Year 5, June 1st-4th, 2020: Benaiah's 18th Birthday!

This is it! This is the week Benaiah becomes an adult! Maybe, lol. The calendar says he is. He can't smoke or drink until he's 21, but he can vote! Because of the county wide curfew, CFA closed at 7pm and Benaiah was supposed to be home by 8. Well, they had a huge rush of people of course trying to pick up dinner and they didn't start any closing procedures until 7:30. He wasn't home until almost 9. I wasn't too worried. We live in the suburbs. He's wearing his work uniform and smells like grease. Can't fake that!

Anyway, I woke up with sinus issues and vertigo. I was kind of glad to beg off from errands today and my chiropractor appointment and just sleep. Yesterday was emotionally and relationally exhausting. I did have to take dramimine and take a nap today. We were all outside at one point as well. But now I have to catch up. Justin corrected his own math, Keturah needs help with hers, and I have to find time to do the other errands. And there's another curfew tonight from 8pm to 4am. The primary election is tomorrow, and polls open at 6am, so they have to get ready before that. I thought it was mail in ballot only, but I guess not. Jared put his ballot out in the mail today. I sent mine weeks ago. My brother called and said everything is pretty good in his corner of the world and he's not going into Marion County at all, so he's safe. And Marie doesn't go far, so she and the kids are safe. The kids were able to finish their school years and promote to the next grade. Eli turns 6 on June 3rd and will be 1st grade in the fall. Rosie turned 8 in February. (8?! Where'd that time go!?) And will enter 3rd grade I believe. Crazy! I can remember the phone calls when she was born and going to see her. We weren't here in Indiana when Eli was born, but got to hold him when he was a few months old I think when we were here before going on the cruise. Anyway, there's that.

I'm tired. I can't think. Here's what I got so I can catch up.

Aw, sorry, but I've followed these wee one's journey since the egg and sperm were matched up in the lab and she was placed in her mother's womb. I'm so glad she looks so well! Now the hard part begins. Surgery now and surgery later on her strong heart. She's a champion!

Curfew. 8pm. Alerts on your phone. Just like if your parents paged you.

They revamped the prayer at 3:17 pm every day to reflect the issues at hand. They even met in the parking lot to pray. I did nap during this today, but usually I'm awake and aware of it.

Tick Tock

Abishai's Helicopter Race

I heard laughter before lunch!

Keturah sang JoJo Siwa songs and Justin would pound her with the ball, but they were both giggling. And Abishai was laughing his head off at the antics.

Blueberry face. I bought mini handheld blender for small amounts of smoothies so we can make indiivdual blends and not get the big blender out and make a mess. It worked well! Just don't use ice and put enough liquid in it. Our favorite glass cups that hold 16oz with a handle are perfect sized!

Jared wanted the maple tree helicopters as fertilizer. Uh, they grew into trees instead.

Being outside also mean physical movement, not just reading and tablet time.

This is well water without any filtration or water softening. This is why my bathtub looks the way it does. Gross. It's clean, and yet, it isn't.

Mom, let's put these books out here to read in case we get bored with soccer. #bookworm

Nice placement for his Lego Bible.

Long hair and static electricity. There must be a lot of charge in the air, because it doesn't take much to feel a zap from the trampoline. In fact, when Abishai was "fully charged" he sat on my lap, zapped me, and I felt the zap from my behind to the edge of the trampoline. Abishai thought it was hilarious!

Well, the rose bush is doing well!

Nice and full and lots of flowers! Jared had cut it down to practically nothing, so this is ALL new growth this year only.

Awesome!

New buds about to open up.

Finally used sealant on the rug that Shauna made me for Christmas. I'm keeping it inside t protect it and if it starts to wear down too much, I'll put it somewhere more decorative. I'm glad to be rid of that old bathroom rug that was there. The back was drying and cracking and leaving a mess!

This is as screen shot of a video I was watching of a while police officer linking arms with a black protestor. There was a smallish group of protestors downtown tonight at Monument Circle. They were peaceful. They knew they were supposed to be gone at 8, but decided to walk up to the governor's mansion 3 miles away. The police let them and protected them along the way. When they got there, the police officers and people in charge of the protest agreed that they would march together for one block and then the protestors had to go home. It was 8:30, way past curfew. That was more than generous. And it gives me goosebumps. No one is getting hurt in our city tonight. Nothing is getting destroyed. Both voices were heard. And the Governor is also safe. I did watch a press conference this afternoon and I am really beginning to like our governor. Not sure about our mayor who keeps hiding, but at the governor was very clear that we have made progress with the black community and we are aware there is more things to do. We want to allow peaceful protestors. The National Guard (our is the 5th largest in the nation at 12,500 strong!) are poised and ready to come if necessary. The President of the United States is calling for more force to stop the protests and the rioters, but I think our Governor  Holcomb knows what he is doing. It was a tough weekend, so very scary, but it is already calming down. Hopefully, we can have some peace. Chin up!

Taco Tuesday, Indiana Primary Election Day, 5th day of Protests downtown, catchup day for Mom.

Get 'er done! Nay, I didn't have that much to catch up on, but I did want to cross some things off the to do list like recycling and finally picking up books from the library that I ordered 2 1/2 months ago! Most of which we just sitting there, half a mile away, all lonely like. I'm glad I waited another week because our branch started curbside service! That means, I just call them to say I'm ready to pick up, and they bring it out on a cart, walk six feet backwards, I get out of the car, pick it up, go back to my car, then they come get the cart. Easy peasy. But I had to go through my list and tell the librarian which ones I didn't need anymore. She was very kind and we were able to whittle down the 43 books I had on my list to 23 (some are still not in yet of those 23). The kids read the other 20 books on the Nook or online version. I couldn't cancel them because they were in transit or already on the shelf waiting for me. So I waited for the "in transit" ones to get there and canceled the ones that weren't on their way yet. Hopefully, we'll breeze through some more.  I'm pretty excited because 5 of the items weren't books, they were DVD's. Three of them are from a homeschool company called "Drive Thru History" and come very highly praised. One of them is a cartoon of William Bradford. The other one is an audiobook but Keturah already listened to it online, so, that can go back now. There were mostly picture books and a few very long books. Anyway, yeah for the library! It's been way too long! I took book a TON of books, too. We caught up on almost everything! And now we can start fresh in the fall with our history reading. Here we go!

Then I took a peek at our church, which was one of the polling places today. Because of social distancing and it being a primary election, the line wrapped around half of our main parking lot and the wait was over an hour! And it was 90 degrees heat index today! I think I saw someone with chilled bottled water handing them out halfway through the line. I hope it was the church or the election people. I'm so glad I used the mail in ballot. Jared tried mailing his yesterday, but I don't know if it will be counted. Gary and Leah took their mail in ballots this morning at 9am. The line was busy the rest of the day I heard. Crazy! We also heard rumors of a protest in our little corner of Wanamaker, but it is postponed until tomorrow because of the election today. My friends alerted me to it, not to join it, but to make sure we are safe. Uh, I doubt they were actually going to march anywhere. It looked like they were just going to stay on the four way stoplight. But anyway, I'm not afraid of it. It's probably going to be small, and protests are necessary. Yesterday's downtown ones ended peacefully with police walking with the protestors for a block and then the police protected and urged everyone to their cars to go back home, although it was 2 hrs past curfew. I'm so proud of my city! Now, I get it, legislation and change won't happen instantly, but knowing our Hoosier Hospitality mentality and Bible belt presence, I would hope that it wasn't just for a show. Governor Holcomb seems like a smart man and knows what is going on and what to do next. Our mayor, on the other hand, is a no show, and hides. Curfew is back on for tonight again from 9pm to 6am. I don't mind the curfew since we are not out and about. Benaiah is allowed to close early and come home, so he's safe. The longer we have curfews, the safer we are and the rioters who came to town just to put up a fuss, will go home and leave our city alone, or choose another place to terrorize. Either way, I'm ok with it. There are plenty of whiners who can't get groceries again because they work or whatever, but bosses should be flexible with it, too. Time will tell. It's better than violence at this point. Our economy in the city is going to take years and years to be built back up. I hope to help that as soon as Jared feels it is safe to do so. I might order some meals to go. Or meet up a friend at a local coffee shop. We'll see. For now, we are safe.

I feel like I didn't spend a lot of time with the kids because I was catching up. So, I need to be more intentional with them. It is summer after all. It doesn't have to be about my to do list. I did exercise this morning though and didn't faint, so that's good. I just have to do it soon after I eat and then eat a high carb or slightly sugary snack right afterwards. But it felt good to get that out of the way. The kids also had outdoor time in the morning when it was cooler, and then again in the evening. That's the summer plan. Tomorrow I have some errands to run, so I'll have them watch some of those DVD's I got. The men will have Bible study through Zoom so us women can use the Smith's back deck for our Bible study. And Justin has small group. No more Wednesday night worship for now. We are on a summer break/holiday. Justin finished his math text and now just has 3 more tests to do. Keturah has a few more quick lessons and tests. Almost there!

Almost there to Benaiah's birthday, but will we actually get to spend time with him on his birthday? Who knows. He has plans with Ava and Ethan on Wednesday and works on Thursday. He said, "CFA Team Leaders only get to celebrate their birthday on Sundays." Bwhahahaha, so true!

Watcha doin? Playing with raquets outside and giggling again! Caught ya! And then I had to move stuff to make the rest of the summer toys available. My pet peeve of having boxes in front of boxes was realized again today. Why is it that I and they do that? Free the bookcases!

Justin can't hit a ball! Actually, the wind was really strong, so it was definitely hard.

Daddy Robin was on the nest. I couldn't tell if he was feeding babies or not. I have no idea with we had eggs in there or not. But it was good to see a robin in there.

So, I saw the church and employees do this this morning, so I did and used the #blacklivesmatter. Whoops. Who knew? I went back and fixed it.  We don't want to be covering up the information about protests and things, do we? Well,...that's up for debate I guess. I'm sure the motive of the person who started it might have wanted to stop the protests, or they could just might be being nice. Either way, this makes sense. Weird to see all the staff and church accounts post a black picture on their Instagram accounts.

I returned this many books. I'd say 3 dozen?

I received  2 dozen in return. And the kids have probably read 2 dozen on the open library. All for the last two to three months of history. I'm "mean." I make them read so much that they get sick of it! Lol.  Not really. And I don't check up to see if they've retained everything they read. My theory is the more exposure the better.

Abishai decided he wanted to do school, too. So he got out and set up the folding table by himself. Then he dragged his kitchen chair all by himself to the fire room. Then he took out his math materials. Aw, so sweet! I wish I had had time to help him in that moment. At least he was trying!

I had a friend post these lists. I can't vouch for them, but maybe they are good? Just some information.

Hm,...I doubt our congress can work that fast....and honestly, I'm not sure what kind of bill the blacks are asking for and what could congress deliver on?

Truth.  Actually, probably more like the 1960's. But it is giving me a clearer picture of what the Civil Rights movement might look like. So, I'm bringing it up at the dinner table for discussion and trying not to show and talk about the really gruesome parts. We will discuss it more in history next year or the year after. It will definitely give the kids something to connect with. And with the small protest group that is supposed to come to our corner of the city tomorrow, I might drive the kids down there to see it. We are living in historical times as they say. It's important to realize that. From the virus, to these protests, to who knows what else, martial law? Lots of fear from older generations who lived through some of these things. And from my generation who only heard about these things in history textbooks. Strange times.

The librarian and I whittled down this list of 43 items to 23 items, with about 5 or 6 of them not at the library yet. It's the final countdown of extra history reading for the year.  Now they can not read some much on the electronic devices! And there's DVD's to watch, too. Yeah!

Baby doggy getting older.

Check out all the white on his face!

Socks at 6 weeks old.

He's always been a fluff ball.

He was already a foot long and 8-10 inches high. Big doggy. Sweet puppy. We had visited our friends to see all the puppies for fun (the mom was only 1 yrs old and had 10 pups I think, and all were healthy, the dad had jumped a fence to get to mom) but were secretly picking out a puppy. That family I think came to Benaiah's birthday party that year but we actually had them bring the puppy to Gary and Leah's house the next day so he wouldn't be scared from so many people and the attention would be on Benaiah and not the dog. Benaiah thought he was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa to him, but he was a gift from us to the kids. So sweet!

Oh goodness, it's already 10:30, where to begin?

Today I focused on the errands I didn't get done on Monday. That meant driving up north to drop off donations and pick up heartworm medication for Socks. Pretty easy drive straight up the highway and back. Some construction, typical amount of traffic for late morning, and some Michael W. Smith tunes. And gorgeous sunshine. Felt a little weird still to be out and about. But, I've been to both places a couple of times, so I wasn't nervous or anything. Oh, and I finally got gas, too. I haven't gotten gas since March. I should have filled up when it was $1, but instead, it was $2. It feels so good to have a cleaned out car again! Well, there's still dog hair I need to vacuum out from when we went to see Granny Annie. My only concern was that there was going to a peaceful protest on a corner in Wanamaker that I would have to drive through. Because INDOT is preparing the bridge near our neighborhood for a roundabout (yeah, how are they going to create around about there with a creek and gorgeous trees? Besides, it does NOT get that busy!), I had to go right through Wanamaker or all the way around. But once I learned that the group was staying on the sidewalk, I drove through there and it was indeed very preaceful. I thanked them multiple times on FB for how they conducted themselves. I saw some of our friends actually in the group and instantly felt a lot safer. They also stayed off the grass and properties of the businesses down there. There were a couple of police officers in their cars just in case, but they never needed to get out. Even the local restaurant brought them free fried chicken and another person brought them water. It was a lot of teens and college students just trying to do something to show their support for Black Lives Matter.

Contrast that to what I learned about in the afternoon when I was home in between errands. I got a text from one of our police officer neighbors that someone had been taking pictures of their home and the other police officer's home, profiling them. Come to find out, it was anti police group, (Antifa?) and it was real threat to lots of officers in our area. My friend took her kids somewhere else and they either put the police car in the garage or took it somewhere else. She alerted all of us and we've been on watch and in prayer ever since. This is why I am not 100% on either side. Or rather anti anything. Both sides are right and both sides are wrong. But, for a moment, I felt very unsafe. This is way too close to home and way too unsettling. We've had cars and trucks broken into and such in our neighborhood and to our friends actually. But this other group (not related to the youngsters protesting in Wanamker) called the Bugaloo Boys, were going to spray paint properties and destroy homes. Incredibly scary. Yes, it's just property, but it will emotionally scar the kids and adults in those homes. I know that the officers will probably not move from our neighborhood because we really don't have issues. And we do really look our for each other. I have never known so many neighbors' names, kids, and phone numbers in my life! The networking between each other is awesome! Also, the church got wind of it (because it was going to happen in other neighborhoods, too) and shut down the building. Again, we are in the suburbs. Mostly white middle class to upper middle class suburbs. Crazy!

In the afternoon, while Benaiah was out longboarding at Southeastway park and getting junk food with Ethan, his huge birthday sign arrived with little fanfare! I was expecting to hear a truck and them asking where to put it, but boom, done! I was elated! Benaiah got home just a few minutes before me. I was out at the chiropractor and then picked up balloons I'm going to put in his truck when I saran wrap his doors shut on Friday. I was going to do that on Thursday, his actual birthday, but a) he was going out early with Ava and b) it rained all day night Thursday and everything was wet. Not ideal, but good enough. Then we had salmon, one of his favorites, for dinner. He and Keturah were on charge of Abishai while Justin and Jared used zoom for their small groups, and I went over to Smiths for mine. Abishai, Keturah, and Justin had already had 4 hours of TV time for the day. Two hours in the morning while I was gone where they watched a history DVD and then two hours of free time in the afternoon while I was out.

The air was muggy during small group and a little bit buggy, but we survived under the new metal awning the Smith's added to the Bible Barn.  Just like Gary and Leah, they are really well set up for gatherings and hospitality. And we all enjoy it immensely! I mean, I would love to share our home, too, but it's not as clean and tidy and nice. Oh well. This week was the money chapter.  We asked Jim why he thought the chapter was awesome because we didn't think so and he said, "Because you are girls." oh my. Ok then. His mannerisms gives us the giggles and something to talk about. All the guys have very different personalities. Maybe that's why they get along so well. Same with us women.  Instead of the money chapter, since it was the same stuff Gary has been preaching for years, we actually talked more about resources in general, and even that our spouses and kids are really God's and just entrusted to us to take care of. And then the conversation quickly changed to Black Lives Matters and the events that happened downtown this week and in our neighborhood. It was an excellent discussion and necessary. Although, I wish we would all spend more time studying the book chapter every day, especially when school is out for the summer. Sigh.

I need to remind myself not to get jealous of everyone else's friendship. Raquel brought me grape juice because everyone else got wine slushies. I felt a little left out because I could drink a wine slushie, but also loved that she remembered I don't drink much but she didn't want me to feel left out. I drank the grape juice although I hate grape juice, lol. I just have to keep inserting myself and being part of the group. Which means, after Sunday, all bets are off. I'm getting together with these people inside, outside, food, no food, social distance, no social distance, whatever. I'm done. I'm done making excuses for Jared's insecurities.  If he can run off with Jim in the same truck for an afternoon, I can have my friends come hang out at my house. So, here we go. Invites forthcoming.

I got home late, so when I quickly tucked in Abishai, I found his old blankie in his room. He hasn't used it in several nights. He said he doesn't want it to get hot but did want to keep it and rub on it sleep. He said he uses it when he wakes up too. He just doesn't take it out of his bed most of the time. I also found out that Keturah shaved her legs for the first time tonight without giving me a heads up. It's a good thing we had already talked about it. But she did a great job with no nicks, cuts, or blood! Woot! Woot! Parenting win on being proactive and not holding her back!

I missed another Israel trip meeting, so I'll have to watch the recording later. Benaiah doesn't think he needs to attend those because he'll just learn the rules and things on the fly. That's not how it works, but whatever. I'll let Gary be the stern one about it. For me, give me all the details so I can be fully prepared! That way I can relax and actually enjoy it! Ok, it's "me" time, aka, I actually wrote this on Thursday because I promised myself that by 10:30 every night, I was done "working" and would move into watching TV shows and YouTube between 10:30pm and 12:30am. And if that means the blog isn't done, then it isn't done. I think better in the daytime anyway. I went to bed and couldn't sleep because I totally forgot that I was going to sing with Jared Happy Birthday to Benaiah at 12:07 am. the time he was born. But Jared didn't remind me! Which started me on the path of "why do I have to initiate everything around here? And why are my actions not appreciated?" Combined with the emotions of the week, I was a mess and couldn't sleep for awhile. And I cried in the morning, too. But more on that in the next part of this post.

Keturah did her math outside because she's supposed to be exercising her body and not spending all day in her bed. She found a unique spot to do it today!

Awww, this is our first Mystery of History timeline from 2013! So cute!

I haven't heard much about the downtown protests and/or riots. Hopefully it's been calm.

Cute doggy!

I ordered my first yard sign! I have been planning to do this for oh, about 18 years! Yeah! No, it's not that visible because we have a quiet neighborhood, but it makes me happy!

We had no idea he was wearing the same colors.

Good to know.

Brothers. Abishai will miss Miah when he moves out someday.

Although Abishai beats Benaiah up pretty harshly!

Great sunsets with this hot and humid summer weather!

This was a fairly easy but gorgeous mural to do.

Today, Thursday, June 4th, has been tough. I woke up to my firstborn being an adult now. And he didn't like that we sang happy birthday to him before he got up. He left at 9:30am without saying anything to go eat breakfast with Ava. He didn't return until 1pm.  I spent all morning in a funk and here's why (Facebook post):

Btw, I know why I’m sad faced today. Boyhood didn’t want to spend time with us bc he’ll spend time with us on Sunday for his birthday. Well, that was fine. We’ve been flexible in the past. But I didn’t realize how important it was to me to celebrate him and be near him on his actual birthday. I used to not mind if people are a day early or a day late in saying happy birthday. But I think it’s beginning to mean more and more to me that people know and celebrate the actual day. The attention to detail actually does matter to me now I guess bc it means I matter even more to at least my family. Am I being too picky and close minded and just need to be content with what I do receive? Or am I just recognizing what my desires are and letting people know without expecting them to change? Sometimes just identifying the why helps me with perspective and grace and helps me address what it is that I really need, which is to be known, valued and loved. And making sure I recognize when someone does something for me even when it’s not my ideal. Identifying what hurts and why, then processing it and finding a way to bring it into perspective or find a compromise has been the main focus of all the personal counseling I’ve been in. Most of the time I fail to fully process and I might be really peeved at something. But I don’t share it bc I know the person isn’t out to hurt me or it’s a moment that I need to just pass through. So when I’m extra quiet, it means I’m processing internally, please be patient. I want to make friends, but it’s so hard. I always feel like the outsider and I have to initiate conversation to be in the inner circle. Don’t hesitate to initiate the conversation if I seem distant. I’m just an introvert. I welcome texts and coffee dates. I’m just not confident in sending them or setting them up. I’m not a good pursuer in relationships bc my efforts have not been recognized or reciprocated or received well. I still try. I will always try bc that’s also who I am. Just bc Benaiah wasn’t over the moon about his sign, doesn’t mean I can’t pat myself on the back for getting it done. I did it bc it brought me joy and I feel like I made effort. That’s what I can take away from today. I know it’s normal for teens to want to spend time with friends and not parents. I didn’t make a big stink about it. But it does hurt a ton. And it’s my fault for not recognizing and sharing my feelings before hand. But now I know for next time. Cuz I only have 3 yrs left with Justin, 6 with Keturah and 13 with Abishai. We’ve cut our teeth on the first one. Now to dig in and keep trying and improving our parenting skills with the other three. Back to work I go. Bc we have a lot more work ahead of us. And you know I don’t shy away from hard work.

I feel better now. I did a yoga routine because I'm so tired (not physically) of squats. It was tougher than I expected, but much calmer and slower. It's better than not doing any workout at all because I didn't want to workout today. And now I've finished yesterday's part of the post well and ready for dinner. Back at the other details of today later!

I'm back! Let's see. I found a great list of 100 activities from an email I had saved, so that will help with the summer boredom. Here's another post I wrote on Facebook today about that topic:


When your summer is usually cleaning up between the rushes of social events....I can’t come up with other traditions we’ve done in the past. We typically have Memorial Day, benaiah’s birthday, Keturah’s birthday, Keturah’s camp, the boys camp/4th of July, my birthday, vacation, wedding anniversary....and that takes up 8 weeks! I sprinkle in some home improvement projects and school prep but I’ve already done enough of that. What all stay at home traditions do you have? Make popsicles? Check. Movie outside? Too hot and buggy. We have the slip and slide and soon we will have a pool. Summer reading program? Older kids don’t need it and Abishai isn’t ready and we read tons every day anyway. Trips to the ice cream parlor? Possibly, but we are still limiting even those kind of trips. Playground and pools are a no go still. Hikes in the woods don’t interest them. We will have to watch out for fireflies so we can catch them. We have some water balloons but those are more fun with friends so we will wait a bit. Sometimes we have extra play dates but we are still waiting on that a bit too. Strawberry picking? Berries will be ripe soon but I don’t know if u pick is open. What do you do for fun that we haven’t already done in quarantine? Help!

Ok, that's that. The rest of the day was me moping around this morning, and then picking myself up after those two posts, doing a yoga routine (don't judge and it was not all spiritual sounding, promise, but the moves themselves and learning to breathe are great techniques), hodge podge supper, cleaning up emails and the like. Oh, we did fight over math this morning. Come one, guys! Math is cumulative! You can't forget what you did last fall. AND you know how to look things up in an index or table of contents and most worksheets and even tests are open book for that reason! I don't know how much practicing we can do! I need to try and stay with them when they first learn a concept so they don't learn it wrong in the first place. But at some point, good grief! And then Keturah was found watching videos on the Nook instead of reading, so she's banned from there. She read through a lot of the stuff I brought home from the library already. Sigh. And lastly, Abishai is obsessed with spleeing in the fireside room and having a sleepover buddy, so it's Justin's turn tonight. I've slept there 3 times already. And yeah, that's not good for a marriage.

I've posted the pics below on Instagram, so I haven't totally dismissed the birthday today, but I'd like to add more pics of in between times and the new pics from our photo session. I'll try to work on that later during my movie time. I'm off to finish the last round of uploads now.

The church has these jars full of marbles. Each marble represents a week in a child's life. So there's a jar completely full of marbles, one that is 3/4 full, 1/2 full, etc until it's empty. They gave us this jar with Abishai's baby dedication (we didn't get jars for the others because they started doing this after they were dedicated). Yup. We've come to the end.

So much more parenting to do! Not that I'm done with Benaiah, but the relationship has already changed and continues to change.

Missy doing her exercising so she can have screen time.

Mommy, I'm guarding Justin. He's in prison because he didn't do his math right. (Justin had to redo his math test). Sometimes guard read magazines and sometimes they guard.

When you turn 18, you can buy things like fireworks. But you still want one foot in childhood, so you buy Legos and Pokemon cards, too. Oh, and yes, they went to CFA for burnch. He'll be back there in two hours to work. Goofballs! I think the dining room is open at 50% capacity now.

I tried not to bug him too much today and let him do what he wanted to do, which included a few minutes of drumming.

18 "slaps" on the back and pinches to grow inches. Not that he needs to grow anymore.

My legs made a great bridge today. Until I stretched out one leg pretending the bridge was broken and needed to be fixed. Then I did the other leg, and then both legs. Lol.

Do no bubble (fart) on Mommy!

Hehehehehe, but I want to bubble!

We counted up this size of cars we have. We have 11. And I'm pretty sure 9 of them were bought just for Abishai. That's at least $45 worth. Spoiled monkey.

Balloons from Ava.

I've been asked not to take photos of them, so, sorry, I stole this one (although it is an older one).

Instagram pics today.

Benaiah was my tiniest baby. 18 1/2 inches long. 10 days early.

Oh, that's what I was going to find! Pics of him still doing that! Hold on!

The face only a mother could love.

Yup.

Oldie but goodie.

There it is! Classic "meep" face!  He was in the trunk of the car just because he could be. No particular reason. The car wouldn't start so we were waiting for a tow truck in the school parking lot I think.

This makes a lot of sense.

How precious is this! Mister Rogers (who was a minister by the way, so he knew he was doing something like a foot washing from the Bible) is the best!

 

Hm,..there's been some activity up there and Mom or Dad bird is sitting there and didn't move. Maybe there's some eggs!

That's a two foot trench. It's kind of weird to me to see what the earth looks like when you dig down like that. It's all clay soil at this point, not bedrock or anything, but still, fascinating!

One bamboo plant to go in the middle. Then a huge plastic liner goes in the hole so that the bamboo roots don't take over the yard.

Keturah's creation at dinner.

Abishai wanted a laughing face.

Keturah added books to the race track (something I will never get rid of by the way. The thing on the wall though, yes, I will probably get rid of) to make it bumpier.

Nice!

Dad, don't eat my toes! So much giggling like he's super tired and yet, he hasn't played that hard today.

Aw, sweet! What a great uncle! It was after the dinner rush, so I'm sure it was ok. Like I said the other day, Benaiah said, "CFA Team Leaders only get to celebrate their birthdays on Sundays." Besides, they've been training a deaf kitchen employee so he really is needed right now since he knows ASL. She has an interpreter with her and a cochlear implant, too. But with the wearing masks, I'm sure it's difficult to read lips and such. Praying it works out and that Benaiah is in the right place at the right time for her and the team. Yeah for the deaf community though!

The End