Year 3, June 21st-22nd, 2018: Daily Do's

Hm,...I think I blocked out what yesterday was....so let's start with today.  Hm,....oh yeah, park day!  We had our weekly park day, but this time, it was at our old stomping grounds near the condo!  Sweet!  I can't wait to compare some of the pictures, especially of Abishai, from 2 years ago and 1 year ago, and today!  I'll try to dig them up and put them side by side on this post.  It had rained overnight so the equipment was wet and we waited for a bit to go up there.  Abishai didn't spend a lot of time on the equipment though.  He spent most of the hour playing in the water until he self declared "I go in the water and get cold and shiver!"  Then we though that a gym had open gym time, so I friend took Keturah and headed over there, while Abishai and I stopped at the gas station for the birthday (and gas) before joining them.  Well, there was no open gym for the summer, but the mom did feed Keturah a hamburger from McD's.  Yeah!  We then went home via the church to see Daddy and a couple of other errands.  Abishai ended up having a lunch of chicken nuggets with Daddy, so, score! I didn't have to feed the two youngest any lunch when we got home!  Then it was potty training time, screen time, start working on more brown book boxes time, and supper time.  Meanwhile, Benaiah got up at noon again and played his video games most of the day, except for 1 hour where he mowed between rain storms.  Jared ended up mowing our front yard because of Benaiah's procrastination.  In his defense, it did rain off and on today.  However, he has to work tomorrow, and the yards haven't been mowed in over a week.  It was time.  Plus we have to pick up the missionaries tomorrow! Yeah!

Update on potty training: I'm still pretty frustrated with it.  It's not that he's scared of it, but he just doesn't want to.  And one of the reasons we've waited is because he didn't want to.  But push has come to shove and he's got to.  I talked with his friends' mom about it and she said they used the "diaper fairy" to carry away all the diapers.  It took her two days to get the twins mostly potty trained.  Ugh! Why can't it be that easy for us?!  So, from now on out, it's underwear during the day and diapers until their gone or pull ups at night.  Ok, I cheated a bit today by letting him stay in his overnight pull up until he pooped.  And then we did take our first 20 minute car ride in underwear to the park.  I put a hand towel under him in the carseat just in case and it will stay there until it needs changed.  The bathroom was closed at the park (what is up with Indianapolis park bathrooms??????  PEI knows how to keep their bathrooms available at all times!  Come on Indy!) otherwise I would have tried to get him to sit on the potty.  I also needed the restroom and that's why we only stayed at the park for an hour.  Anyway, I changed him soon after we arrived into his swimsuit and I have no idea if peed in that or not.  But he was complaining of his stomach hurting, so I put a pull up on for the rest of the driving and at Daddy's office just in case.  With him having multiple poops a day, you just never know what he's going to do next.  He did fall asleep on the way to Jared's office, so I was glad I put the pull up on.  We tried using the potty at church and then again when we got home and went naked for the rest of the day.  He had a couple of half accidents/half making it to the potty.  I just need to be willing to deal with the mess and be late to things.  The family has been forewarned.  I also might have brought 5 pairs of underwear and 5 pairs of shorts and an extra hand towel with us today.  #ihatemess

Now I remember what we did yesterday!  We went to a book sale I had been wanting to go to for over a year.  Next year I plan to actual sell and/or give away some books there! We went into the book sale knowing we only had one hour until we needed to leave for my chiropractor appointment.  I thought Jared had a conference to attend to and I didn't want to bother with taking the kids somewhere, so I made Benaiah come with us and deal with Abishai for me.  There was a kids' corner with cars and tracks and games at the book sale, so Abishai was fine there.  But at the chiropractor appointment, Benaiah got a taste of what Abishai really is like when he kept throwing blocks halfway across the room.  The office manager, a friend of ours, said that they all did great.  But I could hear Abishai during my appointment.  The roller beds and actual table where you get adjusted are in large rooms so you can hear people in the waiting room sometimes.  Anyways, one hour was plenty of time to get in, poke around and get out of the book sale before we spent too much money or kids got crazy.  I knew exactly what I was looking for (Classical Conversations materials and even Math U See Algebra 1 and Algebra II!) and knew exactly what I wouldn't be looking at (paperback novels and workbooks I probably would never use).  I did find a couple of fun things like a Roman soldier's costume (comes in handy when we'll be still studying the Romans in the fall) and a David Tennant (Dr. Who, #10) t-shirt. Keturah bought herself some scented markers and a little set of hooks for her doll.  After the book sale and chiropractor, we stopped at McDonald's for a slushie, but we had to get out of the car AND it was only ONE per customer/family. So we ended up getting drinks and a happy meal for Abishai.  Home for potty training and projects and moodiness.  Yup, I think that sums it up!

Well, whatever tropical depression or big storm they got in Texas hovered over us yesterday and today. The radar kept showing rain, then it was gone, then it redeveloped, then it was gone.  But the front stretched from Michigan to Texas!

Because of the storms, we missed talking to Justin on Wednesday night, but on Thursday he was very happy to be cutting and laying flooring!

Yup, let the garden run wild!

Humongous!

I wash the dishes, Mommy!  And he almost got IN the sink, too!

He wanted to try on the new costume!  We are definitely in the dress up stage of childhood!  He LOVES the dress up box!

Cutest Roman soldier you ever did see!  It has arm cuffs and shin guards, too, but it's for bigger kids and so I couldn't get those tight enough.

The mom had purchased extra sandals to go with the outfit though!  Check out those cute toes!  The whole thing was $5!  I've been wanting a costume like this my whole life!  And now whenever there's a call for a Roman soldier costume for a skit about Jesus' time, we have one!

Just a naked boy in a costume box.  This is my life right now.

After she let me read the instructions with her, Keturah started working on her homemade stickers!  It's really just glue like gel that you paint onto clear plastic with the design printed under it.  Then you let it dry and they become slightly sticky gluey things you can put all kinds of places.  You have to make sure all the colors touch though.

A dog or a sheep?  I didn't brush him for 3 days.  That's how much hair I got out of him using both sides of the brush!

See? More storms developed!

Benaiah's post about his new job.

And more storms.

On a whim, I decided to make homemade cashew milk!  Soak 1 cup of raw, unsalted cashews overnight in water.  Drain the water, but the cashews in the blender with 3 cups of new water and blend.  Ta da!  Unsweetened, no added junk, fresh cashew milk!  I wasn't sure if my blender could handle it, but it did.  Now when I'm out of almond milk, I can do this!

Cashew milk!

Grandpa captioned this photo "I got a souvenir! Socks will have someone to play with!"  Jared replied with a glare face emoji and I replied, "Awww, adorable. But leave it with someone else."  Oh goodness I don't need something else to take up my time!

I was scrolling through Instagram posts and I follow CIY of course.  Check out this picture at Hope College where Benaiah goes to CIY every year!

50 years?!  Wait a minute!  I thought it was more like 25 years!  So, I looked up their history and yes, CIY high school has been going on for 35-40 years, but the organization has focused on kids for 50 years with different programs including mission work.  Justin's middle school CIY has only been in existence for 7 years while Keturah's SuperStart mid winter retreat has gone on since 2002.  And the rebranding of CIY into Move and Mix happened about 10 years ago.  I attended CIY exactly 20 years ago at Milligan College in TN!  We could have gone to one closer to us in NH but one of my friends wanted to visit the college anyway.  It was last minute and we stayed in a motel instead of the dorm.  I think we only had 1 or 2 15 passenger vans, not 2 50 passanger buses, lol.  Great times, though!  Jared also went once to CIY.  If Justin keeps it up, he will have been to 7 or so of them before he graduates high school.

Of course she had to practice her gymanstics on the bar at the playground.  She scrambled up that very quickly!  And that is this the shirt I wore when I went to Franklin, TN to be part of Michael W. Smith movie 12 years ago?  Too small for me now, but she can enjoy it for a bit.

I heard her say, "I used to love climbing this wall and we used to live over there!"

I remember when he crawled up these stairs. *Sidenote* I did go looking for photos from the past two years and despite my meticulous organization of photos, it's proving difficult to find them.  I'll post them here if and when I find them!

The bars were too far apart for him to make it up all the way, but he made it farther up than he did when we lived at the condo.

Climbing on the outside of the playground.

So big climbing the stairs!

Keturah and our friends. I need to learn their names!

There was a large group of kids from a daycare, but they were well behaved.  Lots of African Americans, who live in this area, and I only mention that because I'm super happy when my kids can see and interact with other races.  Our township and church is 95% white people.

Run, Forest, run!

I can't wait to find the pictures to show you how much he's grown!  But he does have to try out every swing at every playground we go to.  This type of swing is designed for older kids who have disabilities.  I LOVE that they think about those kids and install these!

Our condo was straight back there between the trees!

Hasn't changed much in the past year except they added some new benches near the splash pad!

He absolutely LOVED the water!

He kept looking up and WANTING the dump bucket to throw tons of water down on his head.  He's always loved this splash pad, but the dump bucket, not so much.

Perfect lighting on this photo!  He could spin this guy all around, too!

Having chicken nuggets at Grandpa's and Daddy's office.  With his feet on the glass table.  That Grandpa will meticulously wipe down later.  Lol.

He's getting some big feet!  Goofball!

No, I don't want to go home!

I started work on this pile today.  Yesterday I was panicking about not getting enough done this summer.  Today, I was calmer and realized that by golly, I've already gotten 2 of 3 of my top projects done, the garage and Benaiah's stuff from the sunroom into the garage (which we put away yesterday).  20 boxes worth of books and papers here I need to meticioulously go through.  Old taxes and appliance papers.  Old school notes.  Old technology to be tossed.  Today I got through one box worth and kept 1/3 of the items.  That's pretty good for me!  And if I do a box every day, I'll get done in 3 weeks.  I hope to do more like 2 boxes a day, but who knows.  And don't worry, I have other projects to do if I get this done.  I've been chipping away at the clothes sorting for myself and the kids. 

He was rocking back on forth on the arm of the chair like he was riding a horse.

Mowing with Daddy!  And before anyone panics, I made sure that Jared stayed well aware of where Abishai was.  There was a girl here in the city that had her foot mangled in a riding lawn mower just a month ago.  She hadn't been outside 5 minutes and her dad I believe backed the mower up or bumped into her and her foot got under the tractor.  Abishai decided to play in the truck soon after this picture.  But he did try to mow the grass Jared had left around the mailbox!  And yes, I made sure Abishai was safe in the truck, too.  I'm just super afraid he'll put it in neutral and it will roll.  Jared assured me that he had the parking brake on and Abishai couldn't undo it.  Still makes me nervous though.  Life is full of risks!

A friend told me about this app, iHeart Radio and about this station that plays all the Contemproary Christian Music from the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's, which are all the songs that I grew up with.  I know a ton of them and it's been fun to walk down memory lane. I can't remember if the songs are all radio singles/hits or they are also including other songs but I'm hearing things I haven't heard in 15-20 years.  Love it!

Yup, 20 years ago!

Abishai found a mini metal wrench (that says Kingdom Worker on it, so I think it was a memory tool from CIY or something), told me it was wrench and then proceeded to "fix" his bike" like a mechanic fixes a car.  He even got out a flashlight!  I love when he role plays, even if most of his ideas come from watching show on YouTube.

More of the stickers Keturah is creating!

They are 3D and a bit puffy but how cute is this ice cream cone!

Excellent job!

Keturah is always reorganizing her room and now she's added her most recent finds, the doll chair and desk/cabinet from the Lifebridge yard sale, as well as the bed coming from the very cold consignment sale I was at a few months ago, and she's thinking of putting up the hooks she got yesterday up on the wall above the "desk."  And the "rug" is the tea towel Grandma made and gave her last week.  The markers she also got at the book sale yesterday.  Adorable!  She even made a wall out of those cups!

Dolphin sticker she made.

How organized is this?!  I've been waiting and waiting until she was old enough to do stuff like this!  Those things on the top of the desk are NOT randomly placed there! The fox is a sticker she made and put on the "lid" of the "laptop" she made and the turquoise box looking thing is a cell phone.  This shelf was pure white and then she added the glitter glue to all of it.  How stinkin' adorable is this?  I'm so proud of her!

Yes, I was big into 4Him, which was a much older "boy band" or rather quartet, as they would properly be called.  I only saw them once at a Christmas concert though with a ton of other artists like Carmen.  But, they had a distinct sound so I was able to guess it was them!  I don't know all the titles to the songs, but I know the lyrics to 80% of the songs on this station.

This one was covered by the Newsboys in the early 20003's, but it was a song we sang a lot during our college years.  Chris Tomlin wrote it and released it in 2000.  I did get tired of it because it was played so much!  I'm really loving all of this!