Year 5, September 28th-October 1st, 2020: Peaceful Rest? Not Quite!

 Mondays are sometimes the worst days. We were all cranky. We did get some rain after something like 40 days of none. It was gentle and it wasn't much, but just enough to make the skies cloud over. That means no one got up until 8:30am. Which means, school didn't start until after 10am. I told the kids that for every minute that they tardy for school, which is supposed to start at 9am, I'm taking off from their screen time. Because just as I figured, Justin threw a fit when 3pm, 4pm came around and he wasn't done with school. Then he came back to me and he still wasn't done. I had them watch "Loving Vincent" instead of doing history and read alouds and piano lessons with me. It's a bit out of our time period, but I found the hand drawn artsy animation astounding. And for once, it was a clean Aidan Turner film. Yikes that guy doesn't mind the gross and raunchy stuff! Anyways, Abishai could only remember that Vincent got shot. Justin talked about the artsy part of it and Keturah shrugged her shoulders. Oh come on! Vincent van Gogh it's a fascinating guy with a chaotic brain, who might have had some mental illness. Yikes! Why do you think he thought the way he did? I don't know. What would you have thought of him if you lived back then? I don't know. What you have bought one of his paintings? No. Anyway, I tried. I loved the movie when I watched it previously. I was intending on taking a nap but was answering a IAHE call and was on the phone with my counselor instead, so I'm really tired.

I had hot flashes this morning and a bit of achiness, so I checked my temp. No temp. No significant cough. Vertigo still there. I finally gave into the Dramimine again. I took my Aleeve and later Ibuprofen for my cramps. No I'm not getting tested for Covid-19 yet. It's just a head cold. I get it every year. And I have too much to do to be quarantined. Perhaps after the concert on Thursday evening. For now, I keep moving forward. I read my Bible study. Abishai was asking me to do his homework first thing this morning so he could move on with his day. He seems to have already picked up on sounding out a couple of letters together. He knows more and more of the sounds without the pictures every day. So, I don't have to work long with him to know he's somehow picking it up. Trusting the process is hard, but I must.  I'm just tired and want more quiet time. Nearly impossible to have, I know. 

One thing I suggested when talking with my counselor is that maybe Jared and I both are realizing the potential Benaiah and Ava have and how we screwed up over the last 20 years. Everything from date night to being financially responsible and having initiative. I wrote done some concerns and thoughts to talk about on our trip. I know we won't get ot all of them, but I want to reflect on where we've been and where we'd want to go, even if he doesn't like vision casting. I need vision casting. I don't do well with this "just life happen" nonsense, so perhaps we can come up with some idea of the future without having it all fleshed out like I really like it. We've got to work on us. Too many people our age have gotten this far and then fallen apart. We can't let that happen. We won't let that happen. We have to be proactive about it, whether he likes it or not. So, I'll hold his hand and pull him along. And he'll be ok with it. Maybe.

It's been a long day of pain and not feeling well and impatience with kids. At least we had a nice beef stew for dinner. I had totally forgotten Jared wanted to be nice and use his gift cards to order dinner in. Whoops! Maybe another night. At least he offered. Now I'm off to start watching the "Hobbit" movie series. I am not looking forward to it because each movie is more than 2 1/2 hrs long. And the actor I'm watching for is a supporting actor. Sigh. 10 1/2 hrs of Hobbit. Let's see how much I can get through. Then I have one more romantic movie of his and I'm up to date. I don't know why I like to do it, but it's kind of interesting to see all of somebody's career like that. I did that with a couple of other actors as well. We'll see what his role in the Hobbit is but I do know he's a bit of comic relief, which is more like his real personality than the dark, brooding characters he plays sometimes. So, we'll see.

Awww, Abishai likes his music that he's had since he was an infant! The music box came from his mobile and singing puppy was originally Benaiah's I think.

Phil Joel from Newsboys talking about how he learned how to work all the gadgets of a homes studio. He's a simple, humble guy and not into all the techie stuff.

Ah, that's better. Is Tuesday now the new Monday? Perhaps. Perhaps I do need to let the kids sleep in on Mondays and cut us some slack. We do typically have Tues-Thurs to do heavier learning. Because I had told the kids they would loose screen time for being late to class, they got up earlier today. So, we were able to get to everything, including piano lessons and history. It still felt rushed, but that's because of Abishai's chaos. We are going to have to either tweak who does screen time when so Abishai doesn't get too much or I just have to give in at this stage and let him have more. He wants to be with us, but he's not quiet. He's very distracting. Perhaps I need to find more ways of engaging with him, or put one kid in charge of him again. Sigh. He did play board games with Justin tonight, so that's good. I just find myself being very frustrated with Abishai and banning him from the room we are in because his playing is too loud. It's something I either have to ignore or do something else with. Justin finds it hard enough to concentrate. Perhaps we should try going over homework in a different room, too. I don't know. As I tell others, I'm always tweaking. 

It was a beautiful day outside and the kids did go outside here and there. Abishai and Keturah walked the block and Justin walked to CVS for snacks, much like Benaiah used to do. He did remember his mask, wallet, and phone. Abishai played in the rain. I did my Bible study sitting in a folding chair in the garage because it was quieter and cooler out there. It helps to keep the garage door partly up so the kids can go in and out easier. I did laundry and tried to listen to my audiobook. Now that I can listen to the audiobook and still play my phone games, it might be a fun thing to do instead of "watching" TV shows. But we'll see. I was thinking of finishing that crosstitch piece as well and listening to the book. I did clean the two ceiling fans, too, but I knocked something loose in the boys' fan so Jared has to fix it. Jared came home early, which was nice. I do get a bit worried when we haven't had much time to say anything to each other because of our back and forth and activities. It's just hard to connect and I worry because some marriages fail at this stage. Almost 20 years together, kids keep us very busy, we are getting older and more tired. We've both changed so much, too. That's why a mini vacation is so helpful. A chance to hit pause, reflect on the past, comment on the now, and dream for the future. Well, I will. Not sure he will. Which isn't a problem if I remember it and don't set my expectations too high, lol. It's worth the money I/we will spend. 

Yup, that's it. It was a better day, but not perfect. Tomorrow hopefully will be similar. I made it through the first Hobbit movie, so I'll try the next one maybe tonight. But now the only thing I'm really watching is that silly actor and what his little lines he says. Good grief! I will never watch these movies the same again! Lol. Oh well.

Only Justin and I eat normal breakfast food at breakfast. Abishai chooses easy to grab snacks. Keturah is random and will eat pre made hamburger patty melt things. Jared skips breakfast. And I think Benaiah does, too. Crazy bunch!

This is why Abishai might have been crazy today. Frozen fruit, chocolate syrup and marshmallows for breakfast.

Yup, you don't move much when you aren't feeling well.

Abisahi zoomed through the kitchen like the Flash and knocked over the top piece of Jared's tea brewer!

I was answering a post on Facebook about handwriting while Abishai was protesting about doing his. He finally did do it because I said he could have screen time afterwards.

I'm trying to be a good girl, but it's hard.

Ah,....cleaned up the fireplace area so Jared has full access to it again. Yeah!

We had a gentle rain come through for about an hour this afternoon. Just enough to water the plants and trees. It sounded wonderful!

Abishai asked if he could go puddle jumping so of course I said yes! Way to go!

He's wearing pj's underneath his coat, lol.

Look, Mom, I used my hands and the rain water to "wash" the bottom of the basketball hoop!

It's too wet and slippery, Mom, so I won't climb up the pole first.

Ok, I'l swing. And he did fine!

Then he tried to hide from the rain under this small tree, lol!

Taking his bike out in the rain just because he can.

I think it felt warmer than that, but I wasn't really outside so it's hard to tell.

This looks fun!

Abishai has a special delivery to make at Grandma's house!

On your mark...

...get set...

....Go! and now I can have some peace and quiet!

Lots of great clouds today and sunshine and blue skies.

Oh hi dog.

I got hot cleaning the ceiling fans so I came outside to cool far. But the dog wanted out and then Abishai wanted to say something, so that was short lived.

Now, Mom, this is the plan....

Finally, someone is playing with Abisahi. Justin won by 6 points.

Today was pretty ordinary. We got going on school just fine. Kids actually pretty much finished by 1:30, so that's a big plus! I just need to remind them and me that some days go longer than others because they are "set up your assignments for the week" days. Abishai said he wanted to get ahead and do 3 lessons so he didn't have to do them the next two days, but when he sat down to them, he barely did one. But, he's already understanding that he has to sound out the letters and blend them, so that's a plus and he's recognizing the letters without the picture cards! It seems like it's so easy and fast with him, yet we are doing very little review. He was chanting "Homer and Hesiod" today, too, from our CC memory work. Another win! But if we could just have him sit still for a few minutes! He seems to be wanting more attention and not playing by himself for as long anymore. It's quite frustrating. Today wasn't too bad though.

I did catch Keturah in a lie though. She was coming in from the garage and I asked her why she was out there because there's not breakfast foods out there. She said, um, I was eating carrots and tomatoes. Well, why didn't you eat the ones in the house fridge? Because I didn't think there were any. And then I looked and nothing had been touched in the garage fridge in the vegetable drawer. I have the extra carrots and tomatoes sitting on top of a large bag of candy in the vegetable drawer and it hadn't moved since I touched it last night. SO, I knew she lied. Justin had bought himself candy at CVS last night and put it in the fridge. I store chocolate in the fridge year round because I don't like trying to unwrap gooey chocolate. But Justin had bought gummy type candy and didn't need do that. So they both were at fault. He left it wide open for her to find and she lied about it. At least she confessed to it faster than she has done before. Sigh.

Both Keturah and Justin did really well on their math and seemed to be doing ok with science and history readings. New homeschoolers seem to always ask, how do you do it all on three different levels? And elearning parents ask or say, "I need my child's teacher to teach. The kids are having to look up everything on their own." And the answer to both questions is that by the time they are in middle school and high school, they should be learning independently at least on some subjects. That's always been my goal: to teach them how to learn so they can learn for themselves. I think I did just mention this on a previous day's entry, so I leave it to that. I don't teach. I guide. I present material and say, "learn it." They read, they study, sometimes we test. We check comprehension. I don't lecture on every subject. I explain and clarify when necessary. They learn through their books. Maybe kids these days don't have any textbooks to learn from since it's all textbooks. I remember in college when it would frustrate me when a professor would just reiterate what was in the textbook. I felt like it was wasted time. But I now know it's because other students didn't do their reading assignments and other students learn better orally. And there many classes that the textbook was just a guide and the professor would go off on a tangent (I loved it!) because they loved their subject or had so much more to add than a silly textbook had. Just don't regurgitate what's in the book. It's redundant. So, our kids can read, pick out information and analyze it a bit. They can make vocab cards, look for main ideas and bold words, and think for themselves. They don't do it perfectly so we go over things. But they know the basic steps and are practicing. Justin's worried about his foreign language credits so he asked what is required to pass the class for credit. Well, I don't care at this point, so whatever you think you need. So, he looked up DuoLingo, which I shared with him before, and he's going to try to learn German on his own. I say go for it. See how far you get. I'll write down that you did it. Right now, we are working on figuring out his brain, so once we are settled on medication dosage and coping skills, then I'll worried about things like foreign language skills or SAT tests. One thing at time.

Anyway, I got my little errands done. Spent too much money. But I got the Christmas shopping started. Then it was time for Bible study. Our loud talking friend came and was loud, but exciting to hear some good things going on in her life. She always contributes in her own way. She just changes the discussion and dynamic of the group and sometimes it's overwhelming but most of the time, it's good to hear her chatter on. But now I'm a little brain dead. My computer is being really slow, despite having enough memory to work on. And tomorrow is the Michael W. Smith concert. I've worked out most of the details, but now have to put together my bag and make sure the van is gassed up. I'm quite nervous because I would like to back in to the parking spot, but I don't know if I can. I'm afraid that it's going to get too cold. I just wish we could have had our normal concert. There's no new date for that one. And Brickworld got postponed again until March 2021. Bummers! At least we have some other fun things coming up in October.

The dermatologist called today and said that yes, we'll start with 2-3 months of steriod injections first, and insurance should cover it. The injections will hopefully flatten it out a bit because it will reduce the inflammation. Then laser to get rid of the redness, and we aren't sure what insurance will cover for that. And yes, plastic surgery is definitely an option, and yes, I would still like to get a consultation and estimate on the bill. I probably won't take it that far right now because I'm worried about my other medical bills and maybe having to have polyp surgery again at some point. So, we'll see. At least the next step is set up on the calendar. And I need to sit down and rearrange appointments that fall on our vacation days. I tried to today but the line was busy and I didn't have time. Oh well. I'm sleepy and I have a Hobbit film to finish. Oh, and when I was out and about today, my inner ears were hurting. I bet I have an ear infection. I'm still going to the doctor yet. I don't have any more signs of  whatever it is that I had.

This kid thinks deeply and accurately. He's also been praying that when he dies, that it's quick. Where is he getting this stuff? Yikes!

Keturah brought out these Addition and Multiplication charts that a friend on PEI gave us (Kerry Dickieson) and Abishai decided to go through the Addition one on his own, saying the right things! One plus one equals two! So if he'll recite them by himself, I'd say go for it! We hung it up in the kitchen so we could show Daddy at dinner time. I'm not going to push it though.

Dog! You're a goof! And he's just as needy as Abishai is, wandering from person to person to find attention.

Doing more practice.

I was picking out dead leaves and then noticed this spider! I'm so glad I didn't ruin it's web or get bit by it! It's just a yellow and black striped garden spider. It's not aggressive, but if it does bite you, it hurts like a hornet sting because it has some venom. Ouch! It's easy to identify especially with those zig zag lines on the web. Abishai asked if the spider had spun letters. Yes, they look like letters! I was confused at first because Abishai has not seen Charlotte's Web and I haven't read it to him yet. And this spider hung out there for hours. We'll see if he's there in the morning. It's 3 or so inches long. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia

Radom Facebook throwback picture. Smaller Benaiah, bigger snow pile. Younger doggy, too. 7 years ago.

Ollie's is a warehouse discount type store that gets random stuff. But it's a dangerous place because they have some awesome books and a ton of toys right now! So I got started on Christmas shopping. I didn't buy this one because we already have it, but yeah!

Concert day! First one in a LONG time! I've gotten so used to having 2-3 concerts a year that it feels likes it's been so long! I didn't know that it was such a part of my routine. Therefore, today was all about getting my home work done so I could go play! Setting up the kids earlier in the week, again, paid off. I had very little teaching to do. I'm giving the kids a day off of math tomorrow because they are both ahead of pace. We have Grandpa Bible lessons and then park day. So why am I typing a blog at 2 am. Because I'm not feeling sleepy. I'm not sure if I would sleep. The adrenaline of getting everything done, and then playing hostess to 4 ladies and one gentleman at a place I've never been was a little nerve wracking. But the kids and I made it through our day together just fine. That's pretty much it for the family. Jared used the Cracker Barrel restaurant card to get to food for the kids (his suggestion, and I agreed). So supper was easy. Not sure if chores got done. But that's ok. Everyone was asleep when I got home so I assume everything went fine.

"Once in a blue moon!" So every 2 1/2 to 3 years it sounds like.

Today's table for Abishai, his choice. What a goof.

Add caption

Some gear I took to the concert but never used. Binoculars and inrared mtion detector Crazy!

Keturah gave herself a project: clean out the weeds along the back pence. She even dragged the trash can to the back yard, too. Hm....She is looking for a hand shake or whatever

The End