Another week

 

Remember the shrikes?  Apparently, they are still in the neighborhood, although no longer nesting in my siding!  A young one was sitting atop my fence, and an adult "watcher" was nearby, in fact a couple of them, as I went out to take photos.  

It may be a fresh new week for me and for Ember, but it's a whole fresh new year for the foster grand kiddo.  He turned seven on Saturday, and my son and DIL threw him a big bash.  His "nice auntie" drove his brother and sister all the way from her home in Iowa just for the occasion.  I got to meet her for the first time, and found out a few things I didn't know, like that she grew up in Maine.  Since I worked in Des Moines for a year or so, we do have some landmarks in common.

The party was held at a gaming venue, meaning bowling, laser tag, miniature golf, cornhole kinds of gaming, not the casino kind!  Very kid friendly.  

The decor in the calm before the storm of boys coming back from round 1 of laser tag.  It got noisy shortly later, and as usual I'm restraining myself from photos that might identify kids in the system.

The kid got a couple of "biggish" gifts that challenge my grandmother's sense of appropriate:  a hoverboard, and a drone complete with camera.  Videos from taking both of these out to a park on Sunday were shared with the family group chat and that calmed my qualms.  Clearly adult supervision was being exercised.  Kid was wearing his bike helmet and kneeling on the hoverboard, not standing and being reckless.  And the drone... well let's just say his video game skills contributed to that being a safe endeavor.

A really sweet bedtime after the party exchange was reported where kiddo claimed my son was the "richest person".  DIL pointed out there were lots of people richer than him.  To which my son said (surprising and pleasing his mother), "That depends on what you mean by rich."  Which is absolutely true!

Sunday morning dawned cool and a little drizzly.  Ember and I played a few rounds of fetch and got around our 1.2-mile walking loop before I made my own breakfast.  I stayed home with her, not even going out to do any errands, partly to make up for having left her crated for the birthday party time on Saturday.  

Monday, we got a lovely cool day, too.  Ember and I had a nice walk in the morning.  I got the grocery shopping done.

Tuesday was Ember's Day care day, and my first workout back with the trainer since "the incident".  By now, my forearm looks pretty well healed.  

I ran the vacuum and played with a fresh new X-pen that arrived last week.  

I'm continuing that "looking ahead to Winter" work.  After putting this much together, I found another X-pen on sale and ordered it.  Whenever it gets here, I'll keep on keeping on.  The end goal is to be able to open up the family room and keep the furniture protected while Ember unlearns her chewing ways.

Wednesday morning, good longish walk (1.3 miles) in the cool air.  We encountered a few other folks walking their dogs, alerted on people walking or jogging, but we are making progress at "continuing to walk in the presence of such distractions".  I had got her trained to quietly stay in place, show me a pretty polite sit, and wait our turn, mainly with lures.  She expects the treats.

We took a second walk at noonish.  Mid-afternoon I flipped to the news and that was like a punch in the stomach.  Another school shooting, in the church next to a school in Minneapolis.  I could not help seeing visions of my sister in law's classes when she taught in a local Catholic school.  They would go to mass in the church next to the school.  Innocents.  And I thought about my FGC, who has experienced trauma in his own little life, and wondering how my son and DIL might have to deal with him hearing this news (kids hear things, whether we intend them to or not), and possibly be triggered.  Dear Lord, help all those in similar situations to get through and to once again feel safe.

Thursday Ember had day care and her mom kind of collapsed in a heap.  This is becoming a pattern for Thursdays.

Friday morning the RunKeeper app was going NUTS with phone notifications, so I turned it off during our leash walk.  We walked a few different blocks, too, but in the end it was a good walk, I'm estimating 1.3 miles to maybe 1.5, depending on how far we took those "detours".

We played fetch and tug in the back yard and enjoyed the not as blisteringly hot day.  We are experiencing a short spell of cooler weather.  Yet to be determined if this is an early autumn arrival, or a "false fall".  I'd heard of "Indian Summer" which is warm weather following the first freeze, but "false fall" is a new concept to me.  Not that I've not seen a cool week in August some years that lulls us into thinking Summer is over when it's not, but I'd never heard it named this way.

Looking ahead to the weekend, there is a family cookout planned for Sunday, and Ember is invited, too.  So maybe having a "down" Thursday was a way to store up energy for that event.

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!