Year 4, September 6th-8th, 2019: Where Did the Energy Go?

Well, if you asked Abishai where his energy goes, he would say his "vortex" and then he'd spin in place and run back and forth in the house after every single meal from 7am to 9pm. Yes, he used the word "vortex" to describe the spinning action of some juice I was stirring. He learned it off of Blaze on YouTube. This is after he said to some kids roughly his age at the playground today, "Hey, guys, let's play Jesus. Let's go hide in this den away from the soldiers."  I think he was trying to put several Bible stories together but hey, he listens in Sunday School, that we do know. I had also asked him if he was playing well with the others and he said, "Yes, they are listening to me."  Natural leader, that one is. I did tell him he needs to let others lead, too. And when they were playing a game about being bears and attacking each other, literally slapping each other on the back (someone slapped me and I wasn't even playing!) I took him aside and told him to just pretend to scratch at others' backs but don't hit them and he seemed to understand.  Oh, AND he played kickball with the 10-14 year olds! And followed the rules, ran the bases, stopped the ball with his legs, and kicked the ball about 10 ft! Not sure how I'm ever going to keep up with this one.

Now, where did Keturah's energy go? Into growing and hormonal shifts and growling back at mom.  She didn't go with us to the playground but finished homework at Grandma's house and is watching movies and sleeping over there as well. I didn't get a chance to check her homework, but I hope that she finished because if she hasn't, then she can't have a friend over on Sunday afternoon. Justin loves the playgroup we hang out with, although a lot of the boys are younger, so he had a great afternoon.  I warned him that now that he is in high school, some older boys might tease him that he plays Minecraft, a "child's game," or that it's the only thing he likes to talk about (instead of sports or girls) and he doesn't seem to have a problem with that. He's a very young 9th grader anyway, so I don't mind that he hangs out with 8th or 7th graders, just as long as he feels comfortable when he's with his small group guys who are in 9th grade and most of them aren't homeschooled. But I think Justin is well adjusted and I pray that he stays that way.  I do worry about him sometimes because he's not as socially vocal as Benaiah is, but he's also not as introverted as I thought he would be at this point. Another homeschool mom pointed that out again today that she loves that our kids can play with any kid of any age and the older kids treat the preschoolers just the same as their peers. It's one of my favorite pros to homeschooling.  Only in K-12th grade do we segregate ourselves by age.  In the workplace, in social groups, at church, with our families, etc we are never just with our same age peers.  Learning to get along with any person of any age and in any socioeconomic status is essential to establishing equality of persons. It's not that Justin only hangs out with little kids, but he can and still have a good time.

And we all know where Benaiah's energy goes. He was out the door at 6:30 this morning.  Home again at 4pm, quick shower, and out the door again at 4:30pm to go hang out with Ava, which is so needed every week.  He might not have a heavy academic load, but his days are full of responsibility.  I do not regret for one moment that he is out and not at home with us. I've accepted those days are mostly over and should be. He had a rough week in his social circles at school, which included Ava (not his relationship with her but it was about her), and was basically teenager jealousy drama type stuff.  So, when he asked if he could borrow $10 for snacks, I gladly said yes, and no he doesn't have to pay me back. It warms my mommy heart to say yes as much as I can. Now, if he asks for that all the time, I'll be like, "no," at least some of the time, but I did have cash in my wallet, so I was glad to give it to him.  He does have to stop listening to videos when he goes to bed and keeping his middle brother awake though.  Kid, you have earpods, use them.  Lol.  Now go have fun!  You've earned it!

Now, for Jared and I, well, between our physical health issues, and trying to keep two teens and preteen and a preschooler all in check, we have zero energy.  I think doing nothing last weekend perpetuated my new sense of laziness. I've been using the excuse "but my body is still doing the hard work of healing" a little too much lately because I find myself just scrolling Instagram and playing my phone games and not wanting to check on schoolwork, etc. I still have my normal physical issues, and I've had a bit of vertigo this week, and appointments and holidays interrupt the flow, too.  I hope that I can start gaining some energy again and be a little less fibro fog and a little more on top of things. Justin's birthday is in 3 days and I have nothing planned.  He wants to go to SkyZone like we did last year so I just need to get a friend list from him and get it planned. I'm grateful he's a low key guy.  I just hope I can get it done sooner than my next surgery date on Oct 8th. At least I won't have stitches to deal with, but I do go under full anesthesia I believe and I don't really know how that's going to effect me. So pray that I can clear my head this weekend, and tackle next week with my normal (low) energy levels and get prepared for whatever may come in October. That means getting the annual apple orchard trip done whenever Benaiah has a spare hour to go! Maybe next Friday after work and Ava can come along. Sigh. I've been so lazy that I've left pots and pans in the sink for several days because I just didn't want to do them.  Granted, I'm not supposed to lift heavy things, but still, a pot isn't that heavy.

I've even been too lazy to take pictures and videos! But that's ok.  Less to process and more time to catch up on YouTube videos about anything and everything like social issues, infertility, gut health, you name it, I watch it!  Ok, no, I don't do horror and I don't watch other people play video games or cook or even do that much DIY stuff.  Anyway, as the young student dermatologist told me, "Aren't you the one who was very interested in learning medical terminology? Are you in the medical field? Oh yeah, that's right, you homeschool!" when I went in to get my wound checked.  Well, yes, I do like to learn anything and everything, thanks! It's great to be remembered that way.  Yeah for epinephrine that gave me a high and helped me be chatty on surgery day.  Lol.

Stitches update: I made it through the day without another one popping, however, after the playground, I unwrapped my outer wrapping and it was bloody! I had used regular bandages hoping they wouldn't shift as much, and while they didn't, my own scratching and shifting because the bandaging always puts pressure on the most painful parts, caused several of the stitches to bleed.  They seem to be tearing the skin towards the main incision.  I'm just praying that they don't tear all the way through. There is this one though that simply didn't stop oozing for several hours because I was making dinner and cleaning up. Thankfully, the little piece of tape I put on the tail end of the last stitch stayed on all last night and through my shower this morning.  And now the second piece of tape seems to be staying put as well. I had debating calling the dermatologist, but I'm sure they wouldn't have done anything.  There's enough healing in that area that they wouldn't try to put in new stitches, and the stitches come out in just a few days anyways.  If the current last stitch comes undone, I'll just tape the longer tail down and hope for the best and so on.  Our bodies don't like foreign objects in them anyways.  Everything else looks fine and tight.  The infection is still there but slowly going away. I think I'm just going to start wearing long sleeves when I'm out so I don't scare people, but I don't think I'll wrap it for more than two hours at a time.  The only reason to wrap it is to keep the area moist.  I'd rather dab vaseline on it several times a day than wear gauze and a wrap that shifts and itches and causes pain.  So, that's that.  9 days post op.

Trey Kennedy, a Christian comedy, is just as funny, but is totally different than John Crist.  They are definitely buddies though.  He made this parody video to Backstreet Boys' "Backstreet's Back" song about football season being back.  Hilarious!  Go check it out! I know it will only make sense to us who grew up in the '90s and loved boy bands, but it's still very funny.  It's also funny because I follow Backstreet Boys on Instagram and they are still on their reunion tour so they sing this song every night and it's often in their highlight reel. I also found out in Trey's comment section that he actually prefers 'N Sync.  Again, hilarious to me....and that's why I NEED to stay off my phone!

I did stay off my phone (mostly for 2 1/2 hrs this afternoon in the lovely 75 degree light breeze overcast weather while two of my boys played with their friends.  This is a great playground in New Palestine, but it gets flooded easily so we can't always use it for our park days.  Cute though!

Abishai was very serious, careful, and a little cautious as he crossed these wiggly poles.  He had to reposition himself multiple times to be able to stretch his hand out just right to reach the next one.Lots of problem solving going on there.

The "den" where Abishai wanted to be "Jesus" and hide from the soldiers.  The girls just wanted to be bears and hit each other on their backs.  Not cool.  The climbing wall was a little too hard for Abishai and I know I couldn't help him because I didn't want to pop anymore stitches.

So, I haven't mentioned this this week because I'm lazy, but, there's been a huge hurricane that devastated the Bahamas and barely missed Florida, but hit some of the Carolina coasts.  I don't know how much New England is going to be affected, but it's going to pass right over Nova Scotia and PEI.  I think there's a remnant of a hurricane that goes over the Island every few years or so, and same goes for major snowstorms that come up the east coast.  But this is very scary for all our friends.and it's early in the season.  Hurriane Dorian is it's name and it's been going on for a couple of weeks.

I took this screenshot because I want to remember to ask for the "Cinderella" when I got to Starbucks this year for my annual pumpkin spice latte.  I'm a moderate fan of pumpkin, but I've kind of gotten pumpkined out in the past few years.  But typically I will get one hot pumpkin spice latte, PSL for short, in the fall and one hot peppermint mocha in the winter from Starbucks using giftcards.  And when I go, I treat it like dessert so I want all the sugar it normally comes with, including the whipping cream, but I switch out regular milk for almond milk and I always get the biggest size.  I also typically get the hot drinks because Starbucks is usually cold year round and coffee is just better warm. That's how my parents drank it 95% of the time.  Occasionally they put pour it over ice in the summer. Anyway, doesn't white chocolate and pumpkin sound awesome together?! Can't wait to try it!

P.S. Late night for everyone!  Jared was showing Abishai clips of the Star Wars Episode 1 because the book they are reading has Episode 1 and 2 in it. And I could hear Abishai's voice coming down the hall from our room to my desk.  Then Keturah just came in from Grandma and Grandpa's because she decided not to spend the night because she would have to get up early. Justin had gone to bed early, and I thought it was because it was tired because Benaiah kept him up the night before.  Nope, Justin misread the clock and thought 9:30 was 10:30.  And now Benaiah came home after curfew because they took too long after the movie buying personal snacks for their school retreat next week.  So, none of our kids were in bed before 10pm. That means everybody will be sleeping in tomorrow.  I sat down at my computer at 7:30 to work on the Labor Day weekend blogs, got distracted a bit, but got one entry somewhat journaled.  Crazy kids! Time for mommy time!  Go to bed!

Saturday! Never enough time! Never enough energy!  Never enough initiative! Wait, I have some of that, just not the physical stamina to do anything about it.  Ok, staying up late never helps.  So, Jared and I took a nap.  He slept great, I slept fitfully because my legs kept twitching.  I had 3 things on the agenda today: finish school for the week, check! (Mostly, I have some prep to do for next week); get groceries, check!; finish the Labor Day weekend blog posts, not check (sad face).  Thank goodness I don't have anything to do after church in the morning so I can do prep work and catch up on here. Sigh.  It's all about choosing what feels like the right thing at that moment, even if it wasn't originally on the schedule, like a nap/connecting with your spouse. So, that's what I did.

It was another gorgeous day outside, so windows were open, Justin mowed, and Jared worked a little bit on yard things.  Benaiah slept/stayed in his bed until 12:30pm and then went to work. Keturah got up around 10 and we went over her schoolwork.  She did "earn" time with her friend tomorrow, but barely.  I gave her some grace because she did make an effort. Abishai ran around inside and outside making messes everywhere, and again, wore his pjs all day.  And that's about it.  Nothing too exciting.  Tomorrow, Sunday is the crazy day for the rest of the family.  This week will be a bit quieter I hope.  I did manage to pull my stitches a bit tighter this morning, so they hurt a bit, but I only have 3 more days and then the nurse will take them out.  Yeah! The infection is slowly getting better and the itching isn't too bad.  I'm going to just put vaseline on it for example, in the evening, or at other times I can sit still and not bump it into things so it still stays moist, but I'm not going to wrap it anymore.  I'll wear a shirt over it if I'm out. If we did Halloween, it would be a fun thing to dress up and make into a prop, lol.  But for now, me and Mr. Scar are hanging out just fine.  I am starting to get nervous about the next surgery though and I'm sure I will play out conversations I want to have with doctors during prep time a thousand more times. It's not only the procedure, but surgery stuff in general. I will definitely have more empathy for others' minor surgeries after mine, that's for sure.  But that's not for another few weeks.

Bummed that it's sold out, but pretty cool that CCM is officially 50 years old!

He didn't want to take my picture, but he had his head in the basektball hoop and was walking around trying to get everybody's attention.

Yes, you, you made all that mess! And he pulled out lots of games in the living room, but somewhere managed to clean that area up without being told by me.  That never happens.  Yeah!  Maybe it was Keturah because she didn't have anything to do during our naptime.

Yup.

Abishai cleared out just enough space for him to hide under all the stuff and poke his gun out waiting for someone to come by.  Stealth mode.

Are you cold, big boy?  It's 70 degrees in the house! Lol.  I get a little chilled below 74 as well so I don't blame him.  I even brought out my heater the other night because Jared had the windows open and it got very cool in here.

Waiting for Daddy, Keturah and Justin to bag up the groceries, Abishai and I went back to the car because Abishai was a bit stir crazy.  He's either tearing through the house or throwing massive tantrums lately.  But he does enjoy driving the car!  At least in his dreams.

Cheese!

Well that's an interesting way to cut a watermelon! Watermelon rounds anyone?  And we should have let it set out for a few days because it wasn't quite ripe.  Oh well.

The sun is setting faster, but we got wild child to take a few laps around the trampoline before bedtime.

His favorite trick: the drop and roll away from the bad guy.

I had Justin jump at a certain place to get this money shot!

So that's where the dog goes when I let him in Keturah's room at night.  I was watching him and thought he'd go for the rug under her bed or even her pink poofy chair.  Nope, his nose his near a vent.  Ok then.

Saturday night/Sunday night, this mama didn't sleep well. My restless legs were off the charts.  I should have gotten up to get more medication.  But I was worried and nervous about something and just couldn't fall asleep.  I hadn't had caffeine in the afternoon, but I did eat a gluten free cake in a mug at 11:30pm.  I woke up exhausted and very upset and grouchy. Jared did a great job comforting me this round, which means he listened to my concerns the other day.  But I've also experienced vertigo most of the day I think because now I have a major headache in a slightly different area of my forehead than I normally do because my eyes have been working overtime to compensate.  So, I'll do my best here, but it might be disjointed.

Normal Sunday through and through, with Elliot and Emily spending some time with us before Crave and small group.  Middle School small groups started tonight, and Keturah had KP worship anyway, so she went with Jared at 4pm. I brought the other kids for 6pm.  The high schoolers had their 3rd annual color throw/white out night and Benaiah, who said he wasn't going to participate, actually did.  I brought up some things at lunch today about Benaiah's goings ons, but it lead to Jared and Benaiah starting a discussion that wasn't really appropriate for everyone.  It was Justin's birthday lunch anyway, but I sabotaged it by bringing up Benaiah's stuff.  I felt really bad and tried to steer the conversation back the other kids but it didn't work. Sigh.

So, we got home and I tried to take a nap.  I think I got a few minutes in, but that's when the vertigo became very noticeable.  I did overhear that Abishai was killing Elliot and Justin on Minecraft.  He was also concerned when he couldn't find Emily, who had to play by herself for awhile because Keturah had gone to church with Jared. I finally pulled the kids off electronics for 2.5 minutes so they could eat a banana or bagel before their groups tonight.  Then I dropped the 3 of them off and headed home to wait for Jared to come home.  We had dinner together with Abishai, Jared watered the plants he put bug killer on, and back to church he went to pick them up.  We don't have a routine established yet where Benaiah takes one of our vehicles so that he can bring his siblings home.  And I can't wait until our roundabout is done so I can zip to and from church with ease. Everybody came home happy and two boys had lots of color on them, so I know they had fun.  I didn't get a chance to ask Keturah about her group, but hopefully seeing her friends tonight will give her a better attitude for the rest of the week.

Now I'm off to try to listen to some of my YouTube videos because my eyes are hurting.  Ugh. I'm tired of all this ailments and I keep questioning, "Why me?" Yup, I'm still on that train.  But that's a tale for another day.

At one point there were 250,000 people without power within just a few minutes.  PEI is just as bad.  Dorian hit NS as a category 2 and and PEI as a category 1.  Most of my friends were prepared because they know what to do with a winter storm, so why not a hurricane, right?  Fill the bathtubs with water so you can flush the toilets.  Fill as many water jugs as you can for drinking. Secure outdoor furniture.  Flashlights and generators and wood stoves at the ready.  Some church services were cancelled today because of power outages and dangerous roads. I saw videos of the storm surge and huge waves on my favorite beaches.  This one was big!

#dadlife

Again, Lego for the win.

Is this what you learn in Sunday School?  Well, no, this happen before and after Crave.

I can see the neighborhood across the street!  What happened to the trees?! Insurance told them to trim the trees or they'd lose coverage.  Bummers!

Justin's gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.  Keturah helped hide them and write the clues when she was there on Friday.  Only 6 flavors this year.  His big present is getting to go to CIY.

I didn't get a chance to get a full selfie today at church, but I tried out the double necklace thing and wore my new pink, white, and navy sweater.  Regular jeans and my blue fancy flats.  Not bad for not feeling well.

Emily and Abishai playing outside. Just be careful of those mushrooms! Jared has already sprayed them so they should die soon.  Not sure why we don't just put on gloves and tear them out, but maybe the spores get spread more when you do that.

Big boy got some color tonight.  Yeah!

This one, too.  I happened to have one of Jared's t-shirts that still has lead pencil on it nearby so I made sure it was dry and gave it to Justin to wear.

Lots of red.

Even in the hair!

Yeah! Benaiah took pictures and posted them!

Awww....you only get to be a high school senior once, so live it up!

Cuties!!!  Oh! Quick story!  We parked behind Ava again at church this morning and she was getting something out of her car.  Abishai quickly ran up to her and let her pick him up and carry him into church.  It was so sweet!  And when Benaiah walked Ava home, Abishai chased after them, too!  Sweet!

Aww, very colorful feet!

The End