Day 284: Friends Bring Healing

We ARE blessed that we have friends/mentors that have been with us through many, many years, some way back into Jared's childhood.  I don't always recognize or acknowledge that, and I've been very ungrateful about it.  Last night a mentor told me that what I'm battling within myself is pride.  Wow.  Pride. That's a word I don't think about, but now I'll mull over for weeks.  Another friend today gave me a much needed shoulder/back massage.  Wow did it feel wonderful!  Thankfully, Jared was able to get Keturah to an appointment while Grandma babysat once again.  (I don't think she ever gets tired of babysitting her grandkids!)  The kids did their homework with a little prodding this morning, and because of our busy afternoon, we didn't get to anything extra.  Dinner, chores, organizing school for the rest of the week, keeping up with emails, etc. took up the rest of the evening.

Abishai's been cranky because he had a short nap today and mama keeps leaving before or during naptime and not always coming home right after.  He's been clinging to me.  I think he's got the terrible 2's early! The others weren't terrible until like 3 or 4.  But he's so cute!

Abishai was messing around with Jared's backpack again, and I had a lightbulb moment!  I realized we did have a small backpack that wasn't being used well.  It was holding the kids' small electronic stuff, but the kids never put their stuff in it!  So, it's now re-purposed for Abishai and whatever he wants in it.  He was so excited that he kept running up and down the hallway showing it off to Sissy and Judin while they were doing their schoolwork, and Daddy while he was working, too.

Look at me, Ju Din!

He loved having it tied in the front like Daddy's backpack.

I love how the cute cloth diaper shows under the backpack.

Abishai was playing around with balls and I can't remember if the drawer was left open, or if he pulled it out, but this happened.  Abishai's idea.

Also Abishai's idea - fit inside a box!

LOL! That face!

Yes, those are FORKS that Daddy put in the end of his corn!  He ate it that way for the entire meal!

Haha, look at me everybody!  I know I'm cute!

This is a screenshot of one of the games I play on my phone.  It's actually a 3x3 grid and I have to solve each piece, which has to do with colors and numbers.  I thought it was a great picture this week!

FINALLY my annual Pumpkin Spice Latte (with almond milk!) from Starbucks.  And to quote the husband, "you mean your mortgaged coffee).  Yes, it actually cost $6! What?!  I can't remember paying even that much in PEI.  I haven't had a Starbucks coffee since PEI either.  It was ok.  The almond milk did make it taste a bit different, but I still got a nice sugar/caffeine high that lasted until now, lol.

If you look closely, you'll see they are playing a racing type game on unicorns, what?!  And they were laughing so hard when it did weird things like rear up.  It's really a game that you play on a motorbike.

Someone managed to get up and play around with Daddy's computer.  Caught in the act!  I need to catch him doing one of his newer signs/motions of "I don't know" because he also tries to say something when he does it.  He has also mastered the sound of an airplane flying.  But he's trouble, and loud, and passionate, and picky, and, himself.

A normal forecast for this area for this time of year.  Not like PEI's much cooler weather.  But they have also been dealing with the affects of Hurricane Matthew, with lots of wind and rain which has caused power outages and major flooding, especially in Nova Scotia.  The hurricane picked up a ton of water when it was close to the maritimes and that's why it dumped so much.

Trying to hide under my computer so he couldn't be taken to bed.

Speaking of bedtime, Justin came into our room two nights ago, almost in tears, because it was 11:30pm and he couldn't sleep.  The main reason that night was that Daddy allowed him to have Mountain Dew at Taco Bell at 7pm.  But he confessed that the previous 2 or 3 nights, he also had trouble going to sleep.  He obviously felt convicted that he had been disobedient.  I wasn't mad.  There are lots of reasons people can't sleep.  I think it's because he's older and doesn't need as much right now.  So I told him he can stay up later just as long as he can still get up in the morning and he isn't grouchy.  He loves to read, so that's what he can do until he feels sleepy enough.  I also rubbed some essential oils on his feet that night and within 15 minutes he was ready to turn off the light.  Thank goodness.  But I thought it was so sweet that he was upset about it.