Year 3, January 28th-31st, 2018: Head to the Plow

Been keeping my head to the plow.  Even now, I'm not sure what all we've done.  We were most definitely out as normal on Sunday, home on Monday and out for a good part of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The weather wasn't much better than it has been, so it was kind of cold and windy, but a bit sunny, too.  It's Indiana.  If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute.  I think I'll add the pictures here, and journal in the morning because my brain is fried tonight.  Bedtimes haven't been the greatest lately and I drove a lot yesterday and today, so my body is really weary.  To be honest, my brainwaves have been everywhere lately.  And I guess I got tired of blogging after vacation.  And I do post a lot on Instagram, which is where those little moment by moment stories are easier to post to.  I have also tried to push all of us a bit harder in our efficiency, and school often doesn't get done until 4 pm, which is ok because those fun siblings moments happen throughout the day and other non book lessons are learned, but then there's a few minutes to breathe and then dinner. I guess we are just very busy with the day to day and it does get repetitive.  Especially the fighting and disobedience, but that's how all families work, right?  Especially when you do life together EVERY SECOND of every day.  To be honest, they all obey better when they are alone with one of us.  I think overall they are maturing; I see progress with them and myself at times.  But other times, I just want to give them "KIPS" all day, which is a term a LR Supervisor uses that translates to "Kick in the Pants."  But it never fails that one of them is worse than the others on any given day, which leaves Mommy to be "on" at all times.

Oh, I guess I can report that I am purposefully acting on the sermon a couple of weeks ago and just getting out to be in community with other adults!  I've gone to Mom's night out twice in two weeks!  I have book study on Friday.  I have 3, yes 3!!!!!, concerts to go to this spring.  Just that fact alone puts a TON of smiles and happiness in my soul.  I'm rediscovering how music can be so fundamental to your well-being.  I recently engaged in a conversation on Facebook about whether more simpler pop or rock or praise and worship music is ok or if we should strive for more complex music (think: classical or orchestral, opera, and such).  This guy was very adamant about the complex and that modern lyrics are so watered down theologically.  And I argued that yes, they are, but they reach their intended audience easier.  Yes, we both wish that the general population could handle more complex lyrics and appreciate complex compositions, but it's simply not the case.  And then I started to learn the songs of several of the artists that will be at Winterjam (think: summer music festival in the winter, indoors of course) and was blown away by the excitement of the simple and complex lyrics, the hearts of these artists to reach  the younger audiences by using modern music that they relate to, and fire them up for Jesus.  Most of the theology in these songs are fairly simple and straightforward no matter what denomination you belong to.  And that's what these kids especially need to hear.  And kids latch on to songs so quickly and identify themselves by it, so why not give them the type of music they like (rock, metal, screamo, hip hop, rap, and of course my favorite, pop/ballads) and let great, Biblical lyrics be the focus.  Just thinking about all those teens and young adults (and us older ones, too) worshiping God through these songs makes my heart melt.  And don't diss those hip hop/rap artists because their lyrics ARE deep! I can't stand their repitivite bar chords and synchopation, but better that than songs talking about drugs and sleeping around, right?  One song by KB talks about staying faithful to his girlfriend/fiance/wife, and the internal struggle there is sometimes.  Not that he or the person he's referring to has fallen into porn or an affair, but acknowledging the struggle.  THIS is what kids need to hear and I'm so excited I get to share this stuff with the boys in about a week.  I've been waiting 15 years for this!  To be my mother and chaperone and enjoy the experiences with them.  It's one of my great passions.  And it's how I stayed connected to God for a long, long time.  But in the last few years (8-10 yrs really), I haven't had time to immerse myself in it.  I still don't have much time, so I'm taking a break from listening to podcasts and listening to music instead.  I think it helps that Michael W. Smith will be putting two (2!) albums out here in February.  So, that's a bit about where I've been and how it has helped me to be excited about life again.  Good tidbits in between the stresses and monotony of daily life as an adult responsible for training and education children and maintaining the house and helping the spouse.  Oh, the poor spouse, who often gets pushed aside because of the above.  Sigh.  Many spinning plates and not all can be spinning perfectly at all times.

Anyway, here are a lot of pictures (4 days worth?), and I'll try to remember some stories as I go.

This truck was in the church parking lot with a frowny face, so Jared gave it a "Captain Happy" face.

Speaking of young people, Benjamin, Ethan's oldest brother, is Dan and Gary's high school intern!  Most interns want to work with other youth, but Ben wants to preach someday.  Dan found a way to introduce him to the congregation, by having him bring out Dan's Bible which he "forgot" back stage and then he got to read the Scripture for the sermon.  Proud of Ben, and his siblings, and all the youth that we love!  They are "known, valued, and loved."

Speaking of youth, here's Benaiah and his entourage'. We had a volunteer training on what to do if there was an active intruder at church.  The Creek is committed to be proactive, not reactive, not waiting for a situation to arise here on campus, but taking note of the reality of the world we live in.

Micromachines, still going strong!

Milk frother I bought for us for Valentine's Day, but we couldn't wait to use!

Ethan dragged Benaiah outside, especially since Benaiah spent two full days in front of his computer watching his favorite team from his video game win the world championship.  I will never understand watching others play video games, but I guess us grown ups watch Instagram stories on the best way to fry eggs and what not, so we are even, lol.

Note: Ethan hadn't chopped wood before and he took the bigger branch!  Benaiah wimped out with the smaller branches.

Gorgeous and warmer day on Sunday, but colder the rest of the week.

I don't know how this was in Jared's office, but I'm sure it was tossed after I took the picture of it because it's dirty and such.  I just wanted the record of one of the mission trips to MCC PEI that Indian Creek took.

This playlist has been on repeat for a week straight.  I like to buy real hard copies of albums, but I when I'm in a pinch and don't want to own it, YouTube is where I go.  I don't use Spotify or other paid subscriptions services because I want to own the songs and iTunes doesn't always work for me.

Jared frothed up milk for Abishai and he got it on his forehead! Cute smile!

Yes, he's prepared to fight.  Always.

Where he usually is.

And this is our night, every night that we are home.  Lots of "pew pews" and running.

Twins.

Gary's brother and sister in law stopped by on Monday night on their way from Michigan to Florida, so we had dinner there.  The 3 younger kids kept themselves occupied very well.  I think they were making streets.

3 kids, 1 kid meal, 2 adult meals and NOTHING for me equals $21, but it's worth it!  We were out doing errands like haircuts and picking up stuff from a friend, so I treated them on Tuesday.  We were also out on Wednesday, but I made sure they brought food with them.

His feet were cold because he was running from the playground to the table with his bare feet!  So he used Justin's shoes instead!  He's got a "It's the smile that keeps me out of trouble!" kind of face, doesn't he?

There was a large homeschooling family the, but otherwise, Chick Fil A was quiet.  They were all practicing their handstands.

It's Mardi Gras time, so King Cake it is!

We stopped at Kroger for a couple of things and got to use their car carts.

They were stir crazy and I had to keep telling them to remember other kids were in school.  But the store was very quiet though.  Justin weaved back and forth keeping Abishai entertained.  Unlike the Little Tykes cars, there's a bottom floor to the car so their feet stay up and tucked while you push.

Precious moments.

Keturah's 110 word on angels for Grandpa's Bible Class.  Daddy helped her on it while I was out with my "oily" (essential oils) friends.

I set my alarm to see the lunar eclipse/blue moon/red moon early Wednesday morning and this is all I got because the clouds were thick during the actual eclipse.

So, instead, Jared and I watched the live NASA feed on his computer.  Oh well.

Pretty!

Grandma took Abishai for the morning, so I had a chance to breathe at gymnastics and was able to get some footage of Keturah's progress.  Here she is trying to do a cartwheel and not kick over the mats on the sides.  The mats help to train them to kick straight up, which is very hard to do at first.

On the bars, they practiced doing splits and swinging with their hands and feet on the bar and then letting go.

Bear crawl.

It will be awhile before she does an actual cartwheel on the beam, but at least they try.  This is an oversized practice beam as well.

Practicing using the spring board to jump up on a mat.

A fun game where they have to share these balancing things and work as a team so that they advance to the front thing, freeing up the back one, and then passing it up to the front.  Hard to do but uses a lot of teamwork!

Speaking of teamwork, we are working on some rocks and minerals in science, and filling out these "rock scientist" sheets together.  We ask questions like does it have shine to it, how hard is it (using a hardness test), what does it do when you break it apart, what color is it, and what streak does it make against concrete (plus more).

Newboys are rehearsing for the tour!  It won't be long now!

3 out of 6 of the Newboys that will be on tour.  This was taken in the Manchester, NH airport in March of 2012.  They were headed to Vermont and we were headed to PEI to scope out houses.  We were on the same plane!

Do you see it?  No, you don't because the it's the piles of brush that are finally gone from the October wind draft we had!  Finally!

Clean and ready for spring!

I don't get to look outside that often, and barely got these pictures done, but look at that pretty WINTER sky.

All clean and looking good.

The spot where Keturah discovered a DEAD MOUSE when she was vacuuming!  Ah! I had been into the sunroom a time or two that morning and didn't see it.  I knew there was one somewhere in all those boxes of paper and/or in my pantry, but it hadn't been located.  Well, that's one less mouse to worry about.  Gross!

Benaiah's school is having spirit week and today's theme was "if you and your friends are in an unofficial group, dress up as a group!." His group has evolved from just the cool kids to "The Mafia."  SMH, they are crazy!

Bible Bowl night equals kids playing in Daddy's office again.  Abishai did most of the work to push Keturah around.

And then he did his own pushing!

Playtime, now time to pack up!  Benaiah was making a zooming noise every time a car went in the bag.  Abishai was NOT happy about putting them away.

Full moon on Wednesday evening.

Watching videos of Despicable Me's minions and their quest to chase after each other for a banana or "bapple."  Abishai didn't know what to think and had a serious face the whole time.

Justin's assignment this week was to write a letter to his youth leader like John wrote down letters from God to the churches in Revelation.  He'll also deliver it this week.

I hope that wasn't too much.  But now it's February and our schedule starts picking up.  Kids' choir, (which I totally forgot that it started last Sunday), starts in earnest after Superbowl Sunday.  Keturah has auditions on Superbowl Sunday.  Boys have a Bible Bowl competition on Saturday. I have various events scattered throughout the next few months.  Lots of busy times ahead!  "Enjoy the ride!" (to quote a couple of vloggers I adore).