Year 3, September 1st, 2018: Labor Day Weekend, Part 3, Be Still

Quick! Get in one mini kayak adventure before the rain hits! At least that's one thing that was going through Jared's mind this morning. Lol. He cracks me up. He (and Aaron) is such an outdoorsman. I love it through and through, even when I don't always feel comfortable joining him. I'm very protective of my physical health and don't take risks like I used to, so if I don't want to get on a boat that will probably tip over into the water, then I won't. I'm loving the pontoon boat and the paddleboat is ok for me if I can get past the idea of tipping, lol. But the kayak, um, no thank you, especially if I have my phone in my hand. Jared did though. He has an otterbox (very water resistant case) but it would still sink if he dropped it in the water. Anyway, yes, he went out on the lake briefly before a big thunderstorm came through. I watched him from the dock and saw just how uplifted he feels after being out here in the woods, near the water, listening to the wildlife, taking pictures of trees, etc. He still doesn't like “icky toes” from standing in the lake or the litle gnats hanging around his head, so he's still partly a city boy. But he does enjoy taking a break from the city. Peace, calm, no internet, a break we all need. I've used my fair share of data though. It's such a tough thing to not use my phone so much! But I'm trying, and I am paying more attention and sitting still. It's something you have to practice or lose it. And I've definitely lost it. I can't physically read for long periods or listen to an audio book without having a mini game on my phone keeping my hands occupied. I'd be more physical and go clean something if I had more physical ability. I'm not ADD or ADHD, but I do like to be productive. I spent the first few hours of the day on and off my phone, but also trying to sit and watch others do things. I did chat without my phone in my face with both Ron and Nina yesterday. It's a good thing that both sides of Jared's family are super friendly and they've now known me for 20 years. We are definitely blessed that way. And I keep thinking about how they've seen the kids grow up, have their own kids and now some of those kids are older like Benaiah. It's sweet. The inside jokes are thick. The memories sincere and sweet. No one feels awkward or out of place. Everybody digs in and helps with dinner. It's the peace I wish I had and I'll take for the next few days.

But alas, it's raining hard today, so we must stay inside. That's why I pushed myself to go outside and stay outside yesterday. Today I'll dig in and be “productive” by watching some of the videos the kids will watch for school. I don't need 100 pictures of the boys playing video games, or Gary and Leah playing nerts. I needed tons of pictures from yesterday's new experiences on the water. I'm very proud of our kids just getting in there and not worrying about the depth or their toes getting icky. It makes me feel like some of my parenting has been good. Well, it helps that we have very engaged adults in our lives that also push us to try new things and stay off of electronics. Family. This is what it means to have a family. And when my family of origin (oooo, that's the term I've been looking for like 2 years to describe my growing up years/family! See, I'm still not the best writer out there. Sometimes it takes me awhile to find the right words.) is literally physically and emotionally distant from us, it makes this, this kind of getaway, all the more sweet. It makes me beg God to please intervene and develop strong family bonds between my children. We are trying to emulate a strong family culture, and I feel like I'm utterly failing at it. But I have to remember that the kids are surrounded by many loving adults here and at church and have numerous examples of intact, healthy families and it's not just up to Jared and I. And when we do fail, God will fill in the gaps. Ah, it's been good to have some mental space away from projects and routine and having to cook meals and pick up after everyone to just think and be calm and be still.

One funny moment was when Gary put in his “order” for breakfast and Leah said, “I'm trying to get Holy over here, John!” (she was trying to read her Bible.) Gary's parents were the kind where the wife did everything to serve her husband (in the most loving way, for sure) and fixed his breakfast, cleaned house, pressed his shirts, etc. And Leah does do a lot of those things, too. And Gary doesn't demand them, but there are some tendencies for him to act like his dad someimes, and it's a huge inside joke. And a great way to keep the memories of Grandma and Grandpa Johnson alive.

Now Ron, Gary, and Benaiah “went to town” for groceries (at Aldi's!) and to find wifi so Benaiah can load up his English paper. The boys are playing video games, the preschoolers are running around with oven mitts that look like sharks (yeah for me that I saw them and got them started playing with them because they've been playing with them for 2 hrs!), Leah and Jared are reading, Keturah is watching old cartoons and Nina was cleaning up breakfast. Breakfast took 3-4 hours because people got up at different times, and then the early birds were hungry again. Yes, everybody likes to graze, including myself. I've had to try to stay away from my snacks because when I'm “bored” aka I don't have my phone in my hand, I'll eat. I also eat to stay awake at night and not having my peppermints is an issue. So I actually went to bed at 11:30pm for once. Lol. The things you realize about yourself when you are not in your normal routine! I'm sure we will play more games this afternoon and perhaps subject everyone to the “The Wilderness Family: Part 3.” I really want to see Gary, Leah, Ron, and Nina's reactions to it.

I have to be careful there's not too much quiet time for me because my mind wanders to grieving again, especially the 16 yr old's family. I can't even imagine, and yet, I will try to imagine what they are doing today, what it's like to go back home without your child, who has the boy's organs (5 organs donated to 4 people!) etc. I overthink things, and now I attach feelings to them. And now I'm done being “chatty.”

Well, the rest of the afternoon was spent half in and half outside depending on the rain. Luke and Justin got some tubing in, being pulled by the boat with Uncle Ron driving, Jared helping them in and out of the boat, and me documenting it all. At one point, Justin actually flipped over and we had to go rescue him. He seems to be game for a lot of new experiences lately. That's awesome because he can also be fairly timid. After supper, Jared, Justin, Keturah, Abishai and I attempted to sail in the old beat up canoe (probably hasn't been in the water for a few years). However, Abishai started to panic behind me and I started to panic because I really didn't want to be in the water, and Jared couldn't rescue all of us at the same time. I was afraid Abishai was going to get up and lean one way and tip it. Jared prompted turned the canoe to the shoreline and Abishai and I got out. Then he, Keturah and Justin went a little ways out, but Keturah also didn't like it (she was sitting in the bottom of the canoe). So, they turned around again and she got out. Finally Jared and Justin took off and rounded the point out of sight and then came back a bit later. Good for them! While we were in the boat doing the tubing thing, Keturah, Abishai, and Clara were swimming with Gary, while Nina also observed them. Now she'll need to be careful with Clara because Gary got Clara to jump off the dock without a flotation device! Yikes!

Benaiah ended up not going out much, except to town to find wifi so he could send his English paper, which did get accomplished. What didn't get accomplished was him telling CFA that he couldn't work on Monday and now he and Gary have to go back early on Monday morning. Benaiah and I are both disppointed because he was going to show me the coffee shop he goes to at CIY and some of the buildings and such. I'm also disappointed that he can't stop with us in Muskegon, if we even do that now. It's going to rain and the cousin I wanted to see isn't available. Jared's other uncle and family will be visiting us at the cottage tomorrow, so that helps. We'll just have to take another sightseeing trip to Muskegon at some point. Which means, I also have to get a family picture by the lake tomorrow. The one time all 4 of my kids can be in the water at the same time, and it's been more than difficult to get that worked out. Benaiah found a way to download tv shows frm netflix onto his phone, so he's still doing his normal pattern of binge watching, tuning out the world, with his earbuds in. Again, I'm disappointed. I thought for sure with no wifi I would get more time with him. And now with family coming in tomorrow, it will be even more difficult. What had been a great getaway has now taking a turn for the worse.

Some of the adults finished the night with a cruise on the boat, but us kids stayed back with our kids, who are exhausted. We finally got everyone showered and mostly tucked into bed. Then, a friend back home texted me that Justin's best friend Bryce ran away this morning. I'm not entirely surprised, but that's devastating. He doesn't have a phone or money. Justin is bravely trying to distract himself playing monopoly with Luke, but I'm silently dying inside. How can some people enjoy life while others are anxiously looking for their child? It doesn't seem fair, but I'll try to leave that there tonight.

One of my favorite highlights of the day was when Gary brought back blue moon ice cream after their trip to town. I'll have a little bowl right before bed so I don't have to feel the stomachache, but the rest of the kids enjoyed their portion thoroughly! We can no longer get it in our Meijer at home and it's one of Gary's favorites. It's kind of like a blue raspberry flavor, or the blue part of superman or rainbow ice cream, but not quite. It's very unique, just like Vernor's Ginger Ale (authentic barrel bold taste since 1966), which is another Michigan favorite. But we can get that in Indianapolis. I prefer Canada Dry Ginger Ale because that's what we would drink at my Gramma's house almost week, just a little class. And we didn't drink that much other pop until we had pizza nights with youth group and such, although my mother LOVED Pepsi, just like me. Pepsi and saltines or cheez-its. That's how she “survived” homeschooling 4 kids and toting them around to activities and sleeping only 4 hrs a night. And that's one of the biggest reasons I'm always trying to do better than that because she didn't really survive. Dying at age 60 is NOT in my plans. Anyway, Meijer is a Michigan based big box store like Wal-Mart, and it's the chain we utilize the most besides Aldi's. And that's how I'm going to end the night, with some blue moon ice cream!

Video playlist:
Labor Day 2018 Day 3

Sandbox with his new friend in his jammies, what's better than that?

Mid morning kayak run.  And yes, he brought his phone in it's otterbox with him to take pictures.

Nice clear, calm water with no waves first thing in the morning because the speedboats aren't out yet.

We had rain intermittently on Saturday which kept the temps down a bit and we had to tell the kids to wait to go tubing.

Rumble, rumble.

I think all the big boy toys were used over the weekend, including the golf cart.  They all had turns driving the golf car down to the end of the regular road and back to see if the tree had been moved away that fell over that entrance last Tuesday from a very large storm.  It had been cleared by Monday when we left so we didn't have to go through the neighbor's yard again.

The detached garage where the golf cart and great grandpa's boat was sits on top of the hill.  There's a couple of flights of stone steps leading up to it.

"Baby Shark do-do-da-do-do, baby shark, do-do-da-do-do...."  That's a song that was meant to be a preschooler song now gone viral, especially at Benaiah's school where the mascot is shark.  The song goes through tons of verses like Daddy Shark, Mommy Shark, Grandpa Shark, Grandma Shark, run away, safe at last, etc. with motions for each one.  I spotted these potholders on the wall and went after Abishai and then he wanted to be the shark and Clara join in.  At least it got them away from staring at the TV all day.  I'll link it here.  And as of today, it has 1.6 BILLION views!

Baby Shark Dance with 1.6 billion views!

Rain, rain, go away.  Time for card games!

I'm guessing she was very comfortable.

Naps and movies, a great way to spend a rainy day on vacation.

The skies finally cleared in the middle of the afternoon, yeah!  It was Abishia and Clara's turn on the floating mat.

Ready to go tubing!!!

Luke showing us how to get it done.  Grandpa Ron didn't drive crazy to throw Luke off.  He's a very steady boatman.

Luke showing off by briefly letting go.

Luke doing dance moves like dabbing at Justin.

Justin, are you ready?  Here goes!

Justin tried really hard to steer the tube back and worth in the wake, but he weighs next to nothing and hardly moved.

He loved it and I think in total over two days he had about 5 laps around the lake on it.

Storm clouds rolling back in.

Who's that waiting for us at the shore?

Having a nice swim back to shore bvecause he didn't want to go another lap.

Our audience.

Come on, Mr. Lazy, you're missing all the fun.  It's time for a good take down from Dad.

Big brother squishing little brother.

Abishai brought a backpack full of cars and insisted on bringing his garage, too. Then he played with the big jeep and bus.  The bus was a v-tech or leapfrog brand bus and sang about going the beach or a field trip, as well as school.

Yes, finally!  Real blue moon flavored ice cream!  There's nothing like it!  I even had a small bowl and endure the stomach ache.  We can't decide what the flavor itself comes from, but it's unique to Michigan dairies.  All Meijers used to sell it but our store discontinued it a few years ago.  Meijer is a Michigan based retail store like Wal-Mart.

Blue moon equals blue tongue.

Another blue eyed Johnson who loves blue moon ice cream.  He fits right in!

And another Johnson baby enjoying her blue moon ince cream.

Luke, too.

Jared dragged out the canoe that hadn't been used in many years.  He had to first clean it out but it was still sea worthy.

A very patient boy waiting to get in the boat.  Jared, Keturah, Justin, Abishai, and I all got in it, but Abishai didn't like that it was lurching from side to side and he was right behind me.  I got nervous that he was going to stand up and tip us over, so I panicked too.  Jared then told us to get out and he took Keturah and Justin for a spin.  Keturah also didn't like it, so when they came back, she got it.  Justin, however, loved it, and went with Dad further around the lake a second time.

Still lots of clouds, but sunset is coming.

Oh the colors that I don't know how to capture on camera! They were so pink and so blue and so lavender.  Gorgeous!!!!  And peaceful!!!!

A little evening gaming before bed.

Back to morning time from our bedroom window.

He had no problem sleeping in a pack and play.  He didn't feel like he was being treated like a baby or anything, and it was warm, so he didn't want a blanket.

See, lots of rain, blech.

Moody lake or was I in a mood because of the teenager, hm?

Life is grand when you can be in your candy cane jammies on a boat!

Jared coming back from his early morning kayak run.

Goofy preschoolers.

He was tired and put himself down for a nap, but we didn't let him nap.  We didn't want him up all night.  He could climb in and out of the pack and play because the bed was just inches away from it.

What are boy cousins for?  Wrestling of course!

I'm sure their fathers wrestled at times, too, at least when their parents weren't around.

Justin had to rescue poor Keturah who was floating out to sea.  Justin's stamina amazed me because I didn't think he could last so long!

His happy place.

Justin's final run?

Watching the boys do their thing on the tube.  Jared hates selfies, can you tell?

It's nice to have an audience when we come around the bend.

Jared, Keturah, and Justin coming back from their first run.

Preschoolers learning to share.

The iPhone's version of the sunset (maybe a panoramic view).

Another Michigan staple, although we can get this at our Meijer.  It definitely tastes different than Shweppes or Canada Dry.  I grew up drinking Canada Dry at my gramma's house very Saturday, but just a tiny glassful.  I like it better than Vernor's oak barrel taste.