Year 5, November 9th-12th, 2020: A Whole Week At Home!

 Wow! I whole week at home! Until I had this or that thing there, but you know. At least we have more time to hit the history books HARD and we did today! Actually, thankfully, I realized we had gone through a lot more of the American Revolutionary material than I thought. I'm still reading a book that takes us through the stories all around the world during that time period, and there's smaller books to read, but we need to move on to doing the Consitution and American Government because I want to cram that in before Christmas. I don't know what all is covered in a high school American Government class, but I'm thinking basic structure of government. We've been covering all the other parts of where did it come from over the years, so that's not what I'm focusing in on this month. We are instead picking apart the Constitution. I'm still counting it all as a regular class though with credits because when you integrate the subjects, there is no such thing as separate classes. We cover all the material eventually, just not in a pretty little box like schools make it out to be. Nope. Life is messy. So, I'm happy to say that I got that figured out today.

I also spent 2 hrs getting my phone to update via connecting to iTunes on my computer only to find out it's using so much battery power that it's overheating the phone again. I really don't want to go back to an older update, but whatever. Not even sure if I can. I did make my town phone calls today. And I got outside with Abishai. And we got the basics done for school. The kids all had showers/baths. Justin mowed Grandpa's yard. Abishai was so filthy from being outside it was hilarious. Barefooted farmer boy's toes still didn't get clean even after a good scrubbing in the bathtub. I managed to pull together a yummy super of chicken and parmeson cheese yellow squash and white and sweet potatoes. 

The day didn't start well for me and I was in such a mood. I did do my Bible study first thing while I waited for my phone to work. I wrote it all out in a single document from my various platforms and I have shared it with Jared. That's all I'm going to say. It revolves around pride and jealousy and self worth. Sigh.

Now THAT is a great tweet and tribute!

How can those outside the United States know more than we do inside the United States? Worth reading all his comments.

The clouds started to roll in today, a weather change is coming.

"Let's play tennis, Mom!" Except his balls were way outside the range and mine were in and he said I didn't get a point. Good throw though!

Abishai found this leaf that was "blue" on one side, but actually it was the green that was still poking through. You don't always see a good mixture of the green and yellow like this.

The Canadian singing his Prince Edward Island song. "Bud the Spud" is something that he and Keturah have been listening to for a few days now and they can sing the whole song!

Dirty, dirty, feet!

Baby girl a long time ago at Garfield Park. With her favorite Olivia the Pig t-shirt on. And bare toes as well.

I can sort of cook. Lemon pepper chicken, roasted squash for me, frozen veggies for the others, and baked potatoes/sweet potatoes.

Sigh, sometimes I take on too much. And then I don't explain things well to the kids. And then it all backfires and I'm so mad and frustrated at myself. And then I notice I've forgotten to take a couple of set of supplements and prescriptions. Well, duh, that explains some of my issues. Not all. It was one dose of each one. Hormones aren't even playing a factor yet. What's my deal? Holy Spirit conviction? Anxiety from last week and the election although I have ignored it for the most part? I don't know. But I do know that I wasted an hour of my time, and two of my "big wigs" in IAHE's time today when we listened in on a Zoom meeting. I specifically said that we other volunteers should be the ones to take a peek at this but, like the dutiful big wigs they are, they showed up and made me nervous. It was a waste because most participants live in Canada. And the one person from Indiana was a former public school educator. Although they called themselves the UnschoolersSchool, it was anything but. They had some general ideas, but it was clear that they didn't mind working with the public schools and wanted to be able to use the school's resources, sports teams, special education, etc. I was embarrassed for even being there.

Then the boys and I went to the park because Randi wanted to go today instead of Friday. It was just the 4 of us families though. Kind of impromptu and quick. It was 75 degrees outside and breezy. It's going be back to 55 or 60 on Friday. Molly was on some phone calls, but I had some great one on one talking time with Randi about ADD/ADHD stuff. And the kids all had their playtime of course. But having park day prevented us from really getting to school today. I left Keturah home to do some typing on the computer and my computer I guess was slow and she was trying to format her paper and didn't know how. She spent 3 hrs on a paragraph. That was after she spent 2 hrs researching the topic of her other paper on the tablet. A topic I have plenty of easy to understand well organized books to look at as resources. I was so mad. So mad at myself for the wasted hour at lunch time and then so mad I didn't give her more direction on her papers. So now I have to try to finish typing it up because the one for Bible class is due at 5pm tomorrow. I'm glad we went to the park because it's the only way I can ignore my phone and household chores and enjoy the weather. I guess tomorrow is a new day and we'll pick up the pieces. At least Justin could do his two science experiments from the last month on his own. 

I was also frustrated because once again, the kids didn't roll out of bed and get going until after 10am. So I get busy with something else and get sucked into it and then I get behind schedule. So Abishai didn't get any schooling today. Ugh. Double it up tomorrow maybe. We'll see. And then after park day, I had to make dinner. Jared had Bible study and I had rep call at 7pm. It was a good call and I did feel comfortable sharing on there and jumping into the conversation. We were having a "town hall" style meeting and round table discussion. It got a little bit off topic but I think it was pretty helpful to some. I did feel like a sophomore instead of being part of the "freshman" class when it was somebody else asking about what their responsibilities as a homeschool rep are.  So, I got a little bored but I felt more comfortable, too. That made up for my wasted hour this morning. I have some action points but I also don't feel so bad for dropping the ball on keeping track of group leaders. I need to do another round of emails/phone calls/website checking about groups though. But I was assured that it's ok if I don't here back from leaders. They know we exist. They will find us if they need us. We "spread the feast" and offer our guidance. And if they don't take it up, then that's ok. We've done our bit. I just need to do that bit soon.

But not until those darn clothes are gone through! I'm so busy that I don't get to shower as often as I would like, so tomorrow is shower day. Never mind finding time to exercise. Because when I stop to take a breathe, I need to rest, not work up my heart. Oh, and I tried looking at the list of foods that are bad for cholesterol issues and I already pretty much adhere to the diet. I don't salt my food. I do over eat eggs. I guess I don' need all the fat and grease from full fat meat. I don't eat a bunch of chips and crackers. I've tried all the things. I need to eat more fruit and vegetables though. I don't know why my cholesterol is elevated. Stress probably and the extra weight. Annoying though when you find out the protocol is something you've already been doing. That's why I don't want to go to this new naturopath just for a botle of vitamins. This business is charging way too much. It's not fair.

And it's not fair that I woke up in so much pain today. And I'm tired of fighting it. I just wanted to stay in bed and ignore the day. I really did want to. But I should get to that bed soon.

Probably the lowest counts I've had in awhile of books checked out and on hold, lol. And that 306 books in my borrowing history? Um, that's only 18 months worth! We don't read them all, but probably 2/3 of them get looked through at least!

His own creation of an ice cream cone, fruit snacks and mini marshmallows. At least he ate chicken nuggets for lunch first.

Aw, Miss Megan posted this photo after I posted the above photo. 1 yr old Abishai!

Drawing time at the park and then off to the spinning thing for a good long 2 1/2 hrs. I said we'd leave at 4. We left at 4:30. Sigh.

Well, the rain came through in a huge downpour for about an hour. It's all quiet now at 11pm. But super warm day. Probably the last one.

Abishai decided we all needed an extra decoration at our places at the table tonight. He wanted to set the table, too! This is from a circus game.

All our unsocialized homeschooled kids on the giant spinning spider web. They don't get along at all, do they? Ages 5-15 yrs old, boys and girls. Perfection.

 And lastly, some of us decided to get a shell of an account over on MeWe or whatever just in case Facebook takes our invidivudal accounts down due to censorship. I don't like it. It's not as complicated/separated like Facebook and it's more like Instagram. Blech. I've been on FB for 13 years. Not going to change now. Here's what I wrote about it:

guys and gals! when I did the whole thing to download all my posts, pics, vids, etc from FB in an archive, it did just that! All the way back to the beginning! It was HUGE because well, I've been on here and active for 12 years, but it DID it! it came as a zip file and took over an hour to unzip and I did it directly to my external hard drive. The only thing so far that I can find that it did NOT save were the captions on the photos. Which is a bummer, because on my oldest photo albums, I had put some effort into captioning those. there is also no identifying date with it either in the photo's properties, FYI. But, this is exciting because that was fairly simple to do and looks pretty complete. When you open a file, it opens into what looks like a screen caption of the particular post or whatever. so if FB ever fully goes away, you'll have it. Just thought I'd let you all know.

But I'm not planning on fully integrating anywhere else. Like I said, Facebook has been where I've built up most of friendships, communication, groups, and where I look for encouragement and information. I downloaded MeWe, but it feels a bit more like Instagram and doesn't have all the features of FB. So, I'm here to stay unless they shut me down, lol.

And, let this be a reminder to you all, that despite the push to be "minimalist" and not have paper clutter and photos and such, digital mediums and platforms change, and sometimes having at least some things on hand in real form is the only real way to preserve them. Most of my photos and videos have been saved/archive in at least two ways, if not 5. I've printed all photos up through June 2012. I've got 2012-current on cds, snapfish, external hard drives and their original SD cards (I never reuse a SD card). I've transferred a couple of VHS tapes to digital format (perhaps I should put some of those on an online archive, too, hm,...) Unfortunately, my parents' photos are just printed photos. I guess I could digitize them someday.

Oh, that's what I was going to say. A wise upline of mine in Lilla Rose has always told us that we don't own anything on a social media platform. What we do own is our website and our email list. That's where you have the most freedom. You can keep a list of email addresses and phone numbers on a spreadsheet if you feel like mailchimp or another server is going to let you down. Build up your website and use your social media to point back to it, whether it be a non profit group, a homeschool group, a small home based business, a blog, whatever.

Now, I don't know how to go and do a back up of the 5 years of weekly blogging that has served as my scrapbook of sorts. That's another whole animal. It's not something that can be easily printed off without $1,000's. Makes me wish I would go back and use the scrapbooking supplies I do have or do digital scrapbooks that are printed off each other. I've tried those. I never have enough room to write and I like too many photos or feel more photos are needed to tell a story. So that's what I need to work on.

But if you are still here on Facebook and you're going to stay here, stick with me! The MeWe account is just a backup because that's what a few key people in my life/volunteering are doing. It's just a backup, folks. Alert, not anxious as Dr. Mike on YouTube says. Always be prepared but don't panic. That's all folks!

 

P.S.  and, once again, you never know what tidbit from your past will help you out in the future, what things you've learned from your past jobs that have prepared you for you current one. they are all stepping stones to the next opportunity of employment, volunteering, parenting, etc. Who knew that Steven Covey's 7 things of effective people (?) or whatever is something from business school that I use ALL THE TIME like "start with the end in mind" "have measurable goals." Lol.

 

 Much better school day. I think I read aloud/taught for about 2 hrs total! Woot! Woot! We got started on our Constitution studies and I'm so excited! Now I get to relearn and teach what government is really responsible for and why it's so far from what it should be in it's current state. And we went over the things of why Rome fell in our CC memory work, boom! It was said 25 yrs ago to me, the United States is like Rome. We will fall. And then our Governor Holcomb held a press conference today and started the process of rolling back to more and more restrictions. The hospitals are "overrun." The numbers are getting too high. Yes, because it's also now flu season and people are inside more. Disease spreads, I get it. I take that risk and do what I would like to do with my friends. It's no different than flu seasons in the past. But anyway, we'll see how it goes. Then Justin's small group decided to meet online tonight. We should have asked for more clarification, because I got a comment from his youth leader on my FB post about "Can anyone tell me what's going on?" But, I have the whole story now. There's a high risk adult family member of one of the boys. Ok, fine, well, can you Zoom that guy in and the rest of them meet in person? Justin wasn't happy and skipped the Zoom call and worked on his Bible study for youth group instead. Interesting decision. But I also found out that there was a positive case in one of the other small groups and that guy and group was at Crave on Sunday with my boys. Yup. It's everywhere. Because the small groups purposefully sit together but each group sits separately, the basically made their own "pods" and in this case, it worked. And apparently, the Franklin Township schools are starting to struggle. There's so many students and teachers physically absent because they have Covid or they were exposed to someone who has it. The middle school went from all in person to hybrid schooling starting this week. And it's likely everybody will be e-learning before Thanksgiving. That's what I think. We knew it would be coming. But now what are we going to do about it?

Well, I told my homeschool Covid bubble buddies that they are still welcome at my house. Jared thinks it's not a good idea because it puts a coworker at risk if he brings it into the office. Dude, you could give her the flu and all kinds of other things and that could severely hurt her. Gary travels still so he can bring it into the office. The likelihood that we would pick it up and carry it is slim. I know that our homeschool group can't find a place to meet. So, I've invited the 4 other families to come over anytime. And we have our small group bubble. But, the Smiths won't have a meeting area for all of us until January. So, not sure what that's going to look like.

In school, we did everything and then some. Piano lessons, all the regular homework, lots of read alouds, etc. The kids had Bible class with Grandpa, too. Dinner was spaghetti with a variety of protein choices like cheese, brats, ground beef, or deli turkey. It's time to go grocery shopping. But I have a feeling that there is going to be some empty shelves. Ugh. It's a good thing we have friends that are food hoarders, lol. But whatever. I'm going to keep going on with my life. Ordering Christmas presents sooner rather than later. Buying jeans and various other items. Groceries. And events if they are still taking place. And I'll let church handle church. I guess there's no more gatherings of 50 or more people, but maybe churches are exempt. It's not like I'm even near anyone on a Sunday. So, changes are coming. The weather, the mask mandate, social gathering mandates, etc. But I have subjects to teach and kids to indoctrinate. Let others handle the big things like Stefanie's fiance', John, said. Back to work with the littles because they grow up so fast! And want to eat all the time.

Oh, and we accomplished a lot because we were all standing upright at 8am. That's the goal. 8am breakfast, 9am start your independent work/mom plays with Abishai

Another home day tomorrow!

It wasn't that bad, just yet, but it's coming, we all know it. And I'm not having it.

Veterans' Day 2020

30 degree drop in temperatures! It's winter!

Pretty good suggestions on this post from a friend on Facebook.

Where did Abishai go?

Gorgeous cold morning. I took this through the main bathroom window.

Why does K-cups taste so weak? Like coffee made at church? One person suggested that it might be because there's only one hole that the coffee is coming out of and with my reusable one, there's many holes. I like that explanation. The amount of coffee in both is the same. But it tastes way different.

 Ah, another good homeschooling day! Finished by 1:30! Now, I didn't go over Keturah's writing work because she claims she didn't remember the details I gave her yesterday about what each specific paragraph could contain. I mapped it out for her orally, but she didn't write it down, nor did she do a key word outline. Well, it's now in her court because I know she can do it. She's done a couple of them well already. But anyway, everything got done early enough for me to have some time, finally, to work on Abishai's clothes! We got his dress clothes, his long pants, and his long shirts done. Now I just have pjs (he has 3x the amount of pjs as he does long pants and shirts), and shorts/t-shirts to do. I'm almost willing to just leave the t-shirts and shorts until the spring. He grew an inch in length on legs, arms, and around his middle, so he's a solid 5T finally. Time to put away the rest of the 3T (he will be 6 in February). I just held things up to him instead of having him try things on. He was watching the tablet the whole time and would just stick out his arm when he felt me put the shirt up to his back, lol. You gotta do what you gotta do, lol. He has a couple of dozen of Sunday shirts/collared shirts though. I don't know how we will use them all if church shuts down again.

And THAT was the big news of the day. After our governor sent out state wide recommendations and warnings yesterday, our mayor held a press conference today and said that all schools in the county after to go all virtual learning, K-12, after November 30th until at least January 15th. And gyms, bars, restaurants, all have other restrictions back to 25% or 50% or whatever. Churches I guess can be open with 75% capacity. My GUESS is that we will at least shut down our kid programming, not because of the city wide ordinance but because our school district is one of the worst hit right now with the pandemic. I don't know the exact numbers but gobs of teachers and students cannot  go to school because they either have Covid or they were in proximity to someone who tested positive. It was starting to be a mess anyways. Other schools in the county have no Covid issues. So, the chat groups will all up in arms today. But I was able to bring those arguments into our schooling today on the constitution. Who does have the right to make the decisions about schools closing? The mayor or the school districts? That's what this whole year, this whole things about Covid, has been about. Who really does have the power? Can they really make us abide by these mandates? Can they enforce them? Today's history lesson on the constitution was about federations and why we are a federation nation vs. any other kind of nation. We are a federation because the majority of power belongs at the state level, not the federal government. The federal government decides what is good for the whole country, like closing the borders so we don't spread the virus. But they cannot dictate what mask policy there should be or what schools should be closed, or anything like that. I don't even know how power the state has in saying that. I love when I can bring current events into our studies! It's why we are taking the time to really understand what happened at the Constitutional Convention. If we don't understand the Constitution from the founding fathers' perspective, we will misinterpret it. Just like if we take verses from the Bible out of context, or don't understand why or how it was written, the time period of the time, we won't know why Jesus spoke about farmers and fishermen all the time in his parables. Or why the healing of the ten lepers was so special. Anyway, today's announcement made it an excellent school day for us!

My only downfall was being bold and speaking up about the many, many comments from in person Christian friends I saw all over the township chat whose first thought, of many first thoughts, were to "bring on the wine!" I said it as tenderly as I could, but I hurt some feelings. I knew I would. And that's ok. Others hurt my feelings when they say certain things and I try to scroll right past. In one person's post, who I gently but often disagree with (she has some unique circumstances so I don't blame her for her perspective and quite enjoy hearing her perspective), asked what if we could hang on to some of the good things of these restrictions like people working from home, sick people (not everyone) wearing masks if they have to go out, more cleaning, more washing of hands, etc. And today, I agreed with her. Great questions to be thinking about for the foreseeable future.  Social media will always be a mine field. And I don't mind if people unfriend me or don't follow me. I really don't. I treasure their mental health as I treasure my own. I have to block/unfriend/unfollow several people that should be pretty close to us because I personally cannot handle seeing their posts. And their posts are not usually offensive to everyone else. It's just me and my personality and where I'm at in my walk with Jesus. I learned this lesson when my cousin did unfriend me. She was as kind as could be about it, and I respect her for it. She wanted to preserve our real world relationship (although we really don't talk much, but we could be plenty cordial if we did, I don't blame her, we are both so busy) more than our social media relationship. Thankfully, I didn't feel like a complete idiot today because I did have people agreeing with me as well as disagreeing with me. It's hard to gauge what people are thinking unless you are bold and you ask. It's risky. Really risky. And embarrassing when you are wrong and have to apologize. But it's ok. I learn more and more how to handle it and feel satisfied that I've said something that is on my heart. 

I feel sad for the kids, parents, and teachers. The bouncing around between schooling mediums causes a lot of issues. I have lots of things to say about how to remedy that. But I don't need to say that aloud. We knew this was coming. I'm sure we will be fully shut down at some point again. Do I think it's right? No, not at all. I plan to be as active as I can be in my normal social patterns. But it won't look like I am because I just don't go out and about in the same way others do. I'm going to try to go shopping (not groceries) tomorrow. I know the grocery stores are bare again. I'm not sure what it's going to look like when we go tomorrow night or Saturday. But we have to go. We are OUT of food as in we have no milk, barely any eggs, and almost no protein. Vegetables are pretty low, too. I don't stock up because of space and I want to not be wasteful. But it's time. I don't look forward to going to the store and not finding things again because everyone else is in a panic. Perhaps I should go right after lunch and try to get milk, eggs, and toilet paper. That would help us go a tiny bit longer to Sunday or Monday. 

Stay alert, not anxious. - Dr. Mike, YouTuber (real doctor in New York City, though!) 

Oh, I was going to say, I would think it would be wise if our kid programming at church would close down considering the high rates in our district. However, we will still go to in person church IF there is a kid program. I'm not afraid of the virus. I just know that others are. And I can't imagine having Abishai in church with us. So, we'll see.

Cold enough for frost! So pretty! And cold!

Probably should clean up the garden a tad, but I want to leave some of it as protection for the plants itself.

Sparkles!

Good morning!

I just love that we have this kind of window paneling. And then this bright red tree in the neighbor's yard. Incredible!

Lots of imaginative play. One group of guys was going to have a sleep over with another set of guys and the lead guy had to get out of his bed to make sure it was all ok.

Abishai Playtime!

Play break during school time.

Hi, I'm C-3PO.

I went to get my box of Ningxia Red from the upper cupboard and saw this! What?! Why is Justin's socks on the top of the fridge?! Abishai said he threw them up there the other day. I think I heard the ruckus on Sunday! It's now Thursday! Justin had an ADD moment and forgot them up there! Goofs!

The big update this week on the iPhone changed even our texting app! You can now "pin" your main text strings to the top. I LOVE that it shows ALL the names in the text string so I can remember which one I post what to. The 5 person group is our family and the 7 person group is my Bible study ladies.

For sure! Of course we all know that Abishai was born on a Friday the 13th. Interesting that it's coming again after the announcements of the last couple of days.

How we do read alouds. Keturah is sitting at the table eating chips. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book!

He worked really hard on this little setup. Very creative!

Abishai wanted to wash his telescope and steering wheel for his treehouse.

We added the postcard from the J4 from the Laura Ingalls Wilder house in Missouri to our mishmash centerpiece. We have fake pumpkins, real pumpkins (you can't see them), wolf ears and sycamore leaves.

I said play a board game. I didn't say play it on the dog! Goofs!

The End