Year 2, Day 55: Highs and Lows

It was one of those up and down days emotionally and physically and mentally.  So, we are all a lot worn out.  We started the day gathering up our "snow" gear because we were heading to the ice rink to ice skate!  First time and only time for the year, boo!  We ALL said we've missed skating SO MUCH! We went with our field trip homeschool group and got a really great rate that included renting the skates.  Yup, after 4 years of bringing your own skates and having to pay only $1 or $2 to skate, we had to rent skates and the discounted rate was $5 and $6.  I think normally it would have been around $11 per person or something.  And for the non Canadians, when you say the word "skate," it means ice skating.  Down here in the south, skating usually mean roller skating or roller blading.  Anyway, it did feel kind of weird that we were gathering up our coats and hats and mittens and the high today was 70 degrees!  Even inside the rink it felt really warm!  When everyone else was still in their lightweight jackets and mittens, our kids had short sleeves and no mittens.  But it was like riding a bicycle.  You never really forget how to skate.  I think Keturah went around 15-20 times.  Justin lost count and Benaiah made it to something like 50 rounds.   The pictures below will show you how Abishai did.  And yes, I got on the ice, too, for about 5 rounds before everyone else was ready to go home.

Then we had some lunch and had naptime at the in laws before the other big fun event for the day, which was watching "Finding Dory" at the church for Family Movie Night.  Abishai did not sit very still at all for the movie and so Jared and Abishai ended up in one of the preschool rooms for most of it.  Keturah sat with her friend Sarah and Justin hung out by himself.  I hadn't seen "Finding Dory" yet, although we got it for Christmas.  It was cute.  It touched on Dory's backstory right through to a year after "Finding Nemo."  It wasn't as good as Nemo though.  Bummers.

But with the highs, come the lows, and yes, it was the teen again doing his thing, pushing the emotional buttons of his mama, and mama reacted poorly to her buttons being pushed.  Nothing more than your average squabble.  I love how intelligent Benaiah is and that we can have some pretty mature discussions.  And even when he or I feel like blowing up, we both try really, really hard not to raise our voices.  We don't hurl curse words or throw objects.  There can be so wounding and hurt feelings for sure.  But I think it's part of us both growing up and learning how to relate.  Unfortunately, it's not very fun to watch, and can hurt those around us, too.  We live in a fallen world, a broken world, and we are very broken people.  I have confidence that we will get through this stage, but it's really hard sometimes and I really, really don't like that the teen and I aren't on the same page.  I want him to grow up.  I don't mind him doing big things like apprenticing at church.  I won't even mind or cry that he's going to be driving within the next year.  And I won't be bemoaning when he goes off to college.  I just don't like playing the mind games because I've never been good at it.  Thankfully, Jared is great at playing the middle man and keeping us calm and on track.  He's our neutral third party a lot of the time.  But still, I wish we could skip this part of childhood.  But we can't.  So, we press on.  And as one of my mentors have said to me, "You are on one end of the rope and the child is on the other end.  YOU need to just plant your feet in your standards and beliefs, aka, Jesus, and hold on for dear life while that child thrashes about trying to figure out where the boundaries are, who he/she is, and how they relate to the world around them.  YOU be that anchor and never let go." So, I take a step away from the discussion, take a deep breath, regroup, replant my feet, and step back into the conversation.  And keep doing that over and over again.

I would just rather change a million diapers than play mind games with a teen.  It's just not where my strengths are, but maybe by the time Abishai graduates high school, I will have this raising teenagers thing down pat!

As promised, here's today's pics:

Our Canadian gets his first try on ice skates!

These skates are so tiny!

All ready!

What are these things on my feet?!

I'm not so sure about this!

Help!

And away they go!

Daddy and Benaiah (and the lady belongs to family to a family we've known our whole married life.  she is 9 months older than Benaiah and has switched from regular dancing, to skating!)

Wee!  I've missed this!

Look, Ma, no coat!

4 out of 5 of us.  Abishai made it through one lap of the ice rink, and then near the end, he and daddy hit a rough patch and fell down.  Thankfully, no blood and just a little goose egg on the forehead.  But it was enough to scare him and I couldn't get him back near the ice again.

Let it go!

So adorable.

Abishai loved just watching everyone skate while eating his snack.  Yes, we know, these two guys are twins.

Crazy faces from Benaiah.

I see you, Daddy!

Mama skated, too!  And no one really fell much.  Just like riding a bike!

Kind of odd to see an American flag in the ice rink today.  I'm way too used to seeing a Canadian flag when we go skating.  We were at the Perry Park Ice Rink in Greenwood, IN.

Long story short, each room of the preschool/elementary wing at the church have a theme related to how the goal is to help kids grow up and be shipped out to the world.  So, in the big room they have this huge poster of a truck.  And of course little man loved seeing it!  We also saw a monster truck on our way to the ice rink this morning!  They take the big wheels off and put little ones because the big wheels would make the truck to wide for the truck bed.  I also saw some local minor "league" Indy car type racing RV and semi on my way home from my doctor's appointment yesterday.  The month of May, racing month, will be here soon!

He's got his very own popcorn!

Move your feet, loose your seat big brother Justin!  When Justin complained about it, Abishai meanly said, "I sit!"

And we received and opened another LootCrate box.  It was billed and shipped before I caught it, otherwise, my budget says I can't be buying these.  But at least this one was an excellent box with a $15 set for the Lego Deminsions video game, a thermos Lego Batman head, a power rangers t-shirt, tetris style magnets, a power rangers pin, and some literature.  And the box turned into a robot! The theme was "build."  Everybody will get something this round!  Woot! Woot!

And we'll regroup tomorrow and clean house, because when you are away several days in a week, the house gets trashed!  We just have our normal evening activities at church on Saturday and Sunday.  Yeah!  I real Sabbath!