Year 5, January 20th-23rd, 2020: A Week at Home!

Ah, finally, a normal looking week! Mostly. We ended up being out for a little extra bit after Keturah's choir class this afternoon because we needed to pick up Justin from Montica's house and we went past the eye doctor's place anyway, and Keturah's glasses were falling off her face, so we did that. I should have left my glasses alone because now the nose pads hurt. I think they are too tight, so I loosened them just now. Hopefully that will work. We managed to sneak in showers and school today, although Justin couldn't put his mind to much because he didn't go to bed until after midnight last night. On the way home from Montica's, I did take the three past the old house in Beech Grove. We had taken one of the old, old back roads to Montica's and I told Keturah the history again of each place we drove past, lol. I almost didn't get through that old, old road, and although it wasn't totally blocked off, there were several large cones indicating major pot holes. Plus there was ice under the train bridge that was a little scary. But we made it there and back. Once we got home, everyone got their stuff done and put on their pjs. Leftovers and fresh veggies for dinner, which was a tad late because I was working on math with Justin. He would fail math if he was in school. And it's not like he doesn't understand it, because he does. This time, he tried to do the test problems in his head again instead of writing them out on paper. He would have done so much better if he had written them out. SMH. I don't know if I can honestly boost his grade, or drop his lowest grades, or something to boost them up. I haven't wanted to write up a transcript yet partially because of that. Sigh.

Keturah continued with the same attitude today as yesterday, although she got up in plenty of time to get her work done before we left so we only had a little more to do when we got home. She doesn't hate choir, but doesn't like it either yet. Meanwhile, Abishai has some new built in social time with the choir members' siblings. There was a lot of teaching and instructing the little ones while us mamas kept an eye on them in the nursery. Perfect! Abishai saw a little girl not understanding that the little trike didn't have pedals so he offered to show her. He did and then got right off! It was so cute, and yet, he sounded like a YouTuber. *facepalm* Whoops.  Lots of sharing and getting along, too. And then after choir, I spoke briefly with the choir director because she wants to get involved with the IAHE! Bingo! It was mentioned that if we all recruited ONE person to join the IAHE team as a year round volunteer, imagine how much we could grow! So, we got one! And Jared sent out an email or text to a pastor in Fort Wayne to try to find someone for that area. Way to go! I was going to write out some names to work on but I'm glad that for once, I don't have to think too hard about this or feel guilty when I don't do it. Mission accomplished. Now for the 101 other things I'd like to do for the IAHE but don't have the guts to do. I'm a big talker and not a big walker these days. So, I'm off to do one of those in a little bit:postcards to the state education committee over that nasty bill. Hopefully it doesn't go too fast through the legislature. Meanwhile, we've had many opportunities to talk about the IAHE homeschool convention on the FB page, so hopefully the word is getting out. Yeah!

I bought a flexi clip that is plain with a little clip to hold these charms, so I added all our birthstones to it today. I need to label all the bags so I know which month goes with each gem. I didn't want to order a second set, so the one pearly one will have to suffice for both Benaiah and Keturah. I bought extender rings as well so I have two tiers of danglies!

Building, building, and fighting.

Great night for a roaring fire while playing Lego.

Smoldering fire. Not fake. Not YouTube. And the fireside room is super warm!

Tuesday was our full day at home.  Abishai had slept on the couch again but Jared said he ended up in our bed at 6:15. Abishai and I got a lot of snuggles in, that's for sure, and I love that so much! He finally got me to get up at 8:30. Then he and I made waffles. I think the other two rolled out of bed with much prompting between 9:30 and 10. I tried to let Justin catch up on some sleep but at the same time, not enough gets done when they get up that late and they are brain dead after supper, so not much is accomplished then. I also found Justin on his phone way too much today, so tomorrow, I will be taking it away during school hours as he has been warned multiple times about this. I hate doing that, but something's gotta give. Abishai and Keturah had opportunities to interact today, but a lot of it resulted in Abishai crying and Keturah saying things that didn't need to be said like "when is it tablet time?" I'd like to transition Abishai away from doing tablet time while I do Keturah's read alouds. Keturah listened to Benaiah's read alouds when she was 4 and 5 and then just continued on with us when she started school. Abishai doesn't have to listen, but he can learn to be respectful and quiet. And we'll be working on his skills for sitting through a performance or sermon, too, and not getting up 100x during dinner. Sunday was NOT a good example of that. I also tried to work with him on sticking with the rules he wanted to use for the "board" game (the round board with pegs and holes) and he was pretty unhappy about it, but he did win. He's smart enough to follow the rules, no more just randomly doing whatever he wants to. Creating better habits and character here.

Speaking of, Keturah hit Abishai again, although Abishai did push her. She accidentally hit a knob in the kitchen when she tripped backwards from Abishai's push. She just seemed bored today and kept calling Abishai to her and then causing drama over whatever. It's because she has a lot of selfishness. And so do the rest of us. I show selfishness when I don't get up to do something for them or I tell them to wait until I finish my phone games. Or when I wait to help put away chairs at church because others are stronger than I and I know I will hurt later. And now Jared can't model that either. That's why I was so frustrated that a) the older boys weren't asked to help with the moving around of furniture and painting the e2 office (they added another office person) and b) when Benaiah was told there was an opportunity, he didn't make the effort to help.  We only seem to volunteer or serve when it benefits us. Keturah always gets her pop and snack if she's on KP worship team, so does Justin. And there are times we serve, but the other members of the family don't see it, and we don't talk about why we serve. So, our "word for the year" is going to be about servitude, which goes along with what I tried to focus on the last few months of 2019: kindness.

We battle selfishness our whole lives, but it seems to be at an unbelievable high in our house right now. The kids argue about how many popsicles, or treats, or fruit snacks they each get out of a particular box. They are 5, 11, 14, and 17! The older 3 especially need to just get over it. Everyone thinks they need dump out a box of something and label each individual package. Part of it's my fault because I wanted to make things fair and it temporarily stops the argument if they each have their own baggy of treats. And there are times we have to label Benaiah's food because he bought it or my food because it's gluten free. But when they fight over it and scream about it, there's something missing as to why we put our names on things. It's so petty. And it has to start with me not being petty about it or getting over it quickly. Maybe homeschooling has sheltered them a little bit and I've made things too fair. Hm,....

Keturah and I finished her schoolwork, while Justin was taking a nap on the bathroom floor because he had a headache. He was able to eat dinner and try some schoolwork again, but just now had to go to bed early because he had the same headache or another one. Sigh. And just when I thought we would make some progress this week. I had said we would play board games together, but then we were out yesterday afternoon and today was just as back and forth and then Justin got ill and I had to figure out how to use the instapot, send emails to state senators, and find out how to get to know Abishai's friends so I can invite them to his party. Sigh. Little things that aren't black and white but I need to stop procrastinating on and just try to do, however imperfectly. I had to guess and was nervous about the insta pot, but it worked pretty well. It took forever to get to the right pressure so dinner was later than expected. I've learned some good lessons about it, but there's still a lot more to learn before I can fully use it. And why does every recipe for chicken have something that Jared won't eat in it!? I just wanted a basic recipe to cook chicken, you know with just herbs and broth. I pieced together info from several sources and just went for it. It took 45 minutes to cook chicken from frozen. That's almost as long as it takes in the oven. Mashed potatoes as 20 minutes start to finish, so that was quicker than the stove top a bit. Definitely not as instant as I thought it would be. I need to expand my recipe list, so I'll start there. One meal at a time. But clean up was easy! Yeah!

Everyone is early to bed because Abishia's friend Kaison is coming over tomorrow around 10. We got the living room more baby proof for his 1 yr old and 3 yr old siblings. So hopefully that will put our mama minds at ease. Then school, then small groups. Here we go again.

I forgot to look back at the washer later on, but I found that the hose that comes from the washer to the drain hose doesn't connect equally. There's a gap. Thankfully the box there is plastic and it doesn't look like it's been leaking over the box, but still. I don't think I've seen a set up like this. The bubbles were backing up from the drain tube. Hm,...

Used the mixer to make waffle mix just because I could. It was nice not to have to mix it up. Nice and smooth batter.  Not gluten free, but that's ok.

Abishai thinks the waffles came out great!

So totally us sometimes! I'll be texting "eta?" and he's sitting in the car in the driveway or he's gotten out and doing something outside.

Can you really put a cardboard egg container in the insta pot? Um, I'm not so sure. Wouldn't the cardboard get soggy?

Rolling a pencil down a binder is a hoot they think.

Note to self: don't use frozen chicken. It took 30 minutes to come to pressure and then another 15 to cook. But it was the consistency I wanted so, it's a win!

Then I put cut up potatoes into the chicken broth for mashed potatoes. 10 minutes to come to pressure, 10 minutes to cook. And no dairy! The kids even liked them!

Abishai cleaned his plate!  We also had frozen veggies steamed in the microwave. Yum!

Playing the board game where he doesn't want to stick to the rules he made up. You're almost 5, it's time to conform to the rest of us, man. You can make up the rules, but you have to keep them and not change them to give you the advantage.

Wednesday, Wednesday, what was Wednesday? This is why I hate skipping days....Great school day. Had dinner with Gary and Leah because Ron and Nina were spending the night on their way down to Florida. Leah texted me to ask about a time and I said, "What dinner?" Oh, the one that was rescheduled from last week. We hadn't talked about it nor was it on my calendar. What was funny was that this was our 3rd dinner with Gary and Leah in a week and I had most of her plastic tupperware used for leftovers! I had to make sure to bring some back so she could essentially refill them. And then on Thursday, I portioned them out so that everybody got a roundish meal and no one was upset at what they had. Speaking of, I need to go put the dishwasher on because we emptied multiple containers.  Yeah!

Oh! That's what happened yesterday! We finally had a play date with Kaison and his family! (The one boy that Abishai keeps calling him "Tyson.") Nice family with little ones, ages 8 and under. Moved here in early 2018 from Arizona. No family in town. But the kids got along well and she didn't mind too much when I gabbered on about homeschooling. I apologized later on FB messenger because I had told myself going into the conversation not to overwhelm her, especially since her oldest is in school. No guilt trips for a new acquaintance. Kaison's mom was fairly chill and go with the flow. Oh, and she's a member of Tuesday morning MOPS and she is the craft leader! Well, that's a nice connection and something to talk about. Our conversations were awkward a bit. Not sure if she was shy, but we both didn't rush in to talk when there was some silent moments. It was good chance to brush up on my people skills. The boys playe with guns and ran away. Abishai had me build a police garage for all his police cars and made sure the little baby daughter doesn't destroy things. Kaison and his family left about noon, and then we had lunch and school, dinner, and small group and Bible Barn. Bible Barn was just as good as the last two times. We're already opening up, which is great. Let's keep this motivation going!

Fun Instagram post. You screenshot someone else's blank one, fill it end, and then repost the blank one.

It took the same amount of time, 5 minutes to pressure, 5 minutes to cook, then an ice bath and finally the fridge. They were a bit harder to peel the next day because they dried out a little and what makes the eggs slide easily is that there's still some moisture trapped betwen the shell and the yoke.

Oh boy. I'm not ready for this. But it has to happen Rebranding.

Go get thee to a library and read this! I'm only a chapter in and I love their style and they've already pointed out some great stuff that they did well and not so well. It's a winner and a must read for the youth!

Literally every day in my brain!

Trying out Grandpa's boots! They are big shoes to fill but if anyone can do it, it's Abishai! Yes, apparently, Gary used to wear cowboy boots a lot (before I joined the clan) and he just got into them again a few years ago. He can even tell the difference between real lather and fake.

These are MARSHMALLOWS! And the funny thing is that Leah thinks it is referencing the Five Guys burger restaurant. Um, no, it's probably more alone the lines of "bros before hoes" which I only learned from watching the first Transformers movie, thank you very much. Oh the generation gap is strong with this one.

Pretty much how Abishai sees through life because he's such a blur on their scanning devices.

Cutest guy in a Burger King crown that Keturah's choir teacher used in her class.

Heart throb. Watch out little ladies!

Trying to get a selfie, but he didn't want it. Instead, he flung the crown in my direction. Gooof!

Ok, I skipped a day and I hope whatever I ended up writing above wasn't too blurry to understand. Let's see. Today, Thursday. Counseling, cold weather, school, making kids stay on task, Bible class, piano lesson, leftovers for dinner. Got it? Lol. I was desperately trying to make headway on my to do list, but most of them are actually projects that require some back and forth with others, kind of like when I was waiting for responses or waiting on someone else at Crescent Project before I could take the next step. So maybe 1 or 2 things got fully crossed off the list, but I did peck at the others. I was gong to try to stay off my phone today but there was a lot of activity with IAHE to keep up with and messages from others about the other projects, like Abishai's birthday. I feel like I was running a mental marathon all day without taking a breathe. I'm trying to be diligent and work hard on these things because I have been procrastinating on them and last week I was super busy outside the house. But, we had a great school week so I *thought* I had a few hours to do administrator work. Well, not so much. Especially when I had to wait on kids to finish school and then they have to wait on me because I'm in the middle of something and back and forth it goes. Part of it is that we don't get up early. And then I feel panicked. So, it's a matter of adjusting the times back for waking up and bedtimes. Easier said than done. Time for more alarms I guess, especially for me who just wants to snuggle her baby in bed! But really, both Keturah and Justin have alarms and can get up with them if they really wanted to. They could get up before me. What a thought! Lol.

Some of my to do list includes planning a field trip, Abishai's birthday party, making phone calls and emails for IAHE, cleaning off other random emails, reading for Bible study, finding time to exercise (I have a plan but it didn't work out today, and keeping track of everyone. I did figure out our problem with Justin's online Spanish class quiz, why HSA money hadn't been deducted from our last paycheck, made haircut appointments for the boys, decide on a paper invite for the party, and I'm about to finalize tickets to Monster Jam. So I guess I did a few things, lol. I think I spent less than an hour with the kids on schoolwork, and I'm sure I wasted time here and there, too. All in all, not a bad day, I reckon.

Not a bad day indeed! Check out our #IAHE Action team today and how we helped to defeat the bill in the State House we were worried about! The bill was wanting DCS to keep tabs on how many child abuse deaths happened in homes were home education took place (which could mean online schooling, because the state doesn't define that well, including in this bill). We were all calling and emailing and it worked! Praise God!

Part of Abishai's birthday invite!

I'm not going with them, but, how cool is that logo?!

Decisions, decisions. Up or down, which side of the arena? Will he be scared if we are to close?  Can we see everything?

I'm hoping these are accurate. I found computer generated point of views from the various seat sections on StubHub, a place where you can sell and buy secondhand tickets. I used the pictures to compare views and then am looking on Ticketmaster for purchasing. I'm not looking forward to Ticketmaster's fees though. Sigh.

Oh, Monster Jam is a performance of monster trucks going over jumps and doing stunts and getting beat up. Abishai LOVES watching them on YouTube or on a very, very, very old VHS that Grandma had.

Big day for the IAHE! So proud of them!

I needed this today. Best thing for cycle days.

We won! The bill is dead! Praise the Lord! Great work, team!

Nice! We do have some great legislators at the state house sometimes! And it PROVES that YOUR VOICE makes a a difference in local politics! From phone calls to emails, we made sure our voice was heard and heard well, with respect, not shouting, nor dishonoring.

Cuddle time with big brother.

And the dog wants to join in.

The End