The J6 Journey: Year 3, November 23rd-25th, 2018: Thanksgiving Weekend

Time to relax! Ok, Thanksgiving is fairly laid back, but there's still travel and food prep to be done. Thankfully, everyone pitches in of course. Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving, the Johnsons put out their Christmas decorations. It takes us J6 Johnsons all weekend or a week, but J2 Johnsons accomplish it in a day. We had preplanned for all the cousins to help out Grandpa on the Friday after Thanksgiving so a) the New Orleans cousins could have some kind of Christmas because they don't know if they will even be home this month or not b) Grandpa can pay the kids for some work c) to have time with Grandma and Grandpa before they are gone on a long vacation and d) to give Jared and I time to recover/prepare/fill our "tanks" (love tanks and peace/less chaos tanks) before we are "on call" for the girls again. I can say with all confidence that I'm glad we've had most of this week to recover from the previous week and that we've used our time wisely in order to do what needs to get done before we are in charge again. My expectations have been adjusted and ready to tackle having 6 kids again. I spent most of the day on Friday processing paperwork for Lilla Rose. It wasn't that much, but I had to trace back some items all the way back to February. Yikes! Because of the mental toll kids have on me in particular, plus the fibromyalgia fog, I only have 2-3 hrs of 100% fully "awake" intelligent mindspace to give each day. A lot of what I do around the house is very routine and doesn't require much thinking power. But working one on one with kids, especially when it comes to editing their writing, takes up that 2-3hrs during the day on school days. I can do a lot of math work at night when my brain is tired because that's how I'm wired. I can balance the budget and such or type up numbers into a spreadsheet for inventory. But to have papers spread out into many piles in order to figure out what happened when first needs more brain power and second needs uninterrupted time. I'd say 95% of what I do, I can do with the chaos around. I can start and stop a lot of things to deal with kids, or I can break something down into small chunks. With the paperwork, I needed that uninterrupted time or I would forget where I was in the process of finding this or that transaction. It wasn't cut and dry. So it had to wait until someone else could watch the kids and the house was quiet. Friday was that day.

So I processed the paperwork, but still have some inventory to tag and enter. Again, that part is self contained and straight forward and I can put it down and pick it back up in the middle. We also went over to Gary and Leah's for supper with all 12 of us there. We watched some of the girls' dance video and goof around while Grandpa finished up some things. And then in typical Gary fashion, he announces at 8:30 pm, "I'm going to go get my hair trimmed, Benaiah, wanna come?" The hairdressers closes at 9. *facepalm* "One more thing" syndrome has attacked again! We all laughed and rolled our eyes because sometimes he just doesn't realize that's what he does. Or how fast he drives. Gary, Leah, and Aaron left at 5am on Saturday to drive down to New Orleans so that Gary and Leah could go on vacation and Aaron could work. Well, I asked what the average speed was of each driver and one was going 78mph and the other one was going 88mph. But, darn it, they will be there for Aaron to be at his church for the first time in 4 weeks at 5:30 central time! Two of the car occupants were also feeling queasy from the ride. Again, that's pretty typical when a certain person drives. We all laugh at these things and it is what we will be talking about forever, especially when they are no longer with us. None of this is new information, by the way, but just a statement of facts. There's a reason why we say Abishai is Gary Jr.

We finished the evening with lots of giggles between the girls and Justin over messenger and Instagram filters. Shauna said her mom likes those but forgot to save the ones that they did during Thanksgiving. She did take a lot of awesome pictures though of her mom and her, of the whole clan, and special moments throughout the day and I'm so glad she did. She's going to be glad she did. It's doubtful that her mom will ever leave the hospital. Her mom is in so much pain. But she did eat a little bit of Thanksgiving food and everyone keeps visiting often. I'm sure if my mom had been in New Hampshire when she was sick, she would have gotten just as many visitors. Our poor moms didn't need to suffer this way, and it's hard to watch, but at the same time, we have both learned to take life moment by moment and enjoy what moments we have. But it's such a hard journey to be on.

On Saturday, we tried to keep things as laid back as possible because our kids have had 3 days in a row of craziness and will have a fairly normal Sunday (except Sunday evening activities) and we'll probably be watching the girls starting Monday. Jared took Abishai with him to get wood from someone on the westside, so once again, I had a nice chunk of time to do some heavy mental work. I choose to prepare our school and social calendars for the next two weeks. I think I can say with certainty that the girls will be around for at least two more weeks, so I've decided to go as low as I can on schoolwork as I'm comfortable with. I know most people would just ditch it altogether and technically I most certainly could! But, I also don't want bored kids and I don't want to get out of the habit of doing school either. So, less school and more Christmas activities like dollar theater movies, going to see Christmas trains and lights, ice skating, roller skating, bowling, etc. The things we would normally spread out over December or do on vacation. And I'm going to do the traditional baking as well. We'll finish our read alouds, but not do anymore of our history curriculum. We will pause on science binders and focus on science kits the girls are dying to do. We'll make gingerbread houses, too. That's my goal: to make this Christmas as "normal" for my kids and make sure the girls are having fun, too. Poor girls are old enough to understand what is going on. So I'm going to make sure we have as much as we can without getting sick of each other.

Then we took Benaiah to work, got groceries, Jared put away the firewood, we prepared the garage for the inversion table and everybody had screentime. I'm working on the blog posts and then some inventory. So, hopefully the 4 major things I wanted to do today will be finished by the end of the day. Yeah!

Gorgeous sunrise this morning!

Good morning, sun!

Rainbows!

Yes! My new creamers came! I'm SO excited for this one! Now I can have my peppermint mochas without any sugar or sweetener! Very low calorie, even when I had a ton of unsweetened vanilla almond milk to my coffee or tea. At this time, I can use either one and it still feels like a real coffee peppermint mocha. In fact, I think I'm starting to prefer tea with cream because I know it will not hurt my stomach. Whereas, the coffee itself gives me a stomachache. Yummy stuff, though!

Benaiah bought a gift for himself. A $300 Nintendo Switch. Another portable gaming device that can also be hooked up to a monitor or TV like the PS4. It's your money, boy. As long as your bills are paid, and you've put something into savings, and you've tithed, do what you want I guess.

Getting the wifi code for his new device!

Creating his new avatar. He had his creepy laugh going, too. He was prancing around the house, too.

You can take the controller part off of the tablet part and then you can also do it so each controller can be for one person. I.e. two people can play a game together.

While Grandpa was picking up the Papa Murphy's pizzas and then Grandma was cooking them, the kids had a grand time wrestling and running around and screaming and giggling. #cousins

Tickle Benaiah!

Uncle Jared holding Justin and Keturah's feet and tickling them. Everly is trying to rescue them.

Now it's Evelry's turn to be tickled! Nora kept to herself mostly.

No! Don't be like Nora! Don't hide your face! He did like having two drinks though! Oh, and Grandma said that she and Grandpa had to bite their tongues a few times because they were getting frustrated with all 5 kids. But only one ornament broke, so that's great!

The girls wrote a thank you note to the crochet club for giving their Nana a prayer shawl.

Benaiah being his derpy self. And that's Grandpa's tree that the kids help fluff and decorate!

Playing an I Spy game.

I made Benaiah go out and help Grandpa with lights. The other kids were running around in the dark and going up and down the driveway on the scooter.

Abishai the supervisor. But Grandpa did pay the kids, including Abishai, for their help. I could see Abishai being a foreman in a construction company someday. Or be an executive in a big company. He's got the spunk and ambition, and he's pretty bossy.

Nora hid in her mom and dad's "room" aka the den, because she was mad that the kids started the dance video before she was ready. She had fallen into the ditch in the front hard and had to take a shower. But when I went in there when we were about to leave to ask Shauna what the plan was for Saturday, the other kids followed and they ended up having fun with "filters" on selfie pictures on Instagram and Facebook. A "filter" is like a layer of something, like adding a hat or sparkles in the air, to your picture. Some are quite funny, too. I'm glad we got to cheer both Nora and Shauna up. Shauna had been crying because I saw her mascara was messed up. She shared some stuff about her mom and siblings, too. I just wish the kids would have left us alone because I could tell she wanted to talk a bit more. It's so hard to loose your parents and to watch them suffer through cancer. It changes you in a dramatic way. For us and the kids it's hard to remember why they are up here from NOLA. It just feels like Christmas vacation to us. But it's not. All we can do is be there for each other.

Abishai loved having the job of putting the cardboard in the car. He came up with standing in the box and dancing around with it, singing.

I messed with some of the boxes, wanting to put them in a bigger box and he said, "That's my rubbish!" Where did he hear the word "rubbish?" Fireman Sam TV show! It's a UK based show! I found it hilarious that he not only used that word, but declared that the boxes were HIS. So possessive!

Playing in the water softener box that we hadn't gotten rid of yet.

Aw, even the doggy joined in.

Abishai had started to roll some toilet paper because he wanted to make a road for his cars. So, I let him have a certain length to play with.

And he played with it a little bit.

Sunday was actually much lighter than normal. There was no evening programming after the 4:30pm service, so we were able to come home, eat, and then put up the Christmas tree as a family! Yeah! Justin went at 9:15 so he could hand out these scratch off cards for Operation Bright Christmas toy drive. His youth leader told him and the others to go to service and then come out a few minutes early so they could had them out. So, he was at church by himself for 1 1/2 hrs. Grandma and Grandpa left yesterday for vacation. But he's 13, he's fine. Keturah didn't go though because she's only 10 and needs to be checked in and checked out of her class. The rest of us went for the 11am service. Benaiah didn't have any responsibilites at church either, which gave him a nice break. It's been odd to walk by the boys' room and see Benaiah still in bed! Keturah stayed at church after service because she had worship team rehearsal after church. We had a light lunch of leftover pizza. I picked up Keturah from church and dropped off the recycling we had loaded the van with yesterday. Then Justin, Keturah and I went back to church for the 4:30 service. I was already filling in for another person in nursery, but Jared didn't want to make the babies sick because he has the cold I had, so Justin went in his place. Keturah was leading worship in Kidustrial Park. Home again after that.

When I say we put up the tree, we fluffed it's branches and put lights on. The kids and I will do ornaments later this week, maybe with Everly and Nora. Christmas decorating has always been in stages for me, well, as far back as I can remember. I just don't have the energy or time to do it all at once. I want to enjoy the process, too. Abishai wanted Benaiah with us when we put the tree up, so tonight was perfect timing. And Benaiah put one ornament on that had been sitting on a shelf nearby all year. Now he can go about his week and not worry about what I need from him. Oh, and the boys quickly mowed the yard in order to mulch the leaves. We aren't as picky as Gary is about the lawn being hurt by leaves, so we just let nature take it's course and break them down over the winter. We don't have as many mature trees either, so there isn't as much. It was in the 50's temperature wise today and yesterday was decently warm, too. Jared got a load of wood from the westside yesterday and split it up so it can "season" over the next year. We've been making fires in the fireplace every 2-3 days. Jared LOVES to do this, no matter how much work it is. I think both he, and Gary (and probably Aaron, too) like to do something with their hands after long days of desk jobs. Sure it can take all day for him to complete a project, but it makes him so happy. I've learned to work around it.

Another weekend is in the books! And it was a quiet one, so we got a lot of stuff done at home, rested up, and are ready to tackle the next week. Right now the week is clear of appointments and activities, but I'm waiting to hear back from Shauna for when we'll have the girls. I might just have to start making plans and telling her when I'm doing what. Nora is needing alone time, so we might split up the girls and have Everly be with us and Nora will go with Shauna to the hospital. It will be quieter, and maybe a little boring, but I think Nora just needs that. Shauna's mom had a ton of visitors last week because of the holiday, but maybe this week will be quieter. Her mom is in a hospice room, so there's a living space nearby where Nora can escape to and be aware from the doctors, nurses, and visitors. I'm just glad that Shauna (and Aaron) and I (and Jared) know and recognize our own personality traits and needs as well as our children's so we keep everyone as mentally and emotionally healthy as we can. So, we'll see what the week brings!

Abishai said he wanted to be behind the bush like Justin is behind the bush in Fortnite. (He asked me to type that, too!) So cute!

Helping to fluff the top of our new to us full size skinny Christmas tree!

Abishai insisted on helping! He said he was in charge of the lights and started taking them out of the box and "organizing" them.

Justin was dancing around with the tree branches like he was an air traffic controller.

The teenager "participated" by being present and playing with Abishai, who loves going upside down.

We probably shouldn't have had a fire going because it was SO HOT in there, but it added a nice ambiance. Jared uses any and all excuses to start a fire, though. I do love that we have one and use it regularly! And it's not gas fireplace!

Fluffing and putting together the tree! My siblings and I always helped our Dad with that part, and our kids help Jared with it. Then he puts on the lights. We put ornaments on another day. I think Nora was shocked when she came over the next day and saw no ornaments! I told her that we decorate for Christmas in stages, unlike Grandpa. I can only physically handle so much per day, plus I just like to take my time. It's only the 2nd year of decorating this house, so I'm still unsure about certain things.

Light strings on the floor, as usual! The kids used to play with them as we put them up when they were babies.

Fluffing away.

Come on, Benaiah, this is how you do it.

"Ok, fine, I'll do one so you'll have a picture." It was Abishai who wanted to wait until Benaiah was around to put up the tree. I said to Jared afterwards, it's almost not worth waiting until Benaiah is available because he's got his "I can't stand my family" teenager attitude. Breaks my heart, but we often have just as much fun with only 5 of us. Of course, I won't really give up on finishing out the next 2-3 years of being the 6 of us, but I'm starting to realize this "pulling away from family" happens whether or not I want it to and it's an ok thing. I'm not going to say it's a good thing because family is sometimes all you have in the end. Family is the most important earthly relationships you can have. And I will always make room and opportunities for that to happen. They will thank me later.

Jared decided to put lights on as the tree was put together. The bottom ended up with most of the lights, whoops!

Yes, we actually do have 4 kids. It's hard to tell sometimes because we are so scattered doing our own things.

Giggling time.

Socks is always in the middle of everything!

"I'm not too big for the couch!"

There's always time for boys to wrestle!

Keturah spinning a story of some kind as she fluffs a branch.

Kind of looks like the Grinch, doesn't it?

I want to help, too!

Abishai the policeman with his speed gun!

I'm not too big for the couch (take 2!) Justin is just at my height now and will surpass it soon.

Tree with lights is done! It's in great shape, too!

"Ok, Mom, I'll put one ornament on today so you an get your picture." Thanks, kid. At least he'll do it for me.

Did you know that the three wisemen drove to see Jesus in the manger (or really when he was a year or two old)?

Foggy morning.

Nearly 60 degrees F on Sunday, barely 25 degrees on Tuesday when I type this with 2-3 inches of snow on the ground.

Grandpa rakes his leaves. We mow them. He does have a ton more leaves than we do. We just let nature takes it's course. At least it didn't take very long to mow this time.