Year 6, December 6th - 12th, 2021: Trudging Along As Christmas Draws Near

 11:55pm on Wednesday is still a wonderful time to start the blog for the week isn't it? It does tell you a bit about how busy I've been or the poor choices I've made I've made with my free time. But I ate a caffeinated granola bar, so I'll attempt to put something down.

Monday. Distraction. I have no clue what happened because it's now Wednesday of the FOLLOWING week. Aka December 15th. Y'all. My days are all mixed up because ever since I got out of the rhythm with Covid I lost my blog vibes. I still take a few pics here and there and I still write a TON but it's very personal and full of fear, anxiety, and personal angst and not what is appropriate for a family vlog. So, we'll just enjoy less words and more just the "snapshots" of little things that happen. You'll probably enjoy that more anyway. In all reality, our life hasn't changed all that much. Nobody gets sick. Jobs don't change. Homeschooling keeps happening. Holidays come and go. Kids grow. Birthdays make us older. We're as steady as we come. Ok, I'm a hot mess. I'll always be that way. And at times I make my family feel that way. But God and I usually sort it out daily. I'm just going through the roughest of patches in a totally different way. And it's a particularly hard Christmas season for me for no real obvious reason. I'm 40. Mid life. I don't know. God does know and we'll get through it. I've got friends. The kids have friends. Jared has friends. They aren't all the same friends, but we can lean on them when we need them. And that's what matters. Our health is steady. I/we may not be over the top in joyful "Christmas is wonderful!" mode this year, but we aren't in a crisis. Let's just call it steady, walking through the routine, glad we are just staying home, which reduces my anxiety level a TON, because I'm surrounded by my familiar routines and things. My favorite phrase has been, "Yup, I'm staying home this year! I am flexible and I can do (this or that) for you." Like watch the Facebook pages while other leaders can go on vacation. Or not have to worry about squeezing in time to see a friend before going on vacation or seeing this light display or going to that museum. Or making sure I found a babysitter for the dog or having enough medication or food for myself or packing a single item. Ah, you have no idea how awesome is to be home on Christmas and during the week between Christmas and New Year's. I'm so super excited. My muscles are already thanking me for not traveling in the cold. Staying home is my favorite. And I think, it's my kids' favorite, too. I will think it is. After all these years of traveling for vacations, they never ask to go anywhere. Home. They never ask to go to a store or out to eat or visit a friend (except Justin with Kya now). They all groan when I tell them to put on their shoes for just about any activity. And then within 2 hrs of being out, they ask when will we be going home. I've created a bunch of homebodies. I guess I've done my job right. Now if they would just get along while we were AT home, that would be so much better. But, those hormones have to run their course first. And they will. Give it time. But they exhaust me, so all you get is some photos for now because my brain is tired.

Genius! I remove everything else and replace it with Christmas items, so why not a shelf of books that no one is reading? It's the 4-6th grade novels that Keturah was not interested in at all and as I type this, I'm remembering that there's some still stacked up next to my homeschooling chair I was going to read to Abishai, so putting them away for a month is fine. Now Abishai can pull these off much easier and I don't have to mess with my library books on the bench directly opposite of this. The Christmas cd's are easy to access as well. I have some audio tapes but we don't have a working audio tape player at the moment. And no, I'm not throwing them out because I have fond memories and they still fit in the box with these things just fine.

Super windy I think that night, but then over the weekend, there was a massive storm that ripped through the country with tornadoes killing 100 or more people and leveling towns. It's been the worst December thunderstorms in years. Just awful. This was just the precursor of it on Monday.

Kind of funny, but kind of not. It could be taken so many ways. I mean, German Nazis wanted a pure blood line, but right now some are saying that others are trying to get rid of weak people so we create a stronger race. But at first I was thinking of the term "mudbloods" from Harry Potter, too. But yes, I would love to a pure blood from now on. No more vaxx for the children and I. Maybe the TB and that other one I had right before college. I'm still unsure of the Hep A and B or whatever I let Justin have. Just not the flu, Covid, or the one that young teens get when they become sexual active they say help prevents center cancers or something because the jury is still out about that one and it affecting the reproductive system long term. Anyway, we shall see.

"There are six food groups...corn syrup, candy cane, candy corn, sugar, maple syrup..." - Elf

Yup, this is as far as I got. But I was waiting on kids to be ready to start school, so I pulled this out to try and start it. I didn't start it. But I did claim the table as mine. No more kid toys in this room.  Someday I intend to listen to podcasts and audio books and either do this or cross stitch instead of doing dumb phone games. But the phone games are too addicting and I like to lay down flat and stretch my legs! But we do usually have a puzzle going during Christmas break, so I thought I would start early. We'll see. I'm just not gravitating to the designating puzzle table in the living room despite setting up some great lighting there and it being right next to the heating vent, because I have to navigate over toys and move the little chair and deal with Justin talking to his friends on the PS4, and I simple like the fireside room better.

First chance of snow! And...we got none.

Caught ya! Get off your phone! Don't think you fool me when you take your school books into your room first thing in the morning, with your phone in hand. You are not studying the whole time. Both Keturah and Justin will play on their phones for the first hour in their rooms before tackling school work. And I'm totally guilty of this, too. That's why Abishai and I won't start until 10:30 or 11am and then I'll start panicking. We are ALL guilty. It's so bad. And yes, she wears the Santa hat all day and now Abishai will wear his Santa hat for most of the day, too.

Abishai is starting to work on his Lego base from the new Legos from Jim's house.

Abishai wanted to read a book called "10 Kings and Queens" and it goes through all of history. One of them was an Egyptian Queen and I noticed it happened to be close to what I thought was Moses' time period. So I looked it up. I was right! It was quite possible the same princess that took baby Moses from the Nile and raised him. Neat!

Oh the many places we do school these days. I don't care where I do the read aloud portion, but I am insisting we sit at the table. His antsiness and getting distracted is starting to wear on me. It's been taking twice as long to get his school work done and no matter how early we get up or how early we start or how much I focus on keeping him focused, we still get behind. I am using timers. I might get that stop light type one though because I think it's going to be an issue for a long time. He will respond to certain incentives. He knows what he's doing when he's focused. He's really smart, so I know he gets bored at times. I need to try some essential oils and other natural remedies. I'm avoiding any diagnosis or prescription for awhile longer because I know that some of my frustration and anger is something I need to work through, too. And we have a long road ahead of us. And I also know what medication has done to Justin and his appetite. I'm not prepared to deal with that yet. I've got some more tricks to try. But he does love read aloud time. And I love it, too. He's absorbing so much and he picks up on concepts so quickly and each "lesson" is super short. And the number of "subjects" is minimal. Sigh. It's a privilege to deal with these little things and not hear about it the antics from a teacher and not have that pressure from the school administration to put him on drugs and get him tested and be told something is wrong with him. Nothing is wrong with me. He probably just has hyperactive ADHD. And that is NOT a negative trait. Not at all. It's only negative because of the type of society we live in. So I'm proud I can create an environment around him and his personality and not the other way around. We will get there. I just need to allow myself more time and white space in my day to allow for that.

Just in time for Luke Green's birthday, too!

Tuesday was all about Angie and Autumn's going away party. It wasn't huge but it did allow a few friends to come and hang out and it gave some of our regular crew a few more hours to do the same. Molly and her crew weren't there, but I kind of knew they wouldn't be because Tuesday is usually their music lesson day. (We did get to see them at gym day on Friday though). Between Kelly and I, we spent fairly little and we were set up in like 20 minutes. The kids did wonderful at not spilling anything and we were cleaned up pretty quickly as well. They were allowed to use all the fun stuff in the room as you will see and they all got along quite beautifully as they always do. Man, it floors me every time how many articles I read about pre teens and teens and how nasty they are to each other. The fighting and bullying and ganging up on each other and how they are into clothes and make up and if you aren't on the sports team or if you don't get the role for the school play, etc. etc. And then I look over my shoulder at "our" kids at play group and I'm like, uh, there's none of that here. Everyone here are different ages, boys and girls, barely dressed some days, some come in flip flops, no coat, they talk, no one shouts, I don't hear any swearing, no pushing or shoving, no one is pushing furniture over, we don't have to go over to them, they never turn their backs on the littlest ones, in fact they pick up the littlest ones and sometimes even show off their little baby siblings, and my word, they even CRY when they move because they are leaving these friends, these friends that are just guy friends and girls friends that are just friends with no hint of ANY, and I mean ANY crushes or sexual advances or pairing off or anything. They are just kids! And they talk for HOURS and hours. Even when they are at their HOMES! And us moms have to ask for their devices back so they can do their homework. Where else are you going to find this kind of social interaction? It's the most incredible thing I have ever seen in my whole life. And such a contrast to what I hear about from everywhere else, private school, public school, big, small, lots of money, no money, etc. It's incredible. Just incredible. And that is why, it's my privilege to help these families who are considering homeschooling and take the plunge to pull these kids, especially in the middle school years, after they have been bullied, to reestablish relationships with their kids and help them get through those hormonal years and finish their childhoods well with their innocence intact. I mean all the better when they can start homeschooling in Kindergarten. But when we can save these preteens from the brutality of their peers, oh how my heart is so full. I'm glad I was spared that and my kids were spared that. You don't have to experience something yourself to know that it's a bad thing. 

Not to mention us moms. Oh my. How many days I've cried. And poor Angi. How many days she has cried. She has lived in Indiana and in that house for something like 18 years. She has struggled and struggled. So I'm glad we were able to give her a few hrs break from all of it. Just to sit and be loved on.  I guess it's not a common thing anymore to give going away parties. I mean, we did when we left for Canada. We've done some open houses the first couple of times Aaron and Shauna came back so they could meet and greet people. I just thought it was something you did. People do it when you leave a job. Or at the end of a co op year. But Angi hasn't been part of those things, so I thought we would at least make sure we got together one more time. I wish more people would have come, but I don't know here personal friends. And I didn't make a specific FB event, so I didn't specifically invite people which would have helped. The part was really for me to say good bye. I wanted it. I wanted to do it. So I wasn't that concerned with the crowd. Angie and Autumn loved it. And that's what mattered. I had no idea that we would have gym day later in the week and that Angi was planning to Mom's Night Out the next week, so it was going to be my last afternoon with Angi, too. That's why it was important to me as well. And I knew Kelly would be great at co hosting and calling places to get the venue and would know more of their mutual and long standing friends, so she did all that for me. We make a great team! Lol! And we both like to keep it low key and not super expensive so it was perfect. I pulled out stuff from my limited supply of goods, borrowed a couple of mini Christmas trees from my decorations, and that's all we needed. I thought I had more decorating supplies but I guess I really minimized everything last round. Good on me I guess. It was a lovely afternoon. And I know Angi was blessed. And Kelly and I were blessed for doing it, old fashioned style in a church fellowship style, simple as can be. Homely, just like us 5 ladies are. No fancy clothes, shoes, or makeup. Just doing our thing with our kids as is. That's what makes us unique and makes us best friends. My Early Years/Hancock County/Rural Indiana crew. The best group of ladies I've ever had in this country. Same as my motley crew on the other side of the border in Canada. (I'm looking at you Laura, Rachel, Emily, and a few others. I miss my PEI crew! But I follow your antics closely!) Sigh. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I still cry every week for my PEI ladies and for these IN ladies. They be my homies. They just are. We are all a hot mess. But we do it together. Bearing with one another in love. Lifting up one another in Christian love (yup, we are all solid Christians, I say that because I've had some debates with family members about the definition of small groups and churches. Yes, I do still spend most of my time with my Christian BFF's but some of the time, we are also including others that show up at our playgroup and we love on them all.)  And the best part of all, none of us go to the same church. We are all part of the same body of Christ, the big Church. And if I put all 10-12 of us together. Oh my goodness. What a hoot we would be. I could just imagine Laura, Rachel, Denise, and Emily, meeting Angi, Molly, Brenda, and Kelly, and I in the middle, all having a conversation. You guys, that would be so glorious, and the fun would never end. I'm telling you, you guys would LOVE each other. The best of both of my worlds. Heaven. Right there. Oh my stars. Wow. Next time I need a pick me up, I'm going to think of these 8 ladies sitting down together. Ok, I'll end it right there.

I tossed the pillow and it landed perfectly!

Morning fires to warm up the room while we snuggle and check email.

Amen and that's why it was going to potentially be a hard day. But thankfully it wasn't.

This boy keeps going outside without the proper gear on. Can someone remind him it's wintertime? The Canadian thinks it's still summer!

At least the fur baby loves to have a play mate that enjoys the cooler weather with him. The vet said to keep Socks calm, well, it's a bit hard to do when you have an active 7 year old in the house. They don't actually do as much running as you would think. They like to just wander and do their "perimeter checks" and "secure the area."  That includes an occasional shooting at or barking at a squirrel.

I told you it was really cold that day.

Super red cheeks and nose and "Well played!"

Real fires trump gas fires every single day. Unless it's so big that it pops and ruins your couch, your blanket, your rug......

The trick to setting up food tables at any party no matter how much or little food you have is to set it up to look like you have a ton of food. Either put out two of every kind of food or just spread out everything just right and cover a lot of real estate. I'm so proud of myself that I know how to be a hostess! My mom never threw any parties. I learned all of this on my own from observing others over the years.

Hopsitality doesn't have to be at a all complicated. I was lazy and didn't make it to the store to get throwaway tableclothes. So I rummaged my own closet for these. They aren't perfect. I found a stain or two. I made the theme blue, white and red for snowflakes and red (with a hint of green for Christmas). Angi thought the anchors reprsented the Navy, which she and Brad were in. Well, it all went together. And they are moving to Florida. So, a little mismatched, but not too bad. It worked and it didn't matter to anyone in the end.

Sweet and simple.

Guest of honor chair with a box of kleenix at the ready.

My baby with their baby, Josiah. Their age gap is a little smaller but there's some similarities in personalities, too. Too cute! Mrs. Angi said that Absiahai kept stealing Baby Josiah from her and carrying him off (with very generous permission of the mom) everywhere.

Teens. I mean, the girls have barely entered their teens. But Justin seems to fit right in no problem. And they've left plenty of room for Jesus between them, too.

Um, Let's not have the baby climb up in case he tries to get down and hits his head on the floor. I don't think so.

Man, Caidan has grown huge just in the last several months! He's shot right up!

Just a few of the adults that came to hang out with us and Angi. It was the prefect amount of people.

RIP Bob Dole. He died on Monday. One of the last greats of the old GOP (Republicans, Grand Old Parrty) who know how to be respectful and get along with others. He was the 1996 Presidential candidate for the GOP. He was also my parents' last choice in the NH presidential primary, but they did vote for him of course in the end. He was a sweet old gentleman from what I could tell.

Freezing temps of course.

If only we could get a good snowstorm. But alas, we just got a few flakes that landed on the van. Oh well.

Wednesday we woke up all ready to got to ASL, but it was canceled because our instructor's relative was having a crisis and she couldn't make it. You would have thought I could have used the morning wisely, but, I just enjoyed the slower morning and moved like molasses. It took a long time to get Abishai engaged in school work and I had to call the principal on him. Daddy even came home, too. But by that time, I had sneakily got Abishai to start doing some math by first orally quizzing them and then showing him I had gotten the problems from the book. I wrote down some of the answers and by the time we got to the end of the page, he was writing them. I managed to get through the rest of his written work, but we skipped his read alouds because that's the only thing that we did on Monday. We are just hodge poding and rotating through whatever just to keep things going. If there's too much of a gap, we are going to keep seeing the stubbornness like I saw on Monday and again today. It's so not pretty. .And Keturah has taught him everything he knows about whining and begging and pleading. And then she yells at him for doing something annoying. Well. who's been doing wrong things since she took her first breath? Yes, you did, little Miss. 

Speaking of Keturah, she's been borrowing the mouse from my laptop and using in the old laptop. And she used that laptop at screen top in her room. Which is fine when I'm on my computer, but at the same time, we don't want to have access to free reign on the internet. So, back to parental control manually which means no phone or computer until 3pm. I'm not usually on my computer either. But the more times she pulls my mouse in and out of the usb port, the moure potential there is that it will get lost and broken, especially on Keturah's care.

Yeah, that was a not so fun Wednesday. I can't remember what else happened. I think we got groceries after dropping Justin off at small group. We ran out of a time to go home first so we picked up Justin and then went home and unloaded everything. That makes up for a long day. No wonder I didn't finish out the journaling.

Thank goodness because THIS is the wood that was popping like crazy!

Dinosaury is ready for Christmas. 2 weeks and 2 days left!

Socks likes it that there's enough space under the table now so he can spread out more easily.

Ahem, how did these jump into my cart tonight?! Don't blame me for all of those extra holiday goodies and extra empty calories and you guessed it, Red #40 dye. You better believe I'm making sure I'm not in charge of little man when those chips are consumed. Good grief. This is what happens when I take Jared to the grocery store.

Thursday, again, I tried to get up as soon as Abishai and I were done snuggling and we tackled the day head on. But we only go to his read alouds and then it was time for lunch and the eye doctor appointment. What's the deal?! I do not know. But Abishai did great and he's improved some. Yes, the patches help to strengthen the nerve connection from the eye to his brain for a permanent life long connection so he will have the best vision he can have by the time he is an adult. But we need to keep patching for as long as we can and as frequently as we can. We'll se the doctor again for Abishai's one year annual appointment in May. I'm not sure if we'll be done with the patches by then or not. I'm not going to predict either way.

We stopped at the library, dropped off paper recycling in their paper bin, and then went inside. They've been rearranging the kids' shelves a bit so we couldn't find the Star Wars books.We managed to find the Lego themed books and Star Wars at least. Yeah! And then we checked out his 6 books and there were none that I have on reserve. That's probably the first time in years that I didn't have anything to pick up. I'm not counting the Covid shut down of course. That would be dumb.

Then we stopped at Daddy's office, and after a few minutes of warming up, Abishai talked Mrs. Christina's ear off. He just wanted to know that she would be safe and would listen. And of course she did. We were there for at least 30 minutes. I got to see the new office set up and how they've squished 5 people in that office office. They had to get rid of the conference table to do it. But there's plenty of spaces to sit. And if they need a room for the board meetings, I'm sure they can rent one from the church, no problem. We had a great conversation. Mrs. Ellen and Mrs. Debbie for both out of the office though. Bummers.

We finally headed back out and onto to Kroger to drop off recyclying, pick up my prescription and and a handful of food items. When we got the bins, Abishai insisted that he was going to do all of the recycling because he was a gentlemen. And he did toss a lot of it. And then we managed to get through the grocery store with little issue. He did stop at the Hot Wheel toys but I reminded him of our agreement and what we were going to get. And if he put up a fuss, then we wouldn't have screen time. He scanned everything in so we could go pay and go, too. He did a lot of hard work. So, after we came home, and he did his chores, he was allowed on his tablet until Daddy came home. Daddy came home something like 30 minutes later because he had Bible study at 6 tonight. I had just laid down to to rest my back so I didn't get up to serve dinner.

My whole body aches and is out of whack. I need a massage therapist. Not just an ordinary massage, but one that is more medical in nature dealing with certain specific knots and knows about how many sessions you need, etc. Hopefully with the same therapist. I hope to give them a call tomorrow, but tomorrow is jam packed too with school and possible two social events. So, I better hop off here and take care of myself and make sure I get some sleep. Last night did not go well. I need a ton more sleep right now. It's barely 10pm and I feel like it's 2 am.  (Side note, if Jared doesn't stop crunching the tortilla chips in the kitchen, I'm going to go put them away for him. Ugh!) And then he complains of not losing weight. Hello, water retention, too much salt. 

Ugh, too much to do. Not enough time and now no energy. Feeling that overwhelm. I just want to finish and work on email since there's a lot of it. Here I go.

Benaiah shared with the fam how proud he was that he made this stirfry all by himself tonight. It looks super yummy! Way to go, Son!

When Dad takes away your comforter, and you don't have socks on, this is how you try to curl up in bed. At least Socks is happy to help using his rear end.

Morning snuggles.

Abishai found himself on the wall at the eye doctor's! Yeah!

We had a massive load of books and DVD's to take back today because the kids weren't interested in reading them or watching them. Ok then, moving on.

And we left with only 6 new books. 6 is a good number because it's based on his age. Same with the older kids.

I'll do your work, Daddy. And then he rolled the chair over to the other side and tried to help Mrs. Christina. He's such a ham once he gets over his initial shyness.

He's been taking over all of Justin's chores lately. He volunteered to help with this one.

But we got it done.

Sssshhhh, don't tell, but we walked down the candy aisle and he wanted to show me something. He said, "Mrs. Ellen likes those," pointing to the dots. And he wanted to get them for her for Christmas. And then he wanted to get candy maybe himself or whatever, and I said, why not get something for the other two women as well. So we did. So sshhhh, we got these as Chrsitmas presents for the ladies in the office. Abishai also said he's going to work in the e2 office when he grows up.

Awww, a handwritten shipping label! Cool! Yup, I've already shared the details, but this instrumental beauties came today. Oh, and under that name, there's a street address. I'm thinking it's a studio address and not a house address. But how cool is that? I haven't received one of these in years. I love it when you get to "know" them when they are not super well known and they are more accessible.

Bryce is still missing and his mom is not doing well. I'm going to keep this battery operated light going until he comes home. There's nothing we can do but pray.

Friday we had our first gym day of the season! It was really a trial run at a new venue and it really well. It's an Indy Parks facility that we can use for free for about 12 weeks. They had play area in the lobby with toys for kids all the way from toddlers to teens and a regular sized gym. Plus I saw a computer lab and a couple of other classrooms. It's located in a rougher neighborhood about 20 minutes north of our house and is a great location for that particular location to help those particular families. The lady there is quite enthusiastic about homeschoolers and sharing the facility with everyone. She wanted to offer other resources to us, too, like free Pacer tickets and the free meal program and such, but we all politely declined. We wanted to make sure those that really needed it got them. We do have to wear masks in the play area, but of course not when the kids are in the gym playing basketball or whatever. We can be there anytime after noon and are sort of scheduled until 2pm officially but can stay longer. The school kids do trickle in after that, so we just have to be mindful of that. We didn't see too many today.  There's an outdoor park and splash pad as well. This facility has been around for 12 years. It butts up right to the the major, major downtown highway though which is quite interesting. I don't remember seeing it when you used that highway coming home to our condo, which is right around the corner from this facility at 21st and Shadeland.

The kids did play in the gym for a little bit, but then they all sat down in a big circle. Eventually they ended up in the lobby to play foosball and pool and play with toys, so Angi and I ended up watching them out there. They were all great actually as usual. The other moms stayed on the bleachers in the gym. I got some one on one Angi time and she crocheted and I tried to cross stitch but messed up several times. We watched the outer doors of the facility to make sure one of the autistic boys didn't leave.  Angi really did the watching, and she was so sweet about it. She has a nephew that is autistic. We didn't have a deep conversation or anything, but it was the last time we'd be at gym day together. So sad. I'll see her one more time at Mom's Night Out on Tuesday night and I think that's it. She had they had enough people helping on moving day next Friday. I don't think the kids realized that this was their last day with Autumn. It sounded like some of the other kids might see her one more time. I don't know. Justin didn't seem to care one way or the other. Abishai gave her a hug. Angi wore one of the flexiclips I gave her, which was sweet.

Angi ended up bringing Kya with her, and then Kelly was supposed to join us, but she got caught up with helping others in Greenfield and visiting a friend in the hospital who is very ill with Covid. And it's not looking at all. Kya came home with us, so Kelly did make the trip out to our house to pick her up thinking she was going to stay and chat, but then remembered she had to take care of something at home. She looked like she needed to talk about it, but she also looked like she needed to go home and rest. She's had a long week, too.

Jared came home before Kelly came for Kya, and we all hodge podged for supper before he took Abishai to karate.And then Justin and Keturah had screen time and I worked on the nasty knots in my back while I caught up on my phone and procrastinated getting on my computer. Bedtime was late for Abishai later and it was chaos for awhile. But I think everyone has settled for now. Tomorrow we are going to run some errands for Christmas presents and cards after we tried to fix the switch for hte garbage disposal.  I heard something click when I moved the "drinking water" part on the faucet that isn't hooked to anything so maybe I just accidentally turned the garbage disposal off. But I haven't pulled apart under the sink in years so it's a project to take to it. Should be a fun thing to do on a Saturday! I just hope it doesn't delay us too much.

Gray and gloomy. Perfect for gym day!

My Christmas gift from my sister arrived today. She said I have to wrap it up and wait until Christmas! Bummers! I don't have time to watch it anyways, so that's fine.

Check this out! Only 14 books checked out under my  name, and only 1 on hold! Abishai has 6 under his name and Justin has 1, Keturah has none. That's a new record low for us! Woot! Woot!

Amen and amen.

Totally me. And if you don't get it, well, then, lucky you.

Abishai insisted on snuggling Dinosaury until Dinosaury feel asleep for his nap. It was Dinosaury's 5th birthday he said. (Not really, but we sang Happy Birthday anyway).

Awww, Eli said, "The whole crew is coming!" The whole crew being Brenda/Caideen, Molly with her three, Angi and Autumn, and the boys and I. How precious that we are part of the core crew! The boys and I have "arrived" in this social circle!

It feels like it should be more than 13 years that Lilla Rose has been around and I'm glad I've been around for the majority of those years!

Abishai helpeed put up the window clings finally.

They played ball for a little bit for everyone finally showed up. The GP'S was taking everyone to the dead end street that matches with the park instead of the street that takes people directly into the parking lot. I eyeballed it after seeing that on the map and just memorized the road name and not using maps and gps and was the first one to arrive.

So many ages! Love it!

Mrs. Angi. I'm going to miss her. She has such a big heart. And mama eyes to watch a friends' son so he doesn't escape and get him engaged into a different activity. We are going to miss her skills!

Abishai switched spots with Daddy at the dinner table for lunch. Now he hast to but it back so Daddy is ready for dinner. Even Grogu is using Daddy's placemat has a blanket.

While we were in a little bit of a rougher neighborhood, yes, a minority 'hood, the privileged white kids in a 4 star jr. high school that live in the township we live in were in "hold" mode because some prankster called "gun" in the hallway. So they to take everything so seriously and swept the building thoroughly. The kid(s) were apprehended. What a mean thing to do so quickly after the Michigan shooting. So mean. My homeschool kids felt safer in the 'hood than their peers at the 4 star school in the township. Absolutely absurd.

Keturah spent her afternoon sorting Legos into colors. That's a menial task that she can do while listening to ms. Keeps her eyes off of a blue lit screen.

Finally got this reward in this game!

Yeah, I finally defeated the Level 40 monster! I'm getting stronger!

Overnight Friday to Saturday we had a ton of major thunderstorms all across the midwest. Upwards of 100 people died and tons of power outages and tornadoes and damage was done. I haven't looked up any of the news reports because I wanted to stay on task but I could only imagine the destruction. This is what happens in the summer, not in December. Up here, I heard it in the early morning hours when I was trying to go to sleep. And then all day today, the wind has been howling. If we were on PEI, it would have been a wicked snowstorm or something. We didn't have any perciptation today, but just opening the door my knees told me not to go outside. The temperature started at 60 degrees and it started falling all day to around 30. We were supposed to go out to do errands but I just felt worn out and I didn't want the wind blowing through my jeans. I decided to take it easy today and procrastinate just one more day and rest. Besides I was waiting on a phone call from a potential homeschooler. I'm glad I stayed in. I cleared off my overwhlemingly full email inbox, listened to a few videos, had the phone call happen, did a few things around the house, and just stayed calm. We'll be out and about all day tomorrow and then I'll get the packages and cards in the mail on Monday. It's easier to get up and get dressed and do everything on the same day instead of spreading it out over several days. Better for the mind anyway. The body might not feel that way. 

But you could feel the wind right through the windows today. The heaters could barely keep up today. I just want to go to bed. Yeah for Saturdays when the weekly emails are over. And I can catch up on everything. And there's no school to worry about. Justin did his screen time a bit early and was invited over to Kya's house for a bit. Keturah voluntarily fixed the trampoline pad so it wouldn't blow away after the ties became loose. Abishai had lots of tickle fights with Daddy and read books about Star Wars characters with Daddy. I cleared out under the kitchen sink looking to locate if I did anything to mess with the garbage disposal that now doesn't work. No such luck, but I did vacuum up the little bit of mouse poop under there. Shockingly, there wasn't that much! And no extra water damage either. I was really, really surprised. And nothing to throw away either. Yeah! But now we have to call someone to come look at that, too. Boo! So we just put it all back. And then I switched sides in the sink so we could at least get some water to flow when I was things. The garbage disposal side is clogged with some bits of food and there's no way to really clear that except for running it. It will drain but very slowly.

Then we finished disposing of the old broken strand of lights in the garland and then rewrapping the garland with new colored lights to finally finish the Christmas decor. Finally! Two weeks until Christmas Eve already! Then Mama can rest? After the cookies are baked and the presents are wrapped perhaps. Maybe. We'll see. Let's just finish today, shall we?

Jared likes to think that rinsing this much coffee grinds down the sink ruins the pipes. Um, no. It's fine. Really. Pipes are meant to be used. I do the best I can. Life moves on. I'm not wasting paper towels on things like this. You do your best to get the most into the trash can and you use the sink God gave you.

Woah, these heirs to the thrown of England grew up way too fast. Cute things that they are.

Taken from Michael W. Smith's keyboard player's account, yes, that's how bad the storms were last night. Actually, my big brother Eddie was at their concert last night in Ohio, crazy as that was! Plus some of the other Indiana peeps. It was the Christmas tour with Amy Grant as usual. What a wild night for everyone!

When Jared took down the other lights, I said this window looks so naked! He doesn't like the lights up year round. But I can't stand any of the windows without dressings. And he said, but most of the windows don't having anything. Well, it's because YOU won't help me put things up. I've tried to put things up, but we have PLASTER on most walls and nails and pushpins won't grow through the dang walls. I've tried. We don't even have blinds on our bedroom windows. It's a good thing they are higher up and short. Drives me crazy though. 5 years in this house and most windows aren't properly dressed!

Weird to have the dish drainer on the other side of the sink right now. I think we put it on the right because there's no room to put dirty dishes on the right because there's no counter space. But that's what you have to do until you figure out who to call to look at the garbage disposal.

Abishai wanted to pretend to snuggle Daddy while Jared was taking little nap. Look at how big Abishai is!

I was trying to download these to my computer and load them to iTunes and get them to automatically load to my phone (which didn't work, FYI, grrr, I hate iTunes). At least they match! Tyler Michael Smith, Michael W. Smith's middle child, the composer.

Keturah told me today that she wanted to say something to her youth leader when he said it was time to "hit the rink" when they went ice skating during the fall break work week. She wanted to say that you're supposed to say "hit the ice." Um, daughter, it's actually an "ice rink" so both terms are correct. Stop thinking you are super smart, because, in reality, you are only 13 and you've only seen or experienced like 0.000001% of the world. SMH

And so it begins, the cooking adventures! Justin and Kya making cookies! Oh, Jared made Justin drive out to Kya's out this afternoon and I just heard that Justin wasn't very excited about it and was stressed. Jared just drove out there to get Justin and is supposed to make Justin drive home in the dark with the winds still howling. Justin is going to be so not happy about it. But, he can man up and do it or argue with Dad, either way. At least it looks like he had fun making cookies! Justin loves to bake, so I know he had fun.

Sunday was normal church and evening activities. Sunday afternoon we went out to finish some Christmas shopping and gift making. That's pretty much it. We cut things a bit close for time, but it all worked out. Group effort for the 5 of us.

Yup

 

Oh my goodness. I think I died an went to Heaven. Real ingredients. Super sweet. Cake doughnuts. Gluten free. In flavor combos that only Aldis knew we needed before we needed them. Amazing! I need to go back to Aldis and get more! Aldis just know how to formulate their LiveGFree line just right! My mouth is watering now just thinking about this! I had two of them for breakfast because they were so small.

Breakfast for lunch and Keturah and Justin helped.

Went to UPaint Gallery in Greenwood to paint a Christmas gift (final review at a later date. Believe it or not, Jared is the more artistic one with his steadier hands and keen eye. We made something with handprints on it. Abishai thought the paint was cold and icky. I never got into doing actual fingerpaints with the kids. I skirted around doing it with the kids because of the mess.

Working together for half of a second.

Abishai getting bored and restless. But you can't rush art! Abishai was just tired from the super early start. This is why I typically don't go out on Sunday afternoon. But I needed to get this done.

Great tips! Oh, and Bryce was found! I don't know much details, but Jen put this up as a reminder to us all. Just hug the person and say it's ok or "I'm glad it worked it." Lots of hugs and arm pats! They will remember who is there. Just showing up is what will brighten someone's day.

The End