Year 3, May 28th-29th, 2018: Getting better, almost done!

It's the last week of school! Finally!  I just want to switch gears and work on my other projects.  But, I need to feel better first.  I'm still feeling a bit achy from this sinus infection, and now my throat has started to feel nasty again.  Ugh.  This week and next week are still full of other stuff like appointments and field trips and birthdays and church events, so I can't really focus on my projects just yet anyway.  Plus I'm waiting for the babysitter to get home, aka Grandma, so she can take the kids for 2-3 hrs every day (hopefully!) like if I was going to a part time job or something so I don't have them as a distraction, especially Abishai.  We'll get 'er done, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, we spent Memorial Day alone, except Bryce spent the night with us.  We did end up going to a small town next door which had a little parade and memorial service.  It was pretty hot, and the kids got way too much candy, but I'm glad we went.  I think we all needed to be reminded about the real reason we celebrate Memorial Day. We didn't grill out or decorate or anything.  Jared even ended up working over at his parents' house so he could have some peace and quiet.  They are working on a project with a deadline, so why not work on a holiday?  He had to come home early today anyway to watch the kids while I was at my appointment, so hours wise, it all worked out.

I just wish I could get a handle on this infection and pain in my head.  If it doesn't get better by Thursday, I might shoot for an appointment on Friday for antibiotics.  It's affecting all the sinuses in my face, including my upper jaw.  It makes me so grumpy and I just don't want to be around people, which makes them unhappy as well.  I can't think straight and I have zero motivation.  So, I'm praying I recover soon.  Meanwhile, you'll be getting some probably disjointed blog posts and much less posts on social media.  If I don't feel good, I don't want to spread my negativity to the whole wide world all the time.  I've got no energy to think of cute things to say or decide what emoji to use.  So, I've taken a big step back and just let it all rest.  I'd like to say I've focused more on the kids, but that isn't true.  I'm just coping.  But someday soon, I'll dig in and feel better and get some things done, like free myself of clutter so I feel more at peace TO spend more time with kids.  That's this summer's goal.  Now, watch us as we reach that goal.  Goals with certain deadlines keep me motivated.  Projects with "It's not that important so I can put it off" will never get done.  Those projects really aren't that important in the scheme of things, like fixing holes in clothing or organizing a bunch of kid cd's.  But boxes that are in the way of my school books?  That's a big problem.  Boxes in the way of utilizing the garage to it's full potential and is embarrassing for the neighbors to see?  That's a big problem.  Going through Justin's clutter, not as a big of a problem as other things.  Realistic goals.  I got 'em, now watch me accomplish them little by little.

I just love neat things like this!  The green flag that Chris Hemsworth waved at the Indy 500 this weekend was first flown in space!  How cool is that!  Ah!  I think astronomy and astronauts and space, all of it, is pretty neat anyways.

The Indy 500 green flag in space!

500 balloons? They release these at the starting ceremonies of the Indy 500.  Some do pop before they get sent up though.  If you get a chance, you can see clips of it on social media and YouTube.  Yes, there's an environmental risk, and maybe the use ones that disintegrate, but nonetheless, it's all part of the festivities.

We skyped Aaron and Shauna, Nora and Everly, and Grandma and Grandpa early on Memorial Day.  It was really just the girls that skyped each other, which they can do anytime, so I was wishing that Grandma and Grandpa would skype more just like old times in Canada.  Oh well.  Plenty of giggles to go around.

Noblesville, a 40 minute drive from us, made the front page news of my email website.  Why? Because there was a school shooting at a middle school up there.  But this time, there were only two injured and no deaths.  Why? Because the protocols that law enforcement and school systems have developed and practiced worked!  It's sad that these school shootings are more common place, but at the same time, it's good to see improvements are being made in security.  The guy here is a teacher who knocked the gun out of the shooter's hand.  He was hit by a couple of bullets I believe.  The shooter was a middle school student.  This kind of threat makes me glad we homeschool, although I know that there is a higher risk of dying in a car crash than in a school shooting.  What a brave teacher, and good on the students and staff for following protocol! No deaths!

Time for a tiny town parade!  Anybody could participate if they wanted to.  It was Abishai's first one that he might remember.  The last one we went to would have been in Charlottetown 3 years ago this August.  Abishai insisted in sitting in his chair and not the stroller.  It was about 90 degrees, too!  Eek!

The two other kids.

The boy scouts and cub scouts started it off.  A couple of days ago, they had placed the flags in the cemetery to represent the local military people that have died in all the wars.

Lots of old restored vehicles that you would probably see here, in the Wanamaker parade, and other small towns.  The parade mostly consisted of these!

Cute!

Awesome old fire truck!

This age of car reminds of this story about my Grandfather Koski.  He was an auto body repairman, and one time, he took the front end of one year of a certain model and attached to the rear end of the next year's same model, so you couldn't really say it was either year.  It was a Firebird I think.  Maybe a '58 and '59 or something?  It was my aunt's car I think.  The auto body is still open and the original brick is in the wall indicating when my grandfather opened it. He built the business from scratch after he immigrated from Finland in the early 1920's I think.  I know he immigrated before one of the wars so that he wouldn't be drafted into the war.  But that could have been my uncle that did that before WWII or some other war that the Finnish fought with Russia.  My aunt has all of this written down somewhere.

This is one of the pace cars from the 90th running of the Indy 500 race, which was 12 years ago.  I think they make 5 pace cars per year.  They use pace cars to keep everyone at the same speed right before the race, and then during any yellow or red flags during the race.  I'm pretty sure our friends that we used to watch the race with had an old pace car from the 80's or something from when he was more heavily involved in the garages.

Lots of old cars beautifully restored!

Nice, safe, three wheeled motorcycle.

Cool small dump truck!

There were a couple of state of the art fire and rescue trucks like this one.

Nice jeep!  The parade lasted maybe 15 minutes but the amount of candy thrown at us (we were at the end of the parade route) equaled two big bags of non chocolate candy you would buy around Halloween time.  The boys ate all of theirs, but Keturah and Abishai are picking away at their stash.

A few people spoke at the memorial day service, which lasted about 40 minutes. A few songs were sung.  Someone shared their story about being in Vietnam and then a guy from one of the veteran organizations whose headquarters is downtown also spoke.

Nice flags!  We were right in the little small town cemetary, so we had to be careful where we sat so we didn't sit on a grave.  Not everyone was that careful though. I took note of all the ways you can decorate a tombstone and was reminded again that I haven't seen my parents' one in person yet.

The boy scouts refreshed the flag with a new flag and presented the old flag to one of the veterans.  It was in pretty good condition.  And they did it with as much poise and ceremony as they could.  Very, very sweet.

Hoisting the new flag up.

Old Glory in all her glory.  Or, you can think of it in terms of Michael W. Smith's song he wrote right after 9/11, "There She Stands."

Gun salute.  The popping scared Keturah.

Flags representing the local people that have died in all the wars of this country.  We were at the Acton Cemetery in Acton, IN.

That's a beautiful memorial commemorating the people in this area!  They also shared that they are going to build a place for people to permanently place their loved ones urns that contain their ashes.  As one speaker said, this little town is the epitome of Americana or small town America.  Next year I hope to take the kids to the big downtown parade complete with those huge balloons and floats.  But this little parade and service was perfect for us this year given the heat and a 3 yr old's attention span.

Bwahahahaha!  It reads that the majority of problems in Greek Mythology is due to Zeus having children with too many different goddesses.  Perfect timing as we just reviewed our studies on ancient civilizations.

Little man has muscles and giggles when Daddy lifts him up like you do a bicep curl.

I'm cold!  I just want my paci!  I just want the tablet!  - 3 yr old tantrums

Somebody had a dyed filled airhead candy after supper.  And he LOVED the blue tongue!  It was too cute!  He kept hanging it out and then the dye rubbed off on his chin.  It didn't last more than 10 minutes, so I'm glad I took these pictures to show Daddy.

Cute little guy.  I suggested he get out the little mirror he loves and he carried it around with him staring at his blue tongue.  I'm glad he liked it and wasn't upset or afraid it wouldn't turn back to it's rightful color.

I can't handle this cuteness!

Yes!  Jared said he's been shooing away hummingbirds each morning when he opens the door!  You have to change out the water weekly because it's sugar, so that's why I pulled it tonight to clean and refill.  Yeah! Now, we just have to get up before Daddy so we can see these hummingbirds!  I wish we had a better place to put it so we don't disturb them as much but we could still see them, but I can't think of a place where to do that.  Oh well, at least I know it works!  It took about two weeks for them to find the feeder.  Not too bad at all.  Occasionally I'll find an ant or two inside, but that's to be expected with it being sugar water. Sweet!