Year 3, March 6th-8th, 2018: Will It Ever Stop?!

Sorry, but I do have to rant for a second.  I'm getting infinitely more frustrated with the whole downloading photos and videos lately.  It's taking way too much of my time to figure it out.  The videos from my iPhone are no longer downloading properly to my computer through iCloud, and therefore, I have to load them up to YouTube first from my phone, then rename them properly, then download to the computer.  Thankfully, pictures are still working, so I'll concentrate on that tonight and move on to the other another day.  Thanks for understanding.

Meanwhile, I downloaded an app that helps me see just how much time I have spent on my phone, and it's been a bit eye opening.  I definitely have some work to do there, although I've already been trying to put it down for an hour at a time, and only picking it up if I get a text or Facebook message (personal message, not every notification from FB).  Then, if I do get a text, or my train game is ready to be reset, I'll do a check through email and social media.  I've been trying to fill my time more with reading and paying attention to the kids more.  Not sure I'm making much progress, so I might have to take more drastic steps, we'll see.

It's been a little bit of a rough week with Jared, I, and Abisahi all having head colds.  Abishai's is the worst and he's got a nasty cough.  Mine migrated to my eyes, so I've been treating with them oils (two inches away from the eyes) and leftover antibiotics.  Now, 3 days later, I'm back to normal!  The oils have really helped to keep my sinuses clear, and my ears, so I haven't gotten vertigo this time, yeah!  I'm still working through some of the snot though.  Meanwhile, we've been home a good deal of the week, therefore, we've been grating on each other's nerves a lot, or I've been noticing it more and more.  There's a whole lot of screaming and unkind words floating around, and the 3 yr old has been throwing huge tantrums.  So, we've instituted the "time out pack and play" for when he won't stop throwing things or I just can't handle him getting into one more thing, like food in the pantry, or Justin's Legos, or the TV remote.  Justin, Keturah, and I came up with a 3 strikes and you're out chart, where if you start with 30 points, and if you get no strikes, you get all 30 points.  One strike equals 10 points, so if you get 1 strike or 2 strikes, you get 20 points and 10 points respectively at the end of the day.  3 strikes and you get 0 points.  Each point is equal to 1 cent, and we'll keep a tally.  You get strikes for yelling and screaming on the top of your lungs instead of calmly, but firmly telling your brother or sister, no, don't touch that.  You also get a strike for whining about chores and school.  The whole "I don't wanna!'s" are getting pretty annoying and frustrating to me.  Those are the two things bothering me the most.  If they've gotten 3 strikes and are still acting up, we'll go back to the taking away of screen time and sweets.  Today was actually a better day, but I think it's going to be a few days before they earn any points.  Maybe I should join them and earn points, too, and I can spend my points on a candy bar or pop or something.  It might make it more interesting.  Yes,  I think I'll do that.  I'm not fond of these charts and in our house, they never last long, but we'll see.  Something's got to give on the moodiness and drama and unkindness here.  And of course it starts with me, and I'm constantly working on that.

Otherwise, it's been cold outside and a bit snowy.  The new routine of chores and school and taking turns keeping Abishai occupied is working more smoothly.  Each day is still slightly different, but now we can handle Abishai not taking a nap every day.  It helps me if I keep in mind that I'm playing the role of teacher and preschool director from 8am to 5pm, not housekeeper or business owner.  I try to get one of those kinds of things done a day, like taxes the other day, or cleaning up a neglected area, but I have to be patient when I don't get it done.  If we do all our school work during the week, I have Saturdays usually to catch up.  But not always.  Sigh.

I ran out of my almond milk and my nutpods creamer, so I tried this bad boy in my coffee.  Yum-O!  No sugar or sweetener needed!  If you let it sit, the heaviest cream is at the top, so I took some of that and poured some of the milk in the bottom of the can for my creamer.  Then after I refridgerated it, it's much more solid, so I just scoop out some regardless if it's at the top or bottom.  I warmed it up for 30-60 seconds, then whipped it with my frother, then poured the coffee in.  Today I also added cocoa powder and 1 drop of peppermint essential oil.  Zero sugar or sweetener and it was just as yummy as the ones from Starbucks.

Justin is still claiming the pull out couch bed as his bed.  Which is fine until Abishai wants to play with Justin or in that room.  I finally had to send Justin to his own room for a bit because he was becoming too agitated towards Abishai.  This is a common room and needs to be shared.  Abishai just wants a playmate.

Daddy snuggles.

Abishai was moving Socks' paw so Socks could move the toy car and play with Abishai.  How cute!

We took Abishai's new handcrafted fleet and fabric travel road with us to church on Bible Bowl night.  Loads of fun!

Yes, the boy is still in his favorite pj's.  Yes, he has filthy feet from the church carpet.  But yes, he's hiding from Daddy in the gaga ball pit.

I can't watch when they do this, so I took the picture over my shoulder.  Plus, they were playing a game of throwing the ball at me when I was under them and not looking up.  Abishai thought it was hilarious!  He would throw the ball, then run down the stairs, get the ball, and carry it, by himself, back up the stairs to do it again.  I think they did this a dozen times.

Challenge accepted!  How high is your vertical jump?

I think Jared has Benaiah beat!

So fun one on one time!  There's an advantage of having your office at the church, even if you are passing through before or after an event or class or meeting.

Snowing after Bible Bowl.  I really thought we wouldn't see any more snow.  I was sort of ok with that because the warmer temps means we could get outside, and we did when it was warm!  But, the snow is pretty, too!

Benaiah asked me to proofread his 6 page book report.  Well, I had Justin and Keturah look through a couple of paragraphs just for fun because that's what they do in their grammar books.  They go through and label some parts of speech, correct grammar mistakes, Justin identifies clauses and sentence openers, and then they rewrite the corrected sentence.  It's pretty neat.  They both found a couple of mistakes right off the bat in Benaiah's paper.  I started to be nit picky about sentence structure and gave up after page 2.  Benaiah didn't want to spend the time to correct all that anyway.  But at least I know now that I can do it!  I learned a ton from the writing lab at college but I'm learning way more with this new to us curriculum, IEW, that we've been using this year.  Money well spent.  I can't wait to stop by their booth in a couple of weeks and ask a few questions and place our order for next year!

I hosted a very successful online Pampered Chef party and here are some of my goodies!  That black wedge looking thing is to break up ground meat or mashed potatoes and oh my am I impressed with it!  I used it in the ground beef tonight and it broke the meat up into the tiniest of pieces with a gentle twisting motion.   It's not a heavy tool either, perfect for me with little strength.  And I'm also super excited about having an easier cheese grater on hand.

On a whim yesterday, after filing a couple of papers, I reorganized my desk again.  I can see the top of it, yeah!

Night time snow!  So pretty!

Isn't this just the perfect picture of these two's relationship?  Best buds!

I pulled out my pampered chef "uncrustables" sandwhich maker.  I bought it when the other kids were little.  Basically, it cuts off the crust and presses the edges of the bread together and seals it.  It's like the product "uncrustables" you see in the freezer section at the grocery store that caters to kids that don't like the crust.  I made it a point NOT to cut off crusts with my kids, but this is a fun alternative once in awhile.  Abishai ate the whole thing!

Nope, not fresh, but frozen.  And they were good.  This was my lunch today, although the butter garlic sauce made my tummy feel yucky.

I found this throwback picture on Facebook today.  How cute!  Benaiah age 8 and Keturah age 2.

Jared took Benaiah and Abishai to church tonight because Benaiah needed to be at the worship team rehearsal because he's stage managing on Sunday, for the first time in months!  Anyway, that left Justin, Keturah and I at home and although we three love the quiet and our own space, I suggested playing a board game since they both were tired of playing, reading, and they were done with TV time.  We pulled out this brand new game I found at a homeschool swap.  Yes, it's educational, but it wasn't overly so.

Basically, you buy product in one state from another player and deliver it to another state selling it to the bank.  You get bonus moves for saying what the state capital is of the state you are going to without looking on the board and cheating.  I did not get all of mine right, and they certainly didn't, so, I think we'll be revisiting those state capital flashcards soon.  Also, we've struggled in our other memory work through Classical Conversations.  It is a lot of information, and I haven't memorized it myself.  So, I've come up with a game plan for reviewing it all from now through summer.  There's only two sections that repeat next year, so I'd like us to nail down more of it before then.  Normally kids have a few years to memorize things like the timeline, but Justin's already in 7th grade and Keturah's not far behind in 4th grade.  And I never know when I'll switch things up again.  We'll also be starting to trace maps as well.

We learned about the Maccabean Revolt today around 150 B.C.  But we only have this 7 stem menorah, not the 9 stem menorah they use for Hanukkah.  Jared got this when he went to Israel (and Jerusalem) with his family in high school.  I have put it aside for this very lesson instead of displaying it itself.  It's funny how when you are an educator, you see things differently.  "Ooo, that would be great to go with this lesson!  And wow, I could a unit study on that topic!"

I just want to play with you, big brother!  Pway wit me!

On of the brothers of one of Keturah's gymnastics friends made Justin a get well activity book.  I think he must have gotten his mom to copy drawings of his and then stapled them together, but still, it looks to be original artwork, which I would imagine he wanted to keep.  Pretty impressive!

Snow in the day time!

Oh, my goof balls Keturah and Abishai ran a dirty diaper all the way out to the trash can (because it wasn't picked up until mid afternoon) in their pj's and bare feet!  And then Abishai tried to play "catch me if you can!"  It's like 20 degrees!  Get in here! Lol!

Benaiah decided to rearrange his corner.  Have fun with that!

Benaiah is supposed to keep track of Abishai when I make dinner aka during the bewitching hour(s) aka between 4-6 pm, SO, Abishai joined Benaiah's project as the supervisor.

Abishai found a perfect garage for his large vehicles!  So adorable!

Playing "pew pews" again.  Always.  Cute!