Year 5, January 4th-6th, 2020: Back to Routines

Ah, after a hectic day yesterday feeling that the work would never end, today felt like a very normal Saturday with a few projects and some relaxing. Abishai had an impromptu sleepover at Grandpa's house leaving us with no "alarm clock." That meant us night owls could sleep in until 10 am! Say what?! Whoops! It's a good thing I didn't have a huge agenda or at least not one with precise time frames (yeah for getting my to do list organized yesterday). We basically woke up when our phones went off because Gary was texting to say he was bringing Abishai home. Sleepy eyed and in my pjs, I opened the door. Little man had been awake for awhile of course. Everyone else got up shortly after that. And we pretty much stayed home most of the day. Benaiah is still unhappy with my attitude yesterday, so he didn't speak much to me, and just got up and said he was going out. I think he went out for like 5 hours with Ava doing who knows what because his truck was still here. There's something wrong with the truck and Jared noticed that the gray van had been moved, so we are assuming Benaiah used it. Not sure, and although he didn't have permission, as long as it as locked when he was out, who cares. We can understand not wanting to drive a broken vehicle and not having enough time to get it going before work if you're in a rush. Whatever. Anyway.

I say gray van because we bought another van today! We bought it from a neighbor. It's actually a year older than ours but with 50K miles instead of 150K. We pooled a few resources together, including a small private loan that will be paid off once we auction the gray van. We'll get it all titled and so forth on Wednesday or something. Jared's in charge of all that stuff. I told him to take this problem and fix it, so he did. I said yes to a vehicle without inspecting it first, but whatever. That's why I was partly mad yesterday because we had talked about it before we left, but I didn't know it was going to happen this weekend. I'm trusting that it's one of those times were God just dumps something in our lap and I'm not worrying about what we could have used the money for. A new tax refund is hopefully coming. And we didn't need borrow the current insurance payments and tax payments to make it work out. Well, insurance, that's another question, but again, I'm not in charge of those things. I just pay them on time. Don't worry, I sort of understand them and I can read policies, but I don't like messing with them and making the decisions about who we go with and for how much. Jared's been the final decision maker and phone caller on those things. I handle taxes and health insurance. It's a win-win. So there will be some jostling around of vehicles, insurance, cleaning out the old van, and having 4 vehicles physically in the driveway for probably a couple of weeks. Eek. Then we'll start jostling around the phone service plans because yes, we are still on Gary and Leah's plan because it was easier and sometimes cheaper. One thing at a time I keep telling myself.

I procrastinated on some things today and instead puttered around on other things since I was in a better mood. I opened up my new vacuum cleaner for instance. She looks beautiful. I love the goldish color. It was a bit tricky to get everything to click into place correctly, but the suction seemed good. Let's hope this one lasts 5 years. We have gone through many, many vacuum cleaners because of the dog hair and vacuuming every single day. I'm going to take the old one, and the previous old one, to the vacuum repair shop so they can maybe scrap them for parts. I know most vacuum cleaners are throw away items now, but it pains me to just trash them. I'll do that Thursday after my counseling appointment. I'll also go to Meijer then and maybe, just maybe Target if I need to, to find a specific type of storage drawer system for inside the pantry. I need to drastically rearrange 2/3 of the pantry to better store and utilize my new gadgets. They need to be at eye level for me to remember to use them especially when they have learning curves. I already have some great ideas, and it's going to take a whole Saturday of good energy to get it done, but I'm excited about it. I knew I probably would rearrange the shelves at some point because I kind of just threw some things in there when we unpacked. I'm looking forward to organizing it! So I'm waiting to open up my standing mixer and Insta pot until then. It's hard to wait though. I don't have anything to cook yet so I have no reason to take them out either.

I also took off the candy from the table and put out the gingerbread houses. Keturah wanted to eat hers right away, but I told her to wait because I want to look at them for at least another week. I'll be slowly putting away the Christmas stuff over the next week or so. This year I just want to return things back to normal so we can function better. After I did that, I finished up and published all the Christmas vacation blogs! Woot! Woot! That's the quickest vacation blog postings ever! Although it took time away from family, I used my normal "alone time/quiet time" usually in the afternoons when others were playing electronics or going to the grocery store or reading to write up the main portion of the blog and start uploading pictures and videos to Snapfish and YouTube, making playlists and linking them to the blog post, and then loading pictures to the blog, both from the DSLR and the iPhone. I didn't put them on cd's until later in the vacation time because some of the uploads got messed up and I had to backtrack, but I figured out while I was in NOLA and completed all of the cd's yesterday. Now I just have a couple more to check and I'm update to date on backing up videos and photos through yesterday. Yeah! No major events this week, so blog stuff shouldn't take me too long. I know I should give it up at some point if I really want to focus on other things. It's just hard for me to. It's now been part of my routine for 4 years. And without it, Shauna couldn't have put together the calendar for Leah this year, lol. No one, again, took pictures during vacation, at least not many. I do all of that. Not that they care, but I know that they somewhat rely on me to do that as well. It has always been my jam and it always will be in some form. Perhaps this year I can actually make a photo book. We'll see. Making one for Ava was hard enough to find all the pictures. But choosing out of the 1,000's of photos I take to put them in a photo book, that's nearly impossible. I've got lots of other things going on. Perhaps another year.

Justin, Keturah, and Abishai ended up bathing and just puttering as well. Daddy started Avengers: End Game, so I finished watching it with them after supper. Jared's back was feeling awful again today, so he didn't do much besides going to the bank and making the van transaction happen this morning. Poor thing. And he probably has nothing ready for class on Monday either. I don't have our stuff ready, but I was saving that until tomorrow. I have a couple of other things I could check off my list tonight, like catching up with YT videos.  At least I'm up to date now and can move forward. Yeah!

Abishai was counting the number of each letter on his kids meal box from Subway, "1A, 2A, 3A." I thought that's what he was reading, like it was a pattern or something.

7 in 1 Instapot 6 qt Duo, and had to figure out if I needed the extra hard boiled egg holder or not. I don't, so I'm taking it back to Kroger this week.

I measured the space where I think I'm going to put some plastic drawers and/or bins and had to make sure I left room for the trim on the bottom and where the shelf supports are. Now I'm ready for shopping on Thursday!

My new classy purse arrived! What do you think? It's still as full and heavy as ever, but I feel better!

The inside had some standard pockets, but I added the extra pouches. The fake leather is already pretty subtle, yeah! It was an $80 purse sold on a discounted website called Wish for $20. I was a bit nervous, but it looks great so far! The color was spot on to the picture, which was nice.

After watching a fashion blogger suggest this type of purse/bag insert, I decided to get one because it was decent price on the Wish website as well. She uses it so she can switch from bag/purse to bag/purse without redoing everything. It's going to be a lifesaver when I want to switch from purse to backpack like at the museum and such. It can expand, but when I do that, it doesn't fit in my purse as well. It's a bit tight, but that's ok. Everything is neat and organized and that's what I wanted!

Pretty sturdy and padded!

This set of photos is my before and afters with the old and new vacuums. Keturah had already vacuumed once today, but I took this before photo anyway. This is before I used both vacuums.

Before both vacuums.

After old vacuum.

After old vacuum.

After old and then new vacuum.

After old and new vacuum. This one is vastly improved. For some reason, this old runner loves to hang onto the dog hair the most! We have to swipe over it in many different directions no matter what vacuumed we've had. Looks much better to me!

Isn't she a beauty? I hate going through them so fast, but we use them every single day. We'll see if I like this brand. Many of my friends suggested this one.

This shows off the color a bit more. It's not as dark, but the true color is in between this one and the photo I took.

I think between yesterday and today, Abishai gave Socks half a dozen treats. He likes giving him his Christmas cookies especially. And he refilled the smaller bucket from the big 5 gallon bucket all on his own.

Our gingerbread houses made it home! Well, Justin tried digging into his before I could stop him and tell him I already told Keturah to not eat hers. Good grief. Have you not had enough candy and sweets lately?

I will enjoy this for one more week before I put most of it away. I might keep out the red tablecloth for the winter or longer because it goes with the red accents in the kitchen. I'm not sure yet.

Whoops, it's 10:30pm and I'm just now starting to type up the blog. I got a little sidetracked on Facebook. Actually, I was answering some homeschooling questions on our IAHE Discussion FB page. Anyway, Jared woke up even more sore today, so he didn't go to church. He spent most of the day in agony over his sciatica pain. To be honest, I think it's more than sciatica and if I could physically push him, I would take him to someone, anyone, and get some imaging done. I would like to rule out a spinal disc problem.  With pain, or any new health issue, you have to start somewhere, even if that doctor is not exactly what you need. For example, this past summer I went to my gynocologist and I went to a naturopath doctor to figure out my extensive bleeding during my menstrual cycles. Well, it really wasn't an issue with hormones, but I did have polyps. Did I waste money seeing the naturopath? Maybe. But I did find some good alternative medicine things I can use. When I started having lots of pain, I tried all kinds of things and doctors. I went to a pain specialist but I was the one who suggested fibromyalgia after doing some research. Just as long as whatever avenue Jared takes in figuring it out, that insurance covers it. We obviously started a new round of a high deductible, but in network doctors are better than out of network. Jared is trying all kinds of different positions to put himself back into the right posture, but I don't think it's going to work. I really don't this time.  I did have to take a step back and find perspective in that our roles are reversed again. I'm the caretaker and he's the care receiver. I'm so used to him helping me when I'm hurting, that I was starting to get mad that he couldn't and that's not right. So, I went grocery shopping by myself tonight, a full load, and I was in pain afterwards, but not in as much pain as Jared is right now. But I go see my favorite ladies and chiropractor on Wednesday so I know some of that pain from traveling long hours in the car will be resolved soon. Sigh. It's so hard to watch people who don't take your advice.

On of those people in my life is a certain teenager. Oh goodness. First of all, Benaiah's truck has a starter problem, so it's now waiting at the shop for the guys to look at it. Which means, we need to juggle car rides this week, taking into account that Jared can only drive the old van. The new van isn't properly registered yet and has no plates on it. Benaiah will be paying for the repair with whatever magic money he can come up with after using his paycheck three times over to pay for everything else. Sigh. He is such my child when it comes to finances. Eek. But he also frustrates me in other ways with his schooling, with his work and life balance, and general attitude. Good grief! Just listen! And pay your bills, aka, us, on time! But that's another story.

Normal church day otherwise, including youth group. I got to volunteer in the preschool room because we had no babies to care for. That was an interesting experience observing basically what Abishai's routine is in his classroom. I also got to see Keturah doing her KP worship thing, so of course I whipped out the phone camera and took a pic and video. She glared at me, but I don't care. She came home from youth group asking for a phone again. Nope, nada, nope. Justin did his thing and Benaiah was at Shelby St, a work party at the bowling alley, and then youth group. Abishai went to church with me this morning, then hung out, mostly on electronics, with Daddy this evening. I quickly got school ready for tomorrow and peeked in the fridge and pantry. I didn't do a full grocery shop for this new diet method I want to try because I didn't have time. It's ok, I'll get there. Let's just get back to our normal routine first and then tweak it from there.

Am I ready for school to start back up? Yes and no. It means I have to focus on it instead of household projects. It means double checking the kids all the time and what they are up to. But, at least now the kids won't be bored. Keturah has her first choir meeting tomorrow, and she's already balking at going. Justin thinks he's going to go on the PS4 at 3pm but he hasn't done nearly enough school over the holiday break. And then there's the normal stuff, plus the logistics for getting Benaiah to places until his truck is fixed. Oh joy. Right back at it. Sigh. Are you ready?

So you know the black sign we put in our yard? These are some of the social media graphics for it. I went to the website and it's very vague. Basically, the church wants us to invite our neighbors to church for Jan. 26 when all kinds of new initiatives will be launched. I'm a little bit excited, but also nervous because I don't like change. And I don't have any time to commit to any new initiatives. I already tried that with Rooted and it wasn't as successful as I had hoped. There is a 24/7 prayer vigil going on from 9:30pm Friday the 10th until 9:30pm on Friday the 24th. I might sign up for the midnight slot. But again, I can feel that major changes are coming. One of them was wearing name tags. When we first got back from Canada, everybody was singing up to get their name tags made and it was encouraged to wear it. I refused to because at the time, I wanted to be invisible. I haven't heard the name tags brought up from the stage in about a year now. I don't think people print them out either as much as they used to. I don't know, but something is a foot.

Also, on a local neighborhood app, someone mentioned the signs. And in that conversation thread, someone said, "I hate that church. They always block up the street after their services and they are using police officers to direct traffic. I don't want my taxpayer money to go to their traffic control problem." Wow, haters are going to hate! This was after it was explained what the black signs were for. First of all, we pay for the off duty police officers to be there.  Second, it's a total of maybe 90 minutes once a week that they are out there doing that.  Third, it's a very common thing all over the country. I did comment back and said that if they were paid by taxpayers, it's like us paying taxes but choosing to homeschool and not use the free resources at the public schools that our taxes are paying for. I saw a follow up email say something about racism and I just left the conversation. I'm glad that the signs have provoked a conversation, but I don't think it was what we were hoping for.  We were just reminding the community that we exist and we are to be a help.

I got Abishai to wear the leather jacket today!

Cool, dude! Daddy even let him wear his special sunglasses! Wow! He's spoiled!

Nice face while hunting Michael W.! Actually, Dan mentioned hunting in the sermon today and how all in some hunters are and how we should be all in with Jesus.

Keturah doing her dancing thing.  Yes she was very embarrassed that I was in there. I'm glad I got to see her though!

The Mondayiest of Mondays. Phew! Keturah was growly. Abishai was literally, on purpose, bouncing off the walls like he had a pound of sugar. Justin was trying to compose himself. Benaiah had to borrow the van to get to school and work because his truck was in the repair shop. I'm still sore, but had things to do. And poor Jared was still laid up in bed with his back. He finally made an appointment to see my chiropractor on Tuesday morning. He cannot get comfortable at all. Even with breaking his arm twice, I have never since him wince so much. I have to be careful not to say, "See what I deal with every single day." when he says something like "I'm mentally exhausted from dealing with the pain." because he has been very empathetic towards me. But does give him a whole new level of respect for my struggles. I have left him alone most of the day, when I should have at least offered to get him some tea or food or something. Bad wifey. Or rather, busy wifey that isn't used to being the caregiver. That's ok, he's fine, he doesn't expect it anyways. I just have to keep remembering he's there. Lol.

We did our best to get back into our school routine. The kids did do their school work just fine, but my deeper one on one subjects had to wait until Tuesday because Keturah had her first choir meeting today at 2pm. So, it will be a slight change in our routines to do more on Tuesdays rather than Mondays. I think I might even combine another appointment with choir, maybe during or after it, because it's in the same area.  And since Keturah doesn't have Wednesday night dance anymore, that routine will change slightly as well. We'll see. They did most of their subjects today. We'll do more tomorrow. Choir was just an orientation meeting and although Keturah hates that I signed her up without her permission, I think she'll learn something. It's a new group, so it's small, but the teacher and her husband were/are musical directors in public school, so they know their stuff well. There's a couple of other girls Keturah's age, so there's potential there. We got to introduce ourselves, and actually, the choir director asked me to share about the IAHE. I was caught off guard but held my cool and shared about upcoming events. Come to find out, 3 out of 4 families were either new to the area or new to homeschooling or both! So many new people lately! It's nuts! They called me a veteran and I sure feel like it! We certainly still struggle but I do know the basics and options. So that was fun!

After choir, Keturah and I went to Meijer so I could get some organizers for the pantry makeover. I picked the cheapest things but it still added up to a lot. I also got a few other household items.  Keturah seemed to enjoy helping me decide what would work best. Of course she saw some toys and such, but didn't beg for long. She even willingly and without being asked help with the dog food bag. So, all in all, it was a good 3 hrs with her, and I'm glad. We need more time like that. The boys obviously stayed home, and will stay home even when Jared is at work. I won't normally be going shopping, so it will be fine.Or perhaps Grandma would like some company, too. We got home just in time to get boys off electronics and pull supper together. I had worked hard to put chili in the crockpot but only I ended up eating it. There was still leftovers of CFA mac and cheese with some hamburger meat that the kids have been eating on. Jared hasn't had anything to eat in 24 hrs for some private reasons, but because of that, the pain medication he's taking is making him nauseous.

After dinner, the kids got rambunctious with some boxes and they carefully bounced in and out of Daddy's room to show him things. It was a rip roaring great time! (see below).  So all in all a great day for most of us. Benaiah's truck will be fixed tomorrow, so hopefully we can go pick it up.  The best laugh of the day was when Jared said he might have to wear suspenders. If you didn't know, my dad wore suspenders and a belt. So, to visualize Jared wearing suspenders, I couldn't help but laugh! My laugh did make him smile but he couldn't laugh because his back would hurt. He thinks it's his sciatica, I think it's more to do with the spine itself. He would wear the suspenders hidden under his over shirt but on top of his undershirt. Still, hilarious! Who in today's world wears suspenders? Whatever works, right? At least he was able to keep in contact with his dad for work and made up a quiz for the high school kids Bible class tomorrow. He completely skipped class and work today. And now I'm tired, too. I had to finish up some training for the IAHE before our in person training in a couple of weeks. Not sure why I hadn't seen that training before, but I kind of needed that before I started logging calls and sending emails. Whoops. It's ok, I did the majority of things right. No biggie. Great training though and I learned a bit more about gmail! I've only been using gmail for a couple of years so I still had things to learn. Yeah for more training!

Anyway, lots to do tomorrow on our only full day at home. Let's hope I get enough sleep!

It's finally little man's turn to make a countdown calendar to his birthday! So we used his cat calendar to put red x's on the days gone by and a bring green checkmark on his birthday! He knew exactly what he wanted, the red x's and the green checkmark. I wonder if he's seen that on a YouTube video or at church. Anyway, he was pretty excited to use his multi colored pen for it.  Gotta get started on planning his party.  He said he wants another construction site cake. Um, how about a Batman or Super Friends cake? Ok, I'll do whatever. I'll work on the plans next week. This week is too full.

We are trying to do math here, dog. But Socks kept putting his paw on Justin's shoulder looking for attention. I did finally put some empty cardboard boxes on the couch for the night because once again, there was a 12x12 inch puddle of drool on the cushion. Sorry buddy, I can't keep having that.

This is gross. In my 38 years of life, I have never had a store bought full of preservatives jar of jelly grow mold before! Maybe somebody licked their spoon and put it back in and left their germs in there or something.  It wasn't me. I don't like grape jelly. But it was the oddest site ever!

White mold in store bought jelly. Ew!

Daddy showed Abishai how to lock the flip table so it doesn't go all the way down. Actually, Daddy had fixed it once and Abishai caught on right away. Smart dude. Hopefully teaching him to read will be a breeze.

Is it a flip table or a see saw?  I did make the boys go outside or a few minutes though to run off some steam.

I'm glad Daddy's device is entertaining you!

This picture captions these two's personalities. Abishai lives life in a blur and Justin's head isn't on straight most of the time.

Special delivery from Amazon! Boo! He LOVED this game! He insisted that we close the "doors" (box flaps) and then he could pop out.

Justin wanted a turn. But this one leg at a time method didn't work. So he sat on the counter and put both legs in at the same time.

Then he hoped like a Veggietales character all the way down the hallway to see Dad. I think we've already gotten cabin fever this season. SMH

Holding onto the box and jumping a few inches at a time produces wounds!

Is it....R2-D2 in a trash can? Is it BB-8 in a different trash can? Is it that trash can looking droid from Episode4? Or is it a Keturah droid?

Justin is C-3PO according to Abishai.

Then, boys had to wrestle, again. Box wrestling! Aha! They are "boxing!" Bwahahaha, so lame a joke!

More goofiness with boxes. I had to be in the hallway to protect the pictures from being knocked off. At least we had lots of giggles!

The End