Year 3, August 4th-6th, 2018: Working Hard

Saturday was educational, Sunday was full, and Monday was very productive.

On Saturday, while Benaiah worked and Jared watched the other kids, I went to an all day retreat about using essential oils to help you become healthier.  This wasn't your basic seminar but a deeper educational experience, including testimonies.  And it was for those who already bought essential oils or who was about to, so not your basic class.  The presentations were very good and I learned a ton.

I've been trying to encourage everyone to keep up the level of activity we had while on vacation, but it's hard when it's so hot.  So when I came home from the seminar, I went outside with Abishai to get my steps in.  He wanted to climb on and jump down from the truck of course.  This is more of an action shot since he is launching himself up on the roof of the truck.

Just a boy getting dirty playing with pieces of the driveway.

A boy and his "rocks."

Too cute on Justin's penny board.

And yes, he will also go down the driveway on it.

Proof that I worked on something this week....school/office supplies.  Just pairing down the amount of stuff I have so I filled a box!  I have the same large bucket of paper clips I bought before we were married (aka I never throw little stuff away, I just put away where it belongs and reuse it), so I decided to dump handfuls of it in a bag with other items for a teacher or missionary who might not have any.  I filled the top box also with padded elements and markers we didn't need.

Sunday was full as normal, although only I had to go back to church for nursery at 4:30.  Benaiah played drums in middle school Crave in the morning, so even he didn't have to go back later.  Although, now that I think about it, he didn't actually attend regular service.  Oops.  The middles went early with Grandma, so we only had Abishai to attend to.  It was a very slow morning and we ended up going to church before the first service let out because we were ready and bored at home.

The "fork" is supposed to be a plastic gardening tool.  But to Abishai, it makes a great fork!

Snuggly baby.

Lunch at grandparents now that they are back from their travels again.

Yes, I thought it was quite interesting.  Don't worry, I didn't focus on this hardly at all.  I had more important things to work through and scribble in my notes about the sermon.

(The way that Instgagram stories works is that you can make the pictures look like a slideshow, so just read the bottom parts of the next few pictures.)

Again, trying to get them outside, but by the end of the day, the bugs are out, so this didn't last long.  Having a picnic with big brother in back of the truck!  Abishai did NOT want to split up the food evenly, but Justin is a great teacher.  Actually, Justin mentioned at lunch today that he had trouble getting the kids to focus on him when he was volunteering in the 1st grade Sunday School room.  He said he even snapped his fingers!  We just laughed and reminded him to be patient because he still does the same thing with us.  It's funny when they start thinking and talking like adults and they don't realize we've been telling them the same things for years.

My picnic.

Legos, always, Legos.

Sunday night sunset.

Yes, I thought this was cool.  I've been watching what was happening at Soulfest, a Christian music festival in my home state of New Hampshire (I attended it nearly 20 years ago), especially since friends from PEI were there.  And how cool is this?  The lady in orange is the big sister, Rebecca St. James.  and I listened to her 20 years ago when her bros were still just pre teen and teenagers (who helped as roadies and band members).  The whole family of 9 came to the States from Australia when RSJ was an early teen so she could have a musical career. RSJ doesn't tour much anymore because she did finally got married and had a baby.  She was the prime example of "True Love Waits" and single women for years.  I'm not sure if the other girl is one of the wives of the guys or not.  Now the little brothers are the in the spotlight and we get to see them at our own state fair next week!  It's fair/festival season for music artists.  I can't imagine playing outside in the rain, bugs, heat, cold, etc.  But, it makes for great memories!

Monday hangs.  We needed to get Miah up for work.  He had the lunch and early supper shift again.  And then went straight to playing drums for his school's summer chapel.  And now he's off again at Ethan's.

I had a productive Monday finishing up that dreaded clothes project.  Everything has been sorted and put away now.  I probably kept more than I purged, but remember, I had 10 bags of new stuff to look through.  And I put a bunch away for Keturah.  But now, I want to keep going and finish this project off with the proper furniture and get my craft supplies put away.  There's just not enough closet space in this house, so we need a 9 cube shelf unit here and a tall book case on the other wall in this room in order to finish this project and the one in the sunroom with the books I sorted in July.  Then I have to tackle the pile of boxes in the fireside room, which I've decided to just wrap in the large plastic wrap you use with skids and put them in the shed.  I wasn't going to go through them anyway because I did that two years ago.  But all of these thing cost money and I have to wait because we have other expenses this month.  I also made a bunch of phone calls this morning and did the normal routine of stuff I do.

We had to pick up Benaiah from CFA and deliver him to SCS at 5 pm and Abishai slept through the whole thing.  He was pretty upset when we got home and he thought we hadn't gone to the fry store.  Although, I had told him we aren't buying anything.  It was a smoother drive than I thought it was going to be despite it being rush hour.

When you work at CFA.....you buy snacks to tide you over until you get home for real food.

He didn't want to wake up....and he then stayed up until 10:30 after Jared finished mowing and taking Benaiah to Ethan's house.

New way of cutting watermelon I learned from Instagram.  Cut watermelonin half, and then slice both ways to created watermelon "popsicles."  It was more difficult than I thought it would be because I couldn't hold it all together with one hand as I cut because it was too big.  The guy who demonstrated it must have big hands.  We liked it this way though.  Oh, and I think this was the pinkest watermelon I've ever seen.  Either it wasn't ripe yet or it's early in the season.  It was a seedless watermelon, too.  I wouldn't mind buying a seeded watermelon, but they don't typically sell them at Aldi's.

Abishai insisted he go outside and mow with Daddy.  Keturah told me that Jared let him push the big mower for a bit, to.  The mounds of light colored stuff is Socks' hair.  He's shedding a ton right now and we have to vacuum twice a day to keep it all picked up AND brush him like this DAILY.

The yard was really long and heavy so Jared mowed it this time.

Meanwhile the middles puttered, read, had screen time, did chores/summer school, played Legos, and pestered each other.  Yup, typical Johnson6 days.