Year 6, September 27th-30th, 2021: Blast of Heat

 One more blast of heat, but it doesn't feel like it because the humidity left. Yeah! We were busy inside getting after the books of course. We made it through all the bookwork, Grandpa's class, chores, mowing, trimming, extra stuff, screen time, fighting, dinner, etc. But, it felt a little chaotic and a little less efficient thatn I had hoped. And I couldn't keep my mouth shut to save my life. I really should have not let them have TV until their chores were done but the purpose was to see how they squeeze it in in their own way and both Keturah and Justin did it, but barely. I asked Justin if he needed a flashlight in order to finish mowing it was so dark when he came in. There's nothing else to report about. I'm thinking a need to plan a hike but I'm not sure. Maybe with Mrs. Kelly and Kya. We'll see. Or maybe just Mrs. Kelly and I need to go for a little hike. That would be fun. We'll see. I just don't want to go out in the woods alone. But I don't need a kid who will whine the whole time either. Hm,....

All new cars in our collection thanks to the neighbor. Lots of police cars!

Ready for action!

Time for transportation.

Abishai's secret way of unlocking our bedroom door is to find a car with a long fender (tail) and then you can fit him in the indent in the doorknobs (it fits a penny for comparisons. The doorknobs are probably as old as the house.

Aww, chubby cheeks! So sweet and quiet. Keturah was always good at napping!

Truth

So I went back to the original post and found the photos in the IG post above and saw that Keturah was in all three photos. Can you spot her in all three photographs? Hint, she's not wearing the same color shirt as everyone else since she didn't serve yesterday.

Cool clouds this evening as Justin finished the mowing that he started on Thursday or Friday I believe.

Everybody got up late this morning, ok, the kids and I, so we nearly ran behind schedule. I got a phone call this morning, too, which was fine, but made me feel rushed in teaching Abishai. We managed to finish ok. Then it was time already to take Socks to the vet for his annual exam. We got all his spots checked out and basic stuff done like heartworm, rabies, distemper, etc. He's got some heart arrhythmia going on, so we put him on some medication for that. When you add that to the cost of his heartworm and his anti inflammatory medication, he's now hovering around $160 a month to maintain. Ouch. That's not bad all things considered, but he's starting to cost as much as me. The vet said he would be more considered about the heart if Socks was younger because it would shorten his lifespan, but at this point, Socks would die of something else first and the medication is just to slow down the progression of any heart disease so that it won't be the thing to kill him. Everything else looks good, including the fatty tumor on his belly that I had found. So, no surprise bills there. Nearly $500 for the visit though. Ouch. But worth it. He's good to go for now. They even printed a new name tag for him, I think because it has his rabies number on it. It has his name, my phone number, and their info on it, as well as a number below that which I assume goes with the rabies info. So, that's cool. The other one was pretty pitiful.

After that, I was too tired to do any readalouds and my hips were bothering me, so I caved and the kids had screen time before chores. Then I took them to Wendy's for supper. I dropped Justin and Keturah off to finish their extra chores while I took Abishai to pick up my prescriptions and gas. Pretty easy. Recycling bins were full, so I only put a couple of things in the bin. I did save $0.20 on gas with my Kroger card. I wish Abishai could pump gas, but not quite yet. Then we headed home. I let him on the PS4 to play video games until Dad got home and I read aloud history to the other two. I need to find a better routine with history in particular, but our whole homeschool schedule, but in order to get it all in, and still do coffee dates and doc appts, sometimes, school has to be done in the evening. We still learned about the Great Depression, some economics about the the 1980 global financial crisis and the logical tatic of repetition. Fun stuff to send kids off to bed with, right? Hey, they will just to be ready for night classes, right? I didn't like night classes. I don't think well at that time. But I didn't have a choice. I'm glad I finished my degree right away because it would have been impossible now. 

And just like that, it's 10:30pm and the day is at its end. Sigh.

Throwback just a few years, lol. At least one of my kids likes to take selfies with me!  What a cutie!

Truth

Abishai had asked if he could lay down on the bench at the vet's office way before we even got there meaning he has such a great memory. So, of course I let him. Keturah wasn't happy about it and kept trying to sneak a seat, but I told her no because she had been sitting all day.

The miles per gallon you get when you drive on the highway 3x a week and that's most of the driving you do. Not bad at all. 345 miles for a 16 gallon tank.

The only way to get another Johnson on Instagram is via another ministry, lol. Nice one! Different set of books via renew.org. It's not the last book Gary is ever going to write. I may or may not know when and what that will be. Ssshhhh, Mum's the word, lol.

Someone paraphrased this in a post today and I thought it was pretty cool. I guess it's an educational debate or theory going around I had not clue about and can be interpreted in different ways. In the context of the post, however, we were using it to described self directed learning. I think you could also apply it to mean the homeshcool journey where you start out by teaching them directly and as they get older, they take on more of the responsibility of learning, which is a more accurate description of how I view and carry out education.

Wednesday was a bright and sunny day, and again fairly warm at 80 degrees, unseasonably warm in my opinion. The kids and I were early to ASL lessons and I actually didn't have to push them to get ready for once. Abishai and I stuck around and did most of his school lessons which helped us later in the day when we got home. The other kids and I read through the last lesson for the week and then Abishai and I finished just in time for normal screen time. Then it was time for a quick supper of leftovers and off to drop Justin to small group and a much needed grocery store run. And then dash back to drop off groceries at home. Keturah and I put them away while Jared and Abishai picked up Justin. We only put away the perishables as it was getting really late and I was so tired from the day already and my hips were still hurting. I was in a lot of pain actually from many things and ended up going to bed early without watching TV. That means the computer was shut off before midnight! Wow! That must tell you how much pain I was in and how exhausted I was! Lol! I actually did get 7 hrs of sleep and I'm writing this on Thursday night, lol. Plus, I wouldn't be able to share this wonderful footage with you all of the finally catching the mouse in action that has been stealing the food out of Socks' dog dish! Oh yeah, I totally got him in action! Just a little field mouse. And the whole corner is now nicely baited and ready for Mr. Mousy to show up again. And after we catch him, I'll be putting a cover on the dog food dish at night so this doesn't happen again. And then mice will probably show up in the pantry again. Ah, life in the suburbs. 

"Mommy, I have my own method. Let me show you." Ok, let's see it. Ok, that works. just do it now. I'm so glad I read Sally Clarkson's book about the out of the box thinker because this kid is the most out of the box thinker I have ever known.

Working hard now at ASL lessons so he doesn't have to later at home.

Oops! I got my first "help" from Abishai on his paper! Lol! I think every one of the kids has writen this on their pages for me at some point. I didn't even say anything of that though to this one and he knew what to do. Misspelled it of course, but hey, it's funny!

In Hollywood I believe at the primiere of the "Jesus Music" movie. All my childhood music standing in a row there. Great stuff. For King and Coutnry's Smallbone with sister Rebecca St. James and Michael W. Smith (blue jacket) with Amy Grant (red dress), next to Toby Mac and Michael Tait of DCTalk and now again Newsboys, and what's his face from I Can Only imagine fame. Fun stuff!

Thursday started out alright with a nice hot shower, and then things were a bit chaotic for a little while. Then Kelly and Kya came over for the afternoon and we had a nice chat. We had a quick supper again, Jared went to Jim's for Bible study, I helped Abishai with a project, Keturah lounged, and Justin had his screen time. The End. Lol, Pretty much. Nothing new to report. Holding steady, I think. 

I went to find mouse traps and look what I found! The box was open in the drawer they were in and the mice had helped themselves to their own poison! Bwahahahaha! No wonder we hadn't had anything in the pantry for awhile. A taste of their own medicine, literally! But the box smelled so bad! Ewww! Yikes!

You just have to watch the first 15 seconds of this video to see Mr. Mouse. Eww!

 

 

 

 

Me all the time, less the nails and makeup of course. Can't stop thinking about the last conversation I had or the topic that is bothering me the most.

The End

Week 6, September 24th-26th, 2021: It's A Fall Weekend

 Friday did not go well. I had an early morning doctor visit, which was fine. We tried a muscle releasing technique, which to be honest, is the same as what a chiropractor or massage therapist has done before on me. I guess it's the extra training that makes these doctors "osteopaths"? Which, I know that for other areas, there's more to it, but we were working on my headaches. Maybe I was looking for a different kind of doctor? I'm not sure. I know it's not a naturopath, because they aren't an actual doctor that prescribes things, but I'm pretty sure the D.O. that I had before moving to Canada was something different and/or the one that I had in Canada who maybe was more naturopathic actually had a degree in medicine. I don't know. I'm so confused about it. I'm just always going to be tight and stressed and everyone can keep pressing in the same areas and I'll get some relief for a minute but it will always come back. Medication will help for now. So we'll stick with what we have going on for now. 

Then, I was supposed to call the oil changing place Jared wanted me to use to see how long the wait was. Well, I did call and they told me I would have to leave my car for the rest of the day. I lost it. I was so mad. I was trying to do a good deed and get the oil change done for him, (car maintenance is supposed to be Jared's chore) because he really doesn't want to drive my car because of his back. I had called on Monday to try and make an appointment for Friday, but they told me to come first thing before my appointment or call afterwards. Well, I wasn't going to take a chance on being late to my appointment and I don't get up that early, so I waited until afterwards. This oil change place is 6 minutes from my doctor's office so I was trying to get it done at the same time so I wouldn't have to waste my other days when I need to be home. So not only I was doing a chore that isn't mine to do, but now I couldn't do it. 

So I texted Justin to see if he could be ready to go take his written test at the BMV again and he said, he doesn't want to take it before park day. Ok, whatever. I had told Jared to take Justin to the BMV today and to take him to TCU to open up a bank account, which was the other thing we did with Benaiah at age 16. I didn't think about him needing an apointment at TCU to do it now that we are still in pandemic mode. I thought you just walk in and get whoever is available. Well, you don't anymore, so Jared set an appointment for Monday. Except the BMV isn't open on Mondays so we still have to go on a separate day to do the BMV thing which means another day out of the house, which I don't have.

I was pretty mad. And I came to the conclusion that I am just done doing errands during school hours. No more appointments either as long as I can help it. Only field trips until 3pm every day. Maybe something quick during the lunch hour. No phone calls. No long emails. No errands. I work full time educating my kids. End of story. So house maintainence, car maintainence, etc. has to be done after 3pm. And if that means only 1 thing gets done each day because I have to be back by 5 to get dinner cooked, than so be it. And if Jared has to take his lunch hour to do something, so be it. If we have to go wait in longer lines on a Saturday, then so be it. I just feel like everything came together so much quicker for Benaiah. He had everything lined up within two weeks. It's been over two weeks since Justin failed his permit test. He's left a voicemail for the owner of the Lego shop, but he hasn't called back yet. I hope Justin said the right phone number and that his voicemail is set up correctly.  

Procrastination drives me nuts, especially when I'm ready to accomplish something. Everybody waiting for that perfect moment instead of just going and doing it. I'm not sure why God gave me such lazy people to deal with. I'm worn out trying to prod them along just to maintain the basics of life. Because that's all I do, nag, and then I miss out on the joy and fun of life. I'm weary and tired of managing everyone. Sometimes I just want to quit. So I leave the house for park day. Or I find any excuse to go on a field trip and ignore being home. But then, nothing gets  done at home, too, and the to do list is still there, and I'm then more mad at that. Sigh. But at least I get out in the fresh air for a little while. And breathe and thinking about something else.

We visited a new park to us on the northside that had been redone and it was really nice. Indoor easy to access bathrooms, very shaded areas, huge towers of jungle gyms, huge trees, great breeze, and good conversation on other people's problems. After that, we brought Kya home with us to hang out for a bit. Jared took her home after he had taken Abishai to karate. Justin got her to laugh multiple times over Uno.No more grumpy Storm Trooper face. Socks was happy to have an extra kid in the house for a little bit, too. 

One of the best benefits of homeschooling, you fill in your gaps in learning. It's an incredible thing!

My awesome, but exhausted, overwhelmed friend whose older daughter is getting married next weekend (and then they are selling their house and moving soon afterwards) took the time to come to park day with her youngest daughter. And then she took the few minutes to swing on this peculiar swing with her. I think they both needed it so badly. Just say yes.

That same friend's daughter loves animals and had hatched some monarchs. This one can't fly, so she's taken care of it for as long as she can. She brought it to the park today. Since Abishai had just been playing with the pretend one at home after seeing the one at Bug Day a couple of weeks ago, I got him off the playground and brought him over to meet it. He was so excited!

He was very gentle with it.

Socks and Abishai (who was off to the side telling Kya all about the Lego minifigures) make the best chaperones and they don't even realize it. They just get right in the middle of everything because they want to be the spotlight. Everybody is just friends, but it's good to keep everybody safe and kosher.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, and it was a good thing it was. The HVAC guy and his crew was here to install the new A/C unit, although we really won't need it until the spring now. But it's done and now we just have to figure out a way to actually pay for it when the full bill comes in. At the same time, the neighbor's fence crew was here putting in the fence line that we share. So we had to be careful not to let Socks out because he was either going to escape or bother the men too much. But, we also had to monitor Abishai because he, too, wanted to chat up the guys out there. Jared was out there with them most of the time, too. The HVAC guys had to work with the system inside the garage as well as under the house, so I waited to shower until they were done. I hate staying in my pjs but if I had changed, I wouldn't have been motivated to actually shower. Since I wasn't dressed, I stayed inside and knocked off a few things on my to do list like creating Abishai's official Mystery of History binder. I hadn't accessed the file for the front page of the binders since I created them in 2012. We've been doing that curriculum for 9 years straight, and will be finishing our 2nd cycle of it this semester. Wahoo! One more kid gets to go through it at least twice. Keturah gets to help me through this first round with Abishai and/or she will be doing a quick overview through a different high school level curriculum starting next year. I think I might have the older editions of Abeka World History she can use or we'll do something else. She'll be fine.

The middle got up late, which set up a conundrum of anxiety for me at around 2pm when Jared and the other men were done and he wanted to nap. There was still other work to be done. He had told Justin to mow "at least" the front yard. Um, it's nice enough out and there's enough time in the day to mow the whole yard. Mowing just part of the yard is just not very efficient and it's weird and I'm tired of it. Just get it done. I hate these outdoor projects taking days to complete. And then on Thursday Jared had told me to have Keturah trim around the north side of the house where he sprayed weed killer but I didn't have time to tell her or supervise her, so I was hoping she would have gotten up on time to do it, but she binge watched TV shows until 2pm. So I had to get him back out of bed to tell her what to do. And I wanted the pool to be properly cleaned so it could dry properly and be put away soon. The rain earlier in the week and the sunshine had taken care of the algae and mold so it just needed the quick dirt scrubbing. But even that proved to be a huge problem between the two middles because Keturah wanted a break and Justin wanted to work on it just then. They were supposed to do it together so they could flip it over together because it's awkward and heavy. 

I just don't understand my family's lack of efficiency. I mean we didn't talk about what needed done today, but everybody knows we get up at normal time every day of the week and we typically do yard work and projects on Saturday. Why would today be any different? Plus, I had on my list for them to do science experiments because we hadn't gotten  to them all week. Both of them rolled their eyes and stamped their feet and yelled at me about that, too. Look, you've had plenty of down time during the times that I've been busy. And you two are older and you don't need that much screen time. I just don't care anymore. Life is work. At 13 and 16 in other countries around the world, you'd have it 100x tougher than you do in this country. Get a grip. 

I'm extremely tired today and frustrated at everyone. I'm about to give up again and just not do anything and see what happens. Like not do laundry, dishes, meal plan, whatever, and let them all fend for themselves. Let paperwork slide and credit cards go unpaid. Or put the statements on Jared's lap. See what he does with it. Just do my teaching job and nothing else but feed myself and take more than 2 showers a week. Then a walk around the block may be feasible and a nap and my own education and pleasure reading and time to craft. I don't know. I just need to not feel guilty when something isn't done because I have to put out other "fires." Dinner's not ready? Well, you were fighting so dinner was delayed. Phone call not made today? Well, you didn't get your work done for me to check and remember to also remind you to make that phone call. You don't have any money? Well, you didn't write yourself a note to apply for a job. I need to take my feelings out of it. #notmyproblem And if I can distance myself on a Saturday, I can distance myself on other days. 

So, just walk away. I'm just not going to do xyz. Then maybe they won't assume or depend on me to xyz and they will learn to do it themselves. I won't be the alarm clock, the to do list, the calendar, the meal planner, etc. I quit. I am the teacher only. We'll see how long this lasts. It will mean I might have to clean a bowl and spoon from the dishwasher. I will put a load of laundry through the wash (because I don't make a whole load by myself a week), but then it will sit in my room clean until each person realizes that they will have to go put away their own clothes, I won't be calling them to come and do it. I may or may not make a whole meal and if I do, it will be to my own liking. I will probably put it away but not do the dishes. I won't pick up the clutter. I won't put away the recycling. I won't take the recycling to the dumpster. I may or may not go grocery shopping depending on if I'm out of my own food, although we are about ready for a regular trip. And it's up Jared to get Justin's permit, account, and job thing done. It's on his head because that's a bonding experience, that's why I forced it into his lap with Benaiah and I'm doing it again this time. It's a "Look, Dad, I'm growing up to be a man," moment, so go do it. Plus, it's a social anxiety thing for me, and I don't want to. There's lunch hours and Saturdays and evenings. Go and do. I'm out. Yup, social experiment for October. Let's see if they like me after a few weeks of this challenge. Oh, and I'm not telling them either. I quit. And it will be really, really hard for me, too. But maybe it's the flip we need. We'll see. I can't be a martyr forever. Or I'll die early like my mother. Let's just pray this doesn't take too long. Here's too me playing what I would call a "sloth" or "teenager" or "sitting on my butt" and it's going to take sheer willpower to do it. But it will be a game and I'll own it. And I'll win. 

Socks has his annual exam on Tuesday so I was feeling around for the growths I know he has so I could show them to the vet. These two growths are not the ones I've found before though. I think these are ones that kind of come and go and mean nothing. He did have a zit or injury of some kind on his snout that I was able to "pop" and get some pus and blood out of it like I would on myself, so I cleaned that up and now the scab has fallen off, so I did the right thing with that one. I've tried to pick open these growths and they don't open up.

He also has a dark spot on his ear that isn't dirt that I will have the vet look at. And I think he has some kind of mass on his rib cage. I don't think it's attached to his rib cage though and he has no other signs of any other issues. But I know what Jared's stance is on medical intervention of any sort on animals (i.e. basically none), so it's definitely got me on high alert and I'm scared. I'm glad I found it now though so I can talk to the vet about it. We will get a full blood panel as well, and talk about his overall health. Poor puppy dog.

Oh, there's just a little elf in the backyard chatting up the neighbor's workmen while they work on the mutual fence line. No big deal or anything. Too cute!

And what, $4,000 later we have a new A/C unit!!! It still doesn't take care of all the leaky windows we have and faulty ductwork or whatever, but, maybe we'll save money on the electric bill next year! Yeah!

See that year there? I put together the older 3 kids' Mystery of History binders in 2012 after we had moved to Canada. I had bought the curriculum on a whim through Christian Book Distributors, the only place I saw curriculum sold besides Abeka books and when I looked up Math U See. I mean I had other curriculum from my childhood, but I didn't know really anything about other companies or where to find anything. I knew nothing about the IAHE either. And now look at us, 9 years later, lol. I'm so glad I have all my homeschool document files like this saved to an SD card so I can easily transfer them from one lap top to another.

And now it's the last child's turn to have his own Mystery of History binder. We put all their geography map work in there, and written answers to research questions, or flat projects, and it's divided up by continent. The middle two's binders are really, really thick after doing it for 9 years, through two whole cycles, I think the 2 inch binders and then some.

I believe this one or something similar was Benaiah's first pocket knife and it hung near the door in the Charlottetown house, up high enough so Justin couldn't reach it, but in reach of Benaiah in case of an emergency. It was in my desk drawer and I used it briefly today. So, I hung it here in the boys' room sort of to remember this from the Charlottetown house as well as to remember that it won't be long before Abishai can use it. He actually could use it soon with care. I'm just afraid it would be left in a bin somewhere and a friend might come over and find it and other moms would not be happy about that. Justin already has regular pocket knives in his drawers. And Abishai hasn't gone through Justin's drawers looking for them. And Abishai doesn't go through Jared's tool benches playing with any of the dangerous tools either, so I think Abishai knows that things like this are dangerous and to be careful. Abishai does handle table and steak knives already. So there it is, ready for my almost 7 yr old whenever he needs it. Yikes!

Pitiful doggy.

Justin needed to do some science labs today, and one was to try and figure out the wavelengths of the microwaves of our actual microwave unit based on the Hz. Well, we couldn't figure out the math for it because of the way it's written here, and we weren't sure when we cooked the eggs like the lab wanted us, too, but we understood the concept of how the waves jump from one egg white to the next. But also notice how old our microwave is. This workhorse is 21 years old. I believe it's actually something like 1500 watts, which was high for those days. I know this because I've always had to cook things for LESS than the packages say. Even now I still have to be careful. I warm up a cup of water in the microwave for exactly 1 minute and it's the perfect temperature to warm up water enough for tea to brew for 2-3 minutes without it being scalding hot and then I can drink it immediately. And we still have lots of items that will "explode" everywhere because they get too hot. They don't make appliances like this guy anymore.

See how the egg whites barely started to cook at 15 seconds in the microwave? That's because the waves jumped from one part to the other. That's the whole point. We just couldn't get the algebra to work out. I then had Justin put the egg yolks in the mircowave for 1 minute and well, they exploded everywhere. Whoops! I still ate them, but I should have said 30 seconds. It's been a long time since I've tried cooking eggs in the microwave. They come out rubbery, but in a hurry, it works.

Abishai is excited to have is very own Mystery of History binder. Although, it took a few tries to get a smile out of him because he had just come off from playing video games with Daddy. It's already learning names of places like a champ! So exciting!

I feel like I haven't talked to anyone today, because, I really haven't. I made it my goal to not nag and well, most of my day is spent nagging and reminding and correcting, so I didn't have much to say. And even lunch conversation was spent listening to Benaiah yap about his budget and then it turned political and I wasn't about to jump into that conversation although I think they were totally wrong. I didn't feel like getting sliced into a million pieces trying to explain myself when I had to leave in 10 minutes to pick up Keturah from worship team rehearsal. I asked Justin why he didn't jump into the conversation and he said something similar. He knew what they were saying was wrong, but he didn't want to be put on the spot either. Well, we will have to work on how to defend ourselves then.

Anyway, Jared took Abishai with him and they attended first service, so I stayed home and enjoyed the quiet again. I just rested my brain mostly. I didn't have to tax it with the over stimulation of sights and sounds of 1,000 people. I noticed that I could just keep the service on a low volume today, too. I didn't want the music up high and induce a headache. I didn't want to huff and puff up the stairs to the balcony. I didn't want to notice people or not or be distracted by them. But then, the audio was crappy on the online service, too. I've always noticed that the sound mix on the online service is extremely poor. It's not professional level at all. And for a church our size with our income, we should have the technology and the staff to figure it out and train the volunteers in the booth. I never understood why we were so behind on all of this. Same with the website. But today, it wasn't just the music, but the feedback on the sermon mics that were off. We had two speakers today and the echoing was really distracting and one mic was way up and the other was way down. I even texted Benaiah because I didn't remember it being that bad last time. They did fix it a little bit. And I guess it does have to do with having two mics so close together. Oh, and Benaiah was told that he's going to be switching from video stuff to audio stuff soon and I think he's going to do a great job at it. Because if the kid who used to spend every dime before he got it can now budget out his whole year's salary on a spreadsheet very carefully and very wisely can learn to do that, he can learn anything about anything. Benaiah is such a sponge. And he's applying his intelligence left and right. He got out from under the government school route and now he can apply what I taught him in the first place, life long learning. 

I tried to shoo everyone outside because it was really nice, but they had none of it. I even tried sitting outside but the bees wanted my sweetened coffee. I opted to lay down on the couch inside with the windows open instead. I didn't tell anyone when to get up or get ready. But I did tell them there was laundry in my room that I had sort this morning. I didn't do Jared's laundry or dishes. He did do his laundry. I haven't looked in the kitchen yet. I've caught up on some of my games. I didn't really read anything. I printed out blank calendars and filled them in through January. The blog is caught up. I'm about to pull out the cd back up for photos. So I feel, well, more at peace actually. And that's the point, right? More in control? By letting go of things they can all be responsible for? I reread some Scriptures this morning just to be sure that the ones I was using in my head to justify my ideas were being used correctly and I was fine. I spent a few minutes outside pulling a few weeds and sweeping the deck. I put some of the stones on top of the dead stuff near the deck so the grass won't grow back making it easier for Keturah for the rest of the year/next year. The new a/c unit only takes up half to 2/3 of the concrete pad that the old one did, so I kind of outlined that a bit, too, to try to keep the weeds at bay. And I noticed that there is definitely some mold stains on the canvas that was under the pool, so I think it should be thrown away, make that into a sandbox by putting maybe another layer of 4x4's or 2x4's on top with a cover, and then buying a real pool for next year. We can then move the trampoline next to the boys' room or some where else and put the real pool there where the trampoline was. Something like that. Who knows. Just dreaming I guess. If we ever have some cash flow. I keep thinking "if I provide it, they will go outside." And so far, only Abishai will do it. Sigh.

Ok wrapping up the night early. Yeah!

The rest of the pics I took were just screenshots you would be interested in. Since the kids and I concluded that you can't got to a meal that Leah prepared and expect it to be non dairy, this seems appropriate that I saw this today. Like seriously, I can't remember, but I bet, when they did even the Daniel fast of fruits and vegetables or whatever, they still had milk and cheese products out for the grandbabies. Let's see. Today we had chili and there was shredded cheese, sour cream, sour cream on celery, Abishai had ice cream, yup, that's it, for today. We could have gotten out sour cream and onion dip for the vegetables. Or ranch but Keturah wasn't there.

The End

Year 6, September 20th-23rd, 2021: Finally, A Normal Week!

 This week looks like it will be a very normal week of many stay at home days, yeah! That means the stay at HOME mom can stay AT HOME and we can HOME school at HOME. Yeah! We can actually work our whole day routine, too. We managed to get history done, went over eveyone's school work from last week and today, figured out what has been read and what hadn't been read (and now it's up to me to write that all down, there's never enough time for me to get everything done), etc. I was able to get to my to do list by 3:30 and make a few phone calls and even blog a little bit. And I managed to get the kids to do their chores, have Grandpa class, and I made some chicken in the Instapot for supper. So, lots and lots done. That's all I ask for. Lots and lots done. Without rushing too fast. Just steady progress. And no vertigo from running in circles.

What I didn't like about today was that we had to open the windows because it was so stuffy and we couldn't run the air conditioning because it's broken. That's right, the last few days of heat and humidity and the a/c went out. And it rained all day. And it will rain all day tomorrow. And the humidity is killing Justin and I. It's making me itchy and feel sweaty and everything feels sticky. I'm not used to it. I did take a shower earlier today so at least I don't have the lotion on that I did yesterday that made me feel greaasy. I was trying that to see if it was just that my skin felt dry. Nope. Everything is making me itchy. I don't know what to do about that. Super sensitivity I guess. Probably diet related and inflammation everywhere and cortisol levels, you name it. Blech. Justin has a headache now, and I'm feeling it, too. Worst possible timing for the a/c to break down, too, because we don't have the funds, although Jared says that the extra house has signs on the property that says "coming soon to market" so who knows. Maybe we'll get that sold by the end of the year. Could mess up some other things financially though. Sigh. Like applying for financial aid all around. Medicaid. You know name it. If you just make a tiny bit over, we are in deep trouble. We really needed to make a ton over, or flip multiple houses in a year to make it worth it. With the constant appointments and such, and the cost of meds now for Justin. Um, yeah, we kind of need to stay where we are at. Sigh. Never mind, I won't go there. I'm too tired for that.

Let's see. What else. I think that's about it. Yup. Tomorrow should be about the same. I'm hoping to get Justin out for a quick trip to the BMV. And I should get Abishai done sooner since I won't have to shower first. We'll see. Nearly there with the blog so let's trot over there and finish. And then tomorrow instead of phone calls in the afternoon, I can hit up a different kind of project.

I'm so glad Keturah got to stay and help pack Baskets for Benjamin with her small group last night. Mrs. Alison and Faith even came to oversee the operation. Keturah said she got to take the wrappers off the baskets and all that so did her favorite thing, destroy something! Lol!

They packed 200 baskets! Wowzers! Way to go girls! And of course they prayed over the baskets, too. The baskets will go to women suffering from pregnancy and infant loss.

At least the a/c waited to go out until the temperatures were finally cooling down for the season.

Abishai decided to draw his own pictures today instead of having me do them. He drew a HUGE boat he said and he didn't draw just one drum, but a whole drum set like big brother Benaiah has. I think he's the only one of the 4 that actually wanted to draw and color these pages.

Uh oh, it's rained so hard and the downspouts now go directly into the bamboo which has no other drainage that it's now flooding. Yikes. I think Jared might need to rethink this design. The whole point of the barrier was to not have the bamboo escape because it can overtake an area. But then we put the down spouts pointed directly into it so it would help water it. Well, this isn't what we had in mind. I'll have to look at it in the morning and hope that the extra water got absorbed by dirt 4 ft down or something.

Boo boo updates. This one felt like it needed to pop again, so I took some photos just in case. It feels iritated and maybe infected? Why does it take so long to heal? Why so flaky, too? Why still so red? Ugh. Not fair! It's been like two months. It's still pretty tender when pushed on. Ugh.

No sheen on this one, but hurts when pushed on. I got tired of putting lotion on it, so I guess I'll try that again. Sigh.

Talking to Grandpa on Zoom for Bible class because it was pouring down rain and we didn't want to drive over to the next street, lol. It worked just fine.

Michael W. Smith and friends along with some of the Friends Online community are in Hawaii right now instead of doing a cruise as their annual event. So I'm trying to follow along as the pictures and videos are being shared on their personal pages. I wanted to know how many hours they are behind me. Quite a few actually.

I'm a tiny bit jealous because I could use a vacation. But, I have been also reminiscing because I have actually been there, 18 years ago. This is us, 18 years ago. Yeah, that's a skinny me. I weighed only 2/3 of what I weigh now. Basically, I was Keturah's size, probably not as wide at the hips. Jared was probably closer to Benaiah's size he is now. And yes, that's 1 yr old baby Benaiah. How that is Benaiah, I don't know. He's so tiny! Newlyweds still as this was right around our 2nd anniversary, and with a 1 yr old on our hip, Hawaii was the last state for the Johnson family to visit of the 50 states. Benaiah and I were there at the perfect timing to polish it off. Shauna was able to see Hawaii when she and Aaron went they went there for their honeymoon in 2005.

Ah, the worship years! Just so happens that Worship and Worship Again and the concert that followed were scrapbooked right before the pages of Hawaii, lol. Ok, then!

Like I said, this was 18 years ago. So much has changed. 'Nuff said. On the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri.

My friends Clarke and Julie just shared their pics of Pearl Harbor from visiting a couple of days ago. Still can't believe it's been this many years. Time has flown! And so much has changed personally. I'm not so innocent and naive anymore. Definitely not the same physically, and that part makes me sad of course. And that 1 yr old? He's the same age now that his dad was when I met him, that's the scary part. But thankfully, he's got this adulting thing down already. And yet, he's still my baby, right? Maybe? Is he really? No, he isn't. He's gone. He doesn't need me. He tells me that often. And that's the hardest part most days. That young one, is all grown up. And he thinks he did the growing up. But we know that we had a hand in it, too. As well as many other people and God, too.

Yesterday, I might have been at the top of my game, but today, I was at the bottom. Funny how that happens, eh? And one comment, that I can filter out most days now, is all it took to take me down. It's SOOOOO frustrating. I couldn't do any school with anyone this morning. I took a phone call at about 11:30am. I didn't even eat lunch. I'm not sure how I drank coffee at 11 and managed not to get shaky during read aloud time. But I recovered enough to make it through that with the other read alouds. Abishai did a few of his workbook pages during read alouds and we ended up doing the rest of his work between 7:30 and 8:30 pm, poor little dude. This was after he woke up at 1:30 AM (!) thinking it was 6 am and time to get up for the day. I was still watching a movie at that time so instead of putting him back to bed, I shut off the computer and had a "sleepover" on the couches in the fireside room. I pretended to be naughty and keep him awake and tried  to make him laugh but he wouldn't have it. He fell asleep quickly. At one point he kicked off his blanket but I was cold, so I didn't get up to put it back on him. He was so good today. I got mad and frustrated because I was trying to sort myself out and he was just basically pacing around like he normally does. But the constant movement is distracting to me. It's kind of hard on an inattentive ADHD person to have a suspected hyperactive ADHD person in the house. Thankfully there were times I could send him outside in between spits of rain. 

Meanwhile, Jared did get on the phone with the pension fund people and sorted out his thing there. He screenshotted the right stuff and sent via email to me and I forwarded to the person for the financial aid application. She then called me to say she received it and that it was exactly what she needed. Yeah! That's a relief! Praise the Lord! Mission accomplished! Can we move on from that now, please? How hard was this? When people just do their jobs, everybody wins! I hate being the middle man in these processes. I'm getting so tired of filling out financial aid applications and it's just adding to my stress lately. I need to do the annual one for the kids' doctor as well. Actually, they have Medicaid, so I'm not sure why they need one because there shouldn't be a co pay, but it does cover my gynecologist and behavioral therapist there, so I'll do it anyway, sigh. Whatever. I'll work on it this weekend or something. I have to order more library books for history first or something. Or finish my movie for last night. Or print maps for the school week. Things like that.

During read alouds, Jared sneaked into the sunroom and left a card for me about our argument this morning. He made the comment mentioned above and I had via text made it into a thing and then blamed myself for making it a thing and then shared what I had written down in my notes about it. Point is, apologies were accepted. And that's the thing. Apologies are necessary. And we both suck at it and haven't taught our kids how to do it. And society as a whole doesn't know the meaning of the word. "I'm sorry. I was wrong." or if you don't agree with someone you can still say, "I'm sorry you feel that way but let me explain my point of view. (remember no sarcasm, only soft spoken voice)" That's all I want to hear. One of those two phrases. And then I can listen better.

A couple of other things we managed to do was I baked cupcakes to go with our history lesson on Irish's war for independence from England and it's civil war. And two loads of laundry with Keturah's sheets and blanket, and our sheets in them. Oh, and the a/c guy ordered our a/c unit. I tried running the a/c to at least get the moisture out of the air, but no such luck. I finally just opened the windows once it cooled off again after dinnertime. We won't even reach a high of 60 degrees tomorrow, so that will help. I might turn on the heat, although Jared will not like that. We'll be gone for a good part of the day, so I'll wait until we get home. 

And now I'm tired. But I finished drinking a second cup of coffee at 8pm. We'll see what time I make it to bed. Not 1:30am. I need to at least try to say words to Jared tonight. He had Rooted babysitting tonight, so we didn't see him at suppertime. That will last until the first week of November. Sigh. It's like a sports season. I can't wait for it to be over. But hopefully they won't meet over fall break which is coming up. That will be nice. Bonus nights at home for us. Yeah!

Yup. Just like I explained up above. And Ruth Beechick's books are a staple in the homeschool community.

I made cupcakes so we could show how Northern Ireland is part of the island of Ireland, but politically belongs to the United Kingdom after the Irish war of independence of England. And then after the Irish Civil War, which was about religion, i.e. Roman Catholics in Ireland vs. Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Red for Great Britain, Green for Ireland.

Ireland's War of Independence and Civil War

This was an actiivity suggested in the companion to our history reader. Just one of many hands on activities in our history book that's for all ages. Second time through all four books. One book typically takes a year. We've taken up to 5 1/2 years to do all four books. We'll start our 3rd go around, mainly with just Abishai and I, in January, starting back at Creation.

Hugs and pat pats for puppy just because. I bet he's glad we are home more this week. I'm sure he missed us a lot last week. Well, he did have Keturah to talk to and watch over while she was sick.

I don't know what's gotten into me but I haven't felt like blogging the last few weeks. It's just like I kind of have to do it, you know? I don't want to take the photos or spend my evenings doing it. I think it's because I always feel behind and I'm not actually enjoying life so I don't have time to take photos of ordinary happenings so I forget even the extra stuff because I'm so worried about the next thing on the schedule and what was to happen yesterday and it just starts all over again. And I'm also very tired and playing catch up with email by the time I sit down at my computer. 

So, I'll have to back up to do this past Wednesday. Because what was going to be a normal week, kind of went topsy turvy.

Abishai and I did get to go to the special ball pit place near where we do ASL lessons and the timing will work out ok IF we get there on time and IF he obeys me and gets out of the playground when I tell him to. But he decided to play hard to get so we were a few minutes late picking up the kids. Whoops. The playground was nice and clean and there was plenty to do for the kids it was for. I'm not sure I could afford the full price for it on a regular basis, but eh, for the groupon, it works out well. I'd do the groupon again in the spring or do some kind of other pass or something just for him. I don't need to be walking around or jumping or whatever. Or we need to meet another person or two there. AND it's right next to the United Art and Education north side location so now I can use my coupons on days we don't go to the ball pit place. Yeah! 

Then we went home for lunch and school of course. I was going to attempt some schoolwork with Abishai, but that didn't happen.  After screen time, we went to Gary and Leah's for dinner super early because Justin had small group and Leah had stamp camp. Gary was going to be away on Sunday again. So it was short and sweet dinner of pot roast and odds and ends. It was also only 60 degrees that day, so after we dropped Justin off at small group we went to Kroger to get a fire log and had our first fire in the fireplace for the season. Abishai and I got in our zip up jammies together and enjoyed that.

Smiley Playground Ball Pit Playlist 

The balls are anywhere from a few thick to two or three feet thick so you really have to wade through them sometimes. They have a special machine that cleans them every day or weekly or something. I watched a special video of it on their website when I was purchasing these passes.

I actually went down the slide a couple of times and it was kind of fast!

This one sucks up the balls and then you push the balls to release them on your head.

For different kinds of hand holds to try on this climbing wall but he only tried two. He scaled them in like two seconds.

Here's the cool rice pit. So the image is projected down from 4 projects up above onto the rice on the floor and it's constantly moving. The video is in the playlist. It was really, really neat. And nice and quiet back here. They do play loud music out in the ball pit area.

Abishai loved the big trucks of course.

See how the project is pointed down at the floor?

I told Abishai to do it just once, but he did it twice. He looks so weird! It's one of those pin cushion things you put your hand through to make shapes. I see his funny glasses though. He did it twice because he really wasn't listening to instructions that well.

"Big" small trampolines that actually kind of floated on the balls. We did play for a brief second in the little kids are and then I showed him the sign that said "only for 4 yrs and he understood.

They had an awesome play ground but it made it tough for Moms who needed to grab their children and make them come out to take them to pick up their siblings so they could go home.

Grandma made special stuff for our quick dinner with them tonight. Not sure why she choose Halloween stuff when we don't celebrate Halloween. Makes no sense but I didn't tell her that. The kids just ate them and we talked about other things.

First fire of the season.

Zip up jammies!

Socks with athletes on them!

Nice and warm.

Nice roaring fire for this very chilly fall evening.

Thursday was a bit of a mismatch of a day as well. We tried to get going as soon as possible, but still fell behind and had to cut lessons short. I made boiled eggs for Abishai for breakfast, so that took a few extra minutes. I had a counseling appointment at 1pm. We did quickly read the last history lesson for the week. And then I took a solid 1 hr nap during screen time. I made a dinner of fish and rice, which Abishai refused to eat. Justin left a message for the It's a Block Party Lego store owner so he'll be waiting for a phone call back from him about getting a job there. I just hope he has his phone set up properly to get messages. Jared told his funnel for his tea to "sit down" as he was working on getting his stuff ready for the next day, which I found hilarious. Like you can tell a kid or a dog to "sit down" but can imagine telling a funnel sitting on top of a former alcohol bottle to "sit down?" Yeah, pretty odd. Then Jared went to Bible study and the kids and I watched a video on Benito Mussolini. Actually, I wrote emails and the kids watched. I still a lot of other emails to take care of when I got on the computer last night, so I was unable to finish the blog entries from the last two days. So, I'm pretty exhausted and I'm not satisfied in my involvement in the kids' schooling, so I need to take a look at my personal schedule and boundaries and remind myself of those boundaries and help them firm. I.e. I'm a full time teacher. Nothing but field trips and school between 9am and 3 pm like no errands like oil changes and even doctor's visits. 

Jared bought me this album on our second in person date in January 2019, the cd as well as the audio tape version so we could listen to it in my Dad's car. He didn't have a cd player in the car. Come to find out, Jared only liked a few songs on it. I loved the whole album and listened to it over and over, in part, thinking he liked the whole thing, too. All of the Christian bands I listened to in the 1990's had very, very unique sounds and vocalists. You could easily tell them apart and they would do their concerts differently. Except for a select few, I have no clue who is who because all the vocalists seem to have the same style and vocal range. And the chord progressions and lyrics are all so similar. There's no unique songwriting. Anyway, 23 yrs ago makes me feel old.

Hilarious

True and not funny one bit.

Very cold morning but it warmed up quite and a bit!

Abishai set up the life cycles of insects kits we have to look like maybe where each part would live. He just used all the things that were left out on the table like the water botttles. He's not entirely wrong. When you leave too many things out, creepy crawlers get to them.

That's pretty funny considering I just got a speeding ticket. This one was on a different local one, but the time before that WAS on 465, lol! And yes, I've been known to drastically slow down when I see a cop.

Isn't this awesome?! Do you every use the library's resources?

This is exactly what happened to the pilgrims in their first year here in Colonial America in Plymouth and in Virginia and has happened again. Scary, eh? You have to work, period. Everybody has to. Team work makes the dream work. Or take it from the Bible, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, "Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: 'Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.' "  However, 20% of the people doing 80% of the work is not fair either. And in our family, I'm the 20% doing 80% of the work, and I have only about 20% of my own health, mental and physical sometimes. And unfortunately, there is no "dream" anymore. No one here dreams of anything. They just want to live the blah life and survive. So, that's what we do. We just try to survive the day with no long term goals in mind. And I think a lot of folks have been conditioned to do the same. And that is why our nation is in the predicament that it is in. We've gone backwards 400 years because they don't even truthfully teach what happened 400 years ago, so history is repeating itself. Well, not in my homeschool. We teach the truth. My children have to receive and retain that knowledge, but I have taught it and reminded them of these principles often. That's all I can do. And pray. And pray some more. And set the example. And pray some more. And keep working hard. And try not to complain. Even when I'm exhausted. "Do not grow weary in doing good" is one of the hardest commands in the Bible, I think, but it is in there. Just do it.

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