Year 5, May 22nd-24th, 2020: Indy 500 Weekend? Or not! Or Maybe?

Man, not only did graduations, recitals, end of year things didn't happen, but we didn't have any Indy 500 events to think about going to. And no race on Sunday! It's like we skipped all of that and have had two months of summer already, but we haven't had two months of summer. So weird! And as typical, the temps are going up this Memorial Day weekend. I'm so used to Memorial Day and Labor Day bookending our summers, and Benaiah's birthday and Justin's birthday also bookending the summer months. We have often taken all of June, July, and August off. But unless Jared takes some holiday time, things aren't going to feel any different than they have been. And all the fun summer plans we try to do won't happen. It's so weird. I don't know if I even want to go somewhere. I know people are itching to get out and go to parks and honestly, I don't care. I have no desire to shop. Or go to movies. I just want to go to my concert in the fall as normally as possible and go to Israel. I want to make it through graduation and open house in June and then in July. I'm not enjoying exercising, but it's been much easier not having outside activities to find my grove and when is the best time for me to do it. I'm still really sore, so I'm taking the next two days off. I did manage 4 workouts this week which is record for me! I haven't done that in 15 years! But I know I didn't push as hard with workouts 3 and 4 because I'm hurting and exhausted. I want to watch my YouTube videos, but it's hard just sitting here with so much soreness in my neck. Sigh. Baby steps.

But we did get Benaiah's senior pictures done today! Our friend Ali came over (professional photographer that she is), and got it all done for us! I can't wait to share them! We got more things than I expected of the rest of the family, which will satisfy my itch for a bit. I did compromise and give up  couple of poses as well. The kids threw hissy fits over clothing. I haven't had them dress up for pictures in 4 1/2 years! You'd think they could just roll their eyes and let me have my 30 minutes! Good grief! And you know that they are just copying the 17 yr old's words. Then he turns around and blames me that I can't control their behavior. Well, monkey see, monkey do, kid. The kids did think it was interesting when I brought out the iron today to iron Benaiah's shirt. They haven't seen me iron in years. In fact, the only time I've had the iron out in this house was for crafting. Lol. I either wear something wrinkled or take it to the dry cleaner's and try to keep it unwrinkled as long as I can. It's just one of those things that is annoying to me and I'm not great at it. And truth be told, Gary irons more than Leah does when it's needed. But with today's polo shirts and materials, ironing isn't needed as much in general. Anyway, we got through it and the kids didn't die. We had to laugh though because Abishai put on a sweater (with snow on it!) over his pj shirt and his khaki shorts over his pj shorts so he could just strip them off as soon as we were done. Lol! Justin thinks it's the hottest day of the year (it's only 72 degrees). Benaiah didn't want to change his shirt at all. Jared did shave and put on  purple shirt without having to be asked. Keturah, well, she picked at her head again and has lots of dandruff and doesn't know the mean of brush your hair until it's shiny and smooth. Yeah, we are THAT family. But hopefully we got some good pics!

I kept adding things that I did do to my list today so I could cross them off because I never remember! Things like read my Bible study, called Medicaid, Gpa Bible class happened, Justin mowed Gparents' lawn, I excercised, I vacuumed the floor well so I can wash it when kids are asleep (but I don't want to now that my neck is killing me!), checked kids' schoolwork, etc. Because Justin had back to back things today, his school stuff didn't get quite done so that's going to happen first thing tomorrow. He's also on the video chat with friends again tonight and I need to pull him off of that soon. Too much talking, buddy! I need to get him a phone! I found Keturah watching videos on the Nook, so she was grounded from tablet time today. Abishai did his normal rounds. Ava came over for awhile to take a walk with Benaiah and talk about serious stuff on our front porch. And the sun finally came out today! I'm so tired though. I need to do some recovering this weekend. I hit my max right after pictures. Oh, and I had my first can of pop in months. I don't drink them over the winter and I hadn't bought a new case so I was saving my last can. But it's gone now. I need to find a good way to make cold coffee. Cold brew? Maybe. I don't drink coffee until 3 pm so maybe I could start it in the mornings? I'd have to look it up.

Anyway, let's wrap this up and catch up on videos. There's  tv series on Amazon Prime that I keep seeing ads for that's from the current historical age we are in but it's supposed to be pretty funny and spoof like. But I have to finish the rest of the seasons of the DC Comic book shows that were cut short because filming stopped abruptly and never resumed. These actors must be bored stiff! They lead very, very busy lives between filming 12 hrs a day and then doing interviews and speaking engagements and parties on their off days. Same for the music artists. Actually, the music artists are now doing this drive in concert thing like drive in movie theaters. You pay by the carload. It's not my cup of tea and I'm not going to go out of my way to do it. I think the bands will be live like at a summer festival and somehow they will pump the music through a certain radio channel, but I don't like being in the nosebleed seats, so why would I want to be even further away by car? I mean, the overall number of people will be less, but still. I understand they need to get back on the road and for some, it's better than sitting at home. Anyways, back to my TV watching, I guess.

I thought this was a good chart!

Abishai said, "Look, Mom, I followed the line when I cut off the top of my fruit snack!" Yes, you did do that, kid!

Benaiah's bon bons he made yesterday. They need a little help in the decorative process and rolling into balls. He is going to ask the master chef Heather Bruce how she does hers.

Looks yummy still.

Now, that one looks a little weird.

Again, right sign, wrong kid? I think it's because we are all more interested in this process than Benaiah is.

Great observation, Brenton!

Lego all day, every days. Lots of stories to act out.

Look at me, Mom! I can turn really fast!

Justin met with Alison, our children's director at church, and his friends Wolf and Elliot just to check in and maybe talk over a few things for the future. When I said Mrs. Alison was on Zoom with Justin, Abishai wanted to chime in and talk to all of them!

Nook lady, aka the book lady, took herself to the trampoline today. However, when I found her, she was on YouTube. I'm going to have to severely limit her "reading" limit time. She said she was only on YouTube for a few minutes. The amount of reading she thinks she's doing and what she's actually done doesn't match up, so I think she's lying.

I did my workout earlier than usual because we had pictures at 4. Well, Abishai decided to use the mat for his own playtime when I was done. I was trying to also read in my book and normally I would sit down in my chair, but that wasn't happening right then.

Just go ahead and spread out, ok? Lol.

I think I see some gray hair! Not the lighter streaks going to the back ,but closer to the scalp near the front. It's hard to tell, but I thought they were just sun bleached hair. I think it's actually gray! yeah! I'm not covering it up either, although, I really like my color of hair so it does make me a little bit sad, too.

Right there, on my right hand side between the front and the lighter streak of sunbleached hair. It's about an inch long.

Just about ready to open!

Gorgeous purple!

And a yellow one in the big grassy bushes.

More purple.

Just forming.

I guess Jared did the right thing by trimming the rose bush all the way down. Look at it now! By the way, I realized tonight that my flower beds are like my homeschooling, my hobbies, the YouTube channels I follow, and my house decor: they are all eclectic! Just wide and varied and not matchy matchy. There's a bit of lopsidedness to the flower bed and so many varieties, too. But that's ok. I like it that way! Sometimes I don't like following the fashion or gardening or decorating rules!

Our little soccer player. He's even been doing sliding kicks and such, rolling, and getting back up like a ninja!

The only way Jared will ever golf. He will never be a golfer. Gary won't be either. There's no time for golf!

I looked out and Ava's car was here for the 2nd time today. Oh, Grady's here, too, getting his Socks' loving. Lol. Grady loves Socks! Then Abishai went out there, too. Leave them alone! Except, it's always exciting when there are visitors!

Typical Saturday. Someone on Facebook asked how people were spending their holiday weekend and I replied, "In the same way we spend every other weekend, with video games, some yardwork and naps. Nothing special to see here." I have been horrible the last few weeks at planning meals, planning out big projects, having mental and physical energy for projects, and the like. Oh man. I woke up a tad less sore than going to bed last night because Jared massaged my shoulders for me. We were all in bed by 11:30pm, too! Not asleep, mind you, but in bed. However, I woke up from a deep sleep with a headache again. And yeah, I was still pretty sore all around. It took a lot of effort to get going and take a shower even. I didn't feel normal until mid afternoon and couldn't take the mess any longer. I started my usual routine of "get outside and offer to help your dad" with them saying "but he didn't ask for my help" and him saying "I'll suggest and/or ask but they won't help." Sigh. I wish I could putter outside with him. But I need the weekend to recover from my workouts. I really hit the wall again last night. And I nearly cried again this morning about it because nothing is budging. Not the scale, not the clothes, and I'm also doing too much and sending myself into a flare up. I know I need to workout more if I'm going to loose weight and get stronger, but I can't. And because my focus is on drinking water and getting my exercising in, I can't spend mental energy on other things.

I guess I have figured out a few things like finalizing and inviting people to Benaiah and Ethan's open house via Facebook. I told Gary and Leah I would purchase some paper invites for them to send in the mail to other people. We have a lot of overlapping guests, so that's good. I did curate the list the best that I could and then told all of Facebook to invite themselves because surely I've forgotten who lives where and who is interested in Benaiah vs. the other kids etc. Yesterday we did the senior pics. The signs I wanted were taken care of my other people. I need to make a phone call on Monday for a Happy Birthday sign for June 4th. We did not have the moving out discussion today. But I did tentatively say yes to grad and birthday gifts. I bought some pop up cards for various events. I told Jared to figure out and buy stuff for the pool and set it up because I'm not touching that process this year if I'm going to be sore every day from working out. It's high time for him to do those things! And then the whole bunk bed and kids' room thing. I'm anxious to do it, but first we need to get Benaiah's stuff out of there. So, I need to be patient. I could have gone over some schoolwork today, but that headache threw me off. I tried to stay out of everybody's way, but when kids hadn't eaten properly and Keturah was on the tablet when she didn't have permission to be and no one was lifting a finger, I stepped in. I did back off about dinner though. We didn't eat until 7 because Jared didn't get up from a nap until 6. I did tell him at lunch that I'm glad he was working out in the yard but when I need these days to recover, he has to check in with the kids more often. Plus, I thought we had established a routine in the last two months of him being the primary parent on Saturdays at least, giving my brain a break from decision making (i.e. when to feed kids, give them screen time, etc.) I got very tired of Keturah tattling on the boys today. Go tell Dad! Yes he's puttering in the yard, but you bug me 5 days a week when I have my own things to focus on over the weekend like he does during the week. But, I was able to calm down, stay out of the way, and let things happen. And I am grateful I felt better enough to squat down and pick up the toys that were bothering me. I still didn't wash the floor though.

I have been busy with online things off and on all day. Keturah cleaned up her room getting it ready for the "makeover" which still won't happen for a bit because this family procrastinates. Abishai was busy with Daddy and Legos. Justin disappeared into a tablet. That tablet is going to wear out soon. It's pretty much on all day every day between the three kids. That's another thing that Jared really needs to take off an afternoon for. He gets mad when he has to do household things during the workweek, but I'm not sure it's something he wants to do on a weekend with crowds either. We need to look into getting phones and he hates spending that kind of money (and yet dropped $200 on more bamboo trees and edging for them). We are just not efficient and it bugs me. I get exhausted from being the fire that keeps people going. Oh, speaking of fire! Check out the pictures and videos below of the big fire Jared made and then how the wind kicked it back up a notch AS the rain was pouring down during a huge thunderstorm. Wild! Benaiah went to see Ava and finally put some time into practicing his drums. And his curls on his head are on point!

Oh, and the men had to go outside during the storm to fix the gutters! They were soaked, there was water all in the garage (again, this is why I don't leave cardboard on the floor. But now the legs of many others are soaked. Sigh. Kind of funny having to hand your 18 yr old a pair of his knickers and tell him to change in the garage (he closed both doors). Same with the husband. You aren't bringing the rain in the house when the laundry machine is right there! And then, it cleared up. Typical summer thunderstorm. Oh, and yes, the "heat" of summer was turned on today. It's like Indiana knows Memorial Day is the first official weekend of summer. I think we've had one or two years that it's been the 70's. Other than that, nearly 90 every Memorial Day. Like a switch. And usually the race cars have been practicing in this gorgeous May weather, typically cool out, and then on race day, they have to completely change their plans because of the heat. Not this year. Practice and race day will be in the dead heat of the summer. Blech. Just cancel it and move on. Sigh.

Yeah, I'm not going to go into it too much,but I addressed what the president said about deeming churches being essential and opening up the buildings. A) None of the articles and posts I read qualified reopening with "the safety measures" and B) the Church with a capital C never closes. We aren't a building, we are a people and ministry has been happening in all kinds of huge ways the last two months. It's forced churches to come into the 21st century or die. It's caused neighbors helping neighbors. And C) When will this country get a clue that just because a president says something, doesn't mean he has the power to make it happen. Checks and balances. States have more rights than the federal government. Good grief. We will open when it's safe to do so. And many small churches can already meet under the guidelines. We still have the freedom to worship, just not at a building in the traditional way. No one is forcing you to watch a livestream or not watch a livestream. You can social distance and still talk to someone through technology or a mask. Thank goodness our church is being reasonable and patient and a good witness of how to listen to the guidelines. There are churches that aren't listening and being revolutionists and some have been shut down. Some people have been set churches on fire. I get it. It's not worth the risk of our good standing with our community to pick a fight over this. God's Kingdom has advanced regardless of a building being opened or not. It's not worth crying tears of joy over just because a president thinks he has all the power to say so. And D) It irks me that people don't understand that with freedom comes responsibility. And revisionist history taught in public schools and the mindset of "memorize it for a test and then forget it" doesn't help. Sigh. Ok, Stepping off the soapbox for now. Thankfully, there wasn't much dialogue on that post.

It feels so good to make this official!

Seriously, I need to take the time to take off the polish and trim my nails. First of all, it's hard to open things because the edges are not as sharp! Second of all, dirt keeps getting stuck in there and I can't see if I need to clean them out. Third of all, the long nails make it harder to type on my phone or the computer because I'm not used to angling my fingers that way for the fingerpads to hit the keys right. I'm so over it!

Abishai helped Daddy make his special breakfast sandwhich.

How is he so big! (He's standing on a stool, too.)

This is Abishai's "steak" aka bacon, egg, mato aka tomato, "salad" aka lettuce swamwhich. I think it's cute that he calls bacon "steak"! To some, it just might be! It never lasts long in our house!

The heat switch got turned on in Indiana!

He finished cutting down the tree next to our window. Sad, sad day. But he has plans to plant bamboo there or something.

Mom, I need some dirt so I can plant this. Can you kill your (aloe) plant so I can have the dirt and pot? Um, sweetie, you need the roots and you only have the stems and leaves. Sorry. We'll keep it alive in water today, but it's just a weed.

Bam! Massive storm kind of crept up on us, although a friend posted the warnings in Illinois. But it was a summer storm and was over in an hour. The air felt so much better afterwards. We love the thunderstorms and missed them when we lived on PEI. They get rain, but not the massive lightning and thunder.

Just a little threatening. And the poor neighbors were trying to grill! I hope they got their meat off the grill and finished cooking it inside!

Uh, the fire reignited itself from all the wind.

Uh, it started to rain and the fire is only getting bigger!

That wind is so strong!

Finally, the rain is helping it!

And here comes the downpour where you can't see anything!

And the puddles of rain in the windowsills. That's why they are so dirty! It comes right through the screens!

Saving Abishai's plants.

Oh man, my men! What a mess! My poor stuff! Just dump the wet clothes in the wash. I'll get you some dry ones.

Mom! Don't take my picture! She took the legs off the pinball machine and was playing with it on her bed.

Yikes! Thankfully, the ground absorbed it pretty quickly.

Jared used the broom to sweep most of this away. I can only imagine what the crawlspace looks like. And how much the sump pump is working over time.

And now it's just a mud pit.

Under the trampoline, too. We had just swept everything off and now there's more "helicopters" from the trees.

After it had dried up a bit, Abishai and Keturah went to jump on the trampoline and took Dinosaury with them. He got a bit damp and dirty, so I carefully sponged him off and now he's in "drying" jail. Oh, this was after my pants got wet sitting on the bathroom counter! Somehow the faucet from the broken sink had been leaking and got the towel wet that is underneath it and it transferred to my pants! So I had the fan on them for a few hours, too.

An impormptu "dessert." My contribution to a dinner of burgers and fries. Canned mixed fruit never has enough cherries (even when you buy the "very cherry" version). And I always carefully measure out the cherry pieces to make it "fair." Well, I knew one can wasn't enough, so I pulled out the pineapple rings, don't why I choose the rings over the pieces, but there ya go. I put an extra maraschino cherry on top of each one (full of sugary) to complete the fanciness. That's our Memorial Day "treat."

Dude, it's time for supper! "But I'm busy!" Dude, you gotta eat!

Oh...my....goodness! That felt SO GOOD! For all my "I don't need social time" talk, it was so much fun to "crash" a church/memorial day party and hang out with our friends! My heart is so full! Seeing the men talk and the kids playing and the back and forth, ah! We were all outside staying 6 ft apart. What happened was, a few families got together to watch the church service at 4:30 and then eat together. Jared wasn't ready for us to do that part yet, but, I had this brilliant idea of going over to their side of the neighborhood and having lawn mower/bike/foot races with them afterwards. And it worked! The back story: Aaron, Grandpa Cook, and Uncle Ed used to tune up lawn mowers and enter them in a race around the city square every summer. There were even t-shirts made up for those events and Leah has now taken them down to Aaron, which makes him tear up. Anyway, so to kind of make up for the fact that we didn't have the Indy 500 today, and that Aaron typically tries to watch a bit of it, or make some special food for it as a way to reconnect with us, especially with all those years watching the race at the Rutherford's house, I wanted to try to do something different with my day. I'm tired of being stuck in a rut, not marking off the seasons and months the way I'm used to. I think you call those: traditions? Maybe? Lol. So I made up a checkered flag, a trophy, got Abishai's mic and whistle, and off we were. It was so much fun!

To hear the kids laugh and play was amazing! To see Justin have a ball riding the lawn mower, even with Abishai sitting with him, so much fun! He's only used it a few times, so, it is a little nerve wracking, but we were both right there. Then slowly the rest of the kids came out, took over the signs I brought, which were red, yellow, and green cardstock, and had red light/green light races from the stop sign to Gary and Leah's house. Then the moms came out at my request, because Jared had left me for a few minutes and I was alone with the kids and had no way of gathering up the women to talk to. I was bold enough to just text them, and it worked out well. We stood in the street watching the kids go back and forth. Gary and Leah's neighbor to the north was even outside watching the kids a bit. I hope that brought a smile to her face. And we practiced "game on/game off." i.e. when a car comes we move to the side of the street. All the kids seem to obey and pay attention and thank goodness we have some decent other neighbors that are careful. But just seeing everybody and talking the small talk was good. I didn't even realize I do need that from time to time. I still have to be intentional like I was today because conversations won't happen naturally since we live on another street. And that's ok. It's an area that I can grow in. I can focus on just these friends and practice my social skills in new ways. I'm safe and I'm loved and Jared is happy, too. Sigh.

And then there's Justin, who got the best adrenaline rush of his life! Andrew let him ride his mini dirt bike! And Andrew said he will help Justin fix up his! Justin had a nice expensive helmet on, but it was still nerve wracking to watch him take off. He went a lot faster than I expected him to go. I didn't know he would be so bold! Debbie even noticed how large his smile was under the helmet. And he didn't crash and he didn't hurt anyone. Andrew didn't tell him how to brake though, so Justin slowed down and used his feet like his was on a pedal bike! Dude! You could seriously hurt your feet or shoes! It all happened so fast though and Andrew patiently showed him how to brake. What a thrill for Justin, the often forgotten one because he doesn't make waves. He got to do something his big brother hasn't done. He's got his very own little project to work on and learn about. I'm so glad I pushed for it to come with us in January. I love it when I make the right decisions.

Now I'll dial back to the morning. Normal Sunday morning and such. Sermon was on why does God let bad things happen? kind of stuff. Pretty normal. The women in Bible study thought it was really good, and it was, I did write down a few things. Abishai played the drums during the worship time and made me play the piano as well. It's a good thing I have access to the chord sheets! Lunch was sandwiches. Then we queued up the Indy500 from 2009. And you know what? I remember the parts of the race we watched! From the first crash, to the end, where Helio Castroneves won his 3rd Indy500! It was just fun to listen to the prerace stuff like the national anthem, back home in Indiana song, balloons being released, fighter jets flying above, taps for the soldiers for memorial day, and all the rest. It made the day seem normal. And since it's been a tradition that Jared holds on to, I like to make sure he carries out that tradition in some form. When he worked for a month in KY during his masters degree on the weekends at a church, we listened to the race on the way home. We've paid for broadcasts just so we can see the race.  Today, we just went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's YouTube channel and found the full 3 hr broadcast video to watch. I knew that they had full races because I subscribe to their channel and I've seen them post them. It was good to hear the sound of racecars and remember where we live.  It's been weird not hearing about carb day or the concert day or the mini marathon. Remember, I'm an "all in" type of person, so I really embraced our city before we left for Canada, and then I embraced Canada. Then I had to reembrace Indiana again. They might run the race in August, but we'll see. Then they would have to bump the Brickyard 400 or something. It will seem very, very weird. And hot.

And that's about it. Now I feel like summer can start. I don't have huge plans for summer and nothing really changes from what we've been doing. We can't go to pools and water parks. We aren't participating in park days. And I'm at a loss to what else we usually do. I feel "project" out and have to wait on things to do my next physical projects. Most of my to do list is computer related and that doesn't bode well when you are trying to keep kids off of electronics. So, a little more thought needs to go in having a summer plan I think. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. Otherwise, I'm exhausted and happy.

The app we use for scheduling at church allows the worship ministers to upload song charts and media for the band to listen to, so I played along a little bit like Abishai wanted me to and it was fun!

The plan was the lawn mower races!

Helio and crew always climb the fence.

Gary was the "weatherman" and he said, "There's so much rain, we are going to DIE!" A little over dramatic, don't you think. And embarrassing, as always. Lol.

Even my game knew it was race week!

We didn't watch it but that's awesome that the local tv station put this together.

No joke! I don't want to be in their shoes right now.

I think you do the exercises if you notice that an enneagram 6 (like me) is doing/saying these things. It was pretty spot on!

Socks joined us for church.

It's old, it's ok.

She loves her coloring and puzzles. And she's had that shirt for over 7 years now. It was used as a nightgown and now it's almost too short to wear. It say Charlottetown or PEI Rockets before they changed their name to "Islanders."

Always building.

Pre show. Almost the best part of church service. And then the bloopers at the end of service are great, too. It helps to get people set up on time and makes them stay until the very end. We are getting to see a side of Jared Ensminger that we don't normally see. And Caroline, too. Hilarious!

Playing drums like Miah for worship time. He slowed down when the music calmed down and sped up when it got loud. He doesn't want to watch the kids' worship. He likes the adult worship and then plays the Bible story app on Jared's phone during the sermon.

He moved himself so he could see the screen. How precious is he?

Church next to my pup.

Note the sweatshirt and jean shorts. He put them over his pjs again so he could easily take them off when church was over. He wore his pjs to the neighborhood "party."

Time to watch a race!

Still haven't seen Benaiah's yet. But Miss Emma was 3rd in her class of 700! From the girl who wouldn't eat anything but breadsticks when she was 5, to a very well educated, well spoken young lady. We used to do small group with her family.

When the parents are away, the kids will play....driveways with an incline are so much fun!

Leah's flower beds are blooming!

Wanamaker/Eaton Indy 500 Video Playlist May 24, 2020

Time for a little racing. I made the checkered flag this afternoon. Then borrowed the mircophone from Abishai. It's one of those echoy ones. And then I repurposed Benaiah's Bible Bowl trophy. They all came in handy to play pretend!

On your mark, get set, race the lawn mower!

The lawn mower wasn't as fast as we thought it would be. But it was still fun to do something Uncle Aaron used to do with Uncle Ed and Grandpa Cook and in honor of the Indy 500 that should have been run on this perfect weather day! There would have been no rain delays and it was in the 80's, but not so hot you'd die.

I'm glad Jared wore his hat this time. He needs to, just like I do. I put on a lot of sunscreen because I wore a tank top.  I didn't put sunscreen on the kids though. Probably should have.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines! We did watch the opening bits of an older Indy 500 so Abishai knew exactly what to do.

Daddy won one of the rounds, so he go the trophy!

Our flags were construction paper and the kids used them well!

Trophy!

Abishai interviewed the winner.

Then he interviewed the winner of a different round. Abishai even did an announcer voice.

Not your turn yet bud, not your turn.

Maybe in a year or two. It's the first year that either house has had a riding lawn mower. Gary finally made the switch.

Yeah, Nolan came out to play!

These two could be best buds. Too bad we don't live right across from them. But when they are 8, 9, 10, maybe we can start letting them go to each other's houses via Ali's backyard.

Fun times with big brother.

Let's race!

Nolan was a beast on the electric scooter! Barely could see, but it didn't matter. I enjoyed waving the flags even when kids didn't care. The men also got to talk for a bit and then disappeared into the Bible barn.

End of the race!

Unhappy, hot spectator.

See, you can have fun, too.

Now everyone getting into it, just like I had hoped!

Conferencing with Conner.

My Karate Kid.

Popsicle break.

Daredevil Nolan.

Nice day or a drive.

Friends chatting in the street, just like it should be.

Watching all our kids play, while somewhat social distancing without masks. Jared won't let us go into people's homes yet, but outside is ok.

More bike riding. Everybody was sharing and testing out each other's wheels.

Even Mrs. Adrienne got on a kid bike in her skort. Lol.

Thunderstorms approaching, but we didn't get any rain.

Oh no, what's this?! Mr. Andrew was kind enough to let Justin try out his motorbike. Justin had boldly asked him if he could help him fix up Justin's bike. Andrew said yes, and then they got out this one. Erica said that she made Andrew buy the super expensive helmets, so at least that part is safe. I'm not so sure about scraped knees and broken bones. Justin did get the hang of it quickly, and nothing and nobody got hurt. He rode up and down the street and in Andrew's back yard.

Adrenaline rush and the biggest smile a young man can have when he's reaching top speed.

Whoops, we forgot to teach you how to brake! Justin slowed down, but then used his feet to stop himself like he was no a pedal bike. All I could think of was his feet bending backyard or shoes getting caught or something.  Whoops! We women were all cringing but again, these women and I, try not to hold on too tightly. "Go figure out your own fights. Go find your own swimsuit." Maybe we are selfish, but we also want our kids to be able to fend for themselves.

What an exciting day for this guy!

It brings a big smile to my face, too.  Yes, it's risky, but the men and the boys take calculated risks. They aren't reckless. And poor forgotten, peacemaker, in the middle of the pack Justin needs special moments like this, too. Benaiah hasn't done this before. Justin look like a natural on it! And, he has to learn to take care of his own bike. I'm so thrilled that I pushed to bring it home as his side project. So much fun!

Say what?! Grady (Ava's brother) wrote in chalk, "Honk if you farted" on Benaiah's truck! Grady!!!! He's been coming with Ava when she stops by for short visits because he LOVES Socks. And Socks loves him!

The End