Year 3, October 13-14th, 2018: Setbacks

Today started out very frustratingly because I have weather related, ear canal clogged induced vertigo and nausea comes with that, making me feel ill all the time.  But I was determined to get that donation stuff to where it goes today.  Well, I get up there about 25 minutes away and find out, after rechecking the website, that the mission organization is only open on the 1st Saturday of the month and for a few hours on Mondays and Wednesdays.  And they have no donation bin that a) would have held all the things I have and b) was even open.  There was a Goodwill nearby though, so I was able to go shopping for myself to find some jeans that mostly fit.  I have gained all the weight back again and can't fit in what I have comfortably, plus I guess I gave away or wore out my bigger jeans. So, I literally have no everyday pants for winter.  I hate spending money an "emergencies" like this, but I had to. I knew sort of what I was looking for, but my friends still don't understand that I'm trying to only spend less than $10 a pair to look like they were $100.  But because of my bigger size, the pants are always super long, and if you try to cut and hem them, then the cut of the pant isn't at the right place and it still looks wrong.  Being short and fat is incredibly hard on the body, mind, and soul.  But at least I'm trying.

With the nausea, I'm having a really a hard time focusing on what I need to prioritize.  I want to lie down, but then the restless legs kick in and I can't lay flat or I'll get the vertigo back in full force.  But somehow we made it through the day to the block party held at our friends' house.  I did manage to forget my symptoms for just a little bit and the kids had fun.  It was cold, but they had a fire going and warm chili, with plenty of desserts (which I couldn't eat, but I didn't care because I felt ill anyway).  The block parties happen 1-2 times a year, and came after a sermon series about caring for your physical neighbors.  There's quite a few Creek members in our neighborhood, but there were many tonight that aren't, but are young and have kids, so it was good to meet them, too.  We really should make a map of who's where because I can't keep track.  So today was mostly a do nothing day for me.  I'm hoping I feel better and more focused tomorrow.  I'm going to try to do what I did last night and focus on blog stuff from 9-10p, email/business 10-11p, and TV show/free time/me time, from 11p-12a.  AND I'm writing up today's stuff before I forget.  But oh shoot, I just felt my ears pop.  I'm definitely sick on all kinds of level.  So, good night!

Oh yeah, these guys took off for a quick mission to New York City today!  All day driving today and next Thursday.  Church hopping to THREE kinds of churches (Hillsong, Brooklyn Tabernacle, and Renaissance) on Sunday.  Helping with ministries on Monday-Wednesday.  Maybe a touch of sight seeing.  Only juniors and seniors, and only 20 students, plus 10 adults.  They normally have a 1 adult per five kid ratio or something but because it's NYC, they are being overly cautious.  And that's why I love our youth ministries so much!  They are so well organized and safety is always a priority.  Benaiah is going to have a blast!

Yeah, this stuff is still in my car! Some of it has been for over a week now, and I added more today that will just have to stay there until I can get back up to the ministry when they are actually open.  It's a specific ministry that helps missionaries and church planters called Widow's Jar and they take in all kinds of donations including homeschool materials and Bible/Bible study materials.

Trying to burn down some of the wood from the shed project.  We also have tons of leftover limbs from that big storm that came through and hit the house in late winter this year (I think, I don't remember!)

Trying to figure out how to wear skinny jeans and booties.  I have such a hard time figuring out fashion.  Being wider and shorter than the average person makes it very hard to make it work.  Sigh.  That's why I don't spend much time on it.  I just need to grab and go.

The hosts are very sport oriented people, active in their yard, our neighborhood, at school, and at church.  Abishai ran with all the big kids and played with the balls whenever he could.  He kept asking us to play ball with him.  So sweet.

Who knew we had this many kids in the neighborhood?  And why don't we play like this every day?  Unfortunately, they are in a yard where the people just moved out, and they really shouldn't have been there.  We don't know what will be done with that house because it's the one that was pretty much abandoned, heat turned off, water pipes burst, lots of water damage, lots of mold, and basically needs to be gutted and rebuilt.  It sits to the south of Gary and Leah's house on the corner.

Time to eat!  And yes, while everyone else was bundled up, Jared wore short sleeves, although I think he stayed close to the fire to stay warm when it got dark.  Abishai didn't leave his jacket on very long either.  I think it was in the high 50's or low 60's today.

Dessert time!  Keturah didn't eat much of this because it was too rich.  She was also bored later on because she didn't fit in with the older girls and didn't want to run around playing hide and seek with the boys.  Oh well.  Sometimes that life.

Lots of running around.

Abishai kept up with them all, growling, playing bad guys/good guys (unfortunately, he dubbed the black kids as the bad guys, but you all know we work hard to combat stereotyping by race, sorry!)   I'm surprised not more kids were in the street.  Abishai did have a lot of freedom, and I was wondering if I should keep an eye on him better or not because what if he tried to cross the street to Grandma's house?  He was mostly inside and with us in the fenced in area of the backyard though, and had been checking in frequently.  He also used the bathroom 3 times and had 1 accident because he drink 3-4 drink pouches!  Yikes!

Playing Fornite with friends.

Aw, we love that song!  We used to sing it at the end of our Dove Singers' musical performances.  That choir was and is made up of people from all kinds of churches, including Catholics, Congregational, Christian/Church of Christ (like us), etc.  They would preform an Easter musical each spring and one time, I got to play my cello as part of the band! My mom and sister Stefanie loved Dove Singers and Stefanie still attends them when she can.  Gloria Beachy and her family lived on our street for a long time and my mom and dad were part of their small group after they moved away.  Big Brother Eddie is just a friend that we met when we were young.  He's about the same age as my older half brother, so my mom kind of took to him and called him her son for fun.  They sang in the church choir together, too, and we knew his family well.  He actually lives in northern Kentucky so I could visit him if I wanted to, or vice versa.  We are just so busy that we can't keep up these past relationships well.  That's why there's social media!

Sunday was actually more of a Sabbath day this weekend.  There was no programming for middle school and high school and no kids' choir rehearsal.  Justin sat with Grandma during the first hour and then volunteered at his normal time with her, while Keturah attended her class other hours.  We were ALMOST late to church because we had slept in and took the morning too slow.  But we made it just in time and I made it through despite still feeling nauseous with vertigo symptoms.  My ear canal/cavities/sinuses, etc must be full because I keep feeling liquid sloshing around when I turn my head from side to side when I'm lying down.  I'm not taking any medication, not even anti nauseous, so it isn't too bad, but I have to be very careful and not stand up for long periods of time.  I was a bit woozy in church and hung onto the pew a bit harder than usual.  They shared the baptisms from last week, including Bailey's, and an older man who had to leave his oxygen tank at the top of the stairs before walking down into the baptistry.  The sermon was about how Elijah was taken care of physically, spiritually, and relationally by God in 1 Kings 19.  This wasn't the passage on Elijah being fed by the ravens though.  It hit home for me pretty closely with things I've been thinking about in the last 24 hrs.  Therefore, I've mentally and emotionally tired and couldn't press into doing any projects that required much thought.  I did just get us ready for the week, which was my primary goal, so I don't feel overwhelmed.  We are going to take a lighter week, aka "fall break," on schoolwork so I can get the boys' clothes sorted out because the temps are now permanently in the 50's.  We had no 70's or 60's fall weather and I'm completely bummed about that.  From 80 degrees to 50 literally overnight.  The kids will do some math and memory work and finish up a few leftover things from this past week.  But nothing that involves a lot of time with me.  Wish us luck!

Meanwhile, I got Benaiah to call me today and where does he call from?  Times Square!  Oh my goodness, I'm SOOOOOO jealous right now!  I mean, if I don't ever see it that's fine, but I would like to see it.  They went to the church plant, Renaissance, this morning, which meets in a school, and was probably pretty interesting for this spoiled kids to see how church is done without a lot of fancy programming.  Benaiah's been exposed to similar places, so he's familiar with that kind of style. Then they went to Hillsong NYC this evening.  He said Hillsong was a bit over the top for every Sunday.  I saw some videos from other members of their group that confirmed that.  Very dark theater, musicians and lyrics on the screens, some empty seats like a Sunday morning would have, and worshippers much more engaged than our church is.  They will visit Brooklyn Tabernacle on Tuesday possibly for their prayer meeting, which Jared said, you have to get in line at least 3 hrs ahead of time in order to get a seat.  I only know that that church has a pretty famous choir, but in order to sustain a famous choir, you'd have to be doing something right in your ministry, like having such a huge vibrant prayer community.  This trip is less of a hands on mission trip and more of a introduction to ministry opportunities trip.  They plan to take a prayer walk tomorrow, too.  I just wish he would send some pictures!  I keep scouring Instagram for posts from the leaders and even they haven't posted much.  Oh well, I'll live.  I know Benaiah NEEDS this kind of bonding time with his friends and fellow leaders (not restricted to student leaders, but they naturally all want to go on these things and show up for everything, aka the Strunks and us).  I can't wait to hear more about it! Maybe I'll have to sneak into Crave next week so I can hear them talk about it if they decide to share it with the rest of the students.  Pretty exciting stuff!

Anyways, slow day at home.  Jared was on nursery duty, but still got a nap in.  Keturah listened to music, made bracelets, and read all afternoon and evening.  Justin played with Legos and read.  They are both banned indefinitely from screentime until their behavior in public changes and they do some extra memory work.  Justin is feeling the sting of that punishment because it's putting him behind in Fortnite.  Sorry, bud, but that's the whole point.  I feel bad though because he's my most obedient and usually doesn't take much to put him back in line.  However, I can't let up on him or favor him over Keturah.  Disciplining kids takes some hard work on the parent, especially me, the lenient one, because I can't stand to see them suffer or miss out on opportunities.  Jared and I talked about that a bit after the incident last week and that's why we take away screen time or sweets or add in other things instead of banning them from social things.  Playdates and sleepovers happen so infrequently and we are trying to say yes as much as possible to those things with certain friends so that their friendships can keep developing.  But I know some kids do get grounded from those things.  And we can't obviously ban them from social time at small group, Crave, Sunday School, KP worship, volunteering, and Kids' Choir.  So, I'm glad they both found things to do and didn't ask too much for TV time.  It felt good to see them puttering in their rooms because they haven't had much free time because of the level of school they do and commitments at church, and all my errands and things.  Anyways, we are all rested up and ready to start the new week!

Oh yeah, Abishai and I made this!  These are the papers we used for the marble painting craft we did.  I thought they came out so well that we needed to frame them!  While I was in Goodwill yesterday, I looked for a document (8 1/2 by 11 size frame instead of 8x10) frame because I knew that was our paper size, but found this nice one instead.  It had a weird photo in it that someone had taken and printed out, so I threw that away.  Because this one has the nice border, I decided to make it look more like an art piece with a name, medium, and artist names on it.  How'd I do?  I'm pretty proud of it for only spending $2 on it!

"I sleep here like 'Miah do!" Benaiah is gone on his NYC trip, so the lazy boy was fair game for anyone.  Silly little boy who claimed he was "big" when he's at church in his big classroom but "little" when he's at home with us.  He also has learned all the motions and words to a song after hearing it only twice in class.  This kid has some talent!  And he can tell you all about the lesson, too.  So smart!

But this big kid, man child, needs some lessons on how to not leave smelly stinky cups on his computer table for the week that he's gone.  My goodness!  And I found another pop can after I snapped this picture!  Jared said to leave it, but I do not need smelly things stinking up my house!  Sigh.

Yes, I've been checking social media all day watching the youth leaders accounts, as well as the high school ministries' account.  They finally did put a few videos up.  Benaiah says he will share more pictures and videos when he gets home.  I really just one of him and Ethan in Times Square in front of the big screens on that triangular shaped building.  Sorry, I have no clue about New York and have no idea where any of the boroughs are or landmarks.

Afternoon snuggle time.  In my face!

Again, Abishai keeps us on our toes!  He's so bossy, too.  And we do listen! He cracks us up!  He had a rough day at lunch because he didn't want to go to the bathroom or eat his rice and meat before he got cantalope.  The whiny cry was very grating on everyone's nerves.  Preschoolers can be so cute, but so exhausting all at the same time.  And yes, he literally threw the empty bottle at me crossed his arms and said he won't play with it.  He had already gotten out the very full bottle of mustard from the fridge and almost had it open to put on his pretend food!  And I think Keturah and Benaiah are stubborn.  This one is going to be the most challenging of them all!

The End.