Year 6, May 25th-28th, 2021: Summer Break Prep Week OR The Perpetual Saturday

 I'm not sure what expectations I had for this week, if any. I knew I had two back to back PCP doctor appointments on Monday I had to navigate, the usual Bible studies, park day, and karate (plus a bonus karate). What I didn't know until Sunday evening was that Jared was going to be home all week under foot. Well, he's sleeping most days but it's stressing me out. The first half (or most) of the story is in the previous post. Basically, Jared wrenched his back trying to pick up a kid in the church nursery and he ended up in the ER Sunday night with excruciating back pain like he had back in January. He's on muscle relaxants and pain killers and besides helping the pain, they make him sleep. Sunday night, I slept on the couch, and in a slightly crooked position, but I thought I could shake it off. Monday night, I slept in our bed with him and he actually slept through the night in his normal positions without much of a peep, so the medications are working. I was so sleep deprived though that I slept hard and in weird positions and I'm currently very irritated by my own neck and back pain. I've been working hard the last two days, Monday and Tuesday, and can't seem to get ahead. I finally sat down today to do a brain dump for the summer. I don't know if it's complete, but it's something. I wrote out events on family calendars to see where our busiest weeks are. June is our busiest summer month with two birthdays and now 3 church camps. Keturah goes to Mix from Mon-Thurs, then we have boy haircuts on that Fri, then Abishai has a one day camp that Sat, and then Justin goes to Move the next Monday-Fri. Yikes! We have literally nothing but the normal weekly stuff in July and August. Well, my birthday and our anniversary, but nothing big and substantial so I told the kids that we would make a summer bucket list and do that in July, like splash parks and such. There might be some hit or miss other events from homeschool groups, too. So, we'll see. It will depend on how much I can get done at home. I can't be running around everywhere until I get several major "digital" projects done.

So, backing up, Jared slept most of Monday and Tuesday. Monday he ate very little and drank even less. Tuesday he ate much more and seemed to drink more. He can sit up for a bit with just a little wincing to interact with Abishai. He's using the crutches to navigate. He was able to get a week supply of the narcotic and has a week or two of the muscle relaxant. You really can only get the narcotic in smaller quantities. And I saw a sign on the pharmacy Covid-19 screen that they are short staffed and you have to allow enough time to order a refill before running out. Poor things! They must have been harassed a bunch to have had to make a sign like that. Grrrr, people, leave my favorite pharmacy team alone! They probably recognize my face by now. At least our prescriptions were less than $10 for 4 of them! Wow! I got a refill on my migraine one and then got the two new ones the doctor ordered at my first appointment on Monday. The only other thing is that the spine surgeon wants Jared to go get an MRI to see if he blew out his disc before they consider moving up his surgery. By the time we get the insurance to approve that, get it done, get it read, and make a decision, it will be time for his original surgery date. SO, I'm fully expected my husband to not be working this whole month. Ridiculous system! I spent a lot of Sunday night and Monday updating many groups of people, so maybe that's why my neck hurts. I'm tired of being on my phone! I need some downtime and less chaos! It's a good thing we finished our Bible study last week because I haven't gotten to sit in my Bible study spot for a week. I don't like this craziness at all. But I hope we a tweak to our routine and doing the brain dump, I can accomplish more things.

Ok, back to my own appointments. The new osteopathic PCP had a student with her, which was fine. I was able to get a better reading on what her opinions were on some things, so that was helpful. She's anti diet culture and anti myfitnesspal app, lol. I'll keep using it though because I have years' worth of info on it, so my favorite brands and such come up easily. Basically, on the weight loss, she said that my calorie count is too low. She said to get closer to the 2,000 calorie mark AND increase the activity level so I still have a deficit because that's how weight loss happens. That kind of makes sense to me. I then told her how I feel sick and weak after any type of workout and starving. She agreed that just moving up both things could work. She also gave me a prescription for a "diet" pill but when I told my old PCP about it, she basically said it's a water pill and will to get rid of excess water. I'm ok with that for now because I do get swelling overnight in my hands and I always feel bloated. So I'll run with that for now. The other medication is for the elevated blood pressure medication. The old PCP was also concerned with that because she didn't think it was high enough to warrant medication yet. Both of them said the blood pressure monitor I have usually takes higher readings than what the arm one does, so maybe get a hold of an arm one. Sure, I'll shoot for that and stop worrying so much about the other readings. We do have to be careful I don't bottom out my blood pressure, so I'll keep a close eye on it and take my blood pressure twice a week or so. One of the medications is also a migraine preventative, so maybe I won't have to take the other migraine mediation after all. I have to spend some time memorizing which is which. And one of them also helps with anxiety I think. So, we are covering a lot of things. I asked the new PCP if she thinks I have too many prescriptions and she said I should be fine since it's for all different kinds of medications, in different categories, and we are needing to treat symptoms caused by one of the other prescriptions, so that's good. Maybe once I get some things sorted out we can drop a couple. I mean I'm hoping if I loose weight, my blood pressure will be better and I won't need the diet pills for too long. Plus the lamisil for my toenails is just for a few months anyway. And I won't have to take the other migraine medication, so there's 4 out of the 7 I think I can get rid of eventually. The other three make a huge difference in my day to day living and sleeping so I'm not going to get rid of those. So, that helps.

I had to confess to my old PCP in the afternoon that I was double dipping today, lol. But I wanted to say good bye to her before she left the clinic. She's actually going to be a GI specialist at one of our local hospitals, SO, if I need a GI, I will be calling her up! She's the sweetest! I gave her a card and a hairclip for her beautiful middle eastern hair. She even gave me a hug. I'm glad I got to see her, although she was way behind for the day, and that she was honest about the new medications. Second opinions are great! The new PCP does have a supervisor that she checks with because she's a 1st year resident, so I do feel confident that there are many eyes on my situation. So, I'm left with new medications and needing to exercise more. And, well, when will I find time for that, I'm not sure. I'll increase my calorie count first, because I'm in such a routine of not eating but feeling hungry that I need to get out of that mindset. And then when I'm feeling full and steady, I can get on the bike. The other thing is that it's so hot and we have fans running and the a/c set low and it's not getting to the places that I'm in and I'm going bonkers! I can't keep my head on straight when I'm hot. Again, I almost feel as bad as I did 13 years ago before having Keturah, but I don't have swollen ankles, thank goodness! It's just frustrating when you want to move around but you can't because you need to be in front of a fan. I plan on getting some more fans but forgot to when I picked up some prescriptions.

And that basically was my Monday, our Monday.

Oh, ok, the kids. The kids had an impromptu sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday night! All 4 kids under one roof! Grandma picked up Grandpa late at the airport, but he got to spend breakfast time with them. Blueberry pancakes and sausage. They were there for most of the morning. Then Justin came home and worked on his last paper for school and stayed with Jared while I was out to my first appointment. Leah took the other two with her to the office to taste test some lasagna for a conference e2 is hosting. After that, she dropped them back home and they had screen time while I was gone for my second appointment. Abishai won a special kind of Uno against Grandma 3 times and Grandma only wont twice. He also beat her at tic tac toe. He recognizes patterns pretty early on and thinks ahead sometimes. He also remembers the rules quite quickly for such a young guy. He did end up having more than 4 hrs of screen time on Monday. I know this because his screentime was already set to 3 hrs and he expended that all at Grandma's house. I had to add another hour for when I was gone in the afternoon. So, I made up a little plan to try to get all of us to reduce our screen time and pick up a hobby.

I made a little basket for phones to go several times a day in "time out." Mine needs to go in there as well, but we got up really late on Tuesday and it threw the whole thing off. I didn't recover the extra time either. Sigh. But, Keturah obeyed it at least. I also explained that in the mornings, I want the kids to play with Abishai and to explore their own projects. Then, when I feel more in control and caught up, I'd like to do an hour of read aloud time after lunch. Then regular screen time. Then no phones and they have to stay out of their rooms during the one hour before and after dinner so I can call on them to help. I'd like them to go outside in the morning when it's cooler out. And today, Keturah and Abishai were out there. Keturah took the initiative and started cleaning up the pool area. I washed the sackcloth tarps because they were moldy and left them out in the sun to dry and kill any of the leftover mold. They are stained, but much cleaner. She also worked on how the slide could go in the pool. I tried to tell Jared to just leave her alone, but he thinks that she will ruin the pool and the slide. He's such a joy killer. Let them be creative, experiment, and if they make holes, so be it. Hopefully we will get another summer out of this one. If we do, I'll be happy. I guess I could tell her that the rectangle pool is still in the shed and she could mess around with it. Actually, it might be a good one to put at the bottom of the slide when it's on the playground. I'll let her mess with that on Thursday after the plumbers have been. It's going to rain on Wednesday. And this is exactly what I wanted. Justin had to go mow Grandpa's lawn so he didn't give up his phone today at all. Sigh. And he didn't work on his paper either. Sigh. 

Screen time came early because I needed Abishai to be off by 4pm and be ready to go to karate for 5pm. He was excited for his bonus class and did very well. He had a lot more energy today than he does on any Friday. I would love for the bonus class to be a permanent change. He said he liked everything but Ninja Jungle. He's getting better at everything and I enjoyed watching him today. I hope Jared can take him on Friday. I will talk more about him in the photos below.

I put Keturah and Justin in charge of dinner and they only pulled off about half of it. I told Justin to get more vegetables out of other drawers and the garage fridge, he did not. Keturah didn't notice that the oven turned off so the pizza was only half baked when I got home.  We didn't eat until 6:30. But, I guess, at least they got things started. I had to go out after dinner to get the medication, so I feel like I've been go go going all day long trying to catch up, and going out in the evening isn't as fun for me. I want to settle down and be on my computer by 8pm. It was closer to 9 again tonight. Sigh. Oh, during screen time in the afternoon, I will do my digital work since it will be hotter and I'll need a fan. And that's when I did the calendars and brain dump, so at least I accomplished that part of the plan.We almost had a park meet up but it didn't seem like a lot of people were interested in going and I needed to stay home. Next time perhaps. There was a second one way up north, too. It's great to know these are going on, but I have to be careful which ones I fully engage in. And that's Early Years and Beyond, and it's offshoot, this tween/teen group of Hamilton County. Everything else is extra. So, we'll see.

Now I have to update my medication list and make sure I don't get overwhlemed again. Tomorrow it will rain, so we'll be inside and maybe I can focus better. Oh, I cleaned and put together the old booster seat. Only, the chair pads, are girl colors! I thought we had some gray ones, but I might have thrown them away or tucked them someplace else. I'm guessing that these chair pads went to the second booster we had in Grandma's van/car before we moved to Canada. It was probably for Keturah, Nora, and Everly. I cleaned up the seat which was in the garage and the back, which was in the shed with the chair pads, and put it altogether. I could get a new seat exactly like this one, same brand, for $50. This one is technically expired because it was made in 2010. I asked Abishai if he minded the pink and he said, "It's fine because it's only this much (thumb and index finger just a cm apart) pink, but has purple and green and yellow in it, too! And really, when he's sitting on it, you see lots of light green and then just the pink edging. You can't tell it has flowers on it. So, we switched out the carseat in the van to the booster one. He's so excited! The booster in my car is a five point harness one that I can can be just a smaller booster eventually. I'd have to take it out and look at it more closely. But I'll leave it for now. So I did do that. And switched a couple of toys for Abishai as he requested. So, I did enough, and yet there's so much to do!

Hopefully, we'll have some downtime tomorrow. I can dream, can't I?

We have two fans, one each end of the hallway, to try to tell the thermostat that it's cool enough, well, it's not but that's what Jared said. We are trying to circulate the air. But then I can't hear or yell down the hallways at the kids from the kitchen. This $4,000 replacement better be a good one.

Someone sent this to Leah. It's a mashed potatoe and meat cake! Cool! I love the bacon roses!

I kind of dig this psalm.

Always new meds. Topomax is for "weight loss" as in it might reduce your appetite and is the migraine preventative. The hyrdodiuril is for the high blood pressure.

Phone timeouts, like Mrs. McCollum had in her classroom before they had everybody put their phones in the office at the beginning of the day. Then they can have them at the end of the day when they leave. I will try to adhere to this as well. But it's all theory.

I was approving something for my FB timeline and the flashback photos included this one of Benaiah 5 years ago it said. Actually, I think it's more than that and the post itself was a previous flashback. He's more like 10 in this photo, not 14. It's in the parking lot of MCC in Canada. His comment when I texted it to him, "Geez." Lol.

Some peeps took a bath in milk this morning for Justin's breakfast. It's all he ate for breakfast.

Oh good grief. It's going to be one of those days. I had the wrong burner on so the water wasn't hot enough to flashcook the eggs. I put the first egg directly into the pot and it turned the water yellow. I warmed the water back up and did the 2nd egg the right way and still ended up with too much separation. I let it cook for awhile and it did firm up enough and come up to the surface for me to scoop out and eat. The third egg turned out perfect. I saved the eggs!

Keturah's idea for getting the slide into the pool. She moved all that stuff herself. Now THAT is what I want to happen. Go try to figure stuff out.

Growing lots and lots but the weeds aren't too bad.

We found and tied up the plastic tire swing that Alisha had given us for the playground but Abishai was too little to use yet. Abishai loved how it twisted around and around and he giggled a ton!

Just a little dusty from being in the garage.

Uh oh, the seat covers are pink! Will Abishai accept it?

Yup, he does because it's only a little bit pink. He's such an accommodating guy.

First ice cream cone of summer break! It's a good thing there were leftover cones from our winter vacation!

Abishai takes initiative and brings his own toys in from the shed.

More slide configurations.

In the summer, my parents would make iced coffee. They would make their pot of coffee and let it cool off to room temperature. Then they would add their milk and sugar or splenda and ice cubes. They didn't blend it up or anything. So, I didn't let my coffee cool off a lot, but the ice cubes helped alot so I wouldn't get overheated.

Doggy makes a great pillow. Even in the heat.

I didn't know Justin shaves his whole face! I thought he only did his mustache! He only has peach fuzz that you can't see on his cheeks. So I tried taking a photo but he wouldn't let me. Oh, and he finally found where the razors are stored. Duh!

Aw, come on! You're growing up! I need to document it!

This is what happens when you have a sister as a sibling, you get the pink stuff passed down to you. It's never bothered Abishai though. But he's excited to upgrade to a shoulder belt instead of the 5 point harness bucket seat that can be put in the reverse position. When he gets bigger, you can take the back off the booster seat. The carseat in my car is a cross between these two. IT has an upright back like the booster but a 5 point harness. Since our kids stay pretty small, they can stay in any of these for a long time. But a 6 1/2 yr old in a bucket seat? That's a little too much.

He's pretty excited for his new carseat in the van! Grandam said his legs look very long. His shorts are very small and short. But yes, he's grown a bunch! Taller,, not wider or thicker. He got the Aaron and Great Grandpa Howell genes.

Since we were super early to class and were there just as Miss Tess was arriving, Abishai got to ask her first if he could do the opening and closing of class. He's got it down pat! He even asked if he could change it! She said no. I told him he did not have to wear his mask at all, and in fact, I don't want him to when he's running around like he did tonight in the hotter weather. Nope. No mask. And I didn't wear mine. Miss Tess doesn't care. But I stayed away from all the other parents.

Everybody gets to pick a color or what their "butterfly" looks like. Abishai forgot to say what color it was, but it had two long ninja swords on it's back with the holder just like his that crosses them. So, his butterfly is a stealth Ninja butterfly.

That's a pretty high jump for Abishai!

Go, buddy, go!

Such a pro!

Give Miss Tess the old 1-2!

Stand like a statue game. He was the 2nd one to be taken out for moving, lol.

He's not afraid to speak up in class.

Closing out the class. He's very attentive to everything Miss Tess says and will even tell other kids to behave.

Aw, nice bow!

She has to have everything she own in "Elsa" blue, aka, a shade of turquoise. She paid me for the headphones and for half of the boombox since sometimes I borrow it for school. She found the exact same one she had before with the radio and cd player. It's plugged into the wall, but you can also put batteries in it. Nothing like the boomboxes of old! I had one that was a dual cassette tape and cd player and radio! I did take it outside a few times when I was trying to tan. I had these huge set up with books to read and a lounge chair with plastic weave. Oh yes, gotta love the '90's!

It's the "golden hour" of photography! It makes Abishai look likes he's Irish or Scandinavian more than he already is! And I think his eyelashes have gotten some sun, too. Cutie!

As I start tonight at 8:15, the sun is shining bright on my computer making it hard to type. Keturah and Abisahai escaped outside to play for a few minutes, although Abishai already brushed his teeth and went to the bathroom for the last time before bedtime. I hear them giggling like crazy! We've been home the entire day! Not one of us left and no car was turned on today. Justin and I were supposed to go to our Bible studies but we both felt ill. Justin developed one of his migraines after screen time, although he wasn't outside today and he drank water and had gatorade (he might not have eaten enough), and I, well, I'm not sure what's up with me, from the hot flashes and monthly pain to the extra pain in my neck from stress from Jared's stuff, to lack of sleep, to working hard earlier in the day. I'm just exhausted. The hot flash thing is just awful right now. I can feel another one coming on right now. Every single time I take medication it seems. Wow. And I had one right before I went to bed at 2 am last night and the fan I tried to plug in didn't work! Good grief! And I don't know what I can do about it but it's really disrupting my life. 

But, I plugged away at the day and freed the science shelf of the white table and it's contents that had been sitting in front of it all school year. The book didn't get put all the way away, so that's step #2. I worked for a bit over an hour, which is all I can really do. I didn't get to the digital part of the day because when I finally got to sit down, I needed to nap. I did spend 90 minutes in the kitchen making a nice dinner, one step at a time, overheating as I went. My Fitness Pal app didn't recognize my hard work, but surely I expended some calories and these hot flashes do something, right? I started my two new medications today and so far, I didn't feel a bad drop in blood pressure or any other typical side effects. The sleepiness could have been from anything, but I won't rule it completely out yet. I wrote down which one each is. The blood pressure med is the one I take at 5 and could disturb sleep only because it is a diruitic so I might have to use the bathroom more frequently for a few hrs. That's not a problem at the moment since I'm awake anyway. The other one is taken twice a day so it doesn't matter and is also supposed to be the migraine/water pill. So, I'm not sure how the osteopath came to her conclusions about which does what, so I'll have some follow up questions in a few weeks. No big deal. I understand the difference between the main reason drugs are prescribed and their off uses that are helpful. It's fine.

It was rainy for a part of the day, and muggy, so we stayed indoors. Justin did play with Abishai and his cars a bunch and had some great giggling time as well. Justin also worked on his paper a bit. Keturah sorted her obeeze beads all day and listened to music. I'm not sure how she can do that all day, but ok. Screen time as normal. Jared talked with the office a bit and was awake much more today. He was able to schedule the MRI at a self pay clinic tomorrow night. The one that the insurance would cover wouldn't happen for another full week. Something just isn't right with this at all. I asked Leah to pick up the pain gel I forgot last night because I just can't walk much and didn't want to leave the house, so she did that for him/us. I had filled up the car with recycling, so I'll try to drop that off tomorrow if I get a chance. We have the plumber coming between 10a-12p, I have a counseling appt at 1, and the MRI is at 7:30p and Jared wants me to go to that. He will be skipping Bible study as well.  And somewhere along the line, we need to go pick out glasses with Abishai. I'm not sure if we can get that done tomorrow or Friday or next week. I just need to pick a time. Or there is no point in having a follow up appointment in a month. Whoops. It's a good thing I put all the appointments on a different calendar yesterday.

Since Justin wasn't feeling good, I was asking Keturah to roll the big garbage can down to the end of the driveway and Abishai hopped up to do it. And with a lot of effort, starting and stopping, he did it! He did bump into the mirror on the van, which is currently sitting where my car usually sits, but he got it down there and adjusted it several times until it was perfect. I guess he's watched Justin fix it every single Wednesday after he and Daddy have picked Justin up from small group. Soon enough, Abishai will be emptying the big trash can inside and taking it to the big trash can outside and have all the trash jobs! Just in time for Justin to have a job in the real world. And then what happens when all the children are gone? Who does all the chores then? Oh, we do the chores! But there's less to do, right? You would think! It seems to be less for Gary and Leah, so we'll see. And then when grandkids are old enough, you hire them, and the cycle starts all over again. Many hands make light work.

I do feel awake though, because I had my second cup of coffee today, which I haven't had in a while. Maybe I can punch through a couple of digital things that I didn't get to this afternoon. I did turn down the thermostat again to 76. Jared keeps putting it at 78 and if I'm in the kitchen especially, it's just too hot. We have fans going, too. I don't want to spend $4,000, but if it helps in the long run, then so be it. It's not that big of a price jump from winter to summer electric bill, so it might be awhile before we recoup the costs. But man, I need to feel better. I feel like I'm sick with the flu between these hot flashes and then my feet are cold and my neck is sore. Nope, I doubt it's Covid. I'm just me being me. I'll get over parts of this in a couple of days I'm sure. Some if it is normal. Again, we'll see. I need more sleep!

The pain gel Jared just has to have that trumps every other pain gel (and we I think we have every other kind you can have), so much so, that before he even said good morning to me, he reminded me he needed it today. Sigh. Yes dear. Pain meds are one thing, but pain cream? I hurt, a lot, too, you know. Hold your horses, I'll do my best, but we'll see. His mom ended up getting it for us because I felt even worse as the day went on.

PEI Vanco Tulips. Oh how I miss driving by these gorgeous fields!

We are always the first to know...so, I won't publish this post for the next few days. But, yes, I plan on buying tickets and maybe, just maybe, getting Jared to go with me to the live recording. It is my birthday after all! I'm hoping that he's better then. Or maybe Keturah. I don't know. I'll buy my two tix as always. It's just a 4 1/2 hr jaunt to Tennessee. But it will be a memory of a lifetime for my 40th birthday! Beautiful artwork!

Oh brothers!

Telling me all about why he likes this garage over the other ones. He remembered this specific one despite not seeing it for at least 6 months.

Popsicle time. They opted to sit outside in the front this time.

Nice big black picnic ant!

Jared's birthday card. I finally got around to taking photos of it. It's one of those expensive pop up art cards. An airplane jet of course.

When I got into the math flashcards bucket, I saw this baggie of coins. I must have kept out some of these from a special jar of them that somebody put together during my childhood. I don't know if it was my dad or my "Uncle" Tony or somebody else. But we've got Susan B. Anthony dollars, Sacajawea dollars, JFK half dollars and Dwight D Eisenhower dollars, as well as a 1963 penny to compare with more recent pennies. $17 in coinage!

Now that looks and feels a lot better! I told Keturah and Abishai that they could put small boxes in front of the bookcase, but Abishai has to be able to reach the two middle shelves to get to the science books that are appropriate for him.

As soon as I told him he could get into these shelves, he delved right in! From astronomy through animals to biomes, he can pick out anything he wants! And then I'll rearange it again later. He LOVES animals right now, so I desperately wanted to satisfy that thirst. He picked out a bunch of dinosaur books though. He did look at a book about prairie dogs, too. This was just step #1. Now I have to go put the books that were on the white table back where they actually belong. I just somewhat sorted them. I have a few more steps to go to dismantle this year's studies and rearrange for next year's studies. It's always a work in progress.

 Let's just call this week the perpetual Saturday because I think that's what I'm feeling like it is right now with no school, lots of little projects, and Jared home all week. Therefore, I have no idea what day of the week it is. Oh, and having karate on Tuesday night and no Bible study Wednesday or Thursday night. I skipped on Wednesday night because I was exhausted and Jared skipped on Thursday night because he was able to schedule an MRI at a pay it yourself clinic. If we wanted insurance to cover it, he would have had to wait another whole week! He is feeling a bit better and didn't even take narcotics today, just like he felt back in January, so the ice packs and muscle relaxant is doing the trick for now. I still think they won't move up the surgery date. I feel better now that he's been up and moving around and he's been on his phone and computer a bit for work. And he's played with Abishai. And he took a shower and was out of bed long enough that I could wash the sheets. Between him being in the bed for nearly 36-48 hrs and my night sweats, wow, I could barely stand the stink when I went to bed! So in they went into the laundry machine this morning before the plumber came to fix the toilet. The toilet was fixed in like 15 minutes. Woot! Woot! And I had a nice long shower! So the day started off well! Actually, the shower helped cool my body down for most of the day. I think that could be a nice trick for awhile. I did look up some supplements to help with hot flashes and buy something that has just one main ingredient to try that doesn't have soy in it, just to try because I can't be like this right now this early. I've got a lot of life to live! 

I also have a ton of back pain, and I'm not sure what else I can get done this week. I just took it kind of easy today. I did a bit on my computer this afternoon and cleared away a little box of stuff Keturah didn't want. That was way easier than I thought. Yeah! But each 5 minute project that gets cleared helps clear my mind. Oh, and I did give the little bathroom a good cleaning after the plumber was done. It makes this housekeeper feel so much better when I make that kind of effort. I know it should be done much more frequently but I just can't do it. And kids are just not thorough enough. I wish we could hire a housekeeper to do the deep cleaning once a month. Sigh. Someday.

I did feel a bit weaker today, so I'm wondering if it's the blood pressure medication. I will be keeping an eye on that one. But the water pill (which is really both of the new meds) helped me drop a couple of pounds already. I just have to remind myself that as I drop the water weight, I have to move more and eat the same or a bit less and be mindful still. It's just water weight, not fat. But even getting rid of the bloat will help me move more easily and that in and of itself will motivate me to move more and more, at least I hope. Still, it was good to see that number on the scale again. I do already feel skinnier and my stomach doesn't feel so full and round. I don't mind the flabby because it means I'm fat, and not pregnant. Give me fat rolls, not pregnancy roundness! That's so weird to say, but so true!

Justin mowed our lawn today and didn't did too bad since it was cloudy. Abishai was everywhere bothering everyone and was bored. Keturah did her orbeeze sorting and reading. Everyone but Abishai had a shower. The kids went to Grandpa's house while Jared and I went to the MRI. The MRI was uneventful. Jared drove the worst way though through the thick of Franklin Township traffic so of course he got frustrated. I think he just wanted me along because he could. I don't know. I played my games and kept up with emails while he had his scan done. Easy peasy. The office was quiet. It's quite weird to do a medical thing after 5pm, that's for sure. But kind of nice, to. Overall, I wouldn't call it a lazy Saturday necessarily because we moved right along the day, but it was hurried either. I could have squeezed a few more things in, like recycling, but I didn't feel good, so I didn't. We'll try again tomorrow. We have park day and karate again tomorrow though. And then it's Memorial Day weekend. And next Friday is Benaiah's 19th birthday! Woot! Woot!

Not many photos today, but this was today's Facebook Throwback Thursday, back when Keturah wore pink and purple! The caption said something about wearing big brother Benaiah's stuff. I think this might be his baseball hat and participation medal when he did 6 weeks of baseball when he was 7 or 8. Look at those cute baby toes and fingers and glasses and cheeks! Eek!

Seriously?! The incentives have GOT to stop! You can now win a lottery of cash in Ohio. This has never happened with any other vaccine. Give me a break! Safe and effective my butt! And 50% of all people in the US, adults and eligible children, have now gotten it. You can lay off the advertising. It's available to everyone who wants it. That means that 50% do NOT want it. So stop advertising it to us! It's not going to change our minds. No way! This was an email sent directly to me (I am signed up for regular CVS emails, so that's fine, but still, no thanks!)

Do you like my clever soap dish? After the toilet was fixed, I thought was time to give the bathroom a good deep cleaning, so I cleaned up the mess the kids made with the bar of soap. I thought I would be saving us from going through so much liquid soap by using a bar of soap. Abishai was using a lot of it and playing in the sink with it. Well, instead, it melted all over the sink and made a disaster. So I took a plastic knife and some warm water and scraped it up to save at least some of it. I'll put a bottle of cheap liquid soap here when this is done. Or I'll water down the expensive Young Living stuff I have.

I just took a few pics because I really only had the first two, lol. Here's Abishai in an odd position at Grandma's house with her Nook. I was with Jared at his MRI so the kids went to Grandma's house to play board games with her and Grandpa. They played Flip Uno, bowling down the hallway, Nerts, Blockus, Yahtzee, etc.

Nertz as always.

Grandma has a ton of variety of flowers in her flower beds. Her yellow roses have bloomed! For whatever reason, we had yellow roses at my Mom's funeral so they will always remind me of that, and not in a sad way, but just that that's what my Dad picked.

So pretty and delicate!

 

 

 

 

 

The End