Year 6, October 8th-10th, 2021: Fall Weekend

 I stayed up super, duper late, and I'm going to suffer the consequences all weekend long. It's because in order not to think about something, I have to distract myself with mundane or unimportant other things. So I get "lost" on social media, YouTube, wherever. You would think I would just go to bed and get "lost" in my dreams, but then it becomes morning and the thoughts are still there. It's a vicious cycle. So, it's a coping mechancism. Sometimes I can win. But a lot of times, like last night, I just lose. And then I weep because I lose big time and I get caught. Jared woke up and found me still at my computer lost watching dumb videos. How did I become this person? I don't know. It all started with Farmville. And now, it's an addiction to the quiet and the dark. And then I can't function and I can make excuses that I'm tired and depressed. And I do nothing. Vicious cycle. So I need accountability, too. But I'm still awake right now. I can still type quickly while Jared takes Kya home. Kya came home with us after park day again. Thankfully park day was at Southeastway so I didn't have to drive far. I think I would have fallen asleep at the wheel if were in Greenfield.

Anyway, Abishai claims he was in my bed at 7am. I know he was in there with his smelly Goldfish breathe talking up a storm. I know I snoozed at some points and we didn't get up until 9am when Jared came back to get a different shirt. I heard Abishai whispered into my ear, too.  I wasn't sure I was going to even make it out of bed. But, with Jared's encouragement, we were able to get up and do the next right thing. Breakfast and school. The others were late getting started so they barely finished before park day started, so I didn't get to check homework, again. So that will be first thing on the agenda in the morning. As well doing another round of homework with Abishai. Justin has to mow both lawns. Jared will work on the chalkboard wall. I was trying to push for the BMV, but who knows. 

Park day was ok. There was new people another mom had invited but then something came up for her, so I improvised and I stepped in. It went ok. I don't think I could have done anything differently. It still makes me sad that someone left unhappy. But you win some and you loose some. Time for bed soon. But Jared said we could watch Mandolorian together. So I have to go do that.

Warmer temps equals fall irises in bloom!

Abishai is the commander of the 8-10 yr old boys!

The tweens and teens crowd at park day today.

Wowzers! Fully open!

I spent a few minutes cleaning up the flower garden since it was finally dry enough. I also had to clean the dining room table thoroughly because Abishai spilled his milk. I got in the crevices of the table top and found some nasty stuff! I will tackle the legs and the kitchen floor when I know Jared is done with other parts of the project.

I woke up to a bad case of vertigo so I popped a regular dose of dramimine and tried to stay upright and busy. I had gone to bed at midnight because I was tired the night before, so I knew I had some energy, or should have had. But it was still a harder day than I wanted it to be. The kids had some chores to do and I could have done more school with them, but it didn't quite work out that way. Abishai went to the working store with Daddy to get more supplies for the chalkboard wall. Jared only got more mudding and sanding done (the mud took longer to dry than he had anticipated and we all woke up later than expected and let's face it, projects just take longer anyway for him to finish, sigh.) Justin was late getting up and got only 3/4 of the mowing done, did his shower and screen time and then was invited to go downtown with Kelly and Kya to "Riley days" which is NOT the festival downtown having to do with Riley Children's Hopsital that I thought it was.  Instead, it's a festival in Greenfield because James Whitcomb Riley's birthplace is over in Greenfield. Duh!  He'll have to do our backyard tomorrow, as well go over homework with me. Keturah did all of her yardwork and we went over her schoolwork, protesting about it all the way. All three kids got their bath/showers in. I tried to rest when I needed it, which made me slower on screentime. But I did go through the papers on my desk. The piles don't look much smaller, but at least I went through them making sure I didn't miss anything. Dinner was leftovers. The weather was clear, but warm. Gary and Leah are gone this weekend, so I tried to get a hold of Benaiah but he's already "booked" doing "stuff." The kids don't have as much activity tomorrow because it's fall break, so we'll be home and maybe Jared and I will go see the Jesus music movie if I can convince him. We'll see. Hopefully the vertigo won't last. I had no inkling it was coming this time. Bummers. Nothing else to report. It's just warm in the house and my eyes hurt from trying to focus all day. Just keeping up with the normal stuff. That's all.

"Mudding" the wall. The drywall "mud" goes on pink so you can see it and then dries white so you know when it's ready to sand and paint it. There's a lot to be done. The bathroom needs more, too.

P.S. Oh wow, I had NO CLUE who James Whitcomb Wiley was until I looked him up! I thought he was a famous doctor or philanthropist since his name was affiliated with the hospital. Nope. He was a famous Indiana poet! He wrote a famous poem called "Little Orphant Annie" which inspired the "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip and broadway musical and movie and "The Raggedy Man" which inspired "Raggedy Anne and Andy" dolls and stories. Just as famous as Mark Twain and praised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, too. Wowsers! The historical site in Greenfield is his childhood home and there's another historical site in Indianapolis where he had his adult residence. The home in Greenfield stayed in the family and then was made into the museum it is today. He also lied in state at the Indiana State House, the only other person before that was Abraham Lincoln, and he is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery where Keturah and Justin will be going on a field trip soon. Interesting! You just never know what you are going to learn until you look things up! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Whitcomb_Riley

Sunday. I'm sick. Like head cold sick. And I'm not happy about it. I still have a migraine. But my vertigo is better. I have a sore throat, chills but sometimes feverish, aches and pains more than normal, and it all makes me more nervous about the PCR test I scheduled for Thursday morning. Because what if it's actually Covid and I can't go? I'm going to be so mad. The Lafayette concert still has 3rd row seats available for $100 and no vaccine passport or pcr test and it's Friday night and I would see the Indiana fan club. It's all madness. Someone with a Covid vaccine could have the same exact symptoms as me, feel fine by Saturday, chalk it up to a head cold, not knowing it is in fact Covid, but never get tested, and go to the concert, and spread Covid. Stupid. So stupid. Either test everyone or test no one. Either test everyone for flu or test no one. Make the Covid vaccine like the flu vaccine or any other vaccine. Not mandatory. Ahem. Yes. There are children that are no adults that never went to public school or had medical exemptions that do exist in our society and have never had to prove to their employer or to a venue that they have had their MMR's or polio's or Tetanus' or whatever else. So why now? Why this? Give me a freakin' break. Requiring this one vaccine has upended everything. And it's not as deadly as everyone thinks it is. It really isn't. What's deadly is the profound impact on the economy, including the impact on hospitals and doctors' ability to treat other diseases because of nurses and doctors walking off the job because of mandates. Ridiculous. Barring us from living normal lives because we make a medical decision is just dumb. It is not making us safer. It is causing way more anxiety and headaches. And the ripple effects of that is astronomical. Just think of the increase in homeschooling. And the fear mongering. And just how it even affected a scenario at our homeschool group on Friday that I'm still trying to sort out tonight. Ugh. Make it all go away! 

But, yes, I woke up feeling gross again today, but, I only woke up because Justin was making noise in the kitchen. It was already 9:30! Jared and Abishai had left, and Justin was supposed to have gone WITH THEM! So I thought it was Keturah and called out to "her." When I heard Justin's voice, I was not happy. The story went something like Jared didn't hear his alarm until 8:20 and was supposed to be at church by 8:30 so he could be at the meeting before he did nursery at 9. Justin was going to sit by himself at the 9am service, and Abishai would be in Sunday school. Keturah didn't have Middle School worship today so I was going to take her for the 11am. I thought I had plenty of time to get up. I did hear Abishai try to wake him up, but I fell back asleep and dreamed alot. I didn't hear my alarms either. Anyway, Justin had been up for awhile and watched the sermon online in his room, not bothering to see if anybody else was awake. Justin is supposed to be at church at 10:30 for his meeting before volunteering. Plus, he had a meeting at 10:15 for his high school fall retreat, so he really was supposed to be there at 9. Well, I didn't want to leave the house with a sore throat and face the bright sun with a migraine and by the time I figured all of this out, it was 9:50. I can't shove food down my throat and ready to face people in 30 minutes. It just does NOT happen. So eventually an unhappy Jared is summoned home to get Keturah and Justin after he grabs the paper for the retreat. Sigh. And then I read the paper and we have to pick up Justin from retreat at preciously 11am next week. Which means, I'll be driving down to get him which means I'll miss church again. Sigh. Really? I can't win.

But there was no way I was going to be in church with the loud music when I had a migraine and already took two migraine pills the day before, plus the chills and scratchy throat thing. I did listen to service on very low volume on the tablet. And I got leftovers for lunch pulled out. I also took a nap this afternoon and I went for hot to cold several times. It was over 80 degree outside this afternoon and we had to put the a/c on once again despite a $300 bill from mid August to mid September. That's the highest it's every been! When I finally roused from my couch, I had to use my scratchy throat to rouse everybody else because they were beyond their screen times. They had gone on at 2, so they were supposed to be off at 4, but no one realized that but me. And then I had them do chores, eat a snack, and shooed the lot of them outside. Justin had to finish mowing before the sun went down, which he barely did, and I was determined that we were going to enjoy the cooler fall evenings. The breeze was brisk so it kept the bugs away. I got my magazines away and set my phone down. I stayed in the shade and despite still feeling yucky, I set the example. I had to shoo Keturah back outside twice. Eventually Jared came around the front and raised Abishai's training wheels after I tried to find the right wrench to do it. They did bounce on the trampoline for awhile first. 

I still feel pretty yucky. It's a good thing we don't have much going on this week. Keturah is doing the serve week with the middle school, so Jared will take her in the morning with him Tuesday-Thursday. I don't think I have anything until ASL on Wednesday, so I have a couple of more days to recover from this initial crud. I won't be doing regular history lessons because Keturah is busy. Justin will do his independent work and I will work with Abishai. I have online counseling, online IAHE mtg, and then the PCR test on Thursday. Regular park day/karate on Friday. Concert on Saturday evening. Pretty low key for us. I just feel so achy. And it sucks. And Jared's hip is flaring again, so he's taking medication that makes him sleepy and he's worried about all of that of course. Sigh. And when he's hurting, projects don't get advanced, so we'll see if the chalkboard wall gets some paint on this week after he spent a good amount on supplies this past weekend. I've got a lot on my mind and having a migraine and vertigo and extra pain is not helping. Mama doesn't have time to be sick. So stop talking back so I don't have to use my voice and make it worse. I don't know if it's better to sit, stand, or lay down. Everything hurts. I hope it's over quickly. I don't have time for this. My anxiety can't take this.

Did you know that a baby platypus is called a puggle? So cute! I have always thought that platypus were the most interesting creatures because of their duck bills and that they are mammals but lay eggs. Adorable! I found  this on FB.

Apparently the child got a hold of my phone while I was sleeping.

Abishai selfie again. Abishai!

Oh, hi Dad!

Benaiah and Justin apple pickers way back in the day.

I need to remember this when Benaiah and now Justin are too busy to remember I exist.

Air Traffic controller strikes because they don't want to take the Covid-19 vaccination. Same with stewardesses, nurses, doctors, and many, many, many other employees. That's why we have an employee shortage. Take off any mandates and we can return to normal sooner.

Abishai was very upset that Socks wanted to snuggle with Justin on his bed and not out in the hallway with him. So he made a little bed area and waited with me playing on my phone. So as soon as he heard the jingle of Socks' collar, he leapt up, gave me my phone back, and got ready to snuggle Socks, at least for a few minutes anyway.

I tried to convince him that Socks doesn't hang out with him because he doesn't stay long enough for a snuggle!

81 degrees on October 10th. It doesn't feel right.

My fall irisies in full bloom. I need to get these trimmed and transferred as soon as they are done before the major frosts settle in.

I read two magazines from my "to be read" pile today. One being this quarter's IAHE magazine. Yup, I'm a bit behind. But I found a bunch of articles that are direct answers to people's questions on the FB groups lately. If only they all had paying memberships and had the answers in the print membership at their fingertips! It's not that expensive, $40, for a print magazine, loads of free stuff and discounts that are actually usable, access to MP3 recordings of past conventions, and so much more. So worth it.

Loads of great articles in this one!

Tomorrow has to be better, right?

The End