The J6 Journey: Year 4, September 20th-22nd, 2019: Finally, It's the Weekend!

It's been a LONGGGG week!!! On Friday, we had to stay home from park day because I was supposed to get a phone call from the taxpayer advocacy service downtown but of course, no one ever called. Grrr....but we did end up getting everything wrapped up for school this week! Usually we have some assignments to finish up on Saturday. Plus, the house was picked up and everything was up to date. Now I just have to read ahead for next week. I understood Justin's reading so far, but now we are starting Dante's "The Divine Comedy" (Longfellow's translation/version), and it has lots of notes but oh boy, it's definitely not something easy for me to understand, never mind Justin. We'll see how it goes for a bit. Just because a book is included in a curriculum (it's a big chunk of the literature part of it) doesn't mean we have to do it. I might have to switch to something else. But it's also just been a long week with getting on each other's nerves, so two days ago, I told my favorite ladies that I'm definitely coming to Mom's Night Out tonight. We just go out to eat and talk, and it's usually the same crowd, so although I don't get to go every time, I still feel pretty comfortable with them. 3 of the moms tonight do the park days regularly with us. In fact, Molly, mom of Esther, Eli, and Lilly, said her kids were so excited when Abishai got on Fortnite with them. They had played online together this afternoon! We don't do other activities with them and we don't go to the same church, but they have a great time together.

And we were going to a restaurant I knew had great gluten free options and wasn't badly priced, McAlister's Deli. Not fast food, but service similar to CFA where they can bring you your food and refill your drinks if they aren't busy. We talked and talked about all kinds of things, included our hormones and kids dating/going off to college. And it was good to hear that I'm not alone in that we struggle in our relationships with our kids sometimes. Actually, some of the teen girls came too, but they set separately from us so we could talk about them, lol. It was just what I needed and the food was delicious! I did make sure we had leftovers and I made a nice salad for Jared for dinner. Benaiah went out with Ava for dinner/go shoe shopping and then came back to the house until curfew. He had originally been scheduled to work, but found someone to trade shifts with. It's his only free night for date night. I got home around 10 and Keturah was still awake, too! Whoops! Bedtime for the middles so I can have a different kind of downtime. Thanks!

I had used the Clicklist service at Kroger to try to reserve this pumpkin so that we can complete the set Benaiah bought us, but when they went to pick out the item before I picked it up, it had been sold. I tried other Krogers and even called one, but no luck. I put out an SOS on Facebook on my personal page and in a general local group and my friend Ali saw my post. Well, she went into a Kroger on the westside of Indy and found one! She bought it for me right then and there, and I'll pay her back of course. Phew! She's such a sweet woman, a sweet Kindergarten teacher, a sweet volunteer in the nursery. She's always thinking of others, too. Oh how we love her and we try to do things for her, too! I'm just glad she located one. I was getting pretty frustrated at myself for waiting so long to look for it. Yeah! I ended up canceling the clicklist order over the phone, thank goodness. The MM's were just a little add on to the order I saw, so I didn't really need them. So, my first experience with Clicklist (which has a $5 service fee), was ok. Basically, with Clicklist, you order online and then the employees get the items for you and bag them up. Then you pick the groceries up at the pick up door at the side of the building. It's supposed to save you time. But you still have to drive to the store, too. I like looking at everything and sometimes I get inspired when I'm at the store. So, I probably won't use the service again.

I love listening to Abishai's stories when he plays. It gives me a little insight into what his brain is thinking.

I did take Abishai outside for a bit so he could do probably one last swim in the pool. He decided to jump on the trampoline with his wet bathing suit on and slip on it on purpose as he ran his normal laps around the edge of the trampoline. Goofball. The swimming pool should come down soon. We definitely learned some things this year with it. First of all, the water did stay "clean" with the bleach tablets and a cover. Second, the tannins in the unfiltered water settle to the bottom but get mixed up again as they swim, so the water still looks "dirty." Third, we should have inflated the upper ring a bit more by now because I feel like it's caved in a bit. Fourth, thankfully we used the same water all summer, and only had to add some more water a couple of times. That's a lot less maintenance than our pools of the best where I do to clean and refill them weekly. The improvements we could make for next year is to start with filtered water. I don't know if we can somehow hook up the hose to a faucet downstream from our water softener and filter or not, but to me, it's worth a try. I really wish we could afford the even bigger ones with a regular frame, but you can still take it down every year. Only Abishai gets in the small pool and it's almost not worth it for just one kid. I know we were gone and I was sick/busy a lot so that's why I didn't get Abishai outside as often as I hoped. So, I'm hoping when we take it down, we'll be able to salvage it and use it again next year. Let's do it!

Duckie and pool time.

Mom, I need my diving gear!

Ready for some snorkeling!

Crashing in!

Less than $13 for black cherry lemonade (my sweet treat for the evening), a small cup of vegetarian chili and half of a turkey club with orange cranberry sauce on gluten free bread. It was their 2 for a certain price thing. Perfect amount of food for me.

Saturday was a lazy one. Jared had some things to do on the computer so he didn't get into any outdoor projects. It was way too hot anyway. I need to make a short list of some projects he can do that don't take long for days like this. My agenda was to get some reading done, take a shower (it doesn't happen every day, I'm a mom), do Justin's science experiment with him, and rest. Well, we got it all done and then some! We also went to the park after supper because Abishai requested it. Jared and I had a very long nap together, too. Which meant, Justin and Abishai stayed on longer than they should have on their electronics. Whoops. Keturah got a little bit of time before supper. We stayed at the park about 45 minutes because only Justin brought water and it was still pretty hot. Jared chased after Abishai while I got to finally explore the whole paved walkway around the edge of the park. And there I discovered a huge stream! I'm pretty sure it's on someone else's property because of some fencing, including some barbed wire pretty close to the ground. But it was a pretty spot to look at. So, the kids were whiny and Keturah was unhappy that she was told she had to go to the park, so I took away the rest of her screen time when she snapped at us. She was even short with a neighbor of ours who happened to be at the playground for about 15 minutes when we were there.

But all in all, it was a pretty relaxing day, with no pressure, just what the doctor ordered. Well, just what we needed that's for sure. Meanwhile, it's been 3 1/2 weeks since my melanoma removal surgery and it's 2 1/2 weeks until my polyp removal surgery. Having minor sugeries 6 weeks apart is a lot on me emotionally and mentally, but it's going to be a lot financially, too, unless I can get some financial hardship aid directly from the providers. For example, only half of my melanoma surgery was covered, so it's going to be $1,000 or more before all is said and done. I don't know about my polyp surgery yet. Anything I have done through our pcp office, which includes the obgyn area of the clinic, is already discounted because we've already given them the financial info and the discount lasts for a year. But Jared's CT scan and allergy testing is going to cost a pretty penny as well. And our HSA won't be enough to cover it. That's why getting our tax refund from February is crucial. We've been pretty tight and have gone without things like a/c in the van because of not having it. It's quite a "hardship" as the taxpayer advocacy calls it. I hope I can get a hold of them next week! Or I'm going to have to try and go to their office downtown, which I don't know if I'll have access to or not. Sigh. I can't wait to get passed all this.

Cute picture from 9 years ago, so Keturah was 14 months old. Wish I could fit in that shirt again. And look how short my hair was! And there's a 5 yr old Justin in the background.

My brother, Paul-Mikael on the left, got to have fun with a friend this weekend for once! When you've had a rough life like PM has, it's awesome to finally have some fun! They went to a Cincinnati Reds game. Not sure who PM's friend is though. And I keep forgetting that PM has gained a ton of weight. He doesn't quite look like the skinny brother I had, lol.

Abishai found a water color paint set with some papers nearby and asked to paint, so we let him paint! Sweet! He painted with his left and his right hand.

This would have not made sense to me 24 hrs ago, but I watched a video about being a VSCO girl/guy just last night, so this totally makes sense. Apparently it's a trend where they have a hydroflask, wear srunchies, and say sksksksksk all the time. They wear big baggie t-shirts and crocc. More natural make up and hair in a ponytail. It's just one of those cultural things that are in vogue for a little while and then they aren't. But why on earth does Benaiah know about this?! Again, it was just a video a channel I watch put out, I wasn't seeking it out and I had no idea what it was. But yes, these are Benaiah's scrunchies and his brand new hydroflask. Quite interesting.

"These are my army guys all lined up, pew, pew, pew!" You know you have boys in the house when they turn everything into war and violence?

Speaking of violence, we got to watch a violent reaction with this experiement today. You add yeast to hydrogen peroxide to form oxygen bubbles and then you catch them in balloon.

Then you light a candle, put it under a jar leaving just enough room to put the balloon under it and then slowly release the oxygen inside the balloon. That way, when the oxygen in the jar is used up, it can use the oxygen in the balloon and still glow. And without oxygen, the flame goes out. The experiment went flawlessly and I'm glad Jared was around to help.

Since Justin jumped up on the climbing pyramid, Jared did, too. He got up to the top really fast! And almost lost one of thse shoes. Whoops! I was actually surprised Jared said we could all go to the park because nose had started exploding with snot again. I'm so glad we made the effort. It was a bit warm, but overall, not too bad. There's no bathrooms or water at this park, which annoys me a ton, but what can you do. That's one reason why I was investigating the woods along the path. The path is invisible from the playground so I think it would be ok to go the bathroom in the woods in an emergency.

Round and round they go. And they both stayed up a very long time!

Abishai tried to climb this one, but didn't quite make it. Keturah got to the top though.

Mr. Nolan, our neighbor, in the background. Abishai wanted to play follow the leadaer but with him as the leader. Nolan wasn't buying it, so Abishai said to go away. Whoops, we shouldn't say that.

Through a break in the wood next to an old fence line (including barbed wire almost hidden by the ground, a large stream flows. I might come back in a few weeks to observe the fall foliage. How beautiful! I didn't venture down at all because I suspect this is private property, although there was no sign on the fence.

Justin decided to climb all kinds of things with his long, monkeyish, bare toes. And that's our neighbor Kendall in the swing beneath him.

Long skinny feet!

Are you comfy up there?

Brave boy!

"I could lap up here and get a tan!" he said.

Justin and Kendall twirling in the twisty seats.

Abihai and Nolan with Jared in a bigger spinner seat thing.

Caught you on camera climbing! Lol. She just couldn't resist, although she didn't want to be there in the first place.

Finally, taking a walk together! This path encircles the park. Also, note that Jared was riding the scooter? Lol!

Loads of noises, but I bet its from a huge population of cicada in there.

"Daddy, I made a key!" Now, what are you going to see your key for? Earlier, Abishai had put a blue Lego plate under the bridge so that they would have to go something.

3 and 1/2 weeks post surgery. I had just taken a shower, so the area is a bit redder than normal. I can't wait to see just how long it takes for the holes for where the stitches were will heal up. I keep gently massaging it so dissolve the inside stitches and put things back in place.

Sunday, well, Abishai decided to get up in the middle of the night AGAIN because he's afraid of things falling between his mattress and his bedframe. Ok, this has to stop. We can't sleep when he sleeps with us. He's cute and all, but good grief, sleep in your own bed. So, it was a slow groggy morning. Thank goodness I had had a shower the night before after the playground, so I could keep things slow and put together a cute outfit without rushing. I found some fallish shoes on clearance at Meijer for $9 each, one a size 6 1/2 in "camel" and one in size 6 in grey. So I'm trying to find ways to use them. Today I went for a feminine look with a knit dress with some lace detail. I think one of those wide brimmed hats would have sealed the deal IF I looked good in one of them. Oh well. I used a my brown Lilla Rose headband instead. I had pulled my hair back into a braid before bed last night hoping to get some curls, but the braid looked decent enough with the headband and overall look, so I left it like it was.

Today's outfit.

Anyway, church was great! Songs were good, I stayed awake, I wasn't freezing despite wearing a knee length dress, and boy, the added physical elements on stage were on point! Oh how I've missed those! We did away with our monologues and skits years ago, and we haven't had any physical set pieces in years either because they were trying to cut down on the creative arts budget for those things so they could update equipment like get those laser lights and fog machines. But I've really messed them! Just using a tv screen to share the points of the sermon and the Scripture associated with it can get a bit boring. I think they (I would say we, but we were gone for some of it) got pretty stagnant in their services, and I'm enjoying seeing them try out new things again like order of service. I can't wait to see how things change when we hire a new worship minister! We knew things were going to change after the transition and boy have they! I find it very exciting, although I'm sure some of the older folks are cringing.

Hm,....can you guess what we are talking about today?

How about now? Hint: We are in the book of Exodus.

And what about now? The end of the book of Mathew.

I loved how Dan literally painted the "blood" on the door frame and the cross and related the two stories together in a slightly different way than I've heard before. He included facts like how the Israelites were doing this on the first day of the first month of THEIR calendar, which they hadn't been able to use while on the Egyptian calendar. He relayed that the script writers of the Prince of Egypt were told by rabbis they were consulting with that it HAD to be blood on the door frame. He also sat on one end of the table in the Exodus story and the other end of the table in the last Passover story. When he painted the blood on the cross, he mentioned every body part that the blood would have come from. It was incredibly poignant. Oh how I've missed these visuals!

Today was also mission Sunday where the Go! ministry sets up booths and stations to share what we do on a global scale. I didn't take any pictures but they showed ministry partners, statistics on Thanksgiving baskets and food pantry and Generous Bucket ministry happenings, unreached people groups, packing snacks to share with local hard working teachers, etc. We walked quickly through it with Keturah and Abishai. Keturah did not like it because she wanted to play video games in between services. Abishai didn't understand most of it. But there were these bingo cards that had different things on them to cross off if you've done them, and some of them were like "go to camp (CIY)" and "donate to Thanksgiving baskets." We have done a lot of them! Yeah! That made me feel like a good parent that we've made our children aware and they have seen Jared, Gary, and Leah all go on mission trips. So of course something like this would be boring to them. But imagine all those church goers who don't have a clue or weren't raised in church or in a minister's family. These kinds of things are for them. Anyway, it looked pretty neat as always.

Pretty cool that we already do a lot of this! There's so much you can do from the comfort of your home! Somebody has to be the sender of missionaries, right?

We had lunch with Leah, as Gary had been in Texas and then flew directly to Kansas doing his thing. We swapped Justin for Emily so both Keturah and Justin had individual friend time. I listened as Emily was telling a former teacher she saw at church how kids are mean to her at school (she's in 6th grade in the local middle school and her grade school friends go to the other middle school). She wishes she was homeschooled but understands that her mom and dad both work so she can have things like voice lessons. This is the loud Emily I've talked about in the past. But when you separate Eliot and Emily, they are much calmer and sweeter. I felt bad though, that so far, her 6th grade year is hard. The teacher also said that her daughter's 6th grade year was tough too. I'm beginning to really like these new friends of the kids.

Abishai played cards with the girls and actually really tried to follow the rules. They were very kind to him. He looks so big here, too!

Jared used Abishai as a human bowling ball when Abishai was playing bowling with Grandma. Abishai loved it!

Eventually, we all ended up back at church at various times for various things. It was just Abishai and I at home for about 90 minutes, so I got ahead on reading for the week. Then I took him to Jared at church without shoes on dragging his toddler quilt sized Thomas blanket with him, just because he could. I carried him into church and he walked around with a blanket and no shoes. Yup, I'm that mom. I thought it was cute and freeing and who wants to argue? Lol. Then Jared took him home, the other 3 stayed at church, and I met up with homeschool friends at Kroger cafe' again. I had stuck around for a bit at church waiting for a friend to show up with her boys, but then I was late for the homeschool meeting too. Unfortunately, my friend's boys are very shy and the one that is Justin's age, was very, very overwhelmed and doesn't want to ever go back. So, I told her that we can get the boys together one on one since they have decided to homeschool again. Jesse and Justin are just a couple months apart in age and were in MOPS together when they were infants. Justin has such a big heart, that I'm hoping that he can reach Jesse in some way and bring him out of his shell. We'll see. Jett, the older one, is a year younger than Benaiah and was a bit overwhelmed, but also interested in going back. I know it's hard to walk into a situation like that and I pray we can help them in some way because they have helped us so much over the years.

Benaiah actually stepped up to the plate and said that he didn't see anyone at this sign in station, so he claimed it and welcomed people in. They have lots of signs and teens at the door greeting people as they come in. And they sign in just so that there's some kind of attendance and the leaders can follow up with people that haven't been there for awhile. Benaiah even did a little dance to the songs they were playing. Of course Ava and Ethan were also close at hand. And look closely at their feet. Why yes, Benaiah and Ava did buy matching slide sandals on Friday night AND they both wore long black socks today. I bet they totally planned it, too! So sappy!

I went to my meeting and then went back to church to pick up the middles because Benaiah had only his truck. It would make more sense for him to help transport them but at the same time, then I would still have to do it when he went off to college or something. Once the roundabout near us is open, it won't seem like such a burden. There was more paving done on it this week, so hopefully soon! And the major highway was fully reopened today, so no more back road traffic non sense. Yeah! We have a field trip this week, and regular activities. But the weather is supposed to get cooler as well. It's only two weeks until my next minor surgery and I'm getting a bit nervous. Life is moving at a super fast pace and there are things I need to get on top off before it's too late like going through boxes to pull out papers for Benaiah's open house in the spring or summer or fall or whenever we have it. Speaking of Benaiah, he might be promoted AGAIN very soon to Team Leader! He's only been an assistant team leader for less than a month. Yeah! He said that management talks about him frequently in a good way and whisper in his ear how well he's doing. They've definitely taken a shine to him, and that makes my mom heart happy. He still wants to go to Ozark, and when I tried to bring up the fact that Ivy Tech is way cheaper if he wants a business degree, he and Grandma almost through a fit. Grandma was trying to say that everyone needs a Bible degree if they plan to go into ministry someday. That is true, but I don't know that he needs to do that right away and to go into major debt over it. He could easily have $100,000 in debt even if he went to Bible college. He doesn't realize how little he has to put towards it when he's only earning $1200 a month. But, I held my tongue and know reality will hit soon enough. I didn't go to Bible college and am fine. Jared had some Bible but didn't have a dual degree of Bible and Business administration. He went back as a graduate student and did Greek and Hebrew then to get his Biblical leadership degree. Not everyone has to go Bible college. Good grief.

I dug out my scrunchies tonight! Check them out! Now, some of them have elastics that are no longer stretchy. But hey, I'm trendy, right? Well, when I showed them to Benaiah he asked if he could borrow them for his water bottle at school tomorrow. I told him ok, but he better not lose them. Lol!