The J6 Journey: Year 5, August 24th-27th, 2020: A New Week

Monday was good! Kids got up early enough and started school at 8:30am. We kind of forgot morning basket, whoops! But we did most of it at lunch time instead. We skipped our science reader. And then we showed Daddy what we learned, too. Abishai wanted to recite his CC memory work. Justin had another appointment with behavioral health and then I had an appointment at the chiropractor. I was so excited because I can always tell when I'm due because I start feeling tense and lopsided. In between the appointments, I got Keturah's work down with a very loud Abishai in the room. I had to hold my attitude in check all day but made it through. I dropped off the used motor oil from several oil changes to Auto Zone, picked up some yummies from CVS for myself (I ran out of my chocolate), and picked up the dry cleaning. We had a nice meal of pork steak and potatoes and salad. Then Jared took Abishai with him to pick up something from a friend. And finally, the kids got to open their Lego sets that they earned by putting together the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets for me. I "paid" them $10 an hour and they didn't want cash, they wanted a Lego set. Sigh. But, yeah, it was a good Monday. I feel exhausted though. And I have no idea why. I feel prepared for the talk tomorrow night. I found a spot where I want to set up. I've run through the material. I think I know how we'll handle it. I guess I'm still mentally exhausted. But the rest of the week is open with only the usual Bible studies and park day on Friday. So, we'll see. I have time to work on more books for history later in the week. So, I'll keep this short and simple.

A storm is brewing in New Orleans! Hurricane Marko has been downgraded to a tropical depression. Phew! And Hurrican Laura is also probably going to Miss New Orleans.

What an incredible rainbow!

Shauna said it was cooler and windy with very little rain so far.

Legos they earned by helping Mom and for doing school well. Always Legos. Always.

Daddy wanted to included his anniversary gift in the picture.

Master builder at work. Abishai, not Daddy.

Losing daylight, but here she goes! She likes to take her time.

Justin finished his in under 30 minutes. He said, "Mom, it's under 400 pieces. It's easy!"

Keturah's set came with the cutest pandas!

And a spider!

No more redneck driveway! I took the use oil to Autozone to be recycled. I move the pallets and gardening gear to the side of the house. And I put the logs and wood bark in the wheelbarrow inside for Jared to deal with when he wants to.

A Minecraft wolf! You feed it and it will turn into a dog. There was in Abishai's set.

And a red fox!

Cute!

And done! Keturah's is now done as well. Experts! We are!

Tuesday and Wednesday. Where do I begin?! I was nervous all day, not too much so, but enough that it was hard to function. School went fine because the kids were up on time. I forgot that I wanted to have them use their alarm clocks instead of me yelling at them to get up, so when I got up on Wednesday, I turned them on for Thursday morning. Homeschooling has been uneventful. Abishai is very squirrily and doesn't want to do written work. He only did half of a page each of math and handwriting. It's a bit frustrating, but I'm trying to be patient and give grace. Perhaps we can use a timer and play a game of how long you can sit still. He will sit still for a long enough time to do the writing and he does fine when he's giving it 100%. His intelligence isn't the issue, although I thought he would catch on earlier. I think he tries to say the wrong answer sometimes on purpose though. Kindergarten is a time to learn how to follow directions just as much as it is learning to write and read, right? We'll find our rhythm. I did have to use the bribe of a 10 minute TV show though and said I would watch with him. He liked that. And he did give up the tablet when we were done so Justin could use it for his music.

Justin and I have agreed that we would like to up his ADD medication. It's helping, and we want to see what a higher dose might get him. We can always back down of course, and I'm an expert at going up and down on meds, that's for sure. We will still work through these workbooks I'm borrowing, but I'm not currently pursuing a counselor for now. We'll see how far we get on our own. We are counting them as "health class" credit, too! Because mental health is super important! He's doing a bit better on his studies. And he says he's trying to add in the tips we've talked about, so hopefully that's good enough for now.

Keturah is breezing through her work. It will be interesting on Friday to see if she was able to understand and study well for her closed book science test. I'm not putting a letter grade on the tests, but this first one will show if I choose correctly with the textbook and for her working completely on her own, which frees me up as I wrap up other summer things and prep our history. We just have to add in the history portion, and it seems like we've got plenty of time in our day to do that. They are both ready for me to check their work before 1pm. I'm very pleased with that. Keturah and I quickly went to the library on Wednesday to pick up our first stack of books for our history lessons. She wanted a bunch of easy to read graphic novels. We left the boys home playing their video games right before cooking supper. And as you can see below, I nailed supper like the Mama Boss I am! Makes me feel pretty proud of myself. So I'm expecting to be knocked down a couple of pegs this weekend or something.

But for now, let's talk about the Homeschool 101 I did on Tuesday night. Like I said, I was pretty nervous about the technology parts of things, not in the actual content I was presenting. I know the basic homeschooling content like the back of my hand because I've typed it up 100's of times in the last 6 months. Even when we had a Q and A at the end, I was able to come up with an answer for most things. I did forget to thank my hostess formally at the beginning and end of the presentation on the recording. I only recorded the presentation part, which was 45 minutes. Then we had about 20-30 minutes of questions, mostly through the chat part, which I had the hostess keep an eye on as I presented so I wasn't trying to toggle back and forth. I've watched many a YouTuber or livestreamer have one person off camera handling the chat (where people type) and it just makes for a smoother conversation instead of stopping and starting trying to find the latest comments. I did scroll through them at the end though. As people started getting on the Zoom call, the hostess and I did greet most of them up until we got to about 10 people. We asked if they were new to homeschooling or wanted to learn something. Most people said this was their first year homeschooling or thinking about it. Yeah! That's who this talk is geared towards.

I had everything set up about 30 minutes early and logged into the Zoom meeting I had previously created. And then the hostess joined me at 20 minutes until 8pm. That gave us enough time for me to ask how things looked own her end with the screen sharing and seeing if she could still see me in a smaller screen next to the screen with the slides, and she said it looked great! Then I think I did pretty well on the slides and presentation. I was trying to add some things in from a different presentation, so it was a little awkward sometimes, but I didn't lose my cool and just went on to the next thing. I'm hoping I talked loud enough. No one said anything, and I haven't checked the recording, so I don't know. I don't want to watch it to be honest. I'm not sure how YouTubers and people who post videos of themselves on social media does it because I can't stand to see myself talking. I guess you just get used to it or redo the videos or whatever. I'm a one and done. And then after the presentation, we answered a couple of questions. The hostess and I spent about 30 more minutes after everyone left debriefing. I didn't expect that! This is one great leader! She reminds me of someone that is 30 minutes from me in the opposite direction. This hostess and her group are 30 minutes away from me as well. Mostly help for parents and lots of fun activities. It's not a co op. And this group now has over 100 families in just the last couple of years! There were over 200, but they recently added a legal waiver and booted people out that didn't turn their form in. I turned mine in, because I do hope to get out them for a few things. She also said she has 3 other parents helping out regularly! That's incredible! It's so hard to start groups sometimes, so obviously there was a huge void in her area for a secular homeschooling group. And later I checked on our website and there really isn't many groups at all, secular or faith based, so yeah! I'm glad I plugged into a vibrant resource! I spent part of Wednesday making sure that I included the other parents (moms in this case) in inviting them to our special group leaders group and making them my "friends" on Facebook so we could get to know each other, etc. We are all super excited! All because I answered a post or posted myself if there were groups in that particular area! And then I boldly got into the group, introduced myself and basically networked. Yeah for me!

The same thing happened when talking with a librarian that another volunteer and I are working with for another homeschool 101. Come to find out, our Indianapolis library has a whole homeschool committee with a chair and everything! Yeah for another networking find! I think a couple of my other emails for false starts, but I've connected now with the real person that has been doing a lot of legwork to provide resources for people asking about homeschooling, organizing the homeschool activities at the local branches, and all the things! We are going to be a great resource for each other. Woot! Woot! And I cleaned up some other IAHE business for my region. I finally got into the other region south of us that I'm supposed to have been handling the last 3 weeks, whoops. There's only a few phone calls and a few other legitimate emails I need to take care of. That's pretty easy to do over the next couple of days. I'm just glad I'm up to date.

So I'm living off of a "I'm proud of myself" high right now and will ride that high for as long as I can. For someone with the occasional bout of depression, it's good to have those highs, too. I keep asking Jared if he's proud of me and he won't answer. Sigh. Come on! Someone give me a high five! Someone CLOSE to me give me a high five! Jared is NOT the encouraging type, and it's hard for me and him and us. But I'm choosing not to dwell there in the anger part of it. I still want to fish out some of the why he won't say these things, but more on an intellectual level instead of a begging "why won't you do this!" kind of way. We'll see how far that conversation gets.

Meanwhile, we were going to go to this Jurassic Quest Drive thru thing tomorrow but I forgot that Cincinnati is 2 hrs away and Jared's back is acting up so it's not wise for him to drive. I don't want to drive 2 hrs one way either. I'd like to do more 1 hr trips first. It sounds like this event happens every year and is normally held in a convention hall, so I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to try to get Abishai to some of these other events by this particular homeschool group and get ourselves out there more. I just read that the governor has decided to keep us at level 4.5 out of 5, so masks are still mandatory. What the heck?! I'm definitely going to not wear a mask if it's optional. But if it's required, fine. Shoot, that means the Children's Museum, too. And that's why we haven't been. I can't stand the thing for more than an hour. Bummers! We've missed so many great exhibits this year. I'm totally not happy about it. This is ridiculous. What are we waiting for? For no cases to happen? Grrr.

Anyway, that means we'll be home all day on Thursday, so we'll carry on as normal. Maybe I'll take more pictures or something. But for now, I'd like to catch up on some YouTube videos. It's been a great start to the week!

By the time I'm writing this, Marco was a no show but Laura is set as a category 4 and keeps changing it's course. So, either Texas or Louisiana could get it and we'll get the remnants next week.

Oh yeah! I guess they did have to postpone the Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown races! It means the colts are older, but it might be hotter than it is in April. Could prove very interesting!

Hm, you been the 5 yr old hurricane? Or the real hurricanes Laura or Marco we've been talking aout?

I've got slides. I've got the viewfinder. I've got the chat. And I've got the record button ready. Let's do this! First Homeschool 101 is in the books!

And to my left. Water and a magazine to show off. And a phone charger. BTW, I need the over the ear headphones because earbuds hurt when worn for 2 hrs!

And to my right, my mouse and my notes.

And as every good Zoom presenter knows, all business on top and all comfort on bottom when dressing for the occasion.

Wednesday. The advantage of being busy with other things that you don't take as many photos and videos which means less processing time and shorter blog posts!

I just happened to take this picture this morning. Justin said he didn't sleep well because Socks was up and down, and yet, he'll snuggle up more with him. And Abishai joined them.

She abhors the pigtails now, but we loved them back then! Cutie 1 yr old Keturah!

Abishai, my tester, had to see which one taste better. He declared scrambled was better. That's because I burnt the eggy toast a bit! Socks got the leftovers. And he just tested how he sounds under the water by screeching that could be hard to every corner of the house. Yup, my tester.

The above video was Abishai sitting in the camping chair Justin left out last night and pretending he was watching online church. The fridge was the TV screen. He even sang his rendition of "God the Father." Hilarious!

I'm sure I'll have a couple of down days coming up soon, but tonight, I'm celebrating a successful Homeschool 101 AND how I timed out dinner. Well, sort of, but by the time the pressure cooker came t pressure, it was in line with the rice. Then I had two packets of steamed veggies to warm up in the microwave and they each take 4 minutes. So, at the end of 9 minutes, both veggies were done, the pressure cooker beeped that it was done and the timer for the rice beeped, all at the same time! I didn't burn the rice, the pressure cooker didn't yell at me that the chicken was burning, and the veggies were perfect as always. Simple comfort food. I should get the proud homeschool homemaker award for today! Because the kids were done with school by 1 pm, too!

9 minutes to go to perfect sticky rice!

Two bags of frozen veggies, 4 minutes each, equals 8 minutes!

I know, I know, crunchy mamas would gag at warming something up in the mircowave in plastic. It's easy and convenient. You can always dump the veggies into a bowl with water and microwave them or steam them on the stove.

Oh Thursday, let's see. We had a very grumpy Justin who had to finish mowing our yard in the heat and then mow Grandpa's yard. And deal with his bickering siblings. There was Keturah who likes to push buttons. And there was crazy Abishai doing his thing. We finished school fine, skipped Morning Basket, again. Which should be Lunch Basket or Dinner Basket or just "get yourself in gear mama and call the kids back to the table" basket. I guess we could always just do it without Justin. But he had to take three days to mow this week because of the heat. He hates the heat so much. Keturah and Abishai went for a walk this morning. And then it ended up being that all three of them went to Grandpa's house of Bible class at 4pm. So I sat home and worked through the few emails on the other account I'm helping with for IAHE and got caught up there. But otherwise, I was mopey and tired today. I didn't kick into gear until after I did what I loved, homeschooling. I'm not getting as many "do I have to's" from the older kids because we've worked together more and I've tried to explain more the why's we are doing what we are doing and given them more time to process and be ready for upcoming things. I pulled out the history books we got from the library and set aside from our collection for the first week of history next week. I haven't gone through the American Revolution and Constitution stuff, but that's L. 8-9 and somewhere between L. 11-12 respectively. We do 3 lessons a week. I even suggested that Keturah read aloud a couple of the picture books to Abishai that she read the last time we went through these lessons. So, we'll see how it goes.

It was a cloudy day, which kept the temps down a bit to only 80 degrees. And now the remnants of Hurricane Laura are going to head towards us for the weekend. It did some significant damage to east Texas and west Louisiana last night. I just couldn't live in an area where that threat happens yearly. I've never understood the pull to live there. I guess if you grew up there, that's one thing. No thanks. I wouldn't want to live on the Gulf of Mexico. Or on the southern part of the east coast of North America. Just anywhere south, really. Nope. I can barely stand the mugginess we have here. But, the temps here will start to go down soon. We've had a very mild summer. And with having that house fan going at night the past month (up until this week), we actually lowered our electricity bill! Sweet!

Distracted, again. Sigh. Oh, I bribed Abishai with chocolate to finish his homework this morning. And he decided that using a smaller pencil in his right hand was much for fun when forming his letters on his handwriting paper. Ok, then. We'll try to teach him to write with both hands, but we'll see. I've never attempted this before. And he CAN easily do all the work I give him when he puts his mind to it. It's just the practicing using a pencil or crayon that we need to catch up on. And that's because I wasn't ready to sit down and fight with him to sit down.

Mark Moore wrote the Core 52 book we are all doing.

Notice the author's names at the top of the magazine!

Remember Jared is a 5 and I'm a 6. And we can figure out the rest of the family and these suit them well.

Last night's sunset.

He waited until he heard the click of the unlocking mechanism and then quickly opened the door.

And then he got in and buckled. He's always trying to sneak away with Daddy.

When you're homeschooled and it's going to be a hot day, chores come first. It's a battery powered weed eater, but he's listening to something on the tablet.

It was his idea to bring out the stool. And yes, he was trying to get it in the hoop and I was afraid he was going to hit his head.

That's a safer distance.

Look, Mom, it's a fireman pole! Than he got out a water gun as his water hose and pretended to respond to an emergency.

I'm so glad he choose to hold onto the rim closer to the backboard because if he had done it further out, I'm afraid the whole thing would topple. Bold boy.

Out for their daily walk to Grandma's house. I think it's adorable. I'll gladly give up a bit of homeschooling time for this!

He's a bit rude, but yeah, that Home Alone kid is old. Oh wait, I'm 39 and Jared is 41. That makes us old too.

Ready for his first day of Grandpa Bible class! Although Grandpa used to pick up Benaiah and take him to McDonald's every Wednesday evening to do class and then drop him back off before going back to the church to teach the adult Bible class. Times have changed. Salaries have changed. Grandpa's time is much more divided and inconsistent these days. I wish the memories could be exactly the same with every kid, but it can't be. Just the fact that Grandpa still finds some time for the 6 grandkids, yes, Benaiah, too, is a miracle some weeks.

Palpatine, not Palestine, and he forgot to take a picture, so I added mine from earlier in the comments.

The Star Wars figures come from a Star Wars chess set. Optimus Prime is a McDonald's toy I believe. This is why I keep homeschool lessons to the bare minimum right now. I'm NOT going to mess up Abishai's love for make believe and story telling. Nope, not going to do it.