Year 3, October 27th-29th, 2018: Average American Weekend

Phew, this weekend is over!  Next weekend isn't any better.  I was at Benaiah's school for the Cornpalooza community/fundraising event selling Lilla Rose.  That left Jared in charge of getting Keturah to her basketball clinic so the coaches could assess the kids' abilities and select fair teams.  He also had to handle Justin and Abishai.  He then handled lunch, took Benaiah to work, and came to pick me up from Benaiah's school.  We then decided to drive a bit further west to the airport to see if we could see Air Force One.  President Trump was in town making a speech at the national Future Farmers of America conference.  I actually listened live to part of his speech, and to be honest, his speech was very redundant and he could have condensed it into 2 minutes.  This is why I listen to soundbites and read news articles after the fact.  I still promote respecting the office of the President regardless of who is in the chair, but as far as making speeches go, Trump isn't the best.  Some of his policies are ok, some are not.  It's politics, folks, and no one is 100% right.  Speaking of, I never got the address on my voter registration changed, so I'm unable to vote in the mid term election and I'm super bummed.  I made sure to apply for the address change for next time.  Jared had his changed when he renewed the vehicle registration.  Oh well, that's one less thing on my to do list.  But most definitely next time.

The Cornpalooza was fun, although it was a bit on the cool side and they didn't have the crowds that they were hoping for.  I forgot my big table, but had some smaller tables and stacked a couple of boxes and made do for my display.  I was bold and changed up my approach and had fun. I actually sold 6 flexi clips!  That's a new record! I had some great conversations with friends, too, including a former homeschooler.  I met one of the senior girls who had invited Benaiah to her house along with many other friends this Wednesday night, Halloween.  She seemed really nice.  There was a corn hold tournament, music, dancing, live animals, lots and lot of crafters (oh how I love crafters!) It was a great event!

Then we came home and just chilled out.  Jared made another bonfire with a rotten wood and boy did it burn hot and huge!  I'm surprised the fire department wasn't called!  I was afraid the fire would reach the shed, too.  In fact, today, 18 hrs later, we came home from church and we could smell the smoke still coming from the smoldering logs.  Whoops!  We had no idea the fire was still going.  I mean it was just hot coals, and the wind was very feisty at 45 mph, but still, kind of scary to think we didn't check on it before we left.  Meanwhile, the kids and I chopped vegetables for ham and potato soup/stew (not creamy because I don't do dairy).  I had never added ham to a stew, so I was unsure how it would turn out.  It was ok.  I let it simmer in the crockpot overnight so it was ready for lunch the next day.

However, Sunday got a bit jumbled.  Leah took Keturah and Justin to church to do their thing.  Then at 9am, Matt, the tech guy at church, texts Benaiah and asks him if he could hurry on in to help out.  Apparently Grandpa Gary wanted to use a bunch of signs on stage during the 40 minute (way over the time allotment) and they needed more hands.  In fact, Matt came and picked up Benaiah less than 20 minutes later!  Benaiah took the fastest shower I have ever heard of, too.  See, child, you CAN hustle!  I'm glad he was able to help, though.  Otherwise, he hadn't been scheduled for anything.  Meanwhile, he was supposed to go with Jared, Abishai, and I to a sister church, Mt. Gilead Christian Church, who was having their grand opening of their brand new sanctuary. It's a 40 minute drive from our house, but it was neat to be part of that event.  The pastor there is good friends with both Gary and Jared.  The service was like every other megachurch service, although I did take notes of some differences.  But attending there today also got my head spinning again on Restoration Movement history because this church is nearly as old as the movement itself, i.e. 183 years old!  How come there are some churches that old in the movement, and then a 40 minute drive away, a different set of churches is less than 50 years away?  Was there a waxing and waning of church planting?  I really should read some books or take a class on it.  It's so fascinating because you don't really talk much about church history ever, but especially in regular US history class except for a brief mentioning of the Great Awakenings.  To think that while the Civil War, the World Wars, etc were going on, these churches were being planted.  Mt. Gilead's attendance is around 1200-1500, and yet, it's been there for more than 4x the years the Creek has been and it's attendance is around 4500.  Granted the area that Mt. Gilead is in has seen some growth but not as much as Franklin Township and that makes a big difference in demographics.  It also sparked a conversation with Jared about minorities in our church, why we don't call ourselves a denomination, why can't we have a simple church for a simple gospel, etc.  I want to know so much more!  Ah!

Then we drove back home, while Benaiah stayed at church with tech people and Justin went home with Gary and Leah for a "Welcome to the Creek" luncheon where new visitors/members come and ask questions and are introduced to a couple of staff members, etc.  Keturah had to stay at church until 2 pm for Kidustrial Park worship team rehearsal.  Jared picked her up and brought her home.  Then only Jared had to go back at 4 with the rest of us following at 5:30.  Sort of normal night except there was a live llama for the high school "prom" night with Napoleon Dynamite dance/movie and Justin's middle school group watched Incredibles 2.  Meanwhile, Jared took Abishai home.  Keturah went to choir rehearsal and I held our monthly homeschooling meeting, where we talked about how playgroups/co ops are structured or not.  Then we all came home and ended the day.

It's been a great two days filled with great conversations.  I needed that.  And I think going back on Zoloft, even at half of what I was taking before, has made a huge difference in my attitude.  PMS didn't hit so hard this time around.  I felt more in control of my emotions.  Sometimes, you just need the medication.  No regrets or guilt or shame in taking anti depressants.  But now I'm socially exhausted.  Time to rest up on Monday and then go hiking at a local park on Tuesday.  Pretty normal week!

Monday was uneventful as far as I can remember.  With it staying darker longer in the mornings (time change is this next weekend), it's been very hard to get up before 9.  So, we start our days too late and then feel the rush to get done.  I had back to back appointments again, weekly counseling at 4pm, and then a chair massage at Transformations Salon and Spa where I used a gift certificate.  I met a great massage therapist who used an "emotional release" technique on me (painful!) and was overall a big strong, which is fine, but I've been sore for the last couple of days, too (I'm a bit behind on writing up blog posts).  I got home after supper time, which is fine, and it differently put me in a better mood because I had some "me" time.  The regular Monday appointment is working out well because of pairing it with other random appointments so I'm only out once.  And if all of them are later in the day, then I can still a good day's worth of school in, which I needed to do this week because we are going leaf peeping again tomorrow, yeah!

Uh, this was NOT my original design for a set up, but it worked!  A little too low below eye level, but people didn't see to mind.  Hidden beneath the Lilla Rose table cloth is a small rubbermaid tub on top of my rolling cart!  The booth felt a lot less cluttered breaking it up this way.  I stretched myself to think outside the box when my big table got left behind and it worked!

Meanwhile at basketball clinic, Abishai had a hard time sitting still but at least he had some friends with him.  He has been way into carrying a friend around with him like having BB-8 eat lunch with him.  He's always had something around, but he's more into right now.

Keturah is out there somewhere with the rest of the 5th grade girls.  She said she did ok with some things and not so good with other things.  I didn't think to ask if Jared remembered this old gym or not. It was the middle school when he was in 6-8 grade, ahem, 29 years ago.  Oh...my...word...just doing the math on that makes me realize just how old we are now.  And yet my memories from those years are pretty strong and I feel like they were yesterday.  Eek!

Back at the school, all of Benaiah's friends were having fun line dancing and playing corn hole.

And further west at the airport, this famous plane had landed, say what?!  Air Force One was in town!  We tried to go see it but couldn't find it.  We did see some extra police cars on the high way near a bridge that took you to the old airport terminal.  That was interesting.

Why yes, Mr. President was in town for a Future Farmers of America national conference downtown, how about that!!!  I sat listening to his speech for a few minutes while waiting on Jared to get some things in Lowe's.  Well, no, this guy is NOT the best speech maker and what he said could have been summed up in just a few words/sentences.  And he was as vague as the day is long.  It's a good thing that there are literally 100's of other elected officials government plus all their secretaries and employees running this country.  This is still a democratic nation and we still have some freedoms.  The office of the President does NOT have all the power, so why do we think it's all about him?  I don't know.  Just pray for him and for our country that he and the 100's of other elected officials make wise choices.

I so wish this tree belonged to us!  It's so gorgeous and sits on our neighbors' property next to the driveway.

One of our baby trees.

Keturah got a new Rainbow Dash My Little Pony hat today!  And some doll clothes and I got some fun soap to try, as well as a baby gift.  But, some mail also came for Keturah.

The next book in the Thoroughbred series that I read as a kid and she is now reading.  The rest of the series is on her list for Christmas.  eBay is going to be my best place to find the rest because they are sort of out of print and the library doesn't have them.

After a long day of activties, it's time to just watch a fire burn.  And boy did this fire born HOT.

Abishai is in a "don't take my picture" phase.  And, yes, it's 50 degrees and he has no shoes on, he's in shorts, and I think he has two shirts on, plus Keturah's new hat.  Silly boy.

Yes, even I had to stand that far away because the fire was so hot!  The dog was careful to avoid it, as well as the kids, who were on the trampoline most of the 1-2 hrs we were outside.  Jared let it burn late into he evening as well.

Brothers wrestling.  It will be a sad day when the trampoline comes down in the next couple of weeks.

Always a blur when they are jumping!

30 minutes after the above pictures and the fire has died down significantly.

Wow,!  Cool patterns from the ashes and charred logs!  It was pretty memorizing to watch.  I was going to go read a book, but I'm glad I just stood still and watched.

This was totally unexpected.  Because of the angle of the newly added panels, the flames starting shooting out the other side.  So interesting/cool/awesome!

Crazy Abishai wearing Justin's sweatshirt and pretending to be a monster.

Turning to ash now.

Fire Videos Playlist Oct 27th, 2018

Update: this is Justin's permanent scar from the pins for his broken arm.  The area is still a bit sensitive to the touch, but that's normal. 

There's that gorgeous tree in the neighbor's yard again!

Running through some leaves that had blown themselves into a pile on our driveway.

We attended Mt. Pleasant Christian Church and Abishai was still tired from the day before so he had Daddy carry him.  Daddy loves carrying him! 

Abishai was so tired that he put himself to bed and locked the door on us so no one would disturb him!  Sigh! We have this penny hidden on top of the old style thermostat for just these kinds of occasions.  He LOVES locking all the doors.  We have an open door policy though.

Little self soothing, self regulating booger!  Night-night!

Super, super windy up to 45mph winds!

The last ashes of the fire.  It was still smoldering when we got home from church and we had forgotten to check on it.  We came home and said, "what's that smell?"  Oh, the fire!  Thankfully, it died down most of the way.

Wait, there was a fire here last night?

BABY SHARK!!!!!!  Oh that silly, silly song that everyone loves!  The high schoolers had a special movie night so they brought out all the fun heads again for a photo booth.  We borrowed this one for a second as we were passing through because, why not?  So fun!

Then we saw Jasmine as a dinosaur because the middle schoolers were also dressing up (it's the Sunday before Halloween).  Abisahi was scared of this one.

Today's outfit brought to you by thrift shopping.  I wore my new tall brown boots as well.  I don't think it looked too shabby!  I felt confident in it at least.

YES!  I REAL LIVE LLAMA IN THE CHURCH BUILDING!  Have you ever seen a youth group have so much fun?! First they had a live donkey at Christmas last year.  Now, they had a real live llama (apparently there's a llama in the movie they watched) in the hallway.  Sigh.  Her owner, Holly Bruce, homeschooled student, now college student (I think she's still going for veterinary school) said that she's very, very friendly and doesn't spit.  The llama is a little skittish and only lets you rub her neck.  Sweet though!

Oh Abishai and his stories!  So, the police car caught the bad car and put him in jail.  Yes, Abishai put the chain around the Monster energy drink car to indicate it was in jail.  And then he put the police car next to it to make sure the bad guy stayed in jail.  Oh this kid and his creative mind!

Mrs. Land is such a fun math teacher!  She teaches well, and then for fun, look at what Benaiah had to do! He had to do a color by number based on the answers to the math problem!  I sent this picture to Mrs. Land and she said that most of the boys only color the spaces in a little bit to indicate that they found the right answer, so she commending Benaiah for doing a great job.  I love that I can talk to some of his teachers like this and encourage them in their job.  Teaching is not easy and we have some of the best teachers around.  Some of the teachers are harder to get along with, but that's ok, that's real life.  For all the years Benaiah gave me push back on artwork....he willingly does it for Mrs. Land.  Ha! And he does a decent job.  You're welcome child for teaching you something!

Hm, I hadn't done laundry for a bit so I had two very full loads to do.  1/3 of the laundry was Benaiah's thanks to his bigger clothes, especially his hoodies and 1/3 of the laundry was Keturah because she stockpiles them all over her room before putting them in the wash (I can't wait until Christmas break so I can tear about her room!) The other 1/3 is the rest of us.  So, um, something doesn't sound right there.  We don't put outer clothes in the wash unless they are stinky or obviously dirty, so we'll wear 1 pair of jeans all week and a shirt 2-3 times before washing it.  That way it saves wear and tear on the clothes and the laundry machines (and my time).  5-6 loads of laundry a week, not including towels and sheets.  For 6 people, that's not too bad.

Super warm on Tuesday!  Perfect for a hike in Eagle Creek Park!

I finally let him give this one up.  It's an older high school level book and he's been working on it for weeks.  There's plenty of easier books to read where he'll get a better understanding of Roman times.  It's time to move on.  But he made a ton of effort when I pleaded with him.  Onward to new and more fun things!