Year 7, May 16th-22nd, 2022: Very Full Week

 Monday - Abishai Sick

- Abishai was sick all day and slept most of the day. The house was extremely quiet. So, did I get much accomplished? Nope. Not really. In fact, I'm typing this on Sunday and I honestly don't remember what I did on Monday. I knew I couldn't get into the projects I wanted to do because they would have been too loud. We were heading into a heat wave. I was going out that evening for a ladies' meeting at the New Pal Bible Church. I think I might have run some errands after picking up Justin from work because I felt like I was in a rush getting gluten free garlic toast ready for the Italian themed dinner that went with the meeting. I mean, it doesn't really matter anyway, right? Just that Abishai was really sick and had a low grade fever all day and into the next day.

- Jared's Bible study is now on Monday nights because Jim's new small group will meet on Thursday nights. So, it all worked out that Abishai didn't need a ride to Tang Soo anyway. 

- The ladies' mtg was fantastic. Lots of women in their 20's to 40's and a few in their 50's. About 20 in all I think. When we were going around saying our names and kids and husbands, it suddenly hit me that I'm really middle aged and not 1 but several women were really younger than me and their kids were just babies and toddlers! I really do have a 20 yr old and these women are looking up to me like I looked up to well, my mentor moms. Oh crap! I better be on my best behavior! I still feel like a young mom because of Abishai, but indeed, I am not. I sat with the older moms though because I have 3 older kids. Actually, it wasn't my intention. It just happened that the young moms had grouped together and sat at the other table and I had set my purse down at a different table. But it was fine. I had a great conversation with the oldest woman there who has young grandkids, some here and some in Arizona but she herself is a transplant from New York. So not a super old grandma. Sweet lady, only been here for 3 1/2 yrs so she's just getting used to Indiana. 

- The coolest part of the evening was hearing how the organizer, one of the young moms, had been in worship about a month earlier, and the Lord had laid upon her heart that she really wanted something for herself and the ladies of the church that was in the evenings vs. the other ladies' meeting which was during the morning because she has 1 yr old. Her mom is the church secretary or something so she's been around a long time and obviously has some leadership skills or initiative but isn't assertive or anything. So, she went to the elders and asked and they said sure and away she went with it, got a friend to help and pressed play. Easy peasy. She didn't have anything super formal, just dinner together, a devo, and a game. She says she isn't crafty and doesn't have a huge plan for it, so if anybody else wants to jump in and help, feel free. Lots of humility but just had the idea and inertia to start it instead of sitting on it forever. Less talk and more walk. More yes, let's just do it and see what happens instead of it sitting in committee for 6 months and let's pray over it for 1 year. Plunk that idea from the Holy Spirit down and get the ball rolling. Let the pieces fall into place as the Holy Spirit puts them there. Trust that they will be there when they should be. I like that. I mean, I like plans, I love plans. But you lose excitement and inertia the longer you wait on things like this. I see it with myself all the time. The sooner I take action, the better. 

- Anyway, I had a great time, learned a few new faces and names (which I've now forgotten again, but I'll get there), ate some amazing gluten free spinach chicken lasagna dish, and realized I am really middle aged and it feels really weird. I continue to feel affirmed I'm in the right place. Although I still have to hold my tongue because it upsets Jared and then we start to fight and then we both have to hold our tongues and promise not to fight over this and that. The tension can get to us. And maybe we will succumb to it again eventually. But we are trying to be good. It's just been a couple of crazy weeks. And since I'm writing this 6 days after the fact, yes, this whole week I'm journaling about in this entry WAS crazy with appointments and we were ships passing in the night and even the weekend felt like that because he had to finish grading papers (it's finally done!) and I needed to finish this blog entry. Hopefully after this posts tonight, we will both be caught up and we can settle down into a quieter summer.

 

We have a baby bunny in our front bushes!!!! Abishai spotted it I guess over the weekend, too! Awwww, I love these things!

So tired, but couldn't sleep any more for the day, so it ended up like this for part o the day.

Our flax seeds are growing! I need to get out some other pots and thin these out!

The irises are really starting to come out! The white ones near the house are much smaller and fewer because they don't get as much sun.

The full purple ones opened up!

Jared's favorites!

Aw, Abishai got up off the green couch and grabbed the first thing he saw, which happened to be Frog and Toad. He read the whole thing to himself! He loved it so much he read it again later this week! The other kids didn't get into Frog and Toad like my family did. We even have a coloring book if he's interested.

He slept for several hours today. Just a low grade fever and scratchy throat. A slight runny nose. He could have picked it up from Tang Soo because Teacher Nathan was also sick over the weekend I heard. No worries. It happens.

Reading Frog and Toad to Dinosaury.

Doesn't your head hurt, Dog? I don't know how Socks squishes into tight spaces sometimes but he does.

Abishai barely ate and drank on Monday as well. He felt so weak that he just sat there in the pantry eating his snacks. So pitiful.

 Tuesday - 120 miles, 3 hrs

- That's how much I was on the road today, but I actually spent about 8 hrs out of the house today. It was a lovely day weatherwise, and overall, the kids' moods were good and our activities went well, and we got to everything on time. But I was miserable by the end. Absolutely miserable. I don't know how anyone can do it. I certainly cannot do it this on a regular basis. It does not work with my personality and it does not work with my fibromyalgia pain. It's too much.

- Justin went to work today. But I took Keturah and Abishai to Castleton to ASL, then to Aldi to buy their pretend cashier's stand for Abishai, then the new CFA there, then we drove to GreenWOOD for dentist appointments and then back home. Jared picked up Justin from work and went to the bank, dropped off money to Jim's house and brought him home. Then as soon as he was ready, I took Abishai and Justin with me to GreenFIELD to see Kelli and Kya. We could only stay a little bit, and then Abishai and I came home for dinner. I had signed up to watch a free online Michael W. Smith concert that was literally on Zoom so I was literally ON THE CALL with 17 pages of other people on the call and might have had a chance to talked to Michael directly, so it was important that I was in place by 7:30 pm for that. Justin stayed at Kya's for the evening. Then, I had to go meet them halfway to pick him up. 

- It was a a very long day and I feel like I never stopped to really eat, go to the bathroom except for quick trips and/or properly hydrate. I ended up hangry and with a migraine, and snappy at everyone. And this is why I'm so careful with our schedule. I spread out our appointments. I only let the kids pick a couple of main extracurricular activities that don't meet on the same night.

And the Indian Creek crazy flip flopping summer schedule starts. Ugh. I really don't like this schedule. I mean I'm glad we have a printed schedule, but it still feels so inconsistent because sometimes things get rained out and sometimes things get canceled because no one shows up. And there's a gap for when school starts up again and kids resettle. But whatever, it is what it is. It's a lot of moving parts and info.

Oh, I forgot that I had taken this screenshot. I guess two of the Doctor Who actors are coming back for a special episode of Doctor Who, I think for a special anniversary episode or maybe part of the transition from the first female Doctor Who to the first black Doctor Who. And since David Tennant is my personal favorite, I thought it was cool. Now I want to binge watch them all again. Actually, I really just need to see the 2 or 3 seasons with the female Doctor. I know it got into some really woke trends so I stopped worrying trying to get it. Plus, I think I was waiting on Amazon to make it free like the other seasons.

We made our first CFA run to the new store on Washington St. We had to wait a little bit, but it wasn't bad. I think the way they have the lanes set up will work fine. They will extend it into the regular parking lot of the shopping mall behind them, with a break for the cross traffic. Then they have a 3rd lane for those that will be going in to sit down.

2nd stop after ASL in Castleton, was the dentist in Greenwood. Our third stop was Kellie's house in Greenfield. Actually, the only person who made it to all three stops was Abishai and I, lol. Keturah and I were fine. Abishai had several cavities and has to go back to get some of them filled in. Oh, I took this pic as a, "Look at the teenager in her natural, wild habitat." Actually, her natural habitat would be her bed, but you get the picture.

We had gone to CFA because we had gone to the Washington St. Aldi to pick up this beauty. It was a little overpriced but I couldn't help myself. If I want something that is a luxury item, I leave it at the store and come back a few days later. If it's still there (especially if I know it's a hot ticket item), then I know I was sort of meant to have it. Abishai was beyond thrilled to have it. He played with it non stop for a few days and then hasn't touched it in a couple of days, but we haven't engaged with him with it either. Hopefully I'll get to play with it more with him this week. It's a cashier's station/food market.

He loved putting it together WITH Daddy, too.

And then I jumped on an actual live, not pre recorded, Zoom based, Michael W. Smith concert. There had been a chance that they would pick several of the attendees to ask their question that they wrote down when they registered. I'm not sure if they wrote back to the registrants ahead of time, or just randomly picked in the moment, but I wasn't chosen. But it was definitely done LIVE because there was plenty of mistakes with technology. A bit of chatting in the chatbox as well, which was nice. It was neat to see how Michael would look over at the big screen in front of him while someone else would scroll through the 17 pages worth of participants as he sang. He would do little waves at people he recognized or at the little kids dancing around in their parents' laps. Jim Danaker was there, too. The song list was shorter although they went for a little over an hour. I set myself up in the garage because Justin wasn't home (he had stayed at Kellie's house) and the sun was just about to hit its peak behind my chair in the sunroom and that's never a great look. I prioritized my computer on the wifi network and everything was fine.

I've been watching these hands play for nearly 30 years. These powerfully talented hands.

Vanessa joined them for Waymaker. I'm sure she will rejoin them for the fall tour, unless Michael picks someone completely brand new.

And then Abishai had to quickly show me how everything works before he went to bed. It's got a real calculator and he did try to use it correctly with a decimal point. Yeah! It's even got Aldi branded bags and logos everywhere!

Miniature Aldi merchandise! Since this is one of Abishai's favorite products, I just knew we got the right thing! So worth it!

Nearly $75 to fill up now. And I used these numbers plus my maps app to calculate my back and forth trips to the points that pretty much cover the area where I travel. I go as far north as Castleton, as far south and west in Greenwood as 135 and Frye road and as far east as I-70 and Greenfield. I mean you can expand the triangle into a circle but that pretty much describes our life. By the way, they are saying we will probably hit $6 a gallon  this summer. This is not funny. Even I am going to have to cut back. A friend told me on Friday that they do so much driving in one of their vehicles for their job, it costs them $600 a month to fill up. I think she said a month. I hope it's not a week. Unless her husband is a truck driver delivering goods like Benaiah does. I'm not sure. I know she works at the Honda plant which I just looked up is about 40 minutes from her, so I don't think it's that. Anyways, I know the $600 is right. Ouch. BTW, I don't know what the truck's odometer says, or Benaiah's vehicle (but I think it's way less than mine), but the van's odometer is about half the mileage that mine is because it was originally used by older people who didn't drive much. I've got one of the most used vehicles in our fleet of vehicles. Yes, the J6 has a fleet of 4 vehicles. Our car insurance is not horrific because our vehicles are older, but we are going to add another drive hopefully next month and I think that will put us over $2,000 per year. It's a good thing we make the boys pay for their parts of it. Just imagine when Keturah joins us in a couple of more years, too. Eek!

At least by speeding along the back roads to Greenfield and taking the highway to Castleton I can still get decent gas mileage for my older car.

 

 Wednesday - Jared's 43rd Birthday

- Funky day. I had wanted to do fun things but then Jared didn't really take the day off, but things worked out that we sort of did a fun thing, so...yup. That was a day.

- Jared invited me to go with him, Gary, Mike, Christine, and Debbie from work to lunch for his birthday, so I went. We went to Egg Roll #1 and I was a little bit overwhelmed going to a work lunch, not knowing what to order, knowing that everyone had limited time, not wanting to make Jared look stupid, etc. I ordered something I don't usually order, and couldn't finish it. It was a big bowl of soup, which was fine, but there was no way to doggy bag it up, so I wasted Gary's money or e2's money or whomever paid for it. It was just broth, chicken, rice noodles and cilantro and I was hoping it was kosher for me. I could have added some sprouts that came with it but the sprouts came on a dish for me and another person who ordered soup and I wasn't sure and blah blah blah social anxiety, blah. Anyway, it was all ok. I hadn't seen any of these people in awhile, and obviously not since I left the church, and I don't know who knows what they know, so I was unsure of the direction of the conversation, too. It was pretty surface level, thank goodness. I didn't have much to contribute either. All in all, it was awkward to ok. And less than an hour. And I was thankful for that.

- Then, to satisfy Abishai's itch to go to the office, Jared took him back to the office with him to tie off loose ends before he came home early for the day. Well, that took longer I expected. Ok, fine, I at least got some decluttering done and some areas prepped to tackle tomorrow. Jared brought his flip table in from the garage now that he took some tiny permission from the spine surgeon he can use a little bit. Well, it's now sitting taking up from my fireside room so it's now urgent I deal with the other spaces to accommodate these beast. So irritating!  

- Meanwhile, Keturah and I cued up the original "Top Gun" movie because that was what I wanted to do with Jared and the kids, perhaps watch a movie he likes. And since I want to take him to go see the new "Top Gun: Maverick" film in two weekends from now. Plus my man and airplanes are like BFF's, so, it's the perfect show for his birthday. And I had all three kids watch it with us has their contribution to Daddy's birthday instead of Jared and I watch it by ourselves one night, which isn't happening right now because he's still grading papers and I'm way behind on the blog because I'm out there living my best life. We got to watch a little over an hour of it but had to stop to get Abishai ready for Tang Soo Do and Keturah and Justin ready for their KP Volunteer Celebration night thing at church. Abishai said he liked the planes, and even the kissing parts, lol. We had to forward through a sex scene of course. Whoops. 

- Then we got everybody out the door, I went to Kroger to pick up a few things, and within a couple of hours, we were all back at home as normal. Hopefully, that was enough of a birthday that Jared felt loved enough. For lack of energy and time to prepare, I hope it was good enough. Sigh. 

I wrote a long post on my wall about this. But basically, again, you can always teach and read aloud bigger words and concepts to kids than you think you can. When they are doing homework, they can do work on their level, or what might be slightly challenging. When they are reading on their own, or doing homework without you, it should be easier. Abishai is a prime example of this. As a 1st grader now 2nd grader, he knows more than some middle schoolers simply because he's been exposed to the topics at a younger age. He can actually understand that Hitler was a bad guy killing Jews. I don't dumb down the topics too much. And in his science book that is labeled to be used for a wide range of kids, K-6, it includes the big words, so I do say them and define them. I just don't expect him to memorize them and tell them to me. I have them repeat them back to me in the moment though. But I can introduce them to him now. And then he can explain the idea to me in words that he understands better.

I woke up to a kid who wanted to play store with breakfast foods. Yes, I did play along.

He loves his cashier stand so much he was hugging it!

Daddy brought his inversion table in from the garage so of course Abishai had to play with it. And this is why I have to find time THIS WEEK to find a home for it. Actually, I have had a plan for it for awhile, but now I have to execute it ASAP. Look at how big Abishai is on it though! We got it when Abishai was so little and he would just sit on the headrest and was barely heavier than a person's head. Now I have to tell him to not do that or he'll break it!

Grogu has come to buy some groceries!

Abishai was upset that erased the "Welcome Home" part of the chalkboard so he recreated it on another part of the chalkboard.

More beauties!

I haven't tried to transplanting these little guys because they are so little and they pop up in different spots. I think they have regular spots every year, so I could try maybe in the fall. I just keep thinking they are so small so they must be more delicate than the irises. I'm probably so wrong. I just need to move this set in particular over about 6 inches. I think the other sets of these are ok. They don't get much taller than this though.

So much green!

I need to figure out what to do here. That stupid old sidewalk is there and so I can't just plant anything on the right side there and have it grow. It kind of made me so mad that they didn't take the time and the one who paid for it didn't want to pay the extra money to have it removed because now it's problem unless we put rock there. I don't want rock there. So, do I put pots there? Do they make shallow pots because I don't want to block out the rest of the stuff in the back. Jared put those low lying bushes and then two other really low lying bushes that I didn't like and eventually just weed whacked off to smithereens. He's now got another tree in the middle that's growing fine and will eventually take over I guess and a tiny little tree close to driveway. It's just all around a mess. Plus those two huge boulders that I guarantee you won't be coming out. I'm guess what we really need to do is put rock. That would solve the problem of using a weed whacker in there. It would make the three bushes stand out and unveil the other rocks. Next year perhaps.

We will get hedge trimmers and get these guys under control this year. They are a mess.  Just as long as Jared cleans up the mess when he's done. I feel like we also need something next to the rosebush. Ooooo, a birdbath! Ok, that's a mosquito magnet. But maybe something else like it!

Rose buds.

We've been working on hacking down this rosebush so it keeps back filling and it's working! Jared's so aggressive with his pruning though! It scared me the first year because he literally took it down to maybe a foot off the ground. He doesn't like when the stems grow past our window. They grow tall really quickly. I trimmed it a month ago and I thought I had gotten everything, but one had grown past our window again!

We are going into year 6 of owning this house. Each year, the flower garden gets easier to maintain because I know exactly what's supposed to be here and what doesn't need to be here. Some years a plant will do really well and then the next year it won't. Thankfully, we haven't lost anything. I'm really proud of that fact. It's my outdoor baby. So don't touch it! The kids and Jared can mess up the rest of the yard, but don't you dare touch my flower garden!

Flax seeds are getting even bigger with all these pop up showers!

Daddy's 43rd birthday today!

Oh man! These shorts finally bit the dust! We've had them for 13 years and they have gone through 3 boys. Our go to summer church shorts! They must have gotten caught on the spinner in the washer or the edge of the drummer in the dryer. Abishai loves these shorts! But there's no way to fix them because the rip went down the seam and then over. Bummers!

Socks, you are NOT helpful. Little lady needs to get up. It's like 11am!

No, this isn't lunch, snack or dinner. This is Keturah's BREAKFAST. She's eating bread and butter pickles FOR BREAKFAST!!!! No wonder she's so SOUR. Lol. And, she ate this jar in 24 hrs all by herself! She's so weird!

I just pray that our vehicles last a really long time or there will be a way to disable this tracking device.

Oo, since I wasn't able to get a great clear photo of the piano, here it is in all of its glory. Isn't it glorious?!

It was raining and we were waiting for Daddy to get home so he take me with him to lunch with his work buddies for his birthday. And then he took Abishai with him to the office after he dropped me back off. Abishai is such a goofball running around out there.

When we picked up the cashier set, Keturah got pickles, and I got honey lavender coffee. It's not strongly flavored, but it's good coffee otherwise. I like that Aldi has these fun flavors. You can smell and taste the flavors just a tad and I try to pair them the best I can with my flavored creamers. And if I want a plainer creamer, I use my plain almond milk.

This one is from Kroger and is on my absolute favorites. I usually pair it was a plain creamer so I can taste the coffee. I roast all my coffees very strongly, too. Like a scoop and half of coffee grounds when you really should go with a scoop in a Keurig type coffee maker. And yes, I end up with coffee grounds up in the rubber bit above the grounds because it splashes. Thankfully, it doesn't come through the reusable filter.

When Jared came home early for his birthday, we used the kids' screen time to watch part of the original Top Gun. We need to finish it before Jared and I go see the new Top Gun:Maverick movie for his birthday treat. He and I just sat there having fun remembering all the 80's things. No green screen. 80's music, hairstyles, clothes, etc. Tom Cruise only being 24 yrs old. We've watched it probably 3 times together. Abishai liked it so far. Justin was ok with it. Keturah was meh. Tom Cruise is now 60 yrs old. I can't wait to see the new one. Jared and I haven't seen a movie in the theater since before Covid. The new movie comes out May 27th. And it was actually delayed in being released because of Covid, too. So I've been watching the Twitter feed for the movie for like a year.

Thursday - Homemaking!

- Ah, a day of merry homemaking! It makes me so happy! Well, organizing, that is. I don't like scrubbing and cleaning and cooking. Laundry is easy, so I don't mind that. But organizing, that's what I love to do. I'm not great at decorating or painting but man, I'm good at sorting and filing and seeing what fits where and how. Maybe it's my ADHD and how it wants order and how I can pay attention to detail. I can look at the details and sort them into smaller categories. I can see who things intersect with each other and how something might be used more often than another thing, so maybe that should be more up front. Or all of it is just a skill set I've learned over the years. Yes and no. I've always organized my stuff. I used to line my teddy bears up from smallest to biggest. I would straighten up my shelves at the end of my bunk bed. We were lucky enough to have that little cubby and top shelf for each bunk bed. I would make my bed every day and do my homework on top of the covers, unlike Keturah who does hers under the covers. I still use only a lap blanket if I take a nap on my bed or something or I use the couch because I don't want to signal my body that it's bedtime (yes, I know I send mixed signals to my body all the time with my very late bedtimes). 

- Whichever way it happened, I love to organize. I just don't have the strength and time to always accomplish it. But today I accomplish stage 1, which was much more physical than I had anticipated, but I was determined to accomplish anyway, and stage 2, which took longer than I thought but I'm glad I got it done. But those two stages created a stage 3 I had not anticipated so stage 3 is now on my summer list, but towards the bottom because it's a) one of the hardest ones (which is actually get rid of stuff) and b) not on my radar for this summer. I am sore and very tired and I was very hungry at dinner. I didn't get to the blogging I wanted to do, BUT, that's ok. Now I can work on that the rest of the weekend and feel good about finally, finally, FINALLY getting those other things done that have been mocking me for MONTHS. See the photos below to find out what Stage 1 and Stage 2 and Stage 3 means.

- Meanwhile, I only left the house to pick up Justin from work. Jared took Abishai to karate tonight since his men's Bible study is now on Monday nights. I gave Keturah a list of items she could have done today. I finally had to turn off her wifi at 1pm because she blatantly refused to do any of them. They were: work on putting Abishai's Lego sets back together, vacuum my car (to earn her phone privileges for the month), start mowing the lawn, and start her summer school project. She hasn't been doing anything all week on these things and it shows. Every day is spent on her phone "I'm just playing my games." when clearly she's watching YouTube videos with her headphones on. Ooooo, I should ban the headphones! That way I can hear what she's listening to! I wish I could trust her, but I'm letting her spend 8 hrs on her phone all summer. What a waste! If she was spending time talking to others that would be one thing. But she isn't. And I think I need to do a clean sweep of her phone anyway. But I digress. She managed to do some of Abishai's Lego sets. She should have mowed because the sun was not out all day and once the grass finally dried, there was a nice window of time where she could have made huge progress. Now she has to mow in the big heat tomorrow. And it might be cooler on the weekend, but Grandpa needs his yard done, too. So, are we going to spend all weekend fighting about it again? Sigh. Yup. She can have her phone back tomorrow when 2 hrs of work is accomplished. 15-30 mins for every 2 hrs of mowing. 

- Abishai played with different things, helped me a bit, had screen time, and went to karate where he outran Teacher Nathan and Mrs Dana let him borrow her Korean vocabulary cards to help him with the names of the moves they do. He was worn out when he came home. Yeah! He read to himself and he found some keys to use to open and close up his Aldi store. He also built one of the Lego sets that Jared bought from Jim. I appreciate that Jim wanted to divest his Lego sets and that my boys could get them at a discount. But now, we have more Lego sets we didn't really need. And we listened to the same sermon and we should have been divesting and investing. Sigh. It's like me giving away one curriculum book and then buying 10 more curriculum books at a used homeschool book sale. Not exactly going the right way on the point of owning less. Oops. That's why I said I'm not done with my little project. I didn't actually go through the declutter project. I just moved the clutter to a different room and combined it with the other toys it goes with. Then I need to make some major decisions about what to keep. Aka, these are the big sized cars and trucks, as well as knock off Hot Wheel cars and various balls and things that aren't part of sets that I know I'm keeping for grandkids. Or even if I'm keeping for grandkids, like the playfood, is there anything in there I could pare done on? Anything in the costume box? I know I tried doing that one a couple of summers ago. I just haven't done much with the boys' cars and trucks. I just find that type of toy very difficult. And then the neighbor just gave us another large tote less than a month ago. Again, not good. Just say NO to donations, my kids. Say NO thank you. NO more comes into the house. If you want to bring something in, you need to take something else out. From clothing to toys. Seriously. One to one ratio. Or even two to one ratio like for every new item that comes in two items go out. That would be very, very helpful actually. Perhaps I can have that mindset when I'm out buying things, even if it's just clothes for myself. I just bought some shorts online so perhaps I can have a look in my drawers when they get here. It doesn't have to be shorts either. It could be dresses or old socks. If I'm going to keep the whole order, then I have to give up two of something else. Yeah, I like that.

- Buy one, give up two. That's my new cleaning out motto.

Ah, so that's what happened yesterday when Leah said something about going to the office and taking a photo with Jared or maybe Jared said she took a photo with him for his birthday. However, I only discovered the actual photo and post today because I was looking for a nice photo of Jared for my own phone background. See, I don't take nice photos of Jared because he's always in his loungewear or doing stuff with the kids and I have to be incognito because he hates for his photo to be taken. Thus, the kids and I didn't get a photo together on Easter or Mother's Day or on his birthday with him. Yup, I dropped the ball on all the holidays this year. Not worth the fuss. Or so I thought. But after the social media person repeatedly asked Jared to take this photo, he obliged. Um, I'm a little jealous, I won't lie. I beg and plead and beg and plead for nice photos and I get nothing. I feel it's pulling teeth and then when I finally give up, someone else gets to pluck the fruit of my labors. Sigh. Dude, not fair. It's a great photo of Jared and Leah, don't get me wrong. But, hello, wifey needs some love, especially when he refuses to put any photos of wifey and kids in his office. And he'd rather put shelf upon shelf of Lego cars instead. *insert very annoyed face*

Stage 2, organize Abishai's weaponry

Stage 1, undo this corner and convert the puzzle table corner to fit Jared's flip table. That means I have to put all the Hot Wheels and their tracks into a box and move all the rest of the toys into the sunroom, switch out the lamps from the table top one to the floor length room, vacuum, etc.

Part of Stage 1, get this monstrosity out of my space. Jared originally landed it where my mother's rocking chair is now, then it was in the garage for a while before we got the cabinets, and then he stopped using it per the spine surgeon's orders, now he's been released to use it a little bit. So he got it out an landed it here. I was like, no way, jose', it's NOT staying here, not even for a week. It's gotta go, asap. I'm not staring at this thing, or walking around it, or telling Abishai to get off it a million times. Nope. And I'm not moving the rocking chair back to the garage. NOPE, nada, nil. Thankfully Jared had already mentioned moving it in here months ago and at that time I had briefly thought about putting it in the spot where the puzzle table is, so I just needed to actually follow through with it. I just couldn't execute the plan until today.

Oh, sick! Gross! Fisher Price! I'm so disappointed in you! One of my ultimate favorite toy brands that have stayed so neutral and innocent over the years! Why did you have to go and do this? Why? Ewwwwwwwwwwww!!! Yes, I actually do know sort of who this person is. I come across this person in random videos and news pieces. Ugh!

I've been flexing my hot topic disccusion skills with some pro choice people the last few days on that video I posted that was incredibly slanted towards slamming pro-lifers and how awful it would be to let Roe v. Wade be overturned and how each state needs to not ban abortion. The best part of it was learning how the English language is manipulated in opinion pieces (the video) and in the comments. It used to be pro choice and pro life and that was it. Now pro life people are called anti choice and instead of believing in life, we believe in forced birth. So incredibly negative. I won't call someone who is pro choice, anti life because I don't actually think fits. I'm not really anti choice. I believe that the majority of women do have a choice. They have a choice to have sex outside of marriage or not. Abortion is not a form of birth control. Creating a life is a consequence of their immoral behavior. And now they have to live with it. Killing that baby is just adding another layer of sin on top of that sin. And in the cases of incest and rape, the girl or woman will already be going through therapy anyway. Killing the unborn baby inside the womb only again, adds another layer on top of that. Carry that child to term and then put it up for adoption or keep it, but do not murder it. There was a lot of other discussions about medical terms and scenarios about health of the mother (which is rare that a pregnancy threatens the life of a mother, except for ectopic pregnancy perhaps). But now I'm done with it. I need to move on and no one is listening of course.

Amen.

I had a Justin ADHD moment where I completely left my breakfast stuff on the table and went and sat in Jared's chair and continued doing my email. I looked up and it was still there. Whoops.

Too cute! Abishai is reading to Grogu and Socks!

I was putting the folding table away with the other one behind Socks' food dish and picked up the glue mouse trap that was behind there. And wouldn't you know, there was a mouse in there! Poor thing, it looks like it's sleeping. I don't know how long ago this way. It didn't stink. It didn't look that dried out. I haven't heard a mouse in ages though. It looks so tiny, too. And there's tons of dog hair though. So, one month? Two months? Who knows. But it's gone. That's all that matters.

Stage 1 Complete. I have my pretty sitting room back to normal. Now, don't touch it!

Stage 1 Complete! Ta da! No one was using the table to build puzzles and the toys were really just blocking the vent anyway and causing a mess, so, now, the clutter is gone! But that silly flip table for your back takes up so much room! And it's so heavy and awkward to move, too. I hate moving it. Thankfully, it doesn't really hit the hanging photos and it's only the head rest that bumps them. The actual table catches itself in the middle first, so the headrest does not bump the wall. Jared will pull it out to use it anyway. But then I had to pull that end of the couch out to switch the light plugs and that takes a lot of back strength. My back is not talking to me tonight, let's put it that way.

Stage 1 created a new stage, Stage 3. Uh oh. I hadn't planned on going through the big cars and trucks, and misc balls and things but it looks like I'm going to need to. We just simply can't keep them all. Plus there's now a brand new big tub of them to the right there next to Abishai that came from the neighbor's house. The purple bin is Micro Machines, so I won't be going through that as it's what I call a "set" and is saved as such for the next generation. They came mostly from my childhood. And then the big box next to the picture books is the Geotrax which again is a "set" that is not being added to that will be saved as is. Obviously there's the bike in the middle. And then I created the Hot Wheels box in the foreground today with all the tracks and smaller sets. Abishai has the Hot Wheels brand cars in a different bin because they are his personal collection. What's left in here for smaller cars are the Matchbox brand and then various cars and trucks of other sizes. Some go as far back as my childhood, some are from Benaiah, some came from overseas, etc. So what do you get rid of? Eek! I'm so grateful to have a shed that is pretty trustworthy and I can store and rotate out different sets of toys. Some day I hope to give our toys to the grandchildren. But for now, I'm grateful Abishai has gotten so much more use out of them than the other kids did. It helps that I'm very organized and I've always kept my toys neat and well taken care of. I don't lose pieces or draw on them or tear at them. And I've tried to teach my kids to do the same.

A friend was missing her mom today and posted this. I thought it was really good.

Socks had his last puppy ice cream treat of the 4 cups we got him a few months ago. Yummy.

Hey, look, it's my hardworking day laborer, goods stocker, inventory counter, bag lifter, water bottle carrier, and crazy looking hobo hat wearing dude! This job totally suits this boy. Kind of slow, lots of customer service, lots of physical labor, not tons of intricate thinking, laid back, but lots of great learning experiences. It's awesome. I'm still not sure what to think about the baseball hat and long hair on his hairs look though. He says he swoops his hair back and then puts his hat on, but I seriously doubt it because I see guys swoop their hair back and it never falls like that. I can't think of another word but hobo. That's my Justin though. What a goofball. Gotta love him.

I was playing piano and Abishai said, Mommy, look! Aww, so sweet!

Stage 2 complete! All I really did was separate out the different types of weaponry Abishai had here. I put all the Nerf brand guns at the bottom of the green bin and that will be their permanent storage from now on. And then I gathered all the Nerf bullets into a smaller bag and put it in there. Then I put the other weapons into the army bag that the Nerf stuff was in and put that on top of the Nerf guns inside the green bin for now. If we were to store the Nerf stuff, I would take the army bag out and put it with the rest of the dress up stuff in the sunroom and close the Nerf box. Unfortunately, the three weapons on the clear box are too big for the green bin so they had to go back on top of the clear tub. The clear tub is the big box of Legos from Jim. There isn't supposed to be anything on top of it because it sinks down into the tub. But whatever, I can live with it. I put Abishai's costumes in the red cabinet behind the Nerf guns. I didn't mess with the books and Legos on the other shelf as that's an entirely different project and would go with the other bookshelf. And the Keturah is currently working on putting Abishai's Lego sets back together for me. The whole point of this Stage was to sort everything out and to put things away enough to reveal the hot/cold air vent so the boys' room would be properly heated and cooled again. So, I achieved that. There's always more to do of course. I'm not sure if or when I'll tackle Abishai's clothes like I usually do in the spring (and fall). And of course the Legos are always in issue. I might help Justin by boxing up the rest of Benaiah's stuff on the shelves. But I really want Justin to finish cleaning up the Lego table and I want shelves to be built on the other wall over the Lego table, too. So, it's still a work in progress.

I was missing Jared today so I was looking for a decent photo of him to put on my phone. That's why I was looking for the e2 one. So, I just cut Leah out of this one, lol.

To quote Skittle's ads from the '90's, "Taste the rainbow!" I'm hungry after all that hard work today. Yeah for leftovers!

In the cleaning out, Abishai found these keys. He says they are now his keys to open and close his Aldi store.

Ta da! Abishai's Aldi store!

Yup, I wasn't sure if I would really eat all of that, but I did without batting an eye!

Ugh! Boys! Why?! Is it really worth it?! Buying $290 worth of Lego sets for $70 from Jared's friend worth it? Yes, yes, it's worth it.

Especially this beauty. Oh my word, I love these sets. That's why we need nice shelves to put them on! I couldn't care less about the cars.

Jared looked over my shoulder and said, wow! My bamboo is taller than the sunroom windows! Why yes, yes it is! This angle is from me being up close the window and looking sort from above.

From this angle you can see more straight on how high up it is. I know the screen is in the way, but the top of the bamboo is sitting level with the top of the trampoline in your line of sight. Obviously it's not that way in real life because of  you know, that pesky art term for what things look like far away vs nearer? Perspective? Yup, it's late and I'm tired. You know what I mean. The bamboo is like over 6 ft tall. That's what you need to know. It's exciting.

Friday -Bananas!

- Well, it all went bananas! Beautiful banana muffins that is! I tried a random banana muffin from online, a regular gluten one, and they turned out beautiful. They were a hit with our Friday park day people and some even took some for their husbands! I felt pretty pleased with myself. Even Abishai ate two of them! I'm going to print out the recipe and write down exactly what I did so it comes out just as good next time. Jared had picked up two bunches of bananas that were only the right kind of ripeness the way my kids would eat them for one day and they refused to eat them the rest of the week. I would have picked up only 1 small bunch and passed on getting anymore this time. So, I was looking up recipes that would use up more than a couple of bananas. This one used 3, but the reviews said it still didn't taste very much like banana. So when I double the recipe, I had in a 7th banana just for fun. And there was a TON of sugar in it, as well. I whipped the wet ingredients first, included melted butter, in the big mixer first to make sure we got the light, fluffiness of whipped eggs in there and it did the trick to really get the muffins to make huge domes. I could have easily made 3 dozen muffins instead of 2 dozen muffins in the size I usually make. So when I brought them to Friday park day, I made sure to bring a plastic knife in case any of the moms want to only have half of a one for a small kid. I wouldn't have cared if half of one had gotten thrown away anyway. I was just using up the bananas and it's just some flour and other ingredients. But it did call for nutmeg and cinnamon. Anyway, it took Abishai and I a bit longer to get them done because of his help, so I didn't get to work on much else this morning.

- Then we went out to Greenfield for park day at 2. We could have gone up to the splash pad because it was open, and we had prepared for it, but there were plenty of people at the playground and everybody seemed content there, even Abisahi, so we left it at that. Abishai was a punk all morning, not listening, getting into stuff, and then throwing a fit when we said we go to the park first. So, I felt no need to even try to go to the splash pad on the way home and he didn't insist either. I think he was worn out from the playground. Plus, of course, we had Kya by that point, too. We came home, rested for a few minutes, and regrouped enough to put dinner together.

- Meanwhile, I put my foot down and made Keturah mow for 2 hrs before her job cleaning for Renae. I dropped her off there before we left for park day and then Renae brought here back. Mysteriously, a house key showed up and I think maybe Benaiah left it for us or something. So now I can just leave that for Keturah to take or something. Or Justin can put it on his keyring when he starts driving alone in a few weeks.  She managed to get the side yard and back yard done in 2 hrs and 23 minutes this time. She should have continued doing the front lawn because now she's going to have to work around major storms in the next few days. Super frustrating to me. I am timing her this time, and I think it's helping her to hustle. And I said this to myself today, it's not about the grass looking nice as much as it is teaching my children self initiation tasks and responsibility and follow through. So, now she has to work around heat and storms. Perfect day today to mow though, quite warm but with a breeze.

- Justin work with bad allergies so he didn't do much today. He enjoyed himself at the park, although I wasn't sure he was going to actually make it. Now, if he and I could just catch up on some sleep, we could respond better to these seasonal allergies. He wants his ears cleaned out and I had to once again remind him of basic biology of the ear in that it's not about ear wax but that the sinuses near the ears get clogged up and push up on the ear canal causing the sensation that it's full and also affecting balance (causing vertigo). I just recently saw a video on how a doctor cleans out ears and how some patients have nothing and some have a ton. I think it's not necessary and that it's just sinuses like I have. I simply don't have time to go down the route of the ENT because all they will do is give allergy medication and tell you to stop putting q-tips in your ears. And we won't do either. So, moving on from there.

Thank goodness it's Friday. Tomorrow it's going to be rainy and I hope to fully catch up with blog stuff and then start afresh on the rest of the paperwork on my desk like those medical bills of Jared. Then I will work on more physical projects around the house.

Jared and I will be going to the new Top Gun: Maverick movie soon so I thought this was pretty cool. It's the actors Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan from the first Top Gun movie meeting Princess Diana in the top photo. And then it's Tom Cruise again the bottom photo meeting Prince William and Kate in the bottom photo at the British premiere of the new movie. Prince William flew helicopters for the British. He even wore these coal loafers (they looked like slippers!) that had F-18's embroidered on them. So he (who is my age) grew up watching Top Gun (which released in 1986 when we were 5 years old) and now he got to to have this special moment. I think it's pretty cool. I like Tom Cruise and a lot of his movies are pretty edgy and interesting. He's met the Queen and has decent respect for the crown. Tom Cruise was 24 yrs old in the original Top Gun and he's now 60 years old! Crazy! And fun fact, there was an awesome theme park ride where you sit in a chair and dangle your feet at Kings Island in Ohio and it was one of the only ones I really liked. It was a bit slower, but not a kiddie ride. It was over near the Son of the Beast, if I remember correctly, and we rode over a ton of trees and vegetation so it was quite pleasant.  Jared and I have enjoyed watching Top Gun together over the years and I really do appreciate the technology and science that goes into flying jets. And it helped me appreciate seeing them when we went to the Indy Air Show, which, da da da! We get to go again next month with Abishai! It's back! Or it has been but I wasn't sure when and how pre-pandemic, and then it was on hold, but now it's back. Time to see some airplanes of all sorts!

This is also a weird thing to include here, and I also took this off of Facebook. But I want to include it because it's great memory to have. This guy's name is Norm Abram and after 43 in show business/woodworking/DIY home modeling, he is officially retiring. My dad religiously watched him for years and years and years. This was our HGTV before HGTV existed. My dad watched The New Yankee workshop and This Old House just like I watch videos on homesteading and raising animals and having huge beautiful vegetable gardens. Both he and I could never really physically do it or spend money on it, but we dream/ed of doing it. We know all sorts of things about it. It fascinates us. And Mr. Abram even looks a lot like my Dad. Sometimes I think my Dad styled himself after him, lol. The plaid shirt, glasses, beard, haircut, the bit of a belly, the whole thing. or maybe it's just because I associate the shows with my Dad. Anyway, one of the best things about watching these shows instead of HGTV is the New England/Boston accents! HGTV has all the typical mostly midwestern accents. But This Old House especially is filled with hosts and contractors from New England. And the houses are like 100-200 yr old incredible structures with the tall windows and narrow staircases, not the bungalow and ranch style homes out here. So, for me, it's a piece of home. My friends on Facebook say they remember watching them with their dads, too. Awesome. Here's an article about the tribute show. This Old House article

I'm guessing he's my Dad's age and my Dad would look something like if he was still around. It's been almost 11 yrs since my Dad passed away.

Throw back pic of Mr. Abram That haircut reminds me of my Dad.

Talking about throwback pics! This one came across my feed today! I love this one and remember titling it something like he was pondering some deep thoughts. And really, he's lived up to that. He's definitely a thinker. Oh my, I think this photo was taken on our bed and on top of the comforter, the darker brown side. And yes, we still have that comforter and we were under that same comforter today. We switch it to the lighter color in the summer. It's a two sided/reversible one I got over 10 years ago.

So we created a new snuggly pic 7 years later!

Teenagers. Teenagers who have responsibilities. Teenagers who could have started mowing yesterday and now have a mean, mad mother on their hands who are not afraid to post their sleeping photo on the internet. She work for almost 3 hrs today and got the side yard and back yard one. We are having a lot of summer storms already so there's no time to waste to get work done.

I think I described it well above, so here are the banana muffins Abishai and I made today. 7 bananas, lots of sugar, regular flour, 24 huge muffins. Could have easily made 36 smaller muffins. They were a HUGE hit, so huge that a couple of the ladies took them home to their husbands! I'm so proud of myself and glad that I made the effort to use the big mixer, and switched the directions to whipping up the wet ingredients and sugars first in order to get the eggs all fluffy with the melted butter and then slowly added the flour and other dry ingredients. It also had cinnamon AND nutmeg AND vanilla extract in them. I saved and printed off the recipe. Here it is: Ultimate Banana Muffins

Teens! It's good to see them outside on this 88 degree almost summer day! I don't consider it summer until after Memorial Day.

Abishai dressed for the splash pad but we didn't actually go, as I suspected we wouldn't.

We had several more families show up, which is usually the case when we are at a park closer to Greenfield. We were at one of the Greenfield parks this time. Here's some more older teens and then we had middle school teens, too. Mostly all girls though.

When you cut your finger on a dog food can, you have to go find a band-aid. While we have grown up band aids, I knew that the princess band-aids were getting used so I literally skipped down the hallway to the bathroom to find one. I found a Mickey and Minnie one with XOXO on it. Hehe!

Whoops! Perhaps I should have pulled this tree out so hard! It's a walnut tree and I think Jared purposefully planted it! Or maybe Abishai did! Either way, check out these roots! Since Abishai and I just studied this in Science, I took this photo for him. And then I gave the tree back to Jared to try to plant and revitalize. How fascinating is this?! How can a mighty walnut tree grow from just a seed such as this? I think this is a dicot seed. I can't believe that people believe this kind of stuff just randomly happens. It takes way more faith to believe that it's random than it does to believe a Creator made it.

Walnut perhaps?

First day of mowing? And then perhaps a bit more? And since I'm writing this on Saturday, she's spent another 1 1/2 hrs on the yard. I did tell her that I think it all can be done in 4 hrs or less. And I think timing her helped her hustle a little. It still feels like it's taking forever because I had to start and stop the timer every time she would come in for something or when she stopped to work for Renae or we had dinner or it was time to go to bed. But, if we can get the timing condensed down each time, that would be helpful. I think on his best days Justin could get it all done in 2 1/2 or 3 hrs, maybe? And worse, very hot days it was over 4 for sure. It's just the starting and stopping that bothers me. I've also just now put together a checklist because I'm tired of sending her back out there because she keeps forgetting this part of the yard or that. And I'm having trouble keeping it all straight in my own head. I have to visualize the yard in my head and mentally go through it. Now having it written down will prevent her from having excuses of "you didn't me to do that" or "that's not part of the job." I left room for tasks I left out since I only spent 10 minutes on it. I'm going to conquer this issue because it's not about grass, it's about obedience and being responsible.

Well, that's a funny way to have screen time. And, not the best place since you're blocking the door. He is trying to charge his tablet. What he needed to do was move Daddy's bag and have the charging cord wrap around brown chair like he normally does. But he's cute and innovative anyway. He didn't play video games with Daddy at all. He hadn't had his own screen time yet, because we were out, and he had been all over the place emotionally and physically today, so we all needed a quiet break. Jared and I went outside and did a few yard work items to finish our daylight hours in case bad weather comes tomorrow instead of Jared playing video games with Abishai and me sitting down right away to type (thus I'm typing on Saturday instead).

Saturday - Home All Day

 - I decided not to go to a high school graduation open house since I've been out all week and I really needed to rest and work. It would have been to see these folks but something has to give. I can always go visit them another time. I spent 5 hrs already trying to blog, catch up on emails, work on some paperwork, and misc. computer things. My butt is sore from this chair, my eyes hurt, my legs are restless, and I've spent another two more hrs doing a whole lot of not much but whatever. Ok, fine, I did post the IAHE Marketplace on a strategic local homeschool page and just got 6 new people to sign up for it SO hopefully maybe that particular group might start to realize that other people who are posting in that group is posting the wrong information before I go and talk to the admin about it. I don't want to step on anybody's toes on this group because the admin is well known in the Indy parenting scene and eek, I'm a nobody. I didn't realize that until I just looked. Whoops. I'm glad I hadn't commented on the posts randomly like I usually do. The group is sort of big, but a lot of my regular homeschoolers are on it, too and know better about the laws of homeschooling. I have to keep an eye on it, let's just say that. Anyway, I was catching up on other news. But I'll try to punch in the rest of today here, before I go back and maybe load up the pics of earlier this week. And then tomorrow maybe I can finish the blog. And then get the cd's done and backup.

- I'm grumpy because I binged my show until 4am and it shows because everything is bothering me today. Keturah is also grumpy because she is tired and sore from doing most of the yardwork in under 4 hrs. She needs to trim but the trimmer broke on her again. She literally had a meltdown, got a headache and had to be sent to bed right after dinner crying complete with tears. That's totally not like her at all. She might have some of the bug that Abishai had earlier this week or the seasonal allergies have hit her, too. Either way, she was a complete train wreck. She fell asleep right away. Then I guess she got up and went to the bathroom as Abishai was going to bed and I think she took a shower or something and went back to bed again. We'll see how she is in the morning. And I'll have to follow up with her on the trimming. I need to insist that we buy a new trimmer and a real blower for this house. And I'll also have to remember to praise her for getting the lawn done in 4 hrs. She gave us a lot of grief about other things though. And I've been in quite my own mood. So I've tried to stay away from others myself. I've got this itchy patch of skin on my collarbones/sternum and I don't know what it's from and it is directly affecting my mood. And I just don't feel like I can properly Sabbath right now either. I did lay down for a little bit and work out some of my knots because my legs and hips and arms and shoulders just won't settle down. But I feel like Keturah, any little thing is going to tip me over.

- Justin woke up whining about his nose bleeding again. His sinuses are clogged with allergies. We were outside for 2 hrs yesterday. The air is dry inside from air conditioning. He sleeps on the floor with dog hair and dust. He now wants to get some kind of laser treatment that blasts away at the pores inside his nose. And a) I don't have time to pursue the pcp, ent, get approval for a procedure like that, set up appointment, worry about recovery time, just so it doesn't work, all under Medicaid. Not after the last few weeks of back to back appointments and b) I don't think it's wise to blast your nostrils and stop them from doing what they are supposed to be doing. Especially from what I know of how thin those membranes are and how easily broken they are. That's why they bleed like that. If he wants to get them done someday, it's up to him. We can look into getting an air purifier and humidifier (like something closer to essential oil diffusers) for their room. And he can wash his sheets more often and not sleep in the same clothes he rolls around in the grass in. Same goes with him wanting his ears cleaned. I recently watched a video about three people getting their ears legitimately cleaned out by ENT's  and it's a toss up if you even half anything in there. (I think I explained this yesterday). So same thing, I'm not taking the time to work on this right now, especially when he only complains while his sinuses are full of snot. All our noses are full of snot. It's called spring. And it's called being a Johnson. Get over it.

- And of course Abishai was full of energy and needing Daddy's full attention. He played a lot on his own, too, all day. But Jared brought out new Lego sets to build with him to help distract him, too. Jared is finishing up the last couple of grading assignments today as they are due by Monday. He also did a lot of cooking for us today. He visited Jim for a bit this afternoon. And then starting next week we will shift gears back to home improvement projects on Saturday. 

- And now Keturah can't sleep because of her nap. She still has a tension or sinus headache, scratchy throat, and nasal drainage, great. I gave her some benadryl (and I took some for my own itchy issues) and some ibuprofen and sent her back to bed.

Creative play all day long.

C'mon, Mom, let me out! Let me out! Meanwhile Abishai is not phased at all and continues to make stories in small spaces.

Another Saturday of Lego. Next week, it's time to make some Lego shelves!

It wasn't a Christmas gift, I don't think. Or maybe it was. I can't remember. I think it might have been a "I'm sorry, so here, have a pan because I found it at Aldi make up gift" lol. I'm sure he'll enjoy it. He'll do all the seasoning of it and speciality cleaning and what not. I'm not a huge fan of them because they are so heavy and I know you can't use a lot of soft and heavy scrub brushes on them.

Jared looked up from the kitchen table and exclaimed, "Whoops! I better go outside because Abishai is talking to the neighbor!" And Jared hasn't officially met the new neighbors yet. I haven't either. But Socks barks at the pups all the time. Abishai claims he will just climb over the fence to play with his new friends. Well, we'll see. Their kids are very young, so around Abishai's age.

More Lego building.

Socks went ballistic all of a suddent. And lo and behold the baby bunny was in the backyard! Well, hello! And no, I wasn't going to let Socks out because he had just been out. I just have gone outside at some point today and soaked in the warm weather.

Good bye Mr. Peter Cottontail. You're being brave getting that close to the puppy. Enjoy your snack for now! Bye!

Sunday - Jared's Birthday Dinner

- Keturah woke up still with a headache and runny nose so she didn't go to church. I was slow moving and wasn't going to make it to either church in time, so I stayed home with her and played the sermons for both loud enough for her to here as well. And it's a good thing I did. I was able to catch both the new high school minister at Indian Creek being introduced and a missionary at New Pal Bible being introduced for ministry here stateside. As far as actually listening to the topics of the sermons, I may have slacked off a little today. Indian Creek's was your typical sermon on silence and solitude and sounded very similar to Dan's sermons on the topic from the past. I didn't really catch anything from New Pal Bible and when I hooked my phone into the speaker in the bathroom, the YouTube feed was very quiet and I couldn't hear it over the noise of the shower so I had to listen to something else. I'll need to listen to it again later. I know it was Daniel and the Lion's Den. Otherwise, it was a quiet morning to have my silence and solitude and commune with God after a long week and busy Saturday trying to catch up from the busy week. And I'm nearly done catching up!

- Then I did have to go to the Creek for Abishai's Camp Allendale meeting where he meets his camp leaders and other boys in his group. There's 2 leaders and about 6 boys his age. It was so neat to see that he knows at least a dozen names of kids in his 2nd grade class! And then I got to see Abihai go over to a shy friend that is usually fine in Sunday School his mom said and Abishai told him about how he was scared on his first day of camp but then by the end of the day, he didn't want to leave. Abishai needed NO prompting by us. He intuitively knew which story from his personal life to tell in order to comfort the other boy. It was so sweet! And then he pointed out the other boys and told us their names. He also almost immediately got friendly with his leader, Sam Southworth, whom we know. And when we mingled with other groups, he pointed out girls by name, too. What a little socialite! The other kids couldn't do that. So incredible to see him in action! 

- So we didn't get to Grandparent's house until after 1. Thankfully it was Jared's birthday dinner and you can't start the birthday dinner without the guest of honor. So they had to wait for us. During dinner, vacation was brought up and I think we figured it out! I had JUST thought about it this morning even! So perfect timing! Not so perfect in some other ways, but I'll be working on that. We did get to see a few quarrels between the the older ones among us, so that was a bit unusual. 

- After that, we did presents and a meat lovers' bouquet for dessert. Man, maybe Gary needs to stay home and straighten us all out. Then we went home for the usual afternoon screen times and naps. Justin was barely off in time to get to New Pal for youth group. Keturah still went to her last small group at church despite not feeling good. They played sardines, her least favorite game. She should have spoken up about being sick, too. But she didn't and she's now spread germs on all of them going into their last week of school. But whatever. She knows better.If it wasn't that it was her last small group of middle school, I wouldn't have encouraged it.

- And Justin finished the day with Kya and the gang. They played outside and then went in and started a new series on some social topics like abortion, homosexuality, and Black Lives Matter being started by two lesbian women. This is why I get so excited about Pastor Rex's talks at the Rock! He gets straight the good stuff even with the 7th graders! While his counterparts at Crave had a party and did some kind of Survivor game to finish out their year before they head into their on again off again summer routine. I keep asking Justin every week if he's sure he doesn't want to go Crave because they are doing this or that and he says he doesn't care. He wants to be with Kya and this new crew of kids, that are still in his age range. I mean she's going to be a freshman this year, but there are older guys and gals in the Rock youth group. And he doesn't just hang out with Kya. He mingles well. I've heard that sometimes Kya doesn't understand why he mingles so much with the others and not her, lol. I'm like, ok, buddy, if you can hold down the fort in two different social groups, more power to ya.

- I burned some bridges and I feel like I had to sneak back into Indian Creek today just to go to this meeting for Abishai. It was a parent meeting and I have to remind myself that there might be other parents that are sending their kids to camp that aren't part of the church. So, it's really ok. Just go in, do what I need to do, and get out. Smile and wave and say hi to those who say hi. It will get easier with time. And move on. No one is thinking about you, remember? That's why you left. But it's very, very hard, because I have 20 years there. I know everything by heart. You don't just forget that stuff. It will be awkward like a divorce after 20-30 years. Patience and grace. And lots of practice and staying confident in my decision. Embrace where I'm at now and enjoy it and my new friendships without comparing it to the old. Just as long as Jared and I don't bring it up with each other, we'll be fine. We just can't talk about it. As soon as we do, we start to head towards a problem. Just like when we walked out of the meeting today and he said some snarky comment about how he thinks I think all the kids Abishai comes in contact with are evil and heathens. Good grief. No. I don't say that or think that. I think in generalities. Of course they aren't that. There will be exceptions. And on the surface level, most people are fine. But start to go deeper with people and you'll find it's not that easy. I only spent 5 minutes with those little boys. If I spent 1 hr with them on any given Sunday in their classroom, I would be able to discern a whole different dynamic of who they interact with each other and which ones are good enough for my son and which ones aren't. I know I can't control any of the kids' environment and interactions 100% of the time. That's why I pray all the time. But Benaiah was teased at church in 4th grade for being homeschooled. I've seen bad interactions between the others and their very good homeschool friends at times, just like I had to discipline Abishai on Friday about it. We had a good, friendly 15 minutes with people. That's just a snippet. That's called Facebook or Instagram post. That's not called doing life together. I need a good hour with someone before I can discern anything about them. So Jared's comments were very, very unfair. And he better not judge any new friends of mine that way either. So, I'm a little miffed at him right now about it. He doesn't have to be so tit for tat about it. So defensive. Just let it be. And then yes, he sent me this photo about the new high school minister being introduced and said something about "see, dan was just waiting until he got back from paternity leave to introduce them because he wanted to do it himself I bet. so get off your high horse." Or something like that. So Jared is looking for ways to point out to me that I'm wrong. And I am doing the same over here as well. It's not necessary. We need to just let it lie. Tell some facts if it's pertinent to our family like, "Brandon was introduced in church today." 

 - Anyway, what started out as a peaceful day ended with a little more emotional than I wanted and needed. I need to rest up this week and maybe work on a few things. We'll see. I need to Sabbath tomorrow first. After I get this silly photo cd's done and my photos backed up! Onward and upward!

Dan was back on stage today at Indian Creek and he introduced the new high school minister, Brandon Grubbs. I think the kids are in middle school and on down.

And then at New Pal Bible, Pastor Brett introduced one of the missionaries who has decided to come back and be full time missionaries here on the Indy's southeast sides. They were originally from India, and I don't know details, but they feel called to serve the Indian community, so maybe, just maybe, it would be cool to get them hooked up with our Indian friends! I wish I had gone to church just for that! But I stayed  home because I woke up late and wasn't ready on time and Keturah stayed home because she wasn't feeling well. Plus if I had gone to church I would have missed the announcement about Brandon at Indian Creek.

Despite the Johnson nose and seasonal allergens, open the windows this week! PERFECT spring weather! I can't wait to get outside tomorrow! I didn't have time today, but I'm going to make it a point to get out tomorrow and Tuesday before the rain hits. And then on Friday for park day!

Happy birthday, Daddy! He may be 7 and he may be Mr. Independent and he may be a leader who likes to make sure everyone feels ok and is included in the group, but he is very attached to his Daddy at all times.

It never gets old.

Jared birthday dinner

Pile o' presents.

Sweet! From the Mackinac Bridge like Gary got for Christmas! And we might be making the trip again over Labor Day and walking it again! I truly wouldn't mind doing that trip again! And this time, when I'm on the Island, I AM going to bike around it again! I AM! Maybe Jared and I should do a tandem bike together or something.

Abishai had to decode Daddy's secret way of labeling the package. He's had this package since November.

Scratching the kid under the chin like he's a cute dog or something, alrighty then.

Hm,.....specially wrapped in advance as has been the trend with the J4. They are always ahead of the game! Sweet messages, too.

A set of American coin proofs from 1979!

Interesting question because I have seen it many times without the H.

Rarer set these days. He bought this at the Lego resale shop.

Jared's birthday "cake," aka a meat "bouquet."

A gift card from the oldest.

Leah made the card at one of her "stamp camps."

Whoops, I might be out of it because I brought the dishwasher sign into the sunroom with me. This sign tells the kids if the dishwasher is clean or dirty. Yes, I know, I need a better one. I need to just add one to my Amazon list. I actually put it ON the counter top instead of on the dishwasher because they would never see it on the dishwasher. It was just an impromptu sign and I keep in a drawer. It's lasted 5 years.

I'm borrowing this photo from a 2nd grade small group leader, who also happens to be Justin's actual small group leader as well, Mr. Ron, who is in the middle there in the back with the gotee. I, and Abishai, were looking forward to Ron being Abishai's teacher in Sunday School next year, along with Rob, who is right next to the TV there. I'm kind of bummed that Ron and Sam his son will be moving up to middle school to help there in teaching Middle School worship. He will still finish out with Justin's small group as a leader though. Oh well, at least Abishai still get to be with Rob and Justin.