Year 6, July 19th-22nd, 2021: Baby Steps of Progress

 Oh, the Mondays. Oh the promises of a new week, but the execution that eludes me. Ok, it wasn't that bad. Let's see. I got 1 telehealth doctor's visit done, 1 in person doctor's visit done, 1 call to the pharmacist made and returned to figure out when it was best for me to pick up the old and new prescriptions that were figured out this morning with the doctor. I also got the school supply run done. Jared, Abishai, and I did get a run to Home Depot accomplished to get fencing for the flowers that are falling down across the sidewalk that the bees like. Dinner was planned and executed. Dishes were washed and put away. I showered. Abishai opened his new school materials. I read to Abishai and cuddled with him. I had several online conversations with homeschooling people and started to figure out the social schedule for the rest of the week. And Jared, Abishai and I just finished running around in the backyard with sparklers. So I guess that's a lot, eh? Ok then. I win. I had a full day. The teens? They sat on their beds with their phones all day. Abisahi? It felt like he just wandered the house all day. But I guess that's what life is like.

I'm glad that I have help. I asked Abishai if he and Daddy would take me to the orange working store so we could get the fencing for the flowers and he said yes. And he was the biggest help ever carrying the fencing from one side of the store to the other. It was so adorable! We didn't exactly tell the other two that we had left and Justin thought that only Jared and Abishai had left and he had thought he had told me that he was going to CVS so only Keturah was left at home. But Keturah didn't know Justin had left. When we got home. Socks had been left out for over an hour, Justin had just gotten home from CVS, thankfully, safe and sound, and all was well. But communicate, people, communicate! Teenagers!

Abishai had heard me tell Keturah that her friends were starting school in two weeks from today, so he was eager to get started on his school work. He tried to start his work last week, too. I had to hold him off. I told him we could do some papers tomorrow. I had appointments and errands today. And I hadn't gotten the planners yet. Yeah, it would have been nice to take them with me but then I would have had them begging for things. So instead, I pulled the planners from the shelf at Meijer and facetimed them instead! Genius! I didn't see the same ones we had last year until after we had picked out the ones I bought. And the price difference was huge. I think the ones I bought last year was buy one get one half off and it was like the last week of July or the first week of August or something. These ones were pretty cheap in comparison. And they are all different. So, we'll see how it goes. I kind of liked the other ones, but we did have a lot of blank space left over. We've used ones like these new ones before. These ones have some nice cheat sheets in the back, too, like measurements and rulers and world maps and that's ok.  Justin might need the periodic table for reference anyway. Both kids should know their measurements by heart now but hey, we all need to look it up sometimes. Abishai won't be quite there yet. Same with the maps. It's fine. Abishai actually said ok to a lilac planner because there was no other choices. Keturah got one with some bright colors on the inside and Justin got one with a touch of color on the outside and no color on the inside. All very different. Now I have to go and print off their attendance sheets and work on putting away books and finalizing their stuff or this year. That's my goal over the next couple of weeks. And in order to do that, I need to stay home.

Yeah for telehealth, am I right? I love telehealth! A lot of times I don't need blood draws or my vitals checked if it's just for a medication check or dosage change. And hopefully, it costs less to have a phone or telehealth visit. It saves me driving time and it creates less chaos in my brain because I don't have to remember to have things I might need while I am out like headache medication or food or drink. I can just take the call and then move on with my day. So much easier on the ADHD brain. And better for the introvert because you are only dealing with the nurse that checks you in and the doctor. You don't see anyone else in a waiting room or at the front desk. You don't have to worry about small talk. It's glorious! 

Anyway, I wish I had more time to shop and try on some things because they had some cute summer dresses and flowy shirts I wanted to try. The problem is, if I buy a large, the dress is way too long and I don't have my mom to take up my hem for me anymore. Being short and fat is a big problem. Maybe Kohl's has a good sale right now. Or Old Navy. I'll have to check the websites. Like I need to spend any more money right now. Not. I just want something nice to wear to church. We'll see. 

Woah. It's 9:45pm. Little guy is still awake. What?! Uh. No wonder I'm falling asleep already. Put that guy to bed! Oh well. He's having fun with Daddy. And he'll be ok tomorrow. Unless they say otherwise, we don't have to go to Tuesday playgroup. They might cancel if not enough people want to meet. I'm tired. I guess it was a full and busy start to the week. And I pulled my neck somehow and the chiropractor only helped a little.

Procrastination is my middle name. Actually, I've always been one to procrastinate. To avoid something unpleasant. That's why Mrs. Bassett, my school counselor, had to kindly teach me how to not do it. But today I found all kinds of ways to avoid the one tasks I set out to do: start putting books away and taking out the other ones in order to get organized for school. I always make the project bigger in my mind than it really is. Maybe it does take more energy than I realize, but the project itself really isn't that big a deal. I'm fairly well organized. I know where things go. So just put them there. I can do this. I can vacuum and move things and put them on shelves that I labeled last year during Covid. So today was one of those days where I surprised myself and the project was a bit more organized than not. I can do it in less time probably than I thought I needed. Yeah! Now, I still need to actually make some decisions on what to use for English for the kids this year, but that's a different story. I know where the rest of the stuff goes. I can put it back one by one. I'm not going through these stacks and figuring out which ones I'm giving away. No, this is just put everything back kind of deal. oh yeah, and where do I put that bucket of new books a bought at the book sale? whoops!

Before that, it was snuggle time with Abishai. He wanted to show me something on his tablet, so he did that. Meanwhile, Jared came home and showed the teens where to plant the two trees we got last night. When the walked into the fireside room they had the same meh face. It was hilarious! I thought I could try and have teenagers that were different than other teenagers, but nope, they are spot on typical teenagers. And as soon as a task is done or a meal is done, zip, back to their rooms they go. Makes me mad and sometimes cracks me up, too. We did discuss the phone situation today because Keturah's phone screen is breaking a bit. We might just get her a brand new iPhone SE 2020 version through Apple, maybe a refurbished one because it will still be serviceable for a bit, she'll have to let us here what she is watching, and it's not too pricey. No one else is upgrading their phone, so there's nothing to be passed down at the moment. I'm hoping we can wait it out for a long, long time.  Sigh. 

Let's see, I had a nerf gun battles with Abishai. Kids didn't get up until 11 am. It's time to reinstate the breakfast and lunch times and if you aren't in the kitchen at those times, then you don't eat, end of story. We sorted the load of laundry and put it away. Then I realized I forgot to put in some clothes that had been soaking in the same order for several days. I should have rinsed them and  added them to the load I did this morning. Bummers because they smell like poo. Gross! Well, I had Keturah gather up some more stuff and we ran another wash cycle. Unfortunately, the smell did not come out of the underwear and we had to throw them away. The t-shirt was ok. We all learned our lesson with Keturah's mistakes. I need to stay on top of reminding her to pick up her clothes and put them way. And she needs to not lie about these things, that's the biggest thing.

The day was full again, but I"m not sure what progress we made today, but hopefully it's more than it was today. Especially since there's fireworks under Justin. Oh wait, there's isn't, fall asleep.

Two new trees!

Two teens put them in the ground this morning, can you tell? If I didn't have a headache and frozen neck, I would have helped them and cleaned up after them.

Justin, perpendicular to the earth, not the hill, goof ball.

My bees are very happy.

Oh really?! Awesome sets of course. Expensive. I've seen them all on social media.

Teen #1's Natural Habitat

Teen #2's Natural Habitat

Oh no! Gary! - Brenden (You'll only understand if you watch a YouTuber that makes TikToks and then puts them on YouTube. But Grogu looks cute in Abishai's duckie blankie and glasses).

Now what am I supposed to do with this monster? It probably needs a new pot. I'm good at growing things but then I don't know what to do with them next. It's an aloe vera plant. Yes, I've opened up a leaf and tried to eat the middle of it. Yes, I've tried to smear it on my arms. I do like that it cleans the air by exchanging O2 and CO2 in the sunroom for me. And it's great that it requires very little watering because I forget to water it all the time. Hm,......

I'm going to take before, during and after photos of this area. It might look that different, but I think it will help me in the end. Here's the before. Basically, there's a lot of books that need to back on the shelves. I've pulled some stuff off of the shelves to maybe use for school this year and I did that right before I went to a used book sale. But now I have to pick up the pieces, put books back from last year, including the basket of summer reading and the books I bought at the summer booksale, and tidy up the rest. Almost everything as a place to go, I just have to do the work.

Things to take back to the IAHE because well, I don't get out enough to give things away. Actually, now I've been told to give the books away but bring back the banner because the logo needs to be changed. That's fine. At least it's at the front door. I will bring the books with me to my next meet up with new people.

Today's progress, mostly towards the back there. I put a lot of things back up on the shelves you can't see towards the back right. I actually carried in more books from the other room. And then I carried some books from in front of the middle shelf there into the fire side room that I had set aside for school this year. I'll hit up the box in front of the yellow and blue bin next, then the basket  of summer reading, then the yellow and blue bin. Then I'll have to decide on what to do with the pile of grammar and English books on the floor for Keturah. I also have set aside some picture books and the Five in a Row curriculum and I want to see if Abishai might be interested in tackling that with me for some Literature study. Then after that's all cleared up, I will pull books from that middle shelf back there, the middle row and bottom row, as that's our 20th century stuff that we need to finish with our Mystery of History to call Justin officially down with World and American History for High School credit. Phew. Fun stuff!

A friend gave me this die cut stuff. I have no clue how to use it so I watched a YouTube video. It's pretty easy. The machine is only $89 on Amazon. I'm going to see if my sister wants it, and if not, maybe someone else. I'm not interested in learning how to do a new craft. I have to organize the rest of my scrapbooking stuff and finish Keturah's album. I might have enough leftover supplies to make one for Abishai. But this is probably worth a ton of money right here.

Well, the day started out well. And it's going to end well. The middle part of the day was very, well, wasteful. I was determined to do what I didn't do yesterday. So Abisahi and I cuddled and then ate breakfast and then headed off to do errands after getting the kids out of bed around 10am. We got 8 stops/errands done in 1 hr. Let's see. We stopped first at the dry cleaner's and dropped off one of Daddy's dirty shirts and picked up 4 clean ones. When Abishai told Daddy that, he called the shirts, "Daddy's napkins" because he always gets food on them. I did NOT, I repeat, NOT call the shirts that. He picked that up from someone else. Not me. It was hilarious, though! After that, we dropped a big bagful of Keturah's library books off at the library. Abishai got out of the car and put them in the slot, although we went to the drive up slot. And then we drove over to the paper recycling bin to drop a bagful in. That was errand #3. Then it was off to Kroger's recycling bins to drop off a huge load of cardboard. Abisahi got out again and nearly did the entire load of cardboard in the trunk by himself, heaving it up into one of the tallest bins all by himself. Ya yeat! What a big helper! 

After that, we went into Kroger to pick up a couple of things and my prescriptions. I walked over first to get bananas and then to the floral department because I thought I would buy a candy bouquet for the pharmacy department. But ouch! $35! No thank you! I should have just grabbed a bag of candy, but I also thought about just making a nice display myself. I'll come up with something and bring it to them at some point. I've switch my prescriptions around a lot lately and feel so badly about it. Also, I don't think they've had their drive through open at all since some of the staff changes have been made. I think it's such a distraction for them. I'm sure some have been annoyed by this. But it's summer. It's ok. We'll live I guess. Then I picked up some eggs, some new air pods for Justin, and let Abishai pick out a Hot Wheels toy for being such a big helper. However, I didn't realize that he picked out a $10 toy until after I paid for it. Whoops! Then we went up to the pharmacy and got my meds. Despite giving them almost an extra 24 hrs, they still didn't have one of my meds that was changed on Monday. I do have a bit more of the old script left but still. Sigh. Why are pharmacies having trouble getting medications in? I don't get it. Oh that's right, because no one wants to work. Because everyone is still collecting stimulus money or unemployment and now they are sending the child tax credit payments early instead of as part of our money with our taxes in the spring, like Canada does. Yeah, government handouts! Yeah socialism! Yeah, less people working! Yeah for shortages! SMH! So those were #4, #5, and #6. Then, I got gas at Kroger with $.30 off using Kroger points, that was #7. And my mpg was over 21, go me! 

And our last stop of course was to see Daddy, so that was #8! Woot! Woot! Then things started to go a little sideways. We talked with Daddy and Mrs. Ellen for a bit. Then Daddy actually needed to go to Kroger to pick up pizza and salad for a lunch meeting and he needed Abishai's help to carry things. So, Abishai went with Daddy and Mommy stayed behind and kept Mrs. Ellen company. No big deal. But by the time all that was said and done, another hour had passed and it was truly lunch time. Abishai wanted to stay and have pizza and I said, sorry, buddy, we have eggs in the car and I really need to get home. So, we went home. We got lunch and puttered a bit, and then I got into answering emails and private messages and helping people on my phone and telling kids to finish yardwork, yada yada, oh my word....and eventually it was 3:45pm and Justin and I had a telehealth appointment with his PCP and then it was time for supper and I hadn't touched the schoolbooks yet and yup, what in the world, how was the rest of the day wasted? I do not know. But here we are. We managed to cobble together dinner. I had Jared cut the fencing from the flowers up front and get that done. I took Justin to church for youth group and Jared picked him up. I spent 15 minutes putting away school books and 15 minutes lecturing Keturah on why she can't ask me why I don't do certain physical things around the house. I edited my medications list. And now it's 11pm and I'm just now finishing this part of the blog post. Oh yeah, and I spent over an hour figuring out what kind of summer dress I should buy. I want to go shop some summer clearance sales this weekend. Sigh. Oh and I paid some medical bills and moved monies over to pay car insurance bill. So, I guess I ended the day with some productivity. I want to do more with the books tomorrow. It's not that hard of a job. Really. It just needs to get done. So go away everyone and leave me to it. Let me get some some sleep too. Ugh! 

Big boy helper this morning!

Nice mpg this week! It's all those trips to Greenfield I make!

I can usually get 300 miles on one tank of gas because there's a good 2 trips to Greenfield on it.

Hey, I know that kid! He's our new neighbor! Solomon!

Hey, I know that kid! I've known him since he was born! Wyatt, I assume, Isaacs.

Our first attempt at controlling the flowers. I think we need a stack in the middle, too, because it's bowing out, still. Yikes! Those flowers are heavy! Jared said if they stick out then we need to cut them. Well, buddy, you're the one who decided it was a good idea to plant a TREE in the middle of the FLOWER garden. SO, whatever! I quickly weeded the garden, too. Some of the taller flowers are now overtaken the original bush like "moses" grass with yellow flowers. They aren't doing that well this year. I might have to trim these wild flowers down some next year.  I don't know. I hate messing with nature. I do see a couple of things that could be moved though to give more breathing room for the rose bush and other plants. Some things are just on top of each other. I just don't like moving things because I'm afraid they are going to die from the shock. But I guess they will die because of their current location, too. We'll see. Trial and error I suppose.

Well, I got more books put away this morning when I had the most energy and then after my counseling appointment, I pretty much did nothing again. I made the mistake of dropping one medication too fast and so my legs were dancing all night. And I had too much caffeine, too. It was awful, again. I thought I was really going to crash hard today but I managed to stay awake somehow, maybe because I stayed upright. I didn't put away the last basket of books because a friend might go through those and they are all one time period of history/one topic. The next thing I need to do is pull all the books together that I hadn't fully decided on for Keturah and Justin for their English and Logic and such and sit and organize those and then put what I'm not using back on the shelves. That's next week's project. There's a lot of "if's" and planning in that and I need some time and clear headedness, which means I need some sleep! So, I made a bit of progress. I did move a few other things around and my desk piles look smaller. I had cleaned up some medical bills last night and that made a huge difference. I got a box ready for my sister's birthday gift stuff, so I just have to finalize that. But I did get caught up in email today and a bit of my games as well. There went the promise to myself to not look at my phone as much today. I did read to Abishai. And I fixed the fence for the flowers so that it doesn't bow out as badly. Dinner was leftovers again. I think some of my pills kill my appetite and that's not helping me be motivated to cook. We had only 30 minutes to talk through a few things because then Justin had to mow Grandpa's yard and Jared had Bible study. Keturah rearranged the garage stuff a little a bit. I need to finish my dinner and figure out when to go to the state fair. Mumbo jumbo, lots to process and think about and when you're tired, nothing makes sense. Oh, and I needed to start packing for the pool tomorrow. I need to sleep well so I can make that trip a success. The kids don't really want to make it a long day, but I'm insisting that we just do it so I can fell like a better mom. They will have some friends to hang out with. And maybe we'll get out of our rut.

Then Saturday we will rest. Jared has to help with an e2 conference Friday night and Saturday morning. Then church Sunday morning, then Sunday naptime, then big deal on Sunday night. Then some events next week, too. Not sure how I'm going to get everything pulled together to start school, but I'll chip away at it until it is put together. It happens every year. I'll make it happen. This year's word: Confident. Walk in Confidence. I CAN host people in my home no matter what it looks like. I CAN wear whatever clothes I want to. I CAN be confident in what I say. Etc. Etc. I'm glad I'm caught up sort of at home. If I wanted to, I could fully clean up some areas and be ready for company. But, I don't have to be. What is currently out and about, is fine, too. My kids play here. I'm ok with that. I'm in the middle of sorting books. It's fine. I can still talk with Abishai's Lego creations sitting beside me and cup of coffee in my hand.

I picked this up a few years ago because I opened it up and the first poem I saw was.....

This one! My sister Stefanie memorized this poem as a little girl and I remember it and about twice a year, I hear one of the phrases and that memory is triggered and I will recite it from memory, too. So silly!

Keturah's turn on social media! Join us!

Lonely table after everybody just ate and ran off.

I fixed the gate all by myself. I put two stakes in the middle so it wouldn't bow out into the sidewalk. Hopefully this will keep those flowers under control. Fun stuff!

A tad better, and everything is in it's final resting place for now. I need to go through some books and decide what to use for this year and put what I won't use back on the shelf. Then I can shift things back more. We're getting there.

The End