Year 5, October 12th-15th, 2020: The Quiet One

 I think this week is the quietest week we've had since school started. Yippee! And we all need it! We had a blast of a weekend, but now it's back to work. It was a beautiful day outside until the wind drastically picked up and the rain fell hard around 5pm. Whoosh! It's a good thing I went with my instincts, grabbed my big camera, and walked the neighborhood pretending to be a nature photographer capturing as many as the beautiful trees at different angles that I could. I might have looked silly, but I didn't care. We had a gorgeous year for fall colors and I knew that after this storm tonight, we are going to lose a lot of it. I had wanted to do it Sunday, but missed our when we stayed longer at Mahurins. I wanted blue skies with the leaves, and I did get some, but not all like that. I had to keep messing around with the aperature because o the shadows and the way the sun was behind the trees. I had a blast, got a walk in, and annoyed my kids who were trying to finish their schoolwork. The shoes I wore don't have much arch support which is a bummer because they are easy to slip on sneakers. So my feet were hurting by the time I got back. I was also very tired and almost feel asleep waiting for my counseling appointment, which, wasn't today but IS on Wednesday, duh! So, I whined about going to the grocery store saying we could wait a few more days except for a handful of things. Jared decided to step in then, and without me asking him to, he took Abishai and went to pick up the few items. I love how we've gone together so much to the grocery store that he knows exactly what we get. He even got a pizza for an easy meal this week. It was extremely helpful because I need to spend time with Keturah and Justin on one of our history projects. So we divided and conquered! We got a ton done on the project, it was quiet without Abishai, and we have milk and veggies in the house again! Woot! Woot! So, it was a great Monday! Oh and we even squeezed piano lessons in! Now we can hunker down until Thursday. I need to do my Bible study, but that's about it for tonight. Oh, and figure out some money things. We played with bubbles in the truck bed and watched Peter Park, aka, the garden spider, capture and eat another hornet. Yes, I named "him." Life is too short to be serious all the time. So Peter Parker after Spider-man. We'll see if he survives the storm. And the cooler weather coming soon. He's a pretty spider, that's for sure, even if his bite would sting. Abishai keeps checking on him, too. We love our neighborhood animals!

Here's the album on FB of all the fall colours I took that day:

Fall Colours 2020 

True. His motor never stops!

Another day, another zig zag web waiting for Peter Park's next meal. Watching nature unfold is fascinating!

The Flylady would be pleased! I shined my sinks today! Actually, I just took a magic eraser sponge and cleaned off all the tea and coffee stains. Yuck!

This is how we do school, eh? Doggie doesn't belong up there and someone needs to put her daytime clothes on.

After my walk where I got over 120 photos of the gorgeous neighborhood trees, it got really windy and then boom, all the rain fell hard for about 20 minutes.

We had two quick bands of rain come through. We have received less than 0.10 inch of rain every day for 55 days. That's pitiful. Everything is really dry. And that's why the leaves have come on so quickly all at once. Typically the rainstorms in between blow some down so you don't get them all at one time.

"Lok, Mom, I made my own Hot Wheels city!" There ya go kid! What an imagination!

And the city includes a racetrack and I think either a drive in movie theater or a car show or a monster truck rally.

 Tuesday was more of the same. Good school day. Kids got out for a walk. I listened to my book for an hour. I had an IAHE team call with lots of great information and cautions. Team training is coming up and getting excited! I wish we could meet every month like that. I have a somewhat cleaned off desk. I figured out what books the kids need to read next. Steady on, everyone, steady on. Oh, and Abishai could rattle off 5+5=10 and read a word entirely by himself and wrote his handwriting while laying down the coffee table (it wasn't very good, so no more of that). He also singled handedly knows how to be Darth Vader and beat all the good guys. I printed off some sheet music after subscribing again to sheet music service. I need to stop making those $20-30 purchases. I received a preordered CD in the mail today ($15) and a preoredered diet plan/recipe book ($20) and I ordered 3 piano books for Keturah ($25) and a Christmas book for Justin ($10) all within 24 hrs. Yeah, I'm the budget's worst nightmare and I don't even need to step out of the house. Ugh. Anyway, there's that. 

Gorgeous weather, so going to ditch the screens tomorrow.

Jared captured the fog and mist coming up from the retention pond at church.

Jared also retweeted this beautiful microscopic video of how a bubble freezes and explodes. A tiny bubble. Intelligent design makes sense.

Abishai came up with this idea with his blocks. He used the smaller pieces at connectors to make homes for the people in the Matchlock Gun book. Smart!

Abishai leaned the umbrella on Socks and it looks like Socks left paw is holding it!

Came across my Instagram feed today....From the first episode of Poldark when he was fighting in the American Revolution as a British soldier, got wounded and got sent home, where he finds his first love engaged to his cousin. I love watching the wound fade over the 5 seasons thanks to the makeup team. Anyway, Redcoats. Seems appropriate.

Finally received my copy! I live two states away. I was told it would arrive on release day. That was Friday. Sigh. Thankfully the other major Indiana fan got his today, too. Plus the bonus CD for being the first 500 to preorder it. It was a quick 1 week preorder though because it was a quick release as well, maybe under 2-3 months.

My view as I listened to my Poldark book (still working on it). I got about an hour done on it today.

Keturah is working on debarking this stick. Little by little.

Oh and I guess Benaiah had to deal with a kid not showing up to work, saying he wanted to take his birthday week off, and then the kid cussed him out and threatened to harm Benaiah (and crew). The kid was instantly fired over the phone. It didn't prevent Benaiah buying pepper spray just in case. I'm surprised Benaiah hasn't dealt with more people like this in his 2 1/2 yrs. I guess that means that CFA hires quality people. Benaiah is also earning $15 an hour now! Jared remembers his first job when we were married was $8 an hour. Benaiah makes way more than we did, and way more than just the rise in cost of living, too. That's why he can't leave there anytime soon. He's put in the work hours and effort and has been well rewarded for it. He needs to stay as long as he can. Proud of him! Another reason to stay in this area and go to school so he doesn't have to look for another job and start over.

Wednesday. Ah, I got everybody to spend lots of time outside today. No sitting on their behinds reading books either. A little bit of walking, a little bit of playing in the dirt, some swinging, some soccer. But yes, I did some read louds outside, too. I just wanted to keep reading and reading. And Bible study was also outside. And I opened the windows. So I feel like I've breathed fresh air for most of the day. We got all our work done and the kids were "bored" but I made them wait until 4:30 to watch a history DVD and then they had their personal screen time after supper. Supper was corned moose. Yes, corned beef seasonings with a piece of moose meat. It was a little dry despite being in the crock pot with lots of water, but still edible all the same. Bible study was great, too, although I forgot my book. It's a good thing I had done some good reviewing of it a couple of hours beforehand. But all that fresh air is tiring! Time for an early night. Especially after having a couple of late nights which gave me a wicked headache the last two days and a huffy husband because he claims he can't fall back asleep well when I slipped into bed a couple of hours after he does. Well, it's not like I can sleep in after his alarm goes off. We haven't been in sync with bedtimes for 10 years or more, probably a lot longer. I can't remember when we ever went to bed at exactly the same time on a consistent basis. Anyway, just the many little fights we have. So I was huffy about the diet thing, he was huffy about the bedtimes, so back and forth the images of tigers went in the text messages today. Great stuff to talk about for next week.

Oh, I had counseling, too, which, yes, I really need to cut off, but it's just nice to tell someone all these things all the time. Jared walked in at the tail end and didn't like that it was more of a gossip session than a therapy session. Like he knows that much about therapy. Good grief, what do you think is talked about? I hope next week goes better than I expect because I don't want to have built it up in my head only to be disappointed. Speaking of, I need to spend some time on that tomorrow. Planning and such. Packing lists for everyone. Duh! I don't have time to sit around and listen to an audiobook. I need to figure out when to go to the grocery store for real or what to take for the few days and what the kids need (because they don't have long enough pants). Uh-oh, time to get overwhelmed I'm afraid. Great. I should have enough time if I chip away at it often. Time to go make a plan. It's a good thing that we have very few things to do out of the house in the next few days, on purpose, because next week is all out of the house.

Hey, Peter, what's or breakfast? Looks like a decapitated insect of some kind.

Look, Mom, what I can do!

You can't just engage your brother in a soccer game like a normal kid, can you? Instead, Justin is walking around the perimeter of the backyard to get his steps in. Kids these days!

This one isn't even using her legs! She did go for their short walk today (they never actually go around the whole block come to find out). She was like this during read aloud time, too.

This one doesn't stop. "Mommy, come play soccer with me!" "Mommy, push me on the swing!" "Mommy, come play in the sand with me!"

He was practicing "pumping" his legs back and forth. And I realized, he's not such a baby in the swing anymore!

Growing our own version of dried cornstalks are we? Lol. Is this ragweed? I have no idea.

The paper is actually brown, but ok fine. I picked up some samples of leaves in our own backyard today. Because Jared has planted a variety of them, this is what we have. Maybe a silver maple, a hub oak, and I don't know about the third.

The one on the left is the "ragweed, then I dont' know, then another silver maple? And the bottom one is a fern or low to the ground growing bush Jared planted.

Hey, Mom, take a picture of this! His hand looks so big!

Playing in the "sandbox" aka the hole the dog dug in the corner of the house. We have to be careful not to dig too carefully though! That's the foundation!

Take a picture of this one, too, Mom!

And this big rock so we can remember it (I think I have this boy trained!)

And another one.

Neither he nor the gluestick lasted. I ended up doing it myself with tape. That's ok. I love these things!

When you leave your roof open at your friend's house on Sunday under their coniferous tree and then don't drive your vehicle until Wednesday, you totally forget about all the needles that needed to be cleaned up. Whoops! I guess I have a project for any kid that backtalks me tomorrow! Or, I'll do it an listen to my audiobook at the same time. Lol.

Thursday was as normal as the rest of the week, although I think the kids are getting a little stir crazy. They haven't left the house since Sunday, except for their walks to Grandma's house. I had to take away some screen time from Abishai because he just wouldn't obey and he was purposefully getting in the way of other lessons. Sigh. In fact, when I was doing some flashcards, he was on his stomach, on the coffee table. He would say what was on the flashcard, and then spin on his stomach like he was a hip hop dancer. He said he was cold and needed a blanket. He thought it was too hard to hold his pencil for one minute without dropping it in between every stroke of a letter. Oh boy, my patience wears thin some days with this one. Somedays I even think about medication for him because he's just a lot. I need to learn more about the high energy (possibly ADHD) kids and how to handle them with my own moodiness and needs. He would never last in a classroom, ever. Not at this age. So, when Grandpa is trying to figure out a new plan for fall break week because it's too cold up north, I'm like, "I don't care where you take them, but please keep the three kids at your house out of my house for all the days you were going to be gone because I have plans and I don't want Abishai in my face first thing in the morning. I need to sleep in and enjoy my bed if you know what I mean." And now I'm stuck with finding things for them to do. Um, no. You made the plans, you do the research, just keep them out of my hair for 5 days and 4 nights please and thanks. This is my time away with my husband. No kids.  And when you switch plans 4 days before the trip, don't expect to get great deals. Not going to happen. Good luck. 

Anyway, I finished up the American Revolution history timeline for the most part and helped them finish up their Colonial project. I won't do school with Abishai tomorrow because we've put in 4 great days already and we have Bible class and park day tomorrow. I wanted to watch "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson with the kids but they were occupied elsewhere and I forgot it was rated R for violence. Bummers! I haven't seen it in like 20 yrs so I don't even know which parts to avoid. But, we got through more books and other DVD's this week and I have a bagful to take back to the library. Now if I could get my head on straight on what I need to do for us this weekend and next week for food and such. I need more sleep, too. 

Oh, we did some science experiments with yeast today. And Abishai wanted to learn piano, so I finally gave in and tried. And once again, I don't have the patience to let him figure it out, so I just show him. Not the best of course. Yup, I need to write the blog right before or after supper because I'm brain dead by 10 pm. I need more sleep so I can think right.

The things you have to allow in order to do a read aloud. Abishai is on the coffee table pretending to be cold and sleepy. Whatever it takes! As long as you're listening!

We put sugar, flour and salt in a bag with some active yeast and warm water to see it produce carbon dioxide and fill up the bag with air. Only the sugar caused a reaction and gas to be trapped in the bag. I don't think the water was warm enough. We checked on them several times, too.

Justin had to do a normal reaction with sugar and yeast and warm water and then review what was going on under a microscpe, including using some blue dye. I know that we probably should be using a better telescope. I just don't want to make the effort to find one. They experiments are explained enough in the end as to what was supposed to happen and what you  were supposed to see. I just want them to have a bit of an experience. And we did see the bubbles get big and then stop when the fermentation was done.

Lots of bubbles and yeasty alcohol smell.

After the mixture had been on the slide for awhile we could see the bubbles with the naked eye.

Abishai pulled out the box of balls and used the step stool to jump in. Then he wanted to bury Dinosaury in the box, so he got his smaller boxes to fill up with balls and then poor them on Dinosaury. He didn't think to create a hole in the middle of the bucket and stick Dinosaury into it, but oh well.

The bag of sugar and yeast had the most carbon dioxide gas in it and was a bit bulging.

I added some hot water thinking it would help things react more but it didn't with the salt or the flour mixtures.

End of a cloudy, rainy day. Cold, too, 45 degrees right now. But we made the kids get out and bounce on the trampoline for a bit after supper.

And lastly, today, I went to fetch a pot to boil some water to make poached eggs, and was totally thinking of something else. Instead of going to the cupboard, I went to the pantry and scooped up food for the dog's bowl and had dumped it in his bowl before I realized that was NOT what I was doing next! Whoops! I had thought about feeding the dog 10 minutes prior to that though. We call those moments "Justin" moments because well, it's an ADD type of moment and it's something he would do. We probably tease the poor kid too much. But it's nice when I can show him I have those moments, too.

The End