The J6 Journey: Day 156 The "tween" stages

Let's see, there's lots of in between stages in our life right now. Benaiah turned 14 today! And he is in between being a kid and being an adult. It's weird when your littlest baby now towers over you and weighs almost as much as his dad. Then there's Justin, who is almost 11 yrs old, and headed off to some middle school events today (Indiana's "middle school" is 5th-8th grade, and Justin will be 6th grade next year), making him feel older. And yet, Grandma found him making a "piggy fort" like in Angry Birds, complete with eating eggs (not sure on the reference, but I'm sure it makes sense if you like Angry Birds). Keturah is creeping up to the tween stage, but not quite there yet. Abishai is definitely in between stages of babyhood and toddlerhood. He still needs lots of sleep because he's always on the go learning new things. And finally, we are all in between PEI and Indiana. Most of our stuff is packed. 1/3 of our family is already in Indiana. We have 9 days left, in which to say good bye. And of course, Jared is in between jobs. One family shared their struggle with being in between ministry overseas and reentry to the states. The husband has been looking for a job for 7 months. I pray that that won't be the case for us. And although Canada and the US have similar cultures, it will be interesting to see how being in a different country and being away from "home" has changed us. Will we find comfort in the relationships we had left behind? We will have the same circle of friends, or something new? Will we be able to find a homeschool group we like or will we be on our own again? It's just an interesting place to be. So much unknown, so much potential, and dare I say it, a little excitement as to what's next? Perhaps.

But for today, I worked HARD and finished going through my mom's fabric and crafting supplies. I was able to purge HALF of it! I knew I would eventually when I packed it up the first time. I kept any item that was already in progress, old fabrics that my mom made something out of, and misc supplies that were hers. I gave away fabric I would never get around to using and patterns that were outdated. I was able to empty several bins, and now I'll get to repackage some of the stuff from yesterday that are in cardboard boxes. I prefer Rubbermaid Roughneck totes b/c they are the only ones that don't break! Trust me, I have several kinds, and they LAST. So, there's that, and I'll finish up the bathroom project I've been working on for the last two days. Purged the make up and set aside the cleaning supplies I'm leaving behind. Tomorrow I'll finish the countertop stuff and a few misc items.

Meanwhile, some of the pictures below will tell the rest of Keturah and Justin's story for today.

One more piece of furniture ready to go. It feels like strange to be this close to the floor!

Happy 14th birthday to Benehana! uh, Benaiah!

Because the weather was going to be iffy, and we had room, we brought the toddler playset into the house. It worked great because Abishai was making laps, going up, going down.

Today Abishai learned how to climb up the slide!

Teenage MOOtant Ninja Turtles - Out of the Shadows came out Friday. I'll see it Tuesday.

Just a little too big.

Abishai LOVES sitting in his chair chir now that is on his level. He plops right down whenever he wants. He found Benaiah's school book today, "Number the Stars" and sat down to read it.

Stuff that we are NOT keeping!

Stuff we ARE keeping - just the craft stuff.

Stuff I'll repackage - knick knacks and keepsakes from my parents.

Ran out of room to put "done" boxes, i.e. boxes ready to go on the truck. Although, this time has been MUCH easier to move around than when it was all over the house in Beech Grove. I've tried hard to keep the living room intact as much as possible.