Day 155 Exhaustion

Today was an emotionally exhausting day for me.  I spent some time resorting and trying to go through my parents' belongings hoping that I could finally let go of some things.  Nope, nada, couldn't do it.  I had to remind myself that I purged our own stuff so that I wouldn't have to get rid of any of my parents' things.  I did get one boxful of craft supplies and one box of books of mine ready to give away.  Oh, and a bag of medical supplies because I started the bathroom purging.  But now I'm exhausted.  Just seeing some of those things provokes the strong emotions.  And that's ok.

Meanwhile, Abishai and Daddy went for a walk at 7:30am this morning!  Yes, 7:30! Daddy forgot cream and bananas last night and Abishai LOVES to walk, so off they went! They came home with two extra things: movies and flowers! It makes me smile that Jared has a hard time passing any rack with cheap DVD's on it, just like he can't go to Indigo without picking up another book! Receiving "just because" flowers is my FAVORITE way to receive flowers.  So sweet!  And Abishai WALKED the whole way home from the grocery store!

The men folk went out again this evening to get Benaiah a birthday present because tomorrow is his 14th birthday!  Actually, he turns 14 at 12:07am.  Or in military time 0007.  Triple-0-7 instead of Double-0-7 like the spy.  Yes, 14 years old, and almost as big as his dad.  Goofy and crazy, and moody, and exhausting all at the same time.  15 month olds are physically exhausting and 14 year olds are mentally exhausting.  No wonder I'm exhausted!

Weird combination for some, but it's kind of normal for us.  Peanuts movie and 4 Danzel Washington movies.

The littlest and cutest gamer.

The oldest doing his gaming thing.

My brother Paul-Mikael, around age 1.  He's 6 years younger than I.

Melinda at age 1!

My sister Kristina at age 1.  She is 2 years younger than I am.

My sister Stefanie at age 1.  She is 4 years younger than I am.

My friends are so sweet!  This friend brought a meal and this sweet Doctor Who mug from Cows' Creamery!  I'm so going to miss Cows' and their cool t-shirts!

Poutine, table hockey, and toques! #yepweinventedtablehockey and #canadaheh?  Cute shirt from a friend!

The next few pictures are from the Children's Museum of Indianapolis from yesterday.

Learning how to write Chinese words.

Beautiful instrument!  Keturah said she was allowed to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on it!

The museum's exhibits are top notch and very, very hands on.  The boys are studying some cannons that might have belonged to some pirates!  These are reproductions, but there is a real cannon that is in a case nearby that is being very slowly stripped of the nasty stuff using electricity.  The archaeologists are available for questions as they work on artifacts.

Digging in the Chinese exhibit.  They have a pit like this in the dinosaur dome as well.  They take this tiny pebbles and a solution of school glue together that cover up the fake artifacts.  The kids can then chip away at the "dirt" and reveal the statues or bones.  They have to recover the digging pits about once a month.

She insisted on seeing the polar bear!  And it looks like there's been a facelift behind him too.

Drawing dinosaurs in the upper room of the dinosaur dome where they actually have sights and sounds of the outdoors including dinosaurs roaring and a thunderstorm!

And this is from tonight!  They are attending a one man show performance of Winston Churchill.  Grandma said that when she told Justin it was Winston Churchill, he told her, "Oh yeah!  We studied him in history!  He's from WWII!"  I'm impressed he remembered that! We barely mentioned him.  But Justin has read other books from the time period and Churchill was on one of our favorite TV shows, Doctor Who, in an episode set during WWII.  Doctor Who is a time traveler.  Pretty neat!