Year 3, June 11tth, 2018: Got Some Stuff Done We Did

Let's see, how did we spend this beautiful day? Hm,....the kids had "go to work with Daddy day" so that Leah and I could attend a funeral at church.  The perks of being part of a ministry that has office space at a church, lol.  I found it quite hilarious when Justin came out to the car carrying two huge boxes of Legos to play with at church.  I was just picturing something asking, "Are you moving in?" But sometimes it does feel that way when kids run around the office, watch the tablet while lounging on the couch, eating some of Daddy's lunch food, and yes, they all take off their shoes (and socks sometimes, too.)  Again, the perks of being in an out of the way quiet corner of the megachurch building.  Don't worry, we are well aware of the rules of using the building and try to keep to ourselves in the actual office space.  We are extremely grateful that we can do this.  Jared even got to still keep working, too.  The funeral was good.  Gary actually officiated it since it was a long term church member.  I am friends with the deceased daughter because his wife, her mom, passed away the same year my mom did, and we banded together with a couple of other women whose moms passed away within the same year.  We would go out to eat once a month just to have something to do.  Anyway, I didn't realize that this gentleman and his wife used to live in the other part of our neighborhood, too.  It was a small funeral, but just what was needed all the same.  It gave me time to think about all things heaven and death and having perspective.  Gary was on point as usual, and the eulogies were sweet.  The songs they played about heaven fit this guy well, who was one of those old souls that worked hard, loved much, stayed faithful in his walk with God, stayed married, fought the good fight and won.  Everything everyone said pointed to Jesus, and that's always a great thing.  Jack Phlegey was his name, with daughter being Christie.

We didn't stay for the funeral lunch since we didn't really know the rest of the family and friends and the kids needed to get out of Jared's way so he could work.  Poor guy had to also take the time away from the office yesterday to a CPR class at Benaiah's school.  He's going to be teaching a class all year at the end of the school day, resulting in a financial break for us.  Thankfully the principal was able to work it so that it was the last class of the day so that Jared's workday would be less interrupted and could combine it with bringing Benaiah home from school.  I'm so grateful that the school works hard to accommodate people as much as they can.  And now it's time to register Benaiah for testing, and dual enrollment college classes, and other fun grown up stuff.  (See picture below).  Anyway, I try really, really hard to ask Jared what his deadlines are so that I don't overuse him for babysitting.  I know it's not "babysitting" and every parent should take turns watching the kids, but during the day, when he should be working, it is babysitting to me.  Sometimes I have him come home early so I can go to an appointment, too.  Or he goes in late.  But I try to make those as rare as possible.  For example, this afternoon, I needed to run an errand with Benaiah and then take him to work, so I had Grandma watch the kids.  Ministry is great at being flexible, but you have to be vigilant about not stepping over the line and flippantly taking advantage of that flexibility.  He gets his 40 hrs per week, plus some, so I'm not worried about it.  We had the same give and take when he worked at the college on PEI.  Anyway, give and take.

I came home after dropping off Benaiah and just felt drained, tired, unmotivated.  Abishai wanted to play outside out front, so I let him do that and caught up on some email.  It wasn't on my to do list to do any yard work since it was a tad work and in hindsight, maybe I could have worked on the front garden a bit.  But again, I was too tired, unmotivated, and was just enjoying the breeze in the shade.  It was 86 degrees out in the blazing sun, but in the shade on the east facing side of the house, it felt like 70.  I don't feel as "productive" today, but productivity is relative to your perspective.  "Productivity" to me means crossing things off a to do list, which are usually projects that have an ending.  I don't usually think of "spend time with kids" as productive or "sit still and enjoy the breeze" as productive, but I've read numerous time that it is productive because you are doing something, you are quieting your soul and connecting with your children.  So, I have to keep repeating that to myself in order to not panic at the end of the day.  I also told myself to take it easy this week because of vacation next week.  We'll be packing Friday and Saturday, and tomorrow is my birthday, so I didn't want to get mentally involved in much.  I needed the rest.  We ate leftovers, the boys wrestled and played video games, some took showers, and now it's all quiet.  Benaiah works until 10pm. Wednesday is done.

The early riser.  He's at 100% speed before putting his feet on the floor.  Today it was a little cooler out, so I let him play outside with the back door open.  He noticed that his boat looked like a police boat, so he added his police car and other matchbox cars.  There's a ramp inside the water table and there was no water in the table.

Home away from home.

Let's drive the Lego cars on the keyboard so that they type letters into the book that Daddy is editing on his computer, shall we?  Whoops!

It feels a bit odd to have had this insanely brightly lit, loud celebration service on Sunday, and just a few days later, the glass pulpit has been brought out, the curtain is closed, and there are no musical instruments on stage.  HOWEVER, Leah and I had to giggle when not once, but TWICE, a piece of confetti fell from the rafters!  One fell in front of some of the guests and I saw a woman pick it up and examine it.  I can only imagine her thoughts as she looked at it.  Lol.  I'm telling you, we will be seeing the confetti for weeks or months to come!  But what a vast difference in the usages of this sanctuary.  I find it quite interesting.

Still going strong nearly 12 hrs later!  And I didn't even have to redo it! That's a win in my book because if I put a flexi clip in like I used to use a regular barrette, it will slip it after a while.  Yeah!

I help you, Justin! (a few steps later) Nevermind!

Grandma brought some paints over, so we got out watercolor paints for Abishai.

And this is the big announcement....what test did Benaiah pass in 8 minutes?

His drivers' permit written test!  Yes, he wore the CFA garb in his permit photo, too. He didn't want me to take a picture of him holding the paper version of the permit, so we compromised and I got this photo instead.  Say what?! Benaiah is allowed to practice driving now! C-R-A-Z-Y!  This was our big errand today.  And yes, he answered 44 (out of 50) questions correct in 8 minutes.  They stopped the test at 44 instead of 50 because you are allowed to get 6 wrong, so why bother answer the rest of them if you got the first 44 correct?  Anyway, he's got a photographic memory like his father and I think all those scantron/bubble tests he has taken for Bible Bowl helped with his speed. Let's just see how his PSAT/ACT/SAT go in the fall.  So, in the last 45 days, our oldest has started to work outside the home, got his permit, has applied for college for dual credit, has gotten a checking account with a debit card, and has gotten a cell phone with a real phone number attached to it (instead of just an iPod).  No wonder I'm mentally exhausted!  Crazy fast pace of the teenager life!

Wasn't it just yesterday that Benaiah was this size?   Anyway, here is Justin in his "pirate ship."  Apparently, Justin had pretended that the wooden J out front was a pirate ship  and tried to steer it.  So now Abishai gets up on it, rocks it back and forth like he was on the high seas, and sets out to get the bad guys in his "police pirate ship."

He had to do some repair work on the house and his pirate ship today, on his new stool of course, which he did bring to Jared's office today.

Just a boy, on a rock, with his saw and water cup, in his underwear.  Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see.  Just living the good life, wild and free.  We did have a big advancement today in the potty training saga.  He was dancing around at the office and we were able to get him to the bathroom to potty.  And he made effort a couple more times to get to the potty instead of peeing in his underwear, and made it!  Yes!

Just running around, in underwear, with one of the old Howell toys, which has some plastic that hits the metal xylophone bars as it is pulled along the ground.  It is one of the loudest toys on the planet.  I had to make sure it went inside quickly because he started to pull too hard, it flipped over, and was going to get damaged on the cement.  That toy is probably 30 years old or older.

Doesn't everyone play racing car games while climbing up and sitting on Daddy's shoulders?

There was some incredible "golden hour" light coming in from the sunroom windows and hitting Justin's face as he peered through the windows above my desk at me.  I probably should have gotten closer to him and/or gotten the DSLR because I wanted to get an accurate picture of his eye color and I didn't quite capture what I was looking for.  But, we did have a good laugh trying to get the right facial expression.  I took about 20 photos, so here's 4 that we laughed hard over.

I really like this one because it's a genuine smile after laughing.

This is more of a posed smile where you can see his eyes a little better.

And yes, he really does make these hilarious faces!

Freaky Friday Face.

Justin has his excited face on because he (I) ordered Minecraft for his 2DSxL and it's supposed to arrive tomorrow by 8pm via Amazon and USPS.  Well, it's coming from a facility that is 90 minutes away, traveling past us to about 30 minutes northwest of us, and then finally back down to us at the southeast corner of Indy.  (That's the blue dot in the picture).  Yes, go figure how that all happens.  We might as well have picked up the item ourselves at the facility.  Logistics is always fun!  Just like when you are traveling buy plane and sometimes you have to go west in order to go east.  We did that a couple of times when we went from Indianapolis to Chicago to Toronto to Charlottetown.  But Justin is counting down the hours, and I am, too, because my essential rewards essential oils order comes tomorrow, too!  Just in time for vacation. Woot! Woot!