Year 4, April 6th-7th, 2019: And So It Begins...

The first weekend of extra activities and extra guests has begun!  Justin had Bible Bowl today, and it's the last one that Jared and I could watch, so we took turns being with him.  He has one more competition, but we will be at the John Crist show next month.  And then his Bible Bowl career is over.  We mutually agreed with him that it isn't worth it anymore.  He doesn't contribute much to the team, and high school small groups typically meet on Wednesdays, which are the same night as Bible Bowl practice, and even one Saturday out of the month can create scheduling difficulties.  Never mind the time spent studying, which is fine, but let's study the Bible for it's themes, not for the infinite details for a quizzing game.  And, unfortunately, a couple of his teammates really get on his and our nerves.  He sat between them today and by the end of the day, he wasn't feeling well and was done being with people.  He ended up staying home while the rest of us and our guests went out to eat.  He's liked most of the players and has learned a lot, but it's time to move on.  They were in division 1 today and won a couple of games, and came close to winning a couple more.  It's bittersweet to be leaving Bible Bowl.

Meanwhile Keturah and Abishai spent the day with Grandma and Grandmpa, and our guests, Uncle Willy, Aunt Donna and Baby Josephine.  Josephine is 2 1/2 and bigger than Abishai.  She didn't take a nap and after a 5 hr car ride from Michigan and lots of outside playtime, she was wiped by the time we saw her this afternoon.  Abishai, too, was wiped and has yawned several times but refuses to go to bed before the sun goes down.  I think he missed playing with his own toys today.  Benaiah got up in time to go over to Grandparents' house to spend a few minutes with our guests before Jared took him to work.  And then, we ended up at his work for dinner.  Why? Because Donna, Willy, and JoJo don't have a CFA in their town in Michigan.  Ok, then.  Benaiah was on fry duty and Willy said it was the best CFA fries he's ever had! Lol! Then Abishai got a special sword balloon because it was a Saturday night thing I guess.  I just want to type but kids won't go to bed yet and it's very distracting.  Ugh! But at least I got my favorite CFA chicken and fries, and a diet lemonade (it's too late for diet dr. Pepper, lol.  And I brought home my favorite sauce of all time roasted bbq honey mustard.  Yum!

Benaiah is oblivious to the chaos around him.  None of the boys care about the messiness of their room, which is primarily all about sleeping anyway.  Some of the Legos and Justin's special ones for sure are kept there.

Little brothers making up stories.

Sleeping like an angel?

Having lunch with the Bible Bowlers.  Lunch is in the kids' main room at a church, thus the house looking thing backstage.  The young lady's face actually matched her attitude that day.  Justin ate 1/4 of the pizza and Jared ate the rest!  Sheesh!  I let them get pizza as a special "last competition" treat.  The Bible Bowlers have teamed up with a local pizza place and lets the teams order the morning of competition.

Handing out candy treats between games.

Ready to go!  Since he was in division 1, we were in a much warmer set of classrooms I hadn't seen before.  Yeah!

Justin apparently made friends on other teams this year, yeah!  That is one of the goals of Bible Bowl.

Two sibling pairs I know up there, well, actually, 3 Henry's and 2 Broshears.  This is for the top 20 score on the test.

Better than last month.

Go home and rest your brains, because on Wednesday, we are going over the whole text!

Grandma stood in line with Abishai at CFA to get him this gigantic sword!  He was so happy about it!

A mallard duck just hanging out on our roof!

Oh man, I'm feeling like crap.  Not a great diet or sleep pattern, too much social, not enough rest in between, I'm beat!  We had a really hard time getting up this morning.  My brain feels like mush.  I know I need to declutter the house from toys scattered everywhere, and rotate them out of the shed, but it seems too physically and mentally challenging.  And this week is another full week, too.  I'm already over it and the month is only 1/4 done.  Sigh.  I'll just have to let things slide again.  I need t go catch up with my iCloud and WinterJam playlist and just don't want to.  But tomorrow is another day, and I'm going to try to get to bed on time.

Meanwhile, it was a warm, but cloudy day, filled with overtired preschoolers.  Josephine and Abishai would not go to their respective classroms at church today.  Abishai hadn't had much "mommy and daddy snuggle time" on Saturday and then didn't get any this morning, so he was desperate for it.  He refused to go into his classroom.  So, he sat between us for the song portion of the service, even putting his hands behind our backs, just to feel us all together.  He got to see Grandpa go up on stage for the sermon and then Jared took him to his classroom, where he stayed for the rest of the service.  It's amazing how important human touch is, especially to younger children.  But not everyone wants it either.  Keturah is going through that phase of not wanting to be touched.  And we do get sucked into Abishai's cuteness and the "last baby" syndrome and just crack up and pout and let him get away with far too much.

But the kids played outside a bit, we had a wonderful Sunday dinner and time with Uncle Willy and Aunt Donna, and then we all parted ways when it was time for us to go back to church for the nightly routine.  I did get to hold a two month old little girl tonight though.  That was awesome! And then see Pastor's Dan baby Hudson, which everyone fights over to hold.  So I always just stand there and say "awww" and today I touched his hair for the first time.  He's 4 months old.  I know what it's like to have people want to touch your baby.  I'm ok if I don't get a chance to hold him, but again, human touch, and I've been dying to touch his crazy hair.  Dan and Keren are great about it, although Dan prefers to hold him most of the time, which is the same way Jared was with the kids.  It's sweet and understandable.

But now I just want to veg out and not "work" on anything.  Sigh.  Some nights are like that.  It means I need some mental rest.  And that's ok.  We'll see what I actually get done.  Good night.

Somebody didn't want to go to Sunday School class today because he didn't have enough Mommy and Daddy touch time.  And Mommy and Daddy are suckers and let him stay with us.  He did go to class after he saw Grandpa on stage, which, come to think of it, he won't see most likely any time soon.  So maybe that was a good thing.

3rd to last sermon.  And I noticed that I couldn't see the words on the screen as clearly (obviously they are blurred here because we are on the back row and I took this with my phnoe).  I think I am need of an eye check up.  It was very warm back there and I heard a bunch of reverb at some point in the sermon.  It definitely feels too far away.

I don't think I had gotten the room cards for 1st grade since I don't have a 1st grader, so here it is.  Looking great!

Jojo: You sit here.  She's quite bossy, and come to find out, just like her Mommy.

Just some girls hanging out at Grandpa's house waiting for Benaiah and Jared to get back.  Benaiah was doing tech team at Shelby St.

And some boys hanging out on this balmy Sunday afternoon.

Girlie in a tree.

Pre dinner conversation that included thoughts about our church and helping them find a church in Muskegon that is more family friendly.

Oh wow, I think he can reach the pedals now!  So big!

Miss Josephine reminds me of Keturah in her dresses.  So adorable, and so stubborn.

Daddy dressed him today.  But who cares, right?  We can be outside in short sleeves, that's all that matters!

Keturah readding to JoJo yesterday!  JoJo is what her parents call her.

Mother hen.

And this girl likes to eat!  Yummy green ice cream!

Pretty much sums up these two.  Always on the move and under foot.

Willy really wanted to play nerts, so we made time for that!

While Jared, Donna and I watched the two youngest tumble and goof off.

"Uncle" (second cousin?) Jared teaching JoJo how to do flips.  She did enjoy some of them!  And wasn't scared of him, which is a plus.

Wrestling and stubborn.

Go get, Daddy!

I think we wore JoJo out with this visit.  She didn't nap yesterday, and went to bed later than normal and got up early, so yup, she was stir crazy.  She fell asleep before they got on the highway.  Sweet girl, but sassy like her mama.

Little man has dexterity with his fingers.

The End