Year 3, May 16th-17th, 2018: Celebrations

Time for some celebrations!  Jared turns 39 yrs old on Friday, so we celebrated with going out to dinner this evening.  Benaiah's last day of school was today so now he's officially a junior in high school!  Say what?!  And since he is almost 16, we also celebrated that he will be receiving some new privileges and responsibilities soon.  I spent the afternoon doing a "brain dump" of all the thing I want to accomplish this summer, and then setting more realistic goals and a time frame in which to do them in.  I get frustrated sometimes with seeing other people's homes on social media but need to remember, we've only been in the house for 1 year and they have had many more years to renovate their home and yard.  So, realistic goals, a time frame, and I'll scratch out a few more details as the time comes.  No more parties/field trip commitments either.  Only a handful of summer bucket list items, some of which can be accomplished by grandparents while I stay home and work on my projects.  I'm willing to give up a bit of the "I have to be there for every moment" so I can feel more accomplished and settled at home.

But first, we must get over our spring colds.  Typically, I get a head cold when summer changes to fall and winter changes to spring.  Then I'm good for the rest of the season.  Abishai had it first, Jared had some of it, and now it's my turn.  We get the stomach bug twice a year at most.  And how do we stay so healthy?  Well, not from the best diet nor the best cleaning habits.  In fact, by NOT constantly cleaning all the things, our bodies have built up an immunity to a lot of germs.   Plus staying home more helps overall.  But it's still miserable to get through the cold itself.  Lots of essential oils and regular OTC meds to the rescue.  And sleep of course.

The big news is that today, we got our water softener and whole household water filter installed!  Finally!  I can already tell a huge difference.  I can't wait to scrub all the things and bleach the crud out of the whites.  Again, our water was safe, but the tannins were cosmetically hurting our clothes, sinks, dishes, bathtub, etc.  I can't wait to use less soap!  My hands already feel softer and less dry than they would in the hard water.  Ah! 

Only 11 more days of school to go....winding down....just to wind up on the house projects.  Yeah!  I have even requested we do a staycation so grandparents can take grandchildren to theme parks without me and I can work at home.  Can't wait to see what we plan to do!

Second to last gym class for the year!  She's doing great!

Bridges!

Splits!

Sleepy/sick baby wanted to snuggle at "gymnastics track."

One handed cartwheels and two handed round offs!

Nighty night!

Kips and swinging around the bar all the way with hips on the bar.  Woot! Woot!

A version of musical chairs to finish the class.

We finally stopped by at Wolf Run park near our house after passing it every week all winter long on our way to gymnastics.

It was warm and we only lasted 45 minutes because there's no bathroom and we only brought a couple of snacks.  But all three kids had a decent time.  I had to find a shady spot to read my book because the son was way too bright for me and I don't wear sunglasses because of my glasses.  I suppose I could have dug out my hat from the back of the van and next time, I will do that.

This kid can climb to all kinds of heights!

This playground is all plastic but it's made to look like real wood(s).  It's less than 1 year old.  There's also a basketball court, a pyramid climbing gym, a toddler playground, picnic areas, etc.  It's sits at the entrance to one of the subdivisions but is owned by Indy Parks.  We wish there were bathrooms and a splash pad here.  It's less than 5 minutes from home.

"You can't come in my house!" - Abishai says as he looks like he's the one in jail.

Keturah loves this zip line.

Justin's turn.

Look, Mom!  You can run around on the ground and then hop on and spin!

A good day for some inside sandbox time to cool off.

Waiting for Grandpa to come pick Justin up for Bible class and a meal out.

I finally got to explore the rest of the Franklin Rd library branch because Jared had Abishai.  Look what I found!  An updated full length translation of the books written by Herodotus!  There wasn't much curriculum, but there were a few books about homeschooling.  I guess the main selection of curriculum that was recently donated is at the Central library downtown that I saw.

Who needs to pay for cable, Redbox, or Netflix?  Not this girl!  There's plenty of free movies and TV shows at the library if you are patient enough!  I've waited a couple of years to final finish off Downton Abbey.  The free tv website I use no longer works.  The movies were suggestions made on the "When Calls the Heart" tv series DVD's.  I'm loving the cleanliness of the Hallmark channel movies and shows.  Yes!

My stool!   Except, it's not.  It's Daddy's stool at the office.

I do it my big self!

Ta da!

It's done!  Three new shut off valves, new drainage pipe in the crawlspace, a whole house filter, and a water softener!  We bought everything outright with extra warranty.  Now onto cleaning up the floor and making a new tool bench in other spot.  And yes, those termite damaged walls need help, too. I haven't seen any termites though since we did the extermination.  Yeah!

Little guy fell asleep on the way to dinner.  And he wouldn't wake up!  Even when Jared put a cold wet glass against his skin.

Sleeping preschooler.  Aw....

Finally up and enjoying the fried part of the onion rings. 

Justin loves croutons!  So everybody gave him their croutons as an appetizer!

Yummy, decently priced food! 

Steaks, fish, fries, mashed potatoes and a few veggies were consumed.  The Vernors pop will be consumed another day.

The new high school junior!

This was so sweet!  Today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a faithful 50 yr veteran money counter got to wave the green flag for practice.  Way to go for celebrating someone who has worked behind the scenes all these years to make great events like the Indy 500 happen!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing these stories and I hope to ingrain in the children that these people are just as important as the celebrity driving the pace car.  Way to go!

Head colds have us like.....asleep in just a few minutes.  He slept in our bed 4 out of 6 nights, but thankfully with a little fan blowing directly on him in his room, he slept in his bed all night last night.  Jared likes to him fall asleep in our bed and then transfer him.

Baby and momma hands.

Benaiah scored probably $400 worth of computer parts from the school today because they were giving it away.  He's got a new tower to mess with (maybe for me?!) and another laptop, as well as some SSD cards for memory and another monitor.  We'll see if he can come up with all the parts and get these computers up and running!  I would love to have the computer tower and then clean up my laptop for the kids to use.  Way to go, B!

Yeah! The sign came back!  Keturah spent over an hour making this for Benaiah.  We took it to school on Tuesday when we surprised him.  But I just hung it in our kitchen for his real birthday which is June 4th.  Love it!

Up next....Jared's birthday.......garage sales.....clothes shopping.....and more.....