Year 2, Day 282 & 283: Finishing Up

Phew, that was a crazy two days!  We were trying to finish the week out strong because tomorrow we have Field Trip Friday!  A trip to the zoo!  The kids tried to do their best to hustle, but I still had to prod them along at times.  Honestly, it's hard to remember those funny moments throughout the day when I sit down to type at 10:30 pm.  Ugh!  I need to keep better tabs on things. But taking the pictures actually helps to trigger the story that goes with it.  Let's see.  I know yesterday someone came out to put a tarp on our roof because what was probably a small leak before is possibly a bigger leak now because of the rain and such from the storm over the weekend.  So, the insurance inspector guy (whatever you call him) came out to assess the damage.  There's a bit of crack and discoloration around the can lights in the kitchen.  And when the guy tarped the roof, he said there definitely is a dip of some kind where the water can pool and do more damage.  We do have a relatively small deductible, but, I'm not looking forward to paying that to get even part of the roof repaired or maybe the whole thing replaced.  It's a pretty new roof!

Speaking of weather, we haven't been outside much because it's been rainy and dreary.  Tomorrow should be a perfectly sunny 70 degree day though, and I'm looking forward to it.  I did try to focus on Abishai more this morning (Thursday, the 12th) and read to him, looked for leaves outside, and generally gave him more attention so he stays out of the other kids' way.  Keturah woke up with ankle and shoulder pain, possibly from gymnastics or just sleeping on it wrong.  Both painful areas were nearly fine by bedtime.  But we will keep an eye on them, too.  So, she stayed in the fire side room, instead of her room, to do schoolwork, so I had to keep Abishai out of there.  Justin studies up in his bed in his room unless it's naptime, but he's usually done by then.  Typically, I've been trying not to use TV time for Abishai until after lunch.  Then I can use the after lunch hour or two to work with the other two, going over their assignments that they have completed so far.  We are taking a fall break next week, but we do have a few things to finish up over the weekend because of our field trip tomorrow.  And I want them to continue reading and practicing their memory work so we don't lose it.  But we won't be doing math,history, science, grammar, or writing. I had to sort our stacks of library books into piles of "must read this week," "must read at some point," and "optional."  There's soo many great books related to history that it's so hard to not have them read them all!  But I know that time is limited and too much information can be confusing, not clarifying.

Both of them are making great strides in all areas.  Well, Keturah hates math and is struggling with multiple digit multiplication.  She understands it sometimes, but not always, so for these few lessons, we have done every single problem at least twice and all the practice pages.  I think her mind is more creative and math isn't going to be her strong subject.  But we will just keep practicing.  Benaiah is doing fine, per usual, although he complained about math as well because they were doing something with 3 different equations.  His fall break starts tomorrow, so he's going with us to the zoo and to another field trip to the apple/pumpkin patch on Monday.  Then he can use the rest of his break the way he wants to.  I try to take advantage of every oppurtunity to do outings with all 4 kids because I know I don't have that many opportunities left given that Benaiah leaves us in less than 3 years.  In fact, he was looking at the costs of colleges and scholarships given and degrees and majors today.  I was more than happy to remind him to keep a running list of dates and places and activities for all his volunteer hours at church, leading Bible studies at school, playing in the chapel band at school, etc.  He's well on his way to having that be a big part of his college applications and even future resumes.  It's exciting, yet sad, of course.  But, I'll still be in the midst of homeschooling the rest of them, so I don't know how much time I will have to "grieve" the beginning of the "empty nest."  And, truly, I don't think we'll have much of an empty nest because by the time that Abishai graduates high school, Benaiah might be married and have kids.  Prepare your mind for that! As the kids say: mind blown! Pow!   Some have their 3 yr plans, I tend to think in 10 years at times and that's what I jump to: Abishai, the sidekick, hanging out with Benaiah's kids.  Ah!

But back to the everyday.  And that's what they say, all these little moments build on one another, and when you look back you can see the cumulative effect.  It's amazing!  And you see the pain and suffering that went into life as well.  But it's been a much better week this week.  Speaking of pain, my pain levels have increased the last two days with nerve misfirings and really tight shoulders and pain in my lower back, much more than normal.  I'm trying to stretch, and it helps, but wow, does it hurt sometimes! Alas, the zoo, with lots of walking, and no Tramadol to help me.  Ibuprofen will be my friend for sure!

Abishai was copying what a little girl was doing (sibling to one of the gymnasts) who was copying what the gymnasts were doing.  He also copied some other little kids and went halfway onto the floor and jumped on some of the mats.  The parents of the little kids stopped their kids right away, and I was the bad parent who was not paying attention because I was reading a book for Keturah's schoolwork.  Ugh.  It's tough sometimes to keep them off the equipment and although the coach is super nice, she doesn't need the siblings to get hurt on her equipment.  Abishai also begged for a snack, even saying he would go outside for it, but we had just eaten breakfast and I had snacks for the ride home.  Yes, we almost didn't get to gymnastics on time because of all days, the kids slept in!  We got out of the house in less than 1 hr.  No time to snuggle or anything!

And this is how we roll when it's time for a diaper change.  Bathroom reading anyone?  And yes, every time I change his diaper I think, "How am I going to get this potty training thing done again?  I don't have time to do it!"  I might just do the "potty train in a day" where you "lock" yourself and your potty training child in a bathroom or easy to clean area, give them salty snacks and tons of water, leave them bottomless if you so desire (maybe with a long shirt on to cover them a bit), and focus on just that.  I know I used pull ups, too, and I really don't want to.  Abishai did notice himself wetting his diaper yesterday, so I know he's aware and ready that way.  I just need to pick a time and do it.

He was happy both trucks fit on the bigger truck.  I love how he's so busy that it's hard to capture his hand in focus on the camera.  Reminds me of the Flash!  (Which also reminds me that the DC TV shows' new seasons have started this week!  Woot! Woot!)

Benaiah got to go with his aerospace class to be a mission specialist for the day.  They launched a weather balloon at the school, but had some delays there because of weather.  Then they had to drive to somewhere in Ohio a couple of hours away to retrieve it.  Well, the balloon had gotten stuck in a tree and they couldn't get it down.  They were finally back at the school, without the balloon, at 7:30 pm.  Benaiah arrives at school at 7:30 am.  A 12 hr school day!  The students had been excused from the rest of their classes for the day because of this.  How stinkin' awesome!

Crazy hair night at Bible Bowl!  That's Justin in the middle.  Benaiah missed Bible Bowl practice because of the balloon launch retrieval.

Another piece of college mail for Benaiah!  I remember getting a ton of unsolicited mailings from all kinds of colleges. This is only the beginning since he's only a sophomore.

Oh no! She is almost too big for this coat!  I've waited years for her to be able to wear it!  My mom made it and it has handpainted buttons on the front.  The lining fabric was also used to cover a wool blanket of my gramma's I used in the winter.  And the fabric was also used for a stuffed animal bear, the kind without eyes, kind of like Amish dolls.  I loved this coat a ton and was so proud of it because my mom made it!

Cutest kid on the planet with his droopy jeans, naked chest, and gun in his pocket.

Toughest guy around.

Finally putting up some wall decor!

Trying on coats for the season ahead.

Abishai really did want to walk around with this jacket on.  And it still smelled like the last person who wore it, which was Benaiah.

Tickle Benaiah!

Everybody got in there!

I finally put up some pictures in the fireside room once I remembered that it's wood panels, not plaster, and I can use my favorite push pins!  The top two pictures were given to me by the Creek when my parents' died.  They typically do that instead of flowers.  My friend Alisha gave me both the woods/canoe decoration and she put together this collage of flags from our various homes.

I think that's about it for the "shrine" aka memory lane.  Some decorate in a certain style like chic or modern or country/cabin or minimalist or something else.  I decorate with things that remind me of other things.  I'd rather have these things than a pretty bowl or certain type of furniture/look like you find in the IKEA catalog.  I guess you could call my style "homey." 

Abishai watching Daddy and the insurance man talking.

Abishai was not sure what we were doing and was quite timid about picking up leaves and sticks and pinecones, so I did the picking up and he held the bowl.  I'm trying to do things that I've already done with the others so that he has a simliar growing up experience.  I don't want to look back and realize I didn't do any art projects or cute read aloud things with him.  My intent with these was for leaf rubbings, but we'll see.

Ta da!  I can't wait to fill this shelves with pictures and possible a couple of knick knacks.  But it's mostly going to be pictures.

Look at all the things we found!  I had to lay everything out so they would dry.  I plan to use them as examples of textures.  I might even have the older kids identify them.  I'm disappointed that we don't have much fall color yet.  And what we do have is yellow.  Not much read down here south of the border!

I found the pine branch on the ground under our pine tree.  Must have broken in the storm.

So, this happened.  This morning, Thursday, I heard Abishai call Socks at around 7:40 am, into his room.  Then they were quiet for at least 30 minutes.  I was snoozing (actually texting with Benaiah because he needed something for school), and didn't think much of it besides, oooo, I am sleeping in a bit!  Well, when we all got up, Abishai said, "Doggie snuggle!" Say what?! I'm not sure when I put two and two together, but by naptime I had, and so I let Abishai demonstrate to me what had happened this morning.  And this is the result.  I'm guessing Socks did get up in the bed with Abishai and snuggle him.  So adorable to the moon and back!  Socks watching over his baby as usual.  It's definitely going to be hard when Socks is gone and Abishai will be 7, 8, or 9.  Two peas in a pod these two are.  But I'm guessing we will have to make sure it doesn't happen often because there's way too many bodies and stuffed animals in that bed.  But oh so cute!

I found this leaf in our backyard right after the big storm.  O, Canada, I miss your leaves at this time of year.  I always have missed the leaf peeping season, which is so beautiful in New England.  Fall is my favorite season!  I love seeing the "fruit of their labors" and apple picking and going to the pumpkin patch and painting the pumpkins and watching the leaves turn color and wearing flannel and sipping hot cocoa or a cafe mocha.  I love that people are busy "storing up for winter."  I just love the seasons and I'm grateful that I live in a state that still has them, most of the time.  We won't talk about the 80 degree day we had this week in the beginning of October, which is just wrong on so many levels.  I even got my sweaters and warmer shirts just so I could look at them, knowing full well that I might get to use them in January, maybe, but probably not.  I'm tired of t-shirts and shorts or capris.  I want to use the other half of my wardrobe thanks.  So, I will soon.  I can't wait to tackle that project next week and cut down on my wardrobe.  Seriously, I have a goal and I can't wait to see if I can make it!  The kids, too, will be going through their clothes.  It should be fun!  Or not, at least for them.  And now we are off to hang with the real monkeys of creation.  Good night!

P.S. Aw, I just found Benaiah talking with a friend from school.  Mind you, it's 11:30 pm, on a non school night and I think they started talking around 10:30 pm.  I know Benaiah hasn't had any major issues with socialization, but since I did and still have at times, it warms my heart to know that he has trustworthy friends.  I guess homeschooling didn't hold him back any when it comes to socialization!  I told him it's not an issue, and I'm not going to set firm boundaries, but as his mother, I needed to remind him to wrap it up.  And I should wrap up my evening as well.  Good night!