learning it recently. Basically, one person has the phone and is given prompts. He/she must use only the emojis provided to try to get the others to guess the prompt. (The emojis show up on our tv, though other devices would work also.) The categories are pretty fun and we did better than expected. :) We also enjoy many of the Jackbox Party games like Trivia Murder Party, You Don't Know Jack, Fibbage, and a bunch of others. We still pull out the board or card games, but sometimes it's nice to have this option using our phones...rounds tend to go quicker and are generally more hilarious. 

4. Asher's singing. Asher's computer and study area is in pretty much the middle of the house. When he works, you can always tell his mood just by listening. My favorite is when he sings. He's got a lovely voice and, if he's singing, things are good. I'm thankful that he's often singing. 

5. Unexpected visits. My brother stopped by this morning. He was in the area for work (he works for CenturyLink) and decided to drop by. It wasn't a long visit, but it was actually really nice to have someone outside of the five of us to talk to in person, lol. Plus, his stories always entertain us, and Micah was inspired after he left to go workout some more in the basement. ;) 

So. That's my list today. We're down to a little over a week left in classes for the school year for all three of my boys, and final projects, papers and tests have stress levels a little higher than normal. Wish us luck!

Weekend Wrap-up

Just wanted to share a few pictures before Thursday. :) Here are some of the things we did this past weekend...

1. Homeowner tasks. That almost foot of snow we had a bit ago managed to break a couple big branches in one of our trees, so Nathan, Micah and I spent a couple hours Saturday clearing that out...

You can just barely see Nathan up in the top of the tree in the top left photo. The picture below that is his view where the branch snapped. In order to try to keep the branch from falling into our neighbors' yard, we tied off the branch and Micah pulled it into our yard as Nathan finished sawing it free. (Yeah. We don't have a rope so used an extension cord, lol.) The bottom right picture is once that first branch was down. We had to take a couple more down that were split also. :(

While we were out there anyhow, we decided to prune a few dead branches from our other tree...

We had to use the extension cord again to keep the branch from damaging the gutters. Fortunately, the branches we cleared from that tree were all dead so very light. Hopefully our trees appreciate the upkeep and stay healthy! In the meantime, we collected all the debris...

It's a fairly large pile. We were just going to try to burn it in our fire pit but, being good, checked the city's fire code first and discovered that we're not really supposed to do that...and that they're especially asking people not to use their fire pits right now anyhow because of the smoke and potential issues for those with respiratory problems (like Covid-19). Poo. 

We know there are places in town we can take it all to...but they charge a fee and we don't have a truck. So, we'll just slowly add it to our yard waste container that gets picked up each week. Whew.

2. Stopping to notice the flowers. While we were outside, I stopped to take a picture of our first flower of the season. 

I think we may have planted some lupine over whatever this is. Regardless, it's a happy little flower and is appreciated.

3. Scrabble. It had been a good while since we'd attempted Scrabble and now we remember why, lol. Broke out the board and all and settled in for a lengthy game...

It wasn't pretty (didn't start off well...with two four letter words). But. We enjoyed the time together...or at least I did. :) (I won, obviously, though Noah did come close...he even managed a Scrabble during the game and had another at the end that he couldn't play.)

4. Fortune cookies. We continue to try to support our local restaurants and picked up Chinese food over the weekend. The fortunes in the cookies this time were better than usual...

We particularly liked that bottom left one. :)

Beyond all that, we did some chores and watched some shows...Micah did some climbing...boys had some homework...stuff like that. How was your weekend?

Thankful Thursday

Hi again. Not much new to report here...just a few small gratitudes today...

1. Figuring out my technology. I have bluetooth earbuds. Usually, I pair them with my phone when I go for a run but, as the weather's been getting warmer (aside from last week's snow, obviously, lol), carrying my phone's become more of a problem. My running gear lacks pockets big/secure enough. (I'd been wearing a jacket that has pockets when it was colder.) But, this week I figured out how to pair my earbuds to my Apple watch! Yes, it's always been able to do that and is actually one of the reasons I got the watch I did...I'd just never taken the time to figure it out and do it before, lol. So...sweet. Thankful for small things like this that make other things easier.

2. That both Asher & Micah do karate. Obviously, Karate West has been closed since mid-March. They've still been offering classes via video, but my guys took a bit of a break (which was probably okay since they already know most of the material being done via video and since they've been doing karate mostly non stop for almost ten years now). They've been starting back up recently (via video), especially since Micah's still hoping to be able to test for his second degree black belt this summer. And I'm thankful that they have each other...because the parts that Micah needs for the testing right now require a partner. :) 

3. Tea. I don't drink coffee generally. It's become habit, though, to drink tea a couple times a day. My first glass of the day is almost always Tazo ginger green tea, but my second glass varies every day. Lately, I've been enjoying this type...I especially like the little messages on the tags...

4. That pole. I finally sent (finished) a route on the overhang portion of our home climbing wall! (Note: I have sent a route on the vertical wall already...yay, me!) With Micah shouting/cheering me on, I finally grabbed that top rail earlier this week. :) And, then, since I still didn't really want to drop from the top (though Micah and Asher were yelling at me to just drop), I scooted over to the side and slid right down the pole! Woohoo! So glad that Nathan opted for the pole as part of the design...really handy to get down. :) (And I've been trying to climb up it whenever I'm climbing to work on upper body strength more.)

Okay, that's it for now. Lots of other things to be thankful for, truly, but this is my list for today. :) Hope you and yours have plenty to be thankful for also!

Micah Monday

Just a few quick notes related to Micah today...

1. We were both delighted to be approached about our home climbing wall and have it featured last week as the Climbing Business Journal's first Homewall of the Week. Woohoo!

2. He's a little crazy:

Last Thursday, the boy decided to fully experience our almost foot of fresh snow. He made a snow angel and belly flopped into it a couple times...dressed like this. ;P 

3. On Saturday, he was "coaching" me in my climbing. (He calls it coaching...I say bullying, lol. Let's just say he's encouraging and leave it at that.) During that, he added a hold to one of the routes I was working on. Not wanting to bother getting the ladder, he just hung from the top...when he found he needed another hand, he used his foot...

Such a talented boy.

That was all. :)

Thankful Thursday

Another Thursday...another list of things I'm thankful for...

1. My fabulous husband. I don't say it often enough but I'm constantly thankful for Nathan...for the skills he shares with the boys, because he does all the grocery shopping and most of the cooking, for the fact that we're pretty good at communicating most of the time (and generally enjoy it), for the flowers he's been bringing me during these stay-at-home orders, for his attention to detail when he puts his mind to it, because he cares about the people he works with and seeks to take care of them...for just so many reasons.   

2. The Daniel Craig James Bond reboot. We realized recently that none of our boys had seen a James Bond movie. To rectify this, we started with Pierce Brosnan in "The World Is Not Enough" (to set the stage and introduce the character in a somewhat modern way)...and the boys were not impressed, lol. Micah and I then watched "Goldeneye" basically for the laughs. And then we convinced them all to give 007 another chance with "Casino Royale." And now they're willing to watch more James Bond. :) Pretty sure we'll finish off all the other Daniel Craig 007 movies before the next one comes out. 

3. Today's snow. Yes, that's a weird thing to be thankful for. I know. But, I'm choosing to be thankful for today's snow because it waited until we'd just managed to get the garage cleaned out to put the cars back inside (after our climbing wall build)...and because it means I won't need to turn the outside water back on this month, lol. 

It's not the easiest to see, but we measured 10" already and it's still snowing. Obviously.

(In case you're wondering, I got completely soaked (despite having dressed appropriately in parka and boots and fleece lined pants and all) when I went out to shake snow off of all the trees in and around our yard. Hopefully, though, I saved some branches...as a number of them had been dragging all the way to the ground.)

4. Friends who sew. Those who know me know that sewing machines and I do not get along, lol. Fortunately, the sweet Annette (mom to Noah's roommate his freshman year) does sew and generously made us all some terrific face masks. Woohoo!

5. Popcorn. Apparently, we eat a lot of popcorn. It's been our snack of choice lately. Thankful that it's easy and also gluten and sugar free.

6. Upper body strength. I climbed on our new wall earlier this week! Thankful that I still know how and have been keeping up my strength through boot camp, though the "easy" problem Micah set for me is really more of a problem I'd work my way up to over a climbing session, lol. Micah would want you to know that I didn't technically finish it either...because I refused to finish out the route and grab the top. I know I *can*...I just couldn't bring myself to do it yet, lol. (Micah also made me make my way to the top and hang there and drop--to prove that I could and get it out of my head. And I did. And it wasn't my favorite thing. So now I don't really want to, lol. Let's just say that the mats at Ascent are better than our old mattress and that normally I top out or down climb instead of dropping anyhow...but neither of those was an option on this route.)

Also, I totally climbed that pole!! I'm pretty proud...I've never successfully climbed a pole or rope before...always hated that in PE class. I did it again to make Micah document it for proof, lol. 

Of course then Asher and Micah proceeded to climb it, literally, one handed (still with feet)...and do things like this:

Boys. ;P

So, what are you thankful for this week?