Year 2, Day 177: The Day After

Like I said in yesterday's blog, we spent today just us, in the quiet, with little contact with neighborhood friends.  Actually, I had to coach Justin on how to say, "no, I'm too tired to play today."  He did say it to a new much younger friend who just wanted to play in our pool.  But he let his new regular friend inside because "they were just going to play the PS4 and the new spinners we got, etc."  So, activities that were more low key.  I did let the boy in for a bit, but didn't let him stay too long.  Otherwise, it was a quiet day.  I had a very clear head and just dove in after breakfast and conquered 2 extra large boxes, 2 medium sized boxes and 2 smaller boxes - unpacked them AND put them away!  I also moved a few things around into better places as you will see below.  I was physically feeling great, but now I can tell I did too much.  Grr....

Keturah had a hard time waking up, but I insisted she get up because she's been having a hard time going to sleep at night. I suspect she does need a little later bedtime, but only IF she can get up cheerfully by 8 am, which seems to be our normal wake up time, if not a little earlier.  I know Justin sometimes has to come out to the living room to read until 9:30 or 10 pm (Abishai needs to be in bed by 9 pm).  It helps to put them all to bed at the same time with teeth brushed and settling in to read or something and helps Abishai know it's time to sleep.  Also, Justin has been letting Socks out first thing because he's up before Keturah, but Keturah needs to be the one to bring him in.  She is in charge of the dog's in and out runs.  But hopefully, by this time tomorrow we'll have a fixed fence, so it will be a little easier to let the dog out!  Right now, he has on the long lead line that is heavily bolted to a block of cement in the ground.  Our friends came and measured the fence and such and loved on Socks for a bit this afternoon.

Speaking of projects, Jared has been busy every day doing something for the house.  He got a bunch of stuff at Lowe's on Tuesday for various things like a clothesline, a bat box (yes, live bats), more trees, and flooring for the bathrooms, which unfortunately need a lot of attention.  I kept walking into the garage and smelling that "new wood" smell and it was heavenly!  Not sure why I love it, but I do enjoy it!

Abishai puttered all day with Micro Machines and ran around with Justin and his friend.  And he did take off for Grandma's house today with a huge grin on his face looking directly at me, making me run down the driveway after him, before he turned around back to the driveway.  Punk! It's a good thing our street is so quiet during the day!  And no wonder I don't get much done during the day because between him and the dog, I'm chasing them all day making sure they aren't running the neighborhood!

So, CIY Move.  Lots of great pictures coming through on Instagram of the high schoolers praying over their fellow students by grade level.  Lots of great clips of the music.  Pics of them in hallway doing devos.  Healthy, deep, faith talks with friends.  And even a talent show to boot!  And they walked a mile one way to a park to see fireworks last night!  They come home on Saturday morning.  A lot of them will be going to a theme park on Saturday, but both Gary and Benaiah have to work at church this weekend, so they will be coming home.  The buses have to come through Indianapolis on their way to Cincinnati anyway so I'm sure there's been arrangements made like last year when Benaiah did go to theme park, but Gary and Jared traded places so Gary could preach.  Yeah, imagine that.  Spending all week with teens, staying up late, lots of activities, and still managing to get work done for his day job, and have enough energy to preach 4 times in 2 days that weekend.  Crazy! And amazing!  There's some other amazing things, but I'll show you the pictures first.

Abishai has always loved the Micro Machines, but today, he could almost name the buses with the names of his favorite TV show characters!  I think he even said, "C-2, yellow bus, Tayo" today.  In fact, Justin could name them all and the construction vehicles!  He isn't supposed to be watching the TV show when Abishai does, but he can't help it!

Big truck helps medium sized car.

Duplos with Daddy!  I haven't brought out the primary color duplos, so princess duplos it is!

Abishai was insistent that Mommy and Daddy go to sleep, complete with a folded up kleenix as a pillow and the blanket has to have the stars showing and not the plain side.

Abishai is all about people and characters.

Night night!

Now it's the trucks' turns to play house!

Foo-foo's turn!

Abishai tried to put the train together, but it's very difficult.  He said that "no big, little" indicating he knew the different sizes of the trains and that this combo doesn't work.

Awww, it's tiring to keep up with your people, isn't it Socks?  I agree!  I'm exhausted, too!

I moved this table over to under the window where I originally thought it might go.  I found the blue and yellow light and finally figured out how to make the parts fit better together.  And in doing so, I discovered a hole for a small night light size light bulb, so I did that and discovered that it's a multi way lamp!  Woot! Woot!  I'm going to put more pictures on this.  I put some baskets under the table to hold blankets and pillows from the room.

I decided to switch out some of the switchplates with switchplates I took from the Beech Grove house.  Here's the gardening one.  There is one with a bunny and bear, but it's not appropriate for the boys' room or any other place.  Bummers!

I found my light for the piano and plugged it in!  That corner won't be dark anymore!  I do need a lampshade for it though.

Always a mess of toys, but the toys have to be put away and the box needs to be moved to the toy room.

Keturah's switchplate.

Having fun in the garage and the ball pit that I thought no one was interested in right now.

Big bumble bee on this tall purple flower.

Another new flower in the garden!

OOOOOO, this one belongs in a photography contest!  Wow!  Go me!  But I liked how I can see the yellow pollen that the bumble bees have been mixing around lately.

I emptied 4 boxes of books the other day, so the space is starting to look like it should when it's all done.

Messier art supplies like paint and extra pens, pencils, paper, crayons, etc.

It took some work, but Jared got a new handle on the main bathroom door.

Our bedroom door needed some work, too.  At least Jared has the right tools and skills for the job!

Books!

So, we have tannins in our well water and it turns everything brown.  So, until we get a household water filter or softener or both, I will have to get into the bathroom and really scrub with some special liquid just for the rust/tannin.  But it left interesting streaks down.  The special liquid needs to be handled with care because it's very toxic.  It instantly changes the tub back to white (or the toilet).

Here's the special liquid.

The move the groups of teens around to different spots each night so everyone gets a chance to be close to the stage.  Benaiah is somewhere in that most pit.

Benaiah's point of view at worship time.

I guess little man was hungry enough to try to eat hot dogs through the pacakging.

Peanut butter, bnnana, and lots of festive sprinkles!  Then Justin and Keturah confessed that they ate sprinkles straight out of the container, being careful not to put their mouths on the bottle.

Justin made a jell-o lime no bake cheesecake.  Problem is, only two people will it.  I'm still restricting sugar for Abishai and I think it's working, so he won't be eating much of it. I can't eat it for many reasons, and Jared won't because of the sugar and lime is low on his favorites' list, like it is on mine.  But Justin read the recipe, made notice of what ingredients we needed, went to the store with Grandma for them, and then made it mostly by himself.  He's quite the baker!

And now for the grand finales of this blog post:

This picture was taken in Holland, Michigan 8 years ago when Benaiah joined Gary at CIY because Gary was the main speaker that year at that location.  Benaiah was only 7 years old.

Now check them out.  I asked them to recreate the picture for me so I could do the side by side comparison.  Amazing!  Grandpa and almost fully grown grandson.  Awww!!!!!

Talent show at CIY.  Benaiah solved his Rubix cube in 36 seconds, wowing the crowd!  Pretty awesome!  That kid belongs on the stage and always has!  Rock on, Benaiah!