Year 2, Day 107: De ja vue?

Oh, my.  I feel like I did, sort of, 11 months ago.  The kids had come back to Indiana with Grandma so I could focus on purging and packing.  This week, the kids are gone, and I'm packing, again! I'm not super stressed, it's just tedious and boring.  I'd rather be teaching and going on play dates.  So, I hope this is the last move I have to do for at least 10 years.  As I posted on Facebook today, I think we have 20,000 or more Lego bricks.  I am NOT joking!  Keturah has one full medium size Uhaul box (3x3x3ft?) and Justin/Benaiah has a WARDROBE size (3x3x4) box of Legos, PLUS another clear tub PLUS two short sets of plastic drawers PLUS odds and ends.  ALL LEGO! I think we're going to have to build a ton of shelves so we can display it all!  Or convert half the garage into Legoland.  Or build onto the new house and make a Lego room.  I don't know, but it's just super crazy! A lot of the Legos, Justin didn't even touch in the last 10 months.  I got him started sorting them by color and then later by type.  I'd love to give Justin the opportunity to be a Master Builder, and most, if not all, of the big wig Master Builders have their Lego bricks sorted out in those craft boxes or drawers.  They are NOT just fishing through a big bin of mixed bricks.  It's a big job though.  We've tried to keep the sets we've gotten in the last 2 years in their original boxes or put together as their original sets.  I asked Justin if I could put away those particular sets and he said no, the last time I did it, I loosened something on his X-Wing and now it's too loose.  Ok, then, Master Builder.  It can wait.

So, I've gotten a TON of stuff done, but could have pushed a tad harder today.  I still have the next 3 days to work hard at it, and then in the next few weeks, I'll focus on it in the mornings 5 days a week (maybe 6?), maybe 2 hrs or so.  It shouldn't be terribly difficult since I have the boxes prelabeled and most are still partly together.  Can't wait to unpack them for good!

Meanwhile, the kids are having a blast in Florida, swimming like 2-3 hrs straight in the morning.  They are staying at a private home, so they have the pool all to themselves.  Keturah's room has a door that opens the pool deck so she says she has special "beach access."  I did have to remind Justin that he needs to study Bible Bowl and both of them need to read their history books for me.  "Oh, Mom!  I'm on vacation!"  I don't care!  Welcome to life where vacation is not 100% free of work.  Even on vacations, Moms have to wash clothes and pick up after kids and make meals and clean up from those meals.  So, I think you'll live if you do just a little bit of reading and studying to keep your mind sharp.  I'm sure Grandpa will have about 5 books read by the end of the week and Grandma might have 1-2 done as well.  I'm currently reading a book on classical education or rather, a Latin based education.  I ordered more books on the topic from the library as well, because I really want to understand this type of education and see what I want to pick out and possibly use.

Anyway, we've had some great evening time with Daddy and Babee, but I can tell Abishai is missing Sissy and Baba Justin.  Thankfully, he does get engrossed into his play, so I can still putter around.  But I have been engaging him a lot too, by going outside and sitting down and playing marbles and marble track with him, or talking with him at meal time.  But I think he and I are lonely!  I don't know what I'll do when all the kids are grown up and out of the house!  We'll probably have grandchildren before Abishai is in college, but still, I do not look forward to an "empty nest" and "starting the rest of my life."  Not at all.  You only have like 900 weeks with each kid under the age of 18 yrs.  That's not a lot when you break it down and compare it to the rest of your life.  If you have a kid at 20 (like me), they'll be 18 when you're 38, and if I live another 40 years, he'll be 58 and I'll be 78.  Point is, what am I going to do without Benaiah for the next 40 years?  Well, thankfully, I will still have the others, especially Abishai for 13 years more.  But still? How will I fill my time after homeschooling all those years?  POINT IS, that I miss having my kids near me.  Especially Benaiah.  But he seems to be softening to other ideas of what his last 3 years of high school will look like, which can be a combination of many different classes.  Big sigh.  At least I think Justin will be with me through his high school years.  We've kind of already talked about it.  I'm not scared of Benaiah being in the big wide world, no, I'm just going to be miss my boy, like I already do now.

Ok, moving on from that rabbit trail....here's the pics.

Abishai had a short nap yesterday, and last evening, we attended an open house for a speech/debate club.  Well, Abishai was stir crazy!  So, Jared took Abishai to a local McD's while Benaiah and I listened to the presentations for 1 1/2 hrs.  We learned a lot, by the way, about speech/debate clubs, but since it's a homeschool only club, we aren't sure that we can participate if Benaiah stays at Southside.  But, I'm sure we can find a different club if he wants to pursue this more.  This on was 40 minutes anyway, and longer when there's traffic.  But now we know!

It was already 70 degrees but Abishai thinks he always needs to put a coat on to go outside.  He also thought the hood might keep the sun our of his eyes, lol.  I did get him to take it all off later.

We were playing in the car, so I said, why not buckle in the basketball!  I know it's goofy, but I've learned that kids need to explore even things that don't make sense to us adults.

For the record, we were NOT moving, the keys of the van were in my POCKET, nor would I EVER let my kids ride without a carseat or booster.  Abishai just simply wanted to pretend that he was a big boy like his older brothers.  He actually did expect to go somewhere, though, so he was disappointed when we didn't.

Pool time starting at 7:45 am with just a smidgen of breakfast in their bellies!

I think this is a hot tub area.  Nice eh?

Grandpa said that he hoped the kids would "let" them go sight seeing because they seemed to like the pool so much!  Come on, Grandpa, they can't stay in the pool forever!  Plus, I expect a report from them about what they learned while on vacation!  Just kidding!  But I do think it's important to explore an area and always, always keep learning!  These are some banyan trees.

They visited Thomas Edison's winter home!

Yogurt break, as always!  It looks like they are in a gas station.  It reminds me of the one near Aaron and Shauna's house in Chalmette, New Orleans.  The gas station there had a few flavors and toppings (not as many as a yogurt only store) plus it had like a bazillion types of fountatin drinks and coffees and coffee creamers.  I'm talking like 2 dozen drinks plus 6 coffee urns, and every flavor of coffee creamer you'd find in the supermarket.  Anyway, yummy!  A Johnson vacation tradition: ice cream EVERY day!  Keturah says she remembers doing that 2 years ago while we were on Cape Brenton in Nova Scotia.

Pool time at 8 am!  They didn't get out until 11 am!  3 hrs of swimming!  They are fishes!

Alligator field trip!  They went into the Everglades and spent the afternoon at a place with a swamp buggy ride, air boat ride, and walked through an animal and reptile collection.

Say what?! They saw a real live black bear from the buggy ride!

I'm glad they were way up high from the bear!  About 20 feet away!

Jared remembers when they rode airboats when on vacation as kids.  Now it's my kids' turn!  Maybe I'll get to do it someday, too with Abishai and Benaiah!  Keturah didn't like it though, thus the sour face.  They got to see lots of alligators.

It must have been a loud boat if they needed headphones.  I assume it was to either block the noise OR be able to hear the guide or both.

This is where they ate dinner tonight, Ford's Garage.  Interesting!  It was a burger joint.

Oh! Check out that COOL sink!  Abishai would LOVE to see this!

LOL!  Custom built?! Stamped buns? And obviously this is Gary's burger because it has a fried egg on it.  I'm sure this picture makes Jared jealous!

Yummy!

Look at this!  (I didn't look closely at the pictures until I typed the captions).  There's a table made out of a truck bed!

So, Ford trucks in each bay, and their beds are used as tables.  Awesome!

Man, I wish Abishai could have gone!  This is just up his alley! (pun intended).  I can't wait to take him and the kids to the racetrack this year and to the annual Hot Wheels exhibit at the Children's Museum.  Cars, cars, CARS!

How old are you Benaiah?  2?  Yup!

So, THAT'S where the Easter eggs went!  It's a good thing I hadn't made a big deal yet about finding them!  They are now safely tucked away so I can add them back to the Easter storage box, which I'm leaving open until I make sure that we have them all.

Oddest thing: he sat down on his car, and wanted to still cuddle his blankie after waking up this morning.  And he always, always likes to share his blankie with his stuffed animals or with us if we are snuggling with him, etc.

Time for game time with Babee!  Before we took boxes out to the garage and brought in the empty ones to be filled!  Meanwhile, we unearthed the 3/4 size guitar and Benaiah's trying to pick it up again.  Fun stuff!  I'm so glad those guitar lessons (and piano lessons) are paying off!