Year 2, Day 73: Rougher than Sandpaper

Oh where to begin! It's just been a bit rough lately.  From major back pain for me to very tired out kids from the weekend to grumbly teenagers and toddlers throwing fits.  Sigh.  Then there's taxes.  Every time I tried to get a little done on those taxes, I come up with 5 more questions and 10 more uncertainties.  Therefore, I'm looking into help.  I just can't do it.  I'm a mess.  So, we've tried to work on some school, and some of it has gone smoothly, but then kids say things like "He's shaking the table!" and "She's looking at me!" Hopefully they learned something in between those lines.  They both worked on their history projects for co op today and did well.  Both Justin and Keturah have come to some harder parts in their math books, so they've had to do some "extra" (for them it's extra) pages (most kids would probably do all the exercises in the book, but once we master something, we move on).  It's a good thing the IAHE homeschool conference is in 10 days!  Cannot wait!  Maybe I'll meet their math "teacher" aka the one who wrote their curriculum and taught the lessons for the DVD's.  At least I'll get to hear him speak in person.  And another favorite blogger will be there.  And the book fair of course, which, I won't be buying much, but just walking around will be nice.  Ah...dreaming....now back to reality....

So, because I've got some bad brain fog, I'll try to piece together a few posts from Facebook I wrote so that there's some history of my thoughts from the last few days.  Here goes.

From yesterday:

I want to believe that my kids will mature. But kids need boundaries to push up against that will push back. Here's a visual for you: parents are like rough hewn old fashioned wood fence from the 1800's. We aren't set perfectly and we'll leave splinters in whoever is pushing up against us. But we remain firm, guiding the child in the right direction as they bump up against us and bounce back into the safer corral area. We can't be mamby bamby in our discipline. Kids are looking for us to hold our own side of the rope firmly planting our feet in the muck and more of life while they thrash about on the other end trying to figure it all out. We can not be the ones flailing about or pushing and pulling. Like the 10 commandments set in stone, we are following Christ and being that solid foundation and rock for the kids to stand on. It hurts and sometimes the fence breaks and the rope slips out of our hands and the rock gets chipped. And yet as parents, we persevere. We have to. - Melinda's Spark of Wisdom for today. 

(wow, I was on fire with that post!)

From two days ago:

It's so hard when your homemaking skills want to go into overdrive planning furniture arrangement in a new house you don't own yet, but you want to own. Trying not to get too excited, but, it's way too much fun thinking about where everything will go! Not that I have energy to do it all at once of course......but.....I'm an organizer and like to dream what things COULD look like before kids go in and mess it up, lol. Anyway, prayers still appreciated for the house hunt of course. God knows which house is best, although we are enjoying doing this process together again. We bought the Beech Grove house when I was like 2 weeks post partum after having Benaiah and we hadn't been married a year yet. So we were very different people nearly 15 years ago. Now, we really KNOW each other's tastes, and complement each other, like Jared looks at the foundations and bare bones of a house, and I envision how we would divvy up rooms and make sure we aren't too close to a busy street or fast moving creek, etc. And we both want a LIBRARY so badly! And a school room. More than we want a living room. We are WEIRD. But I love him because he's different. Sigh. Onward for the week!

(we might hear back from the seller/bank tomorrow, so keep praying)

(On some health news): I bought pea protein powder to add to regular unsweetened almond milk that I can get at Aldi's, instead of paying for the Silk brand of almond/coconut milk that has the added pea protein (plus a tiny bit of sugar to help the "medicine" go down). It should be interesting. Still not 100% free of dairy because it's like in everything, and sometimes eggs are in things, too, but I'm getting there. I'm not eating any regular cheese or eggs directly/in their pure forms. Only if they are in a gluten free baked good or something like a granola bar or something, not even the doughnuts or breads or muffins or cookies I could get gluten free. Energy level is a tad better, but still pain everywhere. Gut is definitely happier. Need to sleep more, too.

(still struggling with a ton of "I want cheese/milk/yogurt/eggs" withdrawal.  such quick and easy protein! I don't like chewing up meats like chicken and pork chops, wah.)

Yup, pretty much sums the last few days up.  Seriously though, the back pain was at an 8 out of 10 today and I get so frustrated that nothing but the step down from morphine medication, Tramadol, is the only thing that will touch it.  Thankfully, Jared picked more of that up tonight.  I feel like I have so many plans and physical things to do, but just can't do it.  Jared reminded me (and I usually remind myself) that I just have to be humble and continually ask for help.  I'm the planner/organizer, but I don't have to be the person to put things where they need to go, even tubs of toys on a shelf.  I just have to be more specific in my directions.  There's a lot of balls to juggle right now, and I can't keep up, I won't keep up.  But I do have my phone switched over!  Everything is back up and passwords put in except for my MAIN email account, which is NOT good, but I'll figure that out tomorrow (hopefully).  So, at least the battery on this phone will last more than 5 minutes.  No joke, I would go from 100% charged to 5% charged in under 5 minutes.  I'm happy as a clam that I didn't have to reset all my settings and apps.  It took a full 24 hrs for apps to upload from the iCloud, but that's fine.  Now I won't be the woman with the white cord hanging out of her pocket while her phone is connected to a portable charger all the time.  Speaking of time, look at this:

Many moons ago, aka like 7 years ago....Benaiah was smaller than me and Jared had hair.

And now that same little kid is the biggest one of them all and is behind that big hunkin' video camera!  He was helping out at a preachers' conference at church.

We were passing by the shelf with all the ice cream toppings in Meijer and came across this birthday cake syrup stuff that hardens when you put it on ice cream.  Only Benaiah could remember what it was like because we hadn't had it in our house for like 6 years.  They were all amazed at how fast it hardened.  It was yummy!  I tasted it, although it does have dairy in it.

Nom! Nom!

The Battle of Troy lesson!  Justin actually remembers doing this 4 1/2 years ago and described what we had used and everything!  He wasn't too happy I was having him do it again for Keturah to experience it.

The clear horse is part of a kit I had as a kid where you can build the bones and organs and such as a model and put them inside the house.  It's perfect for Lego mini figures pretending to be Greek warriors!

Abishai loves to play with the doll house at the church where we do co op and since he missed out on that today (we had the day off), I let him play with Keturah's playmobile set.  He loved putting the people in the van he's played with for months.

Sister and Ba-bee (brother) helping the baby. 

I said it once or twice, but Abishai recognized that the pool at pretend water in it.

A very neat vet set, complete with x-rays, the cones of shame, a drape for surgery, bandages, and an ultrasound machine.  Although, Abishai thought it was a table and put a chair and person in front of it.

We did have some snow yesterday, but not like the Eastern Coast and the Maritimes got today.  Super jealous of all their snow!  It's been pretty cold and I've always said, if it's going to be cold, there better be snow!

Random funny person Justin made instead of paying attention during afternoon lessons.

So, this happened.  Justin saw Keturah playing with play dough and he asked to play with play dough.  Ok, sure, if it keeps you quiet and you listen to the story, go for it.

Those are some rotten looking teeth, Keturah!

Crazy smile!

Keturah showing off that she can balance on the roller.  Perfect exercise to show to her classmates at co op!

Rolling back and forth strengthens your core.

And cute diaper butt had a great play time with some "ting ting" aka guns and armor.  He actually did have i around his waste!

Who needs pants when you're a gunslinger?

Ah, now this works even better!  These gun is a set and if you point it at the thing around Abishai's neck, it's supposed to set of a certain sound that indicates you have been hit, kind of like laser tag.  There's another gun and belt somewhere.  But yes, Abishai can hold a gun well.