The J6 Journey: Year 3, July 4th, 2018: Break with Tradition for Independence Day

Since Benaiah and Grandpa are gone, and I hate not having some kind of plans for a holiday, I threw out to Grandma and Jared that we go blueberry picking and see a cheap movie. And they were on board with that! Therefore, we woke kids up earlier than their lazy 9am wake up time and took the long way around to a property in the middle of the city! Just a few miles north of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, There's a couple of acres of blueberry bushes and a strawberry patch! The farm is called Driving Wind Berry Farm. I don't know much about the farm, but I saw it on an email or Instagram story by Indy With Kids, which is THE premiere place to get basic info on any and every event in the city, local parks and pools, things like apple orchards, pumpkin patches, and berries, indoor gym times, etc. They gather all the information, make it searchable, and then make sure you can get to websites for the latest info. They also take some of their families and check each thing out and give back a report. It's been an invaluable source for me. For example, I wanted to look up Touch A Truck events after Abishai thought we were going to see army trucks last week and not just the army plane. Well, I think I missed some events, but there's one in September maybe. The Touch A Truck Facebook page hasn't really been updated, but at least I could search Indy With Kids and get the link.

With Driving Wind Berry Farm, they did have an updated Facebook page and said they were going to be open for a few hours this morning, so that's what we did! We left a little late and because of downtown construction, we went around the city and then had to backtrack after we took a detour because I spotted a huge plane on the tarmac near the old airport, or rather the old international terminal of the airport. It was one of the biggest ones out there and it came from eastern Europe, aka, maybe Russia? So Jared pulled off on the old airport exit (oh how I remember that one!), we saw the where the old terminal used to be but has been demolished. The parking garage is still there though, so we reminded the kids that those are the original spirals that Daddy would zoom down for fun making the tires squeal. And this is where Jared worked as an unarmed security officer after 9/11. Memories, memories. Back on the road to the farm and we finally got there after an hour of driving. It was supposed to be 35 minutes.

Berry picking was great. It was getting hot, but it was ok for a good bit of it. There were a few farm animals and tractors to get up on which was free to look at. Blueberries were $6 a pound and we ended up only getting 1 lb. The blueberry bushes I used to pick with my family growing up must have been high bush ones or they were configured in such a way that they almost dripped with blueberries like a grape vine and were easy to just strip the stems and fill buckets quickly. These were more like low bush, pick one tiny blueberry at a time type bushes. It's the middle of the season so there was enough but blueberries normally don't grow here. The soil has to be specifically treated and the Japanese beetles love them, so they have to spray them a lot. They also had huge nets over the bushes to deter other critters like birds. I was impressed with this little farm within city limits and will probably go back another year. They have strawberries sometimes but Waterman's pumpkin patch has a much bigger strawberry patch and is much closer. We've been there a few times over the years. The timing just wasn't right this year, so I skipped the strawberries.

I think we were there less than an hour. Abishai was definitely melting. As Jared said, "Didn't you know that Canadians come with instructions? The instructions say that Canadians melt at 35 degrees (Celsius)? And that Abishai can walk in his bare feet outside in the winter because he's a stud?" But truly, we have to be careful with Abishai's fair skin, the bugs love to bite him, and he sweats easily. We then stopped at this mom and pop take out BBQ shop on the west side for lunch, and then drove past part of the speedway on the way home. We ate lunch at home with Grandma, then Abishai and Grandma went to her house while the rest of us went to see "I Can Only Imagine" at the cheap movie theater. It cost $10 for 4 tickets, instead of $10 for 1 ticket at the regular theater! And food is much cheaper there, but we didn't get any. My goal is to see all our favorite new movies...at the cheap theater. Yes we won't be able to discuss the movies right away with friends, but we will be able to enjoy more of them ourselves without having to wait for vacation and special treats. We were the only family in the theater, and most of the others were retirees, but that doesn't matter. The movie was excellent and Jared was impressed. It wasn't as fun for the kids, but I'm glad they got to see it. We could have gone to a couple of ok animated movies, but I really don't think they were worth it or appropriate. This movie is based on the song "I Can Only Imagine" that Bart Millard from Christian band MercyMe wrote after his father died. He had an abusive father who turned his life around when he found Jesus. So the whole point of the movie and song is redemption. I knew the story line ahead of time because it was heavily promoted by the makers, Pureflix, and movieguide.org. And I also knew about the "guest" appearances and what to look out for. The guests were actors portraying Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith which both had a part of helping MercyMe take off in their career. The actress playing Amy really resembled her, but the actor playing Michael barely did. In fact, some MWS fans said they burst out laughing during the movie because he so badly resembled Michael, and they weren't lying. The accent was close and the mannerisms weren't bad, but the fact was definitely not Michael. Haircut was similar enough. Anyways, I know that some facts were altered a bit, because at the end they showed Bart, his dad, and his brother in the picture and in the movie, there was no brother. The abuse was real, and Bart's mom did leave, and Bart did marry his high school sweetheart. Christian movies are getting less and less cheesy and are really making themselves known as high quality, wanted, family friendly alternatives to other more agenda filled films.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig to pack up Keturah for KidJam tomorrow, eat supper, try to work some, and go to bed mad because of expectations not met. No day is perfect, and some days start well, and end poorly. Today was one of those days. But the kids did get to go to a friend's house across from Grandma's and watch them shoot off personal fireworks. Neither one wanted to see the big fireworks downtown, and we were grateful for that. We did that last year, and it was fun, but I guess they would rather be friends here. Time to wrap up and go to sleep so we can get up in time to take Keturah to church by 11 am. She just aid, "don't wake me up until 10:30am" because she's just going to bed now at 11:15pm and I said, uh, we have to leave around that time, so nope, you'll be up by 9. I actually didn't know that she had walked over with Justin to Grandma's house. I would have asked them to come back earlier if I had known. I guess she'll start her four days of camp exhausted. Anyways, after we get her dropped off, I plan to dive into my housework because I haven't made much physical progress this week and I'm super frustrated. I didn't want another holiday to go by with feeling sorry for not having plans and not having fun, and I just didn't want to deal with the physical crud at home, so I procrastinated. Now, back to work for the next couple of days. Hopefully Justin can keep track of Abishai for me. And maybe we'll head to CFA for a treat on Friday afternoon. We'll see.

A fun find! I had made a mixed cassette tape for Jared when we first started dating. I even had a microphone and introduced the songs, too! This will be added to the actual cassette tape that is stored with our handwritten letters.

Yup, I made it soon after we started dating 20 years ago. Color coded and everything! How dorky I was to do this! I mean, the guy worked at the Christian bookstore and he had access to a Christian radio station, why did he need this? Well, I guess I wasn't that much of a dork because he married me anyway.

I used a typewriter that belonged to the family I babysat for to type up some of the lyrics. Why not our computer at home? I have no idea. Maybe I just had more time when I babysat (they were 5 and 8 or something, so not hard to babysit), or I wanted to type on a real typewriter. Anyways, our kids think it's cool!

And then I switched to handwriting the lyrics and boy my handwriting is terrible.

Bwahahahahaha.

SMH (shaking my head). What was I thinking?

Praying over the sophmores yesterday! Juniors, Benaiah's class, was tonight.

Movie time. $2.50 per ticket is a GREAT price! Basic theater seats that don't recline. Old style theater. I dig it.

Old airport garage!

HUGE cargo plane from Russia probably. Jared said it might have been rented out for a private use and that a couple of these cargo planes typically land at our airport daily, but they would be domestic flights.

It's so hard to tell from a far, but it's massive!

I get so dizzy when we go down these spirals!

I am so disappointed! I had my camera on the wrong aperture the whole time so now the pictures are all darker than they should be. And I don't have photo editing software and don't have time to edit. Ugh! Why can't these things ever work out? I'm so mad! But here is our blueberry picking crew. Jared, Leah, Justin, Keturah and Abishai.

Abishai did a great job of not only finding the blue ones, (not unripe white ones), picking them, putting them in the bucket and NOT eating them. He was a very hard worker.

Daddy helped him a bit.

Perfect height for little hands.

Justin, who also hates the heat, didn't last long before he started complaining.

Looking for blueberries under the leaves.

Nice face, Justin. Going for some fancy photography here with the up close shot of the kid and the blurry background.

Here you can see the nets they have up to keep the birds off.

Little hands working hard to fill his bucket.

Keturah picked a lot, too.

I spy with my little eye....a blueberry!

Trying to fill the bottom of her bucket so we can go home. It was getting hot.

Just a few more.

Three generations working hard. It is a treat to have the other adults with us. Usually I do these things by myself.

Let's inspect all the bushes on all the rows. He walked carefully around the bushes, too.

Eww, some beetles! Poor blueberries!

Another beetle!

Carrying his precious cargo to get weighed and paid for.

Always climbing.

Do I mount this thing or lead it?

No chickens in there today.

Jared made note of this huge old oak tree. He explained that the huge rolls and notches on the bottom indicates that this tree is super old.

Horse and donkey were available for rides for a price. Abishai didn't hesitate much to reach in to pet them. They were looking for treats so I stayed close by him so that his fingers wouldn't be bitten up.

Someday we'll ride our friend's horses, but not today in this heat.

Justin inspecting the donkey.

Huge tree canopy, right in the middle (towards the northwest) of Indianapolis.

Tractor time.

And an old fashioned wagon tethered to the tractor, possibly for pulling it along the farm.

I drive you, Justin!

Just a stone's throw from a major road through town. Neat!

Trying to step in front of the camera more often.

This is on the property of a funeral home and cemetary. Why they needed a couple of these towers, I don't have a clue!"

First time using a window shade every. And Jared was actually ok with it! It did keep a lot of sun off.

Their storefront looks a little dingy, but man where these smoked BBQ beef tips/ribs incredible! Yum!

There she be! The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500! And the field you see is one of the many huge parking lots around the 2 mile oval. Just sitting towards the MIDDLE of the city. Not far out in the suburbs or anything.