Year 2, Days 280 & 281: A Great Two Days!

Wow, the kids actually did their schoolwork today and earned their TV time! It's a miracle!  When they bicker less, I can work on other projects, which I did.  Ok, Abishai was having his TV time and that helped, too.  I was working on organizing the winter gear because I thought it was going to be an easy thing to put it all away.  I don't mind permanently storing it in the closet instead of a bin because what else goes up in the front hall closet?  At least the current, fitting winter stuff does.  I've always done it that way.  So, I sorted out the too smalls but then had a problem.  Some very small 18 month girl coats were in the box and really, they should be with the rest of the 18month clothing.  The little boy's stuff were all in their appropriate size box.  Well, then I went searching for the girl box and the rest of the kid clothing to see if I was missing anything because I couldn't find last year's coats for Abishai nor the ones I should have for this year.  Hm,....which then led me to figuring out what I'll need to pull next week for the major clothes switch,....which gets me frustrated because I have things in several spots - out in the garage, out in the shed, in their closet and in the front closet.  Why can't it ever be easy?  My system hasn't changed terribly much but for some reason, things still get put in the wrong spot when something else gets shifted.  And I'm always worried I'm missing a box somewhere.  I generally have all kid clothes we are not using in tubs and gathered in one spot, but not always grouped together and there can be 2-3 tubs per size sometimes, especially with the bigger sizes.  The goal would be to have everything in tubs so it all can go out to the shed.  But that's not going to happen anytime soon because our budget is in crisis.

I don't know how, but even with the conversion, we make more here than we did in Canada.  So, why do we have a budget in crisis?  Well, I'm going to have to go digging and investigating and putting us on a stricter budget.  And maybe get a part time job teaching piano lessons or something.  Or maybe Jared could drive for Uber at night (no, he would never do that, too risky).  And this is part of our journey, figuring out once again, what's going on financially and separating out needs and wants.

But it was a great day in that the kids' educational "bank account" is full for once.  I want to do more hands on activities and perhaps we could have today but I needed to go grocery shopping tonight.  Perhaps tomorrow.

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It's tomorrow.

And, we did do a bit more hands on stuff with anatomy, but didn't get the art project I was going to try with Abishai done.  Instead, we worked on finally putting up the knick knack shelves in the living room!  I'll wait to reveal that until I can get a picture of it in daylight and then another one after I decorate it.  But it's up.  And I was able to get out what I think is all our frames and random pictures from over the last 16 years.  Now I just have to decide where they will all go.  Most of them are smaller pictures, but I have some ideas for wall collages or groupings on certain shelves.  I'm sure I'll come across more pictures and knick knacks, but I'm not going to fuss over it.  I have what I have and if I come across something better when I do go through my personal stuff or my parents' stuff, than I will replace it.  I like to surround myself with things that have meaning more than I want everything to match.  I'll get there.

But the kids did all behave once again and school went better than it has.  And we go on break next week! So who knows what the following week will be like.  I'm happy that we've had some great school days and some of my little projects have been worked on.  But now I'm sick with the headcold which is no fun.  We also went to the library and Abishai had a blast with the toddler program and playing in the tractor.  And we left with only a tiny stack of books! Lol.

Something to think about from a Max Lucado book.

Justin had his best test score yet for Bible Bowl (I'm including last year's test scores in this analysis), 61%!

This is how we start the day?!  Sort of.  We snuggle, I stretch, and I do check my phone first.

Cuteness after I went to put a dirty diaper in the trash.

Pew, pew, I got you!  (Then she falls down and pretends to be heart).

Pretty clouds after getting groceries.

Morning stories with his cars.

He hurt himself getting this truck up on the counter, but he did it.  Then he pretended it was a drum.  Joy!

On a normal toddler time day, I guess they read board books with their parents or grandparents, then there's a song, the librarian reads a couple of stories, another song, and then the toys come out.

Stories with the librarian.  She seemed to know a few of the kids' names, so they must come regularly.  It was very low key and perfect for what I want it to do to help Abishai learn some socialization skills.

I loved seeing Abishai interact with kids his own age.  I don't volunteer in his class at church, so I don't understand if he's getting along with his peers well or not.  I mean, none of the volunteers have said anything either way, but I just want to make sure we taking the time to teach him how to get along.  I think he is doing well, but Tuesday Toddler time is great practice, too.  Here he found a police car of course!

And he found a garbage truck!

And more "dump it out" trucks and construction vehicles.

Working hard with a car carrier.

Now onto a garage with locking bay doors!  He got upset when I went to put it away and it wasn't put together properly with the right color vehicle in the right color bay.

The middle kids enjoying some reading time while Abishai plays.

I think Abishai was a bit intimated by all the kids and clung to his blankie and paci a bit.

Another day and another kid who has the smallest waist for his age!  As I put on Instagram, these are brand new 24 month pants.  Abishai is 32 months.  So, it's not like the elastic has been stretched out or rotted, but they are huge!  I guess the average kids is much thicker than mine are.  Benaiah was fairly small, too, until he was 8 or 9.  Oh well, at least the kids wear the clothes for longer than most.

Abishai and I enjoy watching one of my favorite vloggers with two small kids that live in Toronto.  This video was about going to the pumpkin patch!

The truck is "working" on the edge of the countertop.

Trying out mini multi colored carrots!  Abishai really like the purple ones!

Just a few of our bigger Lego sets.  I'm grateful that Justin has kept them together though.  They look so cool!

Oops, I should have gotten a bigger pot!  I took a packed of jambayla rice and seasonsings and added more rice, more seasonings (Tony's), meat, carrots, leftover veggies, and sea salt.  It was a bit too spicy for Keturah, Abishai and I, but we ate it.  There's plenty of leftovers!

Oh yes, there are two big movies coming out in November: Marvel's Thor:Ragnarok and D.C.'s Justice League.  And then a big trailer/preview just dropped for Star Wars: The Last Jedi (#8 in the main series) which is incredible.  We love our sci fi/comic book movies!  It will be a great winter!  This picture is of the red carpet premiere and it shows the audience that is similar to the audience in the battle arena (think Gladiator) watching the action.  Very neat!  I watched the livestream and it was distracting, but I always like to hear what the actors have to say.  Time for some fun!