Year 3, September 17th-22nd, 2018: Life at a Cheetah's Pace

Keturah reading to AbishaiIt's been a stinkin' long week.  Sigh. Between homeschooling, preparing for a jam packed weekend, and having health issues, I've been under more stress than ever.  But, it's Friday, everything is prepared, and I can finally sit and write a blog post.  Not sure if I can remember all the stories of the week, especially since I really didn't pay attention, but I'll try.  I place way too high expectations on the kids and I.  I need to remember that it's ok if we don't get all the work done that I wanted.  They won't be any less educated, really.  Any leftover lessons at the end of the year can be finished next year.  But I have to hand it to them, they are striving to do it all.  But at the same time, frustrated because it does take all day and sometimes into the evening because of interruptions or I'm not available to help.  I think I might institute a drop dead cut off from schoolwork by 4pm (we start around 9 or 10am).  And that will mean that some lessons will be pushed to the next day.  And that's ok as long as it's not the same lessons each time.  Ok, enough about homeschooling, except it's our lifestyle so it's a constant thing.

Otherwise, this week was a bit more "normal" to how I would like to be, with concentrated mom and kid time on Mon-Weds and half days Thurs/Fri of just independent work.   On Monday we went to a med recheck appointment I thought I had, but didn't, and then I had a chiro appt.  Then Tuesday night was grocries, but I will be teaching a piano lesson starting next week.  Wednesday was Rooted and Bible Bowl, and Benaiah left for the retreat with his school  He came back today, Friday.  On Thursday, we went to the library homeschool program, which is really geared towards the elementary students, but oh well.  We should go inside the library a couple of times a month.  Sometimes Justin just runs in and makes the book exchanges while we wait in the car if we don't have time to go in.  Now with school back in session, I am ordering books for history again, so library stops have to be weekly.  Keturah is thoroughly enjoying those books though and reading them without being asked to.  She's also gotten to a series about horses that I loved at her age.  Unfortunately, the library doesn't carry them, so I'll have to find the rest of the 70 books on eBay.  She's also working extremely hard on Latin and actually getting it!  She was able to translate present tense simple sentences like "I love" into Latin and back again.  Yeah! Justin was only a smidge behind her.  But he has a lot to memorize for Bible Bowl, too.  She's also doing a great job on her cursive writing.  I'm so glad we started later with her when she can be more responsible about learning how to do it right.  Her printing is very neat as well.  Keturah is growing up!

Poor Abishai just wants someone to play with him, and although we rotate who's available, he sometimes is lonely.  That's part of the reason bookwork takes so long.  But it's also the social skills they all need, too.  And often it's their physical exercise when they go out 3-4 times a day for 10-15 minutes to jump on the trampoline.  The kids never take out their bikes.  They just want to jump!  And they make up lots of little games, too.  Unfortunately, I do hear them screaming at each other or fighting and then I have to intervene because none of our neighbors would appreciate that during the middle of the day when other kids are at school.

Let's see, what else.  I had a series of bloody noses on Thursday and am trying to figure out why.  I can't afford money wise or time wise to visit any more doctors right now.  So I'm going to hold off for a bit.  I think I was taking too much ibprofen and the air was dry because I've had no nosebleeds to today.  I opened up the windows despite the heat to let in the humid air and didn't take any ibuprofen.  The nosebleeds have been increasing in frequency in the last 1 1/2 months, so it is concerning and I will take care of it eventually.

Oh, and we had do some prepwork for Justin's birthday party tomorrow that he's hosting at Leah's house, with Jared helping transport Benaiah (to work) and I (to a craft show to sell Lilla Rose, and Keturah will be with me).  I will probably post more about it later but Justin wanted to watch Jurassic World with his friends and there's about 7 kids coming!  Yeah!  Including his best friend Bryce, who we thought wouldn't be able to make it.  Since I won't be there, I made Justin and Jared promise to take pics.  And then right after that ends and Jared picks me up from the show, we head to a pitch in for the nursery volunteers.  And then it's Sunday with extra meetings, mission Sunday, extra practices, etc.  We are going to collapse come Monday and I NEED TO REMEMBER THAT.  I will need to let us rest and we'll probably be irritable towards one another.

Well, I'm off to make sense of what pictures I did take this week.  I did have some good snuggle moments with Abishai, read to him at the library, let him help make the desserts for tomorrow, helped him with finger paints at the library, of course, wiped his bum a million times.  He's doing pretty good in underwear, keeps his pull up dry at night, and can put on his own underwear and pants when he feels like it!  We are also getting into a routine of treating his rash thing and changing shirts frequently and keeping them on him.  It's going to take months to heal they said, but we'll do our best to help that along!  Anyway, here goes.

Me trying to figure out what to add to the Conner Prairie blog post, the one right before this one.

Money is due this week!  I wish we had done more fundraising for this.  It's more expensive than CIY and for the same amount of time.

Abishai studying his list of Sunday School teachers for the 11am class.  He already knows "Mr. Boyer's" name! Awesome!  The Boyers have taught that class for over 20 years, and all the other kids have had them!

Midday reading cuddle session.

Cushions off (his new favorite thing to do so he can jump on them), balls on the couch, and a gate to keep them there.

Aww, giving big brother a hug because school work is hard work!

Who says food has to be boring?  Keturah started it.

Then Justin followed.

And finally Abishai completed the trio of carrot and snap pea gazebos.  Lol.

It hadn't rained all week so the colors from the high schoolers' party was still on the parking lot on Wednesday evening.

They had a Noah's Ark lesson in the room where I babysit for Rooted and look what kinds of animals they found!  What on earth?  A bat, some kind of bird, and a mouse!  Oh, and there was a spider.  And since 6 out of the 7 kids are boys, you bet your boots they chased the young lady helpers with that spider!

Yup, I was looking up an address and some mapping website suggested a route using a hot air balloon?  Hm,....

Um, yeah, along with the chalk dust being left, this was left, for 3 full days and either no one parks in this spot or they are all lazy.  Yes, it had bugs in it, too.

Sorry, I posted to Instagram stories in rapid succession early this week and I just love these little posts!

Keturah reading to Abishai

Early morning trampoline session before it reaches 85 degrees today.  Yes, mid September and we are in a heat wave of 85 degrees.  Hopefully it will start cooling down this weekend.  It's been brutal!  Oh, and I've stopped caring about whether or not the lawn is mowed.  As they say, "Not my problem!"  City ordinance says it has to be less than 12 inches.  And I doubt it will grow taller than that before winter.  So, I'm letting it go/grow!  Besides, the lawn mower guys are too busy to mow.  Gary and Jared have both mowed their own lawns recently.

Sweaty from the trampoline!

Awww, this particular children's librarian is retiring in a month!  She's very good at her job!  We'll miss her, but I know the other ones are great, too.

Talking about apples of course!  Taste testing three kinds, gala, honeycrisp and something else.

Abishai tried to get into making apple prints but he didn't like his hands getting messy.  I ended up doing about 2/3 of the work.   But I was glad the mess was here and not at home and that he had on an old shirt with remnants of a sticker from 13 years ago.  It was one of Benaiah's favorites, too!

I'm glad the older two at least colored a page, despite the material being beneath them.  I was hoping for more social interaction, but not many of the families stayed long enough.  I knew a few though.

Abishai can now build his own towers!  When we do a toy switch, I'll get out the duplos again.

He built this literally from the ground up!  Amazing!

Proud of his apple print painting!  And Momma can check off that we did preschool this week, lol.

We posted the kids' Sunday School teacher rosters to the fridge.  Didn't the team do a great job putting these together?  Even someone from the security team asked if there were extras so that they know who should be in the classrooms and who shouldn't.  We are very, very, very serious about keeping things secure.  They even lock the outside and inside doors to the hallway of Kidustrial Park and you can't get in without an escort during the service time.  Plus we have to match classroom tags and name tags and pick up tags before a child is given back to a parent.  With so many split families, you just never know when a child could be taken without permission by a parent who doesn't have custody.  Err on the side of caution.

We don't have a fridge, we have a bulletin board!  And since this one is the non magnetic metal on the front, everything has to be taped to the front.  Sigh.  Just letting the church know that we do use the materials they print!

Other reminders.

Keturah said she colored one apple with both colors since often they are not purely red or green.  Kinds like gala, honeycrisp and Jonathan.  Wow, very smart!

Justin colored one, too!  Nice job, kids!

I also picked up these cool ones for Keturah to color at home.

Information that was shared about the different kinds of apples.  It was a pretty simple class but it gets us out of the house and enjoying the atmosphere of the library, a place the kids love to be.  While we let Abishai play, Keturah read a whole graphic novel and Justin got started on his novel.  That's my kids! At least I've done something right, taught them to read! Reading is power! And that's the ultimate goal I've had, to teach them to read and write well, and know enough consumer math to get through life.  And to set them up for life long learning.  That's why I need to relax and remember these goals and look back to see how far we've come.  Benaiah is still doing well at school, too, despite his long hours at work and church.  He's getting his college class done on time and says it's very easy.  You're welcome, child, for being hard on you for all those years making sure you had a solid foundation.  Although, I do give credit to his English teacher, too, as well as Grandpa, for teaching him how to write well.  I've got a pretty good handle on what direction I'm taking the other two as well.  And with his vocabulary and thought processes, I'm not at all worried about Abishai.  All children can learn, if you give them the opportunities and don't burn them out (which I tend to do).  Perspective is good.  And I'll try to stop talking about homeschooling!  Promise!  At least during the next blog post, lol.  Homeschooling is a lifestyle, and is part of my (our) identity and I'm proud to be a homeschool graduate and homeschooling mom.  I do get more and more excited every year once we get going.  There's so much to learn!  And when they make those connections, it's so magical!  Sigh.  I love it!

(Whoops, I thought I was done.)  The weather pattern changed so there was a lot of wind today.  Abishai had asked about the kites earlier in the week, so I did seize the opportunity to take it out there today and flew it for a few minutes. 

It didn't stay up long.

Power napping on the back lawn.  Yes, his shirt says "bedtime is hard work!"

I revamped my Lilla Rose display to incorporate new products and the brochure holders and display cases I got at the Toys R Us closing sale.  I love that lots more things are standing upright!  And I'm going to try a new approach to getting people to sign up as a customer (no purchase necessary) on my website using the school's website and the tablet.  We'll see how it goes!  It's only 4 hrs tomorrow and the same time frame next weekend at Benaiah's school.

Sweet!

Teenagers.

I recently started following the Islanders from Charlottetown on Instagram.  Check out their new cool lighthouse blow up thing!

#3yosez

I didn't go anywhere today.  That's how much I have moved around my house today.  I normally top out at 2,000.  Way too busy and my body is screaming about it!

So, this is interesting.  The teacher I just mentinoed, Mrs. McCollum, the ASL and English teacher we love, sent me some pics of Benaiah at the retreat for his school. Yes, that's Benaiah, singing and playing the piano FOR AN AUDIENCE during the talent show!  Say what?!  When did he become confident enough to do that?!  I haven't taught him nearly enough to be playing keys and yet he is, just like I did for a talent show once (but I didn't sing, I can't carry a tune, so my friend sang the song).  Way to go!  He said that he sang, "Build My Life."  He learned how to play poker and other card games with his friends, too.  Oh boy.  Jared used to play a little nickel and dime poker years ago and the winner had to pay for the loser's breakfast because they would often play during a guys' night, staying up all night.  Boys being boys I guess.  Not sure how it will all work itself out, but at least they had fun!

Then of course he helped with a skit about David and Goliath.  He was the narrator.  This kid needs to start putting together a list of all his abilities like this.  I think any church could utilize him in so many ways.  Way to go!  He said there were lots of great moments of his friend, who was being shouldered by another friend, being Goliah.  His friend made lots of odd sounds and used his finger as a spear to kill the Isarelites before David showed up.  Lots of laughter, but lots of exhaustion.  He almost threw up his dinner at work because of it.  Poor guy.  It's hard being an adult!

One exhausted big boy who was almost late to his 2-11pm shift today because he went to sleep.  #adultingishard  And Grandma said via text not realizing that Abishai was holding handcuffs "Don't let A do surgery while his victim sleeps!"  I guffawed loudly.  Abishai is wearing his Chase, the police dog from Paw Patrol, his favorite new cartoon, mask, too.  Hilarious!  Wake up, Miah!!!!