The J6 Journey: Year 5, May 18th-21st, 2020: Birthday Week

Covid-19 Day whatever, I don't care anymore, let's move on...I'm sure I will track it somewhere else, but I'm tired of counting on here.

It was a normal Monday, except, it was Jared's 41st birthday! I don't believe in lying or hiding one's age. I'm sorry if you disagree. I've never minded being older in years, just older in my body, but I digress. I tried to make this one a little special with what I had on hand. Some plastic food to represent a salad because Abishai knew Daddy doesn't sweets but we would have salad for dinner. A message on a wipeboard set up with some favorite stuffed animals. Some good corned beef, potato and salad for dinner. Lots of sing songing Happy Birthday throughout the day. And, I might have put a bug in a few people's ears to get them to message him. He even had something special to drink with a friend this afternoon for a little bit. His parents stopped by with a card and "dessert" aka the bacon explosion thing he made up. I had everybody say something nice to Daddy at dinner. That was hard because everyone wanted to talk about Minecraft or farting or something else. The best comment came from Keturah something to the affect of I like Daddy because he and mommy made kids or was it that it was my turn and she was speaking for him something about Daddy and Mommy having kids. Point is, she may have been thinking along the lines of intimacy. Maybe that we took together to have kids. I completely forgot! But it was hilarious, I promise you that! Benaiah turned beat red! Justin was clueless of course. Lol. Justin's compliment was about Minecraft, Abishai had to be prompted a bit, but I think he was tired. And Benaiah's comment was I can't even remember now. Nobody said, "We like Daddy because he's the best. He always helps me. He gives great advice." Oh, that was Keturah's comment! She said she likes Daddy because he fixes things. The intimacy comment WAS because I was still thinking about mine! Keturah! And then, when Abishai left the table, he ripped a huge fart! We can't go one meal without one! And Benaiah pretended he didn't have any table manners either. Sigh. Just one meal, people! I kept my mouth shut of anything negative. I didn't need another fight on Jared's birthday. Then he opened a card from his brother that was in today's mail and it was pretty funny with a motorcycle on the front and saying something about needing this or that as a middle aged man, like pain killers and a face shield or something. Nice note inside, too. And that's about it! Birthday #41 is in the books!

It was a rainy, muggy day, kind of cool outside, too. We can't decide on opening windows or putting on the a/c or putting the heat back on. We did a little bit of math schoolwork, I exercised, I picked up the free breakfast and lunches at the school again, canceled a subscription, and now I need to figure out how to return clothing items. Eek! They are too big, so I ordered the next size down. Next time, I'll order two sizes at a time and then I'll just send one size back. And, the clothing comes from different warehouses so one order might have 6 bags or something. It's so silly! I did sort of figure out that I'm a medium in petite sizes and small if ladies' sizes from Old Navy. The petite sizes do hug me better though without being too tight. I kind of went crazy and messed everything up. But the purpose was to get lightweight long sleeve shirts for our trip in November. We will be gone 9 days. I didn't need to buy so many. However, they might be a great thing at church when it's hot outside and cool inside. We'll see. Even if some of them fit right, I might send some back now that I've switched out my seasonal clothes and realized I do have way too many navy blue shirts! Whoops! Or light pink. Yeah, I have a definite few colors that I prefer. Lol. I'm already feeling sore from the exercising. My stupid upper shoulders. I shouldn't have done all the arm moves. I tried to refrain from doing most of them, but it feels good in the moment. And now I regret it. Too much, too soon. Tomorrow is leg day, so hopefully I can focus on them because there wasn't much for legs in the core workout today. But all of them are full body workouts, so, yup, everything gets worked out. I do have this interesting tweak though that if I stand on one leg too long, it hurts a ton. It probably has to do with weight distribution. I'm trying out different leg positions thinking maybe my hips are wider because of the weight and can't find it. I probably need to use a mirror, which I don't have. Oo, I could get the one that I've kept hidden behind a book case in our room and put it in the garage or something temporarily and see what I can figure out. A friend knows a local beach body coach, so maybe I could schedule something with her to work on specific moves. I'm not new to fitness. But I am new to fitness with this body configuration. It just hurts and I have to be super careful not to strain myself.

I'm tired. Time to wrap this up.

This is how you wake up Daddy on his birthday. Oh wait, this is how we wake up Daddy every day now that he doesn't have to go into work and gets up with us.

Those canisters are NOT empty, but he insisted on using them like drums. Wake up everybody!

Keturah has the long stick with the glove on the end of it and keeps it on her bed so she can easily close her door. I'm sure she shouldn't sleep with it, but it does come in handy when little brother is in the hallway making noise!

Miah, time to wake up!

I screen capture at 10, but this conversation started at 8 am our time, 7 am New Orleans time. And they just kept talking, and then switched to a text thread without Jared in it. This guy was hopping between the social distancing footprint stickers like he was 5 years old.

My comments are in green.

I'm so bad at small talk and find it so boring! Can you tell? Move on, people! Let's talk about Covid-19! Oh wait, don't do that either because its controversial and I'll make Leah upset again. But seriously, I think a balanced relationship can have both. Some people can only handle the small talk. I know, I'm not fun.

Someone needs a haircut. I remember when Jared didn't have a haircut for a few months. His would curl like this. I miss it SO MUCH! I always will. Benaiah called a place outside our county and it was a 3hr plus wait! Gary got his done by a widow or something, but I don't know where she lives. Hair salons are to remained closed until June 1st in Marion County. He suggested her to Benaiah, but I don't know. He can wait. But Gary and Leah are obsessed with shorter hairstyles on guys. I'm not. The longer the better! I keep looking over at the other two boys and thinking I should give it a try and then I'm like, "Nah, I'll butcher it, and I kind of like it." Abishai looks a bit like my brother P-M when my mom didn't get his hair cut often enough.

Ok, so I took some pictures because I didn't have any good ones to show people about how I want to transform this room. I wasn't really thinking about it until I saw an ad for a 3 bunk bed. So, here's Beniaah's bed. We'd take the mattress off of this one, take off the rolling casters, put some legs on it to raise it, and make it a Lego table for Justin. We'd help him buy the big Lego plates, too. The bottom is almost solid wood with a bit of space, less than an inch, in between and the boards are like 2 ft in width. It has that nice lip to it, too, to keep the Legos on it. I would keep it right here because we just put those shelves up finally. Not sure if the small table to the right would stay or go. I mean I won't get rid of it, but I don't have a specific idea for it.

If we can fit a bed behind the dresser, the dresser would stay right there I think. i'm not sure If I would still have the bunk like Justin's book is now, or 90 degrees along the wall. I was thinking along the wall and we would move the bookcase. The Thomas bed needs to go, cute as it is. It takes up too much space and only holds a crib/toddler mattress.

You can see the bookcase on the wall behind the dresser.

Not moving those shelves! But we do have to empty out the closet to get to the pipes for the bathroom project.

So much wasted space back here! I'm so over it! Justin's bed would go to Keturah and she would have all kinds of uses for those drawers, shelves and the desk!

I'm no sure of the room size but it is the biggest bedroom. We gave it to the boys like we did in Charlottetown because they need more space than we do since they are in and out more often than we are. Well, now Jared is in our room, but that's ok, he doesn't seem to mind too much since he's near windows and such. We also wanted to face East when we were in Charlottetown, and that was one of the smaller bedrooms.

Love these conversation.

I'm glad stuffed animals given in love. Or like the little transformer car. Or the Lego stealth ship. Just a reminder of the little things in life. I was looking around in the kitchen while I put away some dishes and was reminded again of how eclectic we are in decorating. Some people have all matching big utensils in a specifically colored utensil crock to match the backsplash, which matches the hand towels, etc. etc. I don't know where our crock came from but we've had it since we were married, so I'm guessing Great Grandma/Grandpa Johnson. Some of our tools could use replacing, especially the spatulas with the plastic ends. We have mixed woods all over the house, but I do prefer wood over metallic looks. If I like a hand towel, I'll buy it. I don't know. We live here. We like different things. No one says you have to have everything in a certain color palette to be happy. Who cares if it's "shabby/chic" or "farmhouse" or "country (b/c those are two very different things)." Or "modern" or Scandinavian/minimalist." Good grief. But it for it's use and individual beauty. Sigh.

Abishai wanted a nerf gun that was blue, not green like the one we keep in the toy box. So, Benaiah got one down for him.

Rolling around again.

BIG squirrel the dog was going nuts over. It finally made it's way down the tree, circling the trunk to confuse the dog, and scampered over to the next one, just in time. Phew!

Squirrel? Where? I'll get 'em!

Saw these two crazies on my way back from getting the free food. I handed off two gallons of milk to them to take to Gary and Leah's fridge because we got a total of 4 gallons of milk this time instead of the little cartons! 4 bags of mini carrots, probably two dozen or more string cheese, apples, oranges, breakfast pastries, 2 dozen frozen pb/j uncrustable sandwhiches, more applesauce and frozen strawberry things, and a few bagels. That will last us a while, that's for sure! I would offer the milk to someone, but we could go through that much in a week's time, so,.....we'll see!

I was thinking about going to Kroger for something but then thought Jared wouldn't appreciate me going into a store. And I didn't want to dig out the birthday decorations, so this is what I came up with. I wrote Happy 41st Birthday with some drawings on the sign, including a heart with J + M = 4 (kids). The wedding bears someone gave us at our wedding. Pepper and Dinosaury, Abishai and his special friends, and plastic play food. I had a bowl of fruit, a salad, some pretend sweets thinking he could pretend to blow out a candle, and something to represent a Chick Fil A chicken sandwich (he loves those) and fries. I even had a little bottle that could be like his olive oil bottle. Oh and a bottle of tea, too. Hey, I tried, ok? I didn't spend money. And he likes that part the most.

His parents stopped to sing to him, give him a card, and give him a bacon explosion cake. Grandma wasn't too happy when Keturah was trying to say what it was before Jared could look at it. She doesn't like when surprises are spoiled. It really wasn't that big of a deal, it was a clear container.

Usual resting face.

Aw, that's better! And you can see the bacon explosion cake. We were so full with dinner, we didn't touch the cake.

Uh, when did my baby get so big? He put a huge salad on his plate, but ended up leaving behind all the lettuce and the potato. At least he ate some meat!

Card from his little brother, who likes to address envelopes in interesting ways. Keturah commented on the stamp and how it was like hers on her card last year. I bet Shauna bought specific ones to use only for cards. "Forever" stamps are more expensive at first, but if you hang onto them long enough, they have ended up cheaper because the price of stamps are only getting higher!

Back to his roots.

Mommy, you sit there and I give you a concert.

Dark skies, just the way Jared likes it.

Minecraft with his buddy, just the way Jared likes it.

A little blurry, but with his buddy in his lap. Then they did Bible stories of course, too.

Oh my, wow, 9:45pm and I'm just starting to write. Whoops! And why is it so clammy in here? The Indiana weather has been so up and down as of late, even Benaiah complained about it! I got lost in email multiple times today. It's just so hard to keep up sometimes. A lot of it is traffic from Facebook, and even then, I don't always get all of those. Let's see. Normal day. I did exercise. We were part of a birthday parade for our nursery director at church. It was VERY weird to see people from a distance who we hadn't seen in 2 months! And then we couldn't touch each other, but people were giving Joanna signs and balloons anyway, which made Jared and I cringe. And when someone got close to the car, Jared almost ran her over trying to make a quick exit. Sorry, but he's really obsessed about not getting the virus. He is afraid of being in bed with pain for two weeks and worried about his sciatica and all that. I agree, for me, it would be awful. Worse than the flu. But we aren't out in it. Just like sitting on a public toilet doesn't give you warts or aids. I'm worried about adhering to the rules that are put in place and doing as much as we can. Jared makes me more fearful and then everyone else is screaming "we want freedom!" And I'm stuck in the middle worried that my in laws don't like me because I don't make phone calls, we haven't made the effort to video chat, they get to talk to the kids for Bible class and Jared for work, but I'm left out. And I haven't been going on walks because of the rain and doing the other exercising. They are out and about doing, with precautions, and we are on one extreme, while others are on the other. I'd like to be more in the middle but that would mean defying Jared's wishes. Eventually I will do more things. But so many people are chomping at the bit to go and do that I figured I'd stay out of the way at first.

Benaiah did get a haircut today! He had to go to Greenwood, and he got there 30 minutes before they opened thinking they would be a line. Well, they have only 3 clients in chairs at a time and 3 clients waiting, and when that max is reached, they put on the website that it's a 3 hr wait. So weird. But at least he looks and feels better. Perfect timing for grad pictures on Friday! And he went to the school today to try and get his winter coat, but instead, brought home his cap, gown, and tassel! I'm 1,000% more excited than he is. But now we can put that into the rotation for the grad pic! I just imagined a pic of Abishai wearing the cap and Benaiah holding him. Yeah! This is for real! And hopefully he'll be more accommodating when Ali is here, outside, social distancing of course. Anyway, one step closer to the end. And a lot more things to think about what he's said to me recently and next steps. I have a lot of mom guilt, let's just say that.

The kids were up to their usual shenanigans, too. Abishai especially. He even brought a gun to Joanna's birthday parade! He did paint a beautiful picture with his dot paints from an example on the back of the box! He wanted me to play piano while he played drums so we could practice for church on Sunday, lol. He had lots to say when playing Battlefront with Daddy. And when he had to wait for something, he says, "I'll go do (this) to (bide) or (use up) the time." Note to self, write down the quotes as they happen! It was an adult saying. Anyways.

I still didn't get enough done and my back is spasming out from the workouts. Yoga tomorrow, yeah! I like weight training. I hate cardio. I love stretching. And I didn't eat much for dinner. I need to finish here.

Always and forever.

I don't like caramel that much or even vanilla. Give me chocolate and then something fruity would come in second.

Kind of expensive, like $15 per bag expensive. But I wanted free shipping. I think $4 per bag goes to the fundraiser and any leftover profit goes to the missions that the organization supports. It's a win all around!

Snowflakes Peppermint and Vanilla; Dark Chocolate Mocha; both for me

Cafe blend and Guatemalan for Jared. I did get them already ground up. And they got damp today in the rain, so I hope that didn't ruin the insides.

We get to keep this! Jared has his high school one somewhere. I don't have a high school one, probably not even a tassel. But I got to keep my robe and hood and tassel and hat from college graduation. Jared kept his hat and tassel from his college graduation, but his college only rents out the robes.

Genius child took it open himself (after I got him some blank paper, he wouldn't use scratch paper), to copy the design straight from the box! I didn't show him how at all!

He saw that the yellow was inside and 4 or 5 colored dots were on the outside.

Wow!

So sweet! And he wanted to send it with Grandma and Grandpa to New Orleans for the girls!

Child finally got a haircut on our dime. When I first some him, he had a tight curl right in front like Superman! Now it will fit under his hat for work better.

Those waves/curls, those are all from the Cook side of the family and Jared had some nice waves, too.

Big little boy also fed himself tea time nuggets. "I can handle it1"

Keturah got to use the new wipeboard markers for the sign. The markers were supposed to be for Ali Summers but I never got them to her! And when I was using our markers yesterday, they were pitiful! Sorry, Ali! We really need them for next year when doing phonics with Abishai! Thanks for understanding!

You know you are a nursery/preschool team when....all the cars in the line up are vehicles that seat 7!

First time that Justin and Keturah had been on a real street in two months! How crazy is that?! Jared took Abishai with him on a couple of trips to the office and Home Depot.

Wave to Joanna!

There she is with her daughter who set it up with another friend.

I think this is adorable! Jared wouldn't go for it, but it's how he kind of reacted when Benaiah as a baby. "What is this thing? How am I supposed to care for it?" Although Abishai is "The Child" aka "Baby Yoda."

I have learned my lesson about how to play the "shop at home" lesson. Buy the two sizes you think you might fit into in your first order. THEN decide on which size is best and sent the other size back. Because now I probably overpaid the store credit card I use to get cash back and some of the order is on another credit card and didn't get the second discount. Plus, all the extra shipping. But now, I have to decide on what to keep! I already had 1/3 of the items ready to go back because of size.

And Old Navy is stupid. Different clothes were at different warehouses, so one order became 6 bags. Times 3 orders (Benaiah got some shorts). Oi! Now what?! I'm supposed to use these bags to send things back somehow. Some had order numbers on a separate piece of paper inside the bag and some did not. Not very consistent. And who knows how the returns will go. Free shipping back to the company though.

I truly am brain dead some days. Wednesday's entry is on the PREVIOUS post and can be found here: https://melinda-j.blogspot.com/2020/05/year-5-may-15th-17th-2020-brain-dead.html

I know it's not a big deal because our life is pretty mundane and my time is very precious. It's no big deal. Enjoy!

Let's finish this post with Thursday's happenings, shall we? Oh my, today was much more productive, although I barely made it through my exercise program. I was just doing the 10 minute "bonus" videos you can add to the 30 minute videos to see what they were like in case I need to modify. Well, I don't feel recovered enough from Monday and Tuesday's workouts, so it was pretty hard. I'm going to try to get it done again tomorrow, oh wait a minute, we have senior pics PLUS Keturah and Justin have Grandpa class, etc. I think I'll take a rest day again tomorrow and do something on Saturday unless I can sneak it in before lunch, or possibly right after lunch. I want to be able to clean up before pics. Since we now have his gown and a sign that the school dropped off (not requested by us but extremely appreciated because I was thinking about getting one), I would be very happy if Ali took a picture of all 6 of us with Benaiah in the cap and gown and with the sign. The actually folder and piece of paper are hard to see in pics anyway. That way, Benaiah can be less growly about it. We'll have to hash out details about other clothes as well. Nothing terribly fancy as far as poses go. Lean against the brick and/or a tree. Head and shoulders, then full body. Then all 6 of us, with cap on Benaiah's head, Jared holding Abishai, and then cap on Abishai's head, Benaiah holding him with just the 4 siblings. Should be pretty simple. I can't think of much else to do. Drumsticks might be nice but he is against that. Maybe one wardrobe change, plus cap and gown. I didn't plan our outfits, but I'll try to find something somewhat nicer. And then, it will be done. More pics done at the actual graduation, but the pressure will be off. We won't have Grandma and Grandpa, but that's ok. These are senior pics primarily. Then I can get the edits and print them up for August 1st. Done. Finally. There's one last banner the school is doing that we can have later, great for the open house. And I might do a birthday signboard that I've always wanted to do. Praise the Lord the school provided some signs, the church gave us a sign, and we got the cap and gown now. I was procrastinating on getting our own signs made, and I think that was the Spirit's prompting. Now, I just have to work on the baby pics. I want to cull them down from 1,000, and then print them, and then down to 100-200 for signboards. And that's just whatever I've gotten digitally for the last 10-12 years. Other pictures are in scrapbooks. So, should be interesting! But August 1st in the new deadline.

Ok, at home, let's see. I cleared papers off my desk, cleaned the toothpaste and toothbrush shelf and cabinet in the little bathroom, exercised, went over math, helped Keturah with her Grandpa assignment which was excellent to begin with. This is not sponsored or a promotion in anyway except to share our experience and proud moment for us! My 6th, soon to be 7th grader, who has done a full year of IEW SWI Course A and then one of the grammar books and Myths, Fables, and Fairytales books over the course of 3 years, just wrote this paper for her Bible class with Grandpa. Backstory: Grandpa has taught Biblical leadership classes for graduate students for many years, and also has been in ministry for close to 40 years. They do Bible class over Zoom with their cousins. Grandpa required a 750 essay on one of the stories they study (the women of the Bible). 95-98% of the words, grammar and spelling are hers. We had to add in about 100 words to make the word count. She wrote it on paper first, then typed it, with no editing in between. Then we went through it together to clean it up since this was one of her first typed papers. She might just be a good writer, OR, IEW works extremely well! We'll be heading back into it next year (we took a year off from it, because I am NOT a writer and I hate editing papers). I LOVE IEW's approach and how they also have supported IAHE. She did not use a keyword outline or a checklist. Color me impressed!

Here's a link to the paper: Noah's Wife by Keturah Johnson

Oh, yeah, crazy CDC has sent the homeschooling world into a frenzy because more and more people are asking about it! We can't keep up! Plus our conference website was pulled by the server with no warning today. Our poor team! I had to laugh when people told me to calm down and let the dust settle on the school GUIDELINES because it doesn't matter if schools aren't making decisions now, families are discussing their options now and we have to keep up with them! It's part of our job, so we have to keep a pulse on what is being said through the CDC, and the school systems, and the local chat groups that aren't homeschool related. We have to be on the alert and be both proactive and reactive in a timely manner. Just last night and today, I helped 6 people. I typically help one a week. Not 6 in 24 hrs. We have to make sure definitions and normal guidelines are clear. We have to make sure people know the difference between online public school (before crisis) and what true homeschooling is (as defined by our state organization). Anyway, 1 Peter 5:6-9 says,

⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

⁸Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

So, cast your anxiety, but still be on alert. I don't remember the "sober mind" part but the rest of this version is what I memorized in middle school in the NIV so, hm,..., maybe the NIV was updated? Um, yes it was! " New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide." I got this from Biblegateway.com Interesting! I wonder if Gary knows this that if someone gets a NIV Bible and they are trying to follow along with him that it might be slightly different? I didn't know that! I've been using The Living Bible for 5-10 years now, so I had no clue the NIV was updated. Interesting!

Anyway, moving on. Lots to do tomorrow. I am now really thinking about redoing Keturah and the boys' bedroom furniture configurations. Jared might build bunk bends. But I really want to just buy them because they would be prettier. Jared can make things, and they are sturdy, but rough looking. Just my two cents. We'll see. I did more measuring today to be sure that what I was thinking would work. And then when I was getting Abishai's shorts out of the tub in their closest, I was just feeling overwhelmed by the amount of stuff they have. It is mostly organized, but it's too much for the room. So, maybe if Benaiah moves out for a little bit at least, I can have time to reset the room. I always said to myself that I would still leave a bed for each child in their rooms for them to come home to, during and after college until they officially get married and move out (because let's face it, sometimes, when they move out with friends, it doesn't always work). Plus, having an extra bed is great for all the stuffed animals and/or for sleepovers. But instead of two twins on top of a full, I think I'll stick with the three twins. We have the mattresses for twins and it's a small room. But I'm not sure if it's going to work with 9 ft high ceilings. If it doesn't, we'll do bunk beds and another loft bed that is connected i.e. shares support system so it doesn't take up as much room? Anyway, there's options.

I've been pretty much told that I do that.

There's a lot of controversy over this graphic alone! I should have looked into it a bit more before I posted it on my FB wall. But, point is, if even ONE of these are put in place, parents and teachers and administrators are going to go bonkers. So, that's why we see the uptick in website visits to the IAHE!

'N Sync forever! Well, I might have ditched them recently to follow Backstreet Boys more who seem to be much more moral/Christian men these days.

Late night snuggle buddy as I shed a tear over the big boy growing up.

Too bad I have nowhere to go! This always happens when I put my slightly damp hair into a flexi clip.

We drew up proper plans for Keturah's room so I could show her how room designers do it. We did measure but rounded up on the items and down on the room size. It is a 10ft by 10ft room, but it has baseboards all around. This is her design.

This is my design. Jared was concerned at one point of peeping Tom's because we don't have curtains on the windows, but we do have blinds. I don't know. This would still allow access to the window. But in Charlottetown, her bed was right up against the window, too. Sigh.

Oh yes! Well, it's just normal teen growing up stuff, too!

Have you ever heard of this? It was an ad, but I looked up the actual names. It's basically endo means your very fat, meso means you have lots of muscle, and ecto means you're lean. I can't make sense of the fasting rules though.

I didn't know a neighbor was a graduate as well! I didn't walk down though to see what they graduated from. I was thinking of getting one of these for Benaiah's 18th birthday.

Yeah! Another sign!

This is the new buzz in the concert world right now. Michael W. Smith is also doing it in person. I think it's better than nothing, but also, very limiting. But I guess they all have to make a living somehow. I won't be participating because I like to be up close and move around. I'm just praying that they'll let us in the building in October with masks on. We can't separate the seats at the particular venue we are at though. I've now filled out two surveys about concerts and guidelines this week. Like having contactless payment for merchandise, more hand sanitizing stations, wearing masks, etc.

Dinosaury makes a great arm holder!

He accidentally dumped a bunch of parmesan cheese on his veggies instead of his pasta. He did eat a lot of the veggies and all the pasta and all the meat! He's been eating a huge breakfast, snacking the rest of the day, and then sometimes eating a lot at dinner. If he doesn't eat a big dinner, he's extra hungry in the morning.

Abishai picked his finger and it was hurting so I offered a band aid. We actually don't use a lot of bandaids in our house, so it's always fun when we do. I had a hang nail that was bugging me, so I offered to wear one, too. He's rocking a Black Panther band aid and I have a Black Widow one.

After 2-3 weeks of it being out there, Benaiah finally plugged it in. He says his back hurts because he doesn't have a proper drum "throne." He's put it on his graduation/birthdday wishlist along with Legos. Um, not sure if I want to be the one paying for it, but you know, whatever.

This one decided today was the day he wanted to shave. So, we are having a moment here. BTW, we haven't tried to cut the boys' hair. I'm afraid to do it. I think it screams "emo" or something. Can't wait to see what Jennae does with it though!