The J6 Journey: Year 5, May 25th-28th, 2020: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Summer

Sing it to the tune of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas!" Because holy cow, it's 85 degrees! Not too bad on the humidity today, and Jared was outside a good portion of the day digging up and replanting his bamboo and preparing for more bamboo he bought that will do better in the first spot. The kids and I did a little bit of schoolwork, and then I tried to stay close to my computer working on those dreaded pictures of Benaiah I have to compile, delete at least 50% of them and then I'll have to go back and maybe edit them. I compiled about 1,000 pictures, mostly new, but some from Facebook and screenshots that I need to reduce to about 200. I want to print them all. I don't have money for that. A lot of the new ones are redundant because Benaiah has basically a handful of things he does that I can take pictures of: wrestling brothers, sleeping, gaming, girlfriend time (which I'm no longer allowed to take pictures of), the occasional stage performance, rinse and repeat. Seriously, every other photo of him in the last 4 years is of him gaming or sleeping or wrestling. Thank goodness friends have taken a few photos of him while he's been at school and prom and such. I plan to put out the scrapbooks I have of him from birth through Keturah's birth (because that's where I stopped scrapbooking pretty much). Then I've pulled photos off of Facebook as they came up in timehop. So, he's probably going to be the only one that has the most pictures. I don't know if I'll make a digital scrapbook to print, but I'm not worried anymore about making things even. Baby books need done, but Mr. J took over my scrapbooking desk. And I'd have to spend a lot more time finding out where I stopped with Keturah and then deciding what to print for Abishai. I had all our photos printed through 2012. And since I've uploaded them all to snapfish for the last few years, I can just get them from there without too much issues, plus my hard drives. Anyway,...photos...I spend more time with photos than I do my kids! I've been taking and scrapbooking photos for 30 years I think. #obsession

Let's see, Abishai played Legos, watched Avengers 3, played in the hose with Keturah, and played video games with Daddy. Jared is building a better platform for the pool this year, and since we hadn't preplanned it, he only got a start on it today. I hope he can finish it by next weekend. Otherwise, there's a hose, and the kids will be just fine. We also need groceries this week, so I might pick up a little hard plastic pool. Benaiah had his first shift back at work today. It's a shorter shift by a little bit because they close a tad early because it's a holiday. Jared and I prayed with him before he left. Once again, my big hopes and dreams were barely touched these last 6 weeks. But hopefully enough progress was made in our relationships to tie us together just a little bit stronger. Not that he needs to stay close physically, but just that he doesn't distance himself too far either. I'm still having a really hard time with it all. Meanwhile, I did get a workout in, but did it in the much cooler fireside room. Then a quick shower before burgers on the grill for dinner. Justin found out from Andrew that the bike will cost about $300 to fix, and $600 to replace altogether. We're going with the fix option and Jared said we can fit the bill like we helped Benaiah with the drum kit. Justin said he wouldn't mind being a mechanic and Jared reminded him that typically, garages can be pretty hot in the summer. So, we'll see on that front. If it's something he does take an interest in, there's plenty of programs he can get into. That's still not going to change what I want to do with him for high school classes. His transcript is the other thing I need to make up. Eek! And we are waiting on Benaiah's final GPA to be calculated. And a follow up from admin at Ozark about the FAFSA and all the things. So, we made some good progress today. I'll make some more tomorrow when I can make phone calls. Oh, and Keturah has not made enough progress on her reading on the nook, which means she's cheating with videos and games, so from now on, she can either read on the tablet (which I should have been checking all along) or on my computer. That's about it!

From 6 years ago! Waving the flag when we were watching the Indy 500! Ages 12, 9, and 6!

Some people were asking about how to keep pools (big and little I assume) when you have well water. Well, now we know! Yeah! I think we'll try this!

Abishai was right back at it this morning finding the right pieces for his creations. We need to find all the TMNT Lego and put it away so he has room on the table to create.

I went to show Abishai what Grady had written in chalk on Benaiah's truck and when Socks heard the name "Grady" he immediately perked up. He wanted to see if Grady was here! I guess he's attached himself to Grady now!

More flowers this morning! And less dandelions where Jared sprayed for them. I still had some other thistles to pull though over where the old bush was.

Whoops! Between my usage after hours and Gary's usage because he couldn't connect to Aaron's wifi, we are about to have an issue with not enough data for the month. We still have two more weeks before it resets. Yikes!

Aw, my Beachbody coach sent me a book! This is why I choose her! She's so sweet!

Abishai was "frying" goldfish before he ate them on his Shopkins playset he got from Mrs. Ellen when she stopped by last week. So silly!

I wish we had smell a vision! I love anything grilled! Especially over charcoal!

He was either very snuggly or very tired. No, he's not asleep, but he was leaning over when he was eating. He didn't snuggle with us a lot today because he was already too busy with Legos. I missed it! I just wanted to scoop him up all day long and touch him! And he kept coming over for a hug, too.

Replanted bamboo where the bush was that Jared had overwatered and then carpenter ants came and destroyed it. Hopefully bamboo will grow quick and provide shade. We don't have blinds or curtains on our bedroom windows but they are up higher so it is hard to see in.

Different angle of the bamboo. There will be new bamboo coming for the back.

Half of a ring that will contain sand and then the pool will go on top.

Digging a trench to put a two foot barrier fence so the new bamboo doesn't grow too wildly. Yes, a trench by hand. Maybe we should rent a tool but at the same time, it keeps Justin occupied for awhile.

Where the old bamboo was. I can't wait for the bamboo to grow and cover the sunroom windows a bit. We could put up shades and such but plants are somewhat easier if you are patient. The old bamboo was a type that needed a lot less sun than they were getting.

I'm glad Jared thought of this. I wouldn't encourage it except that we have a good 5 or more years of having a pool in the backyard so, yup, let's do it! Then we can make it a sandbox or firepit later.

Our indoor electric and outdoor charcoal grill. Putting her to good use this year.

Sitting down on the job because it's hot!

Dig, dig, dig.

A yeat! The only fun part of it is jumping on the shovel he said. At least the ground is soft.

It's a Monday, on a Tuesday! And it was Taco Tuesday, too! But we didn't have sour cream or lettuce or avocados! Yes, we need to go grocery shopping, but the local free food for kids program came in handy once again today. Did you know that my three boys can drink 4 gallons of milk in a week?! I didn't either! But they did! Benaiah said that he drank more milk because we knew we had tons. So, today, I picked up the food and promptly the milk over to Gary's house thinking I would just leave two in the freezer. But my friend Erica had 3 gallons left over from last week's food pick up, so I put all 4 of the new gallons of milk in the fridge and took her 3 leftover gallons. We will probably skip next week, don't worry. We will only take what we can use. But it does help us go a couple more days before we can get to the grocery store. Things are looking a bit more sparse in other places. Again, I will focus on a two weeks' supply this time, with a focus on meat, veggies, and fruit. We seem to have enough carbs. I'll do some meal planning/prep tomorrow. I did not get a lot done today, but I tried! It was just a hodge podge kind of day with a little bit of math homework, some outdoor water play, the food fun, exercise, a little bit of reading, a little bit of book putting away and taking out for next school year, and a whole lot of "leave your brother alone!" "No more sweets or screen time!" "Do your chores!" "Take a shower!" Well, those were all gentle commands until about the 5th time I had to say them. Abishai seems very, very tired, and we aren't sure why. I mean he's been playing a bit hard, but not more than normal. He says Benaiah's snoring wakes him up and he wants to sleep on the "double bed" that is in Justin's couch in the fireside room. Hm,....we are still pretty active when he goes to bed, so I'm not sure.

Benaiah has decided that getting up around 9 is what he wants to do, so ok, that's cool. He went to work around 2:30 today and has a regular late night shift. He was very sore last night. Yup, that's normal. Jared had a full day of work, I think. He also had a chiropractor appointment as well. Tomorrow is full steam ahead with counseling phone call and small groups. I hope they continue small groups through the summer. It makes it nice for the kids to have something else to do and see other kids. Jared's new work computer came today, so maybe his current computer can be passed down. I don't know yet. I don't want it, that's for sure. I don't want any computer that doesn't have a large screen and a disc drive. I like my computer. And I like my phone except that it doesn't take the best photos and it's the only thing I've been using for photos and videos. I need to change that. I really do. I don't think I've used the DSLR since Abishai's birthday 3 1/2 months ago. Whoops. Ok, I'm sore from the workout, so, back to using the baseball in the sore spot and then once the air cools off, I'll use the heating pad. I think that helped me not be to sore today. My back hurts a bit, but my legs feel stronger and not as sore, so that's a plus. Still no weight loss. Sigh. It's those hidden calories! I just can't do more exercising than 4 times a week. I might be able to sneak a 5th time in. We'll see how this week goes. I'll take tomorrow, Wednesday, off, and then do Thursday and Friday possibly. Then we'll see how I feel on Saturday. Oh, but groceries on Thursday. Well, we'll see.

That's it. Pretty straight forward day. But I did take some pictures that I will explain in their captions!

This was a fun one! I did it with Keturah. She based her choices on the villians' children because of a TV show. I based mine on how wonderfully portrayed Maleficient was in the live version a few years ago.

So, I got tired of the long nails. Maybe my nails weren't that strong, because they kept flexing and bending and twisting and I was afraid they were going to tear off. Therefore, I decided to cut them, with the nail polish still one, so they wouldn't tear. And it worked really well! The nail polish is cracking but you can't tell from a distance. I also hated how I had to hold my finger a different way to type on my phone and the extra clicking sound when typing on the computer. I also am not taking the nail polish off because I don't have any nail polish remover! I thought we had a tiny bit left, but nope, nada. So that goes on the list for Meijer. I wish I hadn't pealed off the nail polish on two fingers on my right hand. Oh well, no wonder is going to see. And even when I did peal them off, there's only a tiny bit of residue that simply wore off over a couple of days.

Not as feminine but much more practical for this mom.

Still looking decent!

AWWWW! Although, because Justin doesn't have his phone and can't get on Group Me, he had no idea that some people went downtown to greet Ron on going in for his last chemo treatment. I'm kind of bummed about that!

Justin even thought Abishai's invention was cool! This kid plays with his Legos for HOURS and HOURS a day, no joke! He's taking apart and putting together different configurations all the time! He even said he didn't put a top rotor on so he could have better access to the guy inside. He's just pretending there is one. What an imagination!

Mom! That looks like something you can change your clothes behind! Yes, dear, it is, but it's a portable timeline and this is how it works......He wasn't at all interested in helping me fix the timeline only putting on a few key dates as outlined in our text. We didn't use it this year like I have in the past to do a review. I had Keturah make the cards to help her remember, but that was it. I think this timeline petered out because we were focusing in on the one on the cards for CC. That's ok, we can do some visualizing with it next year.

Presto, change-o!

Ready for the water!

6th gear! Hahaha! But it's so true! And he doesn't downshift to even 3rd or 2nd until right before bedtime. Jared is more distracted now because the bedroom door has to be open to allow a fan to pull the cold a/c air up to the thermostat in the middle of the hallways. We are replacing the thermostat ASAP because a) the batteries aren't working well in it, despite changing them and b) it seems to be just a hot area and therefore the a/c never turns off unless you manually turn it off. Jared never noticed that it runs all day because he hasn't been here all day throughout the week before. We keep it set at 74 in the winter and 78 in the summer. But old, leaky house doesn't help us much. We'll get a digital one, but not a "smart" one.

After screen time, I had Justin dig out the slip and slide. Something is leaking somewhere because after a few minutes, the pressure dropped, but the hose was fine. We added some dish soap to make it more slippery and away the boys went. Keturah refused to get in the water. I told them that there will be no public or private pools or waterparks this year. You have the embrace the backyard water things. Rig up something and make your own water park.

The boys wants to throw the big balls at each other and Abishai's cackling was the best!

I had the idea of adding the "trick shot" featuer of the basketball at the end of the runway. No, Justin did not get it in, but Abishai nearly did it 10 times from a standing up position!

Justin! Go get the ball! (He did.)

Swip!

Water fun at home! "This is called the hydro (something) vent trick shot!" I think he watches too much Dude Perfect, lol.

Justin mowed the yard this morning and then went back to digging the trench this evening. Well, he had the genius idea of talking to his friends on discord while he dug the trench. Since it's a big tablet, he put it in his string bag and then had his earphones with mouth piece and on/off switch on his head. Great idea!

Dig, dig, dig!

Oooo! A fun hole to play in! At first he was skeptical, but after awhile, he wanted to run the whole "course."

Our neighbor Adrienne made these for the kids. We needed ones for Benaiah for work, but these are cute, too!

Aw, kind of fun, but kind of sad that if the kids do go out beyond the neighborhood, we feel they need to have one on. But they will make fun pretend play when all this is said and down. Abishai didn't balk at the idea. Again, he's well aware of the adult conversations and the virus and everything. He saw us wear them, too.What a champ!

Wednesday, are Wednesdays the new Sundays are Mondays? They always stress me out! Maybe because we actually have to be "somewhere" on time. Counseling (which I forgot that I had pushed it up to 3pm) and Wednesday Worship. Actually, Wednesday Worship is done and Keturah's small group will meet after Crave on Sundays for June. Then they will take a break from Crave. Justin's will continue to meet when it meets, on Wednesdays? Not sure. I couldn't get a straight answer from the kids, so I asked the youth leaders directly. I did shower, make some phone calls, looked over math, yelled at people, ordered a birthday sign, thought about making a grocery list, etc.

(I'm writing this on Friday) As I've said before, trying to go back and remember what happened in the last 24-48 hrs is nearly impossible for me. I'm also starting to feel like something needs to change to streamline our life. I don't know what that is yet. Maybe it's just me needing to no write as much on here and just throw up some pictures with captions, explaining specific stories instead of trying to write out every little thing. Maybe I need to redefine my goals here and go from there. When something like this becomes a chore and not something you look forward to, something has to change. I do write on here every day, but only publish twice a week. Someone on Facebook asked what we were going to for the 60% of the year we have left, so it got me thinking about how I've been focusing on making exercise a habit but then I give up those 30 minutes where I could be doing something else. There's always 10 things that could be done in every minute of the day. It's all about choosing the best one in the moment and I get decision fatigue. So, something to think about. I will caption these photos and move on.

"No, it's my blankie!" "No, it's mine."

Jared liked a tweet about missing post-it notes, so I offered mine to him.

RIP spatula we've had probably for our whole marriage.

When Daddy accidentally hits you in the face and your the youngest (and favored) child, you get a new Lego set. And then, Abisahi insisted that it stays on Daddy's desk at home and then back at the office so he doesn't ruin it by taking it apart or losing the pices.

Yes, he needs a haircut. No, I'm not going to trim his bangs. I saw a picture of Benaiah at age 1 or so after his first haircut that I did and it was atrocious. Nope. Just a few more days (or a couple of weeks, I need to get them appointments), and Jennae can work her magic.

What do you call them? My friend in Massachusetts said she calls them one thing in one context and another in another context, and I would have to agree.

Genius! Or you could make it into a sign and hang it on a wall. You could change "sitting here" to something like being sent to their room.

Abishai and I both like to see pictures of him sleeping. His face looks so different! Maybe because his mouth isn't moving 100mph and he's not smiling.

Benaiah got his first graduation gift from some older, but great friends! Thanks, Houpts!

Thursday was all about me, trying to attack what still hadn't gotten done, like passports. Come to find out, they don't want you sending in passport applications right now because they are understaffed due to Covid-19. Jared failed to mention that when I've been begging him to fill them out for two months. We only have 5 months until our trip! I should have done the passports as soon as I had the money. I'm so frustrated! Now I have no clue when they will reopen and if we will have to expedite it or not. Ugh! I guess I will check back on the website every week for the month of June and reasses. At least I printed the forms to see what all was needed, which isn't much. Renewing money is a breeze and since Benaiah is now over 16, his will be pretty easy, too. The toughest part will be get the pictures done and go to the post office to send it, because both require Benaiah's presence and he's working again. That's what Wednesdays are for!

Grrr. I also moved the fire safe to the middle of a doorway so he has to trip over it. It's been sitting in the sunroom for 3 weeks blocking our way to the summer stuff. Enough is enough. I cleared out the space for it as soon as it was ordered. I might push it closer to it's new home tomorrow, but I want him to feel like it's in his way before I do. We did have fun with the box though, pretending it was a place for Abishai's cash register. We played a game of "Meijer" and "curbside pickup." I took lots of photos and lengthy videos.

I did get a workout in today as well. I was tired though because I slept on the couch in the fireside room because Abishai was on the other couch and I didn't want him to wake up alone. When I went to lay down, he stirred and woke up and talked for 10 minutes about a bird that didn't land and his routine for the morning. Yes, he was 100% awake. That's just him. He goes from 0-100 instantly. He didn't move much in the night, but boy, in the morning he was firing on more cylinders that I could count. Instead of his usual 50mph, he was at 100mph and I was running on about 5mph. Speaking of running, Benaiah suggested it and we started it today that Keturah at least has to 1 minute of large body movements for every 1 minute she gets on the tablet. She thinks that's unfair because I'm not keeping tracking of Justin's and Abishai's activities. Actually, I am mentally sort of keeping track, and they are both active enough, and at least more willing, to move around. Plus, they are a healthy weight. Keturah isn't overweight but she's going to be if she doesn't break this habit now. It's hard. We don't say things like "you're fat" but we do talk about her having healthy habits. We talk about our unhealthy habits, too. Sometimes way too much. She did do two hours of activity today, though! And I'm not saying she has to jump on the trampoline for 2 hrs or run around the block. Just walking around the house and being in a tickle fight or getting up and down to play with Abishai can count. Just so she uses her big muscle groups and doesn't sit in her bed all day lounging. And we need to reverse the routine where the kids go outside in the morning when it's cooler and then do their math and reading after lunch. So, we'll try that tomorrow. It wouldn't have worked today because we had rain this morning.

Oh, that's what happened! Justin procrastinated going out to keep digging on the trench and when he finally got out there at 7:30pm, it started to rain! And then I heard thunder and he was still digging! I had to go out there and tell him to get inside. He also had headphones on and the tablet in his backpack. Dude! Thunder, lightning, electronics, not a good combo! And he got inside just in the nick of time because it poured rain and filled the trench with water! The trench has to be finished by Monday, so he has some time. But I think he needs to mow Grandpa's lawn again, too. He's just so slow! He hasn't finished his history test yet either. Poke and prod, let's go! And then they all expect me to go super fast when they need something. Sigh.

Meanwhile, the education world is going crazy and I can't keep up. I just spent another 45 minutes typing long messages clarifying the law and options in homeschooling etc. etc. I feel like I've been online all day and not making progress! I told myself I would work on the blog until 10pm and I only have 10 more minutes. Sigh. I just want to relax and watch my shows! But I feel like I'm not making much progress either because I have to keep reminding everyone.....ok, no more of that...don't have time for pity parties. Onward.

Playlist for Blog 5/27-28/2020

Cute!

I have never thought to put these two things together, but wow, yum! They did some vanilla to it, too. But no corn syrup or fillers. Still almost $5 on clearance so, not buying it again. Easy enough to copy though!

Always finding new places to play.

Burning calories. He lasted 1 minute and said his wrists hurt. Dude, you have weak wrists, you'll have to build up muscles in your forearm. If you're careful, you aren't going to hurt them. And then he leaped over the box mutliple times.

Trench for the barrier to keep the new bamboo from overtaking the yard. It's taking Justin a full week to get it down because he doesn't plan well.

Mud!

What started off as Abishai wanting to play store, became a whole production of social distancing and curbside pickup. We did forget our masks though! He told me that I couldn't come into the store and he would get the stuff. I called it curbside pickup. We added toilet paper to the mix, but the store didn't sell food. And each shopping trip cost $50. He used a deep voice and "Welcome, shopper! What can I get you today?" Hilarious! See video playlist above!

Big brother got a fan and a nerf gun.

Cutest make believe player in the world.

What the store had in stock. Oh, and the store was Meijer.

Second load.

"Mommy, I'm watching videos of the Lego sets I like so I can build them with my own Legos." And then he confessed later that he would like to buy the Lego sets someday, too. But he does seem to get inspiration from them! Either by story or actual building ideas.

When picking up toys and stuff from any other floor in the house would take more time than the workout itself, you improvise. Plus, it was coolere in here than in the sunroom.