Year 4, November 18th-21st, 2019: Rest and Recovery

Hi!  It's Monday! And we worked hard today!  I finally had all the pieces to Abishai's track he got for Christmas last year, so we put that up on the wall.  Only to discover one last piece was missing! I found something that did the trick, but as I go through the other bins this week, I'm hoping I find it because I thought I saw it somewhere. Then I spent most of the rest of the day finally cleaning up the sunroom enough so I could gather all the odds and ends and cars/trucks/planes/balls from all parts of the house to do a big sort of them.  I'm hoping to condense them and get rid of some.  It's going to be hard because Abishai loves them all.  We'll see though. I'm just tired of bins and bins of stuff when I know there's room in each bin if they were sorted properly.  I also cleaned off the fireplace, the bench behind the couch in the fireside room, and removed almost every toy from the living room except Abishai's specific Legos and the Kinex (the crane is still built, so I didn't want to tear that apart yet). I also removed all toys from the fireside room in preparation for Christmas decorating next week.  Tomorrow I will tackle books in that room and also the garage so we can move the upside table thing out there. The goal is to do a good sort, give some toys away, and then put some back in the shed again. It's hard to know exactly what you have unless you put it all together in one spot. Isn't that part of the Konmari method? Lol. Maybe it is, but it is the way I prefer to do it so I don't have duplicates. I've been lazy sometimes though and end up with duplicates.

In the midst of pre clean up prep, the doctor called and asked if Keturah could come at 1:30 pm today to get started on a cast.  I said sure, why not, so off we trotted.  We were there for less than 30 minutes. Boom, done! A removable cast was put on her after it had been warmed up slightly so it would mold to her.  Think of a more rigid splint or brace.  She can only take it off for showering. It comes with washable sleeves that you put on first, so I'm guessing it will cut down on the itchiness and ugly skin that comes from casts holding the dead skin on the body. It is only available for the forearm I think.  And now we won't have to go back for another 4 weeks for an updated x ray and to see if she can keep it off permanently.  Easy peasy.  She has asked for ibuprofen a couple of times, once last night, and then a couple of hours after she woke up this morning.  She asked for more this afternoon, but she wasn't close enough to her next dose.  I also wanted to wait until bedtime because it's supposed to last 8 hrs and I don't want her getting up in the middle of the night for more. She slept ok last night though and got all her school work done just fine today.  Thank goodness it was her left arm and not her right!  I asked her if she feels embarrassed or clumsy or stupid and she said no.  I'm just happy that the ER visit took under hrs, it was a simple torus break easy to heal and care of, and we got get right into the doctor and not have to wait for the swelling to go down to put a cast on. We did everything through St. Francis, and they seem to take medicaid so I hope we don't have any residual bills.  When Justin went to Riley for his broken arm, he was fully covered.  It was a much more serious break so the ER wanted Riley to handle it and then we finished up through them. That meant trips downtown, which isn't my favorite.  St. Francis Indianapolis is where my ob-gyn was when we lived here from 2001-2012 and the three oldest kids were all born there. But when we had an emergency, we would go to the Beech Grove campus, which no longer exists, literally 100 yards from our front door on 16th street.  Jared used their ER and then had his surgeries for his broken arms at Community East. Oh, and the St. Francis system still had us living on 16th St in Beech Grove! It's crazy how they kept our records although we were gone for 4 yrs and we don't typically use them! That's a good/bad thing.  At least the doctor today could use the x rays from the ER literally downstairs from them.

I made a nice dinner of baby potatoes and chicken using two of the dressing packets I got with my salad from Chick Fil A during the "the Talk."  They had sent one packet of every kind in the bag so I saved them!  And boy was it yummy! I used the lite Italian and the apple cider vinaigrette. Then I went over Justin's homework since we couldn't do that this afternoon.  He spent the afternoon working in Grandpa's yard mulching all the leaves.  He will need to go back and do more of that tomorrow. Jared came home midday because Gary said he could/should go to Keturah's appointment.  Instead, he stayed home with Abishai for me.  Then he spent the rest of the afternoon keeping Abishai busy so I could do school with Keturah. So that was fun and unexpected and helpful. I also asked him to come home if he could so he could pop open the thing under the sink where things get trapped because Benaiah thought his bracelet from Ava had fallen into the sink again.  When I got that text this morning before Benaiah had to leave his phone in the office for the day, I was a bit fanatical about no one using that bathroom until the bracelet was found.  I could not find it!  I shook out the clothing in the laundry basket, looked under the rugs, and in all the corners. Benaiah texted back at 1:30 when he picked up his phone from the office (school policy) that he actually did have it on him.  It probably had gotten stuck in his sweatshirt or something.  Phew!  I was going to be very upset if we hadn't found it.  He's had it for a while and this is the first time something has happened to it. If I find it in the bathroom, I immediately put it on his desk. He wears it often, even to bed. He and I are romantic fools, I know.  It's fun.

Ok, time to finish up this entry and then go back and finish the last post.  I keep stopping in the middle because I keep falling asleep typing and the words don't make any sense! It's only 9:15, so hopefully I can get both done tonight!

Oo, I wonder what is going on done at the Beavers' house!  The sign reads: "Workers ahead."

Not too much.  Just some extra trucks.  They finished the roof today though. I don't know if electricity was going in yet or not.

Poop!  The camera did it again!  Why is it that I can't get clear pictures anymore?! It must be the latest update on the phone or something.  I might retake this one tomorrow, but how sweet is this? I'm pretty frustrated though because I keep missing some great moments!

And then I get clear pics of things I don't really want. Somehow the wood got separated from the counter top.  It's not holding up the countertop, but creates a ledge for the "breakfast bar" part.  Jared wants to get rid of the ledge, but I find it useful.

This is the last piece we need to make the track work perfectly.

Abishai absolutely loves it!  I sent pictures and videos to Brenda, Caiden's mom, who I had purchased it from.  Yeah!

Of course Justin is never too old to play with things like Hot Wheels.  The trick is to find the right size and weight of car and then you can get it to make several rounds of loops.  There's a speed booster that is powered by 4 D batteries at the bottom there.

The actual x-rays from last night.  Now, the huge lines yo usee near the rest are the growth plates.  I can't really find the fracture but it seems to me with my untrained eye that the arm bone is slightly bent.

Hm, not much to see.

Keturah's splint last night.  It was like a flimsy wad of cotton batting and then within a few minutes it was hard.  Sweet!

Waiting to be fitted with the cast.

Yup, that's a cast!  They warmed it up, and then manipulated it over her arm as it cooled.  With that knob there towards her elbow, you can tighten and loose the strings enough to get it off and on.  It kind of reminded me of the prosthetic limb that a vlogger uses to do work outs with.  She lost her hand and part of her forearm in a boating accident.  Her prosthetic has a similar knob to tighten down the prosthetic to her stump.

Much harder than a brace, believe me. You put on the black sleeve first, and the sleeve is washable!  The cast comes with two of them.  Isn't technology incredible?

So Daddy was home today so what do they naturally do but play Minecraft!  Abishai didn't "want to go to bed" so his character kept getting up and Daddy's character had to keep chasing him done.  Abishai laughed hysterically!

I'm kind of glad this one got blurred out.  I was trying to get rid of anything that wasn't a DVD or VHS on the DVD and VHS shelves and found a pair of Keturah's underwear!  Say what?!  How on earth did that get on the TOP SHELF which is where I can't reach?! Did someone fling it up there and forget about it?  Ewwww!!!! 

Spoiled munchkin not only gets to sleep on the couch in the fireside room (he's practicing for Christmas Eve), but Daddy built a fire for him!  Spoiled!

I briefly out of the corner of my eye saw notification that Shauna was online and Keturah told me she sent some pictures to her.  So, I went back to the app to see who else Keturah had talked to and found these. I didn't know she knew how to text and use emjois like that, but gifs! Alrighty then!  We have to get the silver type of sharpies so that they will show up on the cast, and the cast is ours, so we can do what we want with it. Her friends told her they would sign her cast next week, not expecting this type of cast.  I think that's so sweet that they want to do that!

Aww, it hurts a lot, I know.  Poor thing.

Tuesday was more of the same.  I kept working in the sunroom and sorted all the toys into categories and condensed boxes to get rid of cardboard boxes and such.  That was no easy task when all Abishai wanted to do was take each new toy he hadn't seen in awhile to play with. But we got it done.  I did get a small bag of stuff ready for the giving box.  I don't know if I want to get rid of more or what exactly to get rid of.  Maybe when he's older he will be more objective. There are some remote controlled cars I'm willing to part with and some McDonald's toys for sure. But he still wants them and does play with them, so for now, at least they are categorized and he seems to understand the categories. Now, which ones can I take to the shed or garage?  Who knows.  But I did but some boxes behind my desk chair in the "storage" area.  I really want to teach Abishai how to pick up a type of toy before he dumps another box out.  I don't mind if a couple of boxes are dumped out because creativity comes with playing with different toys all at once.  But, if the floor is covered, it's time to put something away.

In the afternoon, Keturah and I did a major round of schoolwork but the time also got away from us, too.  Oh, that's what happened, Justin had to go to Grandpa's house to finish mulching the leaves. That put him behind on schoolwork so we didn't finish his math until late and had to do the final check this morning. Sorry kid, when you have to balance school and work you don't have time for video games, just ask Benaiah.

Then in the evening, we went to Gary and Leah's for a full Sunday type meal for Leah's birthday.  Benaiah was able to join us because he had asked for the day off to go to a concert, but his friend forgot to buy the tickets.  Some friend! Yes, Leah prepared her own birthday supper and that's totally ok.  We don't like eating out because of expense and the noise level of a lot of restaurants. And Leah said she wanted leftover turkey, which she never gets when we get together with her side of the family.  So, she made a Thanksgiving type meal.  Cooking is her gift and I'm sure she was just happy to have all of us there on her birthday.  She didn't have Lifebridge because there was no school because of the Red for Ed event (see below). So, it all worked out. The only thing missing was the cranberry sauce which isn't a staple in the Johnson Thanksgiving.  But, it's a staple in mine, so I usually make it and bring it.  Well, I bring the dessert version with apples, jello, and whole berry sauce.  My parents would just serve cranberry sauce straight from the cane. For dessert, Leah made this yummy apple crumble thing which called for almond paste.  She said she had never bought and used it before.  It's not the texture of almond butter.  It has added ingredients like sugar and resembles more of a fudge than anything.  She let me have the rest of the box and I think I could eat the whole box straight out of it. It MADE the dessert so much yummier!  But then again, I love nuts in as many foods as I can and I'm used to drinking almond milk and using it as an alternative in cooking. Yes I've used plain unsweetened almond milk in mashed potatoes before.  It's fine. Anyway, almond paste is super yummy.

Jared then took Abishai over to Jim's house for their weekly discipleship hour. The man cave/shed is done, so Derrick and Abishai spent the hour in the shed playing a vintage arcade game while the men talked. Lucky, the dog, was the only girl allowed into the shed, lol.  On Wednesday, Abishai asked if he could go play with Derrick again.  So sweet considering Derrick is several years older than him.  That's when Gary, Leah, Benaiah, Justin, and Keturah played nerts (card game) together with 4 decks, a first in the Johnson household.  Fun was had by all and Keturah and Grandma won! And that was the day!

So, you are telling me that $10,000 per student per year isn't enough to educate them?  I educate mine for way less than that.  Plus, Jared makes the same amount of money as an average teacher, and we make it work. In a two income family, that should be enough.

True, and I believe the teachers and general public believe that, but according to my credible sources, Red for Ed started with a socialist part in Arizona.  So, who knows what's going to happen or if it will do any good.  So many teachers went to the state house today to participate that a lot of school districts canceled school and instead used it as an e-learning day.  They will make up the day in the spring. After some long discussions on Facebook, my conclusion still is that our children will become adults before anything changes, so we are not sending our kids into that enviornment. We pray for our friends who are teachers and for the law makers etc. to make some progress on a local level, but I doubt anything will change any time soon.  It's a broken system.  Plus, half of Indiana's budget already goes to education. So, it's not about funding, it's about allocation of those funds and the waste in administrative costs to make sure standardized tests are done right and who gets to have the funds, etc. I haven't had any phone calls or emails from parents withdrawing their kids from school in order to homeshcool them yet, but there's been a ton of new people on our FB group who did just that. I'm all prepped and ready to help.

Abishai helped to write his first real "A" in a birthday card!  He seems a bit interested (he wrote A in the sand at the big hike we did, and now he was willing to do this one!) so we are taking baby steps towards more formal education.  I'm still going to keep it much more relaxed than the other kids, but there's hope that he will take an interest in it whereas a few months ago he refused to.

So many different writing styles!  Benaiah's name is missing because we signed it before we went to Grandma's house for dinner.

The rowdiest game of nerts ever!  4 decks! Grandma and Keturah were a team (and they actually switched seats) but the guys all played for themselves.  I think this is the first time that three of our kids have played nerts together.  Keturah and Grandma kept winning every hand and ultimately won the game!  Justin, as he usually is, was the slowest.  Even Benaiah and Grandpa couldn't keep up.  These moments are so precious because they are so rare.  Between Gary's and Benaiah's schedules, we are hardly ever all together and it makes me extremely sad and I fight against it.

Benaiah finally won a hand!  Now we need to teach Ava how to play!  Benaiah said he would be ruthless with her when he teaches her.  He's so mean!

This is true.

Wednesday I woke up and felt off.  Abishai was all up in my face as usual, but it made me pretty irritated.  Although I didn't do much heavy lifting, I think steadily working for two days in a row plus the fluctuating weather did me in. Time to rest.  I gave myself grace and slowed down today.  I had tons of brain fog, so I just went slowly and surely and got done a couple of things.  Health insurance is still pending, so I can't do anything with our medical bills. I checked on the claim from Benaiah's minor accident in August and it said closed on the website, but there's no other information so I emailed our insurance rep to be sure.  I've never had to follow up on a claim before, so I'm just triple checking. I did have a chiropractor appointment, so I did that.  And then Jared drove Keturah all the way over to dance before her instructor called me to say she (the instructor) had fallen and wouldn't make it to class.  Oh well. Benaiah is playing drums tonight for an hour long special worship night for the youth group during their normal small group time but at church. That means I drove Justin to church and will pick him up in a little bit. (Trying to get ahead of my evening routine here since I didn't get to the blog yesterday and of course regret it because I don't remember much from day to day, like if I had corn casserole last night or not and it did have wheat in it, oi!)

Ava drove Benaiah to and from school today and it went well she said.  They went to leadership this afternoon and then I assume she went home and Benaiah stayed to practice for tonight.  He said that he can't bring Justin home because now that he can drive friends, he's helping Lisa out by driving Ethan around when he can. Ok, fine, dude, it's a good thing church is 5 minutes away. He's going to Anderson (an hour away) with Matt McConnell from church to help set up for a youth conference up there.  Indian Creek typically does the stage set up and sound system for whoever is going.  It's a conference that is older than CIY (maybe, I'll have to fact check Leah because I went to CIY in 1998, so 21 years ago, and if this conference is only a bit over 30 yrs old, they are basically the same age.  Perhaps Indian Creek didn't participate very heavily in CIY back then because it was further and more expensive, who knows.)  Benaiah is going with a few other people and then he gets to share a hotel with another guy and will spend all day Saturday up there. He had to ask off for work, which means in the last two months he's had much smaller paychecks.  So, he's trying not to take off too much for Christmas.  He got his schedule for Thanksgiving and he does have to work on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but not the Wednesday before. Anyway, that means if he goes Black Friday shopping, he will have to do it in the morning because he has an afternoon/evening shift.  Fun!

Otherwise, Abishai played all day and was up to his usual antics. He's now playing video games with Daddy.  I think we are going to encourage him to sleep in his own bed because he keeps waking up early I think because he's lonely and cold in the fireside room. It was fun while it lasted. Back to bedtime reading in our bed?  Or reading on the couch and tuck him into his bed?  Hm,...we don't want him to grow up too fast, that's for sure!  But when I was looking up why he might be making a slurping sound when he talks a lot, I typed in "5 yr old" because in three short months he'll be 5!  Ah!  I want a baby! And that means next year I'll be homeschooling 3 kids again.  Eeek! Don't worry, it won't be much different because whatever time I play with him now while translate into school time next year. Kindergarten takes 30-60 minutes broken up into 5-10minute segments.  Easy peasy and I can't wait to teach him to read!  It's been a long time since I did that! Ok, only 6 years, but that feels like forever ago! Oh, and math!  Yeah! Have I told you how I love math, especially the "plug and chug" of Algebra 1?  I adore it! Black and white thinking is how I operate.  My moodiness and "answer varies" of the language arts drives me crazy!

Keturah's right thumb is being irritated by the cast and I sort of felt bad but also told her to suck it up because if it was an unmovable cast, there's nothing we could do.  We took off the cast briefly to check to it and it wasn't that bad.  I know it's annoying, but that's the consequences of your curiousity, kid.  She had been standing on the chair to look into the Christmas Advent boxes that are going to be handed out to families.  Uh, not sure why she needed to look inside them.  I'm guessing she'll second guess herself next time.  I did overhear her tell her cousins today how it happened and where it happened, i.e. because she had been standing on a high chair AND it was very near the spot where Justin got injured.  So, she's been listening to us tell the story and remembering those details, but she can't remember if she's had sugar earlier in the day or if she was grounded from the tablet or that I told her to finish certain subjects by Monday and even write it down in her assignment book, but she forgets to open it up. SMH Anyway, I'm glad she can remember some things.  It's just hard to have sympathy when she was doing something she shouldn't have been AND I've been in a lot of pain myself today. The mole biopsy spots are darn right itchy and so enjoying and sore. No amount of oils and lotions and benadryl products are helping. It's just a matter of time. At least Keturah didn't ask for more pain mediation today, and she didn't wince when we took the cast off and on. She has zero swelling from what I can tell and not bruising, so it was a pretty minor break. Thank goodness.  I still have to find her the right markers so that her friends can sign her cast. It's a good thing that we are poor enough that the kids are fully covered by medicaid. Jared and I, on the other hand, have a nice high deductible of $13,000 together, so,....who knows how my bills were actually be.

Ok, enough of that.  Tomorrow is another full day at home and we'll finish up most lessons for the week because we are babysitting Carter on Friday.  Yeah! Oh, yeah, that means I need to clean up the legos or wall them off somehow.  I do have one play yard in the house right now.  And I should get out the other toddler toys from the shed.....but I don't want to!  And it's going to rain, so that might have to wait until Friday. Grandpa asked Justin to put up the outdoor Christmas lights today but he couldn't because I was gone.  And tomorrow it's going to rain.  And Grandpa is gone Friday-Sunday again.  I guess it will wait until next week.  That's what happens when you are now gone 50 out of 52 weekends a year and the rest of the family has plenty of activities during the week to keep us busy. It makes it hard to invite people over for family dinner, too.

Yup, Momma's still moody.  Back to getting some work done like watching a show for Justin's schooling and reading Calvin and other heavy theology books, oh fun! Give me math instead, please?! Lol.

Yup

Abishai told lots and lots of stories to himself today using the "new" toys. They are too cute!

Looking comfy for screen time.

Mom, do you have to take a picture? Actually, do you see the small piece on the roof of the barn?  That's an old laptop in the attic Abishai said.

Using his Paw Patrol city scape to set up the Linocln Log town.  He and I played for awhile with this set up.  I kept making my character fall asleep (at the laptop, after looking at the animals, after chasing the loose animals, etc.)  It was a fun game.  Then he destroyed the houses so we could make another bigger house on the instruction sheet, which is so torn up but I have most of the pieces of it in the plastic bag, plus I've made them so many times, it's easy to build them just by looking at one picture.

Oh my goodness.  I'm so exhausted. Jared was tossing and turning last night and then Abishai came into our room at 6:45am. He snuggled for a bit, and then went to find breakfast.  Well, he was quiet so I thought he was just playing with toys, so I feel back asleep!  I slept until 8:30am or so.  When I got up, I found Abishai playing Justin's expensive (and still fairly new) DS2!  He had been playing for at least an hour!  No wonder he was quiet!  It was both Justin's and my fault because we hadn't sorted the ds's and put them away yet.  Thankfully, he was just playing on some demo games and didn't ruin Justin's progress on his Pokemon game. I'm grateful for the extra sleep but now he's going to have extra screen time for the day. I guess it will balance out with tomorrow because we won't have our typical afternoon of screens when we are babysitting Carter.

That's what we did with part of our day.  We prepared for Carter to come over.  I was able to get the clothing boxes out to the shed and bring in the toddler toys box.  I should just leave that box at the top of the piles or even in the garage because it was all the way down on the bottom of the back pile toys.  I had to have Justin help with moving boxes around so I wouldn't be so sore later.  We brought in a baby play yard and put it around Abishai's Lego table.  We plan to put away all the toys tonight so we can vacuum fully in the morning and make sure anything little is put up. Carter is older now, but still would probably swallow a Lego or marble.  Abishai is very excited to have a little person to play with and look after.  He's been concerned all day about making sure Carter doesn't find something to choke on. Abishai and I also had a raspberry blowing contest and I let him play on one of phone games.  He did have two more hours of screen time because I finally got work with the other kids on their schoolwork from 2-4pm.  It seems like I have to wait all day for them to be ready for me, especially when they don't start until 10:30am because they slept in.

School was ok. I wish the kids had better attention spans and retention skills.  Sometimes it takes a lot of questioning to get them to respond in a way that lets me know they've read the material and understand. Even when we have had tests, they don't do that great on them.  I'm trying not to worry about it because I don't know what to do about it, if anything. Those frontal lobes are still in the process of reloading so, I know they need more time.  I really just need more sleep.  My body hurts, I can't think straight, and I know if I pick up a book to try and read it like I should, I'll fall asleep.  So I'm typing this up early so I can get right on some videos and head to bed early.  I want to try and fit in my blood draw in the morning and then call the dermatologist because my biopsy on my leg is still very tender.  I don't have time to go down there tomorrow, but maybe on Monday or maybe they can call a prescription in given my history so far.  Who knows, but I'll try.  I should also do some prep work on some IAHE stuff so I can start making phone calls and sending out emails. I did do a few little things today, so that's good. Ok, piano lesson and then videos and then bedtime.

Abishai insisted that Socks looked cute so I needed to take a picture of him.

Aww, Mr. Long Legs who won't quit barking at the squirrels that seem to be hyperactive this week.

Keturah played with Abishai this morning and they built garages for all the Paw Patrol vehicles.  He then used Rubble's bulldozer to push some jingle blocks into the polar bear cave from the toddler box.  The polar bear used to roar, but when I put in fresh batteries, it still wouldn't work.  The whole set goes for less than $20 on eBay so I might get it off of there.  I'll add it to my "favorite searches" list where I keep looking but never buy because do we really need to replace broken toys just because they used to be favorites?

A coach for the Boston Celtics I think special ordered these sneakers!  They have the PEI flag and the Confederation Bridge on them.  Cool!

Since we didn't get pictures done yet, and I know that we would like to wear these clothes again soon, I took this picture so I would remember what I picked out in case we get another opportunity like in front of the Christmas tree display at church in a few weeks.

Still very red and irritated despite keeping it covered with vaseline and a bandaid, or letting it air out, or a number of combinations of lotions and essential oils.  Time to call the dermatologist.

Here's the one on my back.  It's much more healed up. And it's a good thing that I can't reach it because I would probably scratch off the scab.

Update: I didn't call the dermatologist because the leg one finally scabbed over after I left it unbandaged (but protected by my pj pants).  Yeah!  It's still tender and red, but I found the prescription cream that the doctor gave me in September for all of them.  It felt a bit better as the day went on (Friday, which is in the next blog). I just didn't want to bug the dermatologist and/or go out of the house. I'll call Monday if I need to.  Trying to be patient and trying NOT to be a hypochondriac.

Abishai had asked Daddy what he wanted for Christmas and Daddy said, "A big tree."  This was Abishai's response.

The End