Year 3, July 2nd-3rd, 2018: Quiet Week at Home

Finally, a quiet week at home to attempt getting those home projects done!  Except, I'm still recovering from my illness Saturday night, so it's been a bit slower than I had hoped.  We are chipping away at things and just generally taking it slower, which I think the younger kids and I need.  Benaiah left for CIY Move early yesterday morning, and although he doesn't make much noise, it's still seems quieter and less messy around here.  I don't have to go in his room and tell him to wake up and I don't hear clanking of dishes in the kitchen and I don't hear him yelling at his computer game.  I tried to text him today, and he was all like "don't break the silent rule that you can't communicate with your parents while at camp." Ok, son, just wait until you are at college and I text you all day, every day.  "I got it handled, Mom."  Maybe, but some day, you just might need me again.  I'll try not to text him again this week, but it's SO HARD knowing I CAN.  Anyway, I'm sure he's having a great time as usual.  Who doesn't have a great time at camp?  And then Keturah is packing for her 4 days at her event.  She's super excited because she has friends that are going.  Hers is about 1 1/2 hrs north of us, but Benaiah's is about 5 hrs north.  Over 260 kids and sponsors went to CIY Move this year.  That's 4 charter buses! Plus some 15 passenger vans.  Plus a few in their private vehicles.  Oi!  I think about 100 are going to KidJam, and something like 170 went to CIY Mix with Justin's group.  Basically, our high school youth group is bigger than most churches!  #megachurchproblems  And there's a reason why I don't go as a sponsor.  Too much chaos, too much people time, too much everything!  Even when we had VBS I could only handle so much and usually volunteered for nursery duty.  There's plenty of sponsors that go though and they have a wonderful system of keeping track of everybody, so we never have to worry about the kids.  Plus, with social media, the sponsors can post pictures of what the kids are up to and there's even videos for some of the camps explaining what they talked about in the main sessions!  Pretty neat!

Yesterday, I started on the brown boxes in the sunroom again.  I thought I was doing pretty good by going through 3 boxes and getting rid of at least 1/3 of the contents.  But then when evening came, I got really grouchy.  I didn't feel that way during the process, but I suspect that when I was going through papers from 10-20 years ago, my subconscious remembered how simple, naive, and untouched by tragedy I was back then.  I would look for things to do around the house, where as now finish I finish one project, 10 more have cropped up.  I could take a walk with Benaiah in the stroller 3x a week for a couple of hours.  I'm lucky to do my 5 minutes of stretches 3x a week.  I do miss the "good old days" and sometimes those feelings catch up with me.  I feel emotionally spent again today, so I haven't done as much and I'm finding ways to be busy in other ways this week so I don't have time to go through more boxes.  It will take some concentrated effort to stay on track.  Jared's home tomorrow for the July 4th holiday, so I'll try to get some concentrated time done then.  Potty training also has been an issue today.  And I took the kids to the splash pad after someone made a comment about "well, your mom has already taken you to the water park, right?" Nope, nada, haven't, I was hoping Grandma would volunteer.  I don't have time.  And I really don't want to.  I have to remember that quality, not quantity, is what counts.  I remember the two times I went to the beach in high school (although we lived 1 hr away) and if we had gone every weekend, it wouldn't have been as special.  So I'm keeping that in mind.  And now I've done a bit more planning to get the basic summer "bucket list" done.  It's hard when there's camp weeks and vacation weeks, and I want to do everything with all 4 kids and now that Benaiah works, it's even harder.  I feel like I have to plan for fun and it's all on me.

But hopefully there will be more spontaneous play time because I've banned YouTube from the house for the rest of the summer.  There's too many poor quality videos being watched and bad attitudes developing.  We don't have cable for a reason, and it isn't just about the money.  I'll be cutting down as well, as in not going on Instagram much after CIY is over and not clicking through everyone's "stories."  I've found a bunch of books I probably should reread in my book stash because I am in a much different place in life than I was 5-10 years ago, so once I get a little plan together, I think I'll start on those.  We need one more bookshelf for our room for these books so I can see all of them at once and declutter my desk area, but that's probably later this summer or in the fall.  I'm still working on downsizing that section of our library, and then I'll start working through all the shelves.  Once all the bookshelves are in place, that's it.  One in, one out.  But that's the winter's project, or as we go through the particular subject and I realize that nope, we've never used this, time to save it for the booksale.  There is a missionary organization I'm going to take things to, like all the misc. office supplies I never seem to use.  I still have the same package of paper clips from 20 years ago because I don't throw them out when I see them on the floor.  That's the kind of stuff I want to dejunk more of.  And I know that Goodwill will just throw out.  Anyways, back to work, I guess, checking off one thing at a time while I put down 5 more things to do.  Please tell me I'm at the height of raising kids and that it gets less intense from now on? Nope, probably not for another 10 years.  Sigh.  Oh well.

Two small adventurers, ready to protect the backyard.

I told him the ground was wet from rain this morning and he boldly put on these huge rain boots and away he went!  He also figured out how to use the dolphin charm on Keturah's necklace to unlock the bedroom door!  I think we have a little MacGyver on our hands!  When he was snuggling in our bed, he looked up into our closet and found the RC trucks that Jared had hidden at the top!  Jared had to find a new hiding spot when Abishai wasn't looking! We are trying to save the toys for Christmas!

Nothing to see here folks, except I don't care enough to cut down wildflowers.  Perfect for nature studies!

Socks talking to his doggy friend with Abishai walking out to join them.

Like I said, 270 students and sponsors!  Bigger than most churches!  5 grade levels from those entering 9th grade this fall to those that graduated in May.  Crazy youth group!  I think I would have preferred my own experience when we were typically 30 students at the most if we all showed up.

Playing keep away with Justin controlling the police car and Abishai hiding on a "cliff" from the policeman.  Justin was saying, "Now where is that bad guy? I can't find him?" and driving the car right under the foot rest.

Benaiah might be having a crazy time with his friends, but we are REAL crazy stuck inside because of the heat.  But also, I think everyone missed each other.

Go, go, go!

Isn't this what couches are for?!

Justin wanted to try out the slip and slide for the first time but I wasn't sure if it was going to rain or not.  It didn't, so I let them get it out about 4:30pm.  It was a huge hit with the boys..  Abishai loves the pool at the bottom.

"I got you!"

Watering the trees and THEN hosing off Justin!  Abishai also twirled the hose up in the air and chanted "wa-wa-wa-wee, wa-wee, wa-wa-wa-wee!"  He sing songs A TON!

Wow, how can it be that it's time for all this?!  I hope Benaiah actually uses them because they weren't cheap! I've got him registered to take the PSAT on October 10th, and then shortly after in late October and early November, the SAT and ACT.  That way he has plenty of time to retake them if necessary.  I hope he surprises us all and scores higher than I did.  I studied a lot and took them each three times because they counted as my homeschool evaluation for 9th-11th grades when we had to test every year.  We had used Iowa's for 4th-8th.  I scored above average and did score higher on the last set than I did the first set.  He also officially applied to Lincoln Christian University so he can be registered through their LEAP program and take an online class or two for dual credit.  Just like I did at a local tech college when I was a junior and senior in high school.  Exciting times for this one!  At least applying to colleges, taking tests, knowing the next steps, finding scholarships don't scare me since I remember well how my parents did it.  And because his school doesn't have a guidance counselor, it's up to the parents to orchestrate a lot of it.  Which is fine by me because I would have done it anyway if he was homeshcooled.  I just consider it a way I can be a part of his education again.

Don't let the sunshine fool you!  We had a huge downpour of rain coming from the east and sunshine to our west!

Sheets and sheets of rain!

Each church has a chance to spend some time together, and our church apparently takes up a huge lecture hall or something.  Each night they pray over a different group of students, so the first ones were the incoming freshman.

Justin is mowing 1 1/2 hrs or so every morning at 9 am until the yard gets done because a) it's super hot and b) the grass is super long.  In fact, we had to raise the deck of the mower because it kept stalling on the tall the grass!  Justin remembered that Grandma and Grandpa had bought some special cooling towels that stay damp but don't make the rest of you wet.  He grabbed one and put it on his head.  I said he looks like a Russian (or eastern European) grandma, or babushka!

Justin's handsome head covering.

This is what happens when you ban YouTube from the house.  They actually play together because they are bored!  The older ones were mostly stealing food from Abishai in order to make him made, but hey, it's better than YouTube!

We mailed some letters to Canada and then spent 1 hr at the splashpad behind the post office.  The dump bucket is their favorite!

Abishai desparately wanted to climb on the playground, but it was too hot and he was too wet.

He nailed this though, even twisting himself around to get better footing!

Mommy, the slide is too hot, I want to go home, and, I pooped.

A storm is brewing!  But it actually never rained!  It stayed to the east of us.

Abishai actually peed up on the top of the slide and when he got down via the ladder, it was running down his leg.  Ugh.  Thanks kid, but I'm actually glad it wasn't poop.  We did travel to and from the park in the swim diaper and swim shorts, which of course was risky, but thankfully, he didn't pee in his carseat.  Poor kid, I don't like potty training either!  And there are bathrooms at the park, but they are never open because they were vandalized as soon as they were installed.

Loads of diversity at this park today!  And they all played together!  I know I said we don't have a lot of diversity in our area, and for the most part that's true.  This just happens to be a small community of non white people.  It was great to see them have fun!

Little guys and gals learning how to share.

Helping Abishai up on the snail and Keturah is waiting for the dump bucket.

Ready?  Here it comes!

Perfect camera shot!

Keturah spun Abishai around on the snail.

Abishai running away from the dump bucket.

Boom!

Justin!  You're too big for that!

At first, the kids wouldn't confess that they took Abishai's new bath crayons and drew on the wall.  But, Abishai can't reach that high or draw that well, so I knew it was them.  Keturah drew all the lines and Justin drew the squiddy.

Justin's squiddy drawing from a video game.

Again, I never feel like I can get rid of any of the toys because eventually, they play with them again!  I'm glad we kept this mini stove and fridge set!

Jared found the pilot episode of MacGyver on Amazon Prime!  So we all sat down and watched it!  We laughed at the 80's music and grimaced at the kisses.  The kids had a hard time keeping up with the clever parts because they don't take the time to actually observe what is going on.  This show aired 32 years ago in 1986! I was only 5 years old, but I know that we watched MacGyver when it aired or on reruns growing up.  And no one wonder my parents loved Stargate as well!  The actor who plays MacGyver is the lead guy of Stargate!  Keturah couldn't understand why it was only 48 minutes long, either that it was short by 12 minutes or 18 minutes to long.  Well, those extra 12 minutes are for TV ads.  I don't think she knows how that works.  YouTube sometimes has one 30 second ad in the middle of a video but more typically in between different videos, but you can often skip over them.  By the way, TV shows are now typically 43 minutes, not 48 minutes!

Anybody else remember MacGyver and that other show with the cool car that can drive itself?  The car's name was Kit.

Can you tell what's different in this picture?  There's a rosy tint to it!  Why? The way the sunset is coming through the clouds and hitting the house!

Gorgeous!

Pink tinge on everything!  These pictures were taken seconds apart but the exposure on my iPhone camera was focused on different things.

Rosy colored siding.

Over the roof line in front of the house facing west.

Panorama starting to the west and going north west to north.

Panorama going from north, north east, east, and finally southeast.  The blue had so many hues in it, it was so surreal!

And now everyone's setting off fireworks and it's so hard to write!  The kids don't want to see fireworks tomorrow, so I came up with some last minute fun plans to do with Daddy and Grandma tomorrow.  Stay tuned!