Year 6, February 19th-21st, 2021: Sledding, Karate, and Taxes?

 Can I just have alone time now? Well, I did get the day started with alone time when the kids went to Grandpa's house for Bible class. After that, it was pure chaos. School? I didn't touch any of it today so I'll have to correct math tomorrow. Laundry? It's still in the dryer. Paperwork? Nope, not even going to try. We went to Caiden's house to go sledding and well, what an afternoon. It was very, very cold. Keturah didn't want to come with us, but I made her, and she let everyone know she didn't want to be there. Abishai spent half the time outside and then half of the time inside with us. We witnessed some sibling rivalry that scared Abishai half to death, lol. And, yes, I got stuck trying to go back up the steep snow covered driveway I went down on to get to the house. I wasn't supposed to go all the way down, but my only other option was a some deep snow at the top. Um, I have a car. Nothing was going to work unless I stopped right at the top of the driveway so no one else could park behind me. That might have worked. But I didn't worry about it until it was time to leave and well, Jared had to got to Tractor Supply Company and rescue us. We were all tired and hangry. I made Abishai stay in the car with me while we waited so he could chill for a bit because he had his first "karate" lesson, or Tang Soo Do class tonight. And I knew when everybody else went inside after trying to help us that it was going to be loud and I was done socializing. So, I just kept the car warm and tried to keep up with emails. Burned through a bunch of data today, I'm sure of it. But we survived. Jared rescued us, we had a quick supper with Gary and Leah, left the other two kids behind, (Benaiah and Ava went on a date), and took Abishai to karate class.

He LOVED karate class and immediately started asking when he could go back. Yeah! It was fun to watch all the kids' different personalities. I didn't expect them all to be perfectly obedient. This is an introductory class and I know that this studio works with kids with ADHD issues and/or maybe autism, and what not, and it was evident that some of the kids could have had some of that (now that I know what to look for). Abishai asked if he could help someone else a couple of times, and made sure they were all moving up in the line. He needs some help learning some basic exercise moves. But they had 4 adults for 12 kids so plenty of helpers to keep the kids going. Abishai wasn't afraid to ask for help "what's a squat?" He ran his hardest even AFTER being outside in the snow for a long time today. Bless his little heart. We even got to see Ami, Donovan, and Nate! They did obstacle courses, and ran back and forth doing bear crawl and bunny hops, and they said their little pledge things before and after, and even had a quick story time to review some of the rules of martial arts like respect and obedience. It was perfect for our speed and expectations. Great for learning social skills, too. Very, very happy and satisfied.

And now I'm exhuasted. I wore leggings under my jeans and wore my big heavy boots and just having that much gear on my body to lug around leaves me sore and exhausted. Never mind the fact that in the middle of the night, I wake up to myself having bad acid reflux and tasting the cheesecake mm's I had before going to bed in my throat tasting like burnt marshmallows. I almost vomited. I tried to sleep the rest of the night in Jared's chair, but then my neck hurt. I'm a mess. All I want to do tomorrow is to rest. But, I can't. I need to start the taxes. Maybe I'll do both. I just need to veg, so you know what? If I do that, then I do that. I'm exhausted. Utterly exhausted. And I have no idea what Sunday looks like. And Jared is gone tomorrow morning for the e2 online conference. And, and, and,....

And, I'm beyond frustrated with our street not being pulled. I'm sorry, but not all of us have SUV's or trucks. I have a little car. My van can barely get through. Get out there and shovel or snowblow or something! And do the street in front of our house so the rest of us can get out. You all act like you've never seen snow before. Good grief! Help each other out, too! I guess I don't have to go to the other street again until Wednesday. Maybe the sun will have helped it by then. We never had this much trouble in Charlottetown. All the streets, including sidestreets and neighborhood streets, got plowed within 48 hrs at any temperature. And NH, all those years, the plow even came down our private street (now I understand that it was probably because of the bus route) and did both sides of the street towards the end of the cleanup. Kids didn't miss school because the buses couldn't get through neighborhoods. And now of course they can just all do e-learning. My word. I'm over it. I've never had to drive through snow like this. Get your rears in gear and get it done. Don't just make us miserable for more than a week while you wait for the sun to do the magic. Get it off the road! We have places to go and your causing accidents. Don't just do one strip or one street. Do the whole thing. Ugh! Hoosier hospitality my butt! I just don't get it and I just want to not get stuck anymore. It's embarrassing! 

So, enough of that. I'm going to watch TV now. I'll journal photos another day.

I got stuck on my friend's hilly driveway. That's the road up there. When Jared came to rescue us, he was able to turn the wheel in just the right way to get halfway up. Then we used horse bedding to get the rest of the traction to get all the way up. My friend warned me, but I just didn't know where else to go because I was afraid of getting stuck in the deep snow at the side at the top near the road. Lots of adventure and the kids did help. Gary asked why I didn't know how to do it and that's an easy answer. Because no one went anywhere for about 24 hrs and the plows did their work more efficiently. And I honestly, now that I think about it, didn't drive all that much in NH. And in Canada? We had one car, so I drove, yes, and carefully, but again, we used main roads that were cleared more efficiently. By the time we go to Gary and Leah's house for supper, and I had gotten stuck less 50 yards from their house on their street because no one plowed their street or took a snowblower to it or anything after 4 days of the snow being there, I almost lost my marbles. I just about blew a gasket. I was livid. Y'all, we don't live in the south, k? We have equipment. And Hoosier Hospitality. Just get it done so the kids can go to school and I can go from one side of the nieghborhood to the other. Good grief!

Sleepy heads.

Well, this applies to those more north than we are because traveling has been hazardous.

In another lifetime, if I wasn't ill, and I had some money, man, I would travel. So fascinating!

Mommy,  I want to "experiment" and put this fruit pouch in these jucies in the big juice container. And then I'm going to drink this yogurt. In my Pikachu costume because I'm awesome. And I'm big enough to fit in this costume that was bought for my brother about 3 years ago. I'm super big!

Yeah! Our Senator Freeman voted for these things and our state legislature is making sure these ridiculous emergency policies don't hinder our freedoms. Good for them!

Well, her parents might be in Florida, but Autumn's sister dropped her off to play with us at Caiden's house!

My little guy trudging through the snow.

Justin trying to snowboard.

That's a huge chunk of snow Caiden!

Watch out, Autumn!

Abishai got right in with the action.

What you can't tell is that Abishai tacklied Autumn like she was a brother or something. She played along quite nicely and when she said time to get up, he did.

Justin ready to try that snowboarding thing again.

These kids spent two hours out here! It's like 15 degrees!

Fort building?

Our little homeschooling gang. Molly and her kids were going to arrive soon, too.

Hm,....the car is safe for now but how on earth am I going to get back up that hill?

It was a chilly day!

Keturah and Abishai liked petting the outdoor cats. Abishai was very concerned about getting his hands washed afterwards because he didn't want to hurt Daddy who is allergic.

Come to me, Kitty!

That's Eli down there! What a bunch of goofballs!

When we tried to leave, I just wanted to be done socializing so I stayed in the car with Abishai. I wanted him to take a break from people, too. I texted Molly and told her that. The kids had gone inside at this point. So here's Abishai trying to fall asleep to his Nighty Nights story and sing along.

He never could get quite comfortable, but at least he was a bit less whiny and I kept caught up on email. We had dinner with Gary and Leah and then were off to his first karate class so we got home super late.

I didn't know they made pelleted horse bedding. But $50 worth of horse bedding later and we got up the hill. We probably didn't need to spread all that we did, but we didn't know if Jared would have to go back down before coming back up. Thankfully, he didn't!

Our very "unscocialized" homeschool kids. Ha! Ages 6-15 and they get along just fine, boys and girls alike. #winning  Caiden's older sister was there, too, but she doesn't come to our park days. It was actually the first time any of us have met any of Caiden's sisters. And we've known him and his mom Brenda for 3 years I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took me all day to catch up. This is why I just can't go out all the time. I have too much work to do at home. I know some do go out a lot and their home is a mess because the kids are still at home. Or, the whole family is out at work and school, so the house sits empty all day and stays clean. IF I start out with a clean house, that can happen. The house was clean, but the daily stuff needed to be caught up on. I took two days away from home so today was really a school day trying to finish up the week's work on that. We all need showers/baths today, too. Even the dishes needed their bath and a load of laundry needed to be put away. The trash was smelly, the dog needed food 2x today, plus his regular going in and out. I ran in circles trying to make the most of every minute, like running between helping Abishai in the bathtub and teaching Justin a piano lesson. I'm guessing some homeschool moms can do this every day all day, but I cannot. I just can't. I have fibromyalgia and with it comes chronic fatigue. I just wear out. So tomorrow, I'm taking a full on break. I was thinking of doing the grocery shopping while the kids were at youth group, but nope, I'm just going to wait. Or Jared can do the youth group run and take Abishai to the grocery store at least to get some milk because we've been out of milk for a few days. We just haven't had time to pick it up. Jared could have possibly today on his way home from the e2 event that was being broadcast from the westside but he was probably coming home the opposite direction from our usual quick stop grocery store. I ordered those pain meds for the dog and I wanted him to pick them up plus milk yesterday but then he had to come rescue us. He probably just plain forgot. And the minute I leave, my brain goes all chaotic and I can't back into the swing of things once I get back home. 

And today was tax day. I did get a lot of it entered in. I have some bits and pieces to double check. The refund is a good chunk again but the final amount will be based on those little pieces of info. Then I HAVE to call the hospital financial office because now I'm past due and about to go to collections on our bills there. We got about half a dozen EOB's today as well. So now that's a mess. And it's the 20thand I haven't touch a newsletter for IAHE. There's no deadline for it except I was the one that instigated it and now I haven't even attempted it. So, I might have crossed off over a dozen things today, but I still have so much more to do. I did exercise, but didn't eat well, so I'm feeling blech. I read my Bible study but nearly fell asleep and my phone slipped out of my hand onto the floor. I had to keep shaking my head to wake up even with getting my noon coffee early. I hadn't showered in 4 maybe 5 days. Yes, it's getting THAT bad that I can't do something like that (it takes me 30 minutes and can be pretty exhausted too, only other Spoonies will understand that). The simple things in life are 10x harder when you are ill. Thankfully, next week looks calmer, but I will then try to do some of these other things to move things along.

Meanwhile, the kids had to do school with me, but then putz around all day thinking supper was magically going to appear on the table so it didn't matter that they got off the screens at 5:30. And then Jared was gone until 2:30 and went straight for a nap accomplishing nothing else at home besides a bit of playtime with Abishai. If he can shovel a driveway, he can put glue on wood chairs and dresser drawers so I can put my clothes away and have my stool back instead of Keturah sitting on it. Good grief. He says he's not sleeping well. Well, I might be sleeping more than him but I'm just as exhausted, ok? I'm hurting a lot right now and trying to get off the pain medication I seem to think I need every day. But I'm flaring and I have a headache every day because of withdrawal symptoms and I forget to drink my water and I'm straining to see things because my eyes are closing. And doctors think I can fit in exercise and preparing special foods in the perfect order within my other diet restrictions. Nope.

Never mind that I refuse to fill ice cube trays because I somehow always do it wrong and the husband complains. Or the in laws are shocked that my kids doesn't know the days of the week yet (I don't directly teach that one, they pick it up when they pick it up, and yes, we talk about it often enough in our daily life. It's called "unschooling" and leave it be). And someone needs to teach the kids the basics of how to do a squat, sit up, flexing his toes, etc and I don't have the time.And I can't direct others to do it. It wasn't a suggestion. I delegated it and I expect it to be done. But it wasn't. Same with the ice that has now formed on the back porch that makes the dog slip. I didn't have the 15 minutes to try and clean it up. If he falls and breaks a hip, we won't be paying for surgery. We will have to put him down. But, that didn't get done either despite a daughter being grounded from her phone and still seemed to use it for two hours to "listen to her Bible." Uh huh, right. Oh, and they haven't really done much for their Civil War projects so now I have to be mean and said I need to see you work on the 3D parts of your project for at least an hour before you have any screen time tomorrow. Oh crap and I forgot to go over Uncle Tom's Cabin with them because I haven't had time to listen up through the chapter I had them listen to it. Grrr......maybe I'll have to listen to that instead of watching dumb TV shows. Except I got into another miniseries one that did keep me binge watching this week, which isn't helping. Too much stuff!

Tomorrow, Sunday. Still normally busy. But I'm taking the day off, family, so fend for yourselves. You can scrounge for lunch (Jared thought I had time to talk to Benaiah about coming over. Um, no, he doesn't seem interested and I can't always do the inviting and arranging of our social life.), you can work on your projects, you can teach the kid how to do his exercises and not nap, and then you can take the kids to youth group and go to the grocery store. I'm not on duty. Not at all. Maybe then I can find the time to put on the right lotion so I don't itch and put my bra on the right way instead of inside out. And then maybe I can take a nap or listen to the audiobook for school or the health summit I paid for. Maybe I can rest before the Monday grind with phone calls and doctor appointments and some kind of schooling happens again. Maybe. Or I'll have a full blown meltdown and it's not even PMS week. Maybe I just need to up my meds. But what if they are causing the weight gain? See, there's never an easy solution. Although my Bible study was talking about that if we rebel against God enough, he'll just let us have our own way and suffer the consequences (not talking about salvation, although if you deny God entirely, you do lose that, too. I'm talking about the natural consequences of relying only on yourself.) So, surrender? Surrender what? God's hands aren't physically here to do these things. Do you think I don't occasionally pray for extra strength and stamina? But then I get mad when it isn't enough. I delegate and delegate and delegate and then have to spend just as much time going back through and picking up the pieces they all missed or refused to do like a mean taskmaster. But sometimes, it's what has to be done. Mean taskmaster. And if you yell at me or tell me no and I'm in this kind of stressed out mood, oh boy, watch out, because I will ground you so fast, you don't know what's going on. Don't you be telling me you followed the instructions in your math and it's clear that you didn't even after I warned you when you did it wrong on the paper before that. So, here, redo your whole math lesson again on a Saturday because you didn't read the instructions well enough. It wasn't the new concept, it was her being lazy and not paying attention which a good half of any grade. 

Ok, so yes, to do list is less. I'm exhausted. End of story.

Here ya go.

Abishai remembered he wanted to do his "experiment" so we did! We poured a juice box into a cup and added a squeezie pouch of pureed fruit and made what he called "pollution, Mommy!" Bwahahaha, I think he's been watching a little too much of science videos on his tablet. But so sweet at the same time. I don't know if he was thinking of the word "solution" but did it look like polluted water with the chunks of puree floating around until we mixed it up. It was a very tasty smoothie, though, and he drank it all.

Abishai pretended to fall asleep on the bike. Sleep riding instead of sleep walking?

Major icicles today. I don't think we get many icicles because our gutters are pretty clear, but maybe things are just that backed up. They have now made a thick layer of ice right outside the backdoor that is getting pretty dangerous. It's going to be above freezing tomorrow, so hopefully we will have time to scrape it off.

Warmest days in weeks! 49 and rain on Wednesday! Enjoy the snow while it lasts! Perhaps I'll use some of my off duty time tomorrow to take some photos.

Interesting article I saw on Twitter. Basically, it's a near albino penguin. Albinism is a complete lack of pigmentation. In the case of the penguin, it starts out black and loses the pigmentation. I'm fascinated by albinism in people, and I know animals can have it, too, but I never thought a penguin would! Cool!

Well, after a rough, tear filled night, I woke up to Abishai laying on the floor next to me, asleep, as I had slept on the couch writing all kinds of texts to Jared as he slept. Sometimes the stillness and chance to really think doesn't happen until the wee hours of the morning. I had determined that today was going to be a "Mommy on vacation" day. Jared stepped in and started a potato soup/mash of sorts with all kinds of vegetables. (Well, not the kinds that only I eat, but the most basic kinds like celery and carrots and onions). We had it for dinner and it was pretty good. He also made some burgers, fries, and veggies for lunch. I finished up some of my mushy veggies and didn't have much room for the burger, so lesson learned, keep eating the veggies first! I wasn't that hungry all day either, but I was resting all day, too. We did all go to church but still had to go in two vehicles because the bench seat isn't in the van. We need to remedy that this week by getting rid of the extra horse bedding we bought on Friday to get me up that hilly driveway, Then I have to move my boxes off the bench seat to get it out of the garage. I think Jared is well enough to do it with Justin's help. It just needs done. Anyway, church was fine and looked a little fuller at 11am than it does at 9am. Sermon was fine and on "Why are we here?" as we are answering some of life's biggest questions.Bottom line: to have an eternal relationship with God and to do Kingdom Work here on earth. Seems simple enough until you realize you suck at your relationship with God and your body doesn't allow you to do a whole of Kingdom Work, including building relationships even over the internet or praying for people. Yeah, I kind of suck at this. They also said we could send in questions for a q and a session in March during a Sunday evening where the high schoolers are off on their retreat to Camp Allendale and it's spring break. So, hm, my wheels started turning. I'm hoping maybe then some of my questions can be answered about what the church's stance is on all the hot topics like women preachers, LGBTQ, abortion, creation, drinking alcohol, sleeping together before marriage, etc. It sounds like individuals who have those questions sometimes (I think rarely) go to the staff and maybe ask that question, but it's not obvious from the whole congregational standpoint. And with the rise of progressive Christianity, I think we should be overstating the obvious answers for the newbies, just like we do with homeschooling questions. So, we'll see.

After lunch, we all went outside for a bit because it was a BALMY 35 degrees! Like no coat, no leggings under pants, BALMY! Ok, I lasted 15 minutes especially after Jared threw snow on me. But hey, it broke the silence between us and I felt better pelting snow balls at the brick wall with my bare hands like the savage that I am. Jared shoveled some snow up against the treehouse for Abishai to play in for the next couple of days. When we made snow forst, we always rolled the snow balls that you use for snowmen and then arranged them. Jared thinks it's easier to just pile it up using a shovel. I guess both types work and his way is faster. But if you have the right kind of snow and a lot of it, man, I can roll up a snow ball in no time to the size of 2 feet across. I can hear the crunching of the snow as I rolled up the balls plain as day to this day. (Ok, earth to Melinda, she just went off on the Instagram trail again, what was I saying?)

Kids went to youth group. I tried to listen to as much as I could of Uncle Tom's Cabin so we could discuss it tomorrow. I should listen to more of it after this, but will I? Not sure. I never checked my photo cds from last week, that's what kind of week it was. Anyway, oh, snowballs, naptime, yup. Normal Sunday I guess. Sunny and 35 degrees. Our road is perfectly dry. The rest of the neighborhood, not so much. So I refuse to use those roads. And I found out today that there's an ordinance somewhere that says you have to clean the sidewalk in front of your house AND the street if you live on a side street, aka, neighborhood, like around cars and such, parked on the street, maybe? Like downtown? Not sure, but point is, if EVERYBODY did it, especially those with snowblowers, it wouldn't be such an issue. I'm glad the snow was fun, it would just be MORE fun if people knew how to take care of it efficiently like NH and PEI does. End of rant.

Ok, back to business.

I posted these radish seedlings on FB and many people wanted them! Cool! Now, how do I split them up?

Gotta love some interesting weather trivia!

Poor boy didn't get up when I got home and asked if he wanted to go out. I need to pick up that medication for him tomorrow. I think it's really going to help. Just pain medication for those old joints.

First of all, it's 35 degrees, so Justin thinks he can be outside in shorts. Second, yes, his legs are very hairy. Third, look at how his hair is standing on end! Static electricity from somewhere? Or goosebumps? I don't know. Cracked me up!

Hard to take good photos through screened windows, but hey, at least there's some activity outside.

Justin never builds snow men. He builds BB8's instead. Much easier with two round piles of snow instead of three I guess. I should have tried to do one myself the more traditional way. It would have been huge because the snow was the right mixture and density. Maybe tomorrow.

Wimp! She cleared the porch like I said of the ice but then came inside. No fun! But she did have a very cute outfit on if only she had left her fleece unzipped she would have been dressed how I dress! Tee, sweatshirt, and skinny jeans. She looks incredible in them. Like, wow, incredible curvy and stylish. She just doesn't want the attention. At least with the hat you can't see the big old zit she's picking on her head to the point now that it's an injury. Grrr....

King of the snow.

What are you doing?

Oh, throwing snow on the brick wall. Nice!

Daddy was making some walls of snow to make his fort more complete.

Guard dog.

Beautiful dog.

I guess his back feels better because he can lift a shovel now.

Justin's BB8

Might as well document what the outside looks like. I haven't felt like doing any crazy photography shots this year. It's snow. We used to have so much of it in Canada. It's pretty. I miss it. But I don't have time to stare at it anymore.

Then I threw snowballs at Justin's window. Then Daddy threw snow on me!

Keturah's attempt at a hospital scene (using a plantation house, perhaps?) in the Civil War. A wagon to bring the injured to the house, and the rooms are crowded, and someone dropped off medication. She didn't design the house, it was already built like that. She just moved the characters around. I'll take it as one part of her project. She more to do because these gals are NOT in character. I need samples of what they actually looked like.

The lights aren't super warm, but just enough to heat up the snow around the candy cane and create this hole to the ground. I'll take the candy canes down when I feel like it after the snow melts probably. Soon enough. It was too cold to do it anyway even before the snow hit.

Downright tropical.

The End