The J6 Journey: Year 3, September 29th-October 1st, 2018: The Exhaustive Weekend

As I finished up on Friday night, I decided to check my calendar because I hadn't read any promotion posts for the craft fair I was going to do on Saturday. I also didn't get any detailed instructions from the organizer, which was strange because I did last year. Well, after some digging around and rereading (at 1am mind you), I realized that the craft fair wasn't until October 27th and had been combined with another event that the school was doing. I love Benaiah's school, but they are now notorious for putting something on a calendar a couple of months out and then changing it a month later. And like the good parent I am, I put all the events in my phone calendar as soon as they are handed out and assume for the best. Lesson learned, again, to double check every newsletter (thankful there's now a weekly e-newsletter!) and match it was my calendar. It would be helpful if they put a note next to an event to say the date had changed. But anyway, they are a small school and they do what they can. I'll just do the work on my end.

All that to say, I didn't have a craft fair to go to which freed up a good portion of our Saturday. Yeah! That means that I almost finished one of the summer projects: wrapping boxes in extra large "saran" wrap/plastic warp/packaging wrap for skids, and putting them out in the shed, bringing the other tools from the shed into the garage! Yippie! I have a few more boxes to do, but we ran out of time. I should say that Jared did most of the wrapping though, and he's quite the expert doing some of it at the office for pallets of book boxes. Then, I dropped Benaiah off at work and took Keturah to Goodwill to buy her some winter clothes. I meant to take a picture, but for $44 we got a huge haul of stuff, including a pair of fashion boots for me for $8 to replace my black ones. Waterproof, insulated, and FLAT heeled (I don't wear heals and 95% of the time, boots have heels) tan, tall, boots! So exiting! Keturah got 2 pairs of jeans, a couple of pairs of sweatpants, a couple of shirts, nearly brand new white fashion sneakers (for indoor use only kiddo), a pillow pet, a zip up hoodie, a few American Girl doll books, a couple of novels, and probably a couple of other things I'm now forgetting. And why haven't I shopped at Goodwill all these years? I have no idea. I'm definitely a fan again. I won't drop off donations to them though because I'm not so sure that they do the right things with them, but in this case, I will certainly buy from them. So, I got that done and then after supper we went grocery shopping for the week. Now THAT'S an accomplished Saturday!

Sunday was normal with Benaiah playing drums and Keturah having rehearsal for KP worship. The rest of us did our normal thing and Benaiah had an extra long meeting for his NYC trip. Except for a couple of hours in the afternoon, he was at church from 7:20a to 8:20p. He has worked out a plan though to not volunteer as much in main worship, so he can be home on Thursday nights instead of at rehearsal, and switching one of his weekend shifts to the morning. So, I think he at least listened and came up with a great compromise. Keturah was beyond exhausted, too, having gone to all three services as an attendee, and then rehearsing for KP and for Kids' Choir. Well, that's life, kiddo! It definitely made today, Monday, much, much harder for all of us.

We didn't get up until 9 and Keturah finally joined us at 10am, which put us way behind on schoolwork. We did do our together work first (which I'm really liking!) because I had appointments this afternoon. However, Keturah did not get her schoolwork done like I had hoped. I'm not sure why she's only motivated to hustle on days she sees her friend, but something's gotta give and it's not the homework itself! Back to 8am wake up time for everyone tomorrow, we've got work to do. I do want them to go outside but it's in the 80's again this week, so I have to balance when they do that and schoolwork. We just have to keep plugging away. We will be taking a break to do the fall clothing switch and to catch up on things in probably late October. But I'm exhausted, too, from the weekend, which included me having a meltdown over my own personal stuff. Being emotional is exhausting! A friend put out a podcast about being an extra sensitive person, so I'm curious to hear what that is all about. I'm seeing a counselor again, and she was thinking we need to work on the sleep thing first. It's the one health thing I keep dragging my feet about. Sigh. So, I guess I'll try to work on it. Thankfully there aren't many pictures or videos to sift through this time. Enjoy.

Ready for random? Here goes!

I WILL be there, so join us! Note that it wasn't on September 29th but it IS on October 27th! And you can email me or message me to sign up to participate in the corn hole competition!

Goldenrod, right? This is what happens when we don't do anything to the fire pit or file of brush from the tree limb falling months and months ago. Too hot for a fire anyway. And we are horrible at getting the trimming done. The boys finally did mow this weekend though.

For flowers, aka, weeds to the rest of you.

He loves to take ball out to the trampoline. And this warm weather is why I told Jared he can't take the trampoline down until at least Thanksgiving. Silly Indiana weather. In the video below, Abishai is the trampoline ball ninja warrior!

She's technically grounded from sweets, but we were having a mommy and me date to buy clothes so I made an exception. Also, taking away sweets does nothing for her. I think it's now going to be not having playdates, or declining a few invitations. It's always hard to predict how long that would take because there's some weeks she gets no invites.

Nothing every beats this! Nothing! But I finally gave in and bought Nutpods brand pumpkin spice creamer from Thrive Market and had it shipped to me. They come tomorrow. It doesn't have sugar or dairy in it, but it's just sweet enough from the almond and coconut milks.

Someone donated a couple of full seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes on VHS to Goodwill! We sat and taped these shows off of the TV, pausing the video tape when the ads came on. Each and every episode! And if we missed one, my dad would comb through the TV Guides we got to find when the rerun was on. Those tapes made it to Indiana and into the 2nd apartment that my Dad was in after my mom died. I finally gave them away through Freecycle when he died.

By completing that project on Saturday in the garage, we unearthed the ball pit. It's still a hit! And the mini tent was also right there, so we popped that back up and now they have some things to play with when it's too hot/cold outside.

I tried to look cute because it's still so hot outside. I'm still heavier than I liked to be, but at least I have new clothes to wear.

I should have gone back to get the 20% and saved $8 per ticket, but the seats were going fast and I had the perfect ones in my cart. Sssshhhhhhh, this is a Christmas present for Justin and I. Jordan Feliz, one of our new favorite artists, is also on this tour, and Jeremy Camp, who I've never heard in person and only know his radio hits. Our concert will be in February, I think right before WinterJam here in Indy, which I am planning on taking all 3 kids with me. Keturah says no, but we'll see. Christmas will be all about experiences again, with a picture of what they got from Toys R Us closing sale in June. Maybe one other thing they really want like a toy or something. But that's it. And my Christmas gifts to myself are things like this ticket. I don't want much else. Well, I do, but not for Christmas. A bookshelf for the bedroom would be nice. Or a cruise without kids to Alaska or New England. Or....a trip to the Holy Land or England....or....ok, I'm done, lol. Put now I'm on hot pursuit to figure out what musical to take Keturah to. Hm,....

So exhausted! It's a good thing we can catch a nap in Daddy's office before kids' choir!

I so wanted this charm to add to my flexi with the same motif as these u-pins from last year! But they sold out in less than 8 hrs! So not fair! Hopefully they will restock them. The company watches how many each stylist buys and no one is being selfish, but still, they've been underestimating demand for the past month or so. The next batch of products will definitely have higher inventory counts because of it. Want to learn more? Message me! We also have a sale on the starter kit for $99 plus shipping, with over $300 worth of various products in it! How exciting!