The J6 Journey: Year 6, January 8th-10th, 2020: Quarantined, Again

Because they don't want Jared to get Covid-19, the hospital suggested that he quarantine after his Covid-19 test today until the day of surgery. So, all 5 of us are quarantining because we don't want to do the "live in a separate room" thing and wear masks in the house. Jared took Abishi with him to the store for some last minute items and then went through the drive through testing site at St. Francis, Indianapolis campus. But funny enough, Gary also had to go through the same drive through testing site less than an hour after Jared because he woke up in the middle of the night with a fever, body aches and a headache. He's staying in his office, their common bathroom, and his bedroom. Leah gets to sleep on the couch! But that's where she takes all her naps (she claims it's only once a week). Gary's comment in our text string of "the sofa is like an old friend to her" was quite hilarious! Even Justin said, "If there were tiers for nappers like there are in Overwatch, Grandma would be in the top 500 tier!" Bwahahahaha, she is known for her napping, even if it's for 20 minutes. Jared gets his napping skills from her. Gary will nap in his chair sometimes as well. In fact, he was going to take a nap before he did a Zoom presentation this evening. He was scheduled to be working with 9 churches over the course of 14 days. Both Jared's and Gary's test results won't come back for a couple of days. And Gary's computer screen has been failing him as well. Fun times for everyone!

Meanwhile, it was a normal day for us. A little scattered because they had Grandpa Bible class this afternoon so we had to work around those times. I finished with Justin about 7:30pm. And that's ok. They did a lot of work this week that needed some fine tuning. The Covid-19 stimulus money came in today. Woot! Woot! It's going straight to retirement. I spent all the "spending money" on Christmas, so I have to wait again to spend money on the bathroom project. But it's almost tax season, so who knows. As long as I stay off of Amazon and I don't go out to the stores, our money is safe, lol. Sure I'd like to buy the $200 Lego mini figure kit that they are selling on the Legoland California website that is worth over $500, but nope, gotta wait! It's Justin's job to invest in his Lego build.

Oh, Abishai did an excellent job on his reading today! I helped him by pointing out that once he sounded out one word, he could just say it the next time it appeared, so he did! And he blended words much faster, too. And he wanted to write any "1's" and "0's" on his math paper today. And he filled in the bubbles on his language arts paper, too. Grandpa asked again about what how I'm teaching him to read, and again, I had to reassure him that Abishai is smart and understands it quickly but won't sit down for extensive periods of practicing and that's ok at this stage. Grandpa thinks he should be reading fluently by now. And I honestly don't remember how soon the others got through the materials. Because of his birthday being in Februaray, Abishai is a bit older than the others were for Kindergarten by a few months. But that doesn't mean he's going to go any faster. I want HIM to lead and still have fun with it, like he did two days ago WANTING to finish the story. And if that means we go slower, than so be it. Grandpa doesn't know the state standards, and neither do I. But I have confidence that a)I've taught three other kids how to read using this curriculum and b) Abishai "gets" it quickly. His verbal and story telling skills are very strong for his age. His vocabulary is high. His understanding of the world around him as well. It's just a matter of exposing him to concepts and ideas. I should read some more nature books with him. Hm,....I have some nature readers. He likes me to read something just to him before we start his paperwork, so maybe I'll find something low key in the science department to peek his interest. And man does he already know a lot of the main Bible stories! Grandpa was quizzing him about Kind David and Abishai knew Goliah's name and how David killed him. He can quote verbatim the stories on the Bible app. So what if the kid can't read yet, he understands a lot. His reading and handwriting will catch up. I promise you. It did with the others. Steady on, steady on.

Speaking of steady on, the talk of the town today was that some rioters were fired by their employers. And some congressmen and women want to impeach Trump. If an impeachment is filed, then Trump will be ineligible to run again for President. Not sure on other political offices. The inauguration is in 12 days. That's all the time they have to get this done. Jared is all for getting the impeachment filed. I think there are many other things that need attending to.

Locally, I asked in our IAHE action group what's the scoop on this session's bills? I know that our group has been working on some of the bill's language, but I didn't know if there's something else we should be following in the meantime. One commenter said, "Well, one of the bills (get this), is about making popcorn Indiana's official state snack." Say what?! We elected our politicians to decide on that?! Hilarious! I guess it helps to dissipate any tension in the room, lol. But so far, there's a few things on school choice and covid-19 vaccination. I'm sure if the vaccination becomes mandatory for kids going to school, we might get an influx of homeshcolers over it. That particular topic is usually decided by the school board and administration. So, we'll see.

What's that banging?! Oh, it's just Justin doing his exercises like a good buy. He's the only one in our family that doesn't need to exercise though. But way to go on doing something very healthy to combat all our sitting time on the bed or floor to do homework or play video games. And to be strong enough to keep little brother away from the pinball machine and your Legos. Because little brothers can have some wild and crazy days sometimes. Today was one of those days. Abishai has grown 1-2 inches in the last 4 months, too. He ate a huge bowl of oatmeal this morning.

And that's it. Nothing really to report. Keturah spent most of her day lounging on her bed with schoolwork and then her phone. I miss the extra curricular activities. These kids need interaction. So we might join a family going to swim at an indoor swimming facility that just went through a remodel the day after Jared's surgery so it might be a good time to vacate the premises, but first, I have to see if my bathing suit even fits. But that can wait until Monday.

Yeah, Stef's package that has been in limbo is in is making some movement towoards her! Yeah!

Documentation for how my arm looks today. I bruise easily so that's not big deal.

Tablet time with friends.

Abishai found a hiding spot to do Grandpa Bible class. Grandpa's screen wasn't working, so it was hard to stay connected today.

Another Socks blockade. He's either protecting Justin's stuff or saying, "Enough already. Pet me and don't type on the computer!"

Seat stealing puppy. Pitiful dog!

Home Life Dec 8th, 2020

Well, well ,well. Hello, Daddy Playday! It's Saturday! I went to bed at 11pm last night and was woken up by Abishai at 7 am as usual. I don't know what that was all about. I had skipped my new medication a couple of nights previous, so I took a dose in the morning instead because I hadn't been sleeping well when I took it at night. So, I have no idea when and where the medication makes me tired, but boy does it give me random hot flashes! I need to see if it affects women's hormones, too, as in premenapause. Anyway, I still felt a bit slow all day, so who knows. I have a list of psychiatrists to call on Monday to try out someone different. I did manage to put away all the Christmas decorations mostly by myself, except for the ornaments and the tree. Justin helped with putting the empty boxes in the fireside room and then carrying them back out to the pile for me when they were packed. It took me 4 hrs. Ugh! But that left me just enough time for a quick snuggle to wake Jared up from his nap because he didn't sleep well the night before, poor thing. Jared has been home since Dec. 10th, so every day has felt like a Daddy play day. So weird.

Speaking of December 10th, that's about when Jared sent a box for me to my sister and nephew! And guess what! It FINALLY got unstuck from Philadelphia this week and arrived today! Yes, a full month later! Typically, packages arrive within a week of shipment and sometimes as fast as 2 days. But, kind of fun to open on a cold, wintry day, too. Nerf guns, Yoda, hair clips, and I forget what else. Her fiance John was excited about getting Auggie with the nerf gun, lol. Boys!

We finished watched Master and Commander tonight, too. Poor Abishai was very concerned and scared and asking a bazillion great questions throughout. Questions like, "Why are they hurting him? (a guy was getting a lashing for disrespecting an officer)." "Why does the doctor look like that?" (he was white because he was sick). "Why did the guy jump overboard holding onto a cannonball?" (because he was drowning himself because he thought he was like Jonah from the Bible causing a curse to be on the ship). I LOVE Abishai's questions and I don't want them to stop so Jared and I both try to answer them as much as we can. The other kids just stare blankly. I did point out to them where the doctor/naturalist started bringing in evolutionary ideas when they went to the Galapagos Islands and seeing a flightless bird and an iguana that swims. And how we are going to study Charles Darwin this coming week and that's the islands he went to. Movies can be tricky sometimes how they will hint at stuff like this. Anyway, Russell Crowe is one of my high school/college "heartthrobs" because well, Aussie, and, two, Gladiator and three, long hair. Him, and Mel Gibson, and even Sean Connery. Always the older, wiser, in charge men. And now I look at them now and realize they are 20-40 years older than me. Whoops. And we've reached the ages they were during their most famous movies (Braveheart, Knights of the Round Table, or whatever it was called). Anyway, there's that.

But the biggest news of today is:

GARY HAS COVID-19! Yes, the patriarch tested positive today. Eek! I'm sure he will be fine but that changes EVERYONE"S plans. He was to visit 9 churches and do events here and there in the next two weeks. Leah was to start doing 1st grade Sunday School and of course church and then Lifebridge, Bible study, lunch dates, etc. I was going to have either one of them be my backup driver for Wednesday because I was trying to keep our dental appointment. Our appointment starts at 11. Jared could be ready to go after surgery anytime between I would 9:30 and 11, but no guarantee. Benaiah has a doctor appointment across the street from the hospital at 11. I'm probably going to have to cancel the dentist unless I can get Benaiah to agree to go directly to the hospital when he's done or to reschedule. He is just establishing himself as a patient at a "new" practice. I say "new" because I'm pretty sure it's the same practice, with a slight name change, and even the same doctor, that we used when the kids were young. I just didn't look them up when we got back because I was trying to do things a bit cheaper and once I cut ties with a doctor/organization, I tend to not want to go back and say, "Hi, I'm back!" I feel embarrassed or something. I don't know. But the point is, Gary has Covid-19. Benaiah doesn't have to quarantine, but Gary and Leah have to quarantine THROUGH Saturday, Jan. 16th. Now, I thought Gary had said he had symptoms in the early morning of Friday, not Thursday, and the timing of 10 days varies. Some include the day you go sick, and some, like me, count every 24 hrs. I advised them that I wouldn't go to church on the 17th just to be safe. But, I'm sure they will go anyways. Preacher math is what we call it. If you think about how we do the 3 days for Easter, we include Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But it's NOT 3, 24 hr periods. Preacher math.

And thankfully, Jared doesn't have Covid-19, so he can proceed with his surgery on Wednesday. I kind of wished I had taken a test a day later or something because maybe I didn't have enough symptoms or something. You can have the SARS 2 virus without have the full blown Covid-19. I'd have to take an antibody test in order to find out though. Or I just had my annual flu. Who knows. Jared and I discussed the Covid vaccination again, and he's very adamant about getting it as soon as he can. I know he would be. I'm not. I'm waiting it out. I'm not in contact with many people. I want to see how safe and effective it is first. Give it a couple of more years. I'm just worried that if it becomes required to have it before doing any activities, that that kind of rule will exclude us who don't want it. Or, we will have to sign something that says we take on that risk. Again, who knows. Maybe if 50% of the population gets the vaccine, which will most likely have to be given every year, we can take off the stupid masks, be in crowds again, and move on with our lives. Like birthday parties. Because we still want one. And my park day friends are much more comfortable being together than other people are. I'll send out invites next weekend. And then take little guy to the party store as well. We have to get through Jared's surgery first.

Jared's still feeling gross. But he did let Abishai onto his lap today. So the pain is tolerable. He keeps losing weight, too, because he doesn't take in many carbs or sugar, just a little bit of fat free protein like fish, potatoes, papaya, radishes, and broccoli, and watered down skim milk, blech, what a diet! His weight loss is actually starting to concern us both. Too much weight loss too fast. But there's not much you can do when you can't eat too much and put your gallbladder in worse pain. Sigh.

Keturah spent the day reading, playing on her phone and rearranging her room. We could hear her moving her furniture while we were in our bedroom and I said, "Uh oh, little girl is up to it again!" Abishai, of course, was zooming around as normal. I had my noise cancelling air pods in and all of a sudden I heard some thumping behind me. He had ran through the room and I didn't know it until he was right behind me! After that, I only put one air pod in at a time and listen to my book on Mr. Selfridge while I put away Christmas decorations. Justin worked on learning how to solve Rubix cubes and how to keep his little brother out of this Legos. And he bought the pass on Fortnite to get the Stephen Amell version of the Green Arrow. Boy does it look like him, too! It's pretty cool! And Justin is really close to getting the baby Yoda in it's pod as well. So, he had a successful day in his gaming. Abishai told us all about the flying lizard and flying squirrel he learned about from Kratt's Kreatures videos on his tablet. This is EXACTLY why I wanted this kind of educationally oriented tablet with apps. I loved Kratt's Kreatures back in the late '90's and early 2000's and I love the new ones now, too. So sweet!

So, 7 of the J12 are currently under quarantine, some of us until Wednesday and some of us until Saturday. Great times, I say, great times. Sigh. Babies through 5th grade Sunday School starts tomorrow and middle school and high school start on the 17th. We'll see how long it lasts this time. And then I'll keep making plans for when everything else opens up like soccer. That's all we can do.

This is how you wake up big brother! I love the hood on Abishai's head, too. "I'm going to play this song until he wakes up! (Video below.)

A little more bruising today, but less pain. Let's heal this thing the right way this time!

We are going to try not putting a vinyl tablecloth on the table this time. And I pulled out these 20 year old place mats. They were wedding gifts. They aren't in perfect shape. They aren't even that pretty. But they were wedding gifts. Some had the color bleed or fade. Half of the ones that I pulled out were actually dirty! But, here we go trying them out with kids again.

Pretty bare, but lighter. Next up: clean up the mug cupboard. I thought about taking photos of some of the random mugs that I keep to "pray for that organization." I could get rid of some of those. Some mugs that were my parents, nope, they aren't going anywhere. Oh my goodness, I just had an idea! Floating shelves on this wall or even over the window! Oh my goodness, that would be awesome! I'm still going to take photos and get rid of some, too.

It never looks this clear (and in fact, I did hide some stuff on the chairs) but it does look ok.


Uh-oh, she's at it again!

After one month in transit, our Christmas package arrived at my sister's house! Woohoo!

I totally looks like Socks is watching something on Justin's laptop.

Justin was trying to do push ups. His wrists were hurting though.

Kind of hard to do push ups with dog underneath you.

Woke up at 7am, with Abishai coming to snuggle me again. It was still dark outside.We snuggled, took care of Grogu, and then he wanted to be King and steal all my blankets. He's been bouncing off the walls since, except for the 3 hrs of screen time he had today because both Jared and I wanted to nap. Except my nap was interrupted by Justin's loud video game playing and Abishai's requests to extend screen time. In the morning, everybody did their church thing. Justin's and Keturah's activities will resume next week. And I can't wait for that! I plan to look into and make phone calls for Abishai this week. Tomorrow will be one of those phone calling days, or on Tuesday, we'll see. We did get to see (virtually) Keturah's friend Sarah Land and her sister Abby get baptized by their parents today! Yeah! I just wish we could be there in person! Sigh. The Lands are a wonderful people and we would have hung out together still if the kids had kids' choir while the older girls at small groups. Sigh.

Too much sighing. I'm tired. I'm tired of the kids' routine. I want to get out, too, and see people eventually here. It just takes effort and waiting for things to open or in our case for Jared to get through surgery. Just a few more days. I might have to reschedule dental appointments so I can pick Jared up from surgery, which is a bummer because it's hard to get into our dental office all at the same time .We book them out 6 months in advance usually. Oh well, we've got to get Daddy better! I'm just tired of the kids wandering the house, looking for something to do. We've played games, done puzzles, read, screen time, wrestled, baked, Keturah has done some coloring and rearranging of her room. I rearranged the white corner cabinet full of keepsake mug and cups (ssshhhhh, I'll always keep too many "keepsakes." No chastising here.) I dusted and all that, and scrubbed the dining room chairs. Oh they could have been scrubbed even harder and for longer but I can only do so much. At least they don't look dusty anymore. Oh man, I was going to steam mop in there, but I've run out of a time. Sigh. That's when I needed the nap. I used my air pods, but they aren't the most comfortable (I'm kind of bummed about that, but I don't use things like that much and my ears are small, so maybe I need kid sized ones?), to block out noise during my nap. It worked for awhile.

We had chicken nuggets on top of a huge salad of about 10 different vegetables for dinner. Yummy! Lunch was leftover chili or stew. Then Abishai and Daddy played nerf guns, Justin took a shower, and I communicated with my sister and Benaiah. The conversations didn't go my way, so I was a bit miffed, but I'll get over it. Tomorrow is a new day, a new approach. You'd think the kid could give me his girlfriend's physical address so I could mail a birthday card. But no, he asked her for the address, and she said to just give it to him. No, I want to mail it and now it won't be a surprise. Sigh. I'm already late on sending it anyway. Blah. And my sister is obviously having a bad week because she was short with me, too.

Only Abishai has the right idea of making everything fun and literally using his tiny belly to bounce off the walls claiming, "I could do this all day!" and quoting Captain America when he passes one of the other guys while they are running around the Washington Mall. Anyway, life would be so dull without that little one. Even less laughter from the rest of us introverts. We needed an extrovert to start our family and end our family, that's for sure, for they both make us get up and move and get going. Anyway, not much else to say. I'm just glad I'm up to date, the Christmas decor is down. some things got cleaned. My desk book piles are a little thinner, and I have a plan for all the tax files and papers on the right side of my desk, but those will be worked on in February. Yeah for long desks where I can leave everything out to remind me to do them! Maybe I'll start booting up my new computer this week! We'll see!

After some snuggles in the couch bed, Abishai ate a fruit snack and had strawberry breath! And then he ate PB crackers and had PB and strawberry breath! Ew!!

Just hanging out waiting for everybody else to get their day started.

That's a lot of Lego investment!

Socks doesn't like the kids hurting each other, so he speaks up often.

Missing: shrimp and extremely low fat fish, oh and radishes, too. Looks like he's branched out to some tea and an orange, too. Poor Jared! Just a few more days until surgery, but it will still be a couple of weeks before he can eat more normally again. At least he has some strength now, and has protein, carb, and fruit and veggies in his diet. I'm sure he's not fond of the skim milk because it makes his nose worse, but you have to get some calories in somewhere.

We came up with a little box for Grogu's pod! If you turn it sideways, you can close the lid. Aw, Grogu!

The cute little button nose! He's going to sleep in our room tonight because I'm going to sleep in our room. I'm always on grandparenting duty at night, lol.

It might not look dirty from a distance, but the darker spots are grease and dirt. Ew!

Much cleaner. I could have used a different type of sponge and murphy's oil soap and it might have been even better. But Thieves cleaner (with essential oils) and a rag is what I had in my hand because it's what I used to clean the white corner cabinet.

So dirty around the spindles. I didn't spend much time ON the spindles, but just around them and the seat surface.

Much better.

Dust and grime.

Again, much better.

I didn't take a before photo, but I put some closed top keepsake water bottles and things up on top of the cabinet. I switched the mugs and the white teacup shelves around, thinking maybe I'll grab those smaller dishes or remember that I have a large bowl and a little pitcher. And then I put away a few things in the open space. I also had to dust everything because the left door still doesn't have glass in it. It broke in our move back to Indiana. The bottom cabinet has all the extra kids special cups, sippy cups, even bibs and baby spoons ready for grandchildren. And the tablecloths are down there as well. All clean and neat again.

Now to convince the others we can part with all of these.

The three kids and I attempted to play this. Justin and Keturah remember playing it at Grandma's house. I wanted to teach Abishai because there's a bit of counting involved and learning left and right. He was NOT happy when his tokens had to be given to someone else. He fussed, he threw the tokens, he refused to give them, he cried crocodile tears in the chair nearby, and he threw up his fists in anger. Woah. We've got to come up with some plans on dealing with these outbursts. He wanted the nerf guns right then and there and said, no, not until you calm down because you can't use guns when you're angry. We had talked about getting them down earlier, so I did let him have them after his fury broke and he was happy again. It's a great little game, though and easy to learn. I call it CLR after the cleaner with that name that stands for calcium, lime, and rust, lol.

Keturah's friend Sarah Land, and her sister Abby, got baptized today! Yeah! Sarah is one of those super super quiet ones. Keturah has had sleepovers with her and I just never think about getting them together. Super, duper nice, and fairly quiet, family. They don't live that far either. Sigh. I'm such a bad mom/friend.

Yeah, Sarah!

Yeah, Abby!

Now, let the shooting games begin! The J4 household might have Barbies and American Girl dolls and and nail polish and make up strewn about their house (actually, it's always really clean), but in the J5/6 house, it's guns, and other weapons! We even said this morning that I think we have at least 6 weapons per person in this house. If we were to gather them up and put them out in the middle of the backyard or in different piles, like those arsenal boxes in their video games, we could make this huge real life Battle Royale thing. Wouldn't THAT be cool for Abishai's birthday?

Daddy's waiting!

I'm glad Jared was feeling a little bit better so he could have a turn entertaining Abishai.

What a contrast. Miss Bookworm (only because she's bored and she knows there's a lot of school books to read, but I think secretly, she doesn't mind reading them. I don't quiz her, but I think she does get enough out of them.) vs. Daddy ready to pounce on Abishai.