Year 3, June 17th-18th, 2018: Father's Day 2018

After feeling blah because I didn't plan much for Father's Day, it actually turned out pretty well.  Benaiah played the drums for all three services at the Indian Creek Christian Church Franklin Rd. campus, so we didn't have much time together at home.  There was no high school or middle school programming, so the 5 of us were home together after 6pm.  Remember, Gary, Leah, and Justin are all in Texas, so we didn't have the normal Sunday dinner with them.  In fact, Jared ended up having to grill his own Father's Day meal because I was at church working in the nursery for the first time in two months.  I'm supposed to be in there every other week but between sickness, time off, and the power being out two weeks ago, I haven't had to do it.  I know it can be a pain to get the grill started but boy do I have the smell and taste of grilled pork or beef steak!

We did get to talk to a very chatty Justin as well in the evening.  He told us all the details of his day including swimming in a custom made pool complete with a custom slide.  He named everyone on the trip, told us how they helped at food pantry, how they went through each house to see what they could do, and how he helped fill coolers with Gatorade.  He's very excited that he's going to be painting this week and most of the homes already have air conditioning in them again.  The forecast for Houston is actually about 8-10 degrees cooler than Indianapolis this week!  Our air conditioner can barely keep up, despite leaving the thermostat at 80 degrees.  We are literally swimming through the humidity with a heat index of 105.  I might have to take the kids to Jared's office or the free summer bowling program I signed us up for and haven't tried yet, just to get out of the heat.  Or the mall.

Back to Benaiah and his drumming.  He was very, very nervous, so I posted his practice session and asked for prayers on Instagram (and Facebook because they are connected). Then I thought that it isn't fair for the other three kids, so I posted something about them, too.  I do that to also bring attention to certain things that might be overlooked in our busy culture, like Keturah's birthday.  I'm not sure if my posts helped to solicit comments from others or not, but the comments did make the kids feel good about themselves.  And we all need that kind of encouragement, right?  Here are the posts I wrote:

From Instagram: Coming up on Sunday....Benaiah’s debut at Franklin Rd. campus....for all 3 services. Wow! We are so proud of him! @el_schleepo
Don’t forget to pray for this one too. Playing for 3,000 people tomorrow and starting a real job at Chick Fil A on Monday and taking drivers permit written test on Friday.

From Instagram: Pray f#for this one this week and next. This week he’s in Houston rebuilding homes with Grandma and Grandpa for hurricane relief. Then he’s home for 24 hrs before heading to CIY for 4 days. The poor introvert will be on people overload AND he’s prone to dehydration headaches, so I worry. He’s the super sensitive type. Just pray that he gets some rest.

From Instagram: This one turns 10 today! My oh my how time flies. Her camp is during the first week of July. Happy 10th birthday Keturah!

From Instagram: And you all know how much prayer we need for this one because he doesn’t like potty training and lives life to the max in fast/fall forward. 😜

From Instagram: My boy in action. It always feels weird when I hold my phone up during worship but then I think, I’m going to want to see this later. I’ll regret it if I don’t record it. I try to be discreet but I think you all understand how proud we are of Benaiah being a self taught drummer. It took him 4 yrs to get to this point. Jared was beaming with pride when you all asked him about Benaiah today. It reminds me when Gary beans with pride for any of us. And for the record, Benaiah was watching his video game tournament in between sets. Professional drummers are real people you know 😜

From Instagram: Excuse the voices but someone was being seated during this one. I then used just a voice recording app to record the last song of the service. I’ll try to get that posted somewhere. We won’t be videoing every time he’s up there, but today was extremely special and a great reminder that when I get out of the way, God can move and do His thing. We had nothing to do with this thing. Nada. Ok, I taught him a little piano. But we didn’t get him lessons, we didn’t give him all sorts of encouragement, we did drive him to our church in Canada to practice before youth group and of course made sure he had time to practice here. He’s the one who has developed relationships with adults and asked questions and these other adults have poured into him and given him ample opportunity to grow. And when he’s being a normal “I know about life more than you do” teen at home, I can remember times like these where I feel like yes, he’s ready to be launched into the world. We’ve done our part, not always well, but we all have helped each other get to this point. Again, best Father’s day present for Jared, Gary, and even my father, Stephen in Heaven. How many 16 yr olds can get up on stage and play the drums for a crowd of 3,000? Incredible! The days are long, but the years are short. Enjoy!

Here's the rest of the pictures for the last two days:

Starting Father's Day right by playing board games before breakfast.  Abishai slept in only his diaper but insisted on putting on jammies this morning.  He likes these candy cane striped ones.

Big sister helping little brother tie his big boy tie shoes so he can match Daddy with his tie shoes.  And she did it without us asking her to do it.

A still shot from Benaiah playing drums this morning.  We sat right in front of the sound booth.

 The "video" I wanted to upload above is actually an audio file of one of the songs Benaiah played.  Because it's sometimes hard to listen closely when you are watching a video and the videographer doesn't have a still hand like I don't, I find it distracting.  I wanted to capture the sound and not be obnoxious during worship. So, if you want to hear it, just email or message me as I am clueless as to how to add an audio file to this blog or convert it for YouTube or use Dropbox or what have you.  Thanks!

Meanwhile in Houston.....Justin is playing in the lap of luxury at a church member's boss' house.  And it's cooler down there!

Jared couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear when people kept stopping him to talk about Benaiah.  He kept saying "It's been a 4 yr process" from Benaiah receiving a rubber drum head and practicing before youth group at Cornwall Christian Church to playing at home and in the chapel band at school to playing at Middle School worship service and now in big church.  All self taught.

I took this screenshot to make a post for my stories so people could see the more permanent posts in my feed, but it's a good example of what I post, lol.

I sneaked upstairs during warm ups before the 4:30 pm service at church so I could get a better view than I did this morning.  Sometimes, the best seats aren't always on the floor level.  I'm so glad I did!  Benaiah didn't even see me.  But that's our boy back there!

They are so professional looking up there.  Every...single...week....

Ewww!!!! Take me back to PEI where the high hardly ever gets to 90 degrees and the beach is just a few minutes away!

Why is Houston 10 degrees cooler this week?  Why?!  So Justin doesn't get dehydration headaches while he works, that's why.

Meanwhile, my electricity bill is getting higher and higher.  Ewwwwwwwww!

Jared grilled the pork steaks for his Father's Day dinner.

I'm trying to be careful what pictures and videos I share of Abishai half naked during his potty training times, but come on, isn't this a tad cute?  Just riding his bike all naked like.  Jared hosed down the driveway so Abishai could walk on it in his bare feet.

Father's Day dinner.  The corn isn't ready here yet, so these were from Georgia.  And I'm sorry, but our corn is sweeter.

Finishing Father's Day the right way, reading to Abishai, his favorite time of day.

The next morning, Abishai decides his blankie is too hot and needs to be cooled off.

Jared had to take Benaiah to his first real shift at his first real job.  Well, Abishai was having none of that and buckled himself into the truck, too.

I literally had to hold onto Abishai so he wouldn't get in front of the truck and he almost chased the truck down the road.  He cried for Daddy for 10 minutes straight.

Abishai in mid-fit about Daddy leaving to go to work.

So.....this.....happened today.....Way to go!  He has been assigned to be a cook, not a cashier!  I think that perhaps that's a job that requires more responsibility actually.  He would be great up front because of his personality but I think he'll do great in either position.

This is what happens when you are an adult.  You work hard all day (drumming on Sunday) and then have to get up and go to work and do it again.  Actually, he only observed for 2 hrs today and it was not that early.  The early birds go in at 4:30 am to open the store at 6.  His shift was from 9a-11a.  Oh, and the provide his shirt, pants, BELT, and of course the nametag.  We had to buy him $55 non slip black shoes.  Welcome to adulting!

Just a boy, in a box, watching YouTube.  He set himself up.  I didn't have the strength to argue about potty training in the afternoon, so he wasn't naked at this point.  Hopefully we are practicing with underwear tomorrow.

My sister Stefanie sent us a few of the old school Little People from our childhood collection so Abishai would have some to go with the Little People sets that never made it to her house.  He found Benaiah's bunk house creation from his English class and put some of the Little People there.  How cute!

Look, Mom, the ladder is so long!  I put out the fire! Oh! This reminds me!  Last night, after Jared was done with the grill, he put it inside the garage and closed the garage door because he thought it was cooled off enough.  Well, it wasn't and there was smoke in the garage and it seeped into the house.  We didn't have a clue until Abishai, the fireman, pointed it out to us!  He kept saying, "Smoke! Need to get out! Fire!" so I immediately remembered that we had practiced that when we went to the fire truck demonstration so I played along and Abishai and I at least practiced what getting low and feeling if the doors were hot and finding a safe place to meet.  I think he was a little concerned that no one else was practicing.  I'm dumbfounded that he noticed the smoke and remembered what to do.  Don't underestimate the importance of some of the little things like taking them to see the fire truck gear and a firefighter all dressed up so they won't be afraid of them if they are needed at your home.  He also watches a lot of Fireman Sam right now, which is a TV program based in the UK I think, so I'm sure it's only helped to solidify the concepts in his head.  I made Keturah verbally tell me what to do as well.    I just hope I remember what to do if it's needed.  Way to go Abishai!

And this kid has figured out how to buckle and unbuckle those two prong snap clips like you see on backpacks (this one is on a back support that Leah got for Jared).  We knew he could snap the buckle together but we didn't know he could unsnap it.  Eek!

I went to put something in the trash bin outside and saw that the fireflies were out in full force.  So I told Keturah and she immediately grabbed a jar to catch some!  And she DID catch some!  We have some videos, too, of them lighting up!

Finally got to talk to Justin before he went to bed.  They painted all day.  He's learned everyone's names.  He walked somewhere for ice cream.  He asked about Abishai.  He talked about what he ate and drank (loads of sugar and some caffeine).  They might go out to eat or see a movie later in the week.  It sounds like he's having a grand time hanging out with mostly adults.  Yeah!

Lots and lots of painting!  Now he'll know how to paint our house, lol!