The J6 Journey: Year 5, September 7th-10th, 2020: Justin's Birthday Week

It's finally Justin's birthday! Don't we say that every year? Poor guy is the last one out of the six of us! Although I've been calling him 15 yrs old for 3 months already, lol. It just rolls off the tongue to say that the older kids are 3 years apart in age and grade, 12, 15, 18, 7th, 10th, graduated. And bonus baby is in a category all of his own. Of course, he was all in our faces AGAIN at 7am this morning! Good grief! But it was a good day. Jared jumped on some projects, and we got our schoolwork done, plus some extra chores like cleaning up the swimming stuff outside, clipping dog toe nails, piano lessons, email, phone calls, etc. Abishai and Keturah had a long walk to Grandma's house and stayed an extra long time, so I finally got a shower. Justin mowed the lawn again on a lower setting, the setting I prefer. Jared's projects included starting in on the bathroom project, making something for Abishai, and dumping out the pool water. He's going to leave it out in the sun to kill the algae. Then I'm hoping he plans to actually clean it. We'll see. So, a few things got started, but not quite finished. Yeah, that's about it. Abishai sat still a little bit longer today and didn't protest as much for schoolwork. He was able to identify most letters and sounds, which is about half of the alphabet so far. So, my inkling that he's a quick learner is correct. He just doesn't want to do a lot of review. We'll add some new letters tomorrow and trust the process. Less is more. I did get to read a book aloud to him as well. Having a bit of candy as a bribe also helped of course. Keturah needed to pay attention on math, and Justin seemed to need a big of time to adjust to doing school a bit later. We thought it was going to rain, and it was going to be hot, so he needed to mow first. It worked out, but it's not our preference. But despite the late start to the school day, we were done by 3 and 4 pm. Leftovers, again, for supper. We are the best at eating up leftovers and finding ways to round out the meal! Otherwise, yup, I'm heading to watch a TV show because I worked hard today, or at least kept moving. We have some things coming up this week, so we have to stay on top of life. Until tomorrow.

Abishai wanted to make a tower of the Scrabble Apple letter tiles. Then he came up with a game of taking one of the top at a time until we found an "R." Why an "R?" I don't know. But it fell apart a few tiles down.

Teaching Keturah to cook scrambled eggs. Grandma had suggested to warm up the cheesy potatoes in a pan and add eggs to them and mix it altogether. Sounds yummy!

It only took three years! THREE YEARS! Good grief! It was a big hole because we had down some rewiring. So, at least the first step is sort of done. I think he needs to go back and add more and then sand, but one step at a time.

Bwahahahaha! Found this one on Instagram and sent it to Jared. I'm the child's teacher and he's the parent. Hm,....how does that work with homeschooling? Well, yes, we need POSITIVITY in this house big time, so, DO it!

Oh my, another "full" day trying to get it all done. Justin had a follow up appointment for his ADD, so that threw us off. We managed to keep on trucking and caught up to normal time, but it felt like a whirlwind. Abishai was a bit more ready to do some schoolwork, so that was a good thing! Keturah was sassy pants. Abishai and Keturah took their walk super early so they could be back in time before we left. Well, they weren't, so I left the back door unlocked for them. I think they got home 10 minutes later. We weren't too long at the doctor's and came straight home. And yes, we got Justin's medication increased by 50%. And I remember to put a nice pot roast in the crockpot today, woot! Woot! That saved my rear when I was on a phone call at 5pm, finally calling someone back after they called me at 9:30 this morning. Sigh. Let's see, what else. Jared had Bible study, Justin finished the front lawn from yesterday, someone came to get the Thomas the Tank Engine toddler bed, and I had an IAHE rep call. Loads of info on that call. But, we's all good over here. Ok, I'm having sinus issues galore. I'm watching for other symptoms to turn up or change. The ragweed pollen is really high this year. But I can feel fluid draining out of my ear tubes back into my throat or wherever. Yeah, so fun!

Got sidetracked, again....uh, one funny for the day, I told Justin I was done with my video meeting when he was hovering over me at my desk and said he could open the windows, with me clearly looking up at the windows between me and our dinning room. The sunroom was added on to the exterior of the house, but the original windows were left in place. We can close them and it makes all the difference when someone is trying to do something on my laptop, because my desk sits right below the windows. It's pretty unique but we don't think twice about it. I can sit at my desk and hear pretty much to either end of the house, no problem. And the kids and Jared will come right up to my window to ask a question like it was a drive thru window or at a doctor's receptionist's desk. I wonder what people think when they come to my house for the first time? It's unique but it works! I love it, and wouldn't change it. I like the separate rooms, more wall space! Anyway, well, he didn't open up THOSE windows, but rather the ones behind me that open to the real outdoors. Um, it's 80 degrees outside and the a/c is on. Why would I tell you to open the outside windows? When do I ever tell you do that? It's usually Jared and I that do that when we decide to open them at night. Which, and I need to tell Jared this, we are not going to do until ragweed season is over. I don't care if we can lower our electric bill, my sinuses hurt. Nope, nada, not until the first frost. Mama needs to breathe!

Ok, ok, 10 pm, and I don't feel like I've written anything coherently. I'm tired. I need to rest my brain. I haven't too overwhelmed with school yet. I feel like I've been pretty patient, but these days with appointments can be a bit harder to keep under wraps. The kids don't like school to go on for too long either. And I have a few more things coming up this month. Just gotta hang on. Oh, and I did realize that a) I still get our passports done although we have more than a year for our trip and 2) Now the trip to Israel doesn't seem real. I'm not even counting down. I don't know if I'm even excited. If we were still going, I would be in panic mode, even if the Covid-19 didn't make things precarious. I'd be figuring out what to take, my special foods, meds, clothing. I'd be worried about flights and exhaustion. All the things. And I'm kind of grateful that it's been postponed and I don't have to worry about it until next summer. I've got my clothing and shoes. Next summer I won't have all the craziness of Benaiah's graduation. So, it's a big relief. But now I'm scared how I will feel next year and I have plenty of more time to worry! I can't win! But first things first, worrying about getting back to church in one piece.

Oh, we did get a heads up on how/where the older kids will be for Middle School worship, Middle School small groups, and High School Crave. All do able. Annoying, because they will be a lot less mingling between genders and ages. Which, grrr, is one reason we homeschool so we CAN mingle and get used to being with people of different ages. You need older kids to look up to and you need younger kids to mentor. And separating them out for small groups is one thing but not being together during worship time, is another. Hallways conversations is just as important as any other conversation. I think that's what's making me mad about regular church, too, when they are making it harder for us to loiter around in groups. But that's the whole point of fellowship! That's what makes online church and in person church different experiences. I don't care if I'm singing with a big group of people or not. It's the in between services that matter. And that our kids are in Sunday School. I get more out of music videos and YouTube talks sometimes than the local church's sermon and online worship experience. I love loud music, but I enjoy just being by myself and focusing in on my own feelings and feeling encouraged. But it's the interactions with people and you can't do that with masks and streamlined procedures and all this separation. Anyway, I'll be nervous on Sunday because I'll be worried about a) sticking to the rules because I'm a rule follower and b) what if Abishai can't get into Sunday School? Then we might as well just come home because I cannot worship with him around. His wiggles embarrass me. And resorting to screen time is not what I want either. And he NEEDS an hour with his peers. When you see his shining face from morning to night and he's all over you and saying, "I just wuv you!" a million and one times, (ok that's cute) but he's jabbing you in the face with his pointy elbows and knees? And every time you have an online meeting he wants to poke his head in so he can talk to anyone who will listen? And he's super sad when you have another "meeting" online or in person? This kid needs more people time. But we have to get to church, sign ourselves in from the parking lot, get our tag and just hope we are at the door of KP first. I think they are going to realize that they will need more classrooms. You can't go from 30 kids per class, which is 1 grade worth, to a combined class of 2 grades with only 16 or 18 kids in it. That's not enough. We are a family heavy church and families have been waiting for Sunday School to open in order to come back. So, we'll see. But I think they underestimated it. And so, I worry. And fret. And will probably cry for many reasons on Sunday. The big kids are fine. And I'm not worried about the virus. But I'm worried about how things are different. And it will put me back to 4 yrs ago, coming back to a church that I didn't really know anymore. But, that's still a few days away.

Tomorrow is my clumsy, head in the clouds, common sense ignorant, nervous, gangly, peace loving, boy after my own heart, Justin's birthday. The doctor showed me his height/weight chart and I had to laugh and tell him again that being in the 50% for weight is a drastic improvement from when he was a few months old and falling off the bottom of the chart. This kid has never been overweight by one ounce in his whole life. He "lost" two lbs in a month. But he's been mowing. And maybe not eating as much because he's doing school work. I don't know. He's still eating a good solid lunch. He just doesn't snack as much as the others do. He's a whopping 122 lbs. Yeah, that's what I should weigh. His blood pressure was slightly elevated again, so they took it manually at the end of the visit and it was fine. I think their blood pressure machines are way off because it's happening pretty frequently with us. We will do a video call for our next follow up in a month. We'll pick up the new dosage of medication on Friday. But yes, finally, 15, the last birthday in our family of 6 for the year. The last kid to bring up the rear when we are hiking. The last one to argue. The forgotten one. The one who already has had the ladies have crushes on. The geeky one that anyone can talk to. Our Justin. Whose "anger" outburts are barely even there compared to the other three. Anyway, 15 years ago, we thought we could have a baby at any time. But, after Grandma took Benaiah home to her house, they sent us home, too. We finally went back at 5:30am and they kept us, but I was only dilated at a 2 or 3cm. Justin wasn't born until 2:44pm. He took his sweet time like everything else he does in life. And now we know why. I was explaining to a mom something about Justin getting help with speech when he was 2 1/2. Well, now I know it was ADD. He was so caught up in the world around him that he forgot to even try to talk. He enjoyed the one on one playtime with the therapist. I enjoyed the 30-60 minutes of being toddler free for a little bit. It all worked out. No harm done. Now you can't shut him up though, lol. Especially if he's talking about one his favorite subjects. Today, even, he just starts talking randomly about something in his video game like we had been talking about it for 10 minutes already. Ok, maybe you were thinking about it for 10 minutes, but I wasn't. That's Just Justin!

Here we go! The rules for the older kids. Not sure of all the ins and outs but at least they get to see some of their friends again.

Abishai wanted to turn all the letters right side up and look for the A's and B's, so I let him. I didn't suggest it. He was disappointed when there was more A's than B's because he doesn't realize yet that A's are used more in words than B's.

Justin made a pattern with the Jenga blocks during read aloud time. He said he saw something like this before. Yup, it's a popular pattern.

Saying good by to the Thomas bed. Sigh. It's gone. Time to move on. A 2 yr old who needed it will enjoy it more.

Sign of the time. These kids aren't getting enough food because they aren't at the school building to receive the free lunch program. I have mixed feelings about this. But I am reminded of how we collected food donations for kids in Canada who didn't bring a lunch. Everyone packed their own lunches up there. There was no hot lunch.

I got me a sign. I hung it in the kitchen for now. It matches the red in the main bathroom though. I agree with everything but the football part. Jared joked about turning the t in football to s and foosball.

Saying goodbye to Thomas. It was a whole production. But he wanted to meet the little boy who was getting it. Unfortunately, he didn't come with his grandma or mom. But it helps to know that some needy person got it rather than trying to sell it to some cheap person.

"But you'll get me another one, right?" - Abishai

Happy birthday, to ya, Happy birthday to ya, happy birthday! Yippee! It's Justin's 15th birthday! Abishai and I woke him up with the birthday song (Stevie Wonder?) that everyone likes to use on Instagram and that I get stuck in my head. We all took our time to get up, but finally got going. Abishai refused to do school in the morning, but he managed to do some right after lunch. He and I sorted and put away all the toys in the sunroom. He wanted to switch toys out in the shed, but I didn't have time to pack the inside boxes correctly, so that will have to wait until another day. I'm just happy to walk through my sunroom again without tripping and making sure the rug is vacuumed well. Read aloud time was interesting. Keturah was doing her puzzle so I read to her in the living room. Abishai was all over the place, on the couch, on the floor, wanting me to build him a fort on the couch. Sigh. He's a tough one to handle some days. Both of them wanted sugar all day. I said we can't have the cookies (and later the cupcakes) until we celebrate Justin. Abishai then said, "But I already celebrated Justin! I sang Happy Birthday to him this morning!" He's not wrong, lol! I ended up giving them cupcakes soon after Jared got home at 5:05. Justin had to be at the soccer fields for small group at 5:30, so it was quick birthday hi and bye.

I think I've made it a habit now that I'll run out quickly on Wednesday afternoons between 3-4pm to go to the library, drop off recycling, and pick up anything we need at Kroger. Maybe get gas. Maybe visit CVS or the Dollar Store or dry cleaning. It's a bummer that I can do the library run before I drop Justin off at small group but they close now at 6 instead of 8. So today, I made my run and purchased 2 dozen cupcakes. Yup. I'm that mom now. I bought a balloon last minute, too. $18 for 2 dozen cupcakes. Ouch. Oh well, I found a few other goodies for me, too. Justin's small group was meeting at the soccer fields behind the high school because most of his small group guys are on the soccer team and they had a game tonight. So, those friends would have missed small group anyways. And then they hung out for a bit afterwards and ate the cupcakes that we brought. So, it wasn't the usual planned birthday thing we usually do, but it was a fun evening for him and his friends, yeah! I asked Justin if he felt celebrated, and he said yes. Jared picked him up from the soccer game because I had Bible study and they stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's so they could sing to him. My sister sent along a video. Aaron and Shauna just called, too. Yeah! Oh, and I gave him his fancy pop up card of the Millienium Falcon. Hehehe. Fun times!

Bible study was fine. I thought it was going to be super hot, but it actually cooled off pretty quickly. I didn't turn my flashlight at first on the walk home, but after almost being hit twice, I put it on. It was dusk and getting dark. We don't have streetlights in our neighborhood. But anyway, that's it. I took Benaiah off of our medicaid, paid the Indiana quarterly income tax bill, kept email cleaned up, got through the kids' schoolwork, and I'm now exhausted. We didn't do art. I don't know if we'll get to science experiments tomorrow because I have another appointment. We might do both on Saturday. Unless Grandpa needs his lawn mowed again. It's supposed to be a bit cooler on Friday, which is good because park day is now in the afternoons. Oh, and my allergies were a tad better today and I made sure to let Jared know NOT to open the windows. But I did hear of a friend's kid who is at college getting pretty sick, with a high fever, on Monday and having to quarantine in a special building they designated for just that purpose before the school year started. So, that's fun, not! Sigh. And Jared's been asked to help out in nursery, so we probably won't be sitting together for our first service back in the building unless we go at the 9am and you all know how I don't like that. So, we'll see. I need to have more grace and patience with it, I know. I'll get there.

But, it was a good birthday day for Justin. And that's all that matters. Yes he did schoolwork. He didn't seem to mind.

I've had this card since April when I bought all the other pop up cards, lol. Poor Justin, always the last one.

Yup! I think about it a lot actually. And if I can, I'll look around a venue on the maps app to see where the parking might be, and I do zoom in as close as I can. It just helps, especially if there's several options and the particular garage I thought I was going to is full or something.

When Abishai moved back into the boys' room, Justin had to move back to the fireside room to do his late night hang out time. Well, he spends that time talking to friends and I couldn't type up the blog when he was talking, so he ended up in the garage. Now, a month later, he automatically goes to the garage when I told him he could try being in the fireside room again. Is it weird? Sure. But he doesn't care. And now Socks joins him. It's hot out there, so Justin brings a fan. Crazy kid!

Ragweed season! I usually don't care about dirt on my car, but there's so much of it everywhere, that I seriously am thinking about going somewhere to get a car wash. Ew!

My personal treats from the grocery store. I just strolled down the cookie aisle hoping to find gluten free nutter butters or maple cream cookies but only found these. I'll be eating them very slowly because man, these things cost $5 each and they are half the size of normal cookie packages. And pita bread! We'll see how that goes!

He was starving so he ate his whole cupcake before dinner. Um, he doesn't usually like cupcakes so I guess he was really, really hungry!

The Millenium Falcon pop up card.

Justin's small group! Will Hopson is on the far left, Justin got to wear one of Ron's special party hats, Ron is in the middle with his son Max, and Conner on the far right is also a leader and is getting married soon. I'm telling ya, Justin is the short one of the bunch. But again, a lot of these kids are already 16 yrs old because we pushed Justin forward instead of holding him back. The normal cut off for school is August 1st. So, Justin could easily be in 9th grade instead of 10th grade. But come on, those leaders?! They are awesome! Franklin Central lost their game, 0-4, but at least they got to see the boys play and have cupcakes. It's funny how Justin's got a red Canada shirt on in a sea of Franklin Central Flashes blue. Lol.They also tried to sing to him on the PA system. I think he definitely felt loved today.

Oh me oh my. I'm so tired! Man by this time every week, I'm running on empty. Maybe I should try going to bed earlier. I'm just not used to running "full" days of activity. I don't feel like I'm pushing too hard but I still can't sit and rest for long or it won't get done. Today I was ready to dig in and do Abishai's schoolwork right away, but he wanted to play first. But then I got a "new homeschool" call for the IAHE and decided to accept it. Well, this mom was very frustrated with the school and how they have handled elearning and her daughters disabilities. We talked for nearly an hour! I wasn't expecting that. But, that's my job. So, we'll see what comes of it. I sent her a long list of links to the IAHE website and all that. I'm so glad I don't have to wait for someone to write down all this information. It's just click and drop all the website links that do the talking for me in a clear and concise manner. And then it was lunch time, so we ate in early lunch. Abishai wanted to keep playing, so I just read to him from the living room chair. I wasn't sure if he was catching a lot of it because he was making up his own story with his toys, but I would stop and explain a word or two to break up the monotony of reading aloud. And then he would stop me and ask a question like, "Why did he get whacked?" Benjamin Franklin was getting whacked by his older brother because Benjamin was writing into the newspaper under a different name that his brother was printing and everyone liked. So maybe, just maybe Abishai caught a bit of what I was reading. He'll reread this particular book when he's older because it's from a series of books I really, really love. I just acquired the Benjamin Franklin one during out last round on this topic, but I have a few of the series from my childhood. The older kids have reread it, but it talks a lot about him in a simpler easier to remember way that they both agreed to go ahead and reread it. You don't always have to read something on your current reading level in order to enjoy it and get something from it. Justin's also trying to read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and that IS difficult. But Justin also forgot to take his medication this morning, so, it wasn't his best day.

Well, they all got their work done and checked before I had to leave for my dermatologist appointment, which was good. I wasn't sure if we'd get it all done. But this is why I spend a lot of time on Monday introducing lessons or doing my part of a lesson that has assignments for them the rest of the week. It makes the end of our week feel a lot less stressful. And same goes for just digging in harder on our home days so we don't feel so rushed when we have busier days. Dermatologist went fine. No new spots. I need to use more lotion for my itchy spots. (But winter is coming so I'll be able to cover those up better and not pick at them.) And we both agreed that my scar looks awful. I can tell she feels really bad about it. I told her I'm not usually vain and I don't hide it, but it's not pretty and I don't like it. She's going to check in with the other doctors and providers to see if we can come up with some not so expensive treatments that are covered by insurance. Some options are using a laser to lessen the redness (think how they use lasers on varicose veins and such), steroids to calm the whole area down and maybe flatten it (I think), and yes, something like opening it back up a little bit and cleaning it up and/or plastic surgery would be an option if insurance covered it. So, I was right when I was thinking that even plastic surgery to make it look better could be on the table of options. I just knew from looking at scars of other people on the internet that my scar wasn't looking that great. Again, I've been wearing tank tops and such. It's just a scar. It's part of me. And I don't think much about it when I'm wearing a tank top, but I'm sure it might look disturbing to others. It does still itch and it does still hurt a bit if you press on it. So, we'll see what she comes up. I'm game for anything. I faithfully used my essential oils on it. I used the topical steroid cream for two months with little to no results. So, we'll see.

After a spaghetti supper, the kids took their walk with the dog (they couldn't go earlier because Grandma wasn't home) and Jared and I did 1 1/2 loops around the block. Jared hasn't wanted to walk because his sciatica flared up. Well, we did and we had a great conversation just the two of us. Very romantic. Sigh. It's been a long day. I'm very distracted. I'm off to finish up. Tomorrow is a full day, too .Saturday we rest. And Sunday, well, we have to get up early if we want to attend church together, so we'll see.