The J6 Journey: Year 6, March 1st-4th, 2021: Steriod Injection Week

For the record, I do not like starting my day/week off with business stuff. But I had to today. Our W-2 is wrong and I've got to get it fixed. So, that's been added to my plate. Besides that, it just took a bit to get started. But Abishai finished all his work in record time, yeah! Keturah did NOT finish all her work, so she had to work all afternoon. And then she asked for screen time. When I said "screen time AFTER homework" I meant she could check her phone for messages. She is still grounded from playing on it until she can prove to me she can be less lazy about getting her work done on time including all the messy mistakes in her math. When she redid some problems this afternoon, she got 5 out of 7 correct. She needs to slow down and pay attention. Justin did ok today, but needed some help with geometric proofs. I'm telling ya, if I had Mr. Demme as my teacher, I would have understood proofs so much easier! Together, Justin and I are putting the pieces together, so that's good.

Otherwise, it was a normal day as every other day. There isn't much to write home about. Lots of choice words exchanged between Jared and I. The stress of our health issues is very heavy right now. Jared's steroid injection is on Wednesday. I have no fear for that, but I don't have any faith in it working long term either. I have to drive him and I'm not looking forward to it or dealing with Greenwood traffic at 5pm on the way back. I have to get Justin to group and I have Bible study. I had to move my chiropractor adjustment to the following week. Jared's been coughing and has some sinus stuff going on, maybe because of Abishai's cold, so he's been taking sinus medication so it doesn't get lodged and stuck. Which I didn't know about and that's why he's so foggy brained and not doing much. But how am I supposed to know that unless you communicate with me? His sleeping pattern is still awful. And at 6am, I woke up in a lot of pain and restless legs. And I was wrong, but appointments are in two weeks, not one. Oh well, whatever. Gotta just keep moving on.

Perhaps I'll put some numbers down for the financial aid application. I can't do anything with the taxes until that W-2 is fixed, even if the risk of audit is extremely low. I know it's wrong. And if it's not fixed, then it will be wrong again next year. The wrong data was pulled or in the wrong way. It's been a nightmare trying to do this payroll thing. It doesn't affect the amount we get because we don't pay tax but the information is furnished to the IRS and could be flagged for either us or e2. And it's a big enough difference to warrant a change. We are talking $1,000's not pennies. Anyway, projects. And now Justin says his computer smells like something got fried and it won't turn on at all. Great! His IEW homework is on there, and his Civil War project stuff. This is why he needed to figure out who to make the USB drive work. Good grief! Well, I'm not taking that project on. He can look it up, call his brother, or talk to his dad. I'm done.

Time to move on.

If only our household would understand and use this more.

The newest book for our read and discuss literature studies.

Reading aloud to little guy while he helps boys grow up so they can fight in the army because the army needs more men, just like in our Civil War stories where the 18-24 yrs old sign up first, then die, then the younger ones sign up, and die, and then the older ones sign up, and die and so forth. He also had medicine and bandages for them. Now THIS is how I imagined the kids latching onto the stories and using them in their imaginative play. He even mentioned Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp! We are currently reading a story from Cambodia called "The Clay Marble" set in one of their civil wars. It was actually because we had a lesson on Cambodia but 100 or so years earlier than this. It's a pretty interesting story about refugee camps. But hopefully, Abishai will remember it and bring it up later. We also read a picture book about Lousia May Alcott.

This was the most adorable thing! He noticed the lion family on his handwriting page, so we started talking about it. I told him how the Daddy lion stays home and the Mommy lions (there are many of them) go out and hunt. Lots of Mommies to one Daddy. Anyway, he started playing peek a boo with the little lion!!! And then hugged the Mommy lion and pat patted the Daddy lion. He said several times, "Aw, they are so cute!"

Hugging the mommy lion.

Pat patting the daddy lion.

Sign of the times! Abishai created a "Covid destroying truck" where it zaps an empty house that was full of Covid, destroying the house and the Covid. Wow! What this generation is going to grow up remembering is crazy! And sad. And upsetting to me. Young ears absorb everything. Why do you think commercials exist? Why do you think schools of assemblies to talk about gender neutral pronouns? Why do you think TV shows show that the Dads leave or incompetent and the Moms are so full of self care that they don't know what's going on with their children? And much, much worse. Protect those little ears at all costs.

Don't worry, he's happy. He got his Valentine's guy on a walk today (inside).

Tuesday was much like Monday. School, lunch, read alouds, screen time. We did get their experiments done from last week. And then we watched another hour of "Gods and Generals." I didn't take a nap, but I feel emotionally exhausted today, so I was glad to put them on their screens for a bit. Just doing the "everybody needs me right now!" routine can get on my nerves. Plus texts and emails and household things. Ugh! We sorted out the taxes but I don't want to finish them this evening because I'm tired and don't want to mess them up. I don't know if I can push them through tomorrow before I take Jared to his appointment. And then the evening is crazy. Thursday is quiet, so maybe then. Friday we will have our first park day only because we couldn't have gym days this year. But we will have to bundle up because it's going to be barely 50 degrees. The kids will be fine, it's us moms sitting there that won't be. We'll see. So I didn't accomplish as much today.

Abishai got down quickly only because I bribed him with screen time. We had started earlier so there was a bit of time before lunch. It was too cold to be outside for too long, too. Abishai watched the movie was us and cheered on the "Blue guys" (the Union) and got really scared when a couple of children were in danger. He really identifies well with characters, especially if they are his age. I want to read aloud more chapter books to him. I know audiobooks are a great fill in but I want to be able to answer questions, too. He's going to be a great reader someday. He flew through his work today because I had him sit up facing his pages. He still rocked back and forth as he read. Classic ADHD sign but no need to medicate yet. We already have enough trouble getting him to stay at the table long enough to get his belly full. He didn't snack at 4:30 today so he shoveled a huge bowl of mac and cheese in his face at dinner and ate some frozen veggies. I made a nice big salad but not many partook. Sigh. I guess we have salad, pork, and plain noodles for tomorrow night's dinner then. I'll cook the roast on Thursday instead of tomorrow.

Eat up peeps! We got a huge delivery of veggies today, including too much lettuce, so eat up you rascally rabbits! Just pop those lettuce leaves in your mouth! But no one will eat veggies during the day. I might have to just set out a veggie tray at lunch or something and they can snack on it all afternoon. Same with fruit in the morning. It might not be a bad idea actually. I have that Tupperware one that I really like and washes well. Ok, it's plastic, but it would do the trick for all of us. Hm,....I'll try to remember to do it tomorrow. The kids can help cut veggies and fruit anyways, so I can set it as someone else's task, too, especially the ones who are wandering around with nothing to do, ahem, Keturah, who needs to earn her phone bill money. The other trick has to do with setting different snacks out in a muffin tray. It's something I learned to do for toddlers. Then I know who has eaten what. But since they are older, they can self regulate a little bit better. Now, I won't do dips every day because that packs on the calories and that defeats the purpose. Eating raw veggies and enjoying their unique flavors without covering them up is something I want them to enjoy. And they do. And it's nice to have a dip once in awhile. But not all the time. I think that this plan might help us eat up the veggies better and help us, especially me, from reaching for other "easy" calorie dense meals. So, we'll see. Thanks for helping me think this one through! Lol!

Yup, I'm done.

Uh, I think I ordered too much lettuce!

Oldie but goodie found on Facebook of Auntie Stef and Benaiah age 7 I think?

We got the chin up bar to work! This dude, over the course of the day, managed closed to 20 chin ups in series of 3-5 each! Now, if we could put some meat on his bones, he would develop some huge muscles like his friends.....He's the only one motivate to exercise partly because of his friends being in sports. Don't worry, he's still very much a geek and nerd at heart. He's a real rounded kid. Just not physically, lol!

Bad hair day, buddy? Lol!

Daddy set up Abishai's friends in Daddy's chair to watch Abishai eat his eggy toast this morning. Dinosaury, Valentiny, Wishbone (from the PBS 1990's TV series, I LOVED that series, and always wanted a dog like that!) and of course Grogu. He carries these guys out from this bed every day and often from place to place, wherever he's playing. Can you tell my kid is an extrovert?

I did it! I put out the first ever IAHE Region 9 e-newsletter! See, it really wasn't that hard! First I had to let go of the fact that it wasn't going to be of my design yet. And that I might have all the correct fonts and logos and schedule of what I'm going to share when. I just had to go with what I had received recently in my email and in other things I've been dying to share, like the library system we have. The IAHE team put together the template and blocks and banner and what to put where. They took a lot of the guesswork out of it. At first I was upset because I wanted to do that, but it actually was a blessing in disguise. Just plug in, get approved, and it's sent. I've got some work to do building up the subscribers and adding consistent content, but hey, it got done and sent a day later than the IAHE would prefer it to be done. Woot! Woot! Sometimes, the hardest step is the first one, right? It ALWAYS is. Trust me. ALWAYS.

Experiment time! This is water from boiling purple cabbage in water on the stove. The book said that it might be blue or purple based on what is in your water. But if it's a different color, then the experiment wouldn't work. The cup inside the bowl is the experiment, the one on the outside is the control group.

You surround the cup with vingear and then put some baking soda in that to get the usual reaction of creating carbon dioxide but don't let the bubbles get into the cup. You have to be patient. And then, just those C02 molecules floating up into the air and some of them landing in the water turns the water purple! It's an experiment to explain diffusion of oxygen in the respiratory system.

Uh oh, new Lego sets came out. Say what?! Send a photo in and they will customize a kit for you? Crazy! Is it worth it? Absolutely! I hope this stays forever! Uh oh, it says "exclusives" on it which means it won't! At least not right now. I bet if they find that it's popular that they'll add it in as a regular thing. We'll see! I so would do this though!

Nope. Still not down. Too tired. Too mentally exhausted. Should have had Keturah do it, but I wanted to rest. It's never going to be put away, is it? I did listen to their history book chapter though. So that's a plus.

The boiled purple cabbage for the experiment after setting in the water for a few hours. Not sure what to do with it now. I guess I could have eaten it, but I didn't wash it before putting it in there. Hm,...

The final results of the experiment. We put plastic wrap over the bowl, too, and I think the final bubbles of the vinegar and baking soda got trapped in there.

Again, the control group.

And finally, since his laptop um, smelled burned and then completely died on him last night, Justin is watching the Hobbit, again, using whatever game system that was in his room. He had moved it into the garage a week or two ago anyway since his laptop wasn't able to play movies. This is HIS choice remember. He can't do anything in his room at night because of Abishai. He could set up and tear down stuff in the fireside room if he wanted to. I'm not sure what's going to happen come summer, but when you live in a large family and everyone needs their separate spaces, you make do with what you can find. God bless him for being so content about this. Although he did mention that we had said we would get him a small but regular height desk for in his room. I left space for it. Then he wouldn't be hunched over on his bed doing school work. I put it on my list. I just adore my nerdy ADD athlete. The only one I don't argue with. The peace keeper and peace maker. Our Justin.

Oh goodness, what a day! I got school done with Abishai, but I rushed it a bit. He got into our story about two young boys fighting for the Union but got hurt in a battle in the south. Eventually, theyare picked up by the enemy (Confederates) and the white boy lives (it's a true story that was passed down) and the black boy is killed in a prison camp.It was a pretty heavy story for a picture book and I wished I had read it before I read it to Abishai, but at the same time, he's really impacted by these things and I think in a good way. He's thinking really hard and connecting to them. Even the chapter book I'm reading and he's comprehending. I told him we can do one picture book (from our history book) and one or more chapters in a chapter book for my read aloud time just for him. I'm going to let him pick one of the fun novels like "Ralph and the Motorcycle" off the literature shelf next time. I don't usually read the historical fiction chapter books to him, but decided to give it a go. So, we'll see. Maybe I'll get to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again. Or, Mr. Popper's Penguins and then watch the movie! Oh, wouldn't that be fun! I love Jim Carrey's version of that book1 Yup, that's what we'll do next. Then I checked math, ate lunch, had a few minutes to spare so instead of starting other read alouds, I just clicked through and finished the taxes as I was told to do. It's done. The IRS can deal with any mistakes. I hadn't actually gone through the state portion of it, so I quickly went through it. The taxes are done! And then I got the consolidated bill from St. Francis, which I was kind of waiting on to finish out the financial aid application, so yeah, I can finish that by the weekend and get it sent.

And then it was time to leave for Jared's steroid injection. I didn't want to be there because it ended up being 3 hrs of my time, but whatever. He was put under light sedation so he wouldn't move much because it was so close to his spine. The surgery center was ahead of schedule, so we went in a little early. The procedure took 10 minutes and then we had to wait 30 minutes for him to be more awake. I think it was like an hour before he went back anyway. BUT what cracked me up was that he was Mr. CHATTERBOX with the nurse. Now, I know he likes to chat with the nurses and get to know their names. He's just being friendly and making their job easier. But this was something else. Not totally random, but enough for me to say, "Are you still high?" One the way in, I had mentioned that the only thing I knew about Community South was that my friends would go there if they wanted their tubes tied or another form of permanent birth control. They couldn't do it at St. Franics up the road where I had our kids because it's a Catholic affiliated hospital and therefore they don't do birth control related things in the hospital itself. The obgyn that I went to the in the office building connected to the hospital did do in office non permanent birth control. But I don't know if that office was allowed to do permanent things. ANYWAY, he must have it one his brain because randomly he asks the nurse about whether or not the hospital still does circumcisions. Say what?! Why would he need to know that? We aren't have any more children. It's such a random thing anyway. The answer that the nurse gave was that maybe 50% of people ask for it. They don't just do it routinely either. So Jared brings up that in Canada, they don't do it at all except for one old doctor. Jared thought it was a month after Abishai was born, but we had it down more like 7-10 days I think. Don't quote me. So, after the nurse left, I went up to him and said, "Do you know what you just said?" He said he did and that he was just chatting up the nurse. I'm like, "You are loopy." He was Mr. Chatterbox on the way home except we wanted to argue about the minutia of life like which road to take home or other stuff like the furniture at home or whatever. He's got it in his head that he wants to get rid of the living room couch and chair and replace it with something smaller. He has a point, BUT what he wants to replace it with is NOT kosher for my house of elegance. Um, my domain, dude, back it up.

Anyway, we get home and I send the kids outside because it's 65 degrees out. I was getting some dinner and I go outside and Jared has opened up his chainsaw that he got at Christmas and hasn't touch yet because he's been ill. I didn't think anything of the time, but I should have stopped him. He was getting frustrated with it, too. Not good. You're on drugs still. Put it down. And then he complains he can't fix anything because his workbench is full and the garage is full and we need a dumpster, blah, blah, blah. It was a good thing I had to leave to take Justin to church for small group and I had to go to Bible study. He was getting on my nerves. And then, I had turned my phone to airplane mode instead of just silent for Bible study because there was an active text string going off, so I missed the part where Jared was confused as to who was picking up Justin. I had handled it by having Grandma go pick him up. Benaiah had been at church because it was a worship and long prayer station thing (they went for over 90 minutes!) and he was going to go straight to his group time after the music part so he couldn't bring Justin home. Well, Benaiah took his keys with him but I guess he got picked up because his car was still in the driveway blocking Leah in. So I come home at 8:30 and find a voicemail on my phone, text messages galore, and especially some random ones from Jared. Yes, husband, you are still on drugs. Maybe I didn't clarify but Justin knew and he should have texted him. Anyway, funny stuff! I didn't expect him to be like that at all and I should have secretly recorded Jared's conversation with the nurse. If we do this steroid injection again, I will. Jared thankfully could walk and managed to eat and all that afterward, with no nausea, so that was way different than gallbladder surgery, or any surgery. We'll take it.

I'm still not convinced that this is the last thing we'll do and that this is only a band aid to reduce inflammation so that they can see the bone spur and how it's affecting the nerve better. It takes up to two weeks to feel any affects. I get tired of doctor's protocols because it's not a one size fits all situation. I was reading an article about massage and stretching and strengthening for permanent relief and was telling Jared about it, but he wouldn't listen. He kept talking about me going to see the massage therapist he saw or the acupuncturist. I do get relief from those procedures, but it's only for a couple of days, so I stopped because it's so expensive. Jared's been seeing the chiropractor and acupuncturist once or twice a week for 4-6 weeks. It gets really expensive at $50 and $120 a session. I certainly can't add my stuff to that. So, I'm working on going through another route, endocrinology/hormones because it's mostly covered by insurance and I don't have to pay cash upfront. But we have these arguments all the time. He thinks he knows what's best when his body has minimal things work with it and mine is so complicated. Um, no, you don't know anything. He said his pain level was a 2 when we went in today. A 2? And we are here? Maybe he should stop his therapies and then tell me how he feels. I'm at a 6-8 these days because of stress, sitting wrong, sleeping wrong and all the rest. And if it's not muscles that hurt, it's my gut. I'm the one who has read more than WebMD. I've read people's stories, and medical blogs, and YouTube videos and lots and lots of articles. Modern medicine focuses on one thing at a time. They don't consider it in a holistic kind of way. Diet and exercise won't work. And he can't talk when he doesn't do any exercises to strengthen his core. He says he does some while on his flip table. Ok, sure, whatever. I mean real physical therapy kind of exercises. But he won't. So don't talk to me about not exercising.

I don't know why we had to talk about all that today. I said no to talking about health or politics. Well, I brought up politics because I connected with a person in our local community who feels the same way as my little bit further away friends on masks and cleaning products used in church, etc. And they homeshcool and have kids our kids' ages. So, I made a connection and I was telling Jared about it and he says, "Stop it. Stop it about the masks." No, I will not. It's not about convenience for me. I put it on, don't I? I'm not complaining about how it makes it hard to breathe, am I? No, it's about the science of pandemics and spread of disease, herd immunity, and being able to tell who is who behind the mask. Some think that most people will be vaccinated by May. I think they are all jumping in thinking it will lift other restrictions. It's a miracle cure. Well, I think more people have immunity already to Covid-19 and don't need the vaccine. I finally told the Cook family text string that I'm not getting it. The others just got their first doses of the vaccine. And this is why Jared and I have a hard time having conversation. We, being first borns,, are passionate, loyal to our convictions, stubborn, and won't back down. Therefore, we are constantly at a standstill when talking about ideas. We agree to disagree on so many issues. It's not fun and we don't have time and money right this second to get help. Maybe we will some day, but first, we have to get our finances straightened and health to improve, each in their own way without diagnosing each other.

Anyway, Bible study was incredibly rich. Perfect in every way. Incredible! And now I'm falling asleep at the computer. My caffeine high has crashed. Yikes!

Justin's small group night was spent as a Worship and Prayer night. Benaiah did his drum thing and then to his book study group. Oh, and he was home earlier to pick up some packages.

Aka, the patient, AFTER his little procedure. I was sitting there wondering how much this is all going to cost. Just add it to our tab!

Keturah got half of the project done. She was supposed to put the ornaments in the big box and put the lights on the wheel it came on, but ok, it's a start.

I'm telling ya, this guy was loopy! Not only did he chat up the nurse about circumcision but he decided now was a good time to take out the new chain saw. Thankfully, I don't think he got all the pieces together. Maybe he did. I don't know, I went to Bible study. Not sure what he was thinking.

It was so nice out! 65 degrees! So we brought the chairs around to the front to start our spring yard work!

Abishai helped, too!

Keturah still uses the inline skates, but without socks, gross!

Little man got out his T-ball set and can throw the ball up a little bit and hit it all by himself! I then pitched some balls to him and he did a great job of hitting them FAR! Maybe we should have tried Little League instead of Karate!

I should have tried the other mode on my camera, but it was very clear night and you could see Orion's belt and all that!

Sometimes the phone sends things twice, but then why did he switch around his words? He's still under the influence of the sedation I'm telling ya. I'm glad he didn't drive home from the hospital or to go get Justin.

Ok, ok, gotta pick up the pace here. Jared's alarm went off at 6am because he had a chiropractor appointment and it jolted us both awake. And since I was in the middle of dream, I got a dream headache. Great. So I got to try out my new migraine drug, sumatriptan, but first, I had to make sure everything was good to go in case I had a reaction. Right on the box it said, "May cause dizziness." Great. I don't need this today. So, I put corned beef and veggies in the crockpot. I had "rubbery" carrots, a huge onion, two big fennels, red potatoes and celery. I didn't know that the fennels actually had a licorice smell to them but it wasn't too strong when I cut them up and put them in the crockpot. Everybody ate them like they were onions. Go figure. Salt, pepper, and some basil and away we went. And I had to clean up last night's dishes and this morning's greasy bacon pans. Thanks, dear, for cooking bacon, but I hate dealing with the grease! I wasn't feeling the greatest to begin with, but oh well, off to work I go. So, I took the new medication and sat down to put away the Christmas ornaments that Keturah had so kindly left on the couch that I usually lay down on. She was supposed to put them in the bigger box, but oh well. I also made sure I had Dramimine close by, my phone charger, and a banana. But, I didn't end up needing them. And then, I got a text that reminded me today was the day to sign Abishai up for camp. So, instead of doing school and a shower this morning, I put away Christmas ornaments and registered Abishai for camp. This is how my day can get so upside down. But, we managed to push through, got our read alouds done in time for me to do a bit of reading aloud with Abishai and his papers. The kids started screen time late, so I let them stay on a bit longer. I finally had my shower at 4 pm, and then did my Bible study.

Then after dinner, the boys took the rest of the Christmas tree down while I finished putting away the lights into their box. And then I took another hour to rearrange everything, including the pile of Christmas boxes and other holiday decor. Not exactly on my agenda, but oh well. In our house that is stuffed with stuff, if you move one thing, you have to move another and keep rotating until everything is back in place. So once you start something like this, you have to keep going. But it's all put back and I pulled out the Easter stuff. Easter is a bit over 4 weeks away, so it's time. I went from Christmas to Easter in less than a day! Bwahahahaha! But that's what happens when you come home from Christmas vacation with a very ill husband and you still have to do school and paperwork and household stuff. It's just not a high priority. And now the room looks a little more open, but duller without all the lights. Jared says we should change out the Christmas lights that are permanently in there like night lights because they are turning yellowish. I hadn't noticed that before. Hm,....I'll think about it, but why throw away a good set of lights? Maybe I should get another one of those rope lights that changes colors. I only have the two lamps in there, so it does get kind of dark. I like having the night light affect so we can see to the small bathroom and garage and out to the sunroom in an emergency. But rope lights might be safer in the longer one. I don't know. Let me think on that. He also wants to rearrange the living room and I'm saying, "hands off." But I think I told that story yesterday.

Speaking of Jared, he says he's ok today. He didn't give me much details about overall pain. He's just anxious to know if he'll have some pain relief and can stretch out his expensive therapies. I didn't get to the paperwork today and I won't do it tomorrow either, but perhaps Saturday before the birthday party, if not on Sunday. We've got to reduce all the bills as much as we can. I plan on paying off the two individual bills with tax money and then putting whatever is left over on a payment plan. Then I will have to do that with the Community South and Dr. Cole stuff as well. Ugh, ugh, ugh. It's never ending. And I'm the one still in pain, so I get jealous. Two more weeks. Two more weeks. Then I can talk to some new doctors. I just wish for once that our life wasn't inundated with someone's illness. It's been never ending it seems since my parents died. Sigh. And now I realized that it's 4 months and a few days until I turn 40. My 20's were spent having babies and toddlers and staying in the same house in Beech Grove and doing my MOPS thing. My 30's was Canada and moving back and recovering from Canada (still not 100%). What will my 40's bring? I definitely have that mid life crisis thing going on right now so the Elijah Bible study we are doing is helping with that. LOADS of great stuff like theological and historical intricate details of thinking about the story from all angles kind of great stuff. Just the stuff I've been longing for. NEW information, too! So, that's a good balance right now.

I'm thinking about a childhood friend right now that I've stayed in contact with through my sister and life circumstances and how she, her husband, and 3 yr old son are DRIVING from Manchester, NH to California this week. I didn't ask why they couldn't fly because there could be all kinds of reasons. But she had messaged me a photo of coming into downtown Indianapolis tonight! What?! This isn't a pleasure trip though. Her father in law is in hopsice in California. It will take them 4-5 days to get there. Poor things. I did encourage them to look for a hotel on the westside out near the airport and that there are restaurants nearby but not much else past the airport. She didn't ask for the advice, but I know it's always helpful to have something to look for in a strange place. But poor things, the father in law dying and all that driving. Gas prices aren't the best right now either. What a way to see the country though! I'm a bit jealous of that part. Anyway, just sending prayers for them for sure.

Now I'm exhausted. From the early alarm and headache, to working hard all day, up and down, trying to keep moving to the next thing, and then finishing the Christmas stuff. I nearly fell asleep during my Bible study time because I finally sat still for a minute. And I was drinking coffee! Sigh. So, so tired. Tomorrow is more school and then a cold park day. We'll see how long we last. Then karate and finish up that Gods and Generals movie with the older ones. Fun stuff!

That's why Jared made bacon. There's a slice of pizza under there, too.

Woot! Woot! Taxes went through!

Pretty handy now for surgeries instead of pagers. I know IU Methodist has something similar on a TV screen in the waiting room.

Throwback 8 years ago in Canada, just a few months before Jared started saving his head. See that "monkey butt" bald spot he has? Sigh. Does that rug look familiar? It should! It's in our fireplace room. So is the red chair. The green chair was disposed of in Canada, but it's the same chair that I labored on to have Keturah. She's only 4 1/2 yrs old in this photo.

Abishai came in from saying good-bye to Daddy and said, "I need a present. A present will make me feel better about Daddy leaving." Dude, he just went to work. Chill. Here's 6 marshmallows, now on your way.

No, we aren't starting a compost pile, and we put most of our veggie scraps on the stick pile, but I wanted to leave them somewhere safer for the rabbits to have and Socks wouldn't bother the scraps or the bunnies. I think that the bunnies had been chowing down on some other leftovers from a day or two ago, too. I do throw all of grease on this side of the house outside the fence because Socks will go after anything that smells like meat. He's been known to lick the stick pile.

Man, I was just reminded of a post I commented on today. The mom was asking how she could fit science into their homeschool. She had 4 kids under 11yrs old. They go to a homeschool co op, and they were actually using the same history curriculum we do. So, I just told her what has worked for us (in hindsight, I really didn't plan any of it). One of those things was just letting science happen as we go about our day. Or learning random things on our field trips. And here's a prime example. We learned about rabbits in our yard, we watched them grow two years ago, and we figure out what they would like to eat and leave out scraps for them. That's animal science! And then we can watch the decomposition of anything that isn't eaten. We work on "reduce, reuse, recycle" all day long because I'm big advocate of it. I pointed out how the flowers that come from bulbs are starting to peak out of the ground and I tried explaining how they multiply. That's botany. Abishai started talking about catching fireflies and we had to tell him it was too cold. We could have gone into the why, but didn't have time. This is called "unschooling" or "lifeschooling" and as the years have gone by, I've learned how to just ramble random facts out there hoping they would catch some if it, and they do! Depending on which part of history you are studying, you can work on physics with Archimedes' screw or astronomy with Galileo. Our history book includes them in context which makes so much sense to me. There's a book series called "Backyard Scientist" which has a bunch of kitchen science experiments. I forgot that I had Benaiah do a bunch of those for his science in upper elementary and junior high. I'm a bit more into textbooks at the moment. But, when we circle back around to Creation, we will pull out the dinosaur books and astronomy books and all that again. And I have one book that has the topics broken down into units that covers a broad range of ages/ grades. I used that as a guide for a couple of years. I would really like the Berean Builders' set of books, too, because it does go chronological. I forgot that I was going to try and purchase it this year. Thanks for the reminder! And the very least it would make a great reference set. Which reminds me to get rid of the white table of books so we can have access to the science shelves. Science is so easy to teach because it's everywhere! You don't have to know the exact vocabulary of say, the parts of a flower, in order to appreciate and understand the reproduction of it. Anyway, all that to say, look around you. A simple task of putting vegetable scrap out for the neighborhood rabbits is a way to do science!

Literally rabbit food!

Speaking of rabbit food, I left the leftover bacon on the countertop and Keturah helped herself to 3 more slices for a total of 7 slices! Way beyond a regular portion. Well, that's the end of that, girlie. If you are going to snack on whatever is left out, I'm going to leave out the good stuff. I had already planned to do this, so I put into practice. I'm going to try to encourage the kids to finish the raw veggies before supper and then offer cooked veggies with supper. It worked for Keturah. It worked a little bit for Justin. But Abishai ended up eating some of his raw vegetables for dinner. I guess I'll have to rotate and have him eat the leftovers tomorrow before putting new things in. I ate mine at lunch, along with an oat/peanut butter/banana bar thing that was 210 calories. And with the caffeine of my usual coffee intake, I was good to go for most off the afternoon.

Amen to that.

These two thoroughly put away the tree by themselves. Say what?! Great job boys!

Fun times hanging out under the prickly branches.

I'm so glad I got to help my friend navigate through the city this evening. Praying for some rest before they continue on their journey tomorrow.

And just like that, it's time for Easter! The kids stash of goodies.

New decor this year with an old basket, the Easter "grass" I've had for 15 years, and pretty foam eggs Leah gave to us that no one else needs to touch.