The J6 Journey: Year 5, July 10th-12th, 2020: My Birthday Weekend!

Finally, it's my turn for my birthday! 39th birthday to be exact! Let's get this party started with a workout, some email, some rest, and a new haircut! Woot! Woot! My hair stylist was booked until August, but someone canceled for today she told us first! Yeah! I wanted to get my hair cut before my actual birthday, so that worked out quite nicely. Yes, I did my workout and cleaned up my desk looking for some paperwork because we might owe more money to Benaiah's school. But that helped me start the weekend free and clear and with a plan of attack on paperwork. Then a shower and off to the salon. Yeah, that's not much. I totally almost took a nap because I stayed up too late watching Poldark, again. What can I say? When I get into a show, I get into a show! And it was some cliffhangers and people dying that I knew were going to die at some point because they weren't in the episodes I had watched first. I also had to mitigate a ton of fights and ban Abishai from watching Marvel movies and playing Battlefront 2 because he was threatening violence and throwing fits on the others. Yeah, my sweet, loving Abishai. It was almost like he needed a nap he was so grumpy. Sigh. Oh, and his chest has been hurting sometimes after swimming, so I looked that up, and it's just because it rubs against his swim shirt. So, either he doesn't wear one or we put some vaseline on his chest before and after swimming. Nothing to worry about it. Some people are just more prone chaffing.

Ah, I can't tell if I have swollen glands because of sinuses or if it's part of my jaw healing. I barely have any discolor on my cheeks and I skipped a dose of ibuprofen today. However, the right side of my mouth, the same side as my root canal, hurts when I eat. So I took a regular dose of ibuprofen instead of the prescription dose. I haven't needed my creams in a couple of days. So, sometimes I forget I can't still chew everything and it hurts to chew and go in for a bigger bite and ouch! And now it's Benaiah's turn to decide on what he wants to eat after his wisdom teeth are removed on Monday. Fun stuff! The new laundry detergent came in today for his clothes (the one for soiled cloth diapers) so I hope to deep clean his work clothes next week when he's off of work. Tomorrow, well, I got Jared to plan something for my birthday. I told him that I didn't want to stay home and do a meal and movie at home. I gave him some idea, like getting take out from one of the restaurants we have a gift card to and eating it picnic style at a park and going for a walk. I looked into the drive in theaters but I don't want to go early just to stay soooooo late and there was only one movie we would want to see, Tommy Boy. Classic, but no. Trying to avoid indoor places, but it's hot outside, too. Someone mentioned axe throwing, so I told him about that. Or canoeing, but I didn't really want to go up to Eagle Creek park. So, he said, why not double date? I said sure! So when I got home from the haircut (it was at 5pm), he said, be ready to leave at 3:50 tomorrow. Woot! Woot! He planned something! I'll take whatever it is!

And then on Sunday, we have church at Smith's, lunch at home, dinner with Gary and Leah between 5 and 6:15 because Gary gets back from his weekend away preaching at 5 and then they have to leave for their small group after 6. Crave "outdoors" for the high schoolers got canceled because of the new mask mandate and I don't know if there is a new policy about how many people can gather or if we backpedaled on the phases, but they thought they wouldn't have enough space, even outside. They children's ministry also decided to make their 1st-5th grade camp virtual and the youth ministry decided to split up Mix/Move and find a new location. So, Keturah will only go one night with the all the middle school girls, then the next night is middle school boys, then the next night is Freshman, Sophomores and Graduates, and the last night is Juniors, Seniors, and Graduates (maybe so the Graduates can have their last goodbyes and prayers with everyone in high school? maybe? I hope!) And, all staff and youth have to be masked, no ifs, ands or, butts. That gives me hope for the church's overall policies when it reopens, if it does! This is so crazy! The Franklin Township schools will give their final decision next Wednesday on what the schedule will look like. Anyway, we don't have to take Justin to Crave on Sunday, so after dinner, we can come home. I think I'm going to pop popcorn after the kids to bed and Jared and I will tuck in early in bed and finally watch the "I Still Believe" movie. My birthday, my choice, right?! I'm so determined not to let another birthday go by feeling sorry for myself. It's my 39th birthday, not a big one like my 40th, but that's doesn't matter. This is how I always have wanted to celebrate. So, I'm taking the reins and doing stuff! Can't wait!

One story that happened earlier in the day, Abishai wanted to play "store" with the food in the pantry. So he blocked the pantry with his trike and had Ketuah ask him what he had in his store to sell for breakfast. But, it didn't all go well. He was upset when Keturah didn't want to play his game, but then I told her to just indulge him. She finally did. But it was the first meltdown of the day. I thought it was cute he was trying to play pretend.

Yup, things changed again. Our poor staff. Working overtime to make decisions but having a hard time of actually doing their job connecting with students. They must be so frustrated!

I know, I know. Only a few people would find it interesting. Like father, like son. But they both knew what they were handling, non venomous snakes that don't have fangs. And they are both smiling afterwards. It's part of the job to get scrapes, bumps and bruises. And that's how Steve Irwin died, being surrounded by an unpredictable part of God's creation. It's what this family does. It makes them unique and lovely all at the same time.

Close up of some of my beautiful purple flowers! I didn't plant these, remember, but we have a lot of purple and yellow in our yard. I think the previous owner and tenants must have planned it that way. I don't mind!

And these just popped in the last day as well!

Yup.

12 years ago! There's no Nora or Abishai. That's Grandma and Grandpa Cook in the front, with Pam and Uncle Bill and Zion. Can you recognize Justin, Benaiah, and baby Keturah? And yes, my hair was super short. I'm not going back to that shortness ever again.

Here's my last big ponytail and my fight cancer shirt! Because donating hair helps make wigs for kids with cancer.

Keturah's before shot.

Keturah's ponytail were thicker than mine, but shorter.

Keturah's after! She's such my child! The hair color, the texture, all of it!

And Jennae gave her some pretty face framing layers knowing she wears it down all the time. So this little lady got a room makeover, new glasses (coming in 10 days), and a new updated hairstyle this year!

Wow, that's my before picture!

My thinner, longer ponytails!

My after! Jennae was a bit behind for her other client, but she quickly did these beach waves for me! I didn't expect her to! And the other lady waiting was super sweet about it!

I quickly took some pics when I got home just in case the waves didn't last long.

Much better picture of the waves taken by Jennae.

You can see Keturah's hair color a bit better here. I helped her wash her hair thoroughly before we went, but Jennae washed it again, too. She didn't have to redo mine though.

Such rich natural hair color!

Saturday was a quiet day. A nice slow wake up. Jared urged me to get up, but I was like, nope, I have to get up fairly quickly tomorrow for church, so today is my "birthday lounging" morning. I had no agenda for today. I did read for Bible study and kept up with emails. I also picked up or rather repackaged Benaiah's stuff he had in the garage after he went through it. I will go through his discarded things with the other kids this week. But not today. I wasn't interested in doing it today on my birthday weekend. I didn't workout or anything either. Jared worked on some wood projects in the garage. The other three had their normal routine of Clone Wars/tablet in the morning, lunch and swimming, video games in the afternoon Benaiah worked at 4-11pm as usual. I think he sat with Ava in her car for a few minutes in the driveway. I guess she was able to get away from her family and relatives for a few minutes. They haven't seen each other much this week because of her relatives being in town.

Jared did plan a double date for me today with none other than Jim and Adrienne Smith. While I did want a little bit something more, I'm just happy as a clam that he planned it. That's all I want, really. I mean, axe throwing would have been fun, too, or stopping for dessert, but he doesn't eat dessert, so......Anyway, per usual, the men talked about alcoholic drinks but a whole lot more. And we ladies chimed in when we could, lol. Adrienne said the other day how Jim was turned off by Jared the first time they met at the men's Friday morning breakfast "club" at Panera Bread. He wasn't sure he was going to like Jared at all, and now look at those two. Thick as thieves. Jared is soooo happy when he's around Jim. He's finally found a new best friend. And that especially makes my heart happy. Jared asked if my birthday dinner could be a double date and I said sure because we will probably have more conversation if there's others around. And I had a sneaky suspicion it would be the Smiths, which is totally fine. Jared and I didn't really talk much in the car. I kept yawning. And it wasn't because I was unhappy. I was just content. I didn't need to fill the air with words. We commented on things we saw like a few businesses that were boarded up. Downtown was eerily quiet. It was only 4pm, but still, too quiet. I expected more. We weren't near the circle, but still, hardly anyone was out. We parked near the Bankers Life Fieldhouse and either they were updating it, or some of the building was hurt during the riots. It was sad to see fencing where the semi trucks with the sound equipment go in and out. We only had to wear our masks when we walked in and out of the restaurant. Some of the tables were blocked off to allow for social distancing. We did see a large party for a bachelorette party. And it stormed heavily while we were there. It was nice to see Adrienne's new haircut and style and wearing it down. I had my hair up because we were supposed to sit outside. But we quickly moved inside, which was the wisest choice given the weather. The restaurant was right under the Amtrak train! So, kind of loud when that went by. Not amtrak, but one of the major railroads south of the circle. The food was incredible and a tad high, but doable. I'm glad I choose what I did. And now, the day is ending with people setting off fireworks. Illegally, but they are. Fun stuff!

And when we got home, Abishai looked like he had been crying. He didn't like the movie they were watching and he said he missed me a lot and that I stayed out longer than normal. Actually, I was out shorter than normal but he wouldn't notice it because he'd be on the tablet the whole time. He was super snuggly today, too, after he got over his grumpiness. He showed his "teenager in a tot's body" attitude about doing his trash chore today. It was hilarious and annoying at the same time. Life sure is interesting! Tomorrow will be a good day, with church and dinner with Gary and Leah. And I'll try to convince Jared to watch a movie with me. We'll see.

I didn't take many photos again today. I think it's because I'm worried about my phone's overheating problem. And some things don't change. The kids swam and watched TV. I puttered. Benaiah went to work. Jared worked in the garage. End of story. So, enjoy all these Enneagram posts I found on Instagram after our double date with Jim and Adrienne Smith.

This pertains to all the Enneagram photos below. Can you guess?

THIS is GREAT advice!

Oh Benaiah, do you have to break your Mama's heart? I'm going to keep it anyway!

Another busy day for Abishai. Having a picnic. I'm so grateful to still have a young one at home that will play pretend all day long.

We watched the storm roll in fast! And went inside as soon as it started drizzling. And then GUSH and HAIL and because this building had a high ceiling without an attic, we could hear it on the roof. The server said it was a building that had been moved from one location to this one. The website says it was an old livery, aka, stable for animals. I LOVED the brickwork!

I should have angled the photo down a bit because I noticed Jared wearing a ring for the first time in a year! I know it bothers his skin, and I didn't ask him to wear it. But it does mean a lot to me! And he wore it al night and all day today. I don't expect him to continue to wear it, but I'd love for him to! Oh, and he cut his finger knuckle pretty badly a few nights ago. Whoops. This was his meal of chicken sandwhich and "frites" or fries.

Jared actually wanted this herb crusted salmon but didn't like the sides, but it was perfect for me. The herbs were thick and the salmon was still "wet" like ours was the other day, so very tender, not dry. The baby carrots were super yummy and so was the asaprgus. And the purple stuff is purple cauliflower! It was a bit spicy, but I ate some of it.

And I had a fluer de lis on the side of my water cup. The name of the restaurant was Taxman Brewing Co., Cityway (location), a Gastropub. Awesome pub food which only took up one page of the menu, while the other three pages of the menu was all kinds of alcoholic drinks. Don't worry, I didn't order one. But that's their main point of interest. We don't frequent these kinds of places, so I felt very grown up to be at one without having to worry about the kids and a kid menu and all that. It was an awesome meal, awesome couple time, and awesome conversation.

I scrolled through some Instagram when we got home. Some Eneagram Six memes.

Happy birthday to me! Lots of snuggles in bed (after a late night because, I just had to know what happened in that next episode of Poldark, duh! But I did get to see the reconciliation in the main relationship and I needed to see that.) So I'm really tired today. I made sure I sat in an upright chair so I would stay awake during the sermon. Oh yes, the sermon! It's a sermon I don't like Gary would have tackled. But Dan had the guts to! Dan and Darnelle, our new black outreach minister, tag teamed the sermon to talk about equality from a Biblical perspective. It was SO GOOD. Just what the Bible says about equality (we are all created in God's image) and some examples of how it was handled, like between Peter and Paul in Acts, where Paul had to call Peter out on acting different than what he was preaching. It was like listening to some really great YouTube videos (typically by Christians with different theologies) and not just a "oh I know all this already" sermon. I don't always go for the more topical sermons, but boy, this one was right on the money of talking about in a Christian way without invoking any politics. That's the key. We can't invoke politics. We can't bring in the trendy words and emotions. We need to shut up and listen. We need to examine the Scriptures and how God treats people. It was awesome! And we had our black friend Justin, and his wife Angie, with us today as well. I hope it helped to affirm them again that they are welcome in our small group, our neighborhood (they live down the hill from us) and at our church. I'm going to share a YouTube channel with our church called "Conversations with a Black Man" who is Christian and has been helpful. Same thing, not invoking politics, but having those important conversations, after you develop a relationship. I'm so proud of our church in doing this! I've said before that our church as been slacking on speaking up on important topics. I don't want them to endorse a certain political side. But I do want them to speak up against abortion at some point for example and LGBTQ in a loving, Biblical way. We'll see. It was a full house at Smith's and it was hard to properly social distance and we didn't wear masks because we've been around each other so much that we are like family. If one of us has it, we will all get it. I mean, we stay outside for Bible study and keep our distance but when it's more people and we are inside because it's hot out, it's harder. And that's when we should wear a mask. But, again, family.

Then we ate a light lunch at home and I did some laundry and dishes. I didn't do laundry and dishes on Mother's Day because I didn't want to. Today, I wanted to keep up and keep going. I need to do my little list for the next two weeks. Benaiah's wisdom teeth removal surgery is tomorrow, so I need to make sure I have my brain wrapped around the rest of the week or I'll start to panic with such a quick start to the week. Plus I need to finish my weekly mine on my game and I can't do that if I'm sleeping. We are going over to Gary and Leah's house for dinner before they head to small group. And then maybe we'll clean up our house and watch a movie. I'm not sure yet. I haven't proposed it to anyone. So, I'm getting a head start on the blog today. I'm glad I didn't take many photos this week. It kind of helps with the blogging. I go in spurts and that's ok, too.

Not on today's topic, but I thought this was an interesting post that Jared retweeted. I was part of the purity culture and I believe in elements of it. I was never shamed, but it did give me pause on some things I did have to get through. And I didn't feel shame from the other side either. But that's because I only had Christian friends and was homeschooled. I was purposefully protected. And when I went to college, Jared and I were secretly engaged already. And I went to a Christian college to start and wasn't part of the socializing scene at the other college I graduated from because we were already married. So, I was spared. But I know many aren't.

Just in case you were wondering what my kids do every day. Same routine. These two watch Clone Wars and play Battelfront together and then have their 2 hr block of their own screen time.

This one sleeps all day.

She's having her 2 hr block of screen time on the tablet, or she's in here rearranging her room, or reading. Today she decided to tear apart the top half of her closet. I do NOT want to go through any of that right now! We did that in the last year or two. I need to go through Justin's and Benaiah's stuff!

A little fuzzy. Hm. But resting as always. Or on his computer. Or he's not here at all.

Sunday afternoon napping. I'm not because I want to finish my game! And blog and watch YT videos.

I got a lot of birthday wishes in person at house church this morning, but of course on Facebook because it shows up on people's calendars. I don't mind. It's how I know about their birthdays, too! Here's a couple of unique posts though. This one is from a mentor of mine who loves dance. And it's so pretty! And appropriate since I'm doing Barre Blend with Beachbody right now. I LOVE leg lifts! Not so much the plie's but I'm getting there! Ballet arms! Hold the beach ball out in front. Pointer finger raised! 1st through 5th positions! Love it!

This one reminded me of the peacock flexi clip from Lilla Rose that I think is still very popular after 6 years! Gorgeous!

And my sister including the Little Mermaid, Ariel, in her greeting!

And that's a wrap! Nah, we won't watch a movie together. The kids went to play in the pool after they did chores when we came home from Grandma and Grandpa's. Abishai played some Minecraft with Jared. I had bought some extra heavy duty deep cleaning/stripping laundry detergent advertised to be used on cloth diapers and had washed Benaiah's work uniforms in it and then soaked them again with the deep clean soak for 8 hrs and it's now going through it's wash cycle and 2 rinses a second time. If that doesn't help the clothes, nothing will. I also had to deal with the soaked towels that were left outside in the downpour last night. I had to put them on twice in dryer to dry them out. Otherwise, I puttered and talked to my brother who called to say Happy Birthday. And my sister Stefanie, John, and Auggie sent me a video message. I got a happy birthday greeting from Aaron with a GIF of a drawing of actual birth (so random and weird coming from him) and then 75 birthday greetings on FB. It was a great day! I'm tired this evening so I just don't feel like watching a movie with Jared. I'll let him get a good night's sleep and I'll watch my own videos. I got my list for the week done, or at least to the point of knowing that I don't really have much going on this week. I think I'm good on errands. I need to tackle some boxes that need decisions, so that's the focus. Not looking forward to that. But for today, I got to eat my GF cupcake from Smallcakes and I feel sickly full. Yummy shepherd's pie and fruit for dinner. I did eat some cashews before I left for Gary and Leah's and those hurt my teeth. Bummers. I think I might see if I can ask a nurse tomorrow while I'm at the dentist for Benaiah. We'll see. So, on to year 40 of life. Woot! Woot!

Benaiah came over to make Abishai smile, so I grabbed a selfie. He took Ava out for cheesecake instead of staying for dessert with us. And he finally filled out his thank you notes because Grandpa begged him to.

Abishai was having a fit before we came to Grandma's house because he didn't want to wear church clothes again.

My expensive $4.50 cupcake. Best in the GF business though. And an Amazon giftcard. Yum!

Showing Grandpa her creation. During dinner, the boys shared the whole "Karen/Kyle/Sharon/Kevin" meme thing, and Florida Man, and Grandpa sat there looking up Florida Man and kept cracking up! Grandma threw up her hands and said, "If this the kind of chatting we are having, I'm going to go wash dishes!" Lol. Poor Grandma.