Year 6, July 2nd-4th, 2021: Boom! Goes the Fourth!

 Interesting day. It was a good day. Abishai didn't want to go to park day without Justin and he claimed he would sit with me or only play with me the whole time but as soon as we got there and he saw lots of kids (not from our group, but lots of other kids), he took off like a shot and I barely saw him for 3 hrs! Good grief! Well, it was his favorite park, so that helped. I'm glad I made him eat more for breakfast. We didn't bring any snacks so he was very hungry when we got home. It was gorgeous outside, 75 degrees and very cool in the shade. I was almost cold! And Abishai was just a tad sweaty. There was 6 of us adults today, which was perfect. We had the new mom and her son today that lives near us and then Brenda had invited one of the newer moms from her new co op as well, so we got to meet them. She seems sweet, too. Pretty young kids. And man, the conversation flew! We can talk for hours and hours. That's how you know your with your people! When you don't get tired of the conversation and you're not checking your watch and you've actually got something to add to the conversation and people are asking for your advice. THEN you know you are in the right company of people. Oh my word. So much fun! I wasn't really tired today, so that was cool. We were at Wolf Run, 2 miles away.

So, what did Keturah do at home while were away? Not a whole lot! Probably screen time on her phone so I completely banned that as soon as we arrived and had her go outside and try the mower. Actually, she hadn't even attempted to get herself some lunch so I started that and she went and did more trimming although she was pretty hungry. Yes, I'm mean, but I want to teach them efficiency and consequences to their laziness. I told her no more screens until the job was done. Well, she got the mower started after she ate some mac and cheese and did a strip or two and claimed she couldn't keep the mowing running. And, I got frustrated because I don't have brain space to figure out how a mower works after 10 years of not working with mowers and I have to remember to create boundaries and simply back off. So, I did. Jared was in the middle of something at work, so I didn't text or call him. Instead, Keturah came inside and just waited until he came home. She didn't get her usual screen time. But as I type this at 10 pm, she has her phone in her room now. Girl! Sigh. Anyways, she didn't get it this afternoon. Whatever. Jared came home and I think showed her one more thing on it about the choke (and tried to explain it to me and I barely understood) and then she was able to finish it while he took Abishai to karate. Thank goodness. I really didn't want to make the karate run. I was supposed to go do a couple of errands but now I was stuck at home because we try not to allow children to mow without an adult at home. I did go to CVS for 15 minutes because I needed to buy an envelope for some paperwork and I picked up Justin's medication and so I could say I did something for the day, too. Now I can spend 5 minutes putting that package together and dropping it off tomorrow before picking Justin up. She only had the side yard to finish and now she was more confident so I thought it would be ok. My other errand would have taken me 10 miles away to either Aldi's so that's too far.

Abishai spent the afternoon on his tablet recharging his batteries. He shoved down one breakfast sausage and called it lunch before asking for the tablet and said he would eat while watching. I said no way. It wasn't tablet time quite yet and that's a bad habit and explained why eating in front of a screen is bad for you, although he often does it. I had him sit at the table and eat the rest of his sausage links without the screen and then he realized he was hungry enough for a bowl of Keturah's mac and cheese, which he wouldn't have been allowed to eat in the living room anyway. It was 2pm when we ate lunch. Actually, I had brought a peanut butter bar to park day so it was a little melty when we got home and I put it in the freezer thinking I would pull it out in 15 minutes. 2 hrs later at 4pm, I finally ate my lunch. Good grief! I just sat on the shorter couch while Abishai laid down on my green couch under my coke blankie on my pillow all comfy like. That's because Dinosaury was wrapped up in ducky blankie on Daddy's chair, which is one place Abishai usually goes for screen time. But that's ok. I overheard Abishai "watch" Captain Marvel in under 30 minutes! Yes, he skips forward in movies, even movies he doesn't know the story in, to certain scenes or whatever. He did see the funny scenes with the cat in that one so he got to tell Daddy all about it. Ew! Abishai likes to sit near me, and I like it, too. I was just playing my games on my phone and catching up on emails, which were a bit slower today. I will have to do some IAHE work tomorrow I think, but I told myself I wasn't going to worry about any of that today.

And I wasn't going to worry about some emotional stuff, but that did also come out this evening, and I spent a lot of time on it while Jared and Abishai were gone. It felt good to type some things out, but I missed some of the great weather and probably should have been out walking. But then again, I needed to be home for the mowing. I always have an excuse. Always. I hate exercise, can you tell? But I didn't eat much today, so that's a win, right? Lol. I did try out one of my new black teas that has the extra energy in it that makes it equal to the energy in a cup of coffee and wowzers it did. I felt a bit shaky and needed to eat breakfast even more quickly than normal. No wonder I was awake for park day. Jared doesn't make my tea on Fridays when he goes to men's group. So, that was our day.

I briefly saw Benaiah when he brought over the push mower from the other house. Keturah claimed ours didn't work right. He stayed home but worked from home the last two days because he felt a bit better but not all the way better. I didn't hear from Justin today. He comes home at lunch time tomorrow. That's why I insisted the mowing get done. I'm so tired of it being such a hassle. I just wanted to do a good deed and surprise Justin. Does it really take 5 people to mow a lawn? Really? Mowing #notmyproblem but I want it done! Just do it! I don't know why Jared's like "I don't know!" Then find out. Your the man of the house. Figure out the mowing for crying out loud. I figure out so much else. Don't make me figure this out. I can. But I don't have to and I shouldn't have to. If only we didn't plant so many trees and we could use the ride on lawn mower to mow our lawn. Good grief! We just have too many obstacles in our yard and our gate isn't wide enough for the ride on mower. Sometimes, I just want the land to be left alone and let it all go to seed. But whatever #notmyproblem

Aww, Socks got far enough up on the bed to put his head down on Keturah's belly. Sweet!

Wow! Cold front in July! Jared wants to open windows tonight and said NOPE! My allergies will not be happy plus the humidity. It's just for one night. It will get warmer later in the weekend. It's not worth it. My body says no. And if you don't listen to MY body, well, you get my death glare.

"I'm not going to have any fun. I'm going to sit next to you the whole time." Yeah, right, kid, yeah, right. He went zooming over to play with kids as soon as I sat down before any of our friends arrived. He did play with Caiden for a bit and Eli, but I think he mostly found kids his age that weren't part of our group. That's ok. He seemed to get along with them jsut fine. He checked in multiple times and I kept better tabs on him than I normally do because I didn't have Justin around. All in all, the 3 hrs went by very quickly!

Someone posted this on a homeschool group today. It's so very true. As someone said to me, and I like to say now to others, kids will go as far as their brains will take them. Whether that's Algebra 1 or Calculus. You cannot force them to go any faster. You can encourage them. But they will and do get stuck. Don't panic. Just keep working at it. Same with reading. Usually it's not an issue with history or science. I still don't know in which grade they learn what. And my kids have learned things in different grades as far as grammar or certain writing concepts, cursive writing, or when we focused more on spelling, or when we studied certain subjects in history because we do it chronologically. Math is somewhat different because of the curriculum we use doesn't follow traditional sequences of introduction until about pre-algebra, but it is mastery, so you don't move on until you can do the previous concept. And that's what I love.  Oh, get this! I think Abishai has learned more in the last couple of months of not doing any schoolwork just by trying to sound out words on random things and by making connections like today. Today he said, "If we had gone to the park at lunch time, then when we got home, it would have been close to 3 pm or screen time, because we were there for 3 hrs." So, he was already thinking that lunch time is around 12 and 3 hrs from that is 3 pm. Have I really taught him that part of figuring out the clock? No. That was gleaned directly from everyday life and him asking 1,000's of questions every day and we diligently answering them. And he's always sounding out words. So he never stops practicing. Just keep on going! And don't compare!

I was encouraging the new mom today with her 10 yr old boy and thought about this book again that I haven't started. Her boy says he's content with just the friends he has in his neighborhood so his mom said he had to come but he didn't have to make friends today. And to me he sounds a lot like Keturah sometimes. He went to public school until Covid happened but will continue at home from now on, so they are still adjusting. But, yes, the hormones will start creeping in here soon as well. Fun times!

Abishai's new favorite sceent time spot. I don't mind. The other couch is a little stiffer and because I often sleep on the green couch, if I sit there, my body will automatically try to take a nap. I could have done more reading. I could have gone outside. I could have a million things. But we sat here on our couches and just played on our electronics. Quiet and content after being outside with friends for 3 hours.

Abishai did this! He wrapped up Dinosaury all snuggly on Daddy's chair! Awww!!!

I told Keturah to bring the dog in and she claimed she had. I thought I had heard Socks bark and she claimed it was a different dog. Well, 10 minutes later, I hear Socks scratching at the door so I sent Keturah this photo. I told you he was out there! Come get the dog! I don't like getting up after I've made myself comfortable in my chair. Come on, Keturah, make the connections! Like I said, tweens/teens and hormones and brains and they don't have them and they aren't fully reconnected until they are 25 and I'm going to clobber all 3 of my teens on any given day and no they are no longer cute anymore, Grandma. They just drive me mad! And make me cry. All the time! I prefer those toddlers and elementary school age kids. Those were the good old days, right? The sweet spot of motherhood. Pretty much. Some days, I just want to ship the whole lot of them off to a strict boarding school or something. Good grief they cause me a lot of grief. Like Keturah complaining it was hot outside and it was 70 degrees. Really? And then she asks me for a treat before I go to the store because she mowed the lawn. Um, you just argued about mowing the lawn for three days straight. Granted, it was a bit rough "teaching" you and we wanted you to use your intuition, but no, no treat. Also, this was supposed to be about doing a good deed for Justin so when he comes home tomorrow, he doesn't have to go right back into doing his hardest chore on a hot day. He can rest and recover first. I hope Grandpa did his lawn. Again, #notmyproblem. Justin and Grandpa have to work that out. But I wanted to give Justin a break. That's all. It didn't have to be such a big production! Now she knows how and she and Justin can tag team. Maybe one week Justin does the back and Keturah does the front and then the next week they switch. I think she forgot a couple of rows in the back though. Whoops. Come get the dog! And then she brings me her phone at 10:45pm. Girl, I'm waking you up at 8am! No excuses! You didn't have to have your other screen time because you had your screen time this morning for 3 hrs! Ugh! Teenagers!

I thought I was going to rest and putter today, but we ended up being a bit more active than that. Jared worked on some wood working projects. I went and picked up Justin from church after he came home from CIY. And then Abishai desparately wanted to show Daddy what he could do at Wolf Run Park, so the three of us went there for an hour. Then we had some lunch and did a bunch of little things before I could officially lay down to rest. Finally it was tablet time and Abishai decided to come snuggle with me. Justin ended up sleeping for 3 hrs because he had been up until 4 am and had to get up at 6 am to get ready to get on the bus (thanks to a senior who thought it was a great idea to keep everyone awake). After supper, Jared went over to Jim's for a long talk. I trimmed the rose bush and got rid of the beetles. Keturah helped with clean up. I put some bug stuff down and did more trimming and cleaning up. Now I think we are done. It took over 4 days to get it all done. Ridiculous. Now I'm sore but fine, ok, it's done. It did cool off this evening, but it did get up to over 80 degrees today. Tomorrow it will hit 92, so I will need to be more careful when I'm outside. I thought Abishai might go swimming today so I had Keturah prep the pool, but he didn't. He might tomorrow. Jared is allowed to get in the pool now because his wound has healed. So instead, I had Abishai take a bath and then he watched Justin play more Fortnite before it was bedtime.  Then I had to put him to bed because Jared wasn't back yet. He went right to sleep because he was so tired.

Justin said he had a good time at CIY Move. Nothing too special happened, but I'm sure the stories will trickle out over the next couple of days as he regains he strength and rest like Keturah's did. He said several of his small group guys went through this door to indicate they wanted to go into ministry, so that's cool. He played 9 square and something else but couldn't really get into any of the other sports and tournaments. The talent show as ok he said. He wasn't impressed by the cafeteria and ended up eating a lot of salad. I seem to remember him saying that in previous years. He said the cheese on the pizza was gross. He liked the pancakes (of course) and I guess there was some catfish (maybe it was breaded?). He couldn't go to Tim Horton's because it closed at 2pm every day because they didn't have enough employees to keep it open after that in the summer. Bummers! But he did spend over $10 on one meal at Buffalo Wild Wings which was overpiced he said. The biggest negative of the whole thing was having to walk around a huge campus. So much walking! So he thinks he got bigger leg muscles from that. Sorry, son, that's what all colleges are like. What is with my kids and walking/being moderately active? Good grief. Maybe we all need to a  health class again. One of his other youth leaders drove over for part of the week, Will, to surprise them. They did not wear masks although it was recommended. His face has cleared up, yeah! Some guy had to shave his legs after losing a game of Euchre. He did get to nerd out about video games, too. I had his laundry done before he was done napping, woot! He had put everything else away. And now Camp Johnson 2021 is over. My kids are efficient packers and unpackers. It's great! The only negative is now he realizes how nice it is to be away from his annoying siblings and he is very grouchy towards them. I'll give him a couple of days to calm down and then we are going to have a chat about it.

Meanwhile, the neighborhood behind us and around us are going all crazy with fireworks and it almost sounds like New Orleans on New Years Eve. I'm not quite in the mood to take photos and videos of the nonsense. I'm not sure what kind of mood I'll be in for fireworks at Smiths house tomorrow. The middles won't want to go super early, so might stay home with them or go over later or whatever. Jared will go at 5pm when food will be start being serve. Fireworks at dark, so after 9 pm. We'll see. Guest preacher tomorrow. Daniel and the Lions' Den. Should be interesting. Just like Jared's super white beard! Oh my goodness! It makes him look so much older and handsome! I love it! He hates it of course. But wow, I wish I could what all of his hair would like. It's trivial, but sometimes you have to find the little things that bring you joy and focus on them instead of focusing on the other things that make you want to cry because you don't know what to do next with the situation because you don't have much time to work on it. And certain family members, again, aren't helpful. Super frustrating. Onward. It's late. Stuff to do. Sleep to be had. Good night.

Ah, I know this one! Only because it's Justin's favorite book series after The Lord of the Rings of course. Easy peasy!

This crew was a bit smaller this year, but never the less, just as awesome I'm sure. CIY Move 2021 is in the books!

Tried a new thing with the alliance in my game. We didn't win, but it was fun to try!

Here comes the tired ones!

CIY Move 2021 They're Back!

Little man can slide down this pole faster than any firefighter I know!

Sweet!

He loves rolling down the hill, too! I think he did this a lot yesterday, as well. Remember, we were here for 3 hrs yesterday and another 1 hr today. He's exhausted.

Daddy! That's the wrong way! You have to be behind me! And it's too high!

This apparatus is NOT doctor approved! Do you remember what happened to Benaiah when he was on it? Get off!!!!!!!!

I (reluctantly) changed the tablet decorations from Canadian to American today. I had just enough red, white, and blue sitting around to do it.

Ah, memories from childhood. I wanted one thing from Amazon, and it was in Amazon Fresh, which is a deliver service like our produce box is . I think it's like those clip and ship shoppers who shop stores for you and bring it to you. Anyway, I had to get $30 worth of products so of course I included the vegetables we needed because the Misfts company didn't know about the mishap and is only refunding me in money and not goods so we are out of vegetables. Well, I scrolled through and found these. We used to mix these kinds of drinks up by the pitcher full in the summer. Sometimes we would have kool-aid, too. My mom used to get the plain lemonade. But they had the lemonade/iced tea flavor! So I made a cup to go with dinner and it was close enough to the real thing.

The memories of powering the granules in to the container's lid and then into the job. Yup!

And then another Howell summer tradition is making popsicles with the juice. My mom didn't buy pre made popsicles that often. Abishai wouldn't drink the cherry kool-aid but he ate the popsickle.

Screen timing together.

His legs are getting so long.

I trimed the rose bush and put a bunch of Sevin powder around it to repel the beetles. We'll see if that helps.

Yummy popsicle we made by our self!

Awww.....

Everything is back to normal. Watching big brother play Fortnight. Justin said he missed his video games, true gaming nerd that he is. Happy campers.

Ok, a little bit behind because of course we got back late on the 4th. Sunday was a great day. Jared took Keturah early to church so she could do the worship team for the preschoolers. Then he and I went to service for 2nd. I brought the boys for the 2nd. Justin did not get up until after 10 and he needed to be at church by 10:30am. Well, he missed half of his meeting. He was still extremely grumpy because his internal clock is messed up and he didn't go to bed until 1am the next before. Because there was not enough leaders in the kindergarten room, they combined the kindergarten room and the 1st grade room, and because they still had too many kids, Justin had to help in the 1st grade room. He was not pleased, but did his best. I told Abishai to not even think about trolling Justin. Be extra nice to him and he was. Justin said he almost fell asleep during that class! I told Justin that the next time some random kid tries to keep them all awake, he needs to be the bad guy and go get a leader. Because I do not need him coming home like this ever again. He is nasty grumpy. Nasty. We have some other attitude things to work on, but I'm slowly realizing that I guess boys just get this way at age 16 no matter how they were before then. I hope that's not the case, and I hope Justin and I can work things out different than Benaiah and I, but boy oh boy, we will have to work hard at it.

Meanwhile, Keturah helped out with her small group which were serving lemonade and cookies for Baskets for Benjamin at church as a fundraiser when she wasn't dancing and I'm glad I delayed writing this post because they raised over $5,000!!!! I knew it was going to be in the $1,000's!!!! I just knew it! No matter how big or small the congregation is, they are extremely generous. We saw people put in $20's, even $50's and $100's. And it was so sweet when they announced it from stage. Jared Ensminger and Caroline, who did those funny "Good News" skits last year before online services last year, both got up there, as new parents themselves, and told the congregation that the Baskets for Benjamin were about infant loss. Jared E. got teared up, too. It was so precious. Because it was just a little over a year ago that Benjamin was born and passed away a few hours later. And just today, Justin and Alison brought little Faith to church. We all got to see her. Abishai even wanted to see her until Alison pulled back the blanket and then he wasn't too sure about her still wrinkly legs and tiny feet and hands (she was in her carseat and stroller). I don't think he's ever seen a 10 day old baby before. But oh how precious! 

But it was also a good morning with worship and then President Matt Proctor of Ozark Christian Church was our guest preacher. I did see Dan around, but I don't know if he's taking a sabbatical or just had the Sunday off again. Shan preached last week, Matt preached this week and Emerson preaches next week. Anyway, we of course were on Daniel 6 and I thought I was going to be super bored. But oh no I wasn't! President Proctor brought the story to life! He must make the best Grandpa because he can tell a story! He uses voices and he substitutes the ancient/Scripture words with modern words to bring fresh perspective into it and man, it was awesome. Plus he had some good personal stories. I know Dan is working on his preaching style, and Gary has his, but Proctor is just a way different kind of preacher. A good way to bring new light to an old story. 

After service, Jared took Abishai home to start on lunch. I stayed and waited on Justin to finish with room clean up and then we waited for Keturah to be done helping with the lemonade. Jared was cooking hamburgers, cabbage, and warming up bread. All in the oven! He didn't spray the pan, so the hamburgers were a bit burnt because he used some sauce, but whatever, we had food to eat. We just had to wait on it a bit after we got home. We definitely are not Leah Johnson who has everything prepared before hand. I am lucky enough to even have something to cook in mind right now. I haven't done the meal planning that I thought I would do this summer. I guess IAHE has been more fun/important. Anyway, it was good and satisfying.

After lunch, it was naptime/screentime. Even I got to laid down for a little bit with Jared. And then Jared took Abisahi and some food over to the Smiths at 5pm for the neighborhood 4th of July get together. The middles and I stayed home just so we wouldn't be burnt out by too much people time. Justin and Keturah played more video games and I did some of that and email and things. I also knew I didn't want to be in the direct heat too long and develop a headache, so I was waiting for it to cool off a bit. It was ok in the shade at about 7:30pm when we got there. Most people had eaten, but that was fine. Justin and I don't eat much when it was hot. I had brought my own tea. Abishai was off doing his own thing. Right before we had left though, Benaiah and Ethan had showed up to borrow a ladder because they had gotten a ladder stuck in Jim's tree. Why didn't they ask Jim for a ladder, I don't know. So I guess I was going to see Benaiah on the 4th after all.

Benaiah and Ethan were hanging out off and on all weekend while Grandma and Grandpa were away and they had a blast watching movies that were, um, full of swearing, maybe some drinking, I don't know what else. But Jared knows the movies, so whatever. The kids are now 19 yr old young adults. Can't tell them what to do. But they are safely doing whatever, that's what matters. But oh my word. Do they ever sound like Jared, Chad, and Matt sometimes. I feel like I've been transported back over 20 years ago when they were all 19 and 20 and plotting this or that thing to do with their money or time or whatever. My dudes, you need to pay for car insurance first. And you need to live on your own, too. But at least I got to see them together, and for that I am very thankful.

We had some good conversations with the neighbors across from Ali and Justin. I had texted with the wife a couple of times and she had remembered my name, and I actually had scooted into the conversation that Jared was having with them, so I'm glad he got to meet them. And then when I got up to get some food and see what else was going on, the Spences came and got in a conversation with Adrienne and Ali and Heather Koers, so there was introductions going on and wanted to listen into all of that, and we eventually sat down in a circle for awhile. Our regular Bible study people were kind of circled around each other as well. I wasn't trying to ignore them, but I don't know when I will get to talk to the others again, so I made sure I took the opportunity. All in all, there were 13 families that came that night. I don't think the whole neighborhood was directly invited but kind of a who's who list. Either way, it was a great group. Loads of kids and we hardly saw Abishai. He only came back to us for water. He said he would eat a cookie, but later, and so he did. Otherwise, I don't think he ate anything. He was too busy playing. And of course, at 10 pm when everything was done, he didn't want to go home. Keturah wanted to go home after the first firework. Of course.

Everybody got set up on the Smiths driveway and settled in to enjoy the fireworks from the neighbors' house one house down and across. Andrew was helping them with theirs. They had a ton to set off. Jim had bought some and then Benaiah had bought $60 worth, so that's what was shot off in front of Jim's driveway. Jim said he usually has his brother and friend there to do the lighting and firing but they weren't there. So after he realized that Benaiah and Ethan were eager to give it a shot, he actually let them! I was super impressed! I don't know if Jim was super relaxed and chill or what, or maybe he just really trusted Benaiah, I don't know, but it was a big responsibility. And Adrienne's daughter Ava also helped. So, the teens set up the fireworks in a row and lit them one by one, very carefully and did extremely well for their first time. No mishaps, unlike the house just a door down the road. One of their fireworks shot sideways up the street at us and almost reached our chairs. It was a very scary moment for all the parents with little ones. 

Meanwhile, Justin had taken off on Grandpa's bike around the neighborhood. Why? I don't know. And he just circled the neighborhood for like the next hour. Maybe to keep himself awake. Maybe to be alone and yet nearby. He said he watched fireworks as he rode. Who knows. Abishai sat on a chair and watched. Jared couldn't sit in the chairs, so he just stood. I sat down and watched my 19 yr old light fireworks. Oh my goodness. Crazy stuff. I wasn't upset or afraid. I just kept shaking my head and thinking back to when Jared and Chad and James and Matt and the rest of us would go find part of an empty subdivision road and light them off. Or remembered the time that Chad and Dusty made a huge circuit board of them. And now Benaiah wants to do that next year and he and Jim are plotting it. Jim will pay and Benaiah will set it up. Good grief. But just the delight in Benaiah's eyes reminds me of the delight in the 24/7 guys' eyes. Young men taking a bit of a risk. Not too crazy. They really weren't that crazy, trust me. But getting a bit of a thrill, too. And Benaiah tries to hide that he's not like Jared. You have no idea, child, just how much you are like your dad. There are some very big differences in how you act socially, for sure. But your hobbies and interests. Oh my goodness. You are wired the same, literally. Cracks me up. The same movies make you laugh. You like computer games. Cars. Pyro stuff. This whole mortgage processor job, and/or even having a desk job at age 19, when Jared worked in a calling center at age 19 and lived at home and worked from home/went to school. It's neat to see it. And yet, Benaiah's social skills are way above ours somehow. Way above. And I'm so happy for that. The arrow has gone way further than the archer already. And I cannot be more proud. Even when I cry myself to sleep because the arrow doesn't want to come back to archer quite yet.

Well, a fun time was had by all. It was time for some TV and sleep. Tomorrow I plan to work on actually work type of stuff getting my mind on straight, pay a few bills, looking at my summer to do lists, set up some things, etc. I rested for two days, I'm ready to work hard as long as I don't have a headache. The booms should end soon. The air was heavy with them for hours. It's like everyone spent their extra Covid money on them this year. And it sounded a lot like New Orleans does on New Year's Eve. As Leah says, "You might as well light some cash on fire." A little bit is fun, but don't spend a whole paycheck on them. Yikes. Especially if you don't know why you are celebrating. Sigh. I didn't spent any time on that at all. We spent a whole semester this past school year on it. I think the kids and I are both worn out on it for now. There's always next year. Although, I do miss dressing the kids up in cute red, white, and blue clothes, especially Keturah. Oh well, we wore what we wore today. It was clean when we put it on and it was stinky and sweaty when we took it off. Who cares. We enjoyed a very full social day. Time to rest tomorrow as the holiday is observed on the Monday after if it lands on a weekend day. So Jared will be home today. That's always a good/bad/interesting thing. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Well, he's back in his man cave and eating fruit snacks. I guess all is right in the world. SMH

Lemonade and cookies after church for a great cause! Baskets for Benjamin! They raised over $5,000!! They also had two other locations at the Franklin Rd campus and one lemonade stand at the Shelby St campus. Way to go!

Keturah helped out when she could.

People find the most awesome things on signs and send them to John Crist. Really? Is this a great use of your money? I'm not so sure.

Hm,...Just two 19 yr old young adults, too cool for school anymore, ready for the real world. Kind of sorting things out in their lives, making some plans, but not really, dreaming dreams, but not really. At least they can still have fun together and are very trustworthy. Even when a joke was made about a mutual older friend taking them and a third friend out for a round of drinks at a bar when they all turn 21, Ethan said, no, probably not. Alcoholism runs in my family, I'm not about to go down that road. Smart young man. And he's got the best guys around him to keep him accountable to that. And vice versa. They may talk big occasionally, but that's all it is. They are all talk.

And here's the next round of littles growing up. It was just yesterday that Benaiah and Ethan were that little.

4th of July Fireworks at Smiths House 2021

Neighbors started early because they had more to do.

Jim gave them the go ahead to just do it. Not much instruction. Even Jared didn't hover over them. They conducted themselves well and kept us entertained. Well done, gentlemen, and lady Ava. Well done.

I liked the silhouetting here.

I had to use night mode here, so it looks bright, but it was really dark. We were almost done and Daddy gave Abishai permission for Benaiah to let him light one. Say what?! Not only did the 19 yr old get to light his first one, but the 6 yr old? Now we really have become the relaxed parents! Um, ok? I don't know! I didn't have time to object or think about the consequences!

Um, future pyro out there! And just another reminder of how Benaiah, like Jared before him, is going to make a great Dad someday. You can just tell. And I'm sure Abishai took this job very seriously, too. He looked pretty concerned when he had walked up close to the guys earlier. He knew it was bit scary. But well done! He lit one!

Aw, I like how Adrienne wrote it like it was from Lucki. She wanted everyone to stay outside except to use the bathroom so that Lucki would have a quiet space in case she needed to get away from the fireworks. Smart move.

The End