Year 5, December 18th-20th, 2020: The Big Push to Rest

I will put a few videos here as I can, but you can also go to the playlist on YouTube here:

Playlist for December 18th-20th, 2020

I have been "on the clock" for more than 12 hours, trying to tackle "all the things" so I can have a day of rest tomorrow. I wanted to finish up every last scrap of homeschool stuff and I nearly made it. One more experiment left. But I want Abishai to be part of it and it was 7:45 and Jared was putting him to bed. Darn it! I'm just pms-ing and need everyone to just go away. The day started with me staying up to late in the first place Then when I looked at email before I had had my tea, Gary and Leah had started an email train (why can't we just text?!) about vacation and meal planning and what we were bringing, etc. Whoa, nelly! We had already started this in a text and I'm not "in the zone" of thinking about this yet. And whoa, I'm not going to be responsible for cooking a big breakfast when I don't want to leave my room until 10 am. In fact, since I don't usually eat until 10, I might as well have Jared bring me tea in the morning and I stay in bed! Ha! I just didn't want to or need to think about it today. Just go away! Let's just make sure we don't have Covid first. None of us can go shopping yet anyway. Aaron and Shauna and Benaiah all still have symptoms. I love to plan but today is not the day. And then it was non stop until now. And Jared thinks I hardly ever move. Dude. Leave me alone. And I don't have time for a darn 20-30 minute walk in 32 degree weather. No. I don't. When I take a break to sip coffee, I'm usually playing on my phone, checking email so I don't have so many at night, yelling at the kids about something. I don't take true breaks, not even in the bathroom. So much for a glorious "We did it!" sign off to vacation. Growl.

So I'll sit and do whatever I want tomorrow. 

The boys have made their bunks into boy/man caves. Justin says he can concentrate better when he's behind the blanket during the day. I think I'd get a bit claustrophobic in there. These remind me of the bunks you see on tour buses. Although, I think we need do choose different blankets because I LOVE the brown one especially.

Mom, I need to "read" all of these before school time. He said aloud ALL the names of the Star War ships and characters as he breezed through the pages. Of course he didn't read them, but he KNOWS them all. If only I could get the kids interested enough in science and history to memorize those kinds of books. Sigh.

Last remnants of snow. And a reminder that I haven't gone anywhere this week.

Just messing with the clarity of my new phone camera.

Lots more readin'.

There's still snow out there for my snowmen.

Little Lady is wearing and loving Grandma Howell's footwear! These are birkenstock type slippers/slides.

I've kept them because they were still in really good shape. They are a tad too big for me and slide off my foot, but Keturah likes them!

Keturah has been listening to classical music while studying, especially The Piano Guys, which is a modern piano/cello duet. So, I brought out my 3/4 size cello to mess with. Well, it took 20 minutes to tune the thing and I had to use an app. The neck is coming loose but will hold steady for a bit longer. I'm thinking it will cost a few hundred dollars to get it back in shape. The bridge that holds up the strings is askew. But the bow is ok for now and the strings themselves are ok. I'll put it on the list for next year if we get any extra money. But the most precious thing is how little guy took to it.

Look, Mom, I can hold it up with my feet! He wasn't been goofy at all. He was quite serious and gentle. No kicking or anything. He watched me play it for a second, but I think it's all the reading we've done about Mozart and Beethoven and maybe he's seen some of the Piano Guys' videos, that showed him how to move the bow and such.

Look at those little baby toes hanging out there! This is a $1600 beginner instrument my parents paid for, month by month, so I'm never getting rid of it. I can't play it for long because the bowing hurts my wrists. That's why I never mastered it. I took lessons for a few months and then played a bit for one of our musicals in high school. I could only do that because I knew how to read music and figured out the notes one by one and what the fingerings were. Great memories for sure. And scary because I really was guessing at it all.

He reminds me of a little bassist!

He was getting a little frustrated because "it wasn't playing the song I want to play!" I didn't have time to teach him how to change the tones by pressing down on the strings in different places along the neck. But at least he tried it. He was ever so tender and gentle with it. Quite serious and careful. And that was our music appreciation for the day.

I put my "Smile: Don't Be Crabby" socks on today. The tops are worn out, but yup, I'm crabby. Jared got these as "seconds" when he was an "intern" at a church in KY when he was getting his Masters' degree. One of the members of the congregation at the church owned a sock company. We got many cool socks from there!

One of the first times Abishai had to do Bible class via Zoom. But, I'm not letting us go anywhere near the other house until quarantine is over, hopefully Wednesday or Christmas Eve on Thursday. I'm sure they've cleaned and only Benaiah had symptoms, but nope, nada, not risking it.

Today's experiment was making a chemical reaction with vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and pennies. If I had more thinking power, I would have maybe picked different pennies because these were the nice newer shiny ones. But oh well. I think it did make the experiment more dramatic this way.

Speeding up the chemical reaction by setting the jar in boiling water to warm it up.

Already a bit of blue! That means the chemical process is working!

Last day for free school food! We really needed this blessing since we can't go out! Loads of carrots, broccli, lima beans, corn. Mystery meat chicken finger, fish sticks, even roasted potatoes. All individually packaged. Sweet!

Now the water is a clear blue.

The pennies are basically ruined. I can't get much of the dark color off. And I don't know if they are acceptable this way either.

Did you need to warm up your head, doggie? Or just find a clear spot to lay down in? At least he's not afraid to go into Justin's man cave and lay down. At least when Justin isn't there.That's where he ends up when I go to bed.

Well, Saturday was quiet for me with a little of this or that.  I tried to lay down and listen to an audio book but fell asleep for a bit and woke up with a dreadful headache (the monthly recurring one). I took a plethora of "helps" and ended up bottoming out my sugar and spiking my adrenaline and overkilling my stomach or something because I felt so sick all of a sudden! Oh my word! I tried to prevent it all week but bam, on it came! Other than that, I messed around with some menial tasks like checking website links on the IAHE website, taking a shower, and oh yeah, finally cleaning up the boys' room because Jared put legs on the repurposed bed frame for a Lego MASTER display! I don't know who is more excited, me or Justin! The floor is CLEAN and CLEAR. Justin needs a small skinny desk for school and sitting down to build parts of his creation, but other than that, it's good to go! Super excited at how much stuff is hidden under the table with room to spare! VERTICAL space is how you should store things, NOT horizontal! 

Meanwhile, we've run out of regular meat products. I've been limiting myself and trying to get protein from other sources but the problem is, I'm technically sensitive to all of those alternatives....peanut butter, soy, dairy, eggs, all beans, etc. I can't eat just that. And none of my family will eat beans or peanut butter. We are almost out of dairy and eggs. I'm going to put together a grocery list and try a delivery service. I wasn't stocked up on things because I thought I was going to go on Monday. But we have to make it until Wednesday. I tried eating two pieces of toast with avocado this morning, a granola bar with some nuts, oh and jerky trail mix for lunch, apple slices, two cups of coffee and 1 cup of tea and then that's when my stomach revolted just as I was trying to warm up stuff for supper. I quickly took the last bit of taco meat for my supper, making the kids eat the school food again. They had it for lunch, too. I told them to just have whatever they didn't have for lunch. It's a good thing that we DO eat a well balanced diet full of meat protein and fresh vegetables. They say to have "meatless" meals and that can be done twice a day, but I feel like I crave and need real meat at least once a day. It's hard to deny myself and even harder to deny the kids the better stuff than school lunch fish sticks. But it's only for a short while and for each day we don't ask others to help, paid or unpaid, is another day's reassurance that we don't have the symptoms of Covid and are hopefully not passing it on to someone else if we are asymptomatic. 

Tomorrow will mark one week since we've seen Benaiah. And usually that's not a big deal. But because I've been texting him all week and thinking about him, I'm anxious to see him. I have to wait until Christmas though. I think this is the first time that I'm like, "I will miss him." and I'm weepy about it. Maybe also because I had to tell Justin again why the two shelves that were above Benaiah's bed is staying AS IS because a)we only put the shelves up last year and b)until Benaiah gets married, he's part of this nuclear family and I want him to "be" here and be a part of us and to know that he ALWAYS has a bed here and we love him. We would have to move Justin to the top if Benaiah wanted to sleep here, but the point was that there is a bed for him. And the top bunk will remain clear except for the extra toddler mattress and the stuffed animals. It would be too easy to make that permanent storage. But oh my goodness, I hope Justin goes far with this hobby! Poor Abishai was quite jealous though. After Christmas, I'll let him get his Legos back out and we'll move his cars somewhere else. But I was hoping he would get more hot wheel sets to make the village he wanted on his Lego table, so we'll see.

I don't feel completely rested up yet. I think tomorrow I'll do more resting and I'll make more detailed plans of what to do and when. Except for one online appt on Monday and the in person ultrasound on Weds, my time is my own. I just have to decide on which will be the baking days and which day we'll wrap and which day we'll pack for vacation. It's a bit crazy because if you pack too early, you need your stuff and the bags are in the way. Do I really want to get all the wrapping out twice? I have all of it easily accessible, so it's not THAT bad, but how do I wrap during the day when kids are awake? During screen time! And then I can bring one kid in to help me each time. We could just start with the grandparent gifts anyways. Duh! And some gifts are "from Santa" so even if we put the gifts from us out under the tree, I'd have to hide the Santa ones. Hm, maybe if I'm up to it, I'll do a bit more organizing. 

That's all she wrote with her heating pad and twinge of headache. 

I would prefer he stay on my account and I can make sure he's watching ok material. It's not like he's going to go watch my shows. And sometimes, I still have put in a code for them because of the maturity level. I'll just have to remind him from time to time to stick with his shows. He's watching all the seasons of Ninjago right now. It's amazing how easy the 5, almost 6 year old can navigate these platforms, hence, he'll be getting a kid friendlier one for Christmas.

I took this as I was going to bed. Dude, go to sleep! And is this a kid bed or a dog bed? It's crazy that my children choose to put their mattresses on the floor after YEARS being on the top bunks!

So true! Justin included! And Alex on PEI! And a couple of people here have been known to wear shorts with snowflakes in the air. But there's a major difference between 32 degrees and walking a hundred yards to a building and doing it a 0 degrees across a wide open campus. Canadians are NOT wimps! They just typically know how to dress for the winter if they ARE wimps. Layer up!

Abishai ate a whole bowl of fruit loops IN MILK all at ONCE AND drank the milk! Slurp it up!

Another day, another snuggle.

Oo, looks like I need to slow down when I take photos or work on some of the settings because I was hoping to eliminate the blurring. But the zoom is a digital zoom and the images won't be as sharp when I do that anyway vs. the lens actually moving in and out manually on a DSLR. But Abishai was building a base with wood scraps on HIS Lego table.

Here's the BEFORE photo of the room so far! I took these with my wide angle lens. That lens alone is going to be used so much! Especially for selfies!

There's so much more goofing around and giggling when school is out for the semester and Mommy is taking a break from her to do list. Oh, and then Abishai bubbled (farted) on Justin as they were adjusting for the photo. Ew!

Grandma said we could have the reusable wooden calendar. Yeah! It's got small compartments, perfect for Legos, a note, or a mini prewrapped chocolate piece. I still might get the bigger moose one. But this was the EXACT one I thought looked the best and wouldn't overwhelm are already full kitchen. I can still set it up in the corner where this year's advent calendars were. We'll get chocolate calendars and use this one and it should go well!

Abishai spent some time counting and opening the doors. The doors have very tiny magnets to keep them closed.

Our very last official school item for the semester! One more quick experiment! Easy peasy, figure out how surface area works! Now they just have a fill in the blank workbook on the Constitution to do (and they can self check it) and the rest of the reading we didn't finish yet. But I don't have to do anything except say, "Did you read today?" and then mark off the books on my list when they are done and put them away on our shelf or take them to the library.  Wahoo! Keturah has already read like 3 chapter books today. I hope she is remembering everything she is reading! I know I did at that age and I read a ton!

Jared decided that despite not having a chiropractor appointment this week, that he could handle putting the legs on the bed frame to convert it to the Lego table. The sides of the bed are pretty much thick particle board, but we made it work without breaking it. So exciting! Jared also finished something to go on the treehouse, but I didn't see the final project so I don't know what it is.

Jealous cutie. He thought he could play on it as well. We COULD fix up his fire station and it would make an excellent addition to this display. But it's not for playing. This is going to be an amateur "master" Lego build.

Poor Jared having to squeeze through here to make the beds and the table! He's done well, and tried to clean it up as he goes. I still get mad, but what can I do? We also have kitchen cabinets now being stored in here for maybe a project next year if the tax refund lets us? I don't know. But I couldn't let original custom cabinets go to waste. Our friends were remodeling the whole kitchen because of a leak in the floor and wall but these were in great shape and not part of the problem area.

I tried my Guatemalan coffee today. It came out weak. Maybe it was a different level of grinding? Maybe my Mexican coffee or whatever is stronger? I don't know. I still drank it of course. It didn't smell as strong either. Oh well, I'm grateful that it came directly from missionaries that live there so it's not through some middle person. The father was just here in Indy with his two sons this fall because one of them had a surgery (they used to live here), so I'm sure he brought these thank you gifts back with him in his suitcase. I will remember my friends as I drink it. And they are homeschooling their boys and now their daughter and adopted daughter someday too.

See? The coffee is a bit weak looking.

And the semi final project in wide angle lens again! Now, Justin has already rearranged the boxes underneath the table to be more to his liking. There's a few misc boxes of the boys' stuff that we didn't finish sorting through. We also have to put empty Lego boxes that is on the top bunk under there for storage. But the big pieces of furniture are in place. The bookshelves were get rearranged as needed. That's a project for next year, just as long as everything stays off the floor.  We hope to put the posters on the board that makes up the end of the beds.

We will get Justin a small desk that will fit between that drum kit and the Lego table so he can properly do schoolwork and have a place to sit and build. He has to stand and arrange things on the Lego table itself.

Just hanging out in Justin's office chair (Benaiah's old chair) with Justin and Socks. Now I can step in here and not step on stuff and feel overwhelmed. There's still a lot of shelf rearranging to do, but I'll let Justin sort some of that out. If need helps, I'll gladly step in. But NOTHING is to go on the floor or stick out from under the Lego table.

Justin has already redone the underside of the table. He's got a lot of sorting to do! And needs a few things like compressed air to blow away the dust. The binders are for organizing the Lego instructions we have. Lots of mini projects I could help with.

He's looking for the cowbell so he can ring it.

"You're my squishy," said Abishi to Justin. Brotherly love.

No, you can't get up on the chair!

I was going to let the kids have these this month, but we've had other yummy breakfast foods. We'll eat them on vacation instead. Yes, the Elf cereal is gluten free AND has a touch of maple syrup like in the movie! The sugar cookie isn't gluten free. And these are BIG boxes! We can't wait to share them!

So, Mr. Genuis Abishai saw the red box at the top of this Merry Christmas from the Creek Children's Staff postcard. He made the connection that maybe it had a secret message and just needed to be put under a decoder.

So he pulls out the Clue Jr. game because it has a red viewfinder and tries to see if there's a special word or picture! Well, there wasn't, but how cool that he made that connection!

Oh, I took this photo thinking I needed to take a photo of the QR square in order for my phone to read it. Actually, I just have to open up my camera and put the square in the right area of the screen and the phone will ask me if I want to open up YouTube or the website it refers to. So cool! We will watch the video later. We also got lots of holiday cards today, some of my Kohl's order finally showed up, Jim and Debbie Poer brought us Christmas cookies, and Debi Mahurin dropped off a card and hot cocoa bombs for the kids late last night. Sweet!

Sunday was normal. Some snuggle time and a little boy who just wanted stop begging for his Hot Wheels toy of the day from his extra advent calendar. I was just engrossed in listening to the audiobook version of a book called "Different" by Sally and Nathan Clarkson about Nathan being a different kind of child with several issues like OCD and ADHD. Oh man, such great reminders as I help Justin figure out his ADD and things to keep in mind just in case Abishai has ADHD. Even if Abishai doesn't, the same principles are great for any kind. And listening to the Clarkson's stories knowing Sally ministry and personal story as well as how her 4 adult children turned out, reassures me that even when my children won't look at hers (her children are like what I dreamed my children could be, very kind, highly intelligent, studying at Oxford, all soft spoken), I know that we have and continue to use some of the principles here and there the best we can. Anyway, Abishai, yes, the 7:02am on the dot every day little guy. Persistent but with the biggest heart imaginable. Can't sit still for 10 seconds. Highly intelligent. But can turn on a dime and throw a fit despite our discipline even at almost age 6. Speaking of, I have no idea how to handle his birthday. I know my homeschool friends won't care if we just have it at home in tight quarters. I hate to break the cycle of having it at home and go somewhere to have a party but it might be easier for people to spread out. Or, we invite 2-3 friends to go to the jumping place or something. It's kind of expensive though. I'll have to get right on it during/after vacation. I have to first focus on getting TO vacation, aka, leaving next Saturday at noon.

It's crunch time! That will be tomorrow's theme! I thought I was going to make a more detailed list today about my to do's but I think I've got it down ok. Most of it is pretty routine. I'll organize gifts tonight after posting the blog and then the kids (and Jared) can help me wrap them all tomorrow. Then I have a phone appt. On Tuesday, we'll do the baking things. On Wednesday, I have the ultrasound and pup sitter coming but we'll start packing. We'll finish packing on Thursday and make a tiny run to the grocery store either Wednesday or Thursday. You see, we (I) caved and did a contactLESS DELIVERY order with Kroger this afternoon. I was super nervous about it, but it was fine. $10 delivery fee. I give the lady a $15 tip. And the groceries were about $100. I did leave off a couple of minor items which because of the timing, I couldn't add to the order. But I had groceries delivered to my door in less than 2 1/2 hrs. On a Sunday, when I'm sure the stores were busy. She had to make a couple of substitutions, but that was fine and the website had me give her permission to do that. The pick up type of grocery shopping is actually free. I think there is a minimum order on both of $35 but how often do I spend less than that?! Not often! And I can always come up with more! It was glorious to just sit home and not go into the crowds, but I sat here thinking "is she finding everything ok?" Some of the things on there, like gluten free animal crackers, are harder to find. But she got them! I wish I could have thanked her in person, but because of quarantine, I wanted to make sure it was contactLESS and not breaking any rules. I was surprised that there was the delivery option on a busy day. I'm not sure about pick up orders. And of course it was from our much quieter Kroger on Southport. Even when they are "busy" it doesn't feel too bad. Leah still goes to the Thompson, aka, the ghetto, one. Anyway, I was happy. 

Meanwhile, Shauna said she lost her sense of smell and taste today. And I felt a bit feverish right BEFORE I had coffee, which is weird. My ears did hurt a bit this morning, too, and I've sneezed a couple of times. Who knows if I actually have Covid or not. We'll see. Jared gave everyone a melatonin tonight because that plus extra vitamin C is what is supposed to help our bodies fight it. I've only taken it a couple of times years and years ago so I don't know how I will do on it. Just as long as I don't sleep so deep that I dream hard like I have the last couple of nights (because I stayed up too late). We'll see how well Abishai sleeps, too. Should be interesting. Even Justin might have a clearer head if he sleeps deeper. None of them have sleep issues, except Keturah who a) sometimes can't fall asleep because she's had too much sugar or b) she has to use the bathroom. And she typically can fall back asleep pretty easily. Thank goodness we've had decent sleepers after the age of 2! (after I stopped breastfeeding them.) Anyway, if any of us get sick now, that's going to throw a major wrench in Christmas plans. I can't do Christmas without Benaiah here and I don't want to reinfect him because he'll need to work at some point. Do we all get tests done before we leave? I just don't know. Maybe we'll add that to Tuesday's or Wednesday's tasks just to be sure. I'll ask Jared. 

Otherwise, it was a low key day. I tried to do some read and listening. Jared took a nap and the kids did their electronics or read. Pretty normal day. Jared doesn't have to work this week so he gets to play with Abishai, which is incredible for me because then I can get work done! I don't want Jared to work on any major projects. He's done enough. He needs to play and engage with everyone and help cook. AND AND AND he can help wrap gifts early AND he can help with baking AND packing AND Yeah for husbands being paid to stay home! Not that "the Boss" might call him up with something to handle. The e2 website does state that they are out of the office until Jan. 3rd so they don't have to do any orders that come in. Yeah! No worries there! We were just hoping to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa this week as well as next week. But no dice. Not until we are past Wednesday. Or get testing done. Sigh. Fine, I'll give in and get tested and throw everything out of whack when I come up positive. Fine. Grrr.

Oik, presents to do, so let's wrap this up.

We heard some very "springtime" songbirds outside, so I looked. I guessed it was warbler of some sort. And after looking them up, I was right! They were bay-breasted warblers. I used images as well as YouTube to find their call. They look fat AND they were eating seeds. Who has birdseed out? Fun little treat this morning!

It's the 4th Sunday of Advent! We didn't do the readings, but I'm glad they included it this year. I grew up in churches that would light the advent wreath every week. And I remember watching the first purple candle get ever so low! And in one church, us kids would actually put on special robes to light the candelabras in the back of the stage at the beginning of the service and then we got to help with the advent wreath as well. It was a pretty traditional Congregational church. I was so pleased to see the advent wreathe done at the Cornwall Christian Church, too. This advent wreath frame on our table was one from my child and one Sunday they would have a craft day and we would fill it with live fir or pine or whatever boughs. Sweet memories!

I walked into the boys room to find them both snuggled under a blanket together, heads on the pillows watching Justin's phone together, cute as can be. But then they didn't want their photo taken so they hid under the blankets. These two are the closest brothers on the planet! Benaiah is pretty close to them, too, in some ways. Actually, when Abishai trolls Justin in his bed to wake him up, it's a lot like when Abishai would do that to Benaiah. Benaiah would snuggle into his blankets and watch his phone as well. Justin is a totally different kid, but the normal teenage part is still the same. And both older boys have always loved Abishai and tolerated most of his antics. But Abishai can get pretty over the top pretty quickly these days, so I have to intervene when it's no longer cute. The giggles these two have are infectious.

My friend Gloria Beachy "invited" me to "watch" this special broadcast of Manchester Christian Church's Christmas Eve service on the biggest, but local TV station in NH! WMUR-TV9! What?! MCC's Christmas Eve special aired on REAL TV?! My little home church?! THAT'S how much MCC has done to create relationships with the community there. THAT is incredible to me! I absolutely love it! I might tune in to the "live" streams they do this week. MCC has always done multiple Christmas Eve services, but typically one per day for several nights instead of all in one day like Indian Creek Christian Church does. ICCC will have LIVE and streaming services just on Christmas Eve from the Franklin Rd. campus. Everybody is so different but technology is awesome!

Today's outfit, which will now be my standard Christmas outfit complete with my new PULL-ON black super soft corduroy mom pants! Good grief pull-on pants are awesome! I know lots of people love leggins for the same reasons, but I don't think it's that appropriate to show off all my curves, for better or worse. Save those for the hubby.

Our very first pick-up/delivery grocery order! (see the details above). Only a couple of easy substitutions, and got all the cheaper brands. Prices seemed the same. I even got toilet paper! $100 worth of groceries, $10 delivery free (so it was contact LESS) and I gave her a $15 tip because it's Christmas and it's a Sunday and it came in less than 2 1/2 hrs on the Sunday before Christmas. I hope the store wasn't too busy for her. But I kept thinking that she's probably a mom trying to make a little extra money to buy Christmas gifts for her kids. I'm grateful we got to help out the economy, even on a Sunday. And I'm grateful that Jared said yes so I would quit panicking about not having real meat in the house. My body won't let me live on just eggs or beans. Praise the Lord for food! And money for food!

Playing forts and battles and things! Abishai's Legos temporarily went to their room so Justin can rebuild Abishai's fire station and police sets and put them on his display. That way they stay together. And Abishai can ONLY play with his sets and ONLY when Justin takes them off HIS Lego table. And when Abishai starts abusing them, up the go. No more taking apart the new and expensive sets. There's still plenty of unsorted Legos to play in. And we put away the ball pit after Jared asked us, too. We've got to keep things neat and tidy for Santa to come!

Pow! Pow! I got you!

No, don't touch my prison walls!

The End