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