Well, the July 4th weekend has come to a close, Aaron and Shauna are back in their own home, and Gary and Leah are at their destination for July. That means, we can get back to being the J6 with our little routine and personality differences and have less humans to schedule our lives around. Ok, it's not that bad, but you know the saying about too many cooks stirring the pot? Well, it's true when playing a vacation for 3 distinct families, 6 adults and 6 kids. It just takes a lot longer to do. The input is decent, but making that final decision is time consuming. This is why I hate meetings. I hate group projects, too. Give me my task and let me be. I don't play well with others. Goodness, that's why my mom only lasted 1 month working at Wal-Mart before it opened in our hometown of Hooksett. They wouldn't let her setup the shelves the way she wanted to. She was never employed after that but did her own thing and was successful in other ways on her own. This is why we don't utilize homeschool co ops. I can't stand the structure! I like structure, but I need flexibility, too, and because I'm a people pleaser, I'm never ok if the work isn't done when there's a specific deadline. I couldn't even get all my devotions done sometimes for Rooted. But I digress....I'm happy for it to just be the six of us running our busy lives.
Take today for example, I had zero obligations today, and that's a good thing, because I think I have some kind of stomach bug. I also have menstrual cramps, but I'm not usually this nauseous with them (no I'm not pregnant). I had to take a nap this morning and move really slow when I was awake and puttering. I had zero energy to push kids outside, although it was a little cooler today than it had been. Although Sunday wasn't that bad of a schedule, I knew we all needed to continue resting up from last week. So, I decided to work on rebuilding all of Abishai's Lego sets and separating them out. There's a million and one things I could have done, too, that weren't time sensitive, but whatever. That's what I did. We had leftovers for supper. We do outside for a little bit this evening when Daddy could set up the slip and slide for them. Thank you to Jared for doing that, btw, it's not something he's used to doing. I did weed a little bit when I realized how much cooler it was. But I did not go on the daily walk. I didn't feel like keeping up with my phone apps or posting anything.
Benaiah got up mid morning and watched his tv shows and chilled a bit. He had to go to work as well. Justin mowed our entire lawn in under 2 hrs. He will need to trim it tomorrow. Keturah went for a bike ride all on her own, even after having screen time. Abishai had his screen time while I napped this morning. He did watch Justin play his video games a bit, but he also putters around, too. It was a very quiet day, and I'm thankful for that. And I'm glad that we had done all the laundry and dishes on Sunday. Chores were done mostly on time. It was good day. No major projects like my three bookshelves I need to finish before vacation, but, today was not the day for that. I needed my brain power to keep control of my pain, not on sorting books. So I sorted Lego bricks instead for 3 hrs. Actually, it was very relaxing. I'm telling ya, there's something magical with Lego bricks!
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| What Jared found on his computer when he opened it at work today. Hm,....goblins? or maybe a certain 4 1/2 yr old was on it when Daddy was taking a nap...... |
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| Have you ever wondered this? Well, I found this cool graphic today when I was searching if you can have back pain from your ovaries or where exactly they might be compared to your back. See, I did take biology in high school, but I never took anatomy in college, SO, I still can't remember where these organs are. Yup, there's always more things to learn. |
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| I told Jared that of all three of the car garages of this size that we own (yes we own 3 and they are for 3 different size vehicles), this is the only one I wouldn't get rid of. Yes, the ramp is broken. However, it's the original Little People garage from my childhood. And Abishai still loves it! He even put the car on the little swivel thing and cranked it around to the marked spots on the top. |
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| He had all the cars lined up to get fixed in the repair shop and he took them up and down one by one. |
Tuesday we went with our friends Jessica, Madison, Carter and Ali to see Toy Story 4. Ok, it was just Keturah, Abishai and I because Justin and Benaiah had already seen it. It was $5 Tuesday. The theater was about half full and we got settled just in time. Phew! I had had to convince Abishai to come with us in the first place, so I don't know why I was surprised when he didn't want to stay after the first scene of the movie. I keep forgetting that he's super sensitive to feature films. He's fine with YouTube videos, maybe because most of them are live action, and kind of everyday scenarios, but put him in front of a feature film with all the mood lighting and music and he can't handle it. He buried his head in my chest and starting talking so loudly we had to leave the room. I ended up calling Jared to come and get him and take him home to Justin while I finished the movie with Keturah. I could have taken him home as well and had the others drive Keturah home. But Abishai really wanted to see Daddy, so it worked out well. I warned the rest of the family to not let me let Abishai go to the movie theater for at least a year. Poor little guy. I'm glad it was on a cheap day, but even then, I'm a little less anxious about the money lost than I have been in the past. Thank goodness Abishai is pretty articulate and firm in his decisions sometimes. I just sat down with him in the hallway and waited for Jared to come.
I missed 1/3 of the movie though, and apparently, some things were addressed that helped the plot move along. I wasn't all that impressed when I left the theater but my friends assure me I just need to watch it again. As it stands now, Toy Story 3 had a better send off. But maybe I'm just used to long drawn out good byes like the Marvel Cinematic Universe did. Who knows. The overall plot was ok. I think if I were to rate them, it would definitely be in the order in which they came out. A lot of times sequels and subsequent season of a TV show just aren't the same as the originals. But that's ok. It's entertainment, I'll move on from there.
Meanwhile, I'm feeling a little better but not totally myself. I'm starting to really worry and panic about being in the heat in Washington, D.C. in two weeks. I keep trying to convince my family that we ALL need to take it slower, but it's falling on deaf ears. "Just stay behind" "just get a wheelchair" aren't going to help when my children won't want to go either. I wish I could enjoy everything but it's the wrong time of year and bad timing with my unpredictable new health issues. Thank goodness I have an appointment with the naturopath this week. I need a major attitude adjustment, too, but a lot of it has to do with the hormonal imbalance and that's so out of control I don't know which end is up and what to try. It's not all in my head or controlled by just saying to myself "don't say it." It's a chemical imbalance and it's where I'm at. So, yes, I'm a pain in the rear, but I can't help it. I'm doing my best, deal with it.
I wish I had gotten more done today, but just felt too crappy. Justin mowed the grandparents' lawn, and the other two got outdoors for a bit. Benaiah worked from 2pm to close. Hopefully I'll make myself turn in early now that I'm fully caught up with the blog. I really need some sleep, which only comes when I feel like I've had enough time to watch shows. But first up, let's figure out some banking things because those are messed up. I did make a couple of phone calls regarding a health bill and submitted yet another return to Amazon because the wrong replacement bulb was sent. I should probably start planning out next week and when I'll pack and when I'll shop before vacation. I barely have figuring out dog sitting started. Talk about last minute. Sigh. Anxiety is a beast to deal with. Tomorrow is a new day.
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| Reading "What Snowmen Do At Night" to himself. He can recite it almost word for word. It doesn't matter that it's the middle of summer, lol. |
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| The outer bag that the box comes in says 6v, which is what I need (the smaller bulb on the right), but the box and the bulb inside both say 12v. And Amazon's description also says 6v. Grrr!! |
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| Look who we found next to the a/c unit! Socks saw it first and alerted us from inside. I wouldn't let him out until we had shooed it safely away to the neighbor's yard. |
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| Hi, baby bunny! We had to go behind it and shake the foliage a bit to get it to head in the right direction. We were mere inches away from it. Hello, little one! Oh, and Jared was trying to help a baby bird yesterday who couldn't quite fly right yet, and this evening we found it had drowned in the pool. I don't know if it was on the cover or just under it because the kids saw it first. Bummers! |
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| Reading while we wait for Mommy to get ready. |
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| Neat scooter trike we saw while we waited for the others to arrive at the movie theater. |
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| Sissy, show me how to cross over to the other side? |
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| And away he went. Thank goodness for this low wall because I could stay "in" the theater and hand Abishai over to Jared on the "outside" of the theater. Sweet! |
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| At least they got to sit next to each other for a minute. Madison asked where Abishai had gone and was sad that he didn't stay. None of our other kids acted like this with movies. And they've seen movies in the theater and at home since they were 2 years old. |
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| Ad for the live action more grown up Dora movie. So I distracted Abishai by talking about Boots, the monkey, and how he plays soccer with Boots on the video game at the library. |
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| The preview for this movie scared Abishai a little but he had not problem looking at it in the lobby. Yes, they have a sturdy enough seat to set on. |
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| Awww, here's our crew. |
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| Carter got ancy about halfway through the movie, so our friend Ali took him out since she had already seen the movie. That way his mom Jessica could stay in the theater and enjoy it with Madison. |
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| Ali and Carter. We did have Carter in our side of the nursery for awhile, so he knows us somewhat well. |
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| Back at home, in the evening after piano lesson, it's time for sword fights! See, Abishai can be all about violence, but he can't handle cartoon violence/suspense. Hm,.... |
Wednesday was a super busy day for me. I had a counseling appointment and had planned on going to just Meijer (which is like Wal-Mart) afterwards. Well, I picked up a few more things than I had planned and then decided to get the grocery shopping over with. I didn't have any of the kids because both Benaiah and Justin were home. Benaiah didn't have school today, but he will next week. Then he will miss one because of our vacation. Putting all the groceries in the cart was easy, but putting them on the conveyor belt and bagging them myself took some time. In fact, they did open another line for those with less groceries than I. Yes, I had a very full cart because we were out of nearly everything. We ate up all the fresh and frozen veggies, fruits, and meats. We only had a few pieces of bread left and a few eggs. Even the pantry was incredibly empty. That's a great thing! It means we aren't wasting anything! But we should be good now until we leave. I bought a couple of extra things for our vacation as well, like a new shirt and short set for swimming for Abishai. I also bought a pizza for supper, which is what I normally do. The Meijer run was quite expensive because I bought dog food, pop, a clearance priced slip on shoe (that might replace my sneakers on this trip), and pencils, crayons, and glue for the school supply drive at church.
I loved being by myself. But when I got home, there was much to be done. Laundry at our house and Gary and Leah's. Getting kids to do their chores. Clean up the yard in case it storms. Help Abishai in and out of a bathing suit. Fixing the cord for the boys' fan because Keturah broke it. Taking my medicine 3 hrs late. Putting away groceries. Making sure the dog doesn't eat our precious bunny. Keep kids out of the pantry. Etc. Etc. I'm exhausted. But it's all done and I'm done shopping until after vacation. Yeah! Tomorrow is a new day, and I do have an appointment on the north side. But then I get to be home before we have parties to attend on Friday and Saturday night. I might take Keturah to see a musical on Sunday. Full steam ahead!
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| Good morning Baby Bunny! How are you? It lets us get pretty close and I zoomed it in of course. I wonder about the sibling because I only see this one with the two white markings on it's head and the black band of fur around its' neck. It allows us to come close to it and even eats while we watch. Very bold little guy or girl. |
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| Weird position to sleep in. Ava laughed a lot about this one. |
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| Dog snuggles. |
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| We are ready for vacation with a new water t-shirt and his ducky float! He had asked for a tube of some sort for the pool, so I found him one. He loves it! |
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| I also picked up a cute tub full of sand toys. There's run to add more, too. I love that it has a led that is on a hinge. Can't wait to try it out on a real beach! |
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| Let's pretend we are on the water and that we need the float in order to sruvive. |
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| The van reach 150,000 miles today! Woot! Woot! |
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| Keturah was assigned to watch Abishai in the pool. Well, she couldn't resist so in she went with all her clothes on. |
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| Cutie with his ducky floatie. |
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| Even Keturah enjoyed it for a little while. |
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| I love how he makes up stories. |
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| Showing Ava the new Lego set up. |
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| Nothing better than jumping in your pjs with your "rubber ducky" pool floatie! |
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| Can you see them? We have bamboo growing! |
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| Jared was mesmerized by our baby bunny eating its' dinner. |
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| Uh oh, where did the duck go? Are there eggs under there? Maybe they are buried? I didn't touch the nest but we didn't see the mommy duck either. |
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| But there are 6 robin eggs in a nest in one of the ferns! Wow! |
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| Looks like the dessert, feels like the dessert. Can you imagine how full this was just a few weeks ago? Why can't we have both rainy and dry days in the same week? Silly weather. |
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| Abishai always loves to be outside. |
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| Woah! I worked hard today! Part of that is obvisiouly walked the aisles at Meijer. |
Thursday I had a follow up with the naturopathic doctor. Well, here's the results of my labs:
Yes, what a mess! I'm suprised, but not really. She said that the high cortisol levels are what is driving the imbalance in my estrogen and testosterone. And birth control pills are suppressig those hormones even more. Great. Once again it's all about my stress levels and my sleeping habits. Sigh. But no one seems to have answers on how to deal with those. Or maybe why I get so stressed and I don't want to go to bed. So she put me on a different supplement to try. I also looked up what oils I have that I can use more consistently. And asked my friends what other things I can that I haven't been. Things like not eating the foods that bother me like dairy. Exercise. Meditation. Read a book instead of watch TV. I wish there was a magic pill because at least today, I can't think through how to implement all these things. I did buy some other supplements and am going to try a castor oil pack on my stomach for womanly things and digestion things. Vacation next week is stressing me out big time, too. And my irregular menstrual cycle. I've been away from home for 3-4 hrs for the last two days. So, tomorrow, I'll be home. It's my birthday, so maybe I can come up with stuff I want to do, although we have an open house to attend in the evening.
Meanwhile, the kids and house need some attention and I need to continue to start gathering things for vacation and making final plans on dog sitting and other paperwork. I did manage to find and pick up some tan shorts for Benaiah and Jared, and some swim trunks at Goodwill. I even got to use my coupon there. I also picked up a free coffee at Dunkin Donuts, courtesy of my birthday. It's the same Dunkin's that I went to when my parents arrived from NH nearly 14 years ago. I had bought one of those big boxes of plain coffee for my parents and the people helping us move. I think I bought doughnuts, too. There's only a handful of Dunkin's in Indianapolis and it was mostly on my way north to the naturopath. I got an iced latte with almond milk and unsweetened shot of blueberry syrup. It was delicious!
Tomorrow is a new day. I'm ready to rest.
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| You would think I could find an oil that works! Or maybe a combo that might work. Here's some of my new/daily ones. |
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| Keep going.... |
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| And more.... |
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| And unopened or barely been used ones. I need to take an inventory so I know what I need to buy through my essential rewards order and points. Sigh. Give me all the oils! One suggestion was to to diffuse nutmeg for two weeks. Weird, but I'm going to do that at night when I'm sitting here. The kids don't like the smell of essential oils and I'm using running around too much to get much benefit from diffusing. So that's why I typically just apply them topcially. So, we'll see. I already feel a little bit calmer form the oils I rubbed on my wrists earlier and the nutmeg. |
And that's it. Pretty busy week. Not many pictures taken. You can't capture every moment. Although, you can remember the time where Abishai asked if Daddy was going to buy Paw Patrol swim trunks in his size. Or when he asked Daddy to come to the museum. Or how he loves Jared's trick to shutting the car door. Abishai is very excited for my birthday tomorrow because Aaron and Shauna left me a gift and he wants me to open it. Or, when your almost 14 yr old finially finds his water bottle hidden behind an old satellite dish next the chimney outside. It's been there for 2 weeks! Or when the 17 yr old put aside cash in a secret place on his desk for "emergency" runs to the grocery store to buy flowers, chocolate, and other fun things for the girlfriend who's had a hard week. What a genius idea! Or when you move the feathers and dirt around in the flower box to unveil the large duck eggs hidden there while momma duck was out foraging. Or when the daughter swims in her regular clothes, again, not realizing how much chlorine can damage things. Oi! Such is life.
The End
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