Year 3, December 26th-28th, 2018: Staycation!!

Now, what have we done all week?  Just about nothing, but everything! I think we've all been very happy and fulfilled not going anywhere and not being on someone else's schedule.  We got to play with all our new toys, relax and read, catch up on business and blogs, (well, that's what I did), and just simply relax.  And it's felt...so...nice...  Calm, and peaceful.  Just us.  No schedule.  Ahhh....Actually, it's felt like a perpetual Saturday because Daddy's home all day every day!  I truly have to think about what day it is for at least a minute to figure out what's next on the agenda.  Keturah and I did tackle her room, saving a couple of self contained major organization projects for other Saturdays.  But the misc. stuff it sorted and taken care of.  Benaiah did have to work this week, which is fine.  And he went on an overnight "playdate" with Ethan.  Yeah!  I had a massage as part of my post Christmas self care and part Christmas gift (she had sent a 40% off coupon in the mail, yeah!)  And that was lovely but of course it leaves me a tad sore, too.  And now we are eating our way through the Christmas sugar, not being too stingy because the sooner it's gone, the sooner the counter gets cleaned off and they don't beg for it.  Speaking of begging, the hardest part this week is trying to keep them all off the electronics, which they beg for as soon as they wake up.  It grates on my nerves, especially after I've said no.  But it's hard when it's been rainy and cold this week so you can't go outside.  We have managed to have more meals together, too, well, the 5 of us anyway.

I also realized that we have never, ever had a week to 10 days like this! When we've had vacation time, we've always gone somewhere or spent it doing things with family, if Aaron and Shauna come up for Christmas.  We've never just been at home for 10 days straight with barely anything on the social calendar.  And it's been the most rewarding, calm, joy filled, heart filling experience I've ever had.  Yes, Benaiah has been gone some for work, but he's gone so much, that it's hard for him to fit into the daily family routine anymore sad to say. And Jared and I ebb and flow between doing the projects we want, and taking care of the fights, potty accidents, little 4 yr olds getting out snacks, etc. that Benaiah doesn't understand that.  That's hard to think about.  But anyway, we've had so much time to work on what we wanted to work on, and still have time to actually breathe and play and eat decently.  It's so refreshing!  I wish we could have staycations like this one more often!  I love having another adult to take care of Abishai so I can actually accomplish things! Yeah!

Videos for December 26th-28th, 2018

Look at all those bags!  12 bags in all!  And I insisted on having some fun this year, so I helped each kid with a part of their new Lego set.  Daddy helped Abishai the most on the fire station, and he has the most patience showing Abishai how to do it.  I just want it done, and done quickly, so I made the water truck with ladder all by myself.  I like how they split up the Legos into bags so you don't have to sift through so many pieces for each steps, especially with the biggest sets.  Which, these are pretty much the biggest sets.  The next step up is the $200-$500 range like the Millennium Falcon, Disney castle, and Howarts Harry Potter castle.  We ARE master builders and collectors and if we took away every other toy, our kids would want just Legos.

Finishing up his Porg before starting in on the rocket.

It also takes 5 booklets to build the fire station!

Pencil bouquet and real flowers from Jared like last year because he didn't buy me anything else, per my request.

Justin sporting his new favorite t-shirt and pj pants, which of course make him too hot in bed.  The clothes look so big on him!  And yet, they will last him through college I hope!  I purposefully got size Adult Medium thinking that he's built like Uncle Aaron and Uncle P-M and that's what they wear.  We started doing this with Benaiah at this age, buying things that will last more than a year.  Benaiah needed bigger socks, so we just gave him Jared's leftovers, which were huge at the time, but they've still lasted 4 more years and have finally been replaced by new socks this year.

It's a Reese's peanut butter tree!

Benaiah's grocery haul for his playdate with Ethan tonight.  And yes, they did eat and drink almost all of this!  Oreos, chips, goldfish, monster energy drinks, etc.

Nearly finished! (check out other pictures of it being built below)  It's 39 inches tall, taller than Abishai!

It came with stands so you can lay down as well.  So cool!

Check out those details!  It also has the lunar module and bouy module that the astronauts came down to earth on.  I helped make the lunar module.

Keturah can put the stickers on her own Lego sets now!  She doesn't need any help at all!

She wanted me to take pictures of her progress, and I did it for Justin, too, so those pictures are below.  I helped her on her set towards the end.

Here he goes!

Another set with 12 bags!  Lots of inside pieces with different colors (not authentic color) to show where things go.  At one point, he actually got frustrated and spent 10 minutes on one step!  All told, it took 5 hrs to build!  Wow!

The rocket was built in stages like the stages it comes apart when launching, and then assembled.  You can take apart the stages again, but it's not recommended.  The lunar module fits in the very top, though, so it's fun to play with that.  It also came with 4 MICRO figures, not mini figures, very special pieces that aren't widely used in other sets.

It's a pool with a springy diving board, changing room/bathroom complete with toilet paper icon and sink, showers, etc.

A swim up bar, hot tub, lifeguard station, fish tank, lockers, everything you need at a water park!

A whole bag of just one kind of piece, 20 or so grate pieces!

Stage 1 complete!

Stage 2.

Wow, it's so tall!  The tallest set we own!  And we did see this one in the store this summer, too, so Benaiah recognized it.

Several stages of building for this guy and Daddy.  I think they did it over 3 days because Abishai's attention span was too short.

Vacation days for the big one, finally!  Or was this when he came home from Ethan's and took a nap?!  He did that a couple of times this week.

Always more video games on stay cations!

Building, one piece at a time.

Precious hands.

All done!  Now let's bring in all our big sets and play together!  Someday, when I clean out more stuff, I'd love to make the garage into an all Lego room with tables and set up all the sets into a city.

What an incredible set complete with garage doors that roll up and down AND a fire pole that the minifigures can slide down on by holding onto a handle piece.

Chase has made himself comfortable at our house.

Air fryer time.

We needed to presoak the potatoes, and maybe use a bit less oil, (which you use with fries like this), but in less than 30 minutes we did end up with some crispy fries and potato chips with no preservatives!

There's a fire on the punching bag!  We remade Abishai's fire truck and helicopter carrier he got this summer on vacation and added them to his set up.

Epic!

Keturah got everything set up for her spin art which we will tackle soon.  I like how she has a nice display going here.

Whenever Keturah has drawn or colored something nice, she wants to give it away.  And Jenna, her Sunday School leader at the 11am service was the lucky recipient this time.

And being the better homemaker I am now, instead of being selfish and keeping this item from almost 4 years ago, I took pictures of it and let it go to a new home.

Lots of pretty stuff for Jenna!

These words are very precious to us!  Keturah doesn't usually share what's on her heart, but to see how she feels about this other young person is special.

You never know the impact you will have on someone else, especially those younger than you or in a younger stage of life than you.  I'm so grateful for all the other adults and young people our kids are loved on by and mentored by.  It takes a village, and that village isn't the government, it's your local church body or community that you identify with, like your neighborhood.  Be a mentor, and make sure there are other adults that your kids are being positively influenced by.  You are going to need it as they get older when they won't listen to your reason, but they will to someone else's!  Trust me!  Precious, precious words here on this envelope!