Year 6, January 22nd-24th, 2020: Birthday Planning

 Wahoo! It's Friday! And we did manage to finish everything! Four days of read alouds as well! Sigh. Feels good! I made a single phone call today, and then asked about finding a doctor in the St. Francis network to refer us to the St. Francis Psychiatry office. I still haven't made much progress there. Both Justin and I have appointments next week, him with his PCP and me with the psychiatrist from Barrington, so we'll see how those go. Meanwhile, it was a sunny,but cold Friday and we seemed to move along at a good pace. The kids had Grandpa Bible Class virtually because Grandma still has vertigo from Covid-19 symptoms. Yuck! That means no Sunday dinner again this week. I think I may invite Benaiah over for tacos or beef roast. We'll see. 

Jared set up an appointment with an acupuncturist next week and he and I "discussed" vitamins and creams and things to help his sciatic nerve heal. We have different opinions on these things for sure, but, I guess it's his turn to spend the HSA on therapies. I just found they didn't give me lasting relief. Hopefully, he can get a particular muscle knot out of his thigh that is pressing on the sciatic nerve. I think his whole body is still adjusting and he needs vitamins like B-12 and magnesium, and maybe even CBD. Or at least try the CBD rub I have. But anyway, I really just want him to be less grumpy and more interactive with everyone. He's eating more, like the CFA sandwhich I bought him last night. But he also asked for a renewal of his acid reducer. He's at work, so that's something right?

Despite drinking my water and such, I've developed a headache, right before going out for Mom's Night Out. I'm super excited about it because I haven't seen these friends in forever! And I love to eat out and not have to cook! I've saved up my calories for the day for it. I'm keeping track as much as I can of what I'm eating in a food diary for a few weeks just to see where those extra calories are sneaking in. Apparently, eating raw unsalted cashews at night adds like 300 calories to my list. Yikes! I overdid the sugar yesterday, so I'm eating more vegetables today instead of reaching for my cookies. Got to make it another two hours before MNO! 

Tomorrow I will try to tackle Abishai's birthday decor and theme, maybe even take him to the party store. And I will also try to organize the Civil War books and compare them to my other book lists to see what I need to order from the library. I think we still have one more week of lessons before we hit the Civil War ones, and we'll slow down again for a month or so and just focus on the Civil War in depth. And hopefully, we will finish up the 2nd quarter and start the 3rd quarter of our history book before the end of the year! I knew we wouldn't get to everything, but if we could get into the 20th century, that would be great. Getting into the 21st century is another story.

President Biden as already set in motion to undo lots of the actual good moral Christian things former President Trump did. I knew that would happen and it happens every time the political parties switch in the White House, but it's still hard to see. From allowing males to play in female sports to sanctioning abortion around the world, the devout Catholic is already not living up to his faith. Pretty sad. But, at least it will be more politics as usual instead of former President Trump's ridiculousness. We'll see how it plays out, but we'll also see how we can help turn hearts to keep this morals in a personal relationship and through ministries and programs. That's all we can do. "Stay in our lane" and stay the course.

Using one of Michael's favorite words, this is "incredible!" So cool that he gets to do some acting again. He loves to act! He's not the best at it, but boy does he look handsome! I bet his grandchildren are going to think this is such a riot! I don't know what character he is playing as his videos didn't say, but he just can't sit still. And he can't go on tours right now. So, he's cut a record, he's redone several songs, he's done live performances from his home, and now he is doing a little acting. 63 years young.

Trying to mess with my camera settings on my phone. This is when it's in "night mode." There's only one moon out there, but the window glass is casting some interesting reflections, plus the indoor lights, plus the smudges on the window itself.

Which one is the real one? It's actually the blurrier of the two here. The smaller one is the reflection in the window.

Such a bright moon!

Found this paragraph in a weekly email from one of my absolute favorite homeschool/large family bloggers. "They have to find their own footing and their own faith in God because God doesn't have grandchildren." Wow. Powerful.

Well, I had Friday's blog post done, but Abishai, being Abishai, did something very cute on my way out the door to Mom's Night Out. So, I'll have to show you that. But first, the restaurant we went to was in New Palestine, where Shauna grew up. And lo and behold on the menu, beneath the title "Dragon" burger, (dragons are the mascot of New Pal, alrighty then), was a burger with PEANUT BUTTER on it! Just like Aaron would do! CRAZY! AND, the restaurant was not 100 yards from the house we were looking at in New Pal. Fun times! It was a sports bar called "Around the Corner Grill." It was ok. I had a gigantic potato with chicken, bacon, cheddar jack cheese, and ranch on it. We left earlier than normal because the music and conversations around us were only getting louder and louder! Plus, the dimmed the lights and it looked like someone wanted to try karoke or something. Nope, nada, gotta go. So I'm home way earlier than normal.

On the way out, while we waited for Jared to get home, Abishai decided to set up a "stake out" and sit outside in only his pjs and a nerf gun. Well, that turned into an obstacle course, which turned into a lot of props and fun. He eventually brought it inside before Daddy even came home because it was so cold. But it was cute while it lasted! Check out the footage below!

Time for a stake out!

Of course he couldn't sit still that long! So he had to get up and jump around, in his footie pjs, in 30 degree weather. Crazy Canadian!

Action shot!

Lonely gun waiting for its owner.

Gotta run, run, run!

Great action shot, Mom! He jumps pretty high, doesn't he?! Hm,...cross country runner? Field and track?

The obstacle course just started out with a couple of things but as the sun went down, the obstacle course went up!

He added the cups and then they became targets!

Time for my funky dance!

Target practice!

At least I fed my kids a healthy dinner before I went out to eat with my friends! Lol.

And now there's THREE places for target practice!

I see the moon, and the moon sees me! (A nursery rhyme I memorized when reading to the kids years ago).

Oh, that's right, PEANUT BUTTER is on the menu! At a sports bar/restaurant in a little town in Indiana called New Palestine. Go figure!

Cute name, too. Ok food. Nothing too special. I had a potato with ranch dressing, butter, cheddar jack cheese, and chicken on it that cost about $7.50. It was one of those massive potatoes, so loads of toppings. And the restaurant was LOUD so we left earlier than we normally do from Mom's Night Out.

Sigh, Saturday. Jared still won't be doing any "Honey Do List" items for awhile, so he played with Abishai and took a good nap. I made myself a short list of a few projects and actually got them done. We got up really late, 9:30, after Abishai played race cars on our legs and the "canyon" between us. After Keturah got up and ate breakfast, she started putting together a small plastic shelf we had bought at Aldi's for her room. I had bought two of them because they were a)there and everybody on the Aldi groups were loving them b) they looked very sturdy for plastic and c) they were only $17.  In my search for wire shelving/plastic shelving a couple of years ago, I found that they were priced that or higher, so I just snatched them to have on hand for reorganizing projects. I've done that before and yes, sometimes things sit for 6 months but then one day, bingo, I have the perfect use for them! Take my essential oils bottles on my counter next to my coffee maker as an example. I bought those from Aldi at least a year before I used them. They were originally for makeup or nail polish, but I knew I'd never use them for that. I was not happy that she had started in on the project because I wanted her to remove a bunch of stuff from her room first so she had room to work. I hate the state of her room. There's no floor space. It always looks like a closet, not a nicely decorated room. There's clothes strewn everywhere or books or Legos. We had a plan for her room in the summer, and she changed it. And she's changed it about once a month, but it never fully improves. Sigh. So, I walked away.

Justin spent most of the day on his bed reading or looking things up on his computer and then doing his normal screen time. He had plenty of time to work on his Legos but didn't. Abishai just made messes everywhere zooming back and forth. Jared was back and forth a bit and ate late breakfast and then dinner. 

And I organzied the Civil War books and ordered some more from the library. We got out the birthday boxes and decided on what we need for Abishai's party, which isn't much. We discovered that we hadn't used his pinata last year (because he had that huge meltdown) and it still has candy in it. There's also plenty of prizes in the box, and the odds and ends of plates and cups. There's even some balloons we can use! He wants the same theme as last year, go figure. I'll just make an order for the odds and ends the day before and pick them up the day of from the Party City near us. I did spend time fine tuning some details and thinking about some games and to do lists. So, I'm ahead of the curve and that makes me happy. The party is 3 weeks from today. And I filled out my passport renewal form and made plans to get my photo done and the whole thing sent, so hopefully that will be Monday. Routine service takes 10-12 weeks. Benaiah will do his with Grandpa's and it is more involved. I can just mail mine but Benaiah has to show ID and some extra things now that he's basically applying form the start again. So, we'll see. I had to fudge on our trip dates, but I don't think it matters over all. 

We did laundry, picked up toys, crockpotted a corned beef, and in general stayed in and warm. Keturah was a bit testy and I think it's because her tooth hurts. She told the dentist, but he was very vague. I'm going to try to call first thing Monday morning and ask if she can come with me to my appointment so he can poke around again. I don't have anything wrong with mine so I shouldn't take up the whole appointment time. I've given her some orajel, some naturopathic teething tablets, and some numbing lotion to put on the outside of her mouth. I also gave her some kids' ibuprofen, too. The last resort will be clove oil which is very strong and numbs it very well, but it smells and can sting if there's a root exposed like it did for me. She had been complaining about it for about a month or so. I don't know if it's an adult tooth or baby tooth and what steps might be next depends on that answer. Poor girl.

Oh, we tried to do some of those "table talk" question and answer things we got from CFA this week. Some of the questions were, "What kind of cake would you make a special person?" Justin said Minecraft because of his special people like Minecraft and it's easy. Abishai wants a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and fresh blueberries on top for his birthday, so that's what he said he would make . It was very cute. 

And now Daddy and Abishai are playing Jurassic Park Lego game. Too much screen time for the kiddos lately. Too much. Sigh. I'm not alone with that, though.

Ok, I'm off to build a Lego set with Jared for "date night." It's the Charles Dickens one that was free in our big Christmas purchase. I told him I would blog while they played and he put Abishai to bed. Then he could make me one of our advent teas and we could do it together. We haven't spent much happy time together, just grunts and info communicated in passing each other in the hallway. But when you're in pain, you don't want to talk to anyone. I know how that goes. Someday we'll be back to normal. It's been a long haul Good night!

Great quote a friend shared today.

Abishai said he wanted oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and marshmallow fluff! Well, he didn't end up eating it, go figure.

Redoing the dinosaur set again to feature the last one, a flying dinosaur! Abishai found the TMNT mask in the birthday supply box.

Lots of reading coming up for us, well, them. I found an extra curriculum with comprehension questions in my stash, so we'll use those to help us through some of the tougher books we will count as literature. I need to remember to get them to write something about those books, too. Like an essay or a "response" i.e. what they took from it.

I had a couple of two minute sewing fixes today. One for "dolphin" and one for the footie of Abishai's pjs. My mom would go and replace the whole non stick pad on the bottom of the feet of these kinds of pjs but I'm not that talented.  I just stitched up the little hole and hope it holds until he outgrows it like I normally do. The next person, who might be more creative than I, can fix it up properly if they want.

We have to get these things renewed just in case we are allowed to go to Israel in the fall. Mine expires this April. It's been 10 years since I got my first passport so I could visit PEI for the first time for Jared's interview with MCC in late June 2011. It was still only 65 degrees and wet in late June. I had only brought capris with me. We had to buy some pants from the Atlantic Super Store. I remember staying in the old guest suite of the school. It was the first time I saw the brand Kraft on a peanut butter jar! And it was before I went gluten free so I'm sure I had a Tim's donut in there somewhere for the first time. My first international flight, too. Man, time flies!

Goofy 6 yr old smile, but here's the final product of redoing the Lego set.

Corn beef and potatoes. Simple. Plus a bag of frozen veggies for them and roasted Parmesan eggplant slices for me.

On Sunday, we woke up to big, fluffy white snowflakes! It snowed I think a total of 1 inch before it started melting as usual in the afternoon. It's supposed to refreeze and be freezing rain/snow/sleet/rain through the night and into tomorrow during the day. Yuck! I need to go out tomorrow to the dentist and I was going to do and mail my passport renewal. We'll just have to wait and see. No one woke up on time to make it to 9am, so Justin, Jared, and I listened by ourselves to the service and then Jared took the kids for second hour. I needed the kids out of the house for once so I could have quiet without worrying about them on screen time. I read a bit in each devotional book I'm reading while they were gone and I got lunch ready. Jared was actually volunteering in the nursery, which I was surprised about, but ok, just as long as he doesn't pick up any kids. Justin said they had 10 kids in the 1st grade classroom. Abishai said they talked about the master with 3 servants that he gave different sums of money to invest with. Abishai was concerned about the one who put the money in the ground and how he got in trouble. I always forget this parable is about not hiding God's love and salvation but taking it out and investing in people. I always think it's about actual money investment, like you need to go out with your money and risk it for a profit. Whoops. Keturah couldn't remember her lesson, as always.

After lunch, it was naptime, woot! Woot! And then back up again for chores, dinner, and youth group. I managed to read through some introductions in a skinny book on the Communist Manifesto. I'll read the Manifesto part another day. Justin said he was able to read through it and get the jist, so hopefully I can, too. We aren't going to pick it apart right now because I know in the lessons in the 20th century, we'll cover socialism vs. communism vs. Marxism, but he write it in the 1840's, so that's why it's in our lessons now. So, I have the Communist Manifesto, a book on smallbox, Bible devotionals, a book on Henry Selfridge, a cookbook, and a Max Lucado book on my "to be read now" pile and I've started most of them. Pretty eclectic, eh? Or rather, ADD. I don't know which. I just wish my brain would keep the information and use it. But I'm not quite there yet. I'll meet with the first psychiatrist this week and see if there's something similar I could try because this medication and it's hot flashes and heart palpitations are hard to deal with. I did only have one cup of coffee today, so that sort of helped. 

And because I had sat on my bum most of the day, I decided instead of putting it on my to do list, I organized the bathroom closet. I threw away a couple of things, but I was tired of just shoving things in there where there was room and items weren't in categories anymore. And sometimes I wouldn't bother get the stool out to reach the higher shelves and the backs of shelves, so I would just shove it as high as I could. Not smart, but I did. I'm usually the only one in there, and if the kids or Jared take something out, I'm typically the one who will put it back in. Who knew we had 12 ace bandages though? I didn't get rid of any this time around but probably should have. That wasn't the plan this time around. I just wanted to put everything back into categories and make the things we use most often, more accessible. So, I'm happy that's done. Now things won't fall out on my head anymore! I probably could get rid of some towels and sheets, too. I'm just not in the mood to do that. But we'll see. We never seem to wear them out enough to throw them out. And I don't care about their fluffiness. They are all dark colored and not particularly stained or anything. So, it makes it a little harder to get rid of things that still work. We each have a towel we use on our towel racks, so we don't go through a bunch of towels ever. I'm sure a dog shelter would love some of it, so maybe I'll go back through. We'll see. It's organized and I'm happy.

So, it was a relaxing Sunday. Busy week ahead as always. Phone calls to make, blech. I always enjoy the weekends because then I don't feel guilty for not making phone calls. I got a few things accomplished including reading, finishing my audiobook (I have 15 minutes left), party organizing, the bathroom closet, and a nap. I needed the nap because I've stayed up too late this week binge watching this silly murder mystery show about a policeman and vicar solving crimes in the 1960's. It's very obviously progressive thinking in LGBTQ issues, and sex outside of marriage, and even when one vicar left, it was not for a good reason, but I was hooked. And then I started WandaVision, this weird Marvel "sitcom" based Marvel show with 23 minutes of action and 7 minutes of credits. I knew it was supposed to be weird, but it was really, really weird. And so hyped up, yet not much footage. Bring back my BBC/PBS shows of 50-55 solid minutes!!! Anyway, not sure what I'm going to watch tonight, but it won't be much. I'm tired! I think I have time for an actual movie, so I'll try that first. Back to the grind tomorrow. 

Jared started to get out "our" Lego set yesterday, and I said, "Wait, stop! That's for a date night!" So, he stopped. And then after Abishai was asleep, instead of doing our nightly reading together (that we haven't done since December), we put this together and had our special Advent tea. I tried to stay ahead of him to hand him the pieces, but I couldn't seem to read the boxes of how many of each piece right. And, he put it together for the most part, because when I tried, my hands were a bit shaky and I couldn't seem to do it. But that's ok. I got to tell him a couple of things and he got to glare at me, so that's good. His illness has put a bit of a strain on our marriage and we are doing ok, but only because I'm refusing to not let his grumpiness totally overwhelm me. We are communicating fine, but, he doesn't want to be touched because he doesn't feel good, just like I don't want to be touched when I don't feel good. And that's hard. The role reversal thing is quite hard to do sometimes, but I'm trying.

It's a pretty cool bonus set we got from spending way too much money at Lego.com for Christmas. Jared seemed to like it, too. And the kids. Keturah said she has seen a version or two of the story. I've seen 4 versions I think? Yes, the Mickey Mouse one and the Muppet one (I think, or I know it's out there), and a couple of older, more traditional ones. Maybe the George C. Scott one?  Kind of interesting that this was the bonus set given we are in that time period of history (well, almost). And in the show I just watched, the cleaning lady would say, "What the dickens!" And the black lab was also named "Dickens." Fun stuff! Oh, and htat little part in the front pulls out to reveal a drawer, but it's only big enough for a minifigure without the hair piece or hat on. Kind of weird.

Kind of cool that it was snowing today and we just made this. The white on the top of the building and lamppost and tree is snow!

The outside is built well, by using hinge pieces and I love the icicle pieces! And that fence piece is very intricate and new to all of us. And yes, the scene is set on top of the book.

This is actually a photo from 8 years ago. It's the back door of our house in Charlottetown. Yes, that's frost INSIDE the house because it was THAT cold and the wind was blowing in just the right direction. I'm sure it was below 0 with a windchill of -25 or something. Someone commented about the heating bill and I said we didn't have to worry about it because the very awesome kind landlord took care of it because it was oil. And I think we did attempt to put on some weather stripping as well, at least at the front door. There was no breezeways. This door sat high up because we had a high deck going into a very big green space in the back and got loads of snow and wind.

Back to today's snow. Looking pretty out there for a hot (or rather cold) minute! For a brief second I thought about getting out the shovel and then I was like, nope, it's going to be above freezing this afternoon and tomorrow. No need to shovel because it will melt just fine. And besides, I have three kids that more than capable of doing that part. I don't mind shoveling sometimes, and I kind of miss it! It was such a great workout!

And more Lego. Always. Because of his fort in the living room, and the big tray of Lego jutting out into the pathway, and such, there's no real room to play. So the dining room table is perfect! I get kind of annoyed when things get spread out, so I'm sure by the end of the week, I'll be fixing it all again. But for now, back to building!

He's building a jail (again) and a police station (again) and a police car (again). He left some mini figures without heads in the police station and when I asked him where the heads were, he said those were the clothes the robbers change into after the police catch them, see, here's the stand for the clothes. Oh, sweet! So much imagination!

The End