Finding Calm

I woke up to a Tuesday morning starting with the usual trek to McDonald's for Johnnie's breakfast. He didn't feel like eating a full deluxe breakfast though, He was complaining of a stomach ache first thing. Maybe something he ate at his mom's house? Over the weekend? Or maybe he was still hungry? In any case, he said it was ok if he didn't have any pancakes this morning and I obliged. He did eat all his eggs and sausage and then off to drawing. In the meantime I had already done my IS Team meeting yesterday afternoon and so my schedule was actually all clear today. Clear enough to finish those darn CTF applications. AND I actually had a new toy to play with today. A brand new 11" HP Stream laptop that I had Kennedy buy and ship to me to test. Maybe a replacement for those Surface 3s? Or those LG laptops? Anyway I took a pic with the built-in camera (which I posted) and it looked pretty darn clear. It was a pic of me watching Johnnie. I know it's summer and all and I should be lining up play time for him but with the school year ready to open I wanted him sharp so I still have him doing lessons. Today we were focusing on precision, which meant coloring inside the lines, cutting as close to the outline as possible, developing his hand motor skills. OK OK maybe that's because I got his final report card for the year and that was the one skill he needed to work on more than any others. Far more actually it looked like. He was just fine with reading and math. And so it was that i was focused on that today. And of course I had to find something to occupy him while I finished those CTF applications for work.

By lunchtime we had already gone to Whole Foods to get him a pizza, and me a carnitas burrito. And I was able to grab a nap too. Yes Johnnie was still very much there but I did manage to distract him with some Bill Nye the Science Guy videos for a half hour or so, and while half-asleep I was able to reflect on some other internal work I came across this morning. Funny how my attention flip flops all over, but that's how it works when Johnnie is in the house. One of those internal things was an article on slow breathing called Sudarshan Kriya. Interesting how the simplest things make the biggest difference. Anyway when I got myself fully back to the awake state and got myself going, I had to head out to Staples store to print some of these applciations that I finished once and for all. Believe it or not I had to mail these damn things in. State of California must still believe in doing things the paper way. And so by late afternoon we would find me printing just one application and wouldn't you know it would cost $10 to print it and a lollipop for Johnnie to keep him happy. By the time we got back it was already time to think about dinner. And I barely had 3000 steps logged to boot. When we got back I finally found packages on my front door. ONe of them was specifically for JOhnnie. It was just a box full of straws and connectors. Simple stuff. But with these straws and connectors, Johnnie could build stuff. Look at the pic of him getting started. Of course I had ideas for later. But for that moement it was already almost 5 PM. And so Johnnie and I came up with a compromise. I would let him watch the Octonauts and I would barbecue the Italian sausage per Tuesday night routine. And while out there barbecuing, I took steps and steps and steps. To the point where I actually walked the equivalent of a mile and a half while finishing up cooking. And so it was that I got him dinner and made me some fried rice with sausage too. A fine dinner it was. And then after dinner he started working on a house for Fuzzy. It was like he had a construction or erector set, never mind just a whole bunch of straws really. I really got him going on doing something for Fuzzy!! And then I worked some more and actually got to 11,500+ steps tonight. Worked some more means finalizing those applcations. It had only been TWO whole weeks since I got pinged by Barbara on where I was with them. At least I'm almost ready to print the lot.  Even worked on my Brother printer some to figure out if I can print them here at the apartment. Nothing doing it turned out... I needed a cable. Why do I feel like I'm collecting stuff that somehow aren't working anymore? And BTW after printing I still have to mail those things. Still, that would all be for tomorrow's errands. In the end it turned out to be a quiet night, what with Johnnie so occupied he barely watched any more videos. I did get him focused on an ice cream sandwich though (see pic). And I felt like I had a pretty productive Tuesday. No late nights tonight. In fact, Johnnie had barely finished his first Bert and Ernie episode when I could feel myself already starting to drift off. Didn't I have a nap today too? Anyway he fell quickly asleep after episode 2 and then I turned on some Alpha waves sounds. More internal stuff I ran into today. This one courtesy of Jose Silva from the Silva Mind Control Method. All good. I'm chugging on to mid-week.