Year 4, June 17th-20th, 2019: Oh no, not again!

Oh yes, it happened again.  Pink eye! I've taken 3, 1 hr naps today because I'm sleep deprived.  I've caught up on my audio Bible readings.  I've been able to keep up with some email through my phone because once my eye is open and somewhat dry I can function for about an hr.  But it actually physically hurts from eye strain and I can't be in bright lights.  I don't know how long I'll be able to watch videos tonight.  I haven't taken any pictures today.  But surprisingly, it was a calm day.  Maybe because the only expectations I had for myself was that I needed a shower.  I was too busy or out of it to fit one in the last few days.  But I managed to do a load of laundry and put away dishes with help from the kids.  Justin was fantastic today with helping.  Keturah slept in until 11:45am because she had stayed up past midnight for her birthday.  Benaiah of course slept in, Ava come over for a bit (he asked first, and I hardly ever feel pressure to host after someone's been here a few times. I did however, keep my ears open for what they were up to.), and then he went to work.  I asked him to pick up milk and dog food on the way home.  I hate asking Jared because with all the construction and traffic it just takes up too much time in his day and I am trying to really protect his work hours this summer.  Unfortunately, he will have to help out tomorrow to take Keturah to Taco Tuesday and then maybe even help me get my naturopath appointment on Thursday and Bryce's Grandma's funeral on Friday.  I will need to double check Keturah's packing for CIY and possibly go shopping on Friday or Saturday, too, so I hope that I can at least drive by then.  Several years ago I actually scratched my eye and it took two or more weeks to recover from that.  I don't usually wear sunglasses, but I had to and I couldn't drive more than a few minutes without my eyes watering.  It was awful, but at least I know the routine now on how to take care of it.  If I run out of antibiotic drops, I'll call the doctor.  They do help when the infection is this bad, although the essential oils help with inflammation and overall comfort.  It just sucks.  But it's been quiet, and I've caught up on my sleep. I guess it's exactly what I needed.

Thank goodness for kids that can do things.  Thank goodness for husbands who have low expectations of a home cooked meal and a clean house when he comes home from work.  Thank goodness he doesn't need really any down time when he comes home and can jump in to warm up leftovers and play with kids.  Thank goodness I started have the kids help me sort clean laundry two weeks ago.  They know how to do most of the steps of doing laundry, but I don't always make them.  I've made Keturah put away her laundry but not the boys, which is actually kind of sexist because I figured that she'll be doing the laundry in her own household and the boys would have wives to do it and/or when they are bachelors, they will just throw it on the floor like Jared used to.  I don't mind putting away Benaiah's laundry because he's never home to do it, but Justin can do his.  It makes folding laundry go faster.  Anyway, I'm grateful I had that insight a couple of weeks ago.  Thank goodness for smart phones so I can stay connected to the world and make arrangements without being at my computer.  Thank goodness kids recognized my sickness and did over ask for screen time or fight as much or even disturb me as much as I was resting.  After having a rough emotional ending to yesterday, I felt much better today.  Weeping is so therapeutic. I should let go and do it more often instead of letting it come out as anger.  Sigh.

Ok, I'll leave you with thinking about Abishai's insane giggles as he plays with swords with Jared.  Intense giggling, it's so adorable!  And he giggled when he ran away with Jared's phone and took 55 pictures on purpose as he went.  Sneaky little guy.  Good night.

The newly minted 11 yr old at 11:17pm on her birthday.

That's for 16 days of the month.  Wow!

Gary and Leah are on a big vacation and they came across a Timmy's in Ireland!

Woah!  Cool!

My friend Mellissa McCollum showed us the path of that tornado.  Wow!

F1 Tornado stats for Beech Grove, IN on June 15th, 2019.

Tuesday I felt a lot better and only sort of napped once.  We stayed home, but I was able to do the walk around the block using sunglasses and a hat pulled way down over my head.  Every so often, I feel like the bottom of my left eye has clouded over, like there's a smudge on my glasses, and that's got me a bit worried, so we'll see how I feel tomorrow.  I've kept up with antibiotic drops and essential oils.  It was a warmer day, and I wish we could have been outside but we still have baby bunnies to protect, a pool to dump out and redo, and my eyeballs refuse to be out in the bright light.  Justin was able to get all of our lawn mowed today and Grandparents' lawn was mowed on Monday.  There's still a lot of rain in the forecast and we do NOT need more of it!  The poor farmers can't put in crops, streets are flooded and damaged, creeks are full, it's awful.  But that's life I guess sometimes.

Jared took Keturah to Taco Tuesday, so he got to see the crazy side of those pre teens.  Plus, he didn't realize that Keturah tries to order two quesadillas and I stopped her last time, but he didn't today.  Sneaky girl!  Benaiah had to go to work as usual.  And Abishai played a lot by himself rebuilding a police/jail, a bank (to rob) and a bankers' house.  I helped him build a garage.  All out of Lego bricks of course.  (And remember, it's not Lego(s).  It's Lego brickS.  Lego is the brand.)  Speaking of Lego, Justin the new Minecraft "bigfig" (i.e. big figure) Lego guys for Daddy and Keturah for Father's Day and Keturah's birthday.  So, they put those together tonight.  I moved a few things around in the sunroom so that the science books are a bit more available.  I really need a large shelf to put the outdoor stuff on in the corner near the back door, but at least I found places for the other office boxes that were blocking the bookshelves.

And a funny story to go with that is this.  Tonight I received a group message on Facebook from some former Tuesday Morning MOPS moms asking if any of us knew this certain mentor's information from long ago.  Well, I just moved the bag with all my address books and my parents' address books today from one spot to another spot in the sunroom so I knew exactly where to look!  And I think I found the person's info! I cross referenced it between an old print out of the Indian Creek address lists and my own excel spreadsheet printout of addresses.  I would have compiled mine from those MOPS "yearbooks" that contain all the MOPS moms info. Indian Creek used to print out the address lists to give to certain senior staff members for easy reference before computer programs were easy to share.  The one I have is at least 15 years old.  They do purge their system often now, because we were purged from it (although we visited just about once a year) when we moved to Canada.  I felt that was a bit unfair because I didn't think we weren't members anymore, but I guess that's what happens. Anyway, my point is, somebody has to be "the keeper of all the things" and in an organized way so that a) history museums have things to put on display and b) people can look up people from their past like this.  You're welcome that I am a "hoarder."  Sometimes it pays to be one!

When Benaiah bought dog food for us last night (using my debit card), he bought the kids doughnuts!  Yum! And yes, we had to separate them all and put names on the package near each one so there would be not fighting.  Sigh.  I did finally have one of the Aldis brand of doughnuts and I think it was yeast based instead of cake based!  It certainly was better tasting than other brands I've tried!  They are kept in the freezer and then take a few minutes to thaw on the counter.

The things this family does for doughnuts.

Morning cuddles, and as Abishai says that, he's lying on his back in between us with a hand/arm on each of us.

They were playing a game of Abishai being asleep and Benaiah waking him up.  That's opposite of the game we usually play!

Baby bunnies still alive and happy!  And getting bigger quickly!  I figure any day now they won't be there when I peak on them. It's been a week since we found them.

Thanks big brother Justin!

Can't have enough Lego!

Justin wrote this in Jared's father's day card that Minecraft...coming soon...Hm, I think his love language is gifts or at least he likes to give them!

We finally got the PS4 back today a couple of days earlier than expected, thank goodness!  It cost almost $200 to repair though because they put in a new DVD drive.  Eeek! They are all happy it's back!

After our walk, they stayed up past bedtime to put the Lego sets together of course.

And we found the marble works again.  Fun stuff!

Wednesday was the 3rd home day in a row for most of us.  I was able to putter around more, although my left eye still itches a bit.  Benaiah went to school, lunch and a movie (Men in Black International with Chris Hemsworth) with Ava.  Justin trimmed our yard, did chores, read, and was able to play all the PS4 games he had been missing over the last week including Fortnite, Need for Speed, Minecraft, and Dauntless.  Keturah wandered around, rode on her scooter, drew in her new gigantic notepad that looks like a doughnut (design a doughnut!), made bath bombs, and helped with groceries.  Benaiah and Justin went to 4th meal, where Benaiah called me asking for Justin's phone number.  First of all, Justin doesn't always carry his phone.  Second of all, get your rear up out of that chair and go to him in the other restaurant instead of making him walk back to you in the dark.  (Youth leaders are at all 3 locations, so it's safe inside the restaurants).  Third of all, Benaiah said "I love you" when getting off the phone with me, which he NEVER ever does!  This means, it's an automatic response after being on the phone with a female, and that female being Ava.  Ha! Caught ya! And this comes after I read a 3 page letter Jared wrote to me after one of our big dates during our first year of dating when he came out to see me in NH.  And in that letter, which was very mushy, there were probably about 50 phrases with "love" in it.  Hehe! I am almost done scanning in the major letters from that first year.  I do have emails printed off from the 2nd and 3rd years, but they are typically short and uninteresting like today's text messaging.  Jared is embarrassed by the things he wrote, and I am, too, however, I treasured all his words 20 years ago the same as I do now, so to me, they are precious.  And I hear his voice when I read them, and many of the words are the same, just with a richer, deeper meaning and 20 years of history behind them.  Jared is never flippant with his words.  He won't say things he doesn't mean with his whole being.  Ok, well, he is sarcastic sometimes, but he isn't as sarcastic as he used to me.  And my love language is words of affirmation, so yes, I swooned then and I swoon now.  It's awesome!  Anyway,.....

Crazy "in love" Benaiah! He is so similar to his dad sometimes, and I now his intentions are the same as Jared's was/is and it's much more than physical attraction, let me tell you.  And that's the beauty of it.  I'm glad we always had in mind that the kids wouldn't "date" until at least 16.  Justin has had a crush on one girl for about 3 years.  I'll be surprised if he doesn't date her when they are a bit older.  And I think the feeling might just be mutual.  Keturah's still in the stage that boys have cooties, which to be honest, is probably considered babyish by her peers, but thankfully, her own social life is through church and they frown upon too much of the dating scene.  They do that by having them break out into small groups be gender and grade.  So most of the time they are hanging out with their small group people.  I did have to ask Justin if Benaiah spent time with his youth group friends because Justin said he saw Benaiah with Chase (who is not in our youth group technically) and Ava (who is in our youth group). I just don't want Benaiah to lose friendships he's had for the past 3 years.  Anyway, there's that.

Alert! Bunnies have left the nest!  So I searched half of the yard looking for them.

Then I carefully moved the slide to see if they were under it and found this.  Bunny butts!

Oh my word, these guys are so adorable!  And big!  And healthy looking!  This guy has a white marking on his forehead and he's been the most active of the two.

Oh my goodness!  I bet these guys will be gone by tomorrow.  They must be close to that 3 week mark!  The blue slide is behind them protecting them.  They are in the cinderblock that we put a couple of inches from the nest when we first found it.  Aren't they gorgeous?! I wish we could pick them up and pet them!  But we've been very good and not touched them.  We poked the nest about 1-2 times a day to make sure they moved but that's it.  When I was looking around the shed for them, I noticed that more of the dirt was compacted and there was hardly any vegetation.  Who knows how many bunnies have lived under there (or other creatures) but I'm glad it's a safe place.  They can go from the playground to the shed hopefully when it's quiet.  And then from the shed to the neighbor's yard where there aren't any dogs.  Or to one of our wood piles.  But I hope that large prey birds don't get them in the meantime.

The kids' pool needs to be dumped out and redone because I didn't cover it right away and now it is disgusting. So, we took water playtime indoros.  Abishai's wearing his diving gear in the bathtub.  He actually didn't splash too hard, thank goodness!  I told him I would close the curtain so he could and he said he wanted to be able to see me.  Aw!

Someone is just as obsessed about the bunnies as I am!  Jared has such a soft spot sometimes! (Ok, a lot of the time).  Last year he suggested buying seedlings of various vegetables and randomly putting them in the front flower beds FOR THE BUNNIES.  Not for human consumption!  I said no because yeah, nope!  We are leaving all the wild strawberries for them instead.

Speaking of Jared, what a lunch! Cottage cheese, blueberries, tomatoes, cinnamon and I don't know what else.  Unlike Benaiah, Jared's always brought his lunch to work, as have I when I went to school or worked at Crescent Project.  Back in the day, yes, we lived on Ramen noodles and Hot Pockets.  Woot! Woot!

Making bath bombs with the kit I got her for her birthday.  Simple ingredients, tiny molds, and a few hours later, it looks like they kind of worked.  The instructions were a little iffy, so we'll see if it totally worked in the morning.  Epsom salt, citric acid, and two kinds of colored baking soda.  Add some oil and voila! Let them sit in the mold and they react to one another and then dry out a bit.  It's definitely something we can recreate.  I've owned citric acid before when I made homemade dishwasher soap.  So, we'll see!

I found a little Lego set with multiple colors of "Benny" the space man from The Lego Movies.  Benny is actually a space guy from the 1980's Lego space sets and I have an original one or two of them somewhere.  Anyway, they named the guys Lenny, Benny, Kenny, and Jenny.  The pink one is not Jenny, it's Lenny.  Gender eqaulity at it's finest I guess.  Anyway, Abishai put the guys together all by himself.  And when he forgot to put the air tanks on, he asked me to take the head off again, so he could put them on, all without me telling him to or him looking at the instruction book.  Justin put together the little vehicles that came with it.

A few hours later and they moved again!  Now they are in the grass next to the cinder blocks!  Kind of scary to see them out in the open.  I'm praying that I don't find dead bunnies in the morning.

My sister wanted to see how big they are.  My hand is poistioned as if I had my hand across their backs.  They really are about the size of my fist, which is very small.  Maybe the size of a large red delicious apple or softball?

Another angle of them hiding.

Woah!  Sometimes I need to go outside and actually enjoy my garden!  But it's been so rainy!  I need to make a map and approximate time when each type of flower appears.  I love the variety and how they all bloom at different time!

These bloomed first.

More of the yellow pink ones!

Those "grasses" produced a ton of flowers this year!

And yes, we have two major patches of black eyed Susan weeds.  Great for birds, but I'm afraid they might choke out other plants, so we'll see.  They are fine way over there on the left, but the other batch is right next to the orange and pink flowers that have already opened up.  Eek!

Well, that's one way to get the mail!

Ok, Thursday, and this will be my last entry about my health.  I feel like I've gotten off track and talked a ton about myself lately and that's not good when it's a family blog!  But since I don't take many selfies, maybe that's ok if words tell my story and pictures tell the rest of the family's stories.  Anyway, I had an appointment with a naturopath on the northside.  It went fine.  Expensive, but fine.  At the end, she had me hold different bottles of enzymes one at a time, and then kind of asked my body if it felt weak or strong and pushed down on my other arm, so she could tell which one I reacted to the most.  Kind of weird.  The whole office wasn't that way, but it was a little new age for me.  Anyway, we'll see if those help a bit.  It's an herbal one, so I'm wondering if I can use something else that isn't as expensive.  She did order a panel of bloodwork on my adrenals and hormones.  I have to pay some of it in cash (HSA), but it is a detailed test that I was looking for that a PCP won't think of to do.  I mean the gynecologist even said they don't test hormones per se because they change so much during the month.  Well, that's not true because I've seen infertility vloggers get their numbers checked all the time and you have to start somewhere if you have a hormone imbalance.  So, I'm anxious to see how that goes.  Thankfully our HSA does cover alot of this, but it's one of those things that is super expensive and I have to be careful not to overdo it at once.  I think that's why I haven't pursued it again for awhile.  The previous naturopath was able to get me through the food sensitivities and put me on my favorite multi vitamin of all time, and that was a big step.  I'm hoping this go around will put the hormones back into place and I can get off birth control pills again.  I'm very high maintenance and some days it just drives me crazy how much we've spent on me alone.  And then I don't feel like I do enough at home to make up for it.  But I can't keep waking up like I did today and felt physical pain in pelvic and hip bones.  And I need to decrease the inflammation all around because after walking the block twice tonight, my knees and legs were throbbing (not the best footwear choice either).  We made the kids go around twice as well.  It's kind of been a nice talking time for Jared and I, too.  So, we'll keep doing that as much as we can.

So, appointment took up a big chunk of my day because of the driving 40 minutes each way, and I hit some traffic and it wasn't even rush hour.  The kids didn't do much.  Benaiah had work and band practice.  Justin was able to handle getting the other two on and off electronics on time.  I was gone for 3 hrs this time, which is beyond their normal 2 hr screen time limit.  I wasn't going to be super mad or anything if say, Abishai threw a fit about getting off, but I'm glad they were able to listen to each other.  It's taken me a long time to be comfortable leaving them and trusting them to obey each other.  Jared knew I was gone, so he was only a phone call away.  And I reminded Justin multiple times to have his phone on and check it frequently and to call Dad if he needed help because he would be closer.  I don't let them outside when I'm gone, especially with the bunnies still in the backyard.  I'm pretty picky about who goes out and when.  The bunnies could hop away at any moment, and I don't want any of us stepping on them or Socks scooping them up and injuring them.  Today they had hunkered down further into the grassy spot they were in because of the wind and rain last night.  The temperature dropped again today.  No rain though.  The weather people are saying we've had the wettest 365 days from last June until this June that Indiana has had in 21 years!

We have had a very lazy summer days the past couple of weeks, mainly because I don't feel like I can go anywhere feeling like this.  That's all about to change next week with CIY for Keturah, Gary and Leah come home from vacation, Shauna and the girls come into town, the boys leave for CIY, Gary and Leah leave for another trip, and then Shauna and the girls leave.  Then there's a couple of weeks of calm before family vacation at the end of July.  I guess I'm trying to focus on getting to a more a stable health condition before heading into all that.  I was very moody today and I shouldn't have been.  Sigh.  BUT, I did find some cute clothes at Goodwill.  I was looking for certain things for the kids for CIY for their theme nights, and did some shopping for me as well.  I've been watching a few different vloggers and instagramers and learning about trends and in general what's been missing from my wardrobe like basics.  In fact, one vlogger who loves the expensive stuff but isn't afraid to buy from Wal-Mart, too, bought some basic tops from Amazon to layer with, so I might go back to that vlog and find the links and try those.  We'll see.  There's thredup.com as well that I just remembered. 

Good morning baby bunnies!

Doesn't everyone do their poop patrol job in their nightie and rainboots slooshing through the saturated backyard?  Just Keturah? Ok then.  Sweetie, the dog doesn't poop in the water!  At least she was getting it done early.

There's no where the water can go anymore.  We've had way too much rain!

Abishai found that there was actually room for him to hide in the closet! Peek a boo!

Abishai proudly showed off that he built this marble works tower by himself and it works!  He almost had all the pieces in the right direction for the marble to go through them all.  Way to go!

That second batch of flowers were not pink and orange but bright orange! Wow!

Our weeds are ready to bloom too.  Great for bees and birds!

One of my finds was this super soft velvety red jacket.  I didn't actually try on any of the clothes but most of them fit or would fit soon if I lost 10 lbs.

One of Gary and Leah's ditches.

And their other one.

Yeah! They fixed  the bridge that got washed out two weeks ago! They hadn't planned on doing anything with this and it probably was going to be part of the original detour.  Woot! Woot!

The neighbor's ditch.

Pretty velvety flowers.

More of the nieghbor's ditch.  It's awful!

Yes, I did give up on the "you have to wear play clothes and not pjs all day" about a week ago.  I bought him a new used pair of pjs today that say, "Too fast to sleep!" and covered in fast cars.  He was so excited!  He couldn't put them on fast enough!  So, he walks around the block in his pj's, oh well.  He's looking so tall though!  I can't believe Abishai is almost 4 1/2!

Yup, it feels like PEI in June.

That second walk around the block really upped my steps! No wonder my legs were throbbing!

The End