The J6 Journey: July 2020

This is it! Extended family has come to town! Our anniversary is Tuesday and Wednesday! The final prep for Benaiah's high school graduation open house is getting done! Ah! I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. I've been planning this for years and years and years! This is the final part of his graduating festivities! Like I said in the last post, I had to go to bed early last night. I couldn't keep my eyes open! I guess visiting with friends for more than 7-8 hrs wears you out, even if you are just sitting in the same chair the whole time! And I knew I'm going to need my sleep this week, so I am willing to put my TV watching on hold a bit, so I can be more energetic in the morning. Well, I tried to be. I'm skipping my workouts this week, but emails took me 2-3 hrs! What in the world? It's been quiet the rest of the day, though. I puttered with Benaiah's stuff for his table at the open house and we talked for 2 minutes about what he wants and doesn't want. Basically, I only left one thing of each category. Two drumsticks, one Bible Bowl trophy, one CFA stuffed animal cow. And he actually wants Legos on the table, his rubix cubes, and the awesome diorama he made a couple of years ago. I actually have the gradesheet for it, too! I decided to put all the random schoolwork I found and/or printed off into sheet protectors and put them in a 3 ring binder. I'm also putting other things in protectors in case it rains. I have his baptism card, one of his thank you notes from Mary Elsbury, a couple of promos from KP and HSM, those kinds of things. I still haven't done his pics yet, and I need to get any extra ones sent to the printer tonight. And I think I might want to grab a few more t-shirts.

I then had to go to a chiropractor appointment, and at the last minute, remembered how close the party store is to the chiro, and the grocery store, so I made couple of stops before it downpoured on me on the way home. Oh it was a nasty quick summer storm! Yikes! I had to wait to bring in the groceries because of it. When I got home, I found the kids had barely noticed it was storming outside. They did notice when the internet quit working in the middle of their screen time! I as able to reset it, thank goodness. I poked around a bit more for Benaiah's table and then made a nice dinner. Abishai decided to throw a huge fit about his chore and I had decided I had had enough of the teenage drama coming from him, so I told him he had 5 minutes to empty the trashes and then he can set the table (which he wanted to do). I set a timer, and he didn't budge. I stopped talking and finished up supper. When the timer went off, he lost privileges of playing video games with Daddy and setting the table. Then he didn't like the crust I put on the fish and that became a battle. Daddy did try to play Legos with him, but even that became a fight. So off to bed he went, sobbing. Jared held him in his lap for 30 minutes to get him to calm down because he didn't want to go to bed. He was sound asleep by 7:30. I'm sure numerous factors are contributing to his attitude right now but I'm just going to try to keep doing what I did tonight, give him a chance to do the right thing and get a reward, and then consequences if he doesn't comply. School will not go well unless this is nipped in the bud. It doesn't help that older siblings don't obey like they should. So, who knows what kind of kid will wake up tomorrow.

We didn't get to spend time with ASEN today as they went to see their great grandmother and spend the night with some friends. They are going to stay there for the majority of the day, too. But then our kids will join them at Grandma's house for a sleepover. That way, Jared and I can have the house to ourselves on our 19th wedding anniversary! I'll save the details of what I have planned for later as I don't know if it will work out like I hope it will. But I'm excited to have planned something! Otherwise, it's the same old, same old for the kids. Keturah didn't get dressed until dinner time. They all started looking at Mortal Kombat video game first thing this morning. Same old complaints about chores and food they don't like. They are pretty much in a rut. I hope we will get to do more things with the cousins the rest of the week. We'll see.

Still figuring out what to put on Benaiah's grad table, but this picture will be staying!

This kid made himself at home with his crackers, his Lego magazine, and under the blankies on his stomach like his Daddy does.

Are you comfy?

Oh, please tell me it will be this "cool" out on Saturday! On our wedding weekend, in NH on July 28th, it was a high of 78 and in IN the next day, it was 81. Both are relatively cool for those states at this time of year. We had outdoor receptions at both and thankfully, no rain! Here's to hoping for Saturday!

He's loud and antsy and crazy!

Taking a break to enjoy her ice cream and Dr. Pepper float.

Fortnite birthday decorations?! Crazy! Oh, and they were preparing their season area for Halloween. Yeah. Already. Party City does carry a lot of the basic costume things you could ever want. And an array of basic colors for basic party supplies. I use them a lot. Their prices are only a bit higher than Amazon. And, they have a great balloon selection. They will even fill balloons you bought from them online. I don't think you can bring in your own balloons though.

I was looking for clear plastic candy bags, so I looked in the bridal section. How cute is this?! It has double sided tape, needle and thread, emery boards. So perfect for those last minute details!

Yeah, big storm. I had to stop to text Benaiah about insurance. Jared tried to text me after this to say "look to the sky." I was like, no, duh! I'm in it!

Typical midwest summer storm. Lasted a maximum of 30 minutes. And it cooled down the air about 10 degrees!

The temp went up for Saturday....

One of our volunteers is a young lady, homeschool grad, and she loves to put the graphics together. Check these out! Now, when I posted them on a secular homeschool group, people noticed that Catholic and Secular resources were missing. Sigh. I wish we didn't have to separate them out. With so many secular people joining our ranks, we need to be able to serve them with the right resources, not evangelize to them by our curriculum preferences. But that's just my opinion. Perhaps there's more graphics to come.

I actually had to buy a second jar of this because I've been adding them to my coffee based smoothies! This is the only kind of coffee my Gramma used to have on hand. She lived alone and didn't want to brew a whole pot at a time. Not this brand, but the kind, i.e. instant coffee. It's great for recipes! Not great for drinking on it's own.

Don't put the bananas near the avocados! It turns the bananas browner before the avocado even thinks about ripening. Ugh!

I happened to buy everyone a little something at the store. I went in for eggs and ice cream, lol. Justin got gatorade, Abishai got Paw Patrol fruit snacks. And for the record, the bigger Aldi's is not getting in the non food items that are advertised on the fliers. It really sucks because I really wanted some of those things! I need to go to the other Aldi's on Washington St. or the Southport one.

New googles for Keturach because she already broke the strap on the other one. Mandalorian reusable wall decals for the boys' room. Original cheese balls for Jared. I didn't think he would eat them, but he did! And he enjoyed every bite! He loves cheese balls and crunchy cheetos. But he really can't have them because of the dairy in them.

I used and egg wash and coconut flour with salt and lemon pepper seasoning. That's it. It's an easy way to jazz up fish without adding a lot of calories!

This was a different kind of fish than we've had before. It was good though!

Dinner on the table in 30 minutes, tada! Notice it's instant brown rice and a bag of steam veggies. But hey, I stood over the fish and watched them fry.

I cannot find this book for less than $35 on all the websites! The library wants it back and won't let me renew it. But I barely started it. Granted I've had it for 4 months, but still. I kind of want to have a copy on my shelf since it has original writings in it.

Well, well, well, I didn't get on my computer past 8pm last night. I did keep up with email and Facebook through my phone as Jared and I watched a movie and then we went to bed early because....it was our 19th wedding anniversary yesterday and today! Woot! Woot! And I decided to mark the days with some fun instead of just letting them pass in silence and disappointment. So, what all happened?

During the day, I did a little yoga and took a shower. Then I kidnapped Jared and went to lunch at the Red Cactus (Mexican) right around the corner from church. He didn't want to try to use one of out giftcards because those restaurants were further away and the food would take too much time. But, off we went for an hour by ourselves for lunch. No, we didn't have "sparkling" conversation, but I tried to steer clear of kids and household business. I like the lunch portions there, although I didn't notice that wheat tortillas came with my sizzling steak and veggies, which were a bit spicy to me. Oh well, I didn't need the carbs anyway. It was a pleasant conversation. And then we hit up Kroger next door to buy olive oil. How romantic! And then dropped him back off at church and I went home. I worked on some things for the open house and I don't know what else. Kids did their normal thing, with ants in their pants to see cousins. Oh my were they wild!

I had told Keturah and Justin that they and Abishai were sleeping over Grandma's house so we could be by ourselves at home for the evening. But I didn't want Abishai to spill the beans, so I didn't tell him. Well, it was hard enough to keep Justin and Keturah quiet! They packed overnight bags and left them in the living room leaving Abishai to wonder! I tried to pretend that they were just going to go over and have a movie night. Well, after dinner, Jared went to Bible study (of course! I wouldn't take that away from him. That's why we went out to lunch instead) and I took Keturah to church to get her CIY Mix Swag bag where Mr. Luke could pray over her. She seemed to enjoy the interaction. Then it was quick like rabbit back home to pick up the boys, and we could finally tell Abishai he was going to sleepover with the cousins! Oh the chatter and excitement! Let's go! I needed to get them over there quickly, so I could get home and finish the prep for actually the third stage of our anniversary day! The 2nd stage was the Mandalorian and the Child Lego set I gave Jared at dinner. Then I gave the extra 12 in 1 set that we got for buying more than $65 this month (we preordered both this set and the Razorcrest set that comes out in September) to Abishai to take to Grandma's house and leave there so they will always have Legos to play with over there. It came in this cute little box that was easy to open and close so it was perfect! Now whenever some kids come over with their parents for dinner or something, there's Legos to play with! And they won't get messed up with our Legos! Win-Win!

I told Leah that I just want this Covid-19 stuff (both the virus and the restrictions) to end because I cannot handle these kids anymore! The first two months were great, but now they are just bored and sick of each other. The nit picking and fighting and grumpiness gets to one after awhile. So, I dumped them at Grandma's and skedaddled home. I got my pjs on, set up the movie, and played on my phone until Jared got home. Well, I did text him to say that the kids were sleeping over and he needed to say good night to them. I meant the other house, but he came back to ours first. He called Abishai on the phone but Abishai was insistent that Daddy come to Grandma's house to tuck him in. So off Daddy went with doggy song and a couple of books. I didn't mind one bit. That's why I love my husband. He loves our kids. We finally settled in to watch our movie about 9pm. I had put "Armageddon" circa 1997 on my desk LAST YEAR for us to watch. Or maybe it was 2 years ago. It was "our movie" with "our song" in it. Well, we watched about half of it, then sped it up to see a couple of more scenes, and then turned it off because Benaiah was coming home from work soon. We wanted to be asleep before then. The interesting thing about the movie is that you see an asteroid hit the Twin Towers and destroy them 4 YEARS before 9/11. And then when an asteroid destroys the Empire State Building, the destruction produces a dust cloud similar to the ones that happened right after the Twin Towers fell that day. Pretty eerie seeing that. But we laughed and rolled our eyes at some of the cheesiness and cinematography because I don't think much of it, if any of it, was CGI. Or rather, as Jared pointed out, it is a Michael Bay film and he loves explosions. And afterwards I thought, wow, the plot is a bit slow. Or maybe it's just me because I watch almost everything in 1.5 speed. I couldn't do that with Poldark or any Amazon Prime show, which is good because it helps me to slow down and enjoy it. But, yeah, it seemed like a really long, slow movie. So we stopped and went to bed. Benaiah came home at some point from work, too.

Well, today, Wednesday, we woke up at the same time as normal, 7:30, on the dot. I don't know if Benaiah or Jared set alarms or not, but I don't remember hearing any. Benaiah was getting up early to leave at 8:30am to go with Ava to Kentucky Kingdom for the day. He just got home at 9:45pm. I checked in with him a couple of times and he just gave me the old Jared one word answers, "Fine. Yes. Fine." It's a little bit hard to trust kids to go on their own to something like that for the first time, but, I was more worried about heat stroke than I was about the 90 minute drive, their ability to handle their belongings and the ticket counters, and emergencies like throwing up. But if Amy was ok with our son taking her underage daughter over the border (slightly) into KY, then, I guess they will be fine. We've been to Kentucky Kingdom once when Benaiah was 3 or 4 I think, maybe 5. We probably had Justin with us, but I don't remember. I do remember his favorite play area was a two story ball pit of sorts where you could shoot spongy balls out of things. I think I've been to the arena there once or something for a concert. It's a smaller park than the one everyone goes to outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, King's Island. A bit cheaper, too. Anyway, he's home, he's safe, all is right in the world. I mean, it was really quiet last night and this morning while all the kids were gone. I loved it!

I texted Grandma to say thank you and let her know that I just needed the chaos and noise break and to have less interruptions for once. Oh, and to let her know that the kids can bounce back and forth between our houses because I'll be home all day and when they have friends over, (the cousins in this case), they fight less. Grandma didn't bring the kids back until around 1pm or so when she went to grocery store. They came dressed for pool time! What they didn't know, and I barely remembered, was the shaving cream I had bought for a shaving cream fight from one of our summer prompts! Wheee! There was so many giggles and laughing fits in the pool, but when I brought out the shaving cream, they escalated! Best fun ever! They "shaved" the tree, put it all over the tire swings, and then spent gobs of time slipping and sliding on the trampoline. They finally got out the hose and hosed most of it off before getting back in the pool to finish the rinsing. Everly and Nora's hair was a tee total tangled mess. They have the thickest hair! But I left that up to Grandma and Shauna to figure out. Then the kids played some Minecraft while they waited for Grandma to pick up the girls. ASEN was going out to a friend's house this evening, after Aaron and Shauna worked again on her mom's house. I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring yet.

My kids then had their regular screen time and then chores and dinner. Justin had his last summer Bible study at the Brake's. He said they couldn't swim and only about a dozen of them even showed up! I guess everybody is getting in their last minute vacation or shopping before school starts NEXT WEEK. Yes, the public school in our district starts on Monday, and is virtual until Wednesday, per the mayor's order. Some schools have postponed opening because of that order. It's crazy! I'm nowhere ready to start our schooling yet. I'm still in summer mode and will be for a few more weeks. I doubt the boys' room will get finished anytime soon. As soon as ASEN leave, we can start taking some things over to Gary and Leah's house. We did find out that Medicaid will cover at least part of the chiropractic for Benaiah, so we are trying to get that in before he officially moves out and changes insurances. So, he might still be sleeping here for a bit. Which means, Abishai won't be moving back into their room, which means, i might have to figure out book things around that silly tent. Sigh. But that's not for a bit. I'm sticking with the plan. And that plan is the open house. Then I can breathe easy again.

I did get to spend a lot of time today creating things that aren't really necessary, but make my heart happy for the open house. Little touches like names for the categories of photos (which I got down to 250, but might still be too much), and explanations of things on the table. I got a "kit" of supplies together and baskets ready to put things in. I found some old VBS t-shirts in Abishai's drawer that were Benaiah's and some hoodies and t-shirts that represent his antics. Now I just have to get them to print right on the cardstock before I run out of ink! I ordered some ink, but it won't come until maybe Friday! I might be running out to Staples tomorrow for some! We'll see! I have a couple of errands I could run, too.

The day has finished fine, and now it's 10:30pm. I need to upload the pics. I've been answering emails between typing sentences, which is never a smart thing to do. The 2nd day of our anniversary was normal. Nothing special. A hug and kiss and move on because we've got stuff to do! Jared has a virtual conference tomorrow, and I'm in my normal night mode. I need to go ask him about this conference thing because Leah just said something about her taking a salad to the office for lunch. And then going back at dinner time to help Debi. So, am I to expect my husband home at some point? I do have Bible study. And I don't know what ASEN is doing either. Breathe, it's not your problem, stay in your lane. Stay in your lane.

A bit out of order (If it's an instagram pic, it messes things up), but I'm too busy to fix the order. Here goes. And the blogging website I use changed it's interface a bit, so if something looks wonky, let me know.

I took a lot of 30 second videos of the kids, too, because oh my the giggles! And there wasn't too many fights! So, I put them in a playlist because uploading 21 videos on the blogging website takes a lot of time. Please click on the link to go to the YouTube playlist. Remember, they are all around 30 seconds, so a total of 10 minutes of your time. I choose 30-45 seconds when I record because I can directly upload them to this blogging website. Anyway, here's the list:

Cousin fun! July 29th, 2020

Because they didn't have Mix because of rain, they had us drive through to pick up their swag bags and be prayed over. It was a sweet few minutes!

Uh oh, the freezer was left open a little bit last night and a bit of "snow" was created!

Whoops!

Putting this and the next sign on an easel, hopefully.

Goofballs.

Cute

I was afraid that the kids would know what it was! See! Lego has our back!

Cute extra kit for ordering more than $65 in Lego at a time!

Nice, neat little box great for Grandma's house!

Wow! Way to go, Keturah! She thought of this herself, OR saw it on a video, but still, Great idea!

Ready for our one on one drive thru time!

Mr. Luke is the best! Our Youth Staff in general is awesome!

Justin's ADD comes in strong when there's chaos! Apparently, he had gotten a pair of socks to put on, and then gone to the bathroom, placing his socks on the sink. Then he walked out of the bathroom without them, went back to his room and got another pair of socks to put on. Oh, man, this kid! Cracks me up! Cracks him up, too!

I told you our youth staff is the best!

Wednesday

Some of the Lego creations from the box. Cute! Abishai made the cherries but had to take it apart so these two could be made.

A sneak peak at something fun for Saturday! No prize. Just fun! Benaiah of course works at CFA but Ethan works next door at Taco Bell. Literally, it's the store next to CFA. Lol!

Five not so little monkeys in one backyard pool! I'm surprised they didn't break it! And they didn't seem to mind it was a bit dirty from the rainwater.

Everly loves Socks!

They wanted the pool cover over on top of them, so I obliged in helping them. But I stayed right there the WHOLE time. I didn't need anyone suffocating or drowning.

Cute girls!

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Uh oh! Don't break the swing!

I'm the best aunt ever! They asked for floats and said yes without a second thought! Say more yes's than no's. The mess/sugar highs/burps/stickiness is worth it!

Drink up that sugar!

And then the next round of fun began! Shaving cream fight!

Slipping and sliding. It's a wonder no one got hurt!

The stringy stuff is actually the foamy shaving cream. It was good old fashioned cheap Barbasol, the kind my dad used to use.

Painting with it! Or using it like sunscream! They smelled so nice afterwords!

Fantastic!

Boom! I'm glad I bought the shaving cream two months ago and saved it for today!

A little bit of Minecraft to calm down with.

Justin busting a move to the jukebox playing in Minecraft and we heard the kitties in the game meowing, too.

Abishai's turn to bust a move!

Thursday, ASEN was busy with friends and family, and we spent the rainy day inside at home. Perfect for us, because we typically need a break from people. Abishai was EXHAUSTED after yesterday's cousin time. He did sleep in a little bit. But he's as crazy as ever today. We all did our normal thing of screen time and play time. More screen time than yesterday, that's for sure. I spent the morning on emails and the afternoon on printing the rest of the signs for the open house. There shouldn't be much, if anything to do tomorrow except pick outfits or something, make sure we have bugspray and sunscreen, that sort of thing. We aren't going to the park until 2:30 or so, although the Strunk boys will set up the tent and such earlier in the day. The park lets you rent the area for the whole day! Isn't that awesome! I'm actually really, really grateful I'm not doing it at home. Our house is a wreck. In fact, Uncle Aaron is going to come over late tonight after Jared gets home from work to see what needs to be done with the two loft beds, taking them apart and such. Jared is recording a virtual conference with his Dad today and tomorrow, so he isn't available. Shauna and the girls, and I, Abishai, and Keturah are going to go to a sunflower patch midday tomorrow, and Justin will stay home, mow in the morning, and then help Uncle Aaron. I had to make sure everything was out of the way before I went to Bible study tonight. I didn't want to put the burden on Aaron because my stuff wasn't the purpose of their trip, but it's nice when the boys can lend a hand to one another. I want them to spend time together, too. We really haven't had any time with Aaron and Shauna this week, and I'm a bit jealous. Again, we did see them in January and Shauna's family did not. So, I have to be patient and humble.

By the way, I really love making the signs and setting up things for an event. Ok, I'm not great at it, but I enjoy the process enough. I've had to make more signs than I thought I had to! I just use a word document and the basic text and some logos, because it's much better than my personal handwriting! I like to label things so I can talk less! We don't have a guess book. Hm,....I think that's too much and I don't think the boys care that much. I'll skip it. But you should see Benaiah's face when I ask him if he wants this or that. For saying he doesn't really care, I think his heart is filled up when he sees things he wants to be displayed. It makes my heart super happy. I don't want it to be "too much" or "Mom, why did you do that?" kind of thing. This is the one moment it's ok to brag about oneself. Or to just remember what you've done. And to be celebrated. He needs that. I need to do that for him. I'm not a perfect hostess. My house isn't perfect. My decor isn't pinterest worthy. But I don't care. I can't wait to get it all up and then mingle for 3 hrs with so many friends! So worth it!

Oh, and I did get some things straightened out with my other "job." I have two 101's, i.e. "Beginner Homeschooler Workshops" and/or speaking engagements via Zoom in September, both through the local libraries. I didn't solicit them, but two other volunteers handed them off to me (with my permission of course). I'm excited and nervous at the same time! This part is actually in my job description. Helping with social media is the extra job. I have a potential blog article to write with a local mom group. So I'm connected with my constituents and community leaders! How about that?! It's so heart filling. To be needed, wanted. For people to actually listen to me, maybe heed my advice, be part of something outside myself and my home. This is God's way of saying I'm (Melinda) important and God has a plan to use me beyond our home, which can be so draining sometimes. But now, I'll say it again, so it continues to get ingrained in my head, I will be switching gears again, and focusing on my own family's needs. I know my roles on social media. I have a good routine with that. I can back off and only check on that a few times a day and not during school time. I do know a rough routine of how I'm going to handle school and answering emails. I do have some reading and research to do in August with ADD and these 101's. We'll keep working on the bedrooms. And I have to start us on school by the end. August will be just as full, but a shift from April-July. We will get back to our normal. With or without our church activities.

Church will be meeting this coming Sunday, but the service will still be prerecorded because of tech reasons and because of changes with the Covid-19. So, please can go and see each other at the church building, but no live band, no live preacher, no KP. Nah, I think I'll stay home or go be with our small group. We'll wait. Our kids won't sit still. It's a step in the right direction to open up the building, but for me, it's not worth it. You can't hug people or really see their faces. I don't want to watch service on a gigantic screen. So, home is where it's at still. We are blessed with lots of flexibility. Some schools started virtually today and I wanted to cry. I hurt for those kids/parents/teachers. This is not education. Virtual school or in person school with all those restrictions. I personally don't like to hear homeschoolers utilize only online education. Yes, there's Abeka and Bob Jones. And sometimes, I think we will have an online class or two. But there's so much more to learning than sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture or through a Zoom class. The consequences of both the traditional homeschooler and the virtual public schooler and the kids who have to wear masks all day and can't touch their friends will be huge. There will be a dynamic shift in their generation. It scares me and worries me. And I weep for them. This time of year is always hard for me, because I don't like seeing kids on their first day of school getting on the bus. I know there's something better out there. But especially this year seeing kids on their laptops doing school. So, I'm swearing off all frivolous use of social media. I have jobs on social media. I can't take a true hiatus. But I can limit what I see. I need to stay in my lane.

Ah, thank goodness I prepared extra food yesterday. It's actually only 4:15pm as I type this up. I have Bible study tonight and I didn't want to get stuck with it all after that. Trying to stay ahead of the curve. But it's been a good day so far. Time to clean up the rooms and get supper out and eaten, then Bible study, etc.

Having just found out that David Roadcup, one of the founding members of e2, was also a founding member of Promise Keepers, makes this even more special to me. My Dad LOVED Promise Keepers! He went to at least one, if not 2 or 3 rallies, probably in Massachusetts. These are the kinds of things that told me that my Dad tried to do the right thing, even though he failed a lot. He did go to family counseling. He did seek help at different points. He did provide for us. He wasn't a spiritual mentor by any means, but he did what he could. Enjoy!

I saw this on the back of the bag late last night, so I looked it up! They didn't move to NH until the middle to last quarter of the 20th century, but still, they are in NH! No wonder my mom was partial to them! I looked up the NH location, but didn't see if they had tours and such. Oh well. I think it's pretty cool!

Abishai thought the dog needed a raincoat, so he pulled out two of his own coats. What a good doggy to tolerate this!

He loves his dog so much! It's a weird angle because I know Abishai can't be that big next to Socks!

I need to remember this.

Awww, she's becoming such a beautiful young lady. She's coming out of the pre teen moodiness, too. I'm trying to say more positive words to her and I can tell it's working.

Awww, but this is NOT what I meant when I said it was Justin's turn to play with Abishai.

Who doesn't like a sink full of bubbles?

So many giggles! Just another thing I like to say, "yes," to!

Master Shifu! From Kung Fu Panda!

Haven't made one of these in awhile. But it's rainy and 70 degrees outside, so why not? Just coffee, almond/coconut milk (unsweetened/unflavored) and chocolate chips.

And sprinkles.

The little dude can't keep his feet still! On, off, on, off, as Justin tells him what each Star Wars droid is.

Awwww, it's hard to imagine Justin as big as Benaiah and kind of replacing him. He's wearing one of Benaiah's shirts. This bed isn't staying when we rearrange the room, but it's kind of like the oldest is gone and the middle has taken his place. Kind of sad!