Year 5, September 21st-24th, 2020: A New Week, But Same Tight Schedule

Up and at 'em, Engineer! Let's go! It's been a full Monday, with as much schooling as we could do between an appintment for me and an appointment for Justin. Keturah, Justin, and I watched half of "The Last Mohicans." They weren't impressed. Oh come on! It's an epic! Lots of gun fights! Romance! Good grief! And a GREAT music score. A classic! Of course it's a bit far fetched with the scalping and not all Indians were half naked all the time. BUT, it's a taste of the French and Indian War and the tension between the British and the Colonists. I'm glad we are watching it as we head into talking about the Revolutionary War tomorrow.

Speaking of, I was writing to people on Facebook about the Founding Fathers today, and politics, and still responding on yesterday's post about masks. And yes, Jared was very unhappy with my scribbles during the sermon about it. Sorry, when my triggers are pushed, it's hard to concentrate on anything else until I write out my thoughts. I TRIED to bring myself back to the sermon. It certainly wasn't the preacher's fault. I was trying to relate what he said and what I know Biblically to what I was feeling and putting my feelings through their paces making sure I wasn't out of line before I spoke up. But, it wasn't going away. It still hasn't for 3 weeks. Jared thinks I listen too much to one side, and that couldn't be farther than the truth. I have a brain. I think very logically. I listen intently to all sides. I really do. Because who wants to be at odds with a friend with the opposite opinion? So I typed out some responses, did my IAHE thing, and put my phone away.

Abishai and I had a great session. He's such a fast learner! If only he would sit still long enough to learn. He's conquered the 10 Commandments and now we are memorizing the Books of the Bible. He won't be able to read and write them for quite some time, but he'll be able to spout them off. Then it's the Lord's Prayer. The sooner we get these things memorized, the more permanent they will be. We read The Matchlock Gun and saw how his green blocks match up to his other colored math blocks. And he did a page of handwriting. I'm happy with the handwriting as long as his fingers are right and he's doing the strokes in the right direction. I'll become a stickler on how big and which line to stop it in a few weeks' time. He's still very awkward holding the pencil, so it takes time. Keturah and Justin were their usual selves but we had some good laughs and some stern "Go do your chores!" Sigh. Jared worked outside on the treehouse and I heard him playing on the trampoline with Abishai while I was finishing the Conner Prairie blog. I'm all caught up now! Yeah! Just in time before we have apple picking photos on Friday, lol. And Zoo pictures in a couple of weeks. So, yeah, caught up for the moment. I have to read my Bible study at some point, but I have nothing tomorrow, so I'll do that and piano lessons tomorrow. And we start the Revolutionary War! Woot! Woot!

Now, if Benaiah would stop hitting me upside the head with new information, that would be great. From wanting to switch colleges/careers to wanting to sell the truck to his coworkers to buying a new vehicle from his friend's dad....all with Grandpa's influence. Ugh. Slow down there, kid. Yes, Grandpa helped him figure out a bank loan for a vehicle. Yes, Grandpa was asking for Benaiah's SSN, which I don't have memorized, so they could look at insurance. On one hand, I'm glad Grandpa is helping him and making the phone calls so I don't have to. On the other hand, I feel like our influence has been skirted around. We said to wait for a car. We said no loans. We said we would buy back the truck. And I have no idea where this switching schools and careers comes from. Heck, I didn't even know he was doing an actual book study with Ethan, David, and his now "old" youth group leader, Jake Tandy. Apparently it's a book that Lisa gave him for a graduation gift and that's what they've been doing on Wednesday nights. Thanks for giving me the details, Son. Here I am worried about your spiritual life and making sure you don't feel like the support you had in high school has been taken away, and I find out you are doing something but never told me about it. Thanks. I feel helpful. Sigh. Grandpa's grandSON. Sigh.

Yes I want to buy this! We had Care Bear lots of things in our house growing up! I told Keturah that I might just have to get it for her, but I'll be sure she actually wants it for I do. It's a cute sleeping bag! And boombox! Ah!

The new historical era American Girl doll is 1980's Courtney! When did I become so sold that I'm considered historical age? Good grief! But oh so fun!

Somebody made this for some hospital patients but what a cute Christmas present idea!

Grandma made this cool cookies with impression tins and Keturah's been having fun decorating them.

Drinking this coffee grateful that the adoption of the a boy from the Ukraine was finalized and he's on American soil. The coffee was a fundraiser for his new family to adopt him. It's taken a year, and there's been some hoops to jump through, but not nearly as much as what I've heard from others, praise God. I can't wait to see him in person!

This is what Sunday School looks like now. Abishai is in the back row, closest to the back wall. He says he doesn't dance because he doesn't want to bump into anyone. They do everything in the classroom now. It's just not quite the same as before. Only 16 kids per classroom for 2 grades worth. We are used to 30 kids per grade and 1 grade per classroom. Sigh.

Abishai's current schoolwork. Working on place value and simple letter handwriting. He only does one page of careful handwriting. The more practice you do in one sitting, you tend to get sloppier so less is more.

We toss the ball back and forth and say the sounds of the letters on the cards. And this is our current one on one read aloud.

Tuesday. Goodness. I need to catch up on logging my IAHE calls, but I wanted to get this done first. I told Jared I would be in be early. Sigh. It's already 8:40. And my pile is still huge. We did have an ok day with homeschooling, even attempting our read aloud time outside. It took awhile to settle and it felt a bit rushed, but at least it was different and outside for once. Abishai and I had a good time this morning with school. He already knows how to add using his fingers! What?! Why hadn't I realized this!? So I showed him the principles of using the blocks in case we needed them later and am skipping to the next lesson. I'm not working on rote memory yet, so counting is fine. Flashcards can wait. But he likes his ABC flashcards that have pictures on them because we played our little game again today. He's got I'd say 80% of the letter sounds down with those cards. I want to move him to the Apple Scrabble letter tiles or something else that doesn't have pictures, get to 75% or 80% recognition with that, and then start working on blends. I've kind of abandoned the curriculum again. I did it by the letter literally with Benaiah and maybe Justin. I think I pretty much knew how to do it with Keturah so we didn't do it lesson by lesson but reviewed whatever was on the worksheets, which doesn't seem to be on the same pace with the curriculum. So, I'm just writing down what we are working on and using the tools I have on hand because I somewhat know what to use next as far as blend charts and readers and special sounds, etc. And he zipped through penmanship today. He's still awkwardly holding his pencil, but I'm trying to tell myself that as long as the strokes are going in the right direction, I don't need to panic about where they are hitting on the handwriting lines and such. He's going slow enough and just needs practice. Perhaps I could try holding his hand again to have him feel how small the "O" should be or something. I'm not sure. I might have to reference the Handwriting Without Tears book. But, I'm no panicked, yet. And we are doing our own one on one read aloud about a Matchlock Gun and he seems to understand and ask questions. So I might not be doing read aloud time exactly like the Read Aloud Family, but there are many times we have done it well. Again, I'm not worried. I'm just trying to "spread the feast." 

 

Well, because I got a tad behind because of an extra project this morning, Keturah and I will have to start with working together first thing in the morning because I forgot her Bible study that I'm doing with her on Monday and she's needing a lot more direction on the science. I'm kind of sad that she does, but again, no panicking. If we finish the whole book, great, if we spend 3 weeks on each chapter, then we do that. I only have so much time for everything. And right now, history is my top priority. Keturah's science is pretty much a filler, great basic information plus a lot of stuff she won't necessarily need, so if she doesn't get it all, it's ok. Justin is on Biology, so I need to make sure he understands it well. Keturah's will ease up here in a chapter or two with topics she's already studied before. So, we'll see. Math is going fairly well for the both of them. Justin finally upped the dose of his medication today, and as per suggested by the behavioral health appointment yesterday, he did lock his bedroom door to prevent all the interruptions. We're getting there.

I was able to sneak in a few phone calls this afternoon while Keturah used my computer. And then I finished reading the Read Aloud Family and did a couple of days of my Bible study, although I won't be at tomorrow night's meeting because I have another Homeschool 101 session. We should be all set and I'll be able to use my notes and slides as is. I just haven't had time to revamp them for myself. Nor have I figured out the relationship between IAHE and Ivy Tech and Ivy Tech is persistently trying to contact the emails I'm in charge with and wanting to share information. They aren't wrong to do that, but I just don't know what to do with the information since I don't have access to our email list. I'd love to get the word out, but even trying to do that via our Facebook pages can prove difficult. So, it's just a reminder of how much more work I could be doing, but don't have time to do. I can barely get a phone call returned 6 hrs later and get it logged in sometimes. Sigh. Such is life.

I was only going to take care of what I thought was just two boxes of toys that needed to be repacked and put in the shed. But once I got out to the garage, I realized there were several more things that had been needed to move, too. And everything was dusty. And everything was out of place. And the floor needed sweeping. So over an hour later and 8 boxes went to the shed. The garage is tidy and more condensed again. I can do laundry and not fear the clean stuff falling out of the dryer onto a filthy floor. Well, it's not AS filthy. So, I'll be sore tomorrow. I wasn't expecting to do all that work, but I'm glad it's done. Now all that is left for fall/winter prep is clothing and putting away summer furniture, but that can wait a few more weeks. Right now, I'm just trying to plan our fall leaf peeping things and maybe a getaway? We'll see.

Pictures are out of order, sorry, I don't have time to figure out what's wrong when I upload them so these pictures are reversed on what happened today.

 

And then he stands on this bucket for a rest.

Um, this kid has been practicing climbing this poll and can now do it with just his hands and feet!

Not assistance from me and it's like he's climbing a rope!

Look at what was in our garage! It looks like it just molted or became an adult. It's so vivid green! And it stayed there for about 15 minutes, wildly moving it's antennae listening to us! I think the long orange part on it's behind is the egg laying part, so it might be a female. But wow!

Grasshopper Video 1

Grasshopper Video 2 

Grasshopper Video 3

It took a long time for us to settle, but we did our history lesson outside today! Woot! Woot! Abishai even brought out his blankie, book, and pillow.

Now that I did an impromptu clean up session in the garage. I need to tackle this mess next. I just don't like having to climb up to get things. Don't worry, I'll get it sorted sometime later this week.

What?! I had laundry in my hands to put in the washer and Socks was standing by the garage door begging to go for a walk. We've never had a regular walking schedule with him until this month. You certainly can train an older dog, can't you? He loves his time at Grandma's with Keturah and Abishai. Sweet old boy Socks.

Pitiful Socks

Yeah, this happened again today, too. Old boy needs some comfort.

Abishai's Video Game Talking

New spoken Scripture album coming from Michael W. Smith soon.

He wrote, "Who would have thunk it?" Thanks for the bad grammar, Michael W. But, yes, route 66 Drive-In! Maybe near Radiator Springs? Just kidding! But you laughed if you have a 15 yr old that watched the Cars movie over and over and over again and wore out the DVD! Yes, he wore out the DVD.

 Wednesday, again, super busy trying to hustle kids along because they wake up so late so again, I feel rushed. Especially today with a Homeschool 101 to present at 7pm and it will be recorded, eek! My stomach is in knots again. I had to clear my desk of my to do stuff just to open my binder and try to concentrate on the outline. I feel like school was rushed and we are missing some stuff. Part of it is my lack of making copies and preparing. But then I have the blog to write and I need to spend some talking time with Jared, ah! And tomorrow I have another doctor's appointment and need to run errands. And Friday is park day and apple picking (hopefully). Again, ah! Finding time to do all the homeschooling bits I want to do is so hard. I need the quiet space between 4-6pm, too, and the interruptions don't help.

One such interruption was Benaiah stopping by right as we were going to sit down to read history. He brought the truck over to our driveway because he did buy the other vehicle. Well, it's registered in our name and the title will be in our name because it's going on our insurance policy. I think the email said it's less than $400 twice a year, maybe. She'll find out more details tomorrow for me. I had JUST figured out our monthly savings for things like that so this should be interesting. So, for the first time in our married life, we OWN 4 VEHICLES! Say what?! 4! We only had 1 on PEI and now we have 4! It's a good thing they are all older and insurance isn't too bad considering. But still, crazy! Benaiah got a small unsecured loan from the bank plus his cash to pay for the new car. He said he will pay off that small loan before it's due date, which I think he will. We had one of those for a car once, pretty small, easy to manage. Gives him a little credit (although we don't believe you need a high credit score or whatever because you shouldn't be buying on credit). I just hope he doesn't become like my brother and keep going up and getting nicer vehicles with bigger loans. It's not a good habit to have. Sigh. But it's done. Moving on.

Then Keturah has this paper that is due on Friday for Bible class and she's just now bringing to me. Um, I don't have time to really help with it this week. It's crunch time. So I had to say, I already spent a lot of time this morning with her because we had forgotten her Bible study with me and her science was very difficult again. Ugh. I wish I had the brain space to understand this science more and she was interested in it. So for the first time, I'm having her skip parts of it and move onto the parts that I think she'll understand. 

And keeping Abishai out of the way is a full time job, so the TV screen has been on more today than it has other days. It's just one of those days. We'll be out and about on Friday and Saturday, so he'll have less TV time then. Justin was done early, but then he delay fished in his room for 30 minutes. All those little starts and stops add up. I just wanted to get to my presentation tonight. So, I'm typing up the blog because my mind is a better clearer at the moment and then I won't feel so rushed tonight and maybe, just maybe I'll get some of this copying done for school.

Yes, I'm skipping Bible study, which is a bummer, but it sounds like we will be missing several people too. I wish I had more time and clear head space to dig digger into the study. It's one that I don't want to rush, but having a deadline of finishing it every week is so hard. Deadlines are not conducive to people with thinking issues, my brain fog and/or ADD. But what can I do? I'll just keep chugging along and doing what I can with the study, and my other book that is due in 5 days and can't be renewed. I did finish the Read Aloud Family, so that's a great accomplishment. And I am keeping up with Facebook, emails, and phone calls, but just barely. I haven't even recorded every phone call. I feel like I need to "clean up" before tonight's Zoom call. Blech. And it's 4:45 and I need to figure out dinner. Rice with pork, there ya go. I just gave myself 45 minutes before I have to do something. Ok, maybe 30 minutes because Justin needs to eat before he leaves.

 Next up, I'm typing up my list of errands tomorrow, lol. 

Ok, I'm back. Homeschool 101 is done! Well, no one showed up, but we recorded it, someone will edit/fix any audio issues and it will be put up on the library's website. I think I did well. It was easy to keep my eyes up because I was looking at my screen with my slideshow on it and I know the material so well that I don't have to look at my notes much. Yeah! And now it's time to try to get some copying done for these kids to have things to do. That and a little TV time. Here goes.

Definitely need to hear this one often. I know my parents, especially my Dad, kind of lived through us growing up, and I tend to do the same. I have a plan, but then the kids and circumstances and God have other plans. It irks me when I can't execute my plans. Reminds me of the quote from Captain Cold from the Flash in season 3 episode 22: "Make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan." I have that quote above my computer. Perhaps I need this photo above my computer, too.

 

Abishai has deep concerns, doesn't he?

Pinches and waves for Daddy every morning!

I think Jared would agree.

Time to buy the truck back and pass it down to Justin for oh, next year when he gets his license, maybe. Now we own 4 vehicles! And 4 insurance policies! How did that happen?! Yikes!

 

Finally got some dates on the timeline! With very little protest and they did listen to instructions. It's hard to let them even do it because I have a certain idea in mind. But it MUST be THEIR project. I did one on a 20 ft piece of paper down a flight of stairs in my childhood home. It was my pride and joy, that's for sure and I learned a lot!

Phew, another busy day. It's all just we do at home, but I spin in circles trying to get it all done. I feel like we never get enough done because we don't get up early and then we butt up to an appointment or screen time or dinner time. But, we made the best of today, did what we could, put off a couple of assignments I need to adjust, and moved on. We should have spent more time outside again today. Those darn screens! But I had a dental appointment to do a final check on my wisdom teeth removal (perfectly healed!), and some quick errands to run. Let's see, dentist, Goodwill, Chick Fil A to try their new Mocha Cream cold brew (a little bit of coffee and a lot of chocolate syrup but it was great! even if it did give me a wicked bad stomachache)! Then drop off books to a friend, drop off recycling, and pick up library books. It was a little over two hours. But I am kind of in my element when I can bounce between stores, just me, and get a bunch of things crossed off my list at once. And when I do it during screen time, than I don't feel like I've wasted time. So, there's that. We did finish the day by watching the rest of the Last of the Mohicans. Kids were bored. Especially when I started doing a search about the author and how this movie/book fits into the other 4 in that series. But we managed to introduce a classic. Justin read the Deerslayer but couldn't remember what it was about. Well, that just means we need to do more summary pages on books. I have him doing that for a book on the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Anyway, we're getting there, doing a little bit at a time. Like fitting in a piano lesson, reading some vowels and consonants, and smelling stinky bottles of pond water for a science experiment. We had to turn the house fan on because it was so bad! I feel like we could have taken more time with that experiment, but I think we got the point. It's better to get it done, than to wait until we can do it perfectly. Not really my motto, but sometimes, my expectations and "Straight A" personality needs to chill a little. 

Ok, it's getting late. Tomorrow is a fun day! Apple orchard (low expectations of photo ops and even picking apples, so it will be a quick trip, nothing fancy, no big to dos) and regular park day. Then Bible class. Then ??? But we do have a couple of events lined up for the weekend. Legos and horses! Stay tuned!

From the guy who hates selfies.....he does ANYTHING for this kid I tell ya, ANYTHING. Super spoiled baby of the family. Sigh. But how cute is this?!

Abishai is going to be the king of selfies! I mean, he has been taking selfies since he was a few months old, so....

Thank you Facebook, for another Throwback Thursday. Benaiah, 12 yrs old. Wow! 6 years and he's all grown up!

In response to someone posting in a homeschool group her opinion and then others saying the opposite is true....I really don't care either way either. But I double checked with our writing curriculum, and they teach MLA in the course Justin is about to start, and said that it's easy enough to do the bibliography in ABA or whatever. AND I found out that the DVD's for the curriculum won't be in until November. I had gently asked if there was a shipment date and had no idea it had been pushed for two months. So, the person I emailed about the MLA thing said that they have been letting the DVD curriculum buyers use the streaming service instead and shipping the other contents of the kit now because it's ready. Yeah! That's so nice of them! I like having the DVD's so we don't have to rely on wifi and if the website goes down or something like that. Kind of easier to resell with DVD's because you don't want to give you email or code to get into the streaming service to whoever buys it from you. Anyway, sweet deal from IEW! Speaking of them, it's because of them that Keturah wrote this beautiful paragraph for her Grandpa assignment, including decorations and sentence openers. All I had to do was clean it up with some grammar and punctuation editing. But with just a few pointers, she was able to expand on what she had written in her rough draft to the point it reached Grandpa's word count he wanted. I was super impressed! IEW, the premiere aka very expensive writing curriculum that we use, has put my mind at ease and put the art of writing in more of a step by step format that I can follow. Plus, we have Mr. Pudewa teaching the students, and I get to just follow up and edit and all that. Makes my job a lot easier right now. So, I'm very happy with all of that today!

So, Abishai is a genius. He saw this rings that my mom used to attach to the back of her quilted things which made them easier to hang up on a push pin to capture the good guys. The bad guys had knocked them unconscious and then put them in the rings hanging upside down. "So when they wake up, Mom, they shake their heads and go 'what happened? where am I?' "  Oh my! And he asked me for more of the pot holders with the rings so he could put more good guys up. So, we moved a few of the tablecloth holders over and put the pot holders there and voila, an instant prison! I had done that at the end of the table because the tablecloth holder was making scratches in the table because the tablecloth is not long enough. Yeah, I know it's not stylish, but my kids still make a bunch of messes. I guess I could just try using the placements. It would make the table look less busy. It's an old table, not an heirloom, so I really don't have a reason to over protect it. Anyway, what a way to play!

Good guys in cages?

CFA has a new Mocha Cream cold brew, which is basically a little bit of coffee with cream and tons of fake chocolate syrup. It was pretty good! Then I hadn't eaten any protein at lunch so I got grilled chicken nuggets and fries. The lady encouraged me to put it altogether as a kids meal so I did and Abishai got an awesome Oceans sticker book out of it. Yeah! $7 total, after discount, for treating myself after a busy week of hard work.

The End