Year 6, August 27th-29th, 2021: The End

 This is it. I've hit the wall, folks. It's the end of a long summer. I'm done. I'm ready for change. My legs hurt. I'm exhausted and my sleep tracker shows it. It's depressing to see the numbers. My whole body feels like dead weight. I can't think straight. I couldn't hardly enjoy park day and friend time on Saturday or the IAHE volunteer picnic which I look forward to for many months because I am just so exhausted in every sense of the word. I can't keep up. I came home today and didn't want anyone to talk to me about anything. Nope, I don't want to know what roller skates you want or what meme you just saw. Nope, I barely want to say good night. Nope, I don't want to sit down and have dinner with you. Nope, I don't want to discuss what just happened today. I have to somehow baby step my way to put stuff together for this event tomorrow that now I have to go extra early for and try to do some self care and try to make it until bedtime. I have to clean up my email and phone notfications. And my shower will wait until the morning. And then I have to put a few words on the blog before I get further behind because things won't slow down and I won't catch up. I don't even have energy to care who is right anymore. I/we can rest on Monday and Wednesday maybe. Keturah is working for Renea and has her first Grandpa class on Monday. Tuesday is the only day we can go to Freedom Springs. Wednseday we have to go t our first ASL class. Oh, I can rest on Thursday in between back to back virtual appointments. Then it's Friday, And Labor Day weekend. I just can't. 

And when do I cook, clean, pick up meds, and stay up to date on the latest Covid issues, and people pulling their kids from public schools? And when do I shower? Figure out meds and shower? Or even eat, right? And I was all fine this morning. I prayed about the day, I had a good attitude. I was willing to drive separately to the picnic. But Jared had said to Jim and Leah that he was going to be done with Jim's tree in time to drive with me, so I waited. Yes, Jared was helping Jim cut down Jim's tree. They didn't get it all done though. He did take Abishai with him this morning, so I had some peace and quiet. Justin had gone over to mow Grandpa's yard. Abishai ended up at Grandma's house beating her at yahtzee and watched TV. So Keturah and I had the house to ourselves. We opted to wait until after we had been outside to take ourselves because we would more stinky after being in the heat. And we were.

But Friday, we convinced Keturah to go to park day because Kellie and Kia invited us over to their house again to swimming they even let us Mommies get in the pool. It was wonderful! We brought our own lunches and stayed for about 3 hrs total I think. We left about when I wanted to leave, so that was good. I was a bit more coherent because I had eaten that green tea energy bar. But I really enjoyed seeing Keturah laugh and play. She brought some homework and did it in the car before he started to skate at park day. Justin didn't do any school work. So, we blew off the day again, which is fine, but we need to limit our time if we do that. Because Greenfield, is 30 minutes away, lol. Friendships are a work in progress. And as soon as I get this sleep thing under control, I'll be able to hold a conversation better and enjoy this new relationship.

And then today, Saturday, was a failure on my part, and not Jared's at all. So I was so mad at myself and still am. Chronic health problems suck a million. At least Jared took the kids to the playground for a few minutes while I was listening to others. So I came home frustrated, tired, and good for nothing. I stayed away from everyone, tried to do the blog, couldn't stay awake, and finally went to the green couch to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day. Deep breathes, it will be fine.

Right on! Great reminders.

Easter Lily blooming again!

We were late, but the IAHE picnic was just 30 minutes from us at Eagle Creek park, one of our Indy Parks. And since we are Marion County residents, we only had to pay $5 to go in instead of $6. They have excellent hiking and swimming and shelters and playgrounds and tons of hiking and the ornithology center. Hidden gem on the western edge of Indy. Even some of the numbered streets run though it. 56th streeth, 65th street. 71st street.

Facebook reminded me that it's been exactly two years since my melanoma surgery. And this is what it looks like today. Not as terrible as it was, but it still isn't pretty. I still won't let a student stitch it up next time. And I'll get a round of antibiotics to go. Worst holiday weekend ever. I rested, but I was in pain. This spot is still a bit tender and itchy at times.

I thought I heard sirens last night. This was literally at the end of our road. So sad. A pedestrian died. The driver went through the round about too fast and gained speed too fast. They didn't see the pedestrian in time, although the pedestrian had reflective gear on. I did see tire marks in the person's yard, too. Ugh.

 Well, that was fun. I went to bed early and didn't watch any TV. It was taking me two hours just to type out the captions on the photos up above and I didn't even finish because I kept nodding off. I laid down on the green couch about 12:30. Why the green couch? Because I was finished. I didn't want anyone to talk to me or touch me. I didn't want to think anymore either. Just knock me out. And I did. I slept for 7 hrs straight and woke up a new person. I didn't even get up until after Leah picked up Keturah and Justin because I wasn't going to be the one yelling at them to get ready. Justin left half a bowl of cereal on the countertop after he drank the milk out of it. It smelled like throw up and I did throw it away. All because he was late pulling himself together. Jared then took Abishai with him to 1st service because he was serving 2nd hr again. And then, the house was silent. And I was responsible for no one at church. So I thought, hm,....this is nice....I think I'm just going to sit here with my tea, in my pj's and watch church. And then I'll take a shower. I'll hold off from interacting with human beings for a few more hours and be really rested for my event this afternoon and it was the best decision I could have made. I was able to shift positions to stay awake during the sermon. I wasn't distracted by what people were wearing or who was wearing a mask. And I could just listen to the sermon and catch up on my phone games without thinking everyone was judging me for it. I wrote lots of notes, too, don't worry. And then I had a long shower and got ready to go to the event.

I stopped by the parents' house in time for a quick bite to eat. I asked everyone about their morning and everyone had a decent regular morning. Justin was slow getting his salad, so I told him to hurry up and some people didn't like that. Well, I didn't have time for him to be slow so whatever, I moved on. Oh, and Abishai said a nice prayer for everyone, including Grandpa. Benaiah told us he was thinking about buying a house in the near future, so that's fun. Keturah said her arms hurt from doing KP worship today. Jared only drove the truck to church, so the middles had to sit in the back on the way home. I hope he used the booster seat for Abishai, but I didn't look in the truck. And then I was off to the northeast side of Indy to set up a booth for IAHE at this Purple for Parents meeting.

Well, I had not idea what to expect but I had a blast. Purple for Parents is a group that is fighting to keep certain teachings out of the public school. Things like critical race theory (CRT) and social emotional learning (SEL) which all sound great on the surface level but the nuances can be awful. We agree with them on that, but obviously we homeschool and they are advocating for kids in the public school system. So we don't quite fit the same demographic but they invited us to be at their event, so I went. I handed out a lot of material to people who had never heard of us before. That's awesome! That's how it should be! And they were passionate about sharing it with other groups as well or trying to convince their own kids to homeschool their grandkids. This was a very passionate group of people. It was fun to watch them. And then one table had a couple of political candidates that I got to know over the 4 hrs and I'm glad I did.

These men, one not so young, and one very young one, are in my district, running for US Sen and US Rep next year. So it was good to overhear their conversations and ask them what they thought about homeschooling and just network with them. One is a military veteran with a dog that helps him with his PTSD and such. Great guy. And I'm definitely voting for him next year because I can't stand the guy currently in the US Rep seat. That's easy. The other guy is collecting signatures just so he can be on the ballot next year. I was hesitant at first but then I got to over hear a conversation that made me really excited. He was ticking off all my political boxes and throwing out all these key concepts that I just taught the kids last year. Words like "federalist papers" and "the founding fathers intended that only a few bills actually pass every year" and we are the United "States" not the United "People" indicated that he understood State rights over a centralized government making all the rules and regulations. He's going to get elected someday, but give it 2-3 election cycles to get him even on the ballot. The current Senator has a solid amount of voters that support him because he does well. But he also says one thing and votes another way last minute. Anyway, I know who I'm voting for in the next election. 

So I had a great time! I learned a lot and gave away a lot of brochures. It was a lot differently than the book sale one and that's cool. Hit me with it. I love to learn new things. Ok, gentle hugs and bedroom.Busy week ahead.

Woah! I got my first almost 7 hrs of sleep in what, 6 weeks? Yes, the rest of those times are accurate.

The eye of Hurricane Ida hit landfall around noon today. Ida was a category 4 Hurricane when it hit and it barely slowed down. It hit just west of New Orleans but the storm surge was going to still do a lot of damage to the coastline, including the parishes where Shauna and Aaron live. Shauna and the girls went to Tennessee to her sister's house. Aaron stayed behind so he could help since he's a community officer on the police force. This scares me each and every time it comes up. Some years, these storms dissipate and other years, they hit the area head on. Scary stuff.

Another day, another booth. But it's inside and they gave me a long skinny table. Yeah! Perfect! I gave away a ton of stuff, too, to people who had never of us. Perfect! Lots of great conversations.

And the Easter lily fully bloomed again. I'm glad it lived.

The End

Year 6, August 23rd - 26th, 2021: Dog Days of Summer

 It finally, finally is those dreaded "Dog Days of Summer" where the temperatures soar and all you want to do is stay inside. And yet, we have a million and one things to do this week. I had a doctor's appointment this morning for myself, which was timely because I had a few things to talk about. I'm still not feeling great from last week's vertigo and being out in the heat on Saturday, so I had the PCP check my ears and throat. She said there was nothing of concern there. She did increase one of my medications and agreed that I could go ahead and increase my gabapentin and actually cymbalta and get rid of the other RSL drug. And then we'll be back at base and go from there. I'm good with that. I had already looked up the dosing on gabapentin so I knew she was hesitating on upping that dosage. We also talked about the therapy thing they do and we'll try that next month on my headaches. Now that I have things financially covered, I'm more at ease about going in and and such. I still feel quite queasy today so I'm not sure what's going on. I took half of a dramimine just to try to survive the day. I've eaten whatever I thought I could tolerate. Probably not the wisest of choices either. But I still feel like crap. 

I did manage to do that appointment, come home in time to do most of Abishai's schoolwork, and eat some lunch. And then he and I went to his eye doctor follow up. Dr. Rich said his depth perception is better, but he still needs some strength in his left eye, so we are going to put a patch over this right eye. Abishai understood right away because Peanut, aka Nate, wears one, too. So, I just spent $60 on big bandaids that are in the form of eye patches in cute boy colors and patterns that he gets to wear 2-4 hrs a day for 4 months yippee! I'm surprised we never had to patch Keturah's eyes. And my parents were never told to patch mine either. But then again, I don't think I ever went back to the eye doctor after my first visit. I had the same pair of glasses from age 9 until I got contacts at age 16 I think? Super embarrassing now that I think about it and not healthy either. But when you choose to spend money else where and you don't have health insurance, it's what you choose. He'll be fine. He helped choose the patches. He seems to understand. And then we came home and finished our schoolwork.

I had to sit all three down in the fireside room because everyone kept scattering. We had to finish up Friday's work, do CC together and go over individual work. Just stay put, would ya? Justin mowed the backyard while I was gone in the morning and Keturah did her trimming (after 5 tries it was finally done). Thankfully, the kids had gotten their work done and did it well. I was actually pretty impressed with their science and math. Justin did very well with the math with his chemistry so I'm not sure what he was worried about. And the next chapter is more theory and less math. He's going to be ok I think, or at least I hope, because I really, really don't want to find another curriculum. I trust this author to be thorough. And I don't know if Justin will go on to other classes. I want the foundation to be there if it can be. I don't want to go the easy route. And there is no way Justin could have done it if he hadn't have gone through Algebra 1 all the way first, so I'm glad there's been a bit of time, too. And Keturah is fine. I just worry that we won't find the time to add our history back in. I have to stop with these appointments and field trips at some point. I'm just trying not to panic. 

I almost panicked today. This sleep deprivation is literally killing me. It's got to stop. I can't deal with it anymore. And I'm so behind on everything because I can't go fast enough during the day. And now I'm worried about my stomach again. It's all tied together, too. So, sleep cannot elude me anymore. I almost forgot that I have a regional newsletter due in two days.  And I want to get these videos of Keturah up so I can share them with my sister. And all those little projects that take my time to figure out. And relationships. Ugh. Quick, somebody clone me! It's a good thing I've trained these kids well to hold the fort and keep working. Even Abishai did his homework while I worked with the others so he could get done faster. I do feel bad that we haven't been adding fun elements to his work, like flashcards or extra readers, or more read alouds, but I can only do so much. Thank goodness for solid curriculums like Abeka that get the job done. I should skip him ahead though. It is really boring at this point. I just might do that. Poor thing. No wonder he doesn't want to do his homework when its' boring. Candy is always a good motivator They all deserve Smarties for the day. Even Abishai caught his new football from Daddy tonight! It's a junior sized college one, so it's slightly bigger than the one we had. But the NFL ones are massive! I can't imagine how big those guys' hands are to grasp that thing! I told Abishai that he and Daddy can kick around the football as much as they want and he can play with friends, but I won't be signing him up for football because there is too much banging into each other, and not just the ball hitting their feet or head. He seemed ok that that. We'll see. They finished everything in the back yard.

Tomorrow is a new day. We have the whole morning at home and then we go in the afternoon and get our dow

I texted this tweet to my FB page, and then sent it over to Benaiah since he had applied to IUPUI. He says he won't be there in person because he's working full time. Speaking of which, the Pizer Covid-19 shot was fully approved by the FDA today. Say what?! With it's already long history off doing more harm than other vaccines that were pulled off the market way faster than all of these combine? Hm...questions we will have to wait to have answered down the road. If we could be certain that those cows were Joe's cows based on their tags.

That looks nasty!

Finally getting his school done at night because that's how our day went.

I told Jared no more spending on wants and then within 24 hrs I spent on vitamin supplements and on new slippers. Why? Well, this is why. And when your "work attire" includes slippers and they wear out in a year, I think they become a "need" and not a "want." And yes, this is the same exact brand, different color. Third pair I've bought. Less than $20 a pair. I've had purple, pink, and now blue.

Check out that difference in height after a year or was it 18 months?

Definitely needed new ones.

When you are talking to a new family wanting to move to Indiana and you are trying to convince them that Indy is better for them than Ft. Wayne and they say they need a Trader's Joe's, you look it up for them! They need a trucking job, too. But they are afraid of crime rates. Obviously they don't understand how spread out Indy is and what suburb vs. inner city is. How do you explain that to them? We are like the face of a clock,.....four sides of town that are like mini hubs all on their own,.....each has their own major shopping areas and many have more than one Meijer/Wal-mart/Kroger,.....And none of them have high crime rates. You have to live within the I-465 circle for that. I'm talking very generally here. Because even within the circle, it's only a few areas that are high crime. And downtown during the day is ok. 

So because Benaiah wanted to switch back to an iPhone, Gary went for an upgrade, too, and then Jared ended up with a free upgrade, and yup, he got the same iPhone 11 I did except it's black. Go figure. Less than a year after I did. We be matching, again!

Tuesday was less than ideal, again. I still had a stomachache. We all had dental cleaning appointments in the afternoon. I slept 5 1/2 hrs and had to get up out of bed but was still queasy so I took another half of a dramimine. That means, I was dozing off trying to get Abishai to do his homework. I don't know if what I was saying was actually spoken aloud or not. Which means everything got dragged out and eventually I had to give up and told him not screen time and I had to just simply get up and move on. I didn't have any more time to work on him so he lost screen time. And then when I had gathered everybody up, Justin said he had a migraine and Keturah said her stomach hurt, too. Well, I decided to call Jared then and asked him to take Abishai to his dental appointment. And I had Jared go ahead and get his teeth cleaned a day early. He was supposed to go in tomorrow and get it done. I would take someone in tomorrow but I have a friend coming over tomorrow, assuming we can handle it in the morning. Justin had mowed the front half of the lawn in the morning, so I think he got his migraine from that. He did come out and play his screen time but then went right back to bed afterwards. He did again for dinner and then went back to his room. While Jared and Abishai were gone, I took a nap and did wake up at the right time as to not make my headache worse, but better. So, we'll just have to be put on the waiting list and try to go in when there's an opening. Such a bummer, but I didn't trust myself to drive. 

In fact, I looked up to see if we had one more week to use the Freedom Springs water park pass, and we do, thank goodness because I don't think I'll be ready to go on Thursday. And with Jared helping today, and him running around doing stuff for phones yesterday, he's not going to want to take an afternoon off tomorrow. So, we'll shoot for next week. It won't be as hot, but that might be a good thing for us heatstroke prone people. I could also try to find a family of 3 to go with us, too. But I'm not sure who on this side of town during the day would want to. But I have a few more deadlines to meet before then. Once I took that off our calendar for this week, I felt a huge burden lifted. I can concentrate on friends coming over tomorrow and still have time Thursday to do some schoolwork together and catch up. And rest up, too, maybe another nap or whatever we need to do.I needed some peace and room in this week's schedule. Thankfully, I found it.

And also, Michael W. Smith released the first song from the new album, "Breathe," as a live stream song on Apple and spoftify and Amzaon music but I don't have those platforms so I still have to wait for the pre order to come to fully enjoy it. Phew! I can't wait! That was a highlight of my day. I needed to hear that. Same goosebumps, same tears, same gorgeous music. This album really did take some very old music and breathe new life into it for me. I'm excited to blast it one it's fully out. I saved the video link to a new private listening playlist beause I'm sure their will be a couple more early releases and someone will copyright the rest onto YouTube. Anyway, the TBN special is just a few weeks away. Yeah!

I'm starting to fade already. I was helping Abishai look for his fire fighter fire extinguisher. We can't find it anywhere. And, instead of just leaving it, I did end up cleaning out the bottom of the dress up box and resorting all the toys. That was a job and a half! It was on my forever to do list, but still, I hadn't intended on doing it tonight, but it felt right ,so I just did it. all things are rough, and now I have to figure out how to have for tomorrow night's food. Hm,.....

The Easter lilies I planted after Easter are still alive and growing! Woot! Woot!

Crappy day. Ok, not totally crappy. My friend did come to look through some books and talk for a bit, but I felt like a poor host because I had a hard time tracking with what she was saying and engaging in conversation, with wasn't like me in our previous conversations. And I just hoped she didn't notice too much. Her daughter seemed to have fun playing Lord of the Rings Monopoly with Justin and Keturah, so I guess Justin can bring it along on Friday to play again with her and the other kids. It was a bit stormy outside today, actually, and we got more rain in 50 minutes (1.25 inches) than we did in 40 DAYS (1.19inches) in Indianapolis according to the NWS out at the airport. Yeah, it's been super dry around here. I did let Abishai play on his video games so my friend and I could try to talk for a bit. I also just didn't feel great either, like I was shaky or hungry and I hadn't had that much caffeine yet, so I don't know. I was just feeling pretty out of it. Maybe because I was wide awake after 6 am and then Jared's alarm was blaring at 7 am and I should have just gotten up and still putzed around and wasted the morning until I finally showered at 10am. Ugh! 

I think I'll just get up when I'm awake and stop fighting it. Maybe I'll get other stuff done in the morning when I'm fresh. If that means I have to give up on Jared making me tea, so be it, because I can't wait two hrs for him to get up to do it like it was today. That would mean, I simply need to go to sleep at night. Not sure how I feel about that. Maybe I need to get up and write the blog. But then maybe I would forget what happened the day before? Hm,....I need to think on that as well. Or, instead of me feeling rushed in the afternoon, I do that stuff at 6am like my IAHE friend does and I rest in the afternoon instead. I don't know. We'll see. It's a work in progress. But sleeping 4-5hrs a night is not enough. I'm miserable.

I did get Jared to finally turn off the thing on my phone that "limits" my screen time and yet I can work around it anyway. I think it was interfering with the loudness of my phone alarm. So hopefully, mine is just as loud as Jared's now. Because his is blaring! And it's the same model phone, and I always turn mine way up, so why is mine so dainty sounding? I usually choose the loudest alarms, so who knows. Not that I need an alarm right now, but just in case.

Once I got my lunch and coffee in, I felt a little bit better. I didn't touch school again today. I just can't put sentences together when I'm this tired. I will try again tomorrow. And I totally feel guilty about that. I praise the kids on FB about it. But then inside I'm beating myself up because all I can do is check my email 100 times and I can't make myself put two and two together to check their math. I have no will power at all. All plans, and no get up and go. Well, barely plans at this point. So Abishai ended up with no schoolwork, extra screen time, and finally Chick Fil A for dinner. Way to go me, super mom. Once in a while those days are ok, but there's way too many of those days. Tomorrow won't be that way. We'll hit the books really hard tomorrow for sure. 

What happened was I thought I had to get the IAHE Newsletter out today and it didn't need to be finished until next Wednesday. The first Monday of the month isn't until September 6th, it's a late Monday. So I didn't think I had time to try to do school today, although our guests left in plenty of time. I didn't have time to fight it either. The middles got their schoolwork done in record time because we were having guests. See, when the motivation is there, the work gets done. Ok then. duly noted. I've got to pull myself together after next week and add in the rest of our studies. Then I'll be super worried about getting it all done. No more appointments. No more sidetracks. No more naps. We have to get this under control. Bwahahaha, yeah right, it still won't happen. But I'll give it a try anyway. We'll have the ASL class, too, to squeeze in. This is why I have to start sleeping no matter what. I have to stop watching TV at night if I have to. Period. End of discussion.

So, I worked on the newsletter and emails while kids did their screen time. And then, it was too late to make dinner. And Justin had to be at small group on the other side of the township by 6:30 at a restaurant. So, I grabbed the Chick Fil A gift cards off my desk, didn't tell the other kids where we were going, but told everyone to put their socks and shoes on and get in the van. We dropped off Justin and suprised the youngest two with CFA sitting INSIDE the restaurant for the first time in over 18 months! Yes, they finally opened up the dining room! I knew it had opened because my friend and her kids had been there and had shown us on FB. The dining room was empty for it being 6:45pm. And the playground was not open. So weird. And no Benaiah of course either. No more discount. Same chicken though. And a new half lemonade/half tea drink like we've been loving at home but they called it "sunny up." Ah, hits the spot with just a little bit of caffeine! And then we had to wait for Justin to be done, so Jared got Abishai into the Kroger on County Line and they found some Christmas gifts I guess and some Legos and puzzles. Ok then. Whatever. Keep spending money on things we don't need when I told you to stop spending money. (We had gift cards for Chick Fil A). 

But we got home and went our separate ways as usual. Time to chill out, calm down, and figure out what's next. I've had quite a few "You are wrong" moments thrown at me in the last few days, so without going into what those are, I had myself a good cry over those. And now I'm ready to move on and tackle the next best thing. Whatever is next on the to do list. Whatever I know I'm good at or I've set myself to do, that I know I can do well, that I've deemed important. I am confident, right? Yes, I am. And tomorrow is a new day. Next week is a new week. And whatever gets done, gets done. I have a plan, and as long as I get some sleep, I can work the plan. Now go away so I can get some sleep. That's what I need the world to do. Just let me try to sleep. And legs, you, too, stop moving. stop creeping and crawling and hurting. Medication, do your thing, keep them quiet. And someday, I'll feel more normal again. Someday.

Abishai was sad when I told him only Justin's friend was coming and not the other two younger friends that we played with last week. Sorry bud, I didn't make that clear either way. Bummers!

Abishai eye patches came! Yes I "splurged" and bought the colorful ones. I don't think the plain colored ones were much cheaper anyways. He wore it for 25 minutes with a lot of complaining. He was most unhappy when he couldn't see his Legos that well. That's the whole point. We are trying to make the weak eye stronger! He looks kind of cute though. My one eyed pirate!

Gotta love Facebook ads.

First time sitting in CFA in over 18 months!

Oh, Mom! Why! Stop it!

The usual! Except, it's not Cherry Coke, but "sunny up" which is their sweat tea mixed with their lemonade, yup, very good!

Yup, it's been that kind of dry summer.

On Thursday, we did do a full day of school including read alouds. And oh how timely they were talking about "Proof by lack of evidence" fallacy, which is the opposite of innocent until proven guilty idea and "post hoc ergo propter hoc" in statistics, basically A came before B therefore A caused B. Oh my goodness, that second one can be applied on both sides to any part of the Covid crisis discussion. And then we read, again, about the first Thanksgiving and how it really worked out those first few years in Plymouth, Jamestown and the early colonies and how socialism doesn't work because everyone will put in as little effort as they can and everyone will try to take as much as they can from the common store house. Doesn't that sound like today and government handouts and surplus jobs we have right now? No one wants to work, especially under these government mandates. We have plenty of jobs. Gobs of jobs. Even Starbucks can't stay open because of lack of staffing. Not lack of business. Lack of staffing. Because people are getting government handouts. Or they don't want to wear masks or get vaccinated. And on and on and on it goes. Hospitals are short staffed for the same reasons. Soon there will be a shortage of food on the shelves. And today I heard a rumor to buy Christmas gifts now. Yes. Crazy! 

Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Symphonic Orchestra has decided to "card" everyone. Aka, show them your vaccination card or that you've had a negative PCR test in order to go to their concerts before Nov. 1st. After Nov. 1st., you HAVE to be vaccinated. That's absolutely ridiculous. Since they are a non profit or private organization or whatever, I guess they can maybe do this legally? Maybe? I don't know. We'll see how this plays out over the next few days. But this scares me now for my October concert. I know Live Nation was starting to do this as well and it was NOT up to the artist either, or the venue. Infringement. No where in my personally history have I ever been asked to show my vaccination status. Ever. Maybe my parents were when I went to kindergarten. I possibly was when I went to college? I vaguely remember getting a shot for whatever that 10 yr one is, not tetanus, the other one, when I went to UIndy, I think, not Indiana Wesleyan. I don't remember, really. But for jobs, venues, anywhere else, no one ever cared if I had a shot for the flu. Or any virus. Or the chickenpox. Or anything. Why start now? What is so different now? I'm not understanding. Scare tactics. They've bent everyone's ear now. Blown it all out of proportion. And everyone has now become numb. Following the shepherd like the dumb sheep that they are so they can get on with their lives. But some are not. Some are really taking a stand. I'm one of them. And so are many that are pulling their kids out. And some are quitting their jobs. And we have to keep going. We have to take up arms. Our ancestors did. And we need to know our history and we help others remember it, too.

And after writing about it on Facebook, I now know why I haven't wanted to tackle getting our history studies together. Well, for one, I really didn't want to study the World Wars AGAIN and pop culture of the 20th century AGAIN. Everybody wants to do 50's theme nights. Or watch a TV show set in the 1920's. And what about the conspiracies around JFK's assassination? And if I want to know what houses were built of in the 1960's, I can go scrape my own walls because my house is that old and has original brickwork for better or worse, ok? And I lived through the 80's, 90's, War on Terrorism, etc. But beyond that, why I didn't want to tackle it again, in part, is because I'm afraid of what I am going to find. I'm afraid I'm going to find some eerie parallels of Nazi Germany and socialism before it and communism during it to our own modern day America. And it's going to suck! It's going to scare me even further into hiding from everyone and everything. Or speaking my mind and making more enemies. But, instead, I'm going to turn this into my why we NEED to dig down and go beyond the basics this time around. Or at least try. My kids NEED to do this again. We need to be sure that we do NOT become communist Germany and socialist Russia. My children NEED to know the difference and be able to point it out to their brainwashed peers. I have a duty to do it one more time for Justin. Maybe I don't focus on the decades and make it lighthearted and fun. Maybe at least for the World Wars, I really do go through some of Hitler's letters piece by piece with Justin and let Keturah do the fun stuff. I don't know. But now that I have a "why," I can figure out the "how" and move forward."

Other than that, it was a better day. I had an energy bar that said it had enough caffeine from green tea that equaled an espresso coffee and they weren't kidding. I felt that kick of energy. It said I wouldn't feel jittery, but I did, so that's a great sign that the package wasn't lying with how much green tea they put in there. I bought them for Justin, too, to see if that would help him concentrate without all the chemicals in the Monster energy drinks. It's from the organic produce box we get so the ingredients are more "clean." It's bite sized so it won't take me forever to eat. I do have to eat something else with it though, especially some protein. Eek. I did a little bit of computer work in the morning and some schoolwork with Abishai. I treated him with some Smarties, 1 per assignment completed, and by the time we were finished, he had like 8 or so Smarties packages. Well, note to self, that's a bit too much. Because at supper time, he became a Cheetah and ran back and forth through the house. It was still way too hot to send him outside to run it off. It's supposed to cool off to the lower 80's next week, so I'll feel more comfortable with us not getting heatstroke. Actually, I saw that the water company is telling people to use less water. We have a well, but we should use less as well just in case. Not that we water our lawn or take too many showers anyway. 

The skies had turned pretty dark and Jared had filmed what he thought was some swirling clouds, but the National Weather Service hadn't put out any warnings of severe weather. The radar indicated some pop storms about they literally were surrounding us in a C formation, so whatever Jared saw was off in the distance. We didn't actually get any storming when all was said and done and Keturah went out and rollerbladed when Jared went to Bible study. I helped Abishai build a Lincoln Log cabin that I think I hadn't tried with the other boys because it was hard to build back then, too. I only had a photo to go by. Abishai had built the other regular cabins all by himself this morning without any help. Then Daddy came home and it was time for them to watch some more Clone Wars or something.

Everybody has stayed up to date on schoolwork so far. I just need to add in the history and with that comes the literature. I might add in the other literature type stuff for Justin, but we'll see. I might not. That might be second semester. Plus we have to add in Bible with Grandpa and ASL class next week. Oh, and I was in just the right mood and clarity to write the blurb for the top of the IAHE regional newsletter after I reread some emails today, so I got that part done. Now I just need to wait and see if there are any other submissions to add to it next week or add my own bits. So I guess I'm ahead of that game.

Tomorrow is park day, and a quick stop at the grocery store to get frozen stuff (boys will just love me for making them stop on the way home but it's right there!) and a some vegetables for our outing on Saturday, and then home to make food for the IAHE picnic on Saturday. Then Justin mows on Saturday morning and then we have the least distance to travel for the picnic this year, woot! Woot! Indy's westside! It will be extremely hot again thought. And then Sunday is normal with a twist for me as I get to set up another booth but this time inside at a a little parenting talk. And then here comes Monday again. Oh joy. See in the next one!

You didn't know there were benefits, did you? Well, I should go back and screenshot the rest....I'll just leave you in limbo until the next post. Lol.

I pulled this off the shelf this morning. I was looking for something for maybe Jared to read to help him understand where I'm coming from. The funny thing is with this book is that Todd Wilson is coming on Saturday to our IAHE picnic for a little entertainment because well, our leadership is well connected and he lives in northern Indiana. However, I got this book at least 10 years ago, and the copyright date is actually 2006. The address label I put in it is from the Beech Grove house. I'm wondering if Todd Wilson is the person that Jared and I went to see that one time way back before we moved to Canada at a church kind of hidden in the woods in the middle of Indy. And then I rediscovered that church when Keturah had dance lessons there a couple of years ago. I can't quite tell from the photo on the back. But I do subscribe to Todd's emails and have for years. I just don't know. So this should be interesting. He's a comedian, by the way. So there's some funny cartoons in here as well some great advice.

This should be a must read for every new homechooler. How many times have I seen or answered these questions in the last week? Nearly daily!

Shake, shake, shake. Is it Legos? Well, I texted the photo to Jared and he said, "Get your hands off my tea box!" So I guess it's not Legos.

Poor kids. Mommy's been so lazy and out of it and in her own world that they wait and wait and finally just go ahead and correct their own work. Part of me feels really guilty about this. But then, I look at it and part of me is super proud. Why? Because, we've been using the same curriculum in the same way for so many years, they know exactly where to find the answer key, and they know exactly how I grade things. Justin gave himself half credit for getting the right answer but took off the other half credit for not using the right formula. Way to go for honesty! He is redoing Algebra 1 to make sure he has it super solid before heading into Algebra II. Therefore, he is self pacing and basically just doing one practice page and one test page per lesson. If the test for this lesson is also not done as well, we'll do more practice. Don't worry, the teacher books are kept in a main room so no cheating can take place. I learned that lesson the hard way with Benaiah when he cheated his way through Algebra 1.

Same thing with Keturah. She used the red pen, didn't try to erase and correct her mistakes, just marked them wrong, wrote the right answer, wrote how many wrong out of total number of problems at the top of the page, and bingo, ready for the next lesson. She even went over the extra homework page by herself writing in the details to find the right solution. All the years of training is paying off in these moments. 8th grade and 11 grade, teaching themselves how to do math (ok with a short weekly video lesson), correcting it honestly and accurately, no spoon feeding here. And people wonder why homeschool kids are self starters. This right here. Proof.

Speaking of proof. We read a section in Thomas Jefferson reminding us of how Plymouth colony almost died of starvation because of socialism principles, same as Jamestown. But once free market principles were introduced, each family had their own plot of ground to work and do with how they saw fit, they began to prosper. Capitalism vs. socialism. Extremely applicable to the way today's government is running itself. And then oh the fallacies we are using in the Covid crisis. Again, totally applicable.

The cheetah baby (see videos below of the Cheetah mommy running around) taking a nap.

There is no way this child is already growing out of this chair. No. Nope. He can't. I'm not ready for this.

The End

Year 6, August 20th-22nd, 2021: All For One, and One For All

 I woke up without a headache! Woot! Woot! And it's park day! Woot! Woot! It was a HOT day. But we stayed for 3 hrs! The big kids stayed under the shelter with the moms because they had brought their Pokemon cards and because of the heat. Some of the younger ones ventured out to the playground. We were at the New Pal playground and there's no shade over the playground equipment, poor things. The bigs did go for a long walk to the gazebo way, way in the back of the property towards the end of our time though. I had an awesome time bouncing from friend to friend to friend catching up with everyone because quite a few people came. Except I didn't get to the one friend I hadn't seen in a few weeks! She came and sat next to me, but then Abshai wanted me to help him on the monkey bars but I never got to sat back down next to her before she had to leave! Bummers! We'll have to catch up again soon, though. I texted her later and told her I missed her. She's doing ok. But another friend and I are going to get together next week at our house, yeah! I guess I just really don't want the summer to end and I don't want to get into a real big school schedule do I? I keep making all these appointments and field trips and playdates! And then when we got home, I had told Abishai I would do school work with him and I just didn't feel like doing it. I wanted to rest and he was hot, I was hot and it was past way past 1pm already. Hey, colder days are coming, right? I don't know. I just can't settle down right now it seems. I'm sure I'll get there after September hits. Or maybe I just don't want to work on settling down. Either way. We played and rested today.

Because tomorrow, we all have a lot of work to do in the heat. I've got to go sit out in the hot sun for 4 hours and Keturah, Justin and Jared are volunteering at church for much longer to help the church help the fire department do this community day. It's been kind of weird to get them signed up for it though because they are trying this new volunteer app but I signed them up under my name plus a guest, so when get there, they have to say they are me, and hopefully that will be ok. I choose an outside volunteering thing I hope they would be ok with and then hopefully a more inside thing they could in the afternoon. Depending on what Jared choose, they could be there until the middle of the afternoon. Or I guess I'll come by and pick them up because I should be home by 12:30. We'll see.  Abishai is going to Grandma's house or she'll come here, I don't know which. I'm leaving the finer details up to Jared and Grandma because Jared wasn't wanting to work them out with me.

I'm glad the boys and I got to go out this morning because Abishai was literally bouncing off the walls, from the kitchen door to the short wall opposite of it! It was quite hilarious! And I was in quite the mood, too, ready to "Seize the Day!" and wanted to sing Newsies all day sporting my "Keep Calm and Homeschool On" shirt. I'll wear it again tomorrow representing IAHE officially for the first time, really, at an event. First time in the two years we've been reps. We never did get to be reps at a convention and that's so very sad. I wanted to be so badly! But I get to wear my gold badge for the first time! And I told a few people to stop by, too! Should be fun!

It was a good day! Onwards to a full weekend!

Oh, another verse that talks about gray hair?! A friend posted this, so I had to look it up for myself! My version used "old age" but pretty cool. The verse before it talked about how God is there when you are young and when you are old. I highlighted both verses in my Bible app.

I wanted to play the Newsies song on the speaker so it was in the kitchen. Well, Justin grabbed it and trolled Keturah when she was in the bathroom. She was NOT pleased and came out screaming at him and the music he played. Boys!

Abishai had fun dancing to it!

I'll never understand why people ask if homescholers are socialized or not? Do you see these kids? Do you see them getting along incredibly well? Both genders? All ages? Normal and well behaved? Come on now!

Not exactly sure why this photo was chosen or where this was, but it's a decent photo. What's more important was what he wrote under it of course.

I am going to have way too much fun posing these, too! Kissy faces!

Redneck grilling!

Sigh. Ah. Oo. What a day! It was first, an anxious producing night. I could not sleep. I tried going to bed extra early. But I was wide awake. My legs were doing fine. Heartburn wasn't a problem. I was trying to get Jared to talk, but he wasn't having it either. He was listening and stayed awake for that part, but eventually, I turned over and tried to nod off. I was also hot and the room was stuffy, and I was kind of upset. So I headed for the green couch, again. I made sure I had taken all my meds, I checked my email, used the restroom, checked on the downloads I was doing of Keturah's photos on her phone, and still rolled around for a long, long time. I also ended up just feeling like I was going to throw up. Not from heartburn, from just plan anxiousness or bad food or illness. I thought, "Oh no, I hope I'm not actually sick. I've been looking forward to tomorrow for months and months." I had to get up extra early, too. So, it was one of those mornings where I pray, "Ok, that was one of the roughest nights of my life. Lord, sustain me for today because it's one of those big days. I need my words to be clear and I need my physical body to hold out so I can keep my kids safe." Or in this case, I needed to be able to drive the few minutes to and from the event. Being sleep deprived and having other chronic health issues is really scary. And now that I know that I can fall asleep sitting up sometimes, it's even scarier. 

Long story short, God has sustained me today, yet again, and it's been a fantastic day. I just need to get a few words down here, so I don't forget. I was nervous but I really didn't need to be. It was like riding a bicycle after not doing so for awhile. It's been several years since I've had any "booth" of any kind, but all those times of having one for Lilla Rose has prepared me for this role with IAHE. Of course I know how to set up a table so it's eye catching. Of course I know how to stand up and greet the "customer" and ask if they have heard of our "company" before. Setting up and tearing down was way easier because it was just papers. 20 minutes up and 5 minutes down. But it was HOT. I faced away from the sun, but that meant that it was beating down my neck. I meant to bring my battery powered fan, but forgot. I could have brought my umbrella out for shade, but I didn't know where I would have rigged it up on my chair, especially when I was getting up and down several times. today. We had a steady stream for people, although we could have definitely seen more. I talked to a huge variety off people, some with preschoolers, some just pulling their kids for the first, a couple of veteran homeschoolers, some that had connected with me on Facebook already and I had encouraged to meet me there, and someone asking if we were a Christian or secular organization  It was a good sampling of everyone. I was disappointed that my regular crew of people that I see didn't come by. I guess they already have what they need. Or they had soccer games.

But unlike previous events where I've had a booth for Lilla Rose, I felt like I had more to share. The words were tumbling out of my mouth rapid fire. I had to slow down a bit because I would get too excited. But, I had prayed that I would speak up and speak clearly since I struggle with that. Since the tables were spread pretty far apart, we had very little extra noise to compete with and that really helped. I found myself "upselling" often, although I didn't help anybody sign in to the website or create an account. But plenty of them took the free literature, and I bet they will actually sign up for something because some came to me looking for that exact information because they had read about it from something I had posted on one of the groups they were in and just need needed some clarification. That was excited to hear that all my posting and forwarding and social media presence was paying off. I mean of course I know it does because I have met more people in real life. I can't keep them all straight these days, and you know, everybody is so very understanding of that. Today, many of them introduced themselves with their name and from what group they are in without me having to ask them even. Very forgiving. I loved that.

So, the three hours in the hot sun, roasting, was worth it. But I can still feel the affects of the sun hours later. I feel awful. My stomach is way out of place.  I don't know what to eat.

Wow, yeah, last night I could NOT finish writing the blog. I was so exhausted. I still am, but I'm going to use a few minutes here of Sunday afternoon while I'm awake on my coffee, aka Mommy Juice, to type some of the rest of Saturday out. Tomorrow I see my PCP, so I'm hoping we can make some steps towards figuring out this sleeping stuff. I can't keep going on like this. But I digress.

Firefighter stuff. Because there didn't seem to be many people from the church signed up for the event, Jared signed up, and then I signed Keturah and Justin sign up in my place because I had the IAHE booth. Grandma babysat Abishai. And as I expected, although in the app I assigned Keturah and Justin to certain places, they ended up in places where they were needed most. When I got there around 1:15pm. All three of them were on the "bike rodeo" in the blazing hot sun teaching kids about road and bike safety. They looked miserable. Surprisingly, Justin did NOT have a headache. He drank 6 bottles of water and ate just a couple of things and Keturah had eaten like 6 things and 2 bottles of water. Jared had them put on sunscreen before they left but Keturah forgot to take off her glasses and put it on her nose. Today, she has a very red Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer kind of nose. Whoops! I made sure to take my glasses off and put sunscreen on my nose yesterday. She also forgot her feet and she had flip flops on so she now has a tan on her feet as well. Whoops. 

But the event looked like it was a lot of fun. As I had expected, it hadn't been super crowded. I don't think it was well advertised. Maybe they want to just ramp up the event and start small or just invite the local area people instead of the whole city. It was put on by the main fire department, not just a a single fire house, and the Chief had been there as well as the main Assistant to the Chief that I guess Leah sees on the news all the time was also there. The big wigs. They did actual demonstrations, too, including dive and rescue, ladder climbing and signalling, up probably 5 stories, put a room on fire and demonstrated how opening a window and door at the same time only accelerates a fire, and how they get people out of a car after an accident using a saw or jars of life.  Grandma took quite a few photos, too.

By the time I got there, Abishai just wanted to go inside and play because he was tired from getting up so early with us, and because it was hot, and I think he was hangry. He had said earlier that he wanted to see the fire trucks and such and was excited about it, but he wanted to see them with me. So, I don't know why he was so lethargic. There was nothing inside either but I guess Grandma had said something about it. And then Grandma got into conversations with people, too, along the way. That probably irritated him. But I think overall it looked like a very cool event. Grandma said that they won't have at The Creek, at least not for awhile, because they are rotating locations throughout the city so as to include all communities. And that's fair. 

I'm glad the kids were able to volunteer. We saw no other teens from church that did. Unfortunately, I've been too vocal about it around them and today's (Sunday's) sermon was a good reminder about being self-righteous, because I get pretty annoyed about how many people aren't volunteering at church lately. I saw many families having to bring their children into service today because there was no room for their children in the classrooms. Justin said there are plenty of teen helpers, but not enough adults. I don't know if it's Covid related that they won't come back or what. But my kids don't need to hear my opinion and resentment towards families who choose sports and other weekend and weeknight activities over church activities. Jared and I both grew up in families that prioritized church activities first or as the same importance as our other extracurricular activities, including volunteering. And it was really hot today. I felt bad. But I also felt bad that the church was going to look bad with not enough volunteers and even I couldn't sign up. They did get new red t-shirts to wear, and Keturah wore hers to church today. I really should be writing all of these volunteer hours down for their transcripts, too. I'll be writing their main weekly ones of course. I just need to keep my mouth shut more often about it and let them form their own opinions. Our Saturdays are usually lazy Sabbath Saturdays, and I'm grateful that we do have Saturdays open and free most of the time so can do last minute volunteering like this. That's part of the point. Leaving margin for God to work or having white space in your daily calendar so you can have a longer conversation with your friend if they need it. 

After our morning activities, we were exhausted. So of course we rested the rest of the day. Thankfully, there was some leftover CFA sandwhiches from the fire fighter event, so that was supper for them, plus raw vegetables as usual. After supper, I started feeling ill again. God has sustained me for just the right amount of time. I think I am getting sunstroke like my mom said she did and that's why we never went to the coast line as kids in NH. The beach was literally 1 hr for us our whole lives growing up and we never ever went. Yeah. Crazy. I know. But I get it now. I get a headache if I'm in the sun too long. It doesn't stop me from trying. But I understand. So I laid down on my green couch and everyone else just putz around. We also made sure everything else had been picked up well, everyone had showers/baths, and I actually ran two loads of laundry through that evening because I wanted to make sure I had my denim shorts, and Keturah wanted her new red shirt. I didn't know she did, so I put it in the second load thinking I wouldn't have to have it done by morning, but ok fine, I made sure it was in the dryer before I went to bed. And then on Sunday morning, I did have time to sort the two loads after the middles left, so that when we got home from church, they middles just had to put away their baskets of clothes. They still hadn't done it before evening activities, but that's another story.

And then I had attempted to catch up on email and blog, but I didn't last too long. I mean, I did watch TV shows, but I almost fell asleep in my chair again. So, nope, nada, not good. To be continued after Saturday's photos......It was a great Saturday, but exhausting!

Grandma's photos first. She thought she had taken a better photo of this, but I guess not. They were using a saw to cut off the roof of a car to simulate a bad car accident. I don't think it was the jaws of life though. Thankfully, I have never been in a bad accident like this before. I've only been in low impact/low speed ones at stop signs or skidding from snow and ice. I can't imagine being in one where a car flips over and over. Super scary.

This was the demonstration where you need to make sure you don't open a door if a window is open because if you do, you'll create a vortex of air and the room will explode into a fireball.

These two are the most faithful companions of each other and of mine. Even if it's only 6 am. I try my best not to brush them off because some day, I will miss these two hanging out with me. I can't snooze past 6am right now anyway.

Aww, Abishai brought out his blankie and Pokemon' mask, too! He is planning to sleep on the smaller couch some night this week just because he can.

"Early" wake up call for me. 8am for set up time (the church was 10 minutes away thank goodness), 9am start time. It was like riding a bike, although setting this booth up was way faster than the Lilla Rose booth. And it felt more important to me than selling hair clips. They don't want us to sell our used curriculum near the IAHE booth because we don't want it to look like we are promoting certain products, but I brought a box of freebies to encourage people to stop by. It was mostly some half used preschool stuff. However, I did have an older edition of Dr. Wile's Chemistry book and the family that picked it up said it would help because two teens are using the same book at the same time and having a second book will help to reduce any fighting. Yeah!

It's not even the hottest part of the day or week yet and it's too hot. Yikes!

I went home first to cool off and then headed over to meet everyone at church for the fire fighter thing. first found these three hot, sweaty, sorry looking volunteers. Hard to miss the big one in his safari hat. Jared did eventually get a migraine. Thankfully Justin did not get one. And all Keturah got was a very red nose from not putting sunscreen on it. They were helping with the bike rodeo teaching kids about road signs. Abishai did do this little course on a bike with training wheels, but I had to help him. He got a new helmet out of the deal, too!

Abishai and I didn't have time to go through these two trailers, but I do seem them often at events, so we will try again next time. They teach about fire safety in the home. The fire department left these and some of the tents and such in the parking lot to be collected on Monday.

Over here is where the rescue divers were washed off from the ickiness of the retention pond. My first thought went to the scenes in Monsters, Inc. where the put up the curtain around the monster who gets a child's sock on him and they call out, "We have a 2319! We have a 2319!" And then they clean him and buzz all his hair off and give him a dog cone of shame. And then my next thoughts went to how I really haven't seen anyone in full diving gear before in real life. Maybe once or twice at an aquarium like in Chicago or something. Otherwise, it's all been on TV documentaries and such. Kind of weird to see it up close.

And here's Mr. Mopey. He was tired (from getting up at 6am), hangry, hot, done with the crowds, and probably done with listening to Grandma talking to friends she saw. And I think maybe he was slightly disappointed I wasn't there from the beginning because he had wanted me to be there with him. Plus, Grandma has said something to him about going inside. But I knew there was nothing much inside and time was running out for the event. And with his personality, he didn't like being dragged around like that and plans changing that fast. I was sad he didn't enjoy the biggest ladder trucks I had ever seen though. We might have seen them up at Conner Prairie a couple of years ago. I never get tired of seeing fire trucks and police cars. I'll gladly take the grand kids to all these kinds of field trips! And actually, when homeschoolers ask what to teach in kindergarten and 1st grade social studies, it is this type of stuff, so we are right on target!

Hot, hot, and more hot!

Dude, Mr. Chuck, say it ain't so! It finally gets to be a heat wave and it's the last week of the water park like Freedom Springs! Ugh! Gross!

And somehow, the apple orchards are open. And have been for a month. I just can't do it. No apple picking until September and this is why.

Wow! They had a lot of awesome demonstrations! I wish I could have seen them all! How fun! They plan to do this showcase at different venues every year so if we want to see it again, we would have to go somewhere else next year.

The kids had to go to some booths and learn about different things in order to earn tickets. Then they could redeem their tickets. Well, Abishai didn't want all these prizes so he kept some of his tickets. I would have loved to trade some in for a sno cone. Oh well.

Take a photo with a fire fighter and fire dog station, lol.

Again, don't create a fireball by letting too much air into the house. Whoops! The black smoke is from the burning of drywall.

Getting the divers ready to go into the retention pond. Retention ponds are just another way that subdivisions have created a problem for the suburbs like ours. I'm sure most of the calls that these divers respond to are for cars that end up in these man made retention ponds, like the one off of Five Points and Thompson Rds. And kids love to try their luck on them in the winter when they think they have frozen over and they really haven't. Last year, there was a horrible accident on Frye Rd just past the church, where a carful of teens went into one because it was later at night, the roads were slick, and that road is notorious for being hilly and curved. There's now a memorial bench there and lots of signs to remind people to slow down. I use that road often. The young driver was on the volleyball team and well loved. And either her or one of the other teens or several of them attended our youth group. It hit our community hard. I wish I had seen this whole demonstration though. I was just a few minutes too late.

Sunday Sabbath? Or not. Jared did have nursery duty this morning but decided to stay home with me and Abishai instead of go to 1st hr worship. That made for a slower morning for us. Abishai got up at 6am again and really didn't need to. I was already awake though thanks to my restless legs again. I had a really, really rough night AGAIN. I took an extra gabapentin as soon as I got up because it was really bad. I couldn't even stretch it out. I couldn't snooze. I think I slept maybe 4 hrs. It's super frustrating. I almost fell asleep during the sermon again. And I almost fell asleep finishing writing yesterday's blog post this afternoon. I have to keep putting something in my mouth just to stay awake. And that doesn't help me keep any weight off.

Church was normal as normal can be. Lunch was fine. Benaiah showed us his new tattoos he got on Saturday. I think they look cool. Very meaningful. It looks like they didn't irritate his skin as much as his first one, so that's good. Same tattoo place and everything. He got two at the same time because it was actually less price overall because they could use the same needle and equipment. Still, I could have find a lot of other ways to spend that money. And yes, it is true that once you start getting tattoos, it can be addicting. He is somewhat teasing and somewhat serious about getting another one next year or the year after. It's his body, he can do whatever he wants to do. Conversation was fine I guess. I told them about my brother's engagement and the update about his kids. Gary called on his drive home from a church in Illinois. Come to find out, he traded in the Veloster for a new car, and an automatic drive one at that. No more stick shift cars for the J2 household. Wow! That's a pretty big change. Oh, and Benaiah told us about his and Ava's 2 hrs at the Indiana State Fair. He said they ate lots of food, walked around a bit, and left. They didn't see the animals or the Lego or any of the exhibits. And it was fairly busy. Oh, AND John Stamos was one of the musicians that was the free stage for the night! Uh, the actor who played Jesse in Full House. Yeah, THAT John Stamos. I guess Ava likes him a bit, too, so they watched the concert for a little bit. I had heard that that name was going to be at the fair, but I didn't put two and two together until Benaiah said it. Cool! I'm sure the fair feels a lot different at night with more people, the lights, the animals are sleeping, the machinery and buildings are quieter or closing down, the kiddie stuff isn't really going. etc. Oh, and Benaiah wanted to do the FFA putt putt but it closed at 8pm. He also spent almost double what I spent on the 4 of us, lol. Oh Benaiah, You always were a spender. I know he saves a lot, too. But he does spend a good chunk, too. His work is fine he says. A little slow for him. Definitely the opposite of Chick Fil A. Oh, and he showed off his new iPhone that he got when he and Grandpa and Jared went in and did that this past week. And now when I text him, the background is all in blue again. Yeah! No more Google and Android based phone! 

After lunch, we came home to nap and try to work on a few things. Then we ate a bit, did our chores, and dropped Justin off at church for Crave and Keturah off at her leaders house for an ice cream social. Abishai, Jared and I then went on to Meijer for a few things and then to Aldi's for groceries. Oh my word, Abishai had a complete meltdown in Meijer because we were looking for a football in the toy aisle and we were trying to rush through so he wouldn't see the Hot Wheels but he still saw them. Well, the world ended when we didn't let him bring Hot Wheels home. Huge tears, whimpers to full blown wails, all the way through the rest of the store. I had no tolerance for it. Thankfully, we just trudged on and Jared was able to get him to decide on a new football that had a stand so he could kick it and it had it's own ball pump for $15. I picked up the last couple of things and then we quickly checked out. He rode Sandy the horse for a minute and calmed down for that minute, but then started to whimper again on our way out the door. He did that until he sat in the baby seat in the cart at Aldi's and finally got distracted with picking out his snacks. But wowzers, I just wasn't prepared for that. Jared had teased him about why we were going into to Meijer in the first place which hadn't helped and I didn't do my warning about why we weren't going to get anything else but the football and a few misc items for me, so of course that didn't help. Plus I think Abishai had to go to the bathroom and he might have been hangry and tired from waking up so early. Bad combination for a highly sensitive person. Yes, I think he is one of those highly sensitive people based on how he's been reacting to himself getting into trouble and seeing others getting into trouble and these kinds of big emotions that seem to come out of nowhere. You expect them from toddlers but not really from elementary kids. So I'm watching them for now and will have to pay attention to posts and ideas I see that will help deal with these kinds of situations. Abishai told me that he is kind of glad that Mrs. Tess won't be at karate class next week and he wasn't sure why. And then Jared explained that Mrs. Tess is keeping track of mishaviors with marks on the wall and Abishai had 1 or 2 next to his name where other kids had none. So he doesn't like getting intro trouble. He's very self aware. So now I have to figure out how to diffuse the situations. I think it's where you have to get them completely off of the topic at hand. And I think that's what happened when we got into Aldi's and started talking about his snacks. So, we did the right thing this time. Duly noted.

Aldi's was interesting because of their remodeling project. There was no "Aisle of Shame" products and nothing in the freezer section because those are the areas they are working on. But Jared picked out a few things of meat to grill. We just might have to go back to get meat at the other store later this week. Bummers. The sign said the remodel will be done Oct 7th, and it looks like it's going to be just as big and nice as the other Aldi's. So, who knows, we might just be coming back to this one. Our cashier tonight was the same one who has been at that store since it opened. Kim is her name I think. She's been there all the years I've been shopping there, so a good 10-15 years, or even longer. It was very quiet in there tonight. We spent way less than normal, too.

We were able to finish and go home first to drop off groceries and Abishai and I so we could put them away while Jared rounded up Keturah and Justin. And you know what he did? He picked them up in the gray truck! He actually turned on the truck and it ran fine. Ok, Justin, your turn! So, all three of them had to sit all squishy in the truck together on a hot sticky night with no a/c in a stinky truck. Have fun  I guess. I bet the kids were embarrassed, lol. Oh well. Fun times, right!

And now it's bedtime. Abishai wanted to sleep on the couch in the fireside room, and he did actually fall asleep. So Justin has decided to do his nightly thing over in his bed instead of the garage. Luke said to the whole crowd at Crave tonight that he would we on Fortnite finishing his missions or whatever and could use some help, so Justin got on and helped him. I said, he's probably one of what 2 or 3 that still play fortnite at this point, lol. He's been playing video games with Luke aka pizzaking, for 5 years now. That's pretty cool. It's a unique bond. And Jared said that this is Luke's 7th anniversary of being at the church sand he'd like to get him something but I don't know. I was trying not to spend too much more though. We'll see. But now all is quiet and I'm fading fast over here. Over and out.

This is one of my favorite photos and it shows up on my FB feed often. 12 years ago now. It was taken in one of my mom's hospital rooms. Matching pacis, matching blankies, and a little hug. My middles. We didn't know they would be our middles back then though. Justin even said, "I would hug Keturah but she has her own 'stay away' stink like a skunk (or something like that)." I do think these two will like each other again someday. They have spent the most time together of any of the kids between all of the read alouds we've done, all the field trips, and just simply being home together. Give them at least 10 more years. They won't be best friends, but they will come around. And yes, This is Justin's "blonde" hair everybody talks about.

Abishai said, "Look, Mom, I made a face! Come take a picture!"

Molly MacLean is I think a friend from the Michael W. Smith group. But what an encouraging compliment! I've had a few "God is speaking to me and I want to share it" moments as I start typing some "I fell crappy and I want to share it"posts. So I know I've been listening more to God and he's using me. Things between Him and I are better.

Here's the original post for context. You can ignore the other comments.

Ready, set,....

....swing? That's not right!

That's it! Kick it!

Aww, the friendship continues between middle school leader now middle and high school leader and student. Justin and Luke have been playing Fortnite together off and one for 5 years. So cool that Justin could get on with him tonight and help him get some of the special stuff. Pretty special. 11th grader and his youth leader. His other non geeky friends might be doing homework or laying out their sports great for practice or something. But I'm glad these two can enjoy a few minutes of playtime together.

The End