Year 7, March 7th-13th, 2022: No Time to Record History

 Monday - If Monday was an animal....

- Today's Monday animal would be a tiger. Oh my word, what a day. I pushed hard to keep everything together and keep Abishai and I focused and nope, nada, zilch, nil, zero, we still couldn't do it. I wanted him to work while I was getting breakfast, but he refused. So I skipped out on my regular breakfast carbs and only drank my tea with collagen protein. Big mistake. I was fine for awhile, but then my sugars tanked. So I ate two truffles to quickly bring them up. Then I saw a banana and peanut butter, and I must have eaten too much peanut butter because I was rushing and the nearly empty stomach, combined with my noon meds and the chocolate and banana/peanut butter landed me on the couch in a fetal position for 30 minutes. Which put us even further behind because it doesn't matter how many times you call a person, they still won't come. Abishai gets severely distracted. I can't walk away from him at all anymore. I'm going to try to ignore everything and sit with him at the table, no special privileges of sitting in the living room, and not get up to do any housework or get more food or anything else for myself, until we are done or I determine we need a break/lunch. We do that at ASL and it does work much better, so surely it can help at home. After that, I'm pretty much done. It's time to talk to the PCP. I'm over it. My own ADHD can't handle it. 

- Then Keturah got up late, spent an hour on her phone, which wasn't supposed to be in her possession, and didn't start homework until 10:30. So when she wasn't done when I wanted her to be, she started huffing and she was also hangry. This was about when I was having my stomach troubles. The dog stayed out too long and his paws were nasty, so she got a bucket of water to clean them. Well, Socks stepped on the bowl and water went everywhere. I still couldn't get up to help her, so she had to manage the clean up on her own. She did a very good job, thankfully. Then she went to have lunch.

- By this time, I had 30 minutes left before picking up Justin. I still needed to eat something solid, aka, complex carbs, because I had a chiro appt right after getting Justin. I had no time to fix Abishai's mess of not finding his pencil, not knowing what to do on his homework, or listen to him read. Therefore, he couldn't have screen time while I was at the chiro.

- I ended up blocking all of the kids' devices while I was gone because Justin as well hadn't touched his math much last week, and therefore he would be "behind" this week if we had started the book at the beginning of the year, so I needed to come down hard on him as well for ignoring me. He could get more lunch and then work on schoolwork until I get back. No one has to be on a screen at 3. When Abishai realized he still didn't get his screen time, despite finishing with me during the few minutes I was home between picking up Justin and leaving again, he cried. Normally I would compromise because I'm at fault, too, but not today. Today, I hustled, and because I hustled, and didn't care of my physical needs for the proper food, I suffered big time. It does not take 4 hrs to do 1st grade work, even if you account for lunch and potty breaks. Every time I had set him up to do something, he would just stare blankly at it, and then leave when I went to do something else. He knows better than that. 

- And you know what? No one died from lack of screen time this afternoon. Justin was done when I got home, so I let him on. Keturah still had to do vocabulary with me, which was a leftover from last week. She wasn't supposed to have any phone privileges all weekend until she did it with me, but, I'm not always available, so I typically don't hold that over her on Sundays. She was busy on Saturday so she wasn't on her phone that much. Abishai had very little time anyway, before he started getting read for Tang Soo so it wasn't worth letting him on and pulling him off when I was rushing to get food put together for dinner. So both Abishai and Keturah weren't released. Plus I had told Keturah to break up the overcooked meat so I could just put it in a skillet when I got home. Well, she didn't because she was reading, and then forgot that she needed to do her Bible class stuff for today, and did that instead. She totally either forgot or she totally lied and didn't want to do it. I made her stop what she was doing  and help me. And then, she didn't push hard enough and ended up throwing away half of the meat! I had to fish it out of the trash can and rinse it off before picking it apart myself!

- Yeah, it was THAT kind of Monday. And then Jared wants to sit down to watch a show. What he doesn't realize is that I haven't been on the computer at all and I haven't checked email for 6 hrs. And I hadn't had any down time at all since waking up. So I did settle down after cleaning up after supper and going over Keturah's vocabulary to snuggle up with my blankie on my couch to eat my supper in peace and quiet. Yes, despite not eating well, and being really hungry, I managed to make dinner, and clean up dinner putting it all away before eating mine. I had finally gotten to make my daily cup of coffee at 4:30pm instead of my usual 3pm so I think the caffeine had helped stave off the hunger a bit longer. Much easier to eat in peace than in the chaos anyway.

- I really needed to and wanted to sort puzzle pieces on my new puzzle but I needed my hands to eat! So I listened to yet another 30 minutes of a podcast that well, is right wing conservative to the extreme, or rather almost self righteous "look at godly I am" kind of Christian than it isn't. Today's podcast was on Christian colleges, and in this since, not just our schools but any college that has a primary goal of Bible knowledge and producing preachers, so that includes all denominations, and some of the statements on there were a little whacko. This person has a new book out that the advertises right in the middle of every episode, too. And this person is also a guest speaker on an online conference that the IAHE sent an email about today, which I decided to sign up for and purchase the "listen forever" option because I know I won't listen to them all in 3 days. I didn't realize who sponsored the online homeschool conference until right before I hit payment. Yup, the parent company of this guy. Oh boy. There's at least two dozen speakers, so I'll be anxious to hear the rest of it. It's about the FUTURE of homeschooling. Yeah, the one thing I've been harping on in the last month and how we need to retool or we will get left behind. Well, not so much retool, we have the technology and things to offer, but rather the training of our minds in how to deal with what's next. So, I'm anxious to hear if what I've been seeing and feeling and thinking are the right things according to the "experts." I recognize a handful of the speakers, but I really don't know the rest, which could be a really great thing OR it's because they are ultra conservatives I wouldn't follow anyway. Based on the speakers I do know, it's not looking promising. It's one thing about being careful stewards and holding to high standards and your mission, but it's another when that becomes your idol and you become self righteous. And I get pretty close to that line all the time.  I do hope there's some insight to lots of data about who makes up the homeschool community at large and what their needs are. Or, because it's for everyone else, too, perhaps some speakers will talk about things related to curriculum chooses or family life or the usual things you might see at a conference. I don't know, and I won't know for 4 more weeks when they release it.

- At least Jared said some super important words to me in the very brief moments we had at dinner time (he didn't even take off his coat and shoes), that I have been praying for and begging for years and years. After days like today, when I'm overwhelmed and he comes home, and I start to spew, all I've ever wanted to hear was, "You're a good mom." I got a hug, too. Those words and physical touch is all that it takes to take me off the ledge. I felt like my cry for help, for pity, for assurance that I've done my best today with who I am and who my kids are, is enough. That's all. I'm resilient. My kids are resilient. We all lived with less screen time today. Tomorrow is a new day. We can do it all again. But this time, with more prayer, because THAT'S why I forgot this morning!

Hey, now, that was my college GPA, I take offense to that! Actually, as of tonight, March 7th, at 10pm, gas prices have skyrocketed to $4.25 a gallon! I have NEVER seen it this high in the states. I really think all those sanctions that were put on Russia only made Putin laugh. It has dropped the value of their currency and now oil prices went up, in theory, or in part, do to the threat that Russia will destroy a pipeline or something. Actually, we don't need Russia's oil. But good grief! $4.25! That's like a full DOLLAR from this time last week. Unbelievable!

Well, these were the nasty storms that went through last night (hence the 1:22 am). There was a tornado warning north of the city, which means a tornado was spotted. I guess we'll have more sticks to pick up once the temperatures warm up again. The storms brought the temperatures down a lot, too.

I woke up to Abishai saying, "Mom, come quick! There's ducks trying to make a nest in our front yard!" Jared and Abishai had spotted the pair as Jared was getting in the van to leave for work. They stayed real quiet so the ducks wouldn't fly away. I had to angle my phone out right next to the glass off the door in order to get these photos. We couldn't see the ducks ourselves.

Well, they didn't decide that the flower bed was perfect for building a nest yet. But you could tell they were sort of wandering in search of something. They checked out the old tree stump near the neighbor's house and then waddled over their driveway and into their yard. Abishai wouldn't let Socks out until we knew the duckies wouldn't be scared. Mallard ducks are pretty robust animals. And I just love the colors on the male duck. I can recognize it easily because I grew up with a lot of mallards and loons around in NH with all of it's real forests.

One reason why Keturah didn't want to get up out of bed. Yes, she's "spooning" the dog, aka, sleeping parallel to him. And yes, sideways instead of lengthways, which they also do. I don't know what we'll do when Socks is gone because Keturah is going to be very cold and lonely at night.

I did NOT need to see this or realize this. We could be easily invaded by Russians. Now, there aren't a lot of ports and people up in those regions on either side. I'm sure both have some armament though. And missiles can go for miles and miles before striking. this is way too scary for me. I've got friends up there in Alaska, too. No where is safe.

I can't wait to pick up one of these on Sunday. None of my crew noticed they were available, and I only saw it mentioned here on Instagram. Sigh. Sometimes I'd like to give some advice on how to run your social media platform, but I would probably not be listened to.

Actually, I took this screen shot before Jared came home, and it totally happened today. He had to pick me up as I fell into his arms because I just couldn't carry it all by myself anymore.

Oh, the paper is hard to read. It says, "Char"bucks, which is the nickname the office gave this huge bag of coffee that was left with them one day. I made sure my label said, "fully caffeinated," as well. I have a half caff jar in the cupboard as well so I didn't want the two to become confused.

The second part of the note says: to use when I only have time to gulp down a cup of coffee or I don't want to use flavored coffee. Basically, if I'm not sitting down to actually enjoy my coffee, I'll choke this down instead. It looks like my usual dark coffee. I use lots of creamer, but no sugar.

Wow! An actual item NOT made in China! No wonder it's lasted 40 years!

This special little guy is a hand me down from Gary and Leah's house and is our coffee grinder. Apparently Jared took it to the office and it's been living there for awhile. When I rearranged the coffee and tea cupboard I noticed we didn't have it, so I thought maybe I finally had gotten rid of it because it didn't work. Well, when they had to rearrange furniture again for Mike's desk, it was rediscovered. I wonder what other treasures are at the office that belong at my house! It was pretty dirty inside, but some of it was probably stuff that had been there for 10 years or more. So I took a toohpick to it and a little scrubbing and look at how shiny it is! You can't buy these kinds of appliances anymore that are made with real steel and other metals and are built to last. Nope. The stuff on the market now is meant to last 3-5 yrs and then get replaced. Not this guy. This guy has seen me through 4 homes. He's all mine.

Doesn't it look like it's from the 70's? I love it! We only use it for coffee. And I usually only buy ground coffee. It's rare that we have coffee beans. So I whipped up a jarful for coffee grinds while dinner was cooking. Yeah!

Is this legit?! Like why or how would you call your business this? And are you sure you want it to show up on someone's phone announcing that your company just does consumer surveys? They didn't even leave a message. Sigh.

Tuesday - Working towards better

- Today went a bit better, but I still had to rein the kids in. Keturah didn't get up again until late and wanted to take it out on all of us. Abishai was caught sneaking in a video game instead of doing his math page. Justin was fine. I'm not even sure how it's 10pm and what all I've done today because my desk looks the same. I just wanted to take a nap on the couch, but I couldn't fall fully asleep because I was trying to drown out Justin by listening to my Bible, but then I worried that I was wasting my time. Whatever. It was another day. I took some screenshots of what I read. Good enough?

- I did get out to the library and Kroger with Abishai. So there's that. I think I've exchanged 50 words with Jared today. Like I said, my piles look bigger, not smaller. And I just want to go eat chocolate and be left alone. Oh, I had an IAHE mtg tonight. Not much to say about that. I think I'll keep zoning out a bit. I've been sitting in this chair for 3 hrs though. Time to stretch. Maybe. I guess.

I'm sure some don't want to hear this comparison but, I have independently put two and two together - Joshua and the walls of Jericho. Or, I guess any type of siege. We had just briefly touched on Joshua in our history lessons.

Me!

She's been in jail this whole time?! It's been over two weeks! Oh goodness! She's the sweetest woman! But she was willing to go, so she went.

This is going to be very hard for her to keep to, at least the last three parts. And, I think that's actually very unfair. But, I'm sure that's what she agreed to. Poor thing. There wasn't any specified period of time on it though.

Truth

e2 helped set up breakfast for a pastors' conference at church this week.

Again, truth.

And Facebook had to remind me that today is my oldest niece's 15th birthday!!! Happy 15th birthday, Everly! I can't believe you are 15! Wait, that means, that means, she can start driving in a few months?! This whole licensed driver thing is going to go rapid fire now. Yikes! These were the throwback pics FB was trying to show me from 5 years ago when Everly turned 10. Kids change so much in just 5 years, don't they?

Really?! Masks?! Sigh. Seen at the library. Thankfully on a high shelf.

Well, since we've lived near this library for most of our kids' lives, at least I get to use it as a tool to record their growth. Just look at how big he is! And he can read the sign that tells him NOT to climb on the tire!

He insisted he needed a "car" cart. I think he's about to grow out of it, so why not. But man those carts are so hard to push around! It did help to get him past the Hot Wheels display though! He nearly fill out, but I got him to get back in.

But he also couldn't sit still and kept rocking it back and forth. I had to stop holding the cart while I stood in line for the pharmacy because I couldn't read my phone!

One little dude being Mommy's helper scanning the groceries. He has to slow down and be more careful next time because he double scanned his chips!

That's what we all think about $4.25 a gallon gas! Gas went up by $1 in ONE WEEK! Yes, we are actually in my first crisis that I can remember in my life, with runaway inflation, energy crisis, the stock market tumbled as soon as it opened, Russia won't stop shooting, etc. And we are about to hit the two year anniversary of Covid and not one cares. Not one person cares about the trucks circling Washington, D.C. Covid was last year's story. Covid doesn't exits anymore. So the report that came out about how dangerous the vaccine is doesn't matter and no one has to get the shot anymore. But now 80% of the population has this dangerous vaccine floating though their veins. What a crazy mess!

 Wednesday - Rejected, Again

- Well, long story, made really short: the small groups we had looked into merged with other small groups so they are now closed and we weren't invited to join. And you can imagine how that makes me feel. Extremely disappointed, frustrated, and rejected, again. There's more groups, yes. And there's more coming up from the new batch of Rooted groups, yes, but I liked the people in this group. I had held my hopes too high. And dashed they were. And I want to cry. I am crying. And I don't want to write blogs. But I need to because I'm behind. Because I've taken too many mental days as it is. But I'm just tired. Tired of people. Tired of the church. Tired of forced relationships. Tired of hard relationships where the answers is always, "No, I don't want to." You can all go just away or stop being difficult. Each and every one of you. From secular homeschoolers to the other extreme. From my own kids to those causing trouble elsewhere. From people in the Church to people in the local church. From those who claim to be dictators to those who are passive aggressive dictators but claim they come in peace. You all need Jesus. Sort yourselves out. And until then, I'm done with ya. I'm going to go do my puzzle.

- Well, the puzzle didn't get touched, but I got photos done on the other blog. I just have to double check that all videos have been posted, as well as they have been posted on this one. So, it wasn't as bad as I had thought. I'm feeling physically hurt in my knees and legs, restless, and ready for my massage tomorrow.

Woah! I saw this first thing this morning, not anticipating that it would happen again this afternoon. But it's unfortunately true again today.

I explained my comfort spot on my green couch. I needed it again this afternoon but I choose to work at my laptop instead.

That's so exciting! We as a family love this story! I watched the footage and the ship looks awesome! I can't to get updated books on this! And can you imagine what we are going to learn about from the research from this this? Oh the possibilities are endless!

Happy 15th Birthday Everly!!

Yeah, my favorite pens arrived! I bought them (and a better fitting boys' sports cup for Abishai) yesterday and they arrived today. Amazon to the rescue! Oh, and total cost for both things? $0! Thanks to Amazon points! So I took a few pens and put the in many strategic spots. Woot! Woot!

I was actually craving something like this a few days ago, so when I took Justin to Kroger to get diapers for a leader's surprise baby shower gift, and he wanted to look at special drinks, I got one. Oh my yummy! I forgot how yummy these were! But I also forgot that some of them are caffeinated so I have to finish it tomorrow. Yum!

Thursday - Hustle, hustle!

- Justin: work, shower, school, Grandpa class via telephone because Grandpa was on his way to Illinois, screen time, Kya came over, dinner, take Kya home with Mom, more screen time

- Keturah: wake up fast! Grandpa class at his house at 9:30! homework, lunch, history with mom, more homework, screen time, dinner, rollerblading, more screentime

- Abishai: wake up, Grandpa class, homework with Mom, lunch, history, more homework with mom, screen, dinner, Tang soo, time with dad, bed

- Jared: wake up teen, make tea, take teen to work, come back to pick up tea because there's not enough room on the truck seat for teen and tea (he has to drive the truck because the van is DEAD). Somehow manage to make 149 things happen in half a day, so can pick up teen from work, so wife can get a massage. go work for 2 more hrs, load a vehicle to take to MO with other co worker on Friday/Saturday, get home early to eat and take 7 yr old to Tang Soo, play with and put 7 yr old to bed. Do all the things for the weekend trip, including shaving his bald head, go to bed early so he can get up and go to men's 6am prayer breakfast mtg thingie before driving to MO because it's way too faithful for his own good.

- Melinda/wifey/mommy: hustle everybody else along all while pushing a load of laundry through start to finish, making sure dishwasher gets put away, chicken gets cooked for dinner because there's no time later to do it, decide on dinner and lay out ingredients and fill pots with water by lunchtime so she doesn't forget. drink tea, take kids to gpa's house for gpa class, come back, listen to Bible in the rarest of rare 1 hr of no kids. Teach kids, keep adhd kid focused, stand up while reading so she doesn't fall asleep like she did on the couch last night instead of in her bed. Eat lunch 2 hrs after breakfast because she didn't have enough breakfast. Drink coffee 3 hrs after morning tea or same reason. Hustle until the last minute but managed to leave a few minutes early for massage appointment. That left enough time to make new arrangements for Kya to come here instead of Justin go to her house. Phew! Spent the whole hour of my massage appointment thinking about yesterday's appointment about small groups, churches, and youth groups. Wash, rinse, repeat. Not sure if I truly relaxed. Not sure if I'll have enough words to explain it all to Jared tonight. Otherwise I have to explain to him on Sunday or Monday. And I'll forget about it by then. Home again to cook noodles for spaghetti supper. Push husband and 7 yr old out the door. Pushed 13 yr old out to roller blade. Then pushed Kya and Justin outside for a walk. Then only wanted to check email and instead sat for 90 minutes. Almost too late for a shower? But my hair is so greasy! Hm,.....

- And I have to do the Kya drop off run because Jared doesn't want to be hurt driving my vehicle and he needs to take care of Abishai, and shave, and pack, and I want to talk to him, and?.....I just want a shower to get all this greasy lotion off. That's the biggest downside to massage therapy. I hate lotion. With a passion. Any kind of lotion. Yes, I get dry skin and I probably need it and therapists tell me they have to use a lot of lotion. But I hate the feeling of my socks slipping around and my neck all greasy from them working around the base of my skull and ugh. It comes from being greasy as a teenager. And I wasn't as greasy as some nor did I have as many zits as my sisters because I didn't sweat like one of them did as gymnastics nor was I in a chlorine pool at swimming several nights a week like the other. But my thinning hair has become greasier, too. And I'm not even using the essential oil mix I made! It's driving me nuts! Blech! I need to go wash it!

Throwback Thursday to when Justin wanted to do something while he waited for church to start so he actually opened the Bible! He might have been working on Matthew 5 at the time for memory work. I'm not sure. It said this was 9 year ago so he was 7 1/2 yrs old.

Me!

Also me!

And this is very, very true!

And now you know where my kids get their sloppy handwriting from. Yes, this is my handwriting. Yes, I learned to write from public school HOWEVER I did do Abeka 4th and 5th grade cursive, too. My mom had gorgeous cursive. Gary has gorgeous cursive. Leah and Jared's handwriting is decent. Sigh. Handwriting and foreign language, the two subjects I don't do well in nor can I teach well. Sorry kids. But hey, at least I don't have to answer Abishai's incessant questions about birthdays anymore.

 Friday - Typical

- Typical day except we didn't have Gpa class because they didn't yesterday.  Abishai played his new video game, Red Rock, and won his first level or something. It's a space mining type of game, but he can get different characters with different skins, and they have their own bunkers at the base. The other two woke up late and wanted to take it out on the rest of us. Grrrr teenagers.

-I had a shower and had way LESS hair loss than I've had previous weeks! Yeah! My friend confirmed that she, too, had less today when she washed her hair, so we are on the mend!

- Jared took off really early, right after his men's coffee meeting, with Mike for Missouri, for a conference to represent e2 or do a presentation for e2 or whatnot. He said that the drive was fine except for some bit of ice. We had some snowflakes here. Gary was in Illinois doing the same thing but at a different location and had some snowflakes, too. Leah is still in NOLA, so I'm left on my own with the kids. I do have Benaiah around still as an adult, but not really. It feels really strange to be the only older Johnson adult. Lonely, too. But it doesn't happen very often, so I'm grateful for that.

- The usual suspects came to gym day. I think  we are all going to be happy when we can get back outside and closer to Greenfield so more people feel like they can come. At least we can get out of the house once a week. Abishai brought his Tang Soo uniform to show it off to everyone. Then he tried wearing his mouthguard to show everybody. So cute! He just wanted to practice using it. He'll figure it out. 

- The kids had screen time and I cleaned up my IAHE inbox. Supper was leftovers. Kids watched a classic history video I watched as a kid about Mummies based on a book by David McCaulay. But first we had to fix my PlayStation account. It wasn't that hard. But now, we have to log into my account to use Amazon Prime, YouTube, or the internet on the PS5. That means, if they clock on YouTube, they are going to see all the video I have watched! And sometimes, I watch graphic videos on the Ukraine war or on internal medicine or birth or on controversial topics. So, I'll just have to make sure we log out of it when we are done with any educational thing. I asked Keturah if she had seen the video and she claimed she hadn't, so that's good. At least she won't roll her eyes and claim she's bored. Having them watch that video helped us get through the evening.

- Then we talked to Daddy, and it was off to bed quickly because it was 9pm! Oh, and Abishai had lost another tooth, so the tooth fairly was on her way! I had tried to encourage him to get the other one out that is right in the front and crooked but he won't do it. I'm going to have to insist he remove it soon because the new teeth are going to grow in crooked. And we don't want that. I was the same way, and my Dad pulled my first front tooth too for me. Sigh.

- It's getting so cold in here. I need to not stay too long in this room because the winds are awful and coming right through all these glass windows. Brrrrr,

Well, hello van. Jared drove the truck over to Mike's house and left it there. They took Mike's vehicle to MO. The van is basically dead until we get a new serpentine belt or something. Who knows how much that will be and then how much to install it. And what other damage has been done in the meantime. My friend said that the serpentine belt does control a lot and that's why the battery died as well. I'm glad Jared got it limped home. He didn't have a lot of time to make arrangements to get into a mechanic. We'll see what we can do on Monday about it. Praise God we got a new tire on the truck and it's drive-able now!

I spy with my little eye, snowflakes!

Yes, it did snow big snowflakes throughout the day! It was pretty cold, too. Brrr!

Instead of playing basketball Abishai pulled up a chair to watch his friends play, lol, all the while sitting in his doh bok, or Tang Soo uniform. This kid cracks me up.

Jared has asked me, and I'm sure others have wondered, why did the Freedom Convoy still have to make it's way across the country a couple of weeks when a lot of state don't have a mask or vaccine mandate? Well, this is why. The Freedom Convoy is for the whole nation and there are still mandates in some states, and a lot of schools. So, I might be free, but I'm fighting for other people's freedoms, just like how the 12 tribes of Israel's men would fight for each other even after their section of the promised land was conqeured. And some industries still have restrictions, like the healthcare industry. So the convoy is still literally circling Washington DC.once a day like Joshua and the walls of Jericho. So yes, we still need to fight. And then we need to fight to keep it that way.

Abishai said tomato sauce came with his fries. I was in the other room and was like "Huh?" And sure enough, these are what he was referring to. He saw tomatoes and thought these were tomato sauce. He's not wrong. It's just that these are extra sugary tomato sauce packets, lol.

Watching "Pyramid" by David MacCaulay like Mommy did when she was homeschooled. The circle is now complete. I've had them all watch it. There's a book that goes with it, too.

It combines a cartoon story that goes along with some live footage of the author showing real footage of the current (to that time period) state of the pyramids and artifacts. Oh, and what was cool was that I could bring whatever I wanted up on my phone and then send it to the TV. But then I couldn't use my phone. I will mess around with some more. I could just save the video(s) to my history and then they can access my recent history and watch them from there, too. Or I could bring it up or whatever. We'll see. Technology is a complicated beast.

Saturday - On My Own

- Super sleepy and can't seem to get these blogs done so I can switch over to the taxes. I have one month left and usually I have them at least plugged in by now! Ugh!

- Abishai has been very good today and not begged for TV or gotten into anything. He played for a long time this morning, so he did have 1 hr of TV this morning and then I let him on a bit early this afternoon so I could get started on my afternoon work.  

- I tried to be domestic this morning and make light bulbs match in every light fixture but we don't have enough of the same kind of light bulb to work. However I did get rid of all of the fluorescent balls. I don't like the idea that those kind can give you headaches and wear out your brain. I also wanted to make sure all the light bulbs were white light instead of yellow. I'm not sure I got that achieved, but I did the best I can. I also found a 150 W light bulb and put it in my lamp beside the green couch. It's super bright and now maybe I can see my puzzles better. We'll see. Unfortunately, when I was doing that, I saw just how dirty the hallway light fixture and whole house fan is and it made me feel like an even worse housekeeper. Deep cleaning is so hard for me to get to because I have no time, no energy, no ability (because I'm short and it wears out my short fibro arms).  Sigh. So, I wrote it down on my list for another day. But it's gross. And not hospitable for guests at all. Ew.

- We had a hodge podge lunch and then Abishai and snugggled on my bed. We sent sad faces to Daddy and an "I miss you" video. Then he farted in and out my sheets a million times and laughed up a storm. So hopefully I helped fill up his love tank today. But we both miss Daddy on Daddy's day. It's too quiet. Jared won't be home until my bedtime and won't see Abishai until the morning. Again, I'm glad this doesn't happen every weekend. We cherish our Saturdays together.They are truly our Sabbaths.

- Oh no! It's Daylight Savings Time! I have to set the clocks AHEAD an hour and I didn't push the kids to take their showers and bath early! Crud! So now I have to push them through the water and soap AGAIN! Good grief! Why is this is such a hard thing to do EVERY week?! Well, it's done now and all the clocks are fixed. But now I've lost an hour of my downtime. Grrr.

- But, I did get everything entered for the taxes and our refund is approximately what it had been for the past 6 yrs with the exception of last year. So, I'm confident the stimulus monies didn't change anything and the wonky looking W-2's aren't messing with anything. But I do have to go back and understand those W-2's so that will be a project for another day. 

- Little man purposefully fell asleep in our bed because he wants to sleep with us all night. I hope Daddy isn't too mad that I let him. Jared is the one driving tonight and he won't get home until after midnight (new time), so yeah, it should be interesting. And then, we have to figure out how to get everyone to church tomorrow with just one vehicle. I don't know if Jared will come back and get me or I'll just stay home. Thankfully Keturah doesn't need to be super early or anything. We'll see. Maybe we'll all just go at 11. And then I didn't plan lunch, so again, who knows. Tomorrow is nap time or puzzle time since I caught up on paper work today.

I thought I had caught my camera in time before he had a chance to take a selfie, but I guess not!

Super cold last night and today. Winter isn't over folks. Brrr!!!!!

Amen.

Very cool!

In response to our family texting thread about who is awake and who is still sleeping because they also had a stormy night. Jared sent the meme of Anna from Frozen sleeping with her hair all crooked and she's all twisted up, which is a direct representation of this one, so of course I had to send a photo of Keturah doing the same thing. The teens refused to get up before 11. Sigh.

 

I knew Gary had gone to Illinois, so I checked to see exactly where after Jared had sent me an update on where he and Mike were at. Well, they were pretty much going to be passing close by where Gary was, so I teased him and said, "Are you going to stop and say Good Night to your Dad as you go rolling through?" He of course said no. And I didn't know what route they were exactly going to take. But it was interesting to see how scattered the men of e2 can be now that we have Mike on board, as well as the "Bench," which is other volunteers that can do the workshops on behalf of e2, as well as the 3 original guys. So, Jim Estep and another guy did the workshops at this conference in Missouri that Mike and Jared drove out to, while Gary was doing an elders' retreat in Illinois.

Mike and Jared's possibly routes.

We miss Daddy! And yes, Abishai ended up sleeping in our bed until Daddy got home. He easily woke up and walked to his own bed though. And he came back and got the rest of his stuff like his music box so he could self soothe back to sleep. What a champ! But he was also grumpy the next day. Jared and I do not mind snuggling him during the day, but there's no way this kid could sleep in our bed at night. There's no room. We only have a full sized mattress.

 

Sunday - Super, Duper cold again.

- Yes, it was really cold again. I stayed home from church because actually, I didn't have transportation this time. Jared took my car so he could fit the 3 kids and himself. He could have come and gotten me later, but we didn't really talk about it. I did my usual listening online to the 9am and then putzing around after that. Today that looked like just a lot of resting because I'm so tired from the week. And that's totally ok. The sermon was really, really good about evangelizing. I had some great points that I wrote down, too. I wasn't into the worship music today, but that's because I was tired and some mornings are like that.

- Lunch was a mixture of leftovers. I didn't make anything and Leah is still in New Orleans. Yup. And the fridge is bare. So we went to the grocery store right after lunch. And it was super busy. But, Aldi's had all four of their lanes open and we got through the lane quickly. Yeah Aldi's! And I got the buckets I wanted for the big bathroom! Not quite the right color but close! I might go back and get the grey or black ones instead but at least I got the little ones for inside the cabinet. $5 for 4 plastic bins with a bit of texture. I'm a happy girl. We'll see if they take up too much space. But they may also prevent me from overloading that cabinet as well. We'll see!

- Then a little nap and boom, it was time for youth group! Oh and it was Daylight Savings Time, too! We got up just fine and everything. But dinner happened after youth group. Oh well. The kids went with it. But DST always throws off the dinner hour for me because it's never turning dark when it needs to. And with Abishai and Tang Soo at 6, it's going to make it worse. I don't want him to eat at 7 and then go to bed at 8:30. I don't think it's wise to go to bed with a full stomach like that and when it's light out. But I don't want him going to bed at 9:30 either. Sigh.

- Speaking of big/little guy, I did have Jared help him get out his other front tooth this afternoon. It popped out pretty easily. Unfortunately it did bleed for a bit and Abishai didn't like that. But that adult tooth, as you'll see below, is fully engaged already. Abishai has a bit of a lisp but it won't last long. He'll just be my little toothless guy for maybe a week. I'll get him to talk, sing, and read on video this week just for fun. But man, they grow up so fast! That tooth was making me nervous though because of the angle and I was afraid it was going to pop out at an inconvenient time. But now it's done and I don't have to worry. The tooth fairy is broke though. Three teeth in like a week's time. 

- I can't believe the weekend is over already. I'm not happy that we didn't have Daddy day. Since we don't get to see much of Jared during the week, I guess I rely on seeing him on Saturdays. Well, we didn't get that yesterday. So I feel like I haven't seen him much at all. This season of life is strange and busy. It's just a season. It will be over before we are even used to it. With Justin getting his license sometime this summer, we'll only have two kids to transport. And really, Justin could transport Keturah to youth group on Sunday evenings. I know Benaiah didn't do it much, but he was dating Ava and would go out afterwards or whatever. Justin wouldn't be tied as much to that I don't think. We'll see though. Justin can drive to his small group, but we would have Keturah's small group and Abishai's Tang Soo. It doesn't seem like much, but at the end of the day, there's still other things to keep track of, and you're exhausted from the daytime stuff. And house maintenance. And homeschooling. Yup. And I will have to help Justin with things for a few more years yet. But then I won't have to. So, we'll slow down or see each other more again soon enough. Right now, we just hang on and enjoy the activity of the here and now. Because kiddos are the focus while they finish growing up, with us a close second so we don't get totally left behind of course, and we are. We've made it this far, we can keep going.

- I was writing this up because someone was asking about it for an event coming in August, but in August, we will have a 20 yr old, an almost 17 yr old, a 14 yr old, and a 7 1/2 yr old. That's a college student, a senior, a freshman, and a 2nd grader. Oh my word. How is that even possible. We were just 17 and 19 and dating long distance. In fact, I revisit those ages often because people ask how we met or when they ask about our homeschooling journey and I have to go back in my mind to at least when Benaiah was in Kindergarten or I try to put myself in the kids' shoes so I know how to move forward with them. And then when I do that, I try to imagine what my 17 yr old self was thinking what my 40 yr old self was going to look like. Uh, not like this, that's for certain. But it's just plain weird. Like, how have we experienced 20 years of life together? It doesn't feel like it's been that long. And yet, we do have all these stories and experiences to share. No wonder people ask me questions and are actually listening. And when I was 20, I was listening to 40 yr olds telling me stories and sitting there in awe of them and wanting to be like them. Yes, I really was! I've always looked up to older people! I've always wanted to be mentored! I hate rebelling against my elders. I want wisdom. I want to look up to people. I want to learn from them. That's why it's so hard when they disappoint me. But now I'm in this weird place where I am the person that others look up to. And yet, I feel inadequate still. Like, I haven't lived long enough yet. But I have. And I need to remember that. It's ok to say that. I know just enough to share and help others. And I can have confidence in that because others have told me that I have helped them. I'm not out there strutting my stuff. I know I've been helpful and that's all I've ever wanted to be. To mentor others like I have been mentor. I continue to be mentored, too. So I'm now the monkey in the middle. My position has shifted. And it's weird and thrilling and fun and intimidating all at the same time. I just have to be careful not to get all in a huff when a "young one" tries to come in and tells me what to do, because I can (in my mind) turn around and say "look here, I've been doing this for 15 yrs, I think I know a thing or two about this or that." Especially at church where everyone seems to be younger than me. Part of the staff is our age (or thereabouts), but part off the staff is younger. There's very few that are of the older generation, if any, really. We are the leaders now. Or rather, the younger ones are leading us. I don't like it that way. I've become a complaining gray hair already. I had expected a bit more of a transition where our generation had a hold of the congregation for awhile. But it didn't happen. It skipped us. And that's not helping me connect. But that's my problem. In the long term, it will help stabilize the church and keep it going for a much longer time. It just left my generation in la la land or missing or we left creating a vacuum of less volunteers, a smaller youth group, and different dynamics. Yeah, that's that.

- So, babies are asleep, the weekend has come and gone. A new week is here, but we only have one appointment. Thank goodness because it's time to take the van to the mechanic  tomorrow. And Gary's vehicle is also in the shop, too, so who knows what kind of vehicle juggling we all have to do. I wish I had heard from our oldest today, but Benaiah did sit with Jared at 9am. I guess he wasn't doing behind the scenes, which is unusual. I'm glad he wasn't embarrassed to sit with his dad. I'm not sure Jared did that at age 19. In fact, I know he didn't because Gary and Leah always sat on the front row and Jared always sat on the back row. So, that's awesome that Jared and Benaiah can share that moment together. Relationships can happen, reconciliation and repairs and miracles, all do happen with lots of prayer.

Jared pointed out how geometrically shaped Abishai's stack of snack boxes was after we went grocery shopping today and he's so right. That kid's brain just thinks in patterns all the time.

I bet you didn't want to see a close up of a kids' baby tooth but now you have. So tiny, yet, still the same layers as an adult tooth. Because God created all our bodies to be so complicated that there is no way we could have come from lower life forms. So fascinating.

You could see the grooves on it from the wear and tear in person.

Can you see just how much that adult tooth has already come down just in two or three days? I'm so happy that incisor is now out! So far, none of the kids have had to have braces, so let's make sure this one doesn't need to have them either. I still have to really look and see if any of them could use braces for cosmetic reasons, but medically, the dentist hasn't said one word about them. And the kids themselves haven't talked about hating their teeth. So, we've been blessed.

Big teeth, little teeth, getting so grown up!

Watching Josh and the Big Wall, Veggietales version with Daddy. But the funny thing is, that episode of Veggietales is older than Benaiah. Thanks to Minno, a faith based subscription video app, Abishai can watch all the Veggietales episodes, Superbook (the new version), Bibleman, Auto B Good, Hermie and Friends, and others. And it's thoroughly enjoying it! He's laughing hysterically at shows we used to watch as teens! This is the perfect age to be watching them! I've been so excited about it because I really don't like it when he's constantly asking for violent video games or cartoons like Transformers that I don't really know what worldview is behind the creators. I feel alot safer with the Minno app and the current video game he likes called Red Rock, the space mining game. Can't go wrong when the guys in Jericho are throwing purple slushies down on the Israelites marching around the city right? Ok, yes, that's wrong, but it is funny! Old school Bob and Larry are the best! And think of it, I bet Jared never dreamed of what his family would be like 25 years later when he first saw these episodes when they were played on the tv at the Christian bookstore where he worked as a teenager. And that bookstore just so happened to be the store right next to the Aldi's we went to today. It's now a different store, but isn't that crazy? We haven't really gone very far from where we started. But time flies. 25 yrs forward in time and we are still watching Veggietales. And we LOVE it!

The End