Year 6, December 12th-19th, 2021: I Raise the White Flag! Calling a Christmas Truce!

The Outline of Our Week 

Monday

- worst Monday of the whole year

- note to self, don't take kids out on Sunday afternoons 

- last week of school for first semester

Tuesday

- Kelly and Kya Day #1 for the week, this time with Alexander 

- left Justin at Kya's house, went to Mom's Night out at Kopper Kettle; Angi not there

Wednesday

- Justin's small group had Christmas party

 - Chiropractor rescheduled until January

Thursday

- late start to the day and everyone wanted to talk about Christmas plans!

- Kelly and Kya Day #2 for the week, this time with James 

- ovarian cyst ultrasound rescheduled, so annual gyno rescheduled rescheduled until January

Friday 

- no gym day

- finished off first semester of our 15th year of homeschooling; took until 5pm

- migraine took 2 pills to break

- On Christmas break now! 

Saturday

- Grandma Cook not doing well, put on hospice

- Leah went to visit her until Monday

- I worked on odds and ends like Christmas cards, clearing my desk, some cleaning

- Keturah cleaned at Renea's

- Justin cleared off some stuff from his shelving unit

- Abishai played with Daddy all day and never got tired, lots of soccer, wrapped gifts for e2 ladies

- weather is getting colder

Sunday

- Christmas Sunday so we sat together 

- Forgot Benaiah was playing! Took photos and vids during 2nd hr from balcony

- Benaiah saw us, walked 2/3 up the aisle, nodded, and turned back without hugging me

- saw him in Aldi's later and got my hug, yeah!

- Grandpa on Sunday dinner duty, made chili and grilled cheese

- glorious 2 hr Sunday afternoon nap for me; 1 hr nap for Jared; screentime for kids

- last Crave/small group for big kids

- made last moderate grocery trip before Christmas; out of egg nog! 

Yes, I'm calling a Christmas Truce! Just like in the book I finished with Abishai on Friday about the Christmas Truce in 1914 during World War 1, I'm tired of fighting. I'm not done fighting, but for the next few weeks, I'm not going to discuss anything controversial. Well, I'm going to try not to. Except I did get upset on Thursday and said some mean things to Benaiah and now I have to go reread some texts and make amends. Ahem. Besides that one. We are on Christmas break  now and ready to break out the Christmas wrapping. I spent Saturday organizing the gifts to make sure I had everything so I can pick up anything last minute at the beginning of the week. And then the kids can help me little by little. Christmas Eve is going to have some fun surprises, so I don't want to do anything then. I've left all the baking as well to next week. I only have the one type of cookie to make but still, we have Kelly and Kya time to have and an appointment to get to and now a staff party to make, so, this will be our Christmas week of fun I hope. If they rest of them can quit fighting. Maybe I should put on holiday movies or something and just let it run and they can come and go. But I always get yelled at for just letting some music play. We never let the TV or radio just randomly play in our house so it's strange for them. Maybe a fireplace scene. Or they can all act bored. We'll see. It's finally to get into the Christmas Spirit!

Our good friend Mike Killebrew joined the e2 team this week. It sounds like he's going to be doing some of what Gary is doing, but I don't have the full scoop yet. We've personally known Mike from Jared's days at college I believe. He and his wife lived in Beech Grove just a few blocks away when we did, and they had kids about the same time, one of whom is in Keturah's small group. They also homeschool. He used to work at Indian Creek in the high school I believe. Anyway, he's an elder at Indian Creek now. They've never left the church are the area and are just the most faithful, quiet, sweet people you'll meet. It's great when I already know the new people. It cuts way down on my social anxiety. One of their kids is even named Norah!

Yup. I had moms on PEI that fit those categories and now I have moms here that fit those categories. Love it!

Here are some of them! But our dear friend Angi couldn't come because she was overwhelmed with packing for her move on Friday. We all would have come out anyway. We come to this family style fancier restaurant in December called the Kopper Kettle for our special Christmas dinner. It's named that because the Kettle family owned this large house and inn in Morristown, IN. I think they might have expanded the original house to include some of the porches for seating areas, but it's quite cozy and they dress it up so pretty at Christmastime. And we all dress up a little more for this special Mom's Night out. I drove out to Kelly's house with Justin mid afternoon and spent time with her, left Justin with her husband, Tom, and Kya, and then we drove the 10 minutes to the restaurant. Then we did the reverse on the way home. It worked out well and we had a great time!

Exactly! And thankfully, the osteopath that I started seeing this year did ask those questions in the beginning at least and I think she's done that a couple of other times and my previous pcp did that as well.

I saw this and liked it so I made a screenshot out of it. Enjoy.

So that's why the vacuum hasn't been picking up stuff in the last month. Good grief. Cheap design. We've had this one for 3 years perhaps?

Cheap duct tape to the rescue. Thank goodness Benaiah gave us all his leftover duct tape when he was done making duct tape wallets.

Another day, another place to do homework. But I've made him do his homework more at the dining room table and it's helping. The flopping around has been driving me crazy. Especially in the fireside room. So when we got rid of the Legos in there, I was determined to get him to sit down properly. On Friday, while he was waiting for me to work with Justin, and we hadn't gotten to his work paperwork yet, he sat down with his little desk and did most of it on his own. So I know he can do it. I'll have to remember to remind him of that in January. He can get started with it when I'm finishing up with breakfast. And then I can do his read alouds. We finished the book about the WWI Christmas Day Truce and we are working through the book on Kings and Queens.

Jared tried to make a dent in my outer emotional wall with a poinsetta plant. Well, I didn't have the heart to tell him that it's not a great idea to have one in the house with kids and a dog, as it's poisonous to the dog if he gets into it and eats it. Thankfully, he has never gotten into a plant. I didn't put it in the front window because I won't see it there, so I put in the fireplace mantle. He doesn't usually get close to there so he won't knock it with his tall. But then Jared keeps moving it to the coffee table when he makes a fire, exactly where Socks or Abishai will hit it, so I can't win. Oh well. Thankfully, again, Socks wouldn't chew on it, and Abishai is big enough to keep away. Whoops!

"Sissy, let me in! Save me for the crazy one out here!"

The Canadian born is out there in only his thin pj's (see the shorts, too), no socks, rainboots, no hat or coat, in 40 degrees, stacking wood like the good Canuck he is. It's all that Swedish and Finnish blood running hot in his veins. And high metabolism.

Well, that's an interesting use of a clothing organizer. Instead of hanging it up in closet, lay it on it's side and sort out Legos by color. Well done, Keturah!

Found this on Shan Caldwell's Facebook page. Well played.

Oh, hi, pup. Nice to see you joined us during naptime.

Abishai insists on doing the drawings for his language arts pages. No one else wanted to. I think we have another artist on our hands.

Not sure Gary Chapman (who wrote the 5 Love Lanugages book) would approve, but I think it's hilarious).

This is quite interesting since we JUST studied the beginning of that war in history this past week. I thought it was already over? Or was that Vietnam? Or is that war still going on, too? Or are we still helping with both wars? Do we really know?

Yup.

Well, you know you have a real friend when you say, "These pillows remind me that that's the only thing I don't switch out at Christmas (and I said that because I had just written in the blog about how I switched out that shelf of books) are the pillows," and she picks them up, tosses them to you, and says, "Here, I was going to retire them this season anyway." Good grief, I didn't mean these exact ones. But we had looked at some together when we were out with the kids a couple of weeks ago. They do look great on the green couch, don't they! But that's Kelly for you. She likes to rehome things and then she'll find things for her home for free or cheap or not so cheap. She shares and brings home. And that's what friends do. And I love it!

Perfect!

Totally guilty! Not this year. We are done and we are going 100% into Christmas festivities. That's why I didn't worry about it until now.

Bwahahaha!!! Homeschoolers just think differently.

Abishai is just thoroughly enjoying all the new and different pieces! He's got lots of new fort builds to make! And he's such a genius with them!

Don't leave your phone laying around when you're napping. You never know what photos and selfies will end up on it.

I see an Abishai toe.

A selfie. With his patch.

More toes from his perspective.

Let's just take a moment and recognize that "about 15% of American adults remain unvaccinated" and "large number of unvaccinated adults" do not belong in the same article together. Either people do not know how to write, or, they are trying to crank out articles so fast, they don't have time to properly edit. I suggest both. It drives me nuts. I'm not an English major. I'm sure these posts always have grammatical errors. I don't have time to edit. But I expect news sources to edit their material and writers that earn a living to edit their material. So either they purposefully wrote it this way or one of the "facts" is wrong. Drives me nuts that I can spot these things so easily now.

The kids get their drawing talent from their father, not from me. I now it's still simple drawings, but I don't take the time to draw even these things well. Can you guess what this is from? The Ice Age movies, Christmas animated short. Jared LOVES that one!

He drew this, too, and wants to add to it every day.

I'm not always grim. This is pretty cool! We touched the sun this week! The corona! And we didn't die! I'm sure the probe did but AFTER the information was sent back.  Bwahahaha.

Laura from Heavenly Homemakers bringing the best as always. GREAT ideas for Christmas! I'm going to save this for NEXT year, since I've already bought for this year. And I can always combine the ideas into the same gift.

Yup. That's me. And you.

Oh boy, I wonder who put the men up to this one. The Johnson men don't own ugly Christmas sweaters. Gary does own that hat though. And that smirk, well, that's all Gary. SMH

Are you ready?!

He wanted to play doggy today, so he's begging for attention. And he's the yippy kind of puppy. It doesn't go well with my migraine. Anybody want to adopt this sad eyed long faced puppy?

Another one of Abishai's new bases using the same pieces as before. Create, play a scenario, and then destroy. Repeat.

I walk into the fireside room, and this is what I find. Abishai is on the other couch cackling like a maniac. Abishai, did you do this? Yup, he did. Then the dog proceeds to fall asleep to me reading aloud. It's a good thing I love my old dog.

Creepy. Just creepy.

This explains the messy kitchen and then the empty pan coming home.

Keturah's solution Friday morning when Abishai wouldn't stop playing with the ball in the house. It's actually a great hiding spot for a lot of things because he can't even get a stool close enough. I'll have to remember that for next time I need to hide something.

Meanwhile, Keturah needs to learn how to make hot chocolate in the microwave. Aka, don't put the chocolate powder in the mug. Only the water or milk. The powder goes in a different mug or only after you've warmed up the water/milk. Plus, our 20 yr old microwave has always been overpowering so you NEVER put anything on the even the minimum time frame on the package. You always go UNDER that time. One minute max for water or water or coffee or tea. MAX. She cleaned up the microwave and the mug. Sigh.

Yes, it was my Tim Horton's Michigan mug to boot.

The answer was Jan (see below).

Esther!

Well, I know it's the Sunday before Christmas, but am I allowed to wear my Patriots' shirt? Or are people going to call it my "ugly Christmas sweater?" The game doesn't start until 8pm though, so I wouldn't want to go to the game, even if somebody gave us their season tix for that game.

Jared sent this to me after my chaotic Friday morning. As Kelly calls it, "Managing my Mayhem."

Abishai got to wear his striped Christmas zip up pjs to karate this week and he was beyond thrilled! I had to quickly fix a hole because I hadn't yet, but I finished in the nick of time! Jared noticed these "snowballs" just off the mat waiting for their turn to join in on the fun tonight, too. What could they be used for?!

Ropes, too?! Tug of war? Snowball fight? Dodgeball? A combination? Well the ropes just made dividing lines for everyone, but basically it was a free for all to keep the snowballs out of your zone. There were other kids in Christmas pj's, too. They did have a ton of fun because Mrs. Tess makes it fun! Oo, and in a couple of months when Abishai turns 7, we'll have to discuss if he really wants to join a big boy class or not. We'll see! I think he has the potential to do really well with it. I'm happy with the studio, instructors, location, and probably with the price point, so I'd say go for it. He listens well when he wants to. And remembers well. No worries there. And when he comes home and says, "Do I have a story to tell you!" You know he's got some great things to say. We'll see!

Bwahahaha

Oh boy, the girls that marry my boys better love Legos and wouldn't it be way cool if the boys proposed to them like this? Ok, I guess it wouldn't be that mature of them, so would even say if they are still playing with Legos then they are not old enough to get married. Except in this household, it would totally fly. It would have worked for me because Jared's proposal was totally unromantic. Soooooo......yup, boys, I took this photo for you! And, I saved the website with the instructions.

Abishai got to the chalkboard first today, so he tried to copy Jared's shepherd and then made his own camel.

Here's Jared's camel and a wise man with gold. I think he did alright. The neck and head totally makes me think of a brontosaurus, but hey, Jared never said he could draw animals.

No, Abishai is NOT doing his morning exercises like Pooh bear. In fact, Abishai is purposefully aiming his be-hind towards his brother hunched over a rubber ball and making farting noises to try to get his brother to wake up. #brothers

Jared made a tree stand out of wood that was a bit shorter than the real tree stand so the tree top didn't scrape the ceiling. Personally, it was fine, but ok, whatever. I wish he had cleaned up his sawdust mess in the garage in the walkway before his nap though. Sigh.

Wrapping gifts for the e2 ladies that Abishai picked out by himself just because he saw them at the grocery store and said, "Miss Ellen likes those!" No prompting needed! He's going to go with Daddy next week and hand deliver them. He's like Justin and just knows how to treat the ladies well. What a little heartthrob.

Sad truth. Drives at least some of us crazy. Also, the stay on Biden's mandate through OSHA to make companies with more than 100 employees require their employees to get Covid vaccines or wear masks/weekly testing was lifted by the 6th circuit appeals court this week. That was pretty quick. Now the attorney generals can push it to the Supreme Court. But this mandate is going to effect my children directly if they choose to work for any company over 100 employees. That's anyone from McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A to Kroger to accounting firms or banks to electrical companies to car companies, shipping companies, Amazon, Fedex, airlines, etc. So, yes, it does worry me. Yes, there are have many times where certain jobs have required medical testing or medical records to be shared. You have to be physically fit to be a fireman. You have to be alert to drive heavy machinery. You should get a tetanus shot if you step on a nail if you work in construction. But it's job specific. It's just overall very worrysome. And to think that my children will have to negotiate this all the time and have to choose not what they want to do if they want to stay clear of it would be a shame. So far, there's ministers seem to be exempt for everything so, there's that. Oh yeah, and don't forget those college campuses. My children won't have access to education because of all those mandates. We will probably experience that frustration in the next couple of months. Sigh.

That's me.

This is a Twitter account Jared follows, so I started following it. There's not much on it besides links to some podcasts it does and I don't have to listen to all of it. Sometimes it tweets out stuff like this. This stuff irks me. To say I'm not a patriot because I choose to exercise my right to choose to something differently is unfair. Our country is built on self-governance and freedom and liberty. Vaccines and medical decisions were not part of our Constitution. Besides, this is not a vaccine, it's gene therapy. This is a choice, just like an abortion is a choice. It's a medical procedure. It's not doing bodily harm to others. It's not serving one's country because we do not have all the facts. We don't know we are actually protecting it. So to boldly state this like this is not a fair statement. And I believe, from what I know of President Abraham Lincoln, a humble patriot himself, no matter what political parties were called and what platforms there were on at the time, he would not have agreed to how this word is used here. Patriotism to him would have been used through a Biblical lens of treating one another with respect and kindness and not forcing one another to do something they don't want to do unless it was written about in the Bible. He was for freedom, not slavery. No, I don't think this organization really truly understands the man I understand. But then again, they also don't understand that the Civil War was more than just about slavery, it was about state rights, which the Constitution also recognized. That anything not specified in the Constitution was a matter of the individual State. That includes education and I guess medical boards and vaccines. Which we have mostly adhered to until the last 20 years. We need less national government and broad mandates, and more state by state deciding what's best for their people. What's best for my family may not be what's best for yours. It's what makes sense to me and always will. Slavery was a crime against humanity. And it was abolished. And it did need a war to kick it to the curb. But there were people and states already choosing to get rid of it on their own. Just like their are people choosing to get the vaccine without having the mandate and billboard campaigns. Long story, but don't make people feel like less of a patriot because they don't want a medical treatment. That doesn't make any sense at all. Would you call me less of a patriot if I don't get a flu shot? Or if I choose not to get a chiropractic adjustment? What if I choose to not get my tubes tied? Having big families is a burden to society isn't it? That's what China said. So why don't we make people get permanent birth control? Isn't that the patriotic thing to do? The logic isn't there, is it? Nope. But the agenda is pushed. And pushed. I'm a patriot for medical freedom. For liberty, and self governance, so I can do the "good works He has called me to do." That is all.

I bought one for me and one for my sister. It says, I am always with you. Cardinals were my mom's favorite birds. It's a pretty small pendant. Very pretty.

My dear precious Jesus, I did not mean to take your place,

I only bring toys and things and you bring love and grace.

People give me lists of wishes and hope that they came true;

But you hear prayers of the heart and promise your will to do.

Children try to be good and not to cry when I am coming to town;

But you love them unconditionally and that love will abound.

I leave only a bag of toys and temporary joy for a season;

But you leave a heart of love, full of purpose and reasons.

I have a lot of believers and what one might call fame;

But I never healed the blind or tried to help the lame.

I have rosy cheeks and a voice full of laughter;

But no nail—scarred hands or a promise of the hereafter.

You may find several of me in town or at a mall;

But there is only one omnipotent you, to answer a sinner’s call.

And so, my dear precious Jesus, I kneel here to pray;

To worship and adore you on this, your holy birthday.

Gary said this was the first time Colts beat Patriots in years and it's all b/c Brady doesn't play for New England anymore. Well, that tells you something about the Colts without Peyton Manning. It's all about those Quarterbacks.

Oh man, I think they retired the tree with the old ladies' hats. I didn't check the upstairs bathroom though. Actually, a lot of the decorations around church were quite different this year. Can you tell I haven't been physically in the building much this month? Whoops. This was still a very beautiful tree though.

Well, this was a welcome change! They also moved the communion tables into the sanctuary again.

The back row of instruments are on risers! Yippee! Finally! It drives me nuts that a) they are always in the dark and b) you can't seem them when you are on the floor and can only see them if you're in the balcony. I never noticed really until my kid was up there, but still, instruments matter!

So you can talk to your bestie, but you can't hug your mother in public, eh? Big boy gave me a head nod and then turned around when he saw me in the same aisle as himself. Sigh.

Might have to find out more about this. Sometimes I have to ask myself why I follow so many awesome accounts because it's so tempting to buy all their cool products. Is this a book? Or does it come with sachets? Or?

Look, I can actually see that drummer back there! Yes, that one with the hair in his face. Crazy 19 year old giving it his all. Same as that other 20 year old in front of him in the skinny jeans, home on Christmas break who almost ran over the guitarist behind him. Lol. The rest of the team sometimes don't know what to do with these young 'un's. And then the gray hairs in the audience REALLY don't know what to do with all these colorful lights. But the rest of us, we are just getting started! Check it out at the links below! It was really cool to hear it from the floor.

Hark Part 1

Hark Part 2

Hark Part 3

Reign Above It All

Ooo, lights were on point today. Christmas Eve should be fun, too. Benaiah is so excited to play for that as well. It will be his first time to play on Christmas Eve! And to think, 19 years ago, he was on that stage playing Baby Jesus at 6 months old.

We even had live music in the foyer, too.

Abishai got to be a special helper in class putting nametags on the clipboard as kids came into class and when they left class. And since Grandma was gone, he got to help the 2nd hr new teacher with all the class duties. Start serving young!

Abishai added his own camel (maybe it's pregnant?) and Daddy added two more wisemen. One has frankincense, so it's burning and wafting up and the other is myrrh.

I thought this was something pretty neat they did after the Indy Fuel hockey team. The fans threw stuffed animals on to the ice as a fundraiser. And the hockey players and staff picked them up into clean trash bins! It covered the ice within seconds!

They even let a little kid throw them from the sideline. Someday I'd like to take Abishai to a hockey game. They aren't that expensive here since it's not the NHL, but a notch down from that. It's a notch up from the PEI Islanders though. In fact, one of the guys from the Islanders played on the Indy Fuel team several years ago when we first came back to Indiana before he went to the NHL.

Pickled herring. The biggest jar I've ever seen! I get the kind in wine sauce and Gary gets the kind in cream sauce. It's a Scandinavian thing. I will sometimes get the small jar around Christmas time, but not always. Gary shared some of his creamed kind with me this year and that was fine. It was one of my mom's Christmas traditions.

The End