Year 2, Day 314 & 315: Leaf Hopping! Stir Crazies!

Brrrr, it's been sooooo cold!  I'll get used to it, but it doesn't matter where you live, PEI or Indiana, it will take a few days of it for you to adjust.  I'm so glad I already had all the winter stuff out and ready to go!  But that means, the kids are inside a bit more and if I do send them out, I have to take the time to bundle them up.  And with a high energy 2 1/2 yr old, yikes!  But, that's what we did.  I bundled them up and took them out for a walk to Grandma's.  Benaiah was going to mow yesterday, and I knew most of the leaves were already on the ground, so it was a perfect time to rake up a pile or two for some fall fun!  I might not get a "bucket list" done in any other season, but I most certainly make sure we do most of the traditional fall activities, don't I?  Maybe it is that last hurrah before we settle in for a "long winter's nap?"  We finished off the school week well and prepared for next week.  Jared and I are getting away for a couple of days, so I needed to leave very clear instructions and expectations for school.  We will need to bring our own food, so I did that today, as well as prepacked my overnight bag.  Sunday is super busy and I start panicking if I do things last minute, so today was when I could get that stuff figured out.

But first I had an essential oils class at my house this morning.  We only had one other person, but as always, we all learned from each other.  I got a little goodie basket for hosting, too.  I've always been pretty excited with essential oils and I've always wanted to invest in them a little more.  I'm thinking and praying pretty hard about buying the start up kit in January (when I have enough money saved up).  I was introduced to them more than 6 years ago by my massage therapist, so this isn't something I just thought about doing.  So, stay tuned to see if go ahead with it or not.

The kids messed around outside this morning with Jared as he prepared some free firewood he picked up from a neighbor's house.  Benaiah, however, spent almost 5 hours on his computer playing his video game.  Go figure.  The other kids came in and also had a good amount of electronics.  That means they had to be creative with their time this afternoon during naptime.  I worked on some business items of my own.  I have an online boutique (party) and a craft fair coming up in between this week and Thanksgiving and before Benaiah's and Keturah's choir performances (separate choirs).  Thankfully, we don't have any Christmas parties except one on the list so far.  Just Christmas vacation per usual.  I'll probably panic by Dec. 1st about all the gifts I haven't figured out yet and what special foods I still need to purchase, but you know, that's how it goes.  Somehow, it all gets done and I get some sleep.  And there's coffee.  Except my new favorite way of making it won't work because I dropped the glass of my 1 cup French press.  Boo!  I have a Keurig, but I like cafe' mochas and I finally found a way to make it all work using the French press.  I like the 1 cup version, and thankfully, they are only $15-20, so it's on my Amazon Christmas wishlist (thank goodness for that list!)

Gluten free pancakes from a box = white rice flour base which in turn equals = more "normal" tasting and textured pancakes.  Not low carb at all like almond flour, so they are an indulgence.  I shared them with everyone though because they asked and I went ahead and made the whole box.  It had been sitting in my pantry for at least 6 months.  And always the real kind of syrup. always.  Yes, it did come from Canada, but probably the big 'ol vat in Ontario somewhere, not bought directly from the farm.  There is a slight difference in taste.  And yes, I drink it straight from the bottle.  20 plus year tradition for me right there!

And, as we do EVERY Friday, we jump on the big 'un and wake him up about 10 am.  I love how Abishai knows how to look through the scope!  All boy right there!  And with his favorite gun, too, because it's easy to pull the trigger and it lights up and has sounds!

Bigger and bigger, in size and vocabulary and length of sentences!  This one is just like Justin except he doesn't need speech therapy.  Justin really didn't need it either.  He just wanted to keep to himself.  But Abishai?  He runs his mouth constantly.  Lately he's been singing ALL the words to "Jesus Loves Me" and the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the bed!" and "Twinkle, Twinkle!"  complete with hand motions of course!  Move over Keturah because this one is replacing you at Kids' Choir! 

Is this how we do school work?  Sometimes!  She's been much more diligent this week.  A sign of maturity I think.  I still didn't get to her art projects though.  Ugh!  Poor thing! Maybe I'll give her a day off next week and she and I will just focus on that.  Maybe.  I even found a book of easy sew projects for her that uses a bigger needle and yarn and felt so I wouldn't have to go digging so hard to find fabric! Again, grrrr.  She deserves more than I give her.  And this is the stuff I've looked forward to for a long time!  I need to re think some things....

Oo, solar flare! Quite bright and quite cold....just like PEI.  But no snow, so off we go!

So adorable in his winter gear riding his bike.  But he didn't ride it for long because his mittens didn't allow him to get a good grip on the handlebars.  I had to carry it and hold onto the dog AND make sure he didn't get run over all the way to Grandma's and back.  But, he CAN put his mittens on, including thumbs half the time, all by himself!  I didn't show him how.  He learned it in about two tries.  No joke!  Thankfully, they are handmade knit mittens that my mom made for the other boys and are attached to each other via a braided yarn that goes through the sleeve, across the back of the jacket, and through the other sleeve.  BTW, hand knit mittens are the warmest and driest kind on the market!  They don't have to be wool either.  They last longer than the standard Wal-Mart kids' heavy duty ones.  There are adult gloves that will outlast them, but they are a little more expensive.  I don't make them, but when I have the chance, I'll buy them from others.

This street has a TON of soft maples! i.e. soft maples produce YELLOW leaves.  I miss the hard maples and red trees!

Here's one, or is this the soft maple?  Anyway, red all the way!  And our maple trees never turned color.  Probably because they are very old and the soil probably needs some help.  The little tree inside the fence near the gate did turn yellow.  You don't see pics of it that often because we usually just walk past it and not play near it.  This tree here is at Gary and Leah's house, the one that the kids always climb.

Yes, I'm that mom that suggested the kid take his cars outside to play in the leaves with.  He brought out a bulldozer and he kept showing us how it can move the leaves and rocks!  And it's literally below freezing when this picture was taken, so maybe 30 degrees F? He had taken off everything in the house before we went out the backdoor.  I hadn't had the chance to put his stuff back on.  So he has no coat, no hat, no socks, no shoes.  He's Canadian, remember?  Born in the snowiest and coldest PEI winter on record!  I did eventually get him to put everything back on though.  Brave little boy.

Big girl!  I had no idea she knew how to rake up a bunch of leaves so well!  Way to go!

Ready, set, plunge!

A boy and his bull dozer!

Jump!

Hanging out in a bunch of leaves.  Just like we would do at my house or my grandmother's house growing up.  Oh my, my grandmother had at least a dozen large trees and the grass was very, very thick with them.  You coudln't just mow over them like some here do.  You had to rake them.  We would rake them, scoop them into the wheelbarrow and then dump them over the little hill into some thicker woods.  That was before a road went through there leading to a subdivision.  So many memories of doing that every year!  We went there every Saturday, so we probably did it for a few weeks' straight.  And I think crab apples and maybe acorns?  And the much older cousins and aunt (she is 12 years older than my mom) would help.  Very fond memories from childhood.  Gramma's house was over an hour away, but I'm so glad my mom made an effort to do it every week with us.  So glad.

Typical Keturah pose, i.e. "the candle" from gymnastics.

Justin came and joined us!

Lol, what a funny moment!  Justin kept scooping up leaves to throw on Socks and Socks kind of loved it and would bark and run around even more.  Great action shot!

The teenager finally came out to "play" and do his part.  I bet it's easier to mow now than in the heat of the summer.

Crab apple tree/bush leaves!  I love the different hues of red!

Abishai joined in on covering the dog with leaves.  Ah, I love fall!

Time to go home!  And another solar flare!

GORGEOUS tree! I try very hard not to include too much of the houses and/or at least the house numbers because of privacy.  But I couldn't just let this tree pass me by!  I got another incredible picture of it, but it shows too much of the house and I don't know this particular neighbor, so I don't want to risk putting it out there on the internet.  And then there's Abishai, so tired from playing, leaning on his "michael" aka motorcycle/bike dragging his self down the road.

Keturah has made great progress in very little time!  She cleared her floor *gasp* without being told so she could practice!  She decided to don one of her leotards, to.  I have no doubt that she will be able to do a lot of the stunts that gymnastics requires someday.  She's not as, um, graceful, as her girl cousins.  She was built more for gymnastics than dance.  And that's ok.  I've made peace with that (I was the ballerina in the family, and only ballet, not other dance types).  Ballerinas need a ton of strength, too.  Way to go, Keturah!

Mr, Pyro and his nightly fire.

A combination of really dry fireword and and really wet firewood.  Set off the smoke alarm once tonight.  That doesn't happen every time, though.  We need to get more marshmallows and hot dogs and have a camp fire night!

Abishai was playing soccer with Justin and didn't want any of the rest of us involved, not even looking at them.  That's why Jared was hiding.

"No, Daddy, no! No play! No look!"

"I said no, no, NO!" The rest of us were a little sad, but he had played with each of us earlier in the day, too.

The only 5 minutes that kid wasn't plugged into something.  Sorry, but it's the truth.  He doesn't take his iPod to the dinner table on most nights, and he does take out an earbud without groaning when I need to ask him something, even if he's in the middle of a hot round of his video game.  But he literally rolled out of bed at 9:15 and rolled right on to his desk chair and sat for 5 hrs with maybe a potty break.  It's just what teens do I guess.  He did come home after working tech at church to finish up some Bible homework, i.e. a chapel message for his school's chapel period on Tuesday, and on the book of Job no less.  Proud of him for that!  And I am excited to see his choir class perform "Angel Alert" in early December.  His grades are all good as well.  He's getting there.  Growing up.  Maturing.

I like this picture I took on my phone because it's a different angle than the rest and a little closer to the kids.

Red fingers from outside playing in 30 degrees F without mittens on.  He's showing his cookie that he often gets at Grandma's house after he's eaten healthier options of course.  He loves Grandma's house for many reasons!  Oh, I guess the picture didn't come across my downloadings, or maybe it was a video.  Here, let me check.  It's a great one of what Abishai called Grandma's fake candles.

 If you can't hear it, he said, "Bombers!" like bombs!  like blowing up stuff! what?! All boy.  All boy and then some.  Too cute!

While we watched "God's Not Dead," Abishai kept singing and talking and we had to turn the volume up high.  But he also practiced his fine motor skills with the old battleship game that belonged to Jared and Aaron.  He even knows how to take off the back so he can get the pegs from in the cubby that slip down there in the hinge.  And he puts it back together again.  The movie was a bit interesting, and a bit cheesy.  I know that Pure Flix has come out with increasingly better films with no end in sight.  I just loved that it had Newsboys themselves in it, and footage of a real concert.  No one, and I mean no one, puts on a better show than the Newsboys. And they still have sell out shows although the band is 30 years old.  I could be wrong, but I think it's their song "God's Not Dead" that came out first.  Yes, it was in 2011 and the movie was released in 2015.  So cool! But the message of the film is pretty spectacular, too.  Not perfect, but I'm sure it has had a great impact on a lot of people to at least explore Christianity more or again.  We borrowed the sequel to the film as well from the library, so we are going to watch that soon.

Yup, Young Living essential oils' starter kit!  Someday I'll be getting that, someday.

It's a grand day in homeschooling when a) It's a Saturday and b) the child uses something he learned just that week and applies it to his own personal activities.  Justin is using the story sequence chart from our writing course, IEW, to start his own chapter book about Pokemon' trainers.  Yeah!  Justin is my writer and artist with a pencil.

Keturah claims that she has never made microwave popcorn before.  Yes, I think she has and I know we have definitely had it as a family.  I just got lazy lately and didn't want to put butter on our popcorn after air popping it, so I bought some microwave, not as healthy for you, popcorn.  Well, at least she knows how NOT to burn it when she's in her dorm room.  Our floor always smelled like burnt popcorn!