The J6 Journey: Year 3, August 13th, 15th-18th, 2018: A Week of Life

Hiya! I've been thinking about how I love putting together the blog posts, but they are taking time away from other important things. So, I'm going to work on trying to highlight a few days to a week worth's instead of getting into the nitty gritty. If we have a big event, like a concert or fair or field trip, then I'll do a separate post. This is a working idea in prep for our homeschool starting up officially after Labor Day. It takes me time to change my methods, and it's going to be very hard to stretch myself and only pick out the highlights. I'm a hoarder after all, and a perfectionist, so, bear with me.

This week we had the concert on Sunday and then the Indiana State Fair on Tuesday. On Monday, Wednesday-Saturday, we stayed home and I try to get myself to hustle on my summer projects because we really should dig into school soon. The beauty of homeschool is that I don't have to worry about getting the 180 days in because I count any and all days that the kids did work on schoolwork this summer, even if it's not what I consider a full day's worth. The trip to the fair counts for example. Even a day at home learning how home economics type stuff, or taking care of Abishai all counts for something. I do feel the pressure from everyone being back to school to wrap up the summer and get going on our studies. I'm trying not to panic because I know once I sit down with all our supplies and books in front of us, I can get it put together in a day or two. But I have this feeling that I won't have my summer projects completely finished, and that's frustrating. So, I will again muster up the hustle and get to a more satisfactory point with deadlines for each undone part. For example, we had to wait on getting a bookcase for our room and the heavy duty plastic wrap for boxes to take to the shed until September, but, the Saturday after I get the wrap, we will do the shed project for example. Same with the bookshelf. I need to go to a resell shop to find one, so I'll pencil in a day or 5 days to do that, whatever it takes. I'll also keep checking online. And like I've said before, as long as I've taken the time to look at the project as a whole and created the smaller steps necessary, I can try to squeeze those in here and there. That's what I did today, Saturday. I didn't throw many papers away, but I looked in every box left untouched and decided the categories of where things generally need to go, what I would take into permanent storage, what I want handy, and go from there. That particular project, going through old papers from 20 years ago, has never been touched, literally in 20 years. I'm much better at not keeping all the extra papers now, but I needed to go back and get rid of the stuff I thought I needed to keep. It's a 20 year project in the making! So, of course it's going to take time with a sometimes very indecisive person. And I'm ok with that. Jared's ok with that. I keep trying to explain it away, but at the same time, my track record shows that I will get it done eventually.

Meanwhile, after having yummy gluten filled funnel cakes on Tuesday on purpose, I thought now would be a good time to do a gluten test, i.e. eat a decent amount of gluten every day for a week and see where I end up. Well, I'm on day 5 and it's been rough. Achiness and stomachaches the first couple of days and still lack of energy and focus until now. And the back pain is very real. I'm enjoying foods I haven't eaten in years, but some of them taste very strange, even awful to me, like I prefer the gluten free food over it. Store brand pop tarts taste nasty and the type of sugar makes my tooth hurt. Twinkies are still yummy. Soft pretzel bites are addicting. Stale pop rock oreos are gross. Soft tortilla shells are incredible. Homemade brownies are decent. Oooo, I should try a real bagel tomorrow and the oatmeal square cereal I used to love in Canada. But I fear that while some symptoms have dissipated like the stomachaches, there's damage being done in my gut. There is a real connection to my overall feeling of energy (well, maybe I'm crashing because of all the sugary foods, too) and the lower back pain and inflammation. I'm definitely going back to being 100% gluten free except a one a year doughnut run. It's not worth it.

Meanwhile, Benaiah is gearing up for school starting next week, and man, I have no idea how he's going to do it all with work, school, and leadership stuff at church. I have a feeling he's going to have to drop something besides his binge watching and CS Go video game. I'm trying to step back but it's very, very hard. We barely see him either, which has gotten me all in a tither. Sigh.

The other kids continue to get on the trampoline multiple times a day and the back door has becoming a revolving door, meaning I have to keep opening and shutting it for Abishai. They do their chores and a little bit of schoolwork. Then they wander aimlessly until screen time, which is something else I'm thinking a lot about for the school year, possibly banning it during the week. And me banning it at certain times of the day for myself.

That's it. I'll see what we have for pics and vids for these days. I tried not to take as many because I didn't want to feel the pressure of posting them all. Plus, I need to enjoy the moment. Plus, I have been trying to focus on the summer projects in the morning and putting together the posts for the concert and the fair together, which took a ton of work. But they are done. And so is this post. Yeah!

Oh the things preschoolers do. Run around in their underwear and cool off their behinds with a fan.

This was from the birthday party last Saturday. Jared is such a good sport.

I "dressed up" too with a our "Super J" cape and this is a young lady that works with me in the nursery.

Understatement of the year.

We had the pool up for a few days, but then it rained the rest of the week. And THEN Jared told me that the water coming through the outside hose is not hooked up through the water softener and filter, so we are still going to end up with nasty water. I can't add chemicals to the pool if I want to leave it in the backyard because of Socks. So I'm not sure what I'll end up doing. There's a second spigot that might be hooked up to the filtered water line but it's on the front of the house and I'm not even sure it works.

Pit stop at the office because Keturah tried out for the Kidustrial Park worship/dance team! She did make it, and I know she'll have fun! Now everyone has a job to do on Sundays. Abishai's job is to be cute!

Abishai really got into playing soccer after playing it at Hunter's house last weekend.

Justin's big footprint. I need to do another round of footprints now that I've unearthed some from 2 years ago I haven't had on display yet.

Benaiah finally got a chance to get on the trampoline on Monday. He worked on Saturday and Sunday, so he wasn't home to try it out.

Big brother hanging with little siblings for once.

I had no idea Benaiah could do this! And he says that now he finally has something to do with Ethan when he comes over. Like guffawing over memes and playing separate video games isn't enough, just kidding.

Playing the "popcorn" game where one person gets in the middle, holds onto their knees in a tucked position and then someone else bounces near them until they can't hold onto their knees anymore and they "pop." Abishai loves this game, too!

It makes me nervous to have so much weight on the trampoline all at once. I think the weight limit is less than 300 or 400. And well, these two equal more than 400, never mind the rest of us getting on there.

Benaiah using Justin as a weapon.

Jared fell face down on purpose.

Awww, found this on the youth minister's Instagram. Sweet stuff!

I want to take note of this in case it's something bigger. Socks has been shedding a ton lately. I'm not sure it's related to the heat we've had off and on, because it seems more than that. We have to vacuum at least twice a day and brush him for a good 15 minutes. I think it's because we've switched up his dog food too often and too quickly based on availability at the local grocery store. I'm going to go back to going to the pet store and staying on the same food we used in Canada and making the effort to get it. He's currently trying a cheap brand that he loves, but it's basically what I call "junk food" with fillers and less real stuff. We usually keep his bowl half full at all times, but we can't with this food because he will and did overeat, and then throws it back up. It's not pretty. He's got his annual visit with a new regular vet office on the northside of town later this month, so I'll be sure to talk about it with them. I am also going to have them to a basic senior panel of blood just to make sure we stay ahead of the game on any diseases now that he's 8 yrs old. I don't want cancer or blood sugar issues to creep up on us.

That smile says it all about how he loves the trampoline.

Keturah had a recheck on her eyes, so they got to watch a few minutes of classic Veggietales while watching on the eye doctor. She's fine and will be rechecked in 6 months. I'm ok with our previous eye doctor for myself, but I think we will stick with this pediatric one for awhile, especially since her health insurance covers the visits and not our primary eye doctor's practice.

This boy has learned to do flips and headstands!

Don't leave me, Daddy!

Abishai wanted to use the claw to make a road block or traffic jam, not fix it. I think Justin was the one who was saying something about it to him that morning. Why do kids have to play so mean?! Cranes, claws, excavators, big machines are for building and fixing, not creating traffic jams!

Just a boy shucking corn. Proving again that "There is (not) more than corn in Indiana." (The motto for Indiana Beach, but I added the "not.")

Old pop rock oreos. I tossed the rest of them. Yuck.

Benaiah wants to do this, but I have a feeling it's going to be too much.

What my week consisted of: 20 year old papers and writing blog posts. And yes, I did put the names on the songs after I created the set list and put it on the post. I did also publish the post just to have it out there. This song list took me a lot longer than other set lists because I don't really know the songs! I did figure it all out I think. And the bonus was I got to watch all the footage multiple times, and listen to the songs.

They didn't brown up in the toaster oven either.

I love Twinkies. So soft and fluffy!

Abishai's parking lot in the garage.

Doesn't everyone have a preschooler watching them while they mow? Benaiah wouldn't get up to help and Justin was helping Grandpa paint his front porch, so it's been up to Jared to mow this week and last week. I feel bad, though, that he has to spend all day Saturday getting it done. It rained a ton this week and the grass is super long because it didn't get mowed well last weekend. Jared said he needs the exercise and it helps him clear his head, but it also induces his sciatica and the heat gives him a headache. At least he has a cute audience.

Brought the chair inside for snack time.

You can't see it, but we had an army helicopter fly by us a couple of time and we could nearly see the people in the main area. It was awesome!

No summer is complete without homemade popsicles made with stevia sweeteend kool aid.

Best buds.

Since Benaiah was working, I brought Keturah and Justin with me to Benaiah's orientation night at his school. Jared should have been there because he's teaching, but he had to work on the mowing at home. Anyway, I brought these two because I had a special project in mind when I found out Benaiah couldn't go. I wanted to put some words of encouragement in his locker for Monday morning to let him know we are thinking about and praying for him. At first these two didn't want to come and do it, but as soon as we found Benaiah's locker, they were enthralled. The meeting was in another building, but I was able to leave these two doing their thing (thank goodness the staff know us well and the buildings are small). These two absolutely loved trolling Benaiah!

These two are in the stage where they don't want to be dragged into doing something, but once they are there, they still have a lot of fun. You should have heard them showing off the locker to Benaiah's friends and fellow students (some of which are Justin's friends at church). They were so proud of their masterpiece! And they should be. I want the kids to have some kind of connection with one another, even when we don't see them. And the staff are fairly reasonable with this kind of thing. He'll still be able to quickly get his act together on Monday morning and everything we wrote was encouraging. I'm just trying to be the fun, but embarrassing mom, lol.

Aww, Benaiah's favorite math teacher, Mrs. Land, on the fair left, and then three ladies that go to our church. Two of them are just teaching one class, and the one in the red shirt is Mrs. McCollum, another one of Benaiah's favorite teachers, who teaches English, ASL, and life skills classes, like "Adulting 101" to seniors. The lady on the end is our upper elementary minister's wife and she's teaching middle school English. The one in the hat has students at the school and will be teaching an art class. How fun!

They are so super proud of their work!

Check it out! I couldn't have been more pleased! They did it all! And still left some post it's for me. I've had the arrows and hearts for years, so it was a good way to use them up. I hope he does save some of them because they would come in handy for me or him.