Year 6, August 6th-8th, 2021: Is This How It's Always Going to Be?

 Is it always going to be this busy? Am I always going to feel overwhelmed? Am I going to think I'm completely done with something and then turn around and have it be spit back into my face? Probably. I have to spend the weekend putting together pretty much a fresh application for financial application to Jared's bill for his gallbladder surgery back in JANUARY. Why? Oh, because the hospital changed personnel and they started with the accounts in alphabetical order and they finally got around to the J's 7 months later. And now they want a fresh set of bank statements, paystubs, and what are these interbank transfers? How come these transfers are from accounts not listed in your name but are from the same bank? We want their whole bank statement, too. Uh, I explained to you over the phone who they are from, why do you need to have a third party's bank statements? That doesn't seem right. But whatever. And I thought I was out of color ink and when I went to print some things in black and white this evening to get a head start, I found more color ink. So I didn't need to wait until tomorrow to get started, grrrr. I ran out of one of the three colors in the colored ink, so now that ink is dead to me, which is a waste of money. But at least I have more ink coming and I'll have backups for awhile. Maybe. Hopefully. I don't know. I just wish everything would go away and could just homeschool. But alas, it won't.

Then there's this last minute used curriculum book sale that is in two weeks that I found out about just yesterday. The one that many of us were anticipating to happen in June that never came. Well, we all will want to jump onto it now and I know the organizer isn't thrilled to be organizing so I will help her and make it a good event because it's my only chance to represent IAHE in person and it's only 10 minutes away, which means I need to actually print materials and organize all that. Which means I kind of have to do that this weekend, too. The August calendar is filling up fast. This next week would have been a good one to start school, but the week after that is full of appointments. And then the week after that is ok. So how can you start and stop school? Especially if you want to count little guy's schooling? I don't want to be inconsistent right out of the gate? Should we wait until September? But that only makes getting all 180 days in that much harder. So no rest for me this weekend.

And now it's 10 pm and I've only started on the blog. Why? Because it's movie night and as I was going to try to go, but didn't leave enough time to get ready so when I went to get ready and peeled off the bandaids off my boo boos that had been on too long, it hurt too much and they needed to be cleaned up and that set off a whole host of other issues. So I stayed home, again, like a big old wimp. But the heat makes me so itchy, plus the bug bites, but these boo boos, plus my elbow tendon popped out again, and my eyes are heavy because I'm tired. And I had a lot to do on the computer this afternoon. And I messed up the telephone app for the IAHE and I had clean up my email and then tell Jared what could supper be while I finished up, frozen pizza. Yeah, I'm a great cook. At least he cut the watermelon without me even suggesting it. He doesn't know that I have a project for him tomorrow. Well, if it doesn't get it done, that's ok, it's not like I have time to do my part of cleaning out old cabinets and putting stuff into a new one. Whatever.

And when do I have time to get to the post office and sending a package to my sister for her birthday? Never. And I certainly don't have time for a case of vertigo to hit or PMS. But I'm on the brink of both of them. 

So, what did my kids do today?

They had park day and played a good round of sardines. Abishai wanted to be the one who got to hide so he said he cheated and saw where the other person hid instead of closing his eyes. He thinks other person noticed him cheating, so he ran over to me crying. He was convicted of his sin! So I told him it was the Holy Spirit and he needed to ask God for forgiveness. He wouldn't do it in front of my mommy friends and I didn't push the issue, but wow, yes, he felt sad that he had cheated. We had a lot of new people show up today with young ones, too. And Justin didn't want to leave his friends so we were there for 3 hrs. Abishai came home and immediately wanted to read his books on his little couch spot he made for himself. He was quiet for along while and I thought he had turned his tablet on early. But no, he was just contently looking at his book. Keturah had to wait for us to come home in order to do her skating. She should have come with us and skated on the smoother sidewalks at Southeastway. It was a gorgeous day outside at least in the shade. Keturah stayed home of course as usual, on her phone most of the day. I definitely think I'll be taking her phone back when she starts school. You can't fool me that you use it for background nose. Move along, Missy.

 After supper, they all went to Smiths house for movie night, and it was the original Toy Story from 1995. I always forget it's that old since Benaiah watched it a lot even 10 years later because he watched the sequel a lot, too. My brother was only 8 yrs old, so it's really his movie. I was only 14 yrs old. We never went to the movies, so we only watched it at home.And now they're home, just in time to wake me up before I fall asleep at my computer again.

I love this lady. She's had her ups and downs in life but she's learned a lot and is such a positive voice in the social media/influencer world. She makes me smile.

Teenager alert. Complete with headphones, phone, skates, and dog.

Hi, brown eyed beauty.

Gold in the SOCCER tournament. Gotta love the way they twist words. They've won gold in other summer Olympics' sports. But who would have thought that they could win it in soccer of all things when lots of countries dominate this sport? How cool!

Can I get an Amen?

I guess I'm not a complete failure of homemaker. It was frozen pizza this time around. But the watermelon, which had been sitting on the counter for almost a week because they are NEVER ripe when you first bring them home from the store, was PERFECTION.

I spent 6 hrs glued to my laptop screen trying to piecemeal together various documents for our first day of school as well print documents for the table for the in person book sales and all the things. My eyes and my buttocks hurt from all that sitting and staring! I'm so tired, too! Keturah spent her whole day on her phone, and Justin did for the majority of the day, too. Abishai followed Daddy around as usually. Jared did I have no idea what, but there was a lot of grumbling and throwig of things. He managed to cool burgers over an open blame out back as well as cooked corn. Ok, that's fun. But don't expect me to make sides. My back hurts. Get the kids to help you. It's my day off. Make a salad or something. So the kids helped with that. I just winced and stretched since it was my first time to lay down since I had gotten up. At least I have a few more photos to share this evening.

 

Who needs to go to the state fair when your husband can cook corn on the make shift grill at home?

I spent all day printing things, can you tell?

When you still have and sometimes use your childhood presidents' game printed in 1993, you have to go back and keep adding to it every time there's an election! I've been pretty good at catching it soon after the new president is in place. Just a few months late, which I think is not bad at all. Woot! Woot!

Thankfully, the printer didn't mess up too much. 20 packs plus some extra flyers for a used book sale in two weeks. Phew! I know some would have gone somewhere to make copies but I'm much more comfortable at home. And any money I've spent on ink or paper is just a donation to the cause. No worries.

Abishai's new favorite reading spot. But I need my pop blankie on my green couch to snuggle with, boy!

Swinging high with Daddy.

Look! Daddy can actually jump a little on the trampoline! It's a miracle!

A friend had a huge haul of one of our favorite drinks and we said with a resounding yes! We'll take it off your hands! Justin, Keturah, and I will be fighting over this!

Just because something is older, doesn't mean it's bad. Check out this awesome science kit a former homeschooler had! There's a rubber tube that should be replaced, although it's not cracked which is good. But look at how solid these pieces are. They don't make them like this these days. And it's not a homeschooling kit. Anybody could have used it as a supplement to their science teaching in school.

IAHE gets coffee and it's reserved for the afternoons. e2 gets my morning tea, and only tea and only in the morning.

Definitely goes together, don't you think?

Who's been sleeping on my couch? Good thing he's left evidence behind! Socks!

What?! I didn't do anything! There's barely room for him in her room, but he still tries to find a spot for himself.

In the time it took me to let the dog out, get my phone camera to work and go to the bathroom, the clouds had changed a ton. These clouds were very similar to the ones that I saw on FB that someone said were seen in Asia and that are very rare. Like little humps or waves.

These are the stats just a week into the local public school's year. These are all the kids that have to now quarantine because of contact tracing, not because they are sick themselves. That's around 300 students out of 8700. That's not bad you say. But those are 300 students that have to sit home for 10 days and I read through the rest of the post that said that some of them didn't have material to take home to do, nor did they have virtual learning set up. If you are going to require these kids to stay home, and you are going to hold them to the same procedures as last year, have the schoolwork ready! Are you kidding me?!

 Well, unusual Sunday. Jared communicate to me which service he was doing nursery at, so he went to first service and served at 11. So, I would have been sitting by myself. I thought I had to get there and get Abishai from Sunday School and then turn him back in, but they just kept him in between services and gave Jared a single pick up tag. So there was no reason for me to be there early, although I was rushing to try to get there because I was late finishing my shower. But then suddenly I had a few minutes to think so I sat down and it was quiet. And I thought, well, I don't have to be at church to do anything, and I'm not going to be sitting with Jared, so, I could just sit here and listen from home and staple the papers I printed yesterday. I am tired and I don't really want to walk up those steps to the balcony and it's weird to sit alone downstairs. So, I stayed home. And I stapled papers. And listened and sang a little to the songs and ignored the stuff about the public schools and listened again to the sermon (at least some of it) on who God IS and how pursuing knowing God is the most important thing. Got it. Then I should have texted the family to remind them to bring home books that someone left at church for me, but didn't, and of course they forgot. I reminded them at lunch and before they left for their meeting tonight and they all forgot again. Sigh. 

Jared, Keturah, and Justin all had their volunteer kick off for kids' ministry tonight. It was the first time in 30 years that I have no assigned ministry at a local church, nor am I going to any Bible study, or Sunday School, and the like. From when I was probably 8 or 9 to about 13, I did work in the toddler room in the Candia Congregational Church. Then I did the 2's and 3's room at Manchester Christian Church (but how did I do that and do worship team because I thought I was on worship team for 4 years and did it most Sundays? but I also did the toddlers most Sundays?) Then when I moved to college, Jared and I helped with the youth group for those two years. Then when we were married, I at least had small group, and at the tail end of that first year, I volunteered in nursery and from then on, I was always in nursery until October of 2020. At Indian Creek, and then Cornwall, and back to Indian Creek. But if you remember what happened last year at the kick off, I freaked out over seeing everybody in masks. And then I wept after seeing myself in a mask holding a baby who wouldn't calm down that first time I volunteered in October. And then I pretty much resigned. It felt very strange filling out the info cards and forms for the kids and not myself for the kick off. It feels strange to not be a part of things. To be just a pew warmer. An attendee. Not a member. But I still don't feel comfortable signing a commitment paper and I'm not going to be putting on a mask again ever. Jared and the kids have to sign a commitment paper specifically for the kids' programming, but Jared has not signed a membership paper that I know of. I'm not sure if they are being that picky at the moment because they need volunteers, desperately. Right now, volunteers don't have to wear masks (if you're vaccinated I believe). But that could change in an instant. I'm not taking that chance. I can't take the back and forth and fear of the unknown. 

And that's the conclusion I came to when I was texting my sister today. I just wish we could go back to the two camps of education. Public or true homeschooling. Having these one year on the fence homeschoolers is driving me crazy. They want all the benefits without making the sacrifices and without the work. They want to hire out the homeschooling, whether it be to a co op, or online, or to videos. That's not how it works. They miss out on the opportunities of having relationships with their kids and to learn with their kids. If I could separate them out, I would just talk to the 2nd yrs and above, and help them on their journeys, trouble shooting, explaining more about curriculum choices and styles, what's next on the path like middle school and high school, long term goals, etc. Just like I don't do well with hooking and reeling people in to church and bring them to Christ, I don't think I'm great at doing that with homeschooling either, or at least I'm very impatient. I make a good discipler, but not a good evangelist, because I see things in black or white. You are either with me or you are against me. Either you go all in with homeschooling, or you don't.

I think I was trying to explain this to Jared in a way this morning how I get so upset when I look at other healthy people just sitting on their lazy butts not using their potential and being ungrateful for their health and complaining about their bent fingernail. I have all this pent up desire to do good and advance the Kingdom and I had all this potential and intellect and I feel it's all being wasted as I sit on my butt playing video games because I literally physically cannot move and I cannot emotionally or mentally handle one more thought. And it's a cruel, harsh reality. And I ball my eyes over it. If only I had a better brain, I could control my emotions and reach these Covid homeschoolers. If only I could physically move faster, I could get my home more organized and have time to meet new people at all these groups and remember their names and help them more and still have time and energy to take my kids to the pool. It's simply not fair. I have the dreams and potential, but can't. Jared and the kids have the ability to, but don't have the initiative. 

Meanwhile, Sunday lunch went ok. We briefly talked about Christmas plans. I think Gary actually reserved a cabin before getting a final yes from Aaron and Shauna at the same place we went to last year. And Aaron finally texted back and said, thank but no thanks because it's time to travel to Indy again and see the rest of Shauna's family. And I internally had to pump my fists because I had just told myself it was time for a staycation. I was trying to quickly do the math of what year we were where but didn't have enough time and gave up. Grandpa and Keturah were trying to figure out which cabin fit all of us and where we could bring the dog. Jared said he wanted to go back because he didn't get to really experience it being so sick. Aaron also said that I would probably appreciate not traveling this year because we had traveled for several years in a row and he's not wrong. I texted him and Shauna back and thanked them for remembering and sticking up for me although I was trying to be a good sport and not make a fuss at this time. I'm sure we can cancel anything that was set up today, that's why I didn't get in the middle of the quick decision. I was going to go home, think it over and then present my case. 

We also learned that the Israel trip has been postponed again. And Benaiah has decided to back out for good. I guess he can do that now that he's an adult. I would have still paid for his passport regardless because we should renewed everybody's passports before they expired and/or gotten their first adult ones. Well, I don't think we'll pay for Justin's next one since this one was so close to his 16th birthday. And because Benaiah backed out, that leaves room for Justin to back out. I'm so over this. I'm sick of it being delayed. I'm sick of the boys throwing fits about it. Benaiah doesn't want to get the Covid shot, so yeah for him, I get that. I do back that up. And Grandpa being who he is didn't blame him or try to change his mind. And Jared won't bring it up. So now we have two boys who we paid passports for and they can't go anywhere. Canada still has it's borders closed. No one needs to go to Mexico. And there's no reason to visit the tropics. Sigh. Oh, and I have my passport, too. I don't know when Jared's expired. I guess we'll just continue to sit tight with the other two's passports for now. Abishai's is going to be uber complicated because we'll get both done and Keturah's, we might as well hold off another 3 years and get the adult one. I'll handle Keturah's. Jared can handle Abishai's. 

And because they aren't going to Israel, now we have to back up and think about Thanksgiving. I don't know what Leah said about it, but part of me suspects we should do something with Cooks, but only Jared is vaccinated so, do us unvaccinated people stay home if Grandma Cook will be there? I left the discussion up for another day. 

And all of this news brought me to texting with my sister because she had thought about getting together around Thanksgiving and I had to tell her that Benaiah and Justin were going to be gone. But now they won't be. And now I have no idea what's going to happen yet. I don't think she was too happy with that answer because she was like, "But you always spend Thanksgiving with the Johnsons." Yes, and I can't exactly go all the way to NH either. Again, we would have go halfsies on a trip. We spent most of our IRS refund on medical bills and TN and whatever the rings cost and there's nothing left. Whatever Jared put away for cash is out of sight out of mind. And I'm going to barely have enough out of those monthly kid payments to keep us going because whoops, I didn't calculate things right. Again. So, traveling isn't cheap. TN cost us $600. For 2 people, one overnight. And I'd say it was mid luxury. We've got to get 6 people, 1,000 miles. And we can't physically make that drive anyways with Jared's back. And we don't know about Benaiah's job. I guess Justin could drive now, too. We would have to rent a place and we would have to decide on that ASAP because everything would be rented out already. Anyway, a conversation for another day.

 And finally, tomorrow, yes, we are starting school. I'm 95% ready. I don't think I will get any more ready, really. They can help write their first assignments in. We'll start with some "opening ceremonies" with those info sheets, and leap year sheets we didn't finish last year, and photo things. And then I think we'll again to do a "morning basket" of sorts with CC memory work, a short read aloud that isn't our main history, other memory work to start the year off, etc. We didn't continue things like the Charlotte Mason motto or the rules of this house throughout the year, but I vaguely remember trying to do them right after breakfast before the kids did their independent work. But I don't think that lasted very long. I think I want to try it again because when we finish our core history book by the end of first semester and when Justin gets a job, we need a bit of an anchor to follow us through as a family until Justin graduates. I feel like I want that touchpoint. And it's best to do that before everybody starts scattering I think. I'm not sure if this will work, but I thought I'd try before things change. Then the older kids will do math and science, and if they are good with that, I'll explain their English. And this way, we'll get a week in, and then they can do independent stuff next week while I have a million appointments, and then we can add on what we can the third week. I'll start history in full swing in September. I still have to organize those books and be ready to sit down and do it with them. I'm just too nervous about getting all our attendance days in. And we do actually have a lot of wiggle time this week to work with. We just have some night time meetings and we are going to the fair on Thursday. Friday is normal park day and Saturday and Sunday are normal. So, here's to the new year!

And I did kind of sprung it on them and they are a little reluctant. I told them again, why, and to stay flexible and we'll just do what we can do. We've got this. We always do.

 

It wasn't that long ago that I only had the older three kids and they had to color a picture and I turned it in for free meals and they were all under 12 yrs old! Where has the time gone? Now I only need one coupon! But I'll go ahead and bring it and see how much I save. This is why we are going on $3 Thursday so the big kids can get $3 food. I'll be getting my $3 lemon shake up I'm sure. Or maybe that $3 fried dough and suffer the rest of the weekend. Sometimes I do that because #frieddough is just as good as #doughnuts!

Speaking of my babies growing up. Benaiah and his friends went for a young adult picnic this afternoon and HE, yes HE planned and put this together all by himself! He borrowed the tray from Grandma, but he sliced all of this and spent the time to arrange it. What a sophisticated young man he is! And he and Ava bought a small cake he said that she's going to bring. Say what?! Young adults on a picnic together? Like not eating fast food? Like from a romantic movie? Except the other two people aren't dating. They are just good friends. But still. Proud of them all. Way to go!

Awww, it's sometimes neat to see your kids' writing teacher doing real life things, lol. I'm not sure how well I would be guiding the kids' in their writing if it wasn't for Mr. Pudewa. His IEW writing program has saved me in the English department. Yes, the kids watch a once a week 20-40 minute lesson presentation by him, but then I have to follow through with the rest of the lesson. And I had my own DVD's to watch regarding how the program worked. It's an investment but man, it just makes sense to me. And it's not divided up by grades, but by ability. Loads of flexibility. I love that!

Justin's ADHD moment of the day. He left this morning for church without finishing his dishwasher unloading chore. It's his first time leaving it like this, but still. I knew something was wrong because there were way too many bowls in there for it being just emptied this morning. He must have been in a hurry because Grandma just came. Good grief.

Forget the videos, but check out that little ad right there in the middle, say what?! How'd that get there? And then I clicked on it, and the IAHE page sent me an auto message to my private messages. Um, ok. Pretty cool!

The End