The J6 Journey: Year 5, August 7th-9th, 2020: Working Weekend

Work, rest, work. I worked hard the last two weeks, so I took a nap on Friday so I would have energy to go grocery shopping after dinner.I had used up all my energy spoons. I did take the kids to the park for about an hour and it was warm, but not bad in the shade with the breeze. Abishai of course didn't want to come home ever, but we let when I, Justin, Keturah, and Socks were done. We did bring Socks, poor thing. I know he loves being out and social but he gets so hot and tired and I worry about him. We did have to stop at Leah's house to pick up the carseat and drop off the rest of Benaiah's washed clothes. Benaiah was still at work but I figured he would go out later with Ava for date night. I think I also have some rebound headaches from taking pain medication too long. Plus I've found some good TV series on Amazon Prime and can't help but binge watch them. Ugh! It's bad. And Jared's mad at my very late bedtimes. So, here on Saturday, I'm typing this up now, in the afternoon so I can to bed earlier tonight instead of taking a nap. Jared has laid down twice today, because he's had some early mornings and late nights this week and because he's straining his back cutting up wood for his men's overnight camping trip in a couple of weeks. Justin was supposed to help him, but Jared told him to hurry up and when he did, Justin slammed the hammer down on his thumb so hard it bled. He was using a hammer to hit the splicer. So, instead of helping Dad, Justin helped me clean up after I trimmed the yard myself in my way, the parts that Justin always neglects. Now Justin can mow Sunday or Monday before warmer temps and rainy weather comes. It's supposed to warm up to near 90 but not quite. I still think that's fairly mild and more like Charlottetown instead of here. But the kids want to complain of course.

Ugh, and the pool. The pool needs shocked with chemicals and/or drained and refilled. I don't want to touch it and it looks like Jared doesn't want to touch it. Icky. It's algae. Perhaps we need to invest in a real filter system next year that we can leave in when the kids aren't swimming. Sigh. I also need to take things to Goodwill and do some recycling, so I might do that and pick up chemicals while Keturah is at her "house class." She gets to meet with all the 6th graders to go over CIY materials but outside on someone's lawn for the next three weeks. It's a good compromise, that's for sure. I asked her if she's excited to see her friends and she half smiled. It will be good for her. She needs it like I need my neighborhood friends. She's been walking the dog around the block and then stopping at Grandma's house to play cards. I think she and Grandma are enjoying that time together.

Meanwhile, Abishai is whining like crazy about tablet time. And he and Justin are finding it harder and harder to stay off of the Clone Wars tv show or the tablet or the PS3 in their room. Which tells me school needs to start soon. I'll plan this week and hopefully start math and such the next week while I wait for the rest of the materials. I finally did buy the two curriculum items I was waiting on being published. One won't come until late September, but there's only 24 "weeks" worth so it will be fine. And the other one should come fairly quickly. It's just a science book and can probably be read through fairly quickly. I'm pretty excited about it and plan to buy the rest of Dr. Jay Wile's elementary set in the spring for us, particularly Abishai, as we start all over in history. I can't believe we will be on round 3 of our history books! I might get a little bored so I'll have to find something new to do in it. But we also might be extending this year, too, so we'll see.

Meanwhile, I do finally feel caught up and the house looks so much better. I'm ready to try to keep relaxing and resting the rest of the weekend so I can hit the ground running on Monday with school things. I feel way too tired to tackle much and that always makes me anxious. But, I know it will all come together now that other responsibilities have slowed down. I did work on listening to and thinking about a real blog article I'm going to be writing for a local group and did some more research on ADD. I have a lot more to do on the ADD but it's a start. I need someone to break it down for me and tell me exactly what to do or show Justin how to do it instead of me. Thankfully, we have a follow up with Justin's PCP on Tuesday, so I plan to ask about that, about getting the medication to try, other medicinal ways to help until we can figure out coping mechanisms, and to see if it's something I might have. I mean I'll have to talk to my PCP about it of course, but the symptoms seem to fit and I was wondering if he had an opinion between fibro fog and ADD and mommy forgetfulness. I'm not too worried about me because I have found ways to function and whatever helps Justin, could help me, too. I just need the right professional to talk to and I don't know that the person we are talking to is helping. Other than that, it's another quiet at home week.

I did find out all the pools are closed so that's why I took the kids to the park on Friday. Our official homeschool park day was way up north and I do not like to go that far when I know the kids won't last long. The funny thing is, the group is coming down to the park we went to this coming Friday, so we won't have to travel far! I'm not sure what else we can find to do right now. I still don't want to go to the Children's museum if we can't do what the normal things we've always done. The best parts are the parts that are closed. And it's always an exhausting trip for all of us. I thought about going to see the fire towers this fall or taking a drive with Jared for a couple of days to see the covered bridges. The Michael W. Smith concert was postponed again, and they have replaced it with those drive in theater concerts. $100 per vehicle up to 6 people, to sit outside and sweat, to stare at a screen, nope. Not when my $90 got me front row tickets in an a/c building and a comfy chair. I can wait. They are doing an impromptu weekend getaway retreat because the MWS trip to Hawaii was postponed, but that's $700 per person! I think. Maybe per couple. Either way. Nope. We can't afford that either. I thought about taking Jared for a hot minute. I want a real getaway. Maybe Gatlinburg, TN. Something, somewhere, overnight. Something! Anyway, apple picking will be coming up soon, too. And there is a homeschool day at Conner Prairie. We can also go whenever we want to pretty cheaply on our Access Pass. I'll just wait until the weather cools down again. I probably should have gone this week because the weather was perfect and some kids were in school! Whoops! "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" definitely rings true sometimes, especially in my anxiety driven mind.

So, that's where we are at. It's warm. Some things got done. Some things didn't. I borrowed a rug shampooer from a friend that I will try out this week. I've never used one, so hopefully it goes well. Yeah for having closer friends that I can borrow stuff from! Don't worry, I'm always offering to them as well! And the best part is not having to leave the neighborhood! I heard someone talk about their "Covid bubble" where a small group of relatives and friends only hanging our with each other and are honest about where they've been. And we have definitely formed that. We still sit outside and try to social distance, but we don't wear our masks at each other's homes. Even with one adult daughter getting sick, all the right protocols were put in place, the family tested negative, and although it's so hard and sad to see her isolated, we all know it's for the best. But our little older unnamed neighborhood block is it's own "Covid bubble" and it's going well so far. This was the first week of school though, so I thoroughly expect that something else will happen soon enough. None of us are ready to return to church though, so the only places it would come up is eating out, grocery store, and school. We can handle that. I love our "Covid bubble." I love knowing people's real phone numbers and stepping into each other's homes and seeing each other more than once a week. That's what a true small group or micro church or neighborhood should be! And I love it!

One last thing, yes, I'm coming out of my pity party. As soon as I get more sleep, I think emotionally, I will be fine. I've got my task list all set for the next two weeks. I'm steadily working on it. I'm a bit frustrated with diet and exercise again because I need to commit to it, but now I don't have a high motivating factor. I make poor choices when I'm tired. I should make a plan about it and stick with it. I'm just not wanting to give up on foods and putting the effort into meal planning. Broken record, I know, I know. I'll get there. I kind of mapped September out as my time to work on it, after I get school planned, and started, which was after Benaiah's stuff the last few months. So, there's a plan. I always have a plan. If I don't, I got bonkers with anxiety. I need to know that there is a time for everything and not spread myself too thin in the daily or weekly. This week I cleaned. Next week I pull out and organize the schoolbooks. And I'll putter with other things, too.

I remember a couple of years ago when he announced #15 was on it's way! 16 grandchildren from 5 kids. Yup!

I did not fact check this, but even if it's partially true, it reminds me of the verse that says, "Wars and rumors of wars." Jared said that the explosion in Beirut was because chemicals weren't stored properly. But what chemicals were they and why were they stored so close to civilians?

Justin loves this thing. It's a wonder that he doesn't fall off. He did find two middle schoolers to hang out with but we both cringed when we overheard them loudly saying things like "You're a racist" and "I'm a stupid American." Wow, can you say some parent has influenced their kids that were at the park unsupervised?

Milkweed for the monarch butterflies. I'm glad there's a little bit of wilderness not far from our house.

Just don't go in there because ticks are a real problem.

If only all of Franklin Township looked this heavenly, calm, farm like.

A flower hadn't opened yet! I think it might be a "pod." And yes, these are clusters of individual flowers. I don't know the name of that configuration. I'm not a botanist.

My super old comfy capri jeans that are not the right length to be in style, at least are in style with those holes. I'm not mad about it, as they say.

Sweaty hugs.

Up she goes! Her favorite piece of playground equipment since Charlottetown.

Socks watching his kids play.

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Round and round and round.

We took turns sitting with the dog in the shade. I had a huge headache, so I didn't want to move much. I did go up on the playground a couple of times per Abishai's requests.

My rock climber.

I spy the cardinal I spied the previous day! Yeah!

Chop that wood! Well, at least until you split your finger open you goof! At age 15, you should be able to do this most definitely. But those logs looked really tough!

Oh my! We've had a wetter than usual summer so there's been a few nasty mushrooms that have popped up. This one is huge! Like 6 inches long. It was laying down so I hope Jared saw it and sprayed it.

I can climb, Mom, oh, maybe not.

Hanging out while Daddy takes a walk. We were too tired to walk.

But not tired for soccer.

Photo credit of course goes to local aerial photographer, J.C. Aerial Images. This is the bridge that is being reconstructed near our house! This is the view looking south, so the street in the middle going to the right loops up and towards our street.

And this is the view going north to CVS. So cool!

This is the Five Points and Edgewood intersection and this is why it has to be closed for a good 4-6 months, much longer than the others. It looks like they had to thoroughly reconstruct the drainage underneath it. I've never seen this before! Wow! I can't wait for it to be done because an intersection we used to use all the time. Looking North.

Drainage pipe of some sort! Looking North.

Looking East

Another intersection I would use often to get to my counseling appointment, Stop 11 and Five Points I think. The huge sand pile is now gone, so that's awesome. This is looking North. The intersection just West of here was just reopened with it's roundabout. There's an elementary school to the east of here as well. Crazy!

Nearly normal Sunday! Church at Smith's, Sunday dinner with J2, nap with Jared, Keturah had "house class"/CIY/small group with youth group. And I have a migraine. Oh my word, how? I don't know. The weather isn't supposed to change until tomorrow. I have a couple of late nights and bad dreams. I think it's mainly about medication withdrawal, but I can't get rid of it! All the oils, all the meds, all the CBD, ugh. Makes me grouchy. I'm praying it goes away before the morning because I want to work on books and clean the carpet. Meanwhile, Benaiah said he doesn't know where to put the drumkit at Grandpa's house, so he didn't move it today. Ethan, Chase, and Benaiah worked on Benaiah's computer and Benaiah said it's not quite done, but won't tell me why. I feel like we were rushed to leave Smiths for dinner and then rushed out the out the door because of the computer. Thanks. Not much time for a conversation the Sunday after the first kid moves out. No talk about how I'm coping. Just reprimanded for saying, "Why didn't you ever invite Ethan and Chase to our house?" And then Leah got offended when Jared wouldn't use the BBQ sauce she got that said "sugar free" and yet contains a sweetener. Good grief. Is there anything we can say to each other anymore? I also had to ask the neighborhood girls' moms why Keturah didn't feel she was welcome in their play time today, but I think we worked it out. It's been a weird, kind of restless day.

Jared took Abishai with him to Meijer after dropping Keturah off at small group and ended up getting him a Hot Wheel car, of course, spoiled. Abishai was very cute at lunch when he sat with Benaiah and Ethan and talked with them and Chase about video games. He started to act up and get all crazy and not wanting to come because: PEOPLE. I'm finding it more and more frustrating and difficult that I can't give my kids any kind of social outlet. I guess that's what secular homeschoolers sometimes feel like. Sigh.

I tried to give up dairy today, until I realized I was eating pizza, with cheese on it. Duh! I'll try again tomorrow and freeze the leftover pizza if I have to. I want to try to work on my self discipline, especially diet wise. At least Jared and I had a good nap and snuggle time. Tomorrow is a new day. It's a quiet week, time to work on the books.