October 30th-31st, 2018: And....go! Leaf Peeping Edition

Oh my stars! It's been a busy week trying to cram everything in, never mind finding time to finish up blog posts and write things down like my eating and sleeping habits. And if it's not written down, I won't remember it.  So, here's what I know.

Tuesday we went hiking at Eagle Creek State Park on the northwest of Indianapolis.  We went there last year to the ornithology center to talk about birds of prey.  (If I was fancy enough I'd link that blog post here, but I'm not.)  We met up with one of our families from co op from a couple of years ago, a young family with 4 kids under the age of 8.  They are such a sweet family but for once, I didn't feel like the one with misbehaved kids.  Because her kids are much younger than mine, they didn't last as long on the hike without having a meltdown.  I felt bad and just tried to keep us moving along so she could deal with that particular child without us watching them.  Actually, her and her kids' pace kept our pace reasonable so I didn't push too hard on my kids.  It was a gorgeous 65 degree day and although it started off cloudy at home, there were bright blue cloudless skies there.  That's the advantage of having a city that is very wide.  In fact, the weather north of the middle line of the city can be vastly different than the weather south of the middle line.  They could have 5 inches of snow up north and none down south.  It's quite a unique situation we have.  Anyway, this week was PEAK FALL COLOR EVERYWHERE and I've been bound and determined not to miss this year, even if it means we put off bookwork for awhile.  Maybe because I feel the urgency of Benaiah's childhood coming to a close, or maybe because I'm just older and wiser, but I'm tired of "waiting until the kids are grown" to do things I love to do.  No, we didn't make it to a big all day hike 1 1/2 to 2 hrs away like I had hoped, but by golly, I'm going to do SOMETHING to see the trees in my favorite season!  Now, the leaves here are mostly yellow, which isn't my favorite fall color, but I'll live.  Thankfully the kids do like the crunchy leaves, sticks, playgrounds out in the middle of the woods, tree tunnels, and such.  The path we took was very wide and flat, but gorgeous.  The hike we took last year near the ornithology center was bit more rocky with tree roots next to the lake/reservoir.  I remember taking pictures of Abishai walking along very proudly that he could do it himself.  And of course this year was even better.  He was the one most excited about being outside and in the woods, even wearing his hiking boots.  Oh my little boy of the north, how much fun Daddy and I will have with you when you are older and the rest are grown up.  But for now, we will drag those siblings along with us, too, because it's good for them city kids to get out and about.

Benaiah was not with us since it was Tuesday, but that's ok.  I'm still proud of him for taking a day off with us last week and making the effort to make family time a part of his life, even if he plugs into his music the whole time.  He's not rolling his eyes and putting up a fuss.  He just naturally has a hard time relating to immature younger siblings.  I know it's hard and I appreciate when he does try.  He has so much drama at school, too, that he has to have time to detox from all relationships.  So if he "checks out" for a little while when he's with us, so be it.  It's better than fighting all the time.  We've planned to carve pumpkins on Friday night together and again, he's not opposed to that.  He went to a friend's house on Wednesday and had a dance at school that his class put on, so he's had a lot of social time this week.  Actually, yes, I will mention this.  A nice girl who is a senior invited him and we think just a bunch of other girls over to her house Wednesday evening just to hang out.  It wasn't a costume party and they weren't planning on trick or treating.  I teased him and told him not to play spin the bottle or kiss anyone.  But really, he doesn't have time to bring that kind of stuff into his life right now.  Not that he would kiss and tell anyway.  The parents were home and the girl has a 9pm bedtime, so it was as kosher as it could have been.  Benaiah says the senior girls are way less dramatic than the whole junior class combined.  He refuses to work with the juniors anymore on prom stuff because of all the drama and indecisiveness and lack of leadership skills.  Relationships weigh heavy on him because he does care alot for all his acquaintances and I know he's just protecting himself.  It's a good thing to have those kind of boundaries.  He did try, but it's too overwhelming, so he's cut himself out of the picture to avoid further confrontation.  That takes a lot of maturity.  I've said it before but other people have called him wise and he's actually unsure what to do with that comment.  He knows he doesn't have everything together, but he also humbly knows he has an advantage over his peers socially.  He wants them to be better, too.  He will make a great pastor someday.  So, I tease him, but I also try to stand back on social stuff because I had not a clue at that age (except asking Jared to be my boyfriend when I was barely 16 and we all know that was a wise decision).  It's so scary yet fascinating to watch a teenager take those big adult steps.  I'm glad he's embraced them and has more ambition than I thought he would at this age.  It's taken a lot of hard work to help him get there, but we are seeing the fruit of our labor bit by bit.  And the rest, well, we do a lot of eye rolling and a little bit of laughing behind his back (when he says something that we know isn't quite true in real life) and even some crying when he just doesn't get it.  But we are almost there, and then in rapid succession, the other two will be through it.  And then we have some more time before it's Abishai's time.  It just doesn't seem possible to already be at this stage in our life.  That's what happens when you have your first child at age 21 and 23 and barely adults ourselves.  But I think we were a little more mature than some of our peers, too, being firstborns and all.  And we both had great parents who raised us to love education and be responsible and to love Jesus.  I hope our children say that someday about us.  I think they will.

Why?  Because school for the other two is going fairly smoothly.  Oh, they complain all day long about how much more homework they have to do and why do they have to do this or that.  However, they are getting it done and for the most part, getting it done well.  They are soaking up the Latin very quickly.  We've spread out their writing assignments a bit, so it's hard to tell if we are making progress there or not.  Math is coming along, sometimes slower than at other times, but even Keturah is seeing vast improvement.  I decided to go ahead and buy a copy of the book we are using from eBay so we can give back the library's copy which we've had for over 6 months.  Apparently no one else needs it right now, lol.  Well, not many realize that homeschool books were donated to the library last year.  Anyway, I'm pleased with math.  And they are even sitting still a bit better during read aloud time.  But now the biggest challenge has been Abishai and this rainy weather.  Today, Thursday, he was literally my shadow all day.  He did not want to play independently at all.  He "helped" me with laundry, he kept looking at what I was baking, he wanted to snuggle me when I finally did sit down, he wanted to be in Keturah's room while she was studying or with Justin on his couch.  But some days, no one has time to play with him! If I hadn't decided to bake stuff today and rearrange the pantry a bit, I would have tried to do something with him.  It's going to be a long winter if he continues to be like this.

It was beautiful on Tuesday, but Wednesday and Thursday brought rain all day.  We hiked on Tuesday, drove over to the apple orchard to buy a couple more pumpkins and then took Benaiah to his friend's house on Wednesday, stayed home on Thursday because we had been out every day this week (except I had to take Justin to Bible Bowl, which had been postponed because of Halloween, and take Benaiah to his school for the dance), and on Friday, we picked up Benaiah from work and headed to an old playground in Beech Grove that they want to replace.  I wanted to get a picture of the 3 kids on the 3 tandem slides because I have a similar one from before we left for Canada and I think I have one when we came back to visit one time.  We didn't stay long because we needed to get home for dinner and pumpkin carving.  And that's about it for the week.  That's still alot!

Update: Benaiah was too tired for the playground, so we'll have to try again another day.  We did carve pumpkins though!  Check them out below!

Eagle Creek Hike Playlist

Daddy, I don't want you to leave (for work) ! I'll block you!

Oh how I love smartphones and how I can download a map to my phone or link it to the home page.  I should have just used the screenshot though instead of using the link and using data, but oh well, it was pretty handy!

It was THE perfect day for a hike!  The leaves were gorgeous, the skies were clear and blue and the temperature was perfect for long sleeves and maybe a light jacket.  I love fall!

And it was awesome to go with friends!  Here they are picking up walking sticks!  The sticks were quickly abandoned, but it was cute to see the littles try to carry the big sticks. 

Red! You find way more yellow leaves than red in our part of the world, so I'll take red whenever I can see it!

Big stick for little guy.

I think we choose the shorter green path and shortened it even more.  Little ones and out of shape mamas can't go too far.

Gorgeous!

Just a walk in the woods surrounded by million of golden leaves.  My happy place.

Justin led the way and the rest of us (9 in total) followed.  They all did well for being on the younger side.  The path was flat and wide.  Not the hike I had hoped to do with Benaiah and Jared, but good enough.

Don't take my picture!  Abishai was all excited about going for a hike and keeping up with the big kids, but got really tired by the end.  He even leaned over and put his hands on his knees at one point.  The other mom had a baby backpack so she carried her littlest (a 2 yr old) and Abishai was jealous.  I had to tell him I couldn't carry him.  I was carrying the diaper bag anyway, which balanced the heavy camera I was wearing in front.  I'm definitely sore from all of that extra weight, too.

Found a pond for the bird sanctuary area.  This park has a manmade reservoir and sits right outside the 465 highway that circles Indianapolis on the northwest side of the city.  You feel transported to another world and yet, you are just 15-20 minutes from the airport or downtown Indy.  It's awesome!

Breathtaking!

I never get tired of maple leaves!

Oh the signs of fall.  Leaves everywhere!

Even on playgrounds!

Just a playground in the middle of the woods.  There's a dirt road you can drive up to this spot and three shelters with picnic tables for parties.  It's a beautiful alcove, complete with trash cans and port a potties.

Blanket of leaves.

Old unused bathrooms chilling with the trees overshadowing them.

Romantic and peaceful.

The other mom captured photos of her kids on the log all nicely posed.  I photographed them all peeping over this huge log.

Not quite big enough to do it himself, but he sure did try!

OOO, what are these?  I don't know but they are pretty and remind me of lupins or some kind of wild flower you find on the prairie. 

A little too much sunlight, but nice shot!

So calming.

Imagine having a party on this type of day in this magical part of the woods.  Ah.....

Oh, Canada!

Running through leaves that had blown themselves into a pile under the picnic tables in the shelter.  I love that sound of crunching leaves!  Check out the playlist above for a video of me walking through and crunching the leaves!

So...much....fun!

Sun through the tree canopy.

Velvety soft leaf.  I don't know what tree it belongs to, but it sure does feel awesome!

Huge leave!  At this point, we separated from the other mom and some of her kids because her little guy wanted to bring home a frog and wouldn't let it go.  I didn't want to stand around and embarrass her, so I trudged on before my kids had meltdowns, too.  That means we had to wait for her to get back to our vehicles, but that's ok.

Acorns!

Thug life? Album cover? The mighty 3?  I need a nickname for these homebodies.  Three musketeers?  I really wish the 4th and biggest child was here.  Sigh.  I'm beginning to accept that he's just not going to be a part of things anymore.  On my worst days and in my worst moments, I weep for these moments he's not there for.  Something, aka, someone, is missing and I don't like it one bit.  But, I'm tired of waiting around for perfect moments that all 6 of us can do something together, so, we'll make as many memories we can with just these three.  The Mighty 3.

After a little snack in the van, we drove towards the north entrance of the park where the ornithology center is.  We visited there last year for a birds of prey class.  Today we just saw the turkey vulture in it's cage.  Abishai wanted to see all the cages and birds.  He was more interested in it all than I thought he would be which warms my heart.

Again, Abishai is into "don't take my picture."  Keturah wanted to see how big she was against the birds.  "I think I've grown, Mommy, from last year!"  Yes,  you did sweetheart.

She's looking so big and so much like her mother.

Up on the outside platform, we could see some of the Eagle Creek.  So much color.  I could sit here for hours.

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Views from inside the ornithology center.  I don't know how long it remains open, but it was nice that it was open today.

Using the binoculars to see things on the other side of the lake.  Abishai loved that idea, too.

Abishai immediately took to using the binoculars to observe the birds.  He was super excited about watching them and the squirrel.  He even climbed all the way up and stood on the desk there.  Whoops!

Silly squirrel eating all the seeds that fall.

"I see birdies, Mommy! So cool!"  Aww, this warms my heart so, so much.  Yeah for a good day with little complaining and lots of discovery of new and interesting things.

I will never miss the fall colors again1  I'm turning this into a tradition now!  Fall hike every year!

Over the river and through the woods....

So magical!

Wow!

Bright yellow!

Nice quiet park road.

More pics from the ornithology center area.

One of our electrical outlets were crackling, so we called in our friendly electrician.  Sure enough the outlet was fried.  Meanwhile, we made a path through Jared's tools to the breaker box and Justin and I called it, "Parting of the Red Sea" because we literally just pushed things on one side or the other.  Jared needs to build a new bench and/or put his stuff up in the cupboards.  And I need to clean up my stuff, too.

We picked up Benaiah on Wednesday from leadership class at church and took him to his friend's house.  So we got to see the new desk arrangement in the office.  Dan wasn't going to use Gary's old desk, so Gary took it back and figured out a way to use it.  Meanwhile, Jared moved a part of the hutch of the desk and it smacked his arm pretty good.  It's finally turning black and blue a few days later and still hurts.  Ouch!

I'm not sure if this arrangement is going to cut down on the music wars, but we'll see!

Keturah attempted to bring in Benaiah's school bag.  I thought she was going to topple over!

So super tired after a big day the day before.  He did not want to wake up and purposefully hid behind his hoodie.

Bwahahahaha!  Oh, Aldi's! I've never seen a category in a store called "energy" before.  Wow! Sign of the times, eh?  Yes, they have energy drinks and pop.  Coffee and tea are actually in another area.  Energy comes from all the food you know, not just sugar and caffeine.  Silly!