Year 3, March 4th-5th, 2018: Changing the Plan

The day got off to a great start, but as I was sitting in church, my mind wandered, and I was reminded that Abishai's friends' birthday party is coming up this month, I wonder when it is?  It's a good thing I looked at my phone's calendar (after the sermon, mind you), because low and behold, the party was TODAY!  Whoops!  It was an event created on Facebook, so it automatically syncs to my calendar, but I don't think I can set reminders for it like I do with other important, non routine events that I set up on my own. After church, we had a quick lunch at Wheatley's in Wanamaker.  I had never been there, but it's one of those hole in the wall local people love for their fish fry Fridays and fried chicken dinners.  And it was quick.  We dashed off home, and thankfully I had two fancy cars with buttons and noises I had picked up a year or two ago on clearance just to have in case of emergencies like this.  Phew!  Wrapped those up and we were on our way!  It was for the twins, Donovan and Nathaniel's 3rd birthday, "Donut Grow Up," doughnut party!  Abishai had a blast and I enjoyed the adult conversation.  More on the details in the captions below.  We brought Keturah with us because we had some scheduling conflicts later.

We did have a huge victory on Sunday in that we got Justin to get up and dressed and not just go to one Crave worship service, but both of them!  And then back to church in the evening for small groups!  The kid hadn't left the house or put a shirt on in 6 days.  No joke!  He hasn't done any schoolwork either, but I made him do a full load today because I know kids go back to school 2 or 3 days after an injury like this.  Jared was back at work, too, within a few days and he had major surgery!  I did give Justin some pain medications before he left in the morning, but forgot to for the evening.  He did feel puny by the end of the day, but he made it.  He's still learning the meaning of how to cope with pain and annoyances.  He had a follow up appointment today where they took off the spacers on the cast and put another layer of casting to seal up the cast now that the swelling went down.  I keep telling him he should get others to sign his cast, but he doesn't want the beautiful green color to get all janky from ink!  We did have a great laughing moment during school time when we were reviewing the Ch'in dynasty (think terra cotta soldiers) and Justin was talking about how the soldiers all of unique features, including chins.  And then Keturah said something about butts.  And then it became buttchins! Middle school humor at its' best!  The giggled and cackled for 5 minutes straight.  Then while I was reading later on in a different lesson, when I paused, Abishai started cackling at his TV show he was watching.  It was coincidence but it sent us all in another laughing fit! Thankfully, we got all our stuff done before Justin had his appointment.

Jared had to take him though, because I woke up with possible pink eye and my left eye was hurting and watery.  The kind of watery eyes that makes it very difficult to drive in bright light.  And since I knew Jared was going to be out of his class by then, I asked him to go.  I used a few leftover antibiotic eye drops and some essential oils (carefully placed at least two inches from my eye socket, never near the eye! but close enough that it would be easily carried by my body to the place it needed to be) that really cleared things up for a good part of the day.  I just did it again, because I noticed they were hurting a ton.  Staring at a screen doesn't help either.  I don't have to drive until Wednesday, so hopefully it will clear up by then.  Abishai has a sore throat and cough, after having a runny nose last week, and my throat is also swollen.  Time for the spring cold!  I get a round of the headcold every fall and every spring.  Pretty typical, on top of my normal allergies.  Better now than in two weeks when we head to Ft. Wayne for the Newsboys concert!  Get 'er done!

Meanwhile, Keturah relearned how to tie her shoes in the last two days.  She went to help Justin tie his shoes yesterday and proclaimed she didn't know how!  Apparently she's only had slip on shoes for the last 2 years!  I know we focused on it when she was 7 or 8 yrs old, but I didn't know she actually still couldn't do it.  #homeschoolproblems because we honestly don't have to tie our shoes that much because we are home so much!  Whoops! Thankfully, it took her just a few minutes to do it, and now she is excited to keep practicing and wear my shoes that have ties on them.  Just like learning to read, or potty training, or learning a type of math problem, sometimes their brains just aren't ready to do it at the perceived "correct" time to learn.  Sometimes waiting (or in my case forgetting) has its benefits.  Benaiah learned to tie his shoes at age 4 or 5, Justin was 7 because again, with the invention of the slip on or velcro shoe, it's not a skill that is necessary at that age.  So, Keturah learning at age 10 isn't so bad, right?  Lol, oh well, parent fail, learn it and move on.

And hallelujah, Abishai took a nap today!  He threw the worst fit I have ever seen, screaming mad for 5 minutes straight!  I tried putting him in time out and when he asked for paci, I told him he could have it only if stays in his bed and lies down.  And he did!  And he was fast asleep within 2 minutes!  And then he slept for 3 hrs!  He had gone almost a week with no nap and despite going to bed 1 hr earlier than he had been and getting up a little later, he was sleep deprived, poor thing!  He was still tired earlier than normal, but he is also sick, so that's probably why he was out for the count pretty quickly.  And because Justin was gone with Jared and Keturah's schoolwork was done and checked, I was a good girl and pulled out the taxes to work on! I got a solid 3 hrs in and nearly finished!  I just have a couple of bits to finish up with the Lilla Rose business stuff, which, technically, I still doni't have to file because my profit was under the minimum requirements.  But I did all the leg work over the last month to set up a real spreadsheet for expenses and inventory and all that that I could use going forward.  I'll be messing around with it a little bit longer, but I want to finish it this weekend if possible because we are getting a refund (yeah!) and the last two weeks of March are super busy, including Easter the first weekend of April.  I love having surprises like this (Abishai napping) and then using that time wisely!  What a great way to start the week!  Now I can relax knowing I'm much further ahead than I had planned!  Woot! Woot!

I'm also surprised that we got a full day of school in without much effort.  We have adjusted to Abishai's new no napping scheduling, and since Justin was going to be gone for the afternoon, I went ahead and let Abishai have TV time earlier than we had been so we could get our together work done.  Then I was going to play with Abishai in the afternoon when he normally would be having TV time, as well as have the other two trade off electronic time and playing with him so I could get dinner.  I know God knew we needed last week to regroup, let our brains catch up to the family routine changes, and rest.  Some families do school through the whole year with 6 weeks on and 1 week off.  It's very tempting, but I'm not sure if I could mentally make that switch halfway through the game of raising kids.  It would be a major adjustment.  We'll see.  All I know is that it was a great two days!

Finally!  All dressed and ready for church!

I'm loving the bedhead!

Loving on his doggy!  Best buddies for life!

Playing with some old school Playskool Little People toys! They were the twins' mom's toys growing up!

The boys easily got down the front stairs because they do it every day, but I'm glad Abishai was cautious about coming down.  Kids really do know their limits sometimes.

Abishai playing with his friend.  I believe this one is Nate, aka Peanut.  I was deathly afraid of that hill though and Abishai tumbling down it.  But again, the boys sort of knew it was dangerous.

Keturah got to hang out with the girl next door for a little bit before she left for the day.  Her family is actually moving out, so her parents were loading up their truck.  Here they were playing some kind of marble and car soccer.

Abishai helping his friend move down the sidewalk.

Uh oh, these two took off down the sidewalk the other way!  I had to run to catch up!  Come back here, boys!

They look so adorable together!  Keturah is doing a great job making sure the boys don't take off near the busy intersection!

Instead of cake, the party had a doughnut theme!  How cute!  And Miss Ami (the mommy) made sure there were gluten free doughnuts for me and her aunt!  Thank you!

Aww, favorite people here!  Miss Nellie all the right to the left, Ami's mom, who babysit the boys when we went to the TV station field trip.  Then Donovan, Ami, Nate, and their Daddy, David (or big David because Ami's brother's name is David, too!)  I don't have a picture of the balloons but they were doughnut shaped, too!  You couldn't really see the hole once it was blown up, but they were really unique and cute!

Abishai ended up eating a gluten free doughnut because Ami was showing me the box and he figured he'd try one, lol.  Keturah got a raspberry filled one!

And what does Abishai play with when he comes to his friends' house? And old school garage of course!

This squirrel scared me!  Abishai saw it first and took off after it.  It let us get within inches of it, it was so docile!  I was very afraid Abishai was going to touch it and get scratched or bit.  It was really fat and was looking to bury a walnut.  I have never been able to observe a squirrel that close before!  Wow!

Abishai played "parking lot" outside with the boys' trikes! He lined them up at the top of the hill and also rolled them back towards the porch you see there one by one, keeping them in a line.

All lined up after a few mishaps where they went flying down the embankment.  Whoops!

We even saw an on duty policeman patrolling this intersection!  I know this intersection well because we used to use it all the time during the 10 years we lived in Beech Grove.  He's patrolling for speeders and people that run the 4 way stop signs.  He did leave after a few minutes, but I don't think he was chasing anybody.

Keturah was just hanging out in the gorgeous sunshine because it was too cool for her in the house.  They had the windows open because of all the people.  It was warmer, maybe 50 degrees, but not that warm yet.

Abishai really misses his big brother playing with him.  At least Justin is feeling a bit better and can chase him a little bit.

I randomly found him pretending to snore in Benaiah's bed.  He had his face buried in Benaiah's stinky bedding.  Crazy boy!

Whoops! I guess this picture didn't fully download.  Anyway, yes, we forgot dog food for the first time in 8 years, so he got a lot of biscuits to keep him until we got to the store.

Blurry, but the youth group finally brought in a basketball hoop for the kids to mess with.  There used to be a total of 6 hoops all around the gym, now turned multi purpose room.  Jared lowered the basket so Abishai could slam dunk a few balls.  Some of the other kids were working on their "Dude Perfect trick shots."  Dude Perfect is a YouTube channel with some very talented and goofy grown men trying to get basketballs into the hoop from various positions or making rafts out of Styrofoam to float in the retention pond or driving go carts haphapazardly.  You just have to go to YouTube and type in "Dude Perfect" and you'll find them.  They are awesome, funny, super family friendly, and great guys!

Oh, this guy! I walked into the east hall and found him playing 9-square this morning!  Um, no!  So later, before small groups, I reminded him NOT to be playing ANY games, doctor's orders!  I went to pick him up, and this is what I found.  He was hanging out with his friend Kylie, showing her some funny videos.  Cuteness!

Ami and Big Dave let us bring home a bunch of doughnuts to share!  Aren't these the yummiest and cutest kabobs you've ever seen.  Not sure about the squirrel cheek boy behind it though!

Sunrise on Monday morning!  Abishai snuggled with me for an hour, too!

These are the oils I am using around my eyes (more than two inches away, and do dilute them!)

The other day, Benaiah took Abishai outside with him to get the mail.  They are so adorable together.

And the chase is on!  Guess who won?

Abishai of course!  Because just because he's bigger, doesn't mean Benaiah can keep up with the Tasmanian devil!

Look what I found in our pantry!  Somebody was having a little party with boats (no food was involved) and waiting for Daddy to come home so he could find them.  One thing I do like about this house is this small walk in pantry.  It's just big enough for us and I do like seeing everything at once, even on the higher shelves.

Yes! Operate on this arm!  Because of the location of this message, it will have to wear off naturally.  We don't want to take a risk of trying to wash it off (probably permanent marker, so it will take a good bit of scrubbing) and getting water down the cast.  I teased Justin and said, "Say Yes to Jesus! You have your first permanent tatoo!"  Ok, maybe I've been watching a little much from John Crist the comedian.  "For Sure NO!" is his new go to phrase, and "for sure no" this mama can't tell a joke.  Lol.

Not only did Keturah learn to tie her shoes, but she figured out how to unlace and relace her shoes!  Oh boy, Miss Fashioinista, look out!  Now she'll be asking for fancy shoelaces! Lol!

Justin's still using the pull out couch and I think he's enjoying having his own space.  I'm not sure if and when we'll make him go back to his bunk bed.

Here's the bright green cast, all freshly wrapped.  Again, they just put another layer on top of what he did have, so the cast is now a tad loose because his arm is no longer swollen.  Maybe that's a good thing, because his fingers do get numb from time to time and he has to frequently change their position.  That's par for the course though.

Justin's get well cards!  One from a family from Bible Bowl and one from the team in Kidustrial Park where he serves at church, and Everly's letter from the other day.