The J6 Journey: Year 6, February 12th-14th, 2021: Loving on Abishai

Woot! Woot! It's Abishai's birthday weekend! I do always forget that Valentine's is the day after his birthday and I hope that that fact won't interfere with his love life. Although, this kid is the most loving one of them all. He snuggled into my bed this morning and pat patted me and petted my face and was all cute and stuff. He can't help himself, he's just got that personality. I don't want him to ever stop doing that, but I'm sure he will eventually. When I picked him up this evening, he squeezed me so tight that I wanted to cry. I haven't spent time with today because I was here there and everywhere preparing for his birthday party tomorrow. I know it's just my friends and that they've been here before. But the birthday parties are always a good excuse for me to clean really well. It's going to be a smaller group, but we are doing all the normal things. The cupcakes are made, the toys are decluttered, but we didn't decorate yet. I ran out of time. I had to shower, but it didn't happen until 8pm.

We did finish school for the week! And then Jared, Justin and I went and picked up a free indoor bike. I just KNEW that Abishai would love it! Just like Keturah did at his age. He got on that thing a dozen times and wore himself out. Keturah did a 30 minute workout, too. I got on it for 2 minutes and my knees started to scream at me. I didn't want to be sore for tomorrow, so I didn't continue, but I'll have to slowly build myself up. I plan to do it in the afternoon between 3-5pm instead of being lazy on the couch. I took a good look at myself today and it wasn't pretty at all. It makes me weep. But I'm going to try again. And I ate mostly vegetables for dinner. And I made a low carb dessert thing with a special protein powder and butternut squash. And I did eat some frosting when I frosted cupcakes, ok? But it was part of my dinner, lol. And, I had several packages arrive this week from my sister. My beautiful sister Stefanie, the one who has always cared so much for others, the glue that holds my siblings and I together, the one that every one of us has a relationship with, bought me some undergarments to cheer me up because I said mine were getting tighter and tighter. And she guessed the right size and style even! And she got me some leggings that have a POCKET because I said I don't wear leggings because I need a pocket for my phone and hankie. Woot! Woot! She's also going to send me some of her bigger clothes that don't fit and some from my other sister Kristina since she lost weight as well. I could cry. I'm so not good at loving on others outside my family, or even loving on my extended family, but Stefanie is just one of those creatures that has a big heart and just does it. Like Abishai does.

Anyway, after lunch, we made the cupcakes and then I went to the store for prescriptions and a few odds and ends. Then it was back home to try and catch up on email, which I hadn't touched all day. I had about 200 emails to go through. And this is why I do it all day long because I'm still not done. Oh and I picked up a big bag of library books that were all for Abishai that we had ordered! Some of them are on the lowest reading level for the graduated readers so I hope I can get him to read the easier words and I'll read the harder words. I've done that with the other kids, too, and it's so much more fun for them to be able to read books that they like! He had told me a theme, and then we looked at the library website, and he would point to the covers he liked. There's Star Wars, Lego Jurassic World, Hot Wheels, Monster Trucks, and Avengers. We got books and DVD's including ones about the inventor of Hot Wheels and tips and hints for the Lego Jurassic World video game he likes to play. I thought maybe Keturah and Justin might want to look through it and see if there are areas we haven't accessed that would be helpful. Oh, and they had Bible class today, too.

Then I did the vacuuming and they had pizza for supper. I frosted the cupcakes and they are ready to go. We will decorate, go get balloons (and a special treat at Mocha Nut), and then set up everything. I just got word though that 3 of our guests might not be coming. Boo! We'll see. One of the kids has a stuffy nose, so who knows. I'm like, "I don't care, come anyway!" But I think Jared would be unhappy if I told him. I don't think this family has had Covid yet. The others have, so we're all good there. Hm,...

Finally a shower and time to sit down. Phew, I'm tired. I'm feeling good about the birthday stuff. I love doing it. But I'm always trying to hold off my feelings about myself and just get through tomorrow and Sunday, which is also full of stuff. Monday is quiet, thank goodness, because we might actually get a good dumping of 5-7 inches of snow between Sunday night and Tuesday morning! Woot! Woot! I've got several things on Tuesday as well. No rest for the weary.

But it was a good day overall. I can be happy about that.

See the recipe below, but I just happened to have the butternut squash that needed to be cooked and the her protein powder. What I didn't have was the the flax. I thought I had picked some up at Aldi a month ago but I couldn't find it. I had to go to the store anyway for blueberries and prescriptions, so I picked up the flax then. And I picked up GF cornbread mix. And I picked up a box of cream of rice (I LOVE that stuff!) And pizza. And head and shoulders shampoo because Justin asked for it. And a treat for him for Sunday. And some special drinks for me. It's never a simple trip, is it? Lol. Oh, and it has the texture of a thick brownie, but the taste of dark chocolate because it's very low sugar. The only sugar is whatever is in the protein powder, which I forgot to look up. I can't have the cupcakes for Abishai's birthday, so this is what I made for myself.

Abishai comes running into our room before I'm out of bed and says, "Grogu is riding the triceratops! Bwahahaha! Grogu is the best!

Abishai was so excited for this bike! He used it at least a dozen times today and talked about getting strong. He tuckered himself out, too, because he was quite whiny before bedtime. Mommy for the win! Although it is primarily for Mommy (and Keturah) to use. No more excuses about weather and getting all the gear on and blah blah blah.

Lining the cupcake tins reminds me of how my mom would let the kids do it when she would make muffins (always the Jiffy mix little boxes, but it was the perfect amount for us and my mom and dad to eat). Typically I don't use liners and just use my flexible red pan, but we want these to be stand alone cupcakes so we don't touch other people's food.

Abishai is still obsessed with his bubble world! He calls the big bubbles the king, too!

Using the standing mixer really made the batter smooth.

We ordered like 23 books and DVD's for Abishai to "read." Some of the words, he can actually read now! Yeah for books! The library will reopen to patrons next week, but you have to stay less than an hour. I will at some point take Abishai in to get his library card now that he can read, too. That's a big milestone! We don't use the kids' cards much, but it's important for them to feel like they can have their own card and order books. Justin has ordered some things before. And they can eventually have access to the online books and movies, too. But I don't know that they know how to do that. I barely can do it, lol. Lots of reading to do!

I remember these scenes from the TV show the most because I watched them twice. Why? Because I accidentally started the show on Season 5 instead of Season 1. Thankfully, I found out before I watched the final episodes, so I didn't know the true ending of the show until after I had watched the rest of the seasons and fell in love with all the characters. I loved this scene and this couple. Gorgeous little town!

Did you know that Cornwall is a county and it's Celtic country? And it's way out on the southwest tip of England nearly 5 hrs from London! Cardiff is a bit closer (where a lot of the new Doctor Who is filmed), but still 3 hours away. England looks so small on the map, but it's actually the size of New York. Cool!

They can't predict it exactly, and a lot of it is going south of us, but here comes some snow! And the funny thing is that it's in the same time frame as the snowstorm that came after Abishai was born that made us go home early from the hospital. That storm started at noon on Saturday and lasted until Sunday or Monday and dumped 24-36 inches on us in PEI. We were in the hospital a total of 31 hrs AFTER birth. Typically, here, you get 48 hrs in the hospital after the birth, but of course you could be in the hospital for a whole day before that depending on your labor progression. But they told us that either you go home now, or you go home on Monday. It was Saturday. We opted to go home now so we could take care of our other babies. We only lived 10 minutes or so from the hospital. No big deal. And a nurse did a home visit a couple of days later. I've never had a home visit before, but I liked that I didn't have to leave the house. And after that 2nd snowstorm (we had just dug out form the another snowstorm of the same size in the days prior to Abishai's birth), we dug out and had Abishai on the sled for a brief second at 3 days old and he didn't cry one bit. And he's loved the cold and snow ever sense. A true Canadian at heart (but fully American citizen, too).

Abishai discovered the water bottle holder and insisted on using it.

Just plain cheese pizza for Abishai and Keturah. It's his birthday, he can have plain cheese pizza if he wants to!

The simplest "cake" you can make. Abishai asked for chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and blueberries on top. I accidentally got a devil's food cake mix, but Abishai doesn't care. They came out perfect!


I'm so glad we had the Bulk Barn in Charlottetown and I tried my hand at using piping bags and tips. I invested in some basic tips and it's such an easy way to make things look halfway decent. I put the can of icing in the piping bag and away I went. Yup, I used premade frosting. Easy peasy.

Four blueberries for each one.

And done! Simplest cake ever!

The recipe for the fudge thing away.

Last selfie has a 5 yr old!

This is why I wanted a second fridge and this particular kind. I wanted someplace to put large flat pans and my 9x13 pants as well. I still have a lot of veggies to eat up. But the cake is safe for now.

And that's a wrap on another young child themed birthday party! Very chill. That's how I would describe it. Ok, the kids we had over are very loud, "unsocialized" nerdy homeschoolers, but hey, they are great kids! It was a tiny bit weird to have 10-14 year olds, but that's who my child knows and loves. And they actually love him back. Who am I to stop that? There wasn't as much playing with toys, in fact, there wasn't much playing at all, which was good in a way because last year Abishai got really upset at other kids playing with his stuff. And I got to hang out with two of my great friends, too. Maybe Abishai will have more friends his age next year. We'll see. I didn't decorate as much, and we put everything in the middle of the table this time and set out individual places for everyone since we had very few kids, 4 in total, actually, plus our 3. One friend was sick, so she stayed home. I'm kind of glad we stuck to our homeschooling friends because they aren't out and about and exposed to Covid as much as the kids in public schools or with parents that work outside the home. Yes, one sibling was sick, but I'm sure it's just a head cold. Clean up was relatively easy as well. Abishai was exhausted by the end of it, too.

He woke up late this morning because I think he wore himself out on the bike yesterday. He didn't want to get dressed to go get his balloons, but Daddy whispered something in his ear that made him smile. But he was to keep it a secret until after we got the balloons. While we waited for the balloons to be filled, we walked around the Party City store and looked at a few things. We wanted a TMNT tablecloth and that store was the one that had it, although it was a little further away than the other store. Abishai didn't spend as much time looking at things because I think he wanted to tell me his secret. The store was pretty quiet and the balloons were filled in no time. Once we got in the car, he made sure I had started driving away and then told me that Daddy said we could go to Chick-Fil-A! Well, I told him we were also stopping by the Mocha Nut because I wanted a special treat for myself that was only available today, and that he could also get a cookie there. So, we did that, and used the restroom. But when we got back in the car, he wanted to go straight home and save Chick-Fil-A for another day. Why? Because I had bought him a $15 plastic sword set that had a special place to put the swords on his back and he wanted to get home to play with it. So that's what we did. I didn't force him. I told him that we could get Chick Fil A even after getting a cookie at the Mocha Nut, but he said no. I think he also wanted to change his clothes, but we wouldn't let him until after the party. He immediately changed to his pjs after a quick bite of supper though.

We got home and it wasn't too bad setting things up. That's why I've chipped away at the cleaning and decluttering over the last couple of weeks. Easy peasy. He didn't want a lot of decor, and that's fine. I wasn't feeling up to doing a lot anyway because I would just have to take it down. Shoot, I didn't take a photo of him with his balloons. I'll have to do that tomorrow. We got him a big gold #6! I'm so glad Abishai is very cooperative a lot of the time and says, "That's fine, Mommy." and is agreeable. Sometimes he throws a fit, but he's got a big heart and wants to please people, too. He made it easy to go about our day today.

We had the Matthews, Molly, Esther, and Eli, and the Boltons, Angela and Autumn. That's it. I hope this isn't a phasing out of themed birthdays, but it might be. I did give away a lot of stuff last year from our birthday stash. And we used up some leftovers from last year, including the pinata we never got to last year, lol! And gave away more of the goodie bag stuff. We gained 5 toys so far. The Hot Wheels set from Stefanie and Auggie, the Mandalorian Lego set from us, a bonus set from us, a light up moon from the Boltons, and an ice cream truck from the Matthews. We have one more big celebration with Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow. It doesn't seem like a lot but you know what? It's still memorable. It's still fun. And Abishai and Daddy got to put together another new Lego set this weekend! And no, we aren't going to keep going with building a Lego set every weekend. That gets too expensive! Lol!

I'm not sure if it was the "best birthday ever" but Abishai was very tired when he went to bed. I pushed myself hard to do what I did do. I'm still in a pretty foggy depressed mood, but I put one foot in front of the other for my baby's sake. Now, what am I going to do for the daughter who official turns 13, a teenager, this year?! And for the son that turns 16?! I don't know. I'm thinking of taking Keturah to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington or maybe even Churchill Downs in Louisville if they are still doing tours. For Justin, a joy ride with maybe his small group friends would be appropriate or something in the backyard. Not these homeschooling friends. We've got to mature Justin a bit more, although I know he enjoys and loves these younger ones, too. And Benaiah? Well, he's "on his own now" so I guess no birthday stuff? I did thankfully remember to get him Valentine's candy, the same as the rest of the kids. I still have 4 kids. Not 3. I know Leah likes to get Jared, Aaron, Shuana, and me something on holidays, so, being a parent and wanting to dote on your children doesn't stop when they turn 18. Benaiah might think so. But I won't let it. I do miss him sometimes. I feel like he's just another person on the internet or texting from far away like texting my sister. It can be hard at times. But he's in good hands. Abishai even said that Benaiah's "secret" is Ava. And I asked Abishai if he thinks they will get married someday and he thinks so. We will see. I won't be at all surprised if they do. And I'm totally ok with it. It's just hard to watch from a distance. But onto other things.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I have to quickly turn around and do more "party" stuff. Nah, but I did plan way ahead and got the kids some candy and a card for Jared. And thanks to Stefanie, some new clothes, too. It will be busy with church stuff and an impending snow storm, but hey, it will work.

Yes, snowstorm coming Sunday night through Tuesday morning, and another one on Thursday to Friday or Saturday. 3-5 inches with each one! How exciting! This has been the snowiest winter in a long time! Shovels and sleds are ready! The public school kids have Monday off because of President's day, and Tuesday I have a busy afternoon. But maybe we can go sledding again on Wednesday. Maybe try a different sledding hill, like the one in a park off of Prospect St, I think. Maybe invite some friends. We'll see! Just in time to correlate with Abishai's birthday like it was when he was born. Woot! Woot! Oh, my last baby is 6! How can that be?! I'm comfortable with it, almost forgetting that he's the last one because I'm lost in my own world, but how crazy time flies! And he's reading and writing letters and all that. Ah! Such a big boy with such a tender spirit. Oh my babies, stop growing up! Stay with me forever! Sigh. I love them all!

Abishai 6th Birthday February 13th, 2021

A hard lesson I really, really need to learn.

I did an extra puzzle thing in one of my games on my phone and got this pretty picture. You did another puzzle to win a piece of this puzzle. It took a bit of work because you can only get so many coins per hour in order to even play the games. But I did it.

Pretty cool balloon! We didn't buy it, but it was awesome!

I actually think I did try this Rose Cardamom the last time they had it. But it was a nice treat to have it again today. Plus I got to see Seth Weber and Savanna Alvay, too. Sweet cashier as well. They were REALLY busy again today. They always seem to be despite their location in a pretty iffy part of town. They are "on the way" for most of us to get to Greenwood where all the shops are, so that helps.

Not too much decorating but just enough. We had extra balloons, plates, napkins, and cups from last year. We bought the tablecloth at the party store today.

Ready for some party guests plus they get their Valentine's, too!

Grogu is ready! He's protecting the snacks.

Keturah, no touching! Grogu will protect the yummies!

I have to agree with this sign!

Abishai on his 1 yr birthday! He's so adorable and always has been! I just can really remember holding him and playing with those toes. I can feel the heaviness of that particular outfit against my hand. And having to carry around the paci on the paci keeper. What a cutie!

The candy canes make a great place to put some birthday signage. I'm not taking these down until the snow is gone. Candy canes go with snow and I don't care what the neighborhood thinks. We need lights and happiness in the dead of winter.

Daddy! Stop trolling!

Ready for a party!

Bowling is all set up, and maybe after this, I can finally throw away these boxes!

Legos on hand!

Back room is still a bit full but clean.

Hot Wheels and for a brief moment, nothing on the couch but pillows.

Welcome banners.

Grogu has a party hat now!

Ranch and veggies.

Everybody got Valentines because we didn't have our traditional Valentine's Day party at gym day this year.

$12 balloon is worth it!

Balloons we didn't fill last year did the trick and saved us money. We also bring in our own balloon weights.

I spy a preteen hiding out in her girl cave. Boy is this room filled to the hilt with stuff!

Spoiled!

Abishai found this latchhook rug my dad made in his closet and wanted to use it. Awww. I think I had it out in the Beech Grove house in the baby's room.

Time to eat and talk!

Yummy cupcakes!

Pre party tickle fight!

Using a blow torch to light the candles.

A jump in the action because I did use the DSLR today. I may or may not get those photos loaded between these photos. Birthday candles are lit!

They are all separated out so it's hard to blow all the candles at one time.

Party guests and siblings. Keturah, Socks, Esther, Abishai, Eli, Caiden, Autumn, (Lily, but she couldn't come), and Justin.

First gift is from the Matthews!

A new Lego City set of course! An ice cream truck!

And this was from the Boltons. It's another Playmobile guy. This time, it was some kind of alien chaser!

Big boy used scissors to cut the string on his gift by himself.

He also got a glowing moon from them that changes colors. Funny thing is that it was made by the same company as their LED rope lighting, so the remotes are almost identical. And when I try to change the color on the moon, I have to cover up the signal for the rope lighting. They had put the moon next to Abishai's bed. Cool gift though!

Hanging out in the living room.

Socks is exhausted from all the petting. They had a fun time trying to deshed the dog, lol.

Sword fighting with Eli!

Rolling a lint roller on your own hair makes a weird sensation. Yes, weird homeschoolers at play here. Or rather preteen/teens being silly.

Daddy remembered where the pole was for the pinata and that we needed to do it. I almost forgot again! We ended up not doing it last year because Abishai had had his meltdown just prior to that.

We eventually had to just pull the pull strings.

There it goes!

Uh oh, noise makers for the ride home.

Uh, I must have pushed a button on my phone because these photos are wider. However, just those big kids hanging out and dressing up. Lol.

Eli, are you ok? He was, but I have no idea why he was on the floor.

After getting a treat at the Mocha Nut, and wanting to play with his new katana swords, Abishai opted to go straight home instead of Chick Fil A. Yes, he passed up an opportunity to go to Chick Fil A! We'll have similar food tomorrow, so it's ok.

Dinner for Abishai! He was starving and gobbled up his pizza pretty quickly.

And here it comes! Two snow storms, back to back with up to 7 inches possible with each one! I think we'll probably get 7 inches total, but hey, who knows!

Current timeline of snowstorm events for our area.

Monday

Tuesday

I guess we'll have 36 hrs with a reprieve and then back at it, just like in 2015, but only with a lot less snow because we live in a warmer climate.

Thursday

Another Saturday night of Lego building fun! Abishai did most of the building himself this time!

Awwww

No, I didn't forget Benaiah for Valentine's Day. Yeah!

Halfway done his new ice cream truck!

It's got a sliding window on one side, and it opens up like this on the other side. Sweet!

Selfie with my newly minted 6 yr old! He;s been looking so much bigger and older to me lately. My how time flies!

Sunday before the stormy week....

We slept in and didn't get to the 9am service. Jared had volunteering in the nursery, and Abishai wanted to go to 2nd service anyway. Keturah went with them for the 11am as well. I was going to go, but wasn't ready when they were ready. And then I bailed. But, for good reason. I spent the time watching Indian Creek's last week's sermon, then Mt. Gilead's sermon live, and then Indian Creek's this week's sermon live. This week's sermon was on generosity and of course I found something I didn't like, or at least interesting, that Jesus never said that you had to continue the OT practice of tithing, but Jesus always raised the bar and said why we should do more than tithe. I will watch the other sermon from our church on serving AGAIN so I can get clearer thoughts on if I really agree with what he said or not. It just seems a lot of things that have been said lately are going sideways from what I grew up with or was taught for the past 20 years. New pastor equals new thoughts. Not sure if I really agree with all his statements. So, I evaluate everything. Nitpick everything. Most of the time I tell myself and others to just take what you can from a book or sermon or whatever and ditch the rest because no one's theology is perfect. But if there are several red flags (from my point of view) that aren't settling right or I'm not understanding well or whatever, to me it's an indication that I'm not sure where the church is heading and if I want to be a part of it. Therefore, I'm an outsider for now. Gary or Leah made mention that this sermon series follows along with the principles from Rooted. I get it, sort of, but do we have to just sink our teeth into one book/way of doing small group/church? It reminds me of when everyone was doing "The Purpose Driven Life/Church" from Rick Warren. It's nice to have something to hang everything on, but still, I wasn't that thrilled with Rooted to begin with, and when the preacher inserts his own perspective, however he may have come to it through his experience, I have my own experience, and I'm left again feeling like it's rocking my own inner theology and not in a good way. It's making me go, "Hm,.....is this for me? Do I really believe this? Is this different or am I being a knucklehead?" So, me being the dumb lay person who hasn't study Scripture like these men and hasn't been to Bible college or anything like that, is left very unsure. It's hard to trust a new leader, even if some of the other leaders are well known and liked and trustworthy. It all comes down to trust. And I don't trust our preacher or the new direction of our church. Not yet at least. So, I'll keep dabbling and "dating" the church for now. One step at a time.

What I did miss from not going was that Benaiah played drums this morning. Bummers! So, I watched the service at 4:30 (prerecorded but they are allowed to air it again "live" but because of copyright of music, you can't leave it up on a media platform of any kind. You can upload just the sermon though.) from home. I hadn't watched any of the music portions of the services this morning, so it was good to hear the songs, even if I didn't want to sing them myself because I don't sing if I don't fully believe in what I'm singing. They moved the drums to the middle of the stage again, yeah! But it's still so dark back there! I wish they would add more lights to the musicians. It's not just all about the vocalists. I need to see my boy! But, you could see him when the camera was on the lead vocalist and from a couple of other angles. Benaiah also played at Crave tonight, too. He seemed exhausted at lunch. He and Ava didn't have any plans for Valentine's Day and I don't think Ava really expected them because it was Sunday, and they both were at church and Crave. Sounds likes us, eh? I knew he had said he had spent a lot of money on dates in January and such, so they needed to be more careful with money. Ava did drop off a drink and a heart shaped Boston Creme donut from Dunkin' Donuts to Benaiah during lunch at Gary and Leah's. Leah had made Gary his mom's famous red velvet cake from scratch, including icing that you melt together on the stove first and then add more ingredients before putting on the cake. And I had a card for Jared. I'm sure Gary gave Leah some flowers, but I didn't notice which bouquet it was at their house. And of course, I got nada from Jared. Booger. He even went to the grocery store when he picked up the kids from youth group so he could get food for work and cream for his back. And Abishai got another Hot Wheel car! I got nada. Again. Like always. I'm disappointed, again.

Lunch was all about Abishai, so we had chicken nuggets, waffle fries, tater tots, green beans, deviled eggs, cut up fruit and vegetables, and a blueberry pie with chocolate sauce and whipped cream on top! He was very happy! And then he got Lego underwear, and 3 Hot Wheel sets to add to his collection. Another racing strip and then an ice cream set and burger set. Crazy child! Keturah got to read her writing to Grandma and Grandpa. No one argued and because I had said I didn't want to talk about it, no hot topics like church came up. Gary only asked what church service did I watch today. He was preaching at another church today. So, because he does that so frequently, I doubt he understands or feels the changes that have been made and doesn't have time to listen to all the sermons and nitpick them and raise his eyebrows. I'm wondering if he can even be committed to Indian Creek when he's hardly there on Sunday mornings and does no teaching or volulnteering. He of course goes to their small group. But if we are talking about volunteering at our church and committing to one another, I would think he/we are supposed to be more involved. Now, I say you don't have to volunteer in the local church if you are already involved elsewhere, but that's no the vibe I was getting from last week's sermon, or the one about the commitment/partner document. I'll have to ask him about it sometime. The Gary era has now completely left the building and I'm very unsure of the Dan era.

After lunch, the kids and I took our valentines to the neighbors. Then it was screen time and nap time. My back hurts from sleeping in our bed and I don't know why. You would think it would be better to sleep on our mattress than on the couch or the pull out bed, but it's not. I'm chalking it up to my extra weight, too. I did get on the exercise bike for 5 minutes at the lowest setting. I'm not going to over do it and then be miserable. 5 minutes were enough for my knees to feel a tad wobbly. I tend to over do in the beginning and then quit after 3 sessions because I'm in so much pain. So, 5 minutes, lowest setting for at least a week. I haven't eaten that much today. Some toast and sausage this morning. A few fries, a hamburger, fruit with some chocolate sauce, and veggies for lunch, oh and some sorbet. And then some frosting and coffee when I woke up at 5pm. I don't feel hungry for regular food right now. Which is weird. I'm just not going to eat if I don't feel like it and see how that goes. I'll eat the right foods tomorrow. Sundays are my cheat days or eat as unhealthy as I want to days.

After chores, I made Keturah search her room for her jeans she couldn't find this morning. We raided her closet, which is a disaster again, and I found several pieces of clothing in many spots in her room where they don't need to be. I don't know why she gave up her dresser and why she can't keep all her cloths in one area. Her organization makes absolutely no sense to me. And the fact that she can just let trash fall and not pick it up to put in the trash can also bothers me. So I ignore her room. Until she complains she has no pants to wear. Well, I found the 4 pairs of pants we had picked out from some hand me downs a couple of months ago. One is a pair of skinny jeans, and she can get over the skinny bottoms, they are NOT jeggings. One pair is the pair that fits well and she does wear. The other two pairs are slightly big and she doesn't like how loose they feel because she's used to sweatpants being right up against her leg, and YET she doesn't like skinny jeans. I don't get it! I told her, tough luck, those are the 4 pants you have to wear out of the house. No more sweatpants at all. If your favorite pair is in the wash, you WILL wear one of the other pairs and get over it. There's only so many styles of jeans out there. She's just so picky! And she said, "I don't care what I wear as long as it covers my body," as she was wearing a tight pair of sweatpants/leggings that had a hole in the thigh and are too short so her ankles were showing, so, don't lie to me. You have skin showing right now. So, caught red handed. She's now going to have to clean up the trash in her room and organize the rest of her clothes by properly folding them and putting them away and comping up with a solution for all of them to be in the same area. Then she can have screen time this week.

While the kids were at youth group, Jared and Abishai made the Mandalorian set with Baby Yoda. Oh so cute! I went through our history books and came up with a plan for the rest of the semester and beyond. I quickly jotted down some notes for next year's curriculum in all subjects. Not too hard since we just continue on in what we are doing most of the time. I guess I have been doing this at about this time the last few years as I look towards the March convention that will probably never happen again. I miss the curriculum fair part the most. I want to see the books. My new homeshcool friends need to see the books. It's hard to pick out something online. You can get plenty of lectures and books on homeschooling online. I honestly don't care about the speakers, if they are live or not, but I care about seeing the vendors. Sigh. It's a hard transition back to book fairs, but I think it's what is needed. But the book vendors don't want to spend the money on it with all the specific rules. Maybe when 80% of the population is vaccinated, although I'm guessing a lot of homeschoolers won't get vaccinated. They tend to be "crunchy" mamas, although I think even that population is decreasing as we have the new mainstream Covid homeschoolers coming in. So there's a major shift in that community as well. We need more secular book vendors, too, although that's not in our "wheelhouse" it would be nice to be able to show people religiously neutral books. Anyways, just some thoughts on that. It felt good to briefly delve into that realm again. We've got some great school work up ahead. Little by little, Justin and Keturah will finish well, I'm sure of it. I might do speech and study skills next year instead of writing and literature. We'll do the 20th century for history and then Justin will be totally done with history. I will circle back to Creation with Abishai and Keturah for the 2nd semester. Math continues on as is. Science, the kids will do the next Apologia/Berean Builders books and I will circle around again for Abishai to a scope and sequence book I used with the others and loosely cover some basic science topics. Although, he's really absorbing information about animals from the internet, so I'm not terribly worried about that. It follows the days of Creation, so we do astronomy first. But again, we've talked about things as we go, so it's not too hard to squeeze that in. And that's about it. Not hard to cover it all. Except foreign language. Ugh. I gotta get on that one!

We've got a busy week weather wise with two snow storms coming. We might get 3-7 inches with each one. And then some appointments this week as well. Tuesday is by far my busiest for this week. I wish I didn't have things on Tuesday because it would be the perfect sledding day, but alas, we'll have to wait. The kids in public school won't have a snow day because they can just do the e-learning thing now, poor creatures. But they have tomorrow off because it's President's Day. Not us, we need to put in a solid day because of Tuesday being full and the potential of another sledding day this week. Maybe at a different hill and maybe with our homeschooling friends. We'll see. Well, I'm off for now! See ya!

I bought my own treat, of course, and these are GOOD, and gluten free.

I bought 4 sets of these, but I'm not sure if the fourth set was for me or for Benaiah. I opted for Benaiah to make myself feel better that I hadn't forgotten him. Daddy bought Keturah the cookies and cream bar because she asked for one.

I actually only had 3 of the peanut butter hearts to start with but picked up an extra one yesterday at Justin's request. Perfect!

A simple card for Jared about thermostat wars. I actually wrote out the other card I have, but it's fancier and better for our anniversary this year. I also filled out Abishai's card after he had opened it because I didn't realize we were giving him his gift during his party yesterday.

After birthday party breakfast of champions! Wait a minute, there's no birthday cake! He didn't go get a cupcake from the other fridge, but that's ok. I ended up putting half of these packages away.

Jared was making sausages and said this was my "bouquet" for the day. Sigh. Men.

LOADS of fangirling on Twitter today so I'll spare you those, but I still think this is one of my favorite on screen couples/relationship of all time. The struggles, the jealousy, the hard feelings, and the reconciliation and adoration. Incredible story telling! This is from the Poldark tv show.

Jared tweeted this one. And yes, this is what he feels about Hallmark holidays.

Nice reference from the local weather people.

I just HAD to include my sister Stefanie's photo shoot with Grogu today. Oh my goodness! I swear she and I have more fun with Grogu than the boys do! But how stinkin' adorable are these? And because we are both very serious people and deep thinkers, this kind of fun and creativity is an outlet for us.

Peek-a-boo!

Blueberry pie! I don't know where Abishai got the idea for blueberry pie with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, but here it is! Leah used this bluebird salt shaker to hold up the plastic wrap. It looked so cute!

His favorite foods! Yes, he enjoys lots of different fruits and veggies. And Grandma hand made the chicken nuggets!

Grandpa wanted to put all the candles on the cake saying it would look nicer, but we all insisted that he only has 6 candles. And it worked. Look how big he looks!

Blew them all out with one blow this time!

Spoiled monkey! But that's because Hot Wheels sets aren't as expensive as massive Lego sets the others ask for.

When asked what he wanted for his birthday, and maybe Grandma prompted him about clothing, he said, "I need new underwear. My underwear has holes in them!" I said, no they don't, but when I looked, he was right! Good call!

See, these are all part of a whole city!

Keturah read some of her creative writing aloud to the family.

We dropped of valentines to the neighbors. Actually, I made the kids come with me and do the running up to the doors.

At first I tried watching the music portion of the 4:30 service on my phone, but I didn't like how it was putting the browser up like this, so I switched to the computer. Plus I can't record video of things that are playing on my phone. I had missed seeing Benaiah play live this morning and was pretty bummed. I'm glad I caught him during the replay this afternoon. And I'm glad they moved the drumset to the middle of the stage again. However, they need more lighting! I want to see all the musicians, not just the perfectly skinny and perfectly dressed millennial vocalists.

Well, Benaiah is back there and he didn't have to wear a mask, so that's good. I think it's silly to be wearing masks on stage anyway.

Oh his hair! But he likes his haircut and brushing it out of his face all the time. And today, Benaiah threatened to bleach it and dye it. Grandma said as long as the dye doesn't get on the sheets, then do whatever.

Goofball! He tweeted some more pictures and comments later in the day, too.

Abishai said the bad guys were hurting the ice cream truck workers so the army guys stepped in and saved them. Then the ice cream truck workers gave the army guys ice cream! Lol!