Year 2, Day 109: When You Over Do It

I overdid it yesterday, so today was a ssslllloooowwww day.  Actually, Jared worked from home after he dropped Benaiah off at school, and then left when Benaiah needed to be picked up.  It was awesome having him home for a day!  I haven't seen many adults lately, so just to have someone to talk to was nice.  It is distracting to have him home because I want to sit and talk and not work, but that's ok, I needed to slow down today.  I actually take a mini nap right after breakfast because I had a wicked headache.  Abishai has been a doll today, playing by himself, in and out on the porch.  I packed 1 box, organized Abishai's clothes (again), and prepared a big box for the boys' Legos.  I made some muffins and just bummed around otherwise.

Oh, Abishai has a new word!  When he agrees with something like, "Do you want a banana?" he says really quietly, "Ya." It's adorable!  He basically whispers it.  I think he may be coming down with a cold though because he had a snotty nose all day, kept wiping it on his hands and then came to me to wipe it off.  OH OH OH! He KNEW he had a dirty diaper like 3 times today and a couple of times yesterday!  That's a great sign for potty training in a few months once we settle in after moving!  Justin never cared if he was dirty or wet, and he took forever to potty train.  I have some homemade pull up type cloth diapers that were made out of cool character t-shirts I can't wait to try!  He also isn't nursing every day anymore.  We do read once in a while still.  Anyway, fun stuff!

The middles just bummed around the pool, did a little reading, and went on some errands today.  They come home around supper time tomorrow.  Justin asked for me to drive out there to get them, but it will be around traffic time and I'd rather not.  We don't all fit in the van anymore anyway, so one of us has to stay home.  We'll see.

Meanwhile, here is a couple of posts of mine from Facebook today I'd like to share.

UR 107: The Grace Experiment - Erik Guzman (Undone Redone podcast) "We are commodifying our experiences. They aren't real if you don't share them. People use the phrase 'Picture (or video) or didn't happen.'" Oh my word! This is so true! (This part isn't the point of the podcast itself, so I am pulling this quote out of context a bit). As a blogger, I know I have felt a little bit like if I don't take pictures constantly and share them, then someone's going to miss out on something. Well, it's ME missing out on LIFE. I've watched many bloggers and vloggers now apologize for vlogging less (including myself) because of life circumstances or a change in priorities. Your life isn't lived because it's meant to entertain me! Go live your life! I always overshare, always have. But if I'm creating life moments that will "go perfect on the blog" then what on earth is that? It isn't life! And Mr. Guzman went onto to say that ministry people often view life looking for that next life moment to use as illustrations. I'm sure Gary does it (you know how he says, "I read this article/saw this news story" often), I know I do it. This is exactly why I will NOT make our family blog bigger with more content or sponsors or a part time/full time job. It's just a scrapbook and a place to put my thoughts. And if I only do it for the next little while, then fine. I don't need to do it for our whole life. I have physical scrapbooks up until my mom got sick. Then I used Facebook for pictures and journaling (and a paper journal). And for the last 16 months, I have had the blog. When I go back through my own childhood photos one day, I believe there is a gap in printed photos because my parents got really busy and didn't have the time or money to get rolls of film developed. My dad get most of them developed before he died, but by then, they were discolored. So what? Not everyone can or should write a memoir. Big parts of our life should remain private. I have NOT shared everything, nor will I ever share everything with even one of my best friends. God and Jared are the only ones who know everything. I will get off my soapbox now, but wow, how true is this? BTW, this is a new podcast to me, so I haven't quite gotten into it, but it's from a couple where the husband was unfaithful, they were at least separated if not divorced, and are now married again. The episodes are over 1 hr long, which is a little too long for me for car rides and listening to all at once at home while I do projects. Anyways, something to think about today.

And the second one is:

P.S. As a recovering perfectionist, I still don't really understand the meaning of grace and freedom. So these kind of aha moments where I remember, "Oh yeah, I do NOT have to post a blog entry every day if I don't want to. I do NOT have to have all my ducks in a row 1 week before we move. I do NOT have to have the perfect classical education curriculum figured out even for next year." Just typing it out helps me to remember that no child has a perfect education or childhood. Its the sum of those different parts of their childhood that will make them the adult they are. And yes, as soon as I finish reading some books on classical education and get a pretty thorough understanding of it, I will be making some changes. I don't think I'll be a pure classical educator, but I'm starting to see parts of it that are calling my name. I'm very ill equipped though, because I have never read Latin or the Great Books, but, as a podcast on classical education reminded me, just taking a step into that type of education is the beginning of bringing great thinking into our house and the world we live in. I will struggle with them through it, but I think I want to try. I just need to find some step by step guides and curriculum to start the journey because I have no clue and no higher thinking ability until I actually do it. Even if I were to learn Latin and understand bits of Cicero and Socrates at this stage in life, that's a great thing! I always wanted to be as smart as the men in my life (including Benaiah, oh my that kid is way smarter and capable than he thinks he is, which means he takes after Jared in intelligence. I know I've played a role in that, but the other 3 main adults in his life also have played their roles. And now, after a year of actually learning to apply himself and having a drive to achieve, I have every hope that he will go so much farther than Jared and I have, just like an arrow can go further than the archer.) Phew, that's alot of intelligent words for the day. I have some boxes calling my name. Plus a toddler waking up.....

Last insight for today: I think we've experienced raising a kid through pre teen/puberty/teen just long enough to know what to expect with the next one.  Here's my theory:

At age 12, all the wires in their brain get disconnected and when pre teens open their mouths, nonsense comes out.  They are very forgetful as well.  They prefer grunts and groans and weird body movements, too.

At age 13-14, they push hard on all the boundaries and you have to hold onto their life rope with all you got while they thrash about.  You can't take everything personally.  They are just trying to figure themselves out and reconnect all the wires in the brains in a different pattern in order to mature into an adult.  They are very emotional, and can be very aggressive.


At age 14-15, you finally see the fruit of your labors, and after all the wires are back in place in teens' brains, they start to become friendly towards you, and you are able to start talking to them almost like you talk to a peer.  You are on your way to becoming friends with a newly minted adult.  Now, this phase might not come until closer to 18 years old, but for us, and everything we've been through, it has happened sooner.

So, I have hope again that we've done our best raising the kids and we will see good fruit eventually.


So, just some random thoughts of mine today.

Now, back to some pictures.

Although he needs and LOVES interaction with his family, I'm so glad he can play by himself, too.  So, when he does ask for me to play or do something, I'm much more inclined to do it.  I love how he plays with his cars while he is halfway lying down.  Plus the dinosaur diaper is cute.  Ah, babyness.

I was messing around with camera settings and Abishai was putting cars down his shirt.  Ok, then.  I think the cars were getting stuck at the top of his cloth diaper.  It's pretty thick at the top.

Gluten free, dairy free pizza.  Which makes it basically bread topped with veggies and herbs.  It was VERY good and Abishai ate a quarter of it!

I know Abishai is going to miss his post on the balcony.  He's eating pizza and watching out for cars.

I tried a new recipe for Trim Healthy Mama low carb, low sugar chocolate chip muffins.  I did not add anything extra, and only changed the type of sugar substitute in them.  I did use regular butter in them.  The texture is pretty good.  But the taste is just blah.  I think it's the Trim Healthy Mama copy cat flour mix.  I think I'll try a different recipe with just almond flour or something instead.  And use regular sugar or whatever I have because I don't think xylitol dissolves well in recipes.  I DID separate dry and wet ingredients and followed all the other specific directions.  That's why the texture is better.  And they look great, too!

Last night during Bible Bowl town at church, Abishai discovered how he can climb over the orange couches.  AND how he can run the whole length of the kids' wing like a crazy man.  Lol.

Oh my goodness.  I can multitask with 3 devices now!  I can watch the red carpet premiere of Guardian of the Galaxy, take a picture on my phone, AND play my train game on the tablet.  Actually, I'm typing right now, playing the train game and listening to a podcast about babysitting.  Craziness!  While some kids drink dirty river water from 1 mile away.  Yes, we're blessed.

Can you tell how dirty Abishai's face is?  The balcony rug is filthy and when he's been playing out there, his hands get dirty and then he wipes his face.  And he HATES the bath now! Which is weird since he likes to be clean.  I think he doesn't like getting his hair washed, i.e. soap in his eyes.  We can be a little rough with a "just get it done" attitude sometimes, so it's understandable.  So, he got a washcloth bath instead.

Filthy feet!  Now I understand why people wash their feet before bedtime.

Gross!

Abishai knows that if he taps the play button while the next video is loading in a playlist on YouTube, the next video comes up faster.  Say what?!  And he also can tap on the videos he likes in the "recommended" section on the right side of the YouTube page when it's not in full screen mode.  His favorite videos today was scenes from Cars 2 and various Cars short films.

He's very comfortable on mama's lap, while mama catches up on emails.  I think he's sick because he was a lot quieter this evening.  

Then I "moved my feet and lost my seat."  I.e. I was dethroned!

Grandma shared that everybody had their own "work" station today.  So, I commented, yes, Justin is working on his fine motor skills (playing video games).  He actually had to take a break from swimming because his face was getting a bit red from sunburn.

Grandpa is probably doing real work during his work station time. Note the coffee cup, laptop, and faraway thinking look.

Grandma was working on writing down her memories of the week.  Note the teacup.  It looks like she was on pool duty, too.

Keturah was working on her "PE class" by swimming, swimming, swimming.

Apparently, Justin likes this sign at the rental house.  It reads: I have been on a diet for two weeks and all I have lost is 14 days.  Not sure why he likes it, but it's funny!

P.S. Corrections: Grandma said that only one truck at the Ford diner was a table.  The rest of the tables were normal.  But there were other vehicles suspended from the ceiling and little motors were turning the wheels!  Cool!  And they all got to choose their favorite restaurant before they come home.  So guess where Justin wants to eat?  Ihop!  And Keturah wants to go back to the Ford diner.  Not sure on Gary and Leah's choices, but I'm sure it will be something different than pancakes and burgers, lol.