The J6 Journey: Day 261: She did it!

Big news! Keturah rode a bike with no training wheels today! She was using the smaller bike Jared picked up from a friend, but Daddy can take off her training wheels soon! We were outside this morning because Justin got a bike for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa and he wanted to try it out. You can guess what color he picked.....you'll have to see the pictures before I tell you. So, the kids rode around the parking lot which is blissfully quiet and the drivers are older so they are more cautious anyway. Abishai and I cleaned up the inside of the van a bit. Just taking care of trash and putting grocery bags away, and removing a few cds for inside the house and toys out of place. I didn't actually clean it with windex or vacuum it or anything. It probably needs it. The kids are actually pretty good about picking up their trash and toys, so it wasn't terrible.

Then it was lunchtime and ice cream, naptime and movies/video games while Mommy tried to whittle down her to do list. Jared took Benaiah to church just because he could, and then they ate with Grandma and Grandpa. It's hard to coordinate when and where to have Sunday's big meal like we used to because we go to church on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. I still feel guilty about not being in church on a Sunday morning, but it's what works for our family. We survived just fine with rearranging naptime for the last 14 years, but it's nice having the option where we don't have to rush home for naps. It makes for one exhausted pastor though, lol. BTW, did you know that the Creek now has a satellite campus on Shelby St, in Indianapolis/Greenwood, IN? Yes, it does and it just opened up! 500 people last Sunday! I'm sure there are many who are going there to help out with these initial first few months, so the numbers might go down a tad, but that's like 5 small town churches of 100! Crazy! They opened it up because so many have been traveling from much further west and south up to probably an hour to get to the Franklin Road campus. It's sad not seeing some of our friends, but I know they are very excited about having something closer to them. They have a live band and the sermon is recorded Saturday night in order to share with them at two services on Sunday morning. Super exciting!

Then we were off to an amazing night of worship with the youth group and choir practice. The youth group invited the whole church to come and worship and learn about Cottages4Kids, which builds homes in Zambia. Several of the youth have been heavily involved in that ministry. So, pretty typical weekend. The book bags are prepped for co op, the mealplan/grocery list is ready to go when we find the time to go to the store, and lessons are ready for the rest of the week. Another busy week ahead, but I have some new strategies to help things run a little more smoothly.

Mom, Abishai has huge muscles!

Abishai went down all the stairs holding on to Jared's hand tonight! And he can do smaller steps not holding on to the rail!

Grandma and Grandpa bought Justin a bike for his birthday in his favorite color - lime green! He even changed his pants later on to some lime green Lego Ninjago shorts and made sure he put on his lime green shoes to match!

New wheels!

Abishai heard an airplane overhead and said, "wow!" while I was cleaning out the car with him.

But I want to go somewhere, Mom!

Keturah started out the day on her bike with training wheels.

How dare you take me out of the hot van and close it up! I said I wanted to go somewhere!

Ready, set, go!

Keturah's 2nd bike for the day - a tiny two wheeler! Look, Mom, no training wheels!

I said, I want to go somewhere, bye!

Brotherly love.

I haven't made crescent rolls in 5 years. I can't eat them, and yes, I know, they have preservatives and such, but I thought it would be a nice treat for the kids. They scarfed them up in no time.

Keturah's 3rd bike of the day! Her own bike WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS! Wahoo!! Congrats, Keturah!!

Screwdriver in one hand, a crescent roll in another, all ready to help Daddy put Keturah's training wheels on the little orange bike that will become Abishai's.