Year 4, January 19th-24th, 2019: Another Stormy Weekend/Week

Another weekend, another storm.  This time, it was mostly rainy, some ice, and a little bit of snow.  And a whole lot of colder temperatures!  We are talking about single digits and then negative double digits windchills.  Saturday was mostly the precipitation piece, and then the cold temps came on the backside of the storm, which dumped 2 ft or more on the east coast.  It was also another storm front that reached from Michigan to the Louisiana.  We were able to make it to Keturah's basketball game and pick up Benaiah before the rain turned over to snow.  All was fine until Sunday morning when Jared had to take Benaiah over to the Shelby St. campus.  The temps had dropped and the car was covered in ice.  The roads were ok though.  I was mostly worried about the temps and a lot of the churches canceled their services.  But of course, Indian Creek didn't. Everyone went about their usual Sunday, except for me.  I stayed home for personal reasons including being exhuasted and not wanting to make it worse by being in the cold.  I CAN bundle up and go, but then all the layers of clothing and the tightness of them wears on me mentally, and on Sunday, I just couldn't push through that.  I was afraid of triggering more pain.  So, I stayed home, listened to my Bible and napped.  Quickly: the point of going TO church is twofold, one being social time with other believers which is usually encouraging and the other being there to worship God in a corporate setting.  You can worship God anywhere, of course.  And you can be with other believers in all kinds of ways as well.  Going to church doesn't save you, and for us legalists, we need to remember that.  It's ok to care of your physical and mental needs, too.  And it also has to do with us introverts (especially those of us with anxiety and moodiness), that I stayed home.  I've forced myself to go to church when I don't want to.  And sometimes I feel better afterwards, and sometimes I feel worse (no, it's not the Holy Spirit convicting me on a tough subject, it's a social thing).  It's all about knowing yourself well and your relationship with God.  So don't feel guilty.  But don't make it a habit or excuse either.

Moving on.  I'm not sure how many days that I will include in this post because it's now Thursday, the 24th, 5 days after I started the post.  It's been a rough week again, and I didn't take many pictures and videos.  My iCloud is also full.  And I haven't done much on Instagram either, so there's no fun pictures from that.  School has taken up my whole day and evening this week.  We didn't have activities on Monday because it was too cold.  In fact, I don't think I left the house until I took Justin to Bible Bowl and Keturah to basketball practice on Wednesday evening.  Thursday we also stayed inside and at home all day.  Friday we plan to join some other homeschoolers and go ice skating instead of to the gym.

Part of the roughness is just keeping everyone on task.  That means making ourselves get up at 8, starting school at 9, eating lunch at 12, doing together work at 1-3pm and THEN I get to work on the blog, pictures, business, taxes, other projects like planning a birthday party, etc.  Well, on Tuesday, I didn't finish with Keturah until 10pm because she dragged her feet all day and I had a piano lesson to teach in the evening.  That meant that on Wednesday she was tired and while doing her schoolwork in her bed, she fell asleep for probably an hour!  Not good.  So on Thursday, I made her sit at the dinning room table and timed her assignments, saying if she kept each subjects under 30 minutes, she could earn $0.10 a subject per day.  Well, wouldn't you know that most subjects took 10-15 minutes! Crazy how we waste time when we aren't focused.  And I'm definitely one of those!  I need my to do list in front of me to get it done.

Our Week, in video snapshots

Keturah was in the starting line up! She played the first 2 quarters I think and then the last 30 seconds of the last quarter.

The coaches had worked with her on how to guard the other players when she's on defense and it really showed.  She kept her hands up and stuck with her assigned player better.  She even touched the ball once!

Keturah still won't put her hair up, and the coaches don't care.

When you have to try and sit still for 45 minutes for your sister's basketball game...well, you can't!

We all got to go to the game, except for Benaiah who was at work.  Yeah!

Playing with Daddy's scratchies.

Yes, Abishai did take off his socks and shoes.  And then he used Daddy's leg like a bridge to get to the handle.

Post game conference.

They won!

The rain first melted what was left of the snow and then it started to snow again.  But we didn't have enough accumulation to do anything with it.

Blech.

Abishai was playing with his hash browns that were made in the air fryer in the hummus!  Eek!  He made a nice pattern though.

I have enough monkeys around here, I don't need this one hanging from my ceiling!

There's one of my monkeys!

Preschooler butt! Just snoozing away!

The little snow we did get blew around like crazy!  And then the temperatures dropped 20 degrees or more.

Just like Charlottetown, we couldn't open the door without the snow coming inside!

We only let Socks out for a couple of minutes at a time.  It was that cold.

Wet hair, washed with Monat shmpoo, let to dry for a bit, and then put it all up in a flexi clip and this is what you get! A little wave action!

Maybe this is the temperature that the sunroom was this morning, but my bedroom isn't much warmer.  The house thermostat is set on 72.  Why the discrepancy?  Leaky windows, cold crawlspace so the heat coming out the vents cools before it reaches the bedrooms, I don't know.  But it's definitely a temperature difference between the kitchen and the ends of the house!

He looks so much bigger in his plaid shirt!  Like a 4 yr old should look!

Almost 4 years old!

Abishai was playing with Justin on a racing game called Rocket League and Benaiah was doing his normal thing.  Jared filled in for me at church in the nursery and then they called off youth group and d-groups so no one else had to go out on Sunday night.

My biggest pet peeve is when toys are pushed in front of the bookshelves!  There's so many age approprite picture books on this shelf!  Keturah read a lot of them in Charlottetown at this age because they were on the shelf right outside her bedroom door.So I pulled some out for Abishai, including an original Incredibles movie book with sounds.  I had to get new batteries for it, but they've played with it all week.  That book is 10 or so years old!  And there's lots and lots of older books on the shelf, too.

In the cold weather, Benaiah ordered food to be delivered! He says the cost of delivery was only $1 through UberEats, but still.  This is the way to end up broke!

At least he ordered sliders for his siblings and father.   This is all from Arby's.  Thanks Benaiah!

The dog even begged from Benaiah's special treats!  And Abishai used cutie eyes to get a bite of a fried mozzarella stick.

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so Benaiah didn't have school.  That means he got to sleep in and then get attacked by the other boys!

Afternoon fun making a fort.

Storm chips!

They made a big old nest of soft things to play in.

We finally had time to decorate our ugly sweater cookies!  Yeah!  Abishai did a great job!

Concentrated faces.  Keturah designed her sweater while the boys had the icing.

Keturah definitely tried to make more intricate designs than the boys.

Moon before the eclipse.

Keturah being very precise.  That plate was mine as a kid, fyi.

Justin's cookie is named "chaos."

Spreading the icing making it ready for sprinkles.

Perfectly placed sprinkles.I don't know why, but her face here reminds me of my Aunt Katie.

Baby fingers putting sprinkles on.  He didn't eat too many either!

Abishai's cookies.

Justin's sweater cookie.

Keturah's cookies.

The kids gave up, so I gave it a try. . Here's my first two.

And my second two!  I don't do it often, but I know how to make icing from scratch and use a piping bag.

They kids went to Grandma's house for lunch on Sunday and made this pillow fort/train.

Lunar eclipse Sunday night around midnight.

Don't get me started on the football nonsense.  Not every Patriot is a cheater.  Give them a break.  They are going to the Super Bowl!

I don't know why he insists on playing on the countertop, but he had fun!

Well that's a unique place to be to watch your TV shows.

Justin's idea.....see what the item is that Benaiah ordered below...

Sad little snowman.  Justin dug up the mittens and brought them and the hat inside.  Better than them ending up in the mud.

Do you have enough pink stuff, Keturah?  Wow!  And then she had a bunch of pie, too!  This was on Monday, when it was still pretty cold.  Uncle Ron and Aunt Nina were spending the night at Grandpa's house on their way down to Florida for a few weeks.

He likes peppermint ice cream!  Good to the last drop!  And he has an old key on his lanyard that he thinks he'll open up our front door with when we went back home.  He's gotta feel important somehow.

These two played a long game of "A Christmas Story" monopoly and Keturah won by $300! The Johnsons don't own any other Monopolies like we do because they don't like it.  I worked on Grandma's puzzle while we talked with Uncle Ron and Aunt Nina.

Normal scenario.  Still in pj's, playing cars at Grandma's house.

Game fuel? It's hyped up Mountain Dew!  Yikes!

His very own case of caffeine!  A little over $1 a can instead of $2.50 at the gas station.

Washed my hair again, and this is my natural look.  Straight, long, and definitely brown.

Abishai hid in 3 different places today.  Here's one of them!

Listening to one of this new favorite song making machines.  It's from a Hello Kitty book and plays lots of older nursery rhymes and ditties.  For more pictures of Abishai hiding from us, read the next blog post....

Pictures continue on next blog post.