Year 4, December 2nd-5th, 2019: Three Strikes and You're Out!

One dropped on Sunday night, one dropped last night, and one dropped today. Keturah was ill on Sunday night and threw up everywhere. She slept off and on throughout the day on Monday. On Tuesday, she was feisty and had a horrific attitude, but got some school work done. After dealing with the throw up all over trash and stuff that shouldn't have been in her room, I am having her do the rest of the clean up of putting her room back in order after it aired out. She made a list of about 39 foods she thinks she can't eat. Sometimes they do bother her and sometimes they don't. Some of it is a physical problem and some of it is mind over matter. I told her that her bad attitude is a choice and she was choosing unwisely and she retorted "you made me this way!" I did? Just by telling you to clean up your room? Hm,....

How is Christmas this close? This is why I made sure to do my shopping a few weeks ago.

Opening up his Paw Patrol advent calendar.  Yes, I bought him a $17 advent calendar with toys in it. He's spoiled, I know, because I have refused to buy the $35 Lego advent calendars. I'm not paying $1 per piece of Lego they get in those calendars. Justin said he might buy one of them after the New Year when they are on clearance and save it until next year.  They have several kinds of it.

Socks hadn't been brushed for at least a month, maybe two.  This is the wad of hair I got after just 20 minutes.  20 minutes!  He's been leaving chunks of hair all over the place again. There are months where we hardly see anything and then something triggers a massive shedding process and we see tufts of hair everywhere. Sigh. Next time we get a dog, it's going to be one with less fur.

A different angle of the fur.

One little sicky who slept away most of the day.

On Monday before Abishai and I got sick. Normal playtime with big brother Justin. These 5-10 minutes of playtime in between things helps keep their bodies moving and helps their brains switch off the academics for a bit. Gotta get the wiggles out!  Plus it's been excellent bonding time for these two!

I love the little foot hanging out!

Oo, this is before the skin came off in the shower I think.  Anyway, yes, I hadn't picked it, but part of the skin just peeled off, and there was a bit of blood. So I bandaged it up again with antibiotics. Thank goodness it's pants weather so I can get to it as easily to pick at it. The one on my back looks totally different.  It's a pale pink with barely a scab.  Fun times.

After Abishai got his toys this morning, he sneaked behind my back and opened up all the other doors of the advent calendar and had about half of the toys out and playing with them. Oh my I wasn't happy. So everything was confiscated for a day and I loosely taped the doors again on one side of each of them, so they do open like doors. Thankfully it was like a puzzle and I could just go by the picture and size of the door. The toys were relatively easy to put back too.  Sigh. I knew he would do this.  It's just like any other kid doing it with a chocolate one.

Abishai got out the water color paints, but he ended up telling me what to paint. I don't think I did too bad considering I was doing it at an angle.  Santa and a reindeer.

A triceratops!

Meanwhile, with two songs left at the concert, I started feeling my nose clog up and then run and my throat going scratchy. Uh oh, my turn! Full blown head cold. I'm grateful that it's not a stomach virus because takes me way longer to heal from.  My abs and back get sore from well, you know. But, this time around, Sudafed actually helped and didn't make me sleepy for a good part of the day.  We'll see if this last dose kicks in so I can type without blowing my nose every other sentence.  I managed to get laundry done, go over Justin's schoolwork of the past two days, care for Abishai and his sickness, keep Keturah moving along, and respond to a bazillion emails and photo projects I need to catch up on.  Thankfully my appointments this week don't depend on me being fully healed as long as I'm careful not to sneeze on anyone, lol.

About mid morning on Tuesday, Abishai started to whimper about not feeling good and I could feel a fever coming on.  It only reached 101.1 degrees F, and motrin brought it right down.  He ended up trying to snooze on the recliner but between Justin's talking and the dog barking, he didn't get to have a nap. He did rest enough to break his fever and then sat up and had his tablet time.  He was much, much better after Daddy came home and except for a runny nose, he was jumping up and down by bedtime. Totally opposite of Keturah who is milking her illness for all it's worth.

So, 3 people, 3 sets of symptoms, 3 different viruses at the same time?  Yup, probably!  And that's a first for us! So I'm running thieves and Raven essential oil blends in my diffusers and spraying door handles with Lysol. Jared and Benaiah really can't afford to be sick. Justin either, but he's home most of the time so he'll be fine if he does. I really don't want to have to take Benaiah to urgent care to get a doctor's note or try to get our doctor to write up one because our insurance still won't pay the urgent care visit from May and it was a nightmare trying to get the note the last time. But such is life, right?

And I'm so far behind on blogging. This is my fourth post that is partially started. It's hard keeping it all straight! And the photos and videos I took of the concert won't load up to the iCloud because my phone is full so I have to manually process those. Oh well, I'll get caught up sometime this week!  If I can see straight!

A friend on PEI posted this.  It's from Cows Creamery where they make all these fun meme type shirts using cows. How cute!  I could order one if I really wanted to but I won't.  I miss going to their clearance sales in the fall when they are trying to get rid of the past year's inventory.  We have so many shirts from there and now some of them have been passed down.

Another sicky and his shedding dog.  The dog is now leaving hair on the couch. I'm not a happy camper about it, but what can I do. Sigh.

Sick little guy with a 101.1 temperature needed Daddy hugs at lunchtime.

After 3 hrs of blowing my nose, this is what is left of a large roll of toilet paper (we use toilet paper as kleenix).

This is what it looked like before hand.

And that is my trash can near my computer full of kleenix. It's never full like that. Sigh. And apparently I did the "move my phone too quickly" thing again because it's blurry.  Bummer.

Had to switch to the DSLR because my phone was full from the concert and not uploading to the iCloud. Justin was entertaining Abishai and playing with Socks.

 Abishai and Justin playing

Puppy time!

Baby boy was down for the count for a few hours. Low grade fever. 101.1 Motrin helped. He didn't get a full nap because it was too noisy and busy.

Keturah decided to do this. Bwahahaha.

I didn't know if he was head cold sick or tummy bug sick so we took precautions.

Dozing. But check out what he's doing with his fingers and toes.

He is fiddling with his toes while he's half asleep! Just like he fiddles with his blankie sometimes. Too funny!

Wednesday. Ugh. I'm to the point in this headcold, that I'm so stuffed up and my eyes are watering so much, that I'm looking through a haze. This sinus headache is the pits. I did take excedrine migraine and then iburprofen when that wore off and it's not really done much to help. I've taken sudafed all day as well, which did slow down the snotty stuff so I could do what needed done. I have no will power to push through school or read or declutter. I'm just surviving. Abishai is nearly at 95% health capacity so he was bouncing around more. Justin is still fine and got his work done, although he bombed his math test again.  I don't know what to do about that because these grades do count towards his GPA. He has plenty of practice to get the concepts right, but he refuses to remember the steps. Do kids repeat classes so they can get a better grade? Speaking of, I probably should put together the start of a transcript for this semester. He also struggles with capitalizing words.  He just got into a bad habit of not doing it.  Super frustrating!

Keturah was fine while she was doing Grandpa class this morning and even giggling with the girls afterwards.  But as soon as they hung up, she complained about feeling so sick she wanted to throw up. Well, yes, I understand that sometimes you put on a brave face when you feel really crappy.  I do that often enough. So I let her rest, but made sure her school books were handy. She was able to accomplish a day's worth of work, except for history which she needs me for. I know it takes awhile to get back into eating but I'm at a lost of how to help her. She made that list of things she can't eat. I probably should go through that list and have her try them one by one. I just can't see straight this week to figure it out.  It's been an issue for awhile. And yes, eating disorders are on our radar. For now, I think she's innocent and not having any thoughts of that kind because we have protected her from a lot of media that might talk about it. But we are also not naive either. I do believe there's a real digestive issue going on with her because of my own issues and my family's history of them. And Benaiah has also had a few issues with certain foods. But she could also be controlling the situation. We need to be gentler with her but it's hard when I don't feel good and Abishai keeps interrupting our sleep every night about something. Last night, Benaiah's snoring woke him up.  And Jared said I snored so obnoxiously because I was in a deep sleep that even when he tried to plug my nose to make me wake up, I wouldn't wake up.  It hasn't been the best of weeks so far, although some progress has been made.

Thank goodness we got leftovers from Sunday dinner and then the e2 board meeting dinner.  We've been eating off of them for the last 3 days! I pretty much haven't cooked anything in over a week. It stretches the grocery budget, too. The budget is very stressed right now, because, although I tried to be careful with Christmas spending, I still spent money and really didn't have it in savings to begin with. So God has provided even when I was not as wise as I could have been. Not to say I'm not thrifty and think things through, because I am. I'm very much enjoying my new jeans and shirts from Old Navy. So is Benaiah and Keturah. We certainly don't live a minimalist lifestyle, but I don't just go willy nilly and buy everything.  Well, I did get trigger happy, but then when I got home, I really thought things through as to why I thought I needed it and if it would go with many outfits and up my wardrobe game just a tad, which in turn makes me feel a bit more confident. You should see how many clothes and how expensive they are that my favorite bloggers buy often. Most of my closest is hand me downs and from thrift stores. It's a huge luxury and privilege for me to buy off the rack.  I just did a lot at once because I had thinking about it for months and the sale was on now and I didn't want to take multiple trips over several weeks (although I sort of did anyway). So, to be blessed with food at a time when I choose to spend money on clothes that I don't normal purchase is kind of a confirmation that I didn't do too bad in this situation. And praise God that Justin and Abishai have lots of hand me down clothes, and Keturah sometimes gets them, too. Even part of Benaiah's wardrobe is made from hand me downs from Jared.  And Jared has some hand me downs from a long time ago that he still uses and he wears graphic t-shirts that were freebies, etc. Yeah, our closets are beyond full, but we didn't spend that much on them. We've been very blessed.

Jared took Justin went to group tonight, and then Abishai waited 20 minutes in army gear sitting in the kitchen corner waiting for Jared to come home so he could surprise him. He was very patient! And then they both just went to get Justin and Abishai said, "It took an hour for Justin to come outside!" Not literally an hour, but yes, he often is the last one to leave. Keturah stayed home from dance because of her stomach. She has one more dance class and unless she has a fever, I'm going to make sure she gets there.  I did sign her up for a homeschool choir and she's determined to hate me for it. Well, I am the teacher, and if I say you need PE and music class, then so be it. Just one semester. Maybe get some vocal training and music reading skills along the way.  I would love to take her to something she is actually interested in, but she claims she has no interests. And so I have to force it. I'm having her try different things per year or semester. The horse thing is the only thing I haven't pulled a trigger on. Next summer, after Julie's twin boys graduate (and Benaiah), would be a good time to really get things started over there. I'm not sure why I've procrastinated or not made it a priority.  Well, this is the first year I have been leaving kids at home again, so that's part of it.  Who wants to drag everyone to something all the time? We'll see. Maybe Julie needs help over the winter, if I can only get up early enough to take her. I also need to be available to stay with her the first few times.  We'll get there. In the meantime, she has to do what she's told. She's only 11. We will have time for her to make important decisions soon enough.

Interesting use of pieces from different sets.

Batman captured a Minecraft guy! Built by Abishai

Hold you position! Hold your fire! But we didn't know it was going to be a 20 minute waiting process. Jared said the floor was warm when he stepped on where Abishai had been sitting.

I can't wait any longer!

Gotcha!

Don't you just hate it when you can't breathe? Like your nose is so stuffed up because it stopped running and you have to breathe through your mouth. Except then you have to swallow. Then you stop breathing.  That's me today. Nose isn't as runny, but now I'm parched from breathing through my nose.  Jared said I've been snoring, although he tried to pinch my nose to wake me up and I didn't wake up! Wow! I must have been in deep sleep then!  Anyways, I had a counseling appointment and a couple of errands to run this morning while the kids did their school work and Abishai had tablet time. Then I went through lessons with them. Meanwhile, I did a load of laundry and put pork chops in the crockpot.  Once those were cooked, I took out the bones and added a bag of the turkey broth I made, chopped up some other vegetables, and set to cook the rest of the afternoon.  Then I added rice and some leftover quinoa which absorbed all the water and broth, more than I had expected it too!  So instead of soup, we had a rice casserole. Either way, it was warm, squishy comfort food, just the way I like it, with plenty of leftovers. All the while I was blowing my nose and sneezing and coughing. Yeah for me. Gotta keep moving. Cleaned up the kitchen, taught a piano lesson, and then cleaned up the train table I bought from a local homeschool family. The intention was to use it for Legos but Abishai wanted to put his cars on it first. I did put the Legos that were on the coffee table into one of the drawers and put the big tray of Legos under the new table. We then put the coffee table in anotehr room. I am so happy!  No more Legos (or cars) being swiped off onto the floor by a dog tail.  No more of my cookie trays are being used for Lego storage! Why didn't I think of this sooner?  And the gently used train table only cost me $25!!!  Sweet! Sometimes, I do knock it out of the park!  And this one went from idea, to purchase, to implementation within a week's time, go me!  That's it.

Normal day. Crazy boys running around. Keturah challenging on just about everything. Benaiah went to school, practiced piano for Crave on Sunday, and then came home because someone scheduled staff dinner at the same time as worship team rehearsal. Sigh.  Jared worked, came home early, picked up the table for me and played with Abishai.Tomorrow I will make food for the nursery Christmas party, wrap the gifts for it, and hopefully feel well enough to attend. I don't have a fever, so technically I can.  And since it's the only Christmas party we have, I want to go. Isn't that sad? I only have one party to attend.  There's no work party because it's just Gary and Jared. I'm not part of a Bible study or mom's group like in year's past. The kids aren't in a co op. I was thinking about that today.  Jared meets with one guy on Monday morning, two guys on Tuesday evening, and a group of guys on Friday morning. All without kids. And that's every week.  I've got nothing like that. Mom's night out once a month, which is hit or miss. A concert here and there. Sometimes park and gym days. But it's not every week. I see my counselor and doctors more often than I see friends. Maybe that needs to change next year. I really don't want to be the initiator though.  People talk about Bible Study Fellowship. Maybe I could do something like that now that my kids are older. Hm, something to think about. I do miss my MOPS groups though. Sigh. That's enough of feeling sorry for myself. I need to go wipe my nose now.

Now I'm excited to go grocery shopping! I"m sure it contains sugar, where my nutpods don't, but I don't care! Yummy!

Made basic pork chops first, took out the bones, added my frozen turkey stock from last week (I thawed it first), chopped up veggies and let it simmer in the crockpot for 4 hrs.  Add rice and let cook for another 30 minutes and boom, dinner is done and so nutrient dense.  I didn't even drain the pork juices out.  I also added my oregano and basil essential oils directly into the pot for added nutritional benefits.

I know what I'm going to pick up for Benaiah as a treat.

When I started my menstrual cycle, my mom bought me this journal to keep track of them. She didn't give me a lot of guidelines, but I have been very consistent about writing in it.  It has helped tremendously with knowing when I was pregnant and especially this year, knowing something has changed. Keturah and I bought one for her so I took these photos so I could be essentially handing down some of my mom's handwriting and words to her during this new phase of life since my Mom isn't with us anymore. I then wrote some ideas on the first page of what and how Keturah could write in it and some words of encouragement, too. I'll be keeping her book with mine because we all know how careless she is with things. She's getting better, but she agrees that it would be safer with me right now. My sisters each got one and one of them said that she doesn't know where hers is but did write in it from time to time. I know there are apps out there that help you keep track, (and paper calendars), but good old pen and paper don't need updating and the data isn't lost.

I put this photo in the back of Keturah's book, just so again, she would have my mom's word and handwriting and maybe remembers what I was like at her age. I don't know. I did have Keturah write her first two journal entries and she did fairly well. My mom didn't "check" mine but I did find a rhythm to it of what details would be helpful and what wouldn't be, so I want to help Keturah with that. Welcome to womanhood, girlie!

He did this timelapse video thing on this tweet, but I actually did capture a screen grab at the right moment.  He also bought socks this time so he can wear them in the winter like I have for mine.

Abishai was so excited to get the table, that he couldn't wait for piano lessons to be over. Then he did the cleaning himself with Daddy's help!  I went back over and cleaned as he started to play.  It was pretty clean, but had the normal kid hand smudges on it and some dust and dirt in the drawers.  I just wanted to start out with it really clean because I know it will get icky soon enough.

Cars, cars, cars!

The coffee table (that was never used for drinks and food anyway) has been replaced. Sweet deal!

Ah, the Legos (in the drawers and the tray underneath which fit perfectly!) have been contained.  I repeat: the Legos have been contained!  Mommy wins this battle, at least for now! We'll see how the war actually plays out, lol.

The End