Ever since I got Covid and hadn't blogged daily for like two weeks, I haven't felt like doing it. I guess every entry had started sounding the same. We do school. Kids fought. They had screen time. I'm tired. I stayed up too late. We had evening stuff. We did or didn't use our weekend well. Sunday was busy. And repeat. And that really hasn't changed. Kids keep maturing in some ways. But in some ways, being teenagers, they are still so immature and I'm just wishing this part of life to be over. But then their homeschooling days are over. So then I feel guilty. And redouble my efforts, or try to, the next day, telling myself I'll go to bed earlier, and then don't. I did go to bed a little earlier on some nights, like right at midnight. But then compensated other nights and it's very embarrassing and I won't tell anybody what the clock read the other nights.
One way that Abishai is maturing is that he wants more chores. He is unloading the dishwasher and setting the table including the whole place setting. Keturah cleaned out her own clothes when I went through Abishai's winter clothes and moved him up a pants and shoes size. Justin, well, he's making it through Chemistry and Algebra 1, still.
We also had daylight savings time this weekend, so the clocks turned back an hour, but Abishai and Socks still got up at their usual times. So I got a knock on the head at 6 am (the old 7am) and Abishai had already turned on all the lights. I actually hadn't turned back the clocks the night before like I usually do but I had stayed up late enough that my phone and computer changed and I had to double check with the kitchen clock to confirm which time it was. Whoops.
Let's see, Keturah, Justin, and I finally had our teeth cleaning appointments this week. Keturah still needs to get up and under the gums more. But, she came and made a plan for it and executed that plan. Justin's wisdom teeth haven't crowned just yet but we'll have x-rays done next time and plan for their extraction before he runs out of medicaid. I guess we still have 2 1/2 yrs before that happens. My teeth were cleaner, too, as I had been working a bit more diligently on them and my mouth didn't hurt as much because it didn't take as long. We got to meet Dr. Harty's replacement, Dr. Daly, and he's alright I guess. He's obviously younger than Jared and I, no kids yet, but a wife and dogs, and travels for pleasure. Got it. It won't be the same. But we'll get over it I'm sure. Life moves on and things constantly changes.
And I think we are headed into some somewhat big changes and shifts in the coming year. I'm not prepared for them mentally or emotionally at all. But now that I'm aware of them, maybe I can get that way. I'm just not ready because I'm not quite comfortable in the routine of this year because there really hasn't been any routine. So maybe we've been in transition and the dust will resettle in the next year or two again. Just have to hang on and get through it. I can't control one bit of it anyway. I'm in the eye of the storm and the storm is all around me. I've got no where to go and it's all of it's happening to me or just right outside my reach and I'm left behind because I'm sick or I'm tired or mentally ill prepared. And that's all I'll say about that.
It's already November. Thanksgiving. Birthdays. Not feeling the thankful spirit. Not wanting to think about my mom's birthday again. She would have been 72 on November 23rd. Not really wanting to travel for Thanksgiving. And then I have to prepare for Christmas. Jared and I did spend some time this week going over the Christmas gift list together, which was a first. He's bought too much of one thing and everybody has asked for all the things I didn't want them to ask for that I can't deal with anymore, aka, things that clutter my house, leaving no more for the one huge gift I really wanted us to have, a pool. Thanks guys. I didn't need more stuff from Grandma and Grandpa. I'm obviously feeling a little bah humbug about it all. But I guess it's a good thing that they all have thought about it. I don't have a list. I want a pool. So my kids will go outside in the summer. And leave me alone for a couple of hours. And practice their swimming. So, whatever isn't spent on gifts can go towards the pool fund. That's what I'm telling everyone from now on. An above ground one. I've already looked. Or maybe I just need to go for a year round hot tub. Yeah, maybe that. Hm,....
Or pay for someone to come take care of the mouse in the house because boy that critter is elusive and creating quite the mess lately. I've seen it a couple of more times and it keeps getting into Abishai's snack drawers. I hear it crunching on dog food, too. We've got lots of traps set out. Sigh. It's just a tricky little guy or gal that is going to have babies if we aren't careful. Jared did find a dead one under the fridge though. Just another example of how I suck at cleaning. It's just so much work for me. I know what needs to be done. I just can't do it. I care a lot about it. I see it where others don't see it. I could make the list. I just can't physically do it. It took me 5 hrs to do Abishai's winter clothes, not even the summer clothes. It used to take me 1 hr to do it. I'm just not the physically fit person I was 10 and 20 yrs ago. Although I've kept the 10 lbs off since I lost that with Covid. So I know I can starve myself for 10 days and loose it. But I hate that.
Ok, enough about me. See, not enough to say. I'm sure Abishai's said cute things, but if you don't catch them every day, they get forgotten. So I'll try to write them down every day, even if I don't take photos or do a full entry. I'll write notes or something. Jared and I have watched a couple more Mandalorian episodes, but we haven't hit our grove yet post Covid. Rooted just ended so he's done babysitting for that. That will free up another evening of the week. Then we can work on when to get grocercies more consistently and meal plan better, etc. But then we'll get all out of routine again for the holidays of course. I'm ready for the new year. New start. 2022, here we come. Maybe. Maybe not.
Well, here's to a new week with the blog completely caught up! It only took the full 3 weeks to catch it up! But I didn't rush it. Little bit by little bit. Family first.
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Abishai loves his new chores. He insists on putting out a full place setting for everyone. He gets upset if someone else does it! And he also now does the dishwasher. I think he overheard me telling the older ones that Justin will be hopefully getting a job soon so all his chores will be passed down to Keturah and him and then soon enough Mom and Dad will have to pick up on the chores again. Abishai just likes to be busy and helpful. It's too cute.
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Every day Abishai wakes up at 7am, turns on all the lights in the house, and then sets up something. Sometimes it's a fort like this. Sometimes it's a bunch of Legos on the table. He's just keeping himself busy until the rest of us are awake. Sometimes he takes a picture of me because he thinks I need photos of myself sleeping or maybe he wants to remember me and how I look when I sleep. He likes to pat pat my head, too, every once in awhile until I fully wake up. It's a good thing, too, because my phone alarm is never loud enough. I need to go back to using a real alarm clock.
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Abishai decided to try racing Smarties candy down his racetrack. And you know what? It actually worked! Cool!
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Meanwhile, Justin did his adhd trick of leaving his entire set of breakfast dishes out on the table for several hours.
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Gorgeous foliage this year. One advantage of having to be out and about traveling is seeing it this year. I will probably not organize a hike, but that's ok. We went on a big trip last year and I'm just not feeling it this year. This is in the parking lot of the building where we meet for ASL on Wednesdays.
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So each section represents how much of our population would match up with Canada's population. So, because there's a high concentration of people in Los Angelos in a smaller area, say if Canada's population is 6 million, than it's 6 million would fit that part red part in the LA area of the USA. Obviously we aren't densely populated out west but we are on the east coast. And we outnumbered Canadians 10 to 1.
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Abishai has been desperate all week to get Socks to hang out with him. But now there's no room to do school! Socks looks confused. Poor guy! At least he's very loved and very spoiled and has always had his people around him for most of the day. Most dogs don't have that privilege. This week also, Socks and the squirrel had a grand time chasing each other. The squirrel came down out of the small tree just as I let Socks out. It ran over to the big tree, but then decided to keep going, and Socks nearly caught it! I guess his medications are working and keeping him just active enough for a senior dog. He's still a perfectly healthy dog. I'm going to ask the vet this week when we go in for a follow up appointment how much MRI's or x-rays or whatever cost to see just how much inflammation he has right now and maybe we can get a better estimate on how much time we have left with him. It's probably way too expensive for us but it doesn't hurt to ask. He's just so healthy that I don't see him dying any time soon.
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Lots and lots and lots of cuddles from everyone every day. Such a loved on dog.
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And brrrr. This is why park days are coming to an end. It's getting cold! Abishai saw frost on the ground and called it snow! Now he thinks he needs to wear winter boots everywhere he goes. Goof!
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When Kids Become Ridiculous
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Abishai always has to surround himself with friends wherever he goes.
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He loves the coloring pages in the Abeka workbooks. He doesn't fill them in perfectly, but he doesn't ask to skip them like the other kids did. He made a few mistakes but we figured them out. I usually just had the others read the words or whatever. But Abishai is that creative type so who knows.
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Ah, the park day regulars all together. Well, Brenda and Caiden weren't there. They had something else to do and it was too cold for them anyway. But look closely. What ages do you see? And are they all of one gender? Mixed aged group and both genders, right? Yuppers! And absolutely no fighting, no swearing, no tears, no bullying, nothing. We've got girls ages 8-13 and boys ages 6 1/2 to 16 playing together. There's no teasing. There's no pairing off. There's no running off either. What an amazing group of young ones. No one is on their phone either. Contrast and compare them to their public school peers. Constantly separated out by this or that. Some have tried drugs, alcohol, intimacy, depression, all from peer pressure, bullying, anxiety, etc. And now they have to social distance, wear masks, are being pushed to get the vaccine behind their parents' backs, etc. Not these guys. These guys are wild and free. Their mothers are yes, right there at the picnic table next to me. But we can't hear their conversations. Sometimes we loose track of them for a few minutes. We talk about all kinds of things. We laugh about how our kids have worn out pjs because that's all they wear and we can never find a pair of shoes or jeans because they never wear them. And none of them care what they wear. Not a single one. Well, they want pjs, not fancy clothes, slippers, not Nikes. But try to tell me again how homeschoolers are unsocialized. Tell me again how backwards they are. They get to run barefoot and free and be true to who they are. They are happy and not confined. They get along with others and respect adults, their parents and others. It's a different community, in what seems to be a different universe. And it seems that way in the adult friendships as well.
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Meanwhile, back at home, sissy and doggy are snuggling.
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Well, at least I got the floor cleaned up in the boys' room. If only it would stay this way. I did check in with Justin on how many pairs of pants he has and he said he has more track pants but I can't find them. But then again, he can't find his own nose sometimes, so who knows. We probably should take a trip to Goodwill soon.
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Abishai has now taken apart the ice cream truck twice because he was bored and just yesterday he started separating the bricks by color. Hm, I think he's going to be the Master Builder some day. Sorry Justin. Now, if we could just get Daddy to stop buying Legos for a little bit.
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Handsome dude wearing Gramma Howell's hand knit sweater given to Benaiah and shoes that were Auggie's that Stefanie just recently sent us. He was pretty proud of his new shoes. But now he has to learn to tie them.
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Gpa claims this is the first Lego set he's ever built. He had to call in the experts and even then it took 8 months because he was often not at home for Sunday dinner. But now it can go to the office and sit and look pretty like all of Jared's collection. Yeah!
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| Jared was able to get the first coat of chalkboard paint on the wall today, yeah! He'll use up the rest of the can he got and it covers what it covers. Again, I didn't ask for this, but it was his idea to make this space good for school or just for fun, so we are running with it. It's going to look great when it's done. And just like Gpa's jeep, it's a project that has been going on for a couple of months, at least in the active stage. I don't like living in a construction zone and it was starting to bug me. But I'll try to be patient because he is just trying to be helpful. Thank you, honey! |
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The End
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