Year 2, Day 219: Frustrated Beyond Belief

Well, I could be dramatic like I was a few hours ago, but that didn't help anyone, especially me, and the day wasn't a total waste.  Long story short, I met with a new doctor this morning who restricted my diet even further, taking out all carbs including potatoes and all fruit, and added tons of encouragement to eat as much good oils as possible.  She also switched two of my supplements, again.  While I do understand the philosophy and reasoning behind all of this, I wasn't prepared mentally at all for this.  The more I restrict my eating, the worse I'm getting, and the angrier and more bitter I get about it.  Therefore, I'm going back to where I was, except for the sugar part.  I'm going to still stay away from the added sugars, but I'm not going to be nit picky.  I plan on enjoying my vacation without the stress and guilt of food choices hanging over my shoulder.  So, I had gluten free pasta and jarred spaghetti sauce that did have sugar in it with my chicken for dinner tonight.  And I opened a bag of corn tortilla chips.  I'm giving myself a break, and my bank account a break as well, and will reevaluate in a couple of weeks, before I adhere to the new regimen.  I'm just at the end of my rope with this.  Life is too short to always be thinking about food, or where the restrooms are, or pain.  So, tomorrow at the fair, I will be treating myself to an elephant ear.  And then I'll be stricter with the rest of the week.

Meanwhile, I had to drag the middle kids with me to that appointment on the northside because this afternoon, there was a homeschool Poke'mon club at the downtown Central Library and it was on the way home from the northside.  Despite being in such a horrible mood after the appointment, I was still able to ooh and ahh over the bigness of that library!  (Pictures below!)  Now, I'm sure there are bigger libraries, but how come I've lived in Indiana for 20 years and NOT been to this library?!  No wonder people do photo shoots down there!  The club part was great.  Everybody was super friendly except for me because I was moody and tired and my back hurt a ton from driving.  I apologized to them for that and said hopefully next time I can be more social.  There was even a sweet stay at home during the day Dad that brought his knitting along!  Now, this wasn't some pansy of a guy either.  I applaud guys that are willing to be so secure in their manhood that they can a)knit in public and b) come to group where most of the adults are women and still strike up a conversation.  We had a dad on PEI that was like that.  These dads typically work 2nd shift so Mom can work during the day and the kids can still be home and be homeschooled.  That's a huge sacrifice.  Justin had a blast meeting with fellow Pokemon enthusiasts and said he got some great cards!  Keturah was well, bored, because she didn't bring a book into the library to read and we were on a level that was all picture books and I couldn't make it back up a floor (there's 6 floors!) to the graphic novels.  Besides, I told her, the reason she likes the graphic novels (think comic book novels, NOT the naughty kind), was because they were easier to read with less words and more pictures.  She's not going to check any of those out anymore, especially during the school year.  All the novels that are on her reading level that I know, and love, and trust are now on the bookshelf at home.  Same goes for the YouTube videos she gravitates to.  Too much sass comes from watching YouTube, so she got banned from that again.  We have tons of shows that I know, love and trust at home that she hasn't seen.  This isn't because I'm being over protective, but it frees me up from having to worry about what she's getting from these mediums, at least for the time being.  It won't be a forever punishment either.  SO, she was super bored and whiny and hungry (although we packed a snack lunch).

The library is very impressive and I can't wait to explore it more in the coming months.  This group meets once a month.  And there was plenty of parking AND I got to use the new meter system for the first time today!  I paid for the maximum amount of time so I wouldn't have to worry about it, but that meant I paid $6 for 6 hrs.  Oh well.  Hopefully the bank account will survive that transaction, if it has survived my big purchase at Meijer the other day and my big bill at the doctor's office today.

Meanwhile, Benaiah worked at Grandpa's house in the yard again because he has a few more hours to put in before school starts on Wednesday.  He'll be coming with us to the fair tomorrow though! And then he went to church for a few hrs as well.  He met with the worship leader for the youth group and he'll start out by doing their tech on youth group nights.  He hopes to get his foot in the door and start playing drums for them this year.  But it does mean he has to go extra extra early to youth group, and since he works tech on Sunday mornings, it also means he will be at church for a total of 9 or so hours on a Sunday.  There goes family time!  At least on Sundays.

Jared did his usual, editing a book for e2/Gary and sending out packages and whatever else needs administering.  And Dan the man had the house to himself today and put the cabinet back in the bathroom after he finished the cutouts for the water lines and put up the rest of the walls and trim on top.  Woot! Woot!  Nearly there!  Oh, and Socks and Abishai went over to Grandma's for the day.  He was the "belle of the ball" sort of speak at her crochet group of course.  And Socks had a nice little jaunt over to Big Run again because the gate had been left open by mistake at Grandma's house.  I got that phone call as I was going into my appointment this morning from a nice lady who caught him.  Let's see, what else.  Oh yeah, Ethan met Benaiah at church for tech and then came to our house for supper.  Abishai was super excited to show "E" the new backyard toys.  He kept saying, "Come on, E!" and pulled him outside. 

Tomorrow is fair day! I'm praying I'm up to the task, but that's why I'm making sure Benaiah is going to.  At least he can carry stuff and chase after Abishai.  And for once, I'll have all 4 kids with me on a field trip!  I'm dragging the poor 15 year old to another field trip on Friday as well.  I probably wouldn't have signed up and paid in advance for that one if I had thought through when we were going to the fair.  It's supposed to be extremely nice tomorrow, too.  And it's a familiar enough event center that I almost don't need a map and I know where bathrooms are and things the kids would like.  At least I'm not nursing anyone this year either.  $2 per person to get in, $5 for parking and most food vendors have one of their items for $2.  It's the cheapest you can get.  Also, most rides are $2, but we don't trust the rides, especially after seeing what happened in Ohio a week or so ago with one teenager dying when their carriage rocketed off the ride and it hurt a few others as well.  If we have time we might do a big slide or fun house or something low key.  I think we will just peek into the animals unless Abishai becomes super excited.  Those barns are huge and I don't feel like walking them if 3 out of 4 kids are bored.  We have plenty of farm friends where we can go and get up close and personal with farm animals.

Ok, more on that tomorrow.

We followed a truck most of the way up to my appointment today.  Guess what was on it and how we could tell?  It was Amazon! We saw the big Amazon swoop, and I knew that they would just slap a label on big boxes like diapers without putting it another box and there was one in the stack.  Plus just the sizes of the boxes gave it away, and the fact that it was shrink wrapped and we were on our way north and there is a big fed ex hub up there.  It could have easily been Subscribe and Save or same day or 1-2 day prime items.  I love Amazon way too much!

Jared texted me this picture with the caption: These are the biggest bananas I have ever seen!

The Central Library is so big, they have carts for all the books you want!

Once we got up t the 6th floor, (yes the 6th floor!), we could see all the downtown skyline to the south, as well as the veterans monument and park!  A friend took our pictures there before her family and our family left the country 5 years ago (to different countries).

Guys! Gals! Check this out!  A whole section just for biographies! And a whole wing for picture books! And DVD's! Why oh why haven't we been here before?

Look at all those non fiction stacks!

View from the northside.  Poor Justin was freaking out because it was so high and it was all glass on the sides.  I think he's afraid of heights like me!

It looks like a real professional library with desks that have lamps and everything!

3D art!  And there were many, many other displays throughout the building as well.

This was just ONE portion of ONE floor!  Be jealous!  And for the Doctor Who fans, doesn't it remind you of "Silence in the Library?"

Looking down on the atrium from the 5th floor.

They have 6 zones in the kid areas on two floors.  And these displays were IN the FLOORS!  So neat!

TONS of computers for the little kids! I can't wait for Abishai to see this!  And I'll take more pictures of the other elements next time!

The theater was a green screen and had a series of videos running where the kids could be a part of it!  And plenty of seating all around.  It's where we met for our group.

Look, Justin's in a video game!

Some of the boys doing their Pokemon thing.  Oh, there was this annoying preschooler there, who wasn't part of our group, that kept stealing Justin's stuff!  At one point, Justin had to chase him down and forcefully pluck a card for the kid's hands and had to walk away from the kids throwing a tantrum.  Unfortunately, I couldn't talk to the mom because it was obvious that they had just moved here in the last year or so from the middle east or India or something.  They only spoke in their language.  And she only tried pulling him away from Justin, without much discipline or lectures and what not.  It was a little sad and hard to watch.  I'm not saying that their culture had anything to do with the situation.  I've met my fair share of undisciplined white Americans, too.  Anyway, we were glad when they left.

I think someone needs to go back to driving school!  He likes to park on the end of a row so others can't bang into his doors with their doors.  But still!  Who do you think are? Just kidding.  It's rather funny!

Let's just see what happens when big brother swings you!

Wheee!!!!!!  They shook the branches on one whole side of the tree!  Wow!

Ta da!  We finally have clear headlights after several years of cloudy ones!

Gorgeous sunset! I took this on my phone from on top of the playground.  I took more on the big camera and played around with settings, but I'll load those up tomorrow.