Year 2, Day 267 & 268: More mess, more sick, more behind.

I really dislike being a day behind on the blog because I have a hard time remembering what happened.  But here we go.

On Monday, I started one of those "ticket" systems for behavior.  The middle kids start with 12 pennies, 1 penny equaling 5 minutes of screen time.  I have them start with 12 because I do need that little bit of break in the day.  They get a penny for first time obedience, which means obeying the first time, and with a good attitude.  They also get a penny for answering questions well in school, more specifically meaning they have been listening to my reading and teaching and can narrate back to me what they heard and learned.  Pennies are taken away when they whine or I have to tell them a second time to do something, especially during school time.  So far, Justin's infractions equals his good deeds, so he's getting 1 hr of screen time a day.  Keturah, however, loses most of her pennies.  Except for today.

Today, Keturah got really ill for a while.  Justin was playing around after they watched a DVD for their writing class, causing Keturah some motion sickness.  So, she laid down on the couch in the fireside room.  She tried to listen to school, but it was hard.  She ended up overheating or having a fever because she felt extremely hot.  But it was a bit scary when she was literally crying because of how much her tummy hurt.  She did feel like she could have thrown up a couple of times, but she doesn't usually cry when she has the stomach bug.  Because of the location, intensity, and type of pain and given her age, we thought maybe it was related to almost being a preteen.  But so far, nothing.  And today (Wednesday, as I write this blog), she's perfectly fine.  I finally gave her a full does of children's ibuprofen and she dozed off for awhile.  When she got up, she felt nearly fine.  Hm,....well, I told her because of the fever and not knowing what exactly it is/was, she couldn't go to gymnastics this week.  She was huffy the rest of Wednesday.

And to be honest, I needed the time at home today because we have another extremely busy weekend coming up.  We all know Gary has a very busy fall season bouncing between events during the week and sometimes the weekends, or part of weekends (if you consider Friday the weekend).  But I didn't realize how busy I can get, especially trying to coordinate with when Gary is gone, and sometimes Jared is gone with him.  Thankfully, not every trip has to do directly with e2, so Jared doesn't have to go.  But this weekend, I get to go to Lansing with the men, and Leah has all 4 kids for two days! Woot! Woot!  This is a Johnson first!  Then Sunday is another full day with who goes where and does what in what vehicle.  We are going to church and then I'm being dropped off to a softball event to sell some Lilla Rose.  Yes, it's a Sunday, but it's like 5 minutes up the road.  I'd like to gain some local customers.  Plus the kids can walk around and do things like face painting, bounce castle, and car show.  Or watch some softball!  I would have loved to do the craft fair that Benaiah's school is doing, but it's the day before and initially they said no DS businesses.  But they opened it up to DS businesses, and so my partner in crime gets to sell Lilla Rose alongside her own personal crafting that she already signed up to sell.  She's hoping to join me on Sunday as well.

But, enough about crazy schedules.  Or, well, we need to guard our time better.  Tonight, Abishai was all about "Miss you, Daddy" because Daddy has been super busy with orders and getting USB drives ready to sell for the e2 events, so sometimes he isn't home until 6:30, or like tonight, he has to put in a couple more hrs after supper.  Benaiah is super busy with school and has stayed up until nearly midnight some nights this week, and it's not always because he procrastinates or plays his video games, etc.  He could try to study harder and ahead on the weekends when he's not doing tech.  But, I, too, am struggling at getting my rear in gear in the mornings, although physically I feel much better.  I tend to start the day off slow and then kick it into high gear around 1pm.  And we are all missing these gorgeous fall days.  I think I'm going to slow down the academics a bit while it is so gorgeously perfect.  I can take some school outside, but often, we have multiple books we are looking at or I need this or that for a project, so it would be a shift to try that.  But I should, and I will.  I've been hanging out with Abishai in the morning outside after I hang the washing.

Well, we have a mouse loose somewhere in the house because we've found some teeth marks and poo droppings in the walk in pantry!  On the second shelf!  Which means, I have to go in and thoroughly clean the shelves.  But for now, I had one more peppermint sachet, so I strung it up in there.  Because it is very strong, I am now sick of it and probably won't ingest peppermint mochas for awhile.  I thought I heard a rustling in the boxes next to my desk 5 days ago, and at first I thought it might be a big moth or cricket or something, but I think it could have been a mouse.  So, who knows.  We'll put some traps down and see.  I've seen more types of critters in this house than all my homes combined! Ugh! I don't know if it's because of the weather, or disturbing the crawlspace all the time with repairs, or what, I'm just tired of it!  But the end of the repairs is in sight.  Just need to add flooring and put back the trim and clean in the full bathroom tomorrow.  And Mr. Handyman will work on putting in the dishwasher, too, although I don't want to use it until we have a water softener or whatever to fix the tannins.  I don't want it stained.  But, we'll see!

Yesterday, I was online and Mr. Nanney, the principal at Benaiah's school, started a Facebook live!  So the other kids and I got to "do school" live with Benaiah! They were doing the egg toss experiment where you build some kind of contraption that protects the egg from a fall.  Mr. Brickey, the main science teacher, was the one up there on the scissor lift.  Cool!

Just another beautiful day in the neighborhood, perfect for the naked baby!  He was in his pj's, so I took them off so they wouldn't get filthy.  So, naked baby steering the ship!

Abishai's play can be very rough sometimes.  Today he decided that sitting n the dog was ok.  Socks just laid there perfectly still, although I could tell he wasn't particularly happy about it.  Abishai kept slipping off of his back though.  I took a few pictures and then told him not to do it anymore.

This one needs to be printed, framed, put in a baby book!  A little boy and his dog!

Creepy clown Benaiah when the lights went out at school during lunch.  Creepy.  But it's him.

Abishai trying to cheer up a sick Sissy.

Abishai purposefully got out the stool so he could be higher up so he could shoot Justin, pew! pew!

Plantings from who knows where.  Jared's pet projects.  I say we need this or that for the house and he says we need more trees.  Just normal husband/wife disagreement stuff.  But yes, today, there's even more cutlings in those buckets.  Oh, and the garage door won't open and close by itself anymore.  Fun.  Or not since I can't reach it to pull it down. 

Just a boy in his pj's with his guitar hanging out on the driveway after supper.  Totally normal, right?

Sing a song for Daddy!

"Daddy's Twuk"

Beep! Beep!

Bird in the nest next to the rising moon.

Hiding from Daddy!

Peek a boo!

Sunset!

Ew! Wolf spider near my desk!

This is John Dorsey.  He's the founder and president of Lilla Rose, Inc. and today they shared an exiting new stylist kit packed with goodies and value.  He's extremely fun and it was great to watch the unveiling live on Facebook!  They will share it with the public next week!

I still have food that was packaged in Canada.  This is "Raspberry Leaf Tea" in French!  Super sad face because eventually, I won't have any food left with French on it.  It's all in Spanish down here in the States.  BTW, this tea is excellent for womanly things.

Another beautiful day to hang the wash!

PE class outside!  Jumping off the rock is the skill Abishai is working on.

Another bug on my window!

Abishai is making friends with kids whose older sibling goes to Bible Bowl.  He also gave Kenny a hug tonight!  It took a bit to warm up to Kenny, but now Abishai is seeking him out.  Sweet!

This family has a baby that is Abishai's size but yunger.  Abishai did a great job sharing with the kids tonight as well, even after one of them tumbled over him.  They both survived.

1...2...3....go!

Baby feet!

Climbing!

He's not hurt.  He choose to lay down and sun bathe.

Leave it to Mr. Handy Husband to come up with a rig like this.  The clothesline is sagging from the weight of the clothes, so we are trying to make sure the pole sticks straight up and doesn't lean in.

The bushes out back need more water with all this heat.  Or, it's just time for their leaves t change colors.

The middles worked inside while I took Abishai outside out of the way.  But Keturah joined in on PE class.

Noree has a great time on the swing!

When did she go and grow up?

This is what was under the floorboards.  Totally rotten floor joists!  Oh my word!

Wow, what a big difference!  Almost done!

Another day, another nest.

I forgot to take an after picture, but this is bacon wrapped chicken thighs with onion tucked into the bacon and sprinkled with chives and salt.  It smelled and tasted incredible!

Abishai loved the bacon, too!

Building with Daddy!  He loves the duplos right now and is handling them well.