Year 7, May 23rd-30th, 2022: Summer Starts/Indy 500

 Monday - Bucket Lists

- I think it's safe to say we can finally really start the summer months. I took today as more of my Sabbath since I worked hard on my computer on Saturday and Sunday. I did a little bit more today, putting photos on CD's and backing up my photos, but for the most part I feel caught up. Abishai played quietly here and there today, too. But he and I had time to poke at each other and that's the kind of day I want to have with my children. I also got to more quietly check in with Keturah and see how she was feeling. She still doesn't feel well so I let her sleep in and let her have her phone all day without saying one word about what she was doing otherwise. Hopefully that made her feel less stressed out. If I hadn't been listening to a long podcast, I, too, would have taken a nap this afternoon.

- Justin announced that he wanted me to take him to the bank to deposit his check and I told him no, it wasn't on my agenda. I wanted to do my usual thing of actually laying down between 3-5pm. And that's what I did. I thought about going outside thought because the weather is gorgeous. I just know that the chair aren't comfortable enough to lay down on. And the ground isn't either, although I could have put cushions down on the ground I suppose with a towel underneath. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow.

- But goodness gracious, if this itchy skin doesn't stop I'm calling the dermatologist. My whole body is creeping and crawling like never before, especially around my sternum. It's quite bothersome and distracting. I just want to scratch myself all day long but that's going to irritate it more. Ugh! I don't know what it's from though. Nothing significant has changed except seasonal allergens in the air. I don't want to take Benadryl every day. But I will take it at night if I need to for awhile if it will help. No amount of anti itch creams, essential oils, lotions, baths, aloe, whatever is helping. I wish I knew if it was external or internal. I think it's external. My diet hasn't changed. But I don't sleep and I'm stressed so that's a factor, too. And my hormones are, as well. I just don't know what to do next about it. So, yes, I'm calling derma in the morning.

- Speaking of doctors, I almost forgot about a telehealth appointment for Justin today. I took Abishai to karate and Jared took Justin to the bank to deposit his check and get some cash to buy another Lego set from Jim. But thankfully, I saw a reminder on my phone before they left the bank that I had this telehealth appointment for Justin with Dr. Pryor. So I had Jared drop Justin off to me at the studio so we could the appointment in the car while Abishai was in class. Well, Dr. Pryor didn't call until class was ending, but that's ok. We got Justin's ADHD medication tweaked, and since Abishai was right there with us, Dr. Pryor was able to bring up his file as well and send in a prescription for a different class of ADHD medications for him to try. Killed two birds with one stone. Boom. And really, three since we did the appointment during karate class time. So, to celebrate, we went to Culver's on the way home for ice cream. I did get some real custard strawberry milkshake. I was going to only drink part of it, but, ended up drinking all of it. So far, my stomach is ok. I took some digestive enzymes so they must be doing their job. Phew! It was SOoooooo good!!! And we got Keturah some ice cream, too since had asked for Dairy Queen earlier in the day. I had said no because how could she possible fully experience ice cream if her throat and nose aren't able to taste and smell it? Anyway, it was a good way to start the summer with ice cream. Cross that off the bucket list!

- Abishai and I did work on a summer bucket list. Just like Gary wanted to work on setting vacations for the rest of the year. We talked about doing some fun things while the kids were at CIY and Daddy has that week off (forced e2 vacation time, office is closed). I did play Aldi cashier with him for breakfast. We did snuggle on the couch and watch YouTube for a brief moment. He stuffed his face with crackers full of gluten and then laughed and hiccuped and got them all over the place. 

- So, despite being exhausted, it was really good Monday

While I was waiting to pick up Justin, I had pulled into the garden center part of the parking lot of Wanamaker Feed and Seed. I looked over and saw a bird bath similar to this one. I had already thought about what to do with the empty spot between the rose bush and the other big bush and had come to the conclusion to put something other than plan there. So, tomorrow I'm going to go early and see what the price of the simple shallow bird bath is. I'm also going to look for some pots for my aloe plant and maybe my flax plants. We'll see.

They were working on their kicks and punches tonight. Abishai needs to work on his range of motion and kick higher on his roundhouse kicks. But he looks so cute with this tiny gloves on.

And I did. And so far so good, no stomachaches. Thanks to a food vlogger's digestive enzymes. Those things are miracle pills I tell ya. I already take them daily to deal with overall gut issues and they take care of my daily coffee intake, cheese slices, and peanut butter bar. I took two more after I drank this and so far, I haven't had any issues. Thank goodness because this plain strawberry custard milkshake hit the spot tonight! Yummy!

Tuesday - Slower morning, finishing strong.

 

Teen Girl in her real natural habitat with her dog beside her.

Bubble blowing...inside! Come on now, let's take it OUTSIDE! But Mommy's work is inside, so they won't go outside without her. Grrrr.....whatever, just don't soak the rug, would ya?

At least he still enjoys blowing bubbles.

Truth.

I prepped dinner right after lunch so all Keturah had to do was turning everything on and/or stick it in the oven before we got home from counseling. Well, she didn't turn the potatoes on so we didn't eat until 6:30, but, at least it was prepped. Prep took me an hour. Meatballs aren't hard, they are just time consuming. This recipe had me soak the bread, which I liked better than my mom's way of toasting bread to make bread crumbs when she made meatloaf. She had to use my dad's bread in our meatloaf because of his allergens, and of course I used my gluten free bread in these meatballs. Otherwise, the ingredients and recipe and idea came from the EveryPlate or whatever it's called delivery service thing.

Keturah was trying out the new grooming glove thing and was massaging Socks to sleep, lol.

Old hankie (discolored thanks to well water and 10 years of use) vs. brand new "ladies/wedding hankie (one time use?)" vs. men's hankie (much more durable cotton hankie). I think I will be buying more of the men's hankie's in the future, maybe without the monogram as they were much more expensive. 3 for $15 I think? But if I get 10 years out of the 3 new ones like I have gotten out of the 3 hankies I've had, it's money well spent. I mean my hankies aren't worn out fabric wise. I honestly didn't even realize they were that discolored. I just couldn't find mine anymore. I did just find the one after ordering new ones. They just sometimes stick to nylon shorts or end up staying in a coat pocket or something. I will still be washing this old one and keeping it in the back for rotation if necessary. I never throw things out if they are still somewhat usable. The pack of 3 women's hankies were like $7. A box of kleenix is something like $4 so there's just no comparison to having something reusable. And for your information, the snot actually dries out pretty quickly in between uses. And you don't get lint in your pocket like you do if you have kleenix stuffed down in there. I do use kleenix if I have cold or more discoloration. But my everyday stuff, it's my hanky. I have seasonal allergies, I'm probably slightly allergic to the pet dander, dust, everything. I'm constantly wiping my nose. And a cotton cloth is way more comfortable on the nose than a paper kleenix. Trust me. And I am the only in the household that does it. Everybody else uses....toilet paper. Yes, toilet paper, because we get the softer kind of toilet paper and it's cheaper and you can use less than wasting a big kleenix. Lol!

Well, the green beans and meatballs were left in the oven too long, but they were still edible. And mashed potatoes were good. Jared made them while I made the gravy. I used oat flour (closest thing I had on hand, otherwise it was going to be coconut or almond flour) with the beef stock they gave me. A little bland as most of these recipes are. They kind of rely on too much onion, garlic, salt, and pepper. I wasn't sure what to add this time, though, since it was savory, and not Italian. Hm,....I can definitely easily make this one again myself though, even without the gravy. We don't do a lot of gravy anyways. And Jared still at the meatballs, although he won't eat meatloaf. I mean, come one, they are soooo similar! There's no red sauce in these meatballs like there is in meatloaf though. Anyway, it was fine. Worth the effort every once in awhile. But the Aldi brand of fresh meatballs are just as good and I can eat them. I can't eat the frozen ones though. So, convenience usually wins.

We actually went out for a family walk! Except we had to split up because we met up with friends with tiny dogs that were afraid of Socks. Socks just stood there like, "Uh, I didn't do anything wrong. I just big. They small like squirrel. Why they bark at me? Why they whine like they in pain? I didn't touch them, I swear!" Nope, you're good buddy, they are just silly tiny dogs. They are afraid of their own shadow. Just move along. We will enjoy all the walks we can get.

Wednesday - 

- Last ASL class for the year! And we were late, of course. No one wanted to get up. Abishai was raring to get back because he was hungry. Well, just 30 seconds from the driveway, he threw up! But, for all his gagging, he hardly threw up anything. He went straight to the bathtub and got cleaned up and I did the rest, his clothes, a bit on his carseat, the seat in the car, and a tiny bit on the floor in front of him in the car. The car still stinks a little despite leaving the windows open the rest of the day. Abishai was fine the rest of the day. Just car sick. 

- I spent the afternoon paying medical bills and preparing the things we didn't want in our Old Navy orders to send back while the kids had their screen time. And then this evening I picked up prescriptions, dropped off recycyling and Keturah then loaded the car for the used book sale tomorrow I"m doing an IAHE booth for. We also did laundry and dishes today.

- Jared took Abishai to Tang Soo and brought Justin with him so he could teach him how to parallel park. Poor Justin has to learn in the van! He said he at least learned the steps, but it was difficult to do it in the van. Yes, Daddy had to yell at him before he hit other people's cars. Beech Grove, where Tang Soo Do is, is where Justin will be doing his test most likely anyway, and it's the only place near us where there parallel parking. It's where I practiced and went for my test a few years ago. I don't know how or where Benaiah learned, but he tested out in Greenfield. Anyway, they can take my car tomorrow and practice because Justin most likely will take the test in my car and it might be easier for him to see and judge the distances. 

- I'm excited for the used homeschool book sale tomorrow as I'll get to "do my thing"  and hopefully talk to people that think like me. A little bit of a different scenario since they already homeschool but some might not be familiar with IAHE or might not know exactly what we do. So spreading awareness of who IAHE and what we do is a big priority for me and what the laws for homeschooling since I didn't have a clue about any of it for the first 5 years of homeschooling here, and then only when we came back and I attended the convention and only because I knew one couple who attended the convention and I looked it up myself. It still bothers me today that with attending a megachurch and having at least a dozen families that homeschool, no one bothered to help me connect to the homeschooling community at large. No one. No one checked that I was following the law. They just assumed. I will not let that happen again on my watch. And when a church refuses to let me bring the truth to those among their congregants, I'm out. I need to and should do more with our library. They have a couple of study rooms where I could meet with several people at a time. And they have the larger community room as well. I could do a homeschool 101 in there, too. I'm sure they would be off for it. Or even a regular homeschool parent meeting. I just don't want to commit myself to something like that all the time. I need to though. I'll think on that. 

Pretty much what our counselor said yesterday.

Yeah, true.

I'm a jaguar!

Somebody was in rare form at ASL today. I let him run around a bit and he wanted to pretend he was a jaguar. He was eating deer and bears and humans. I then looked up South American deer and bears and if indeed jaguars ate humans. See the answers below.

Nom, nom, nom.

Time for a nap after all that good meat!

I think it's called a striped bear.

He was going around in circles. Maybe that's what upset his stomach before he threw up in the car! No duh! I just put two and two together!

I also let him have a few extra turns across the big empty floor on the scooter board thing. They actually had cleared out the room of all the youth group stuff.

Nice! It's always fun when the world turns toward your town for a few minutes.

Thursday - 

 

Great crossword clue!

The face of a big brother who was trolled.

The face of the little brother who trolled him.

Like mother like daughter. She didn't argue too much about sitting with me at a book sale. But I didn't tell her I would buy her all the books she wanted until after we got there. But yes, I said, feel free to roam throughout the sale and browse to your heart's content. She only made it through like 3 booths before we were out of money between both of our purchases). Sweet!

Hiding behind your floof, I see.

Plotting his next move.

How many pillows.....

....will it take....

....to troll Justin? Abishai kept adding more and more pillows while Justin was taking a longer and longer time in the bathroom. So, lesson learned, Justin, hurry it up!

It's race month in Indianapolis!

I need to tell Jared about this! (And now that I'm typing this up on Saturday, I totally forgot to tell him about this and he bought an oak tree at Lowe's instead. Whoops!)

This is the bird bath at Wanamaker Feed and Seed I waw. However, I'm not sure it's even for sale. But now I have a photo of it so I can keep looking for one like it elsewhere.

At least Keturah got to see the kitties at the store. One of Justin's duties is to look after the kitties so he got them some more food. He gave them a little scratch on the head, too. Despite Grandma's and Daddy's hatred for cats, I've got at least these two who will give cats a little bit of love. Keturah desperately wanted to take one home. So do I.

I wanted to bring this one home, too.

Well, my friend Brenda thought the sale could have been busier, but I thought was busy enough. Maybe people weren't buying. I'm not sure. We did have a lot of vendors at least. And it's the biggest and busiest in our region. Some people came from 2 hrs away. I had a table set up for IAHE and had many people stop by who were new to homeschooling or who weren't sure exactly what we did, so in my mind, it was quite worth it. Plus, I got rid of a full box of free stuff.  Yeah!

A win for us but a testimony to just how bad public schools are. And after the shooting in Texas this week, it just puts me on edge even more. Not only for people to pull their kids out, but to have better schools for the kids that remain, to be united with other parents on wanting what's best for all the kids. So that 18 yr olds and 19 yr olds don't come out deranged and shooting up their fellow employees at a Fedex facility or at a grocery store or kids at a elementary school. These young people have been failed by the school system and their parents and their communities. They've fallen through the cracks. They aren't to blame. We are. We've failed them. They don't suddenly go from being cute 10 year old kids to 19 yr old delinquents. Something happens to them starting in junior high. The bullying intensifies. The school systems focuses on issues they don't need to focus on like transgenderism and doesn't course correct these individuals. Parents are clueless to what their teens are doing. And schools don't want parents involved so they send nothing home to help parents connect with their kids. It all sets up these kids to fail and become mental health nightmares. And bam, mass shootings become the norm. That's oversimplifying the issue but it all starts with young children and how they are being influenced and by whom. Take back the schools or homeschool.

And that means other homeschoolers. Do life. Yes, everyday life. Life groups. And to me, that does mean separating homeschooling vs. public schoolers because so much of our family lives are wrapped up in the school schedules. Homeschool families can get together during the day and stay in at night. They socialize at field trips, not at the ball fields on Saturdays. Public schoolers tend to gather around and chit chat at after school activities or bus stop pick ups or PTO meetings. It's a different lifestyle. I'm sorry, I've tried. I need fellowship with out Christian homeschooling moms and families. We live our lives differently. I spend most of my week with families not at the same church that Jared goes to church services with. It just doesn't make sense to try to do weekend life with week life with. He doesn't get it.

Thursday Throwback this week is of 2 yr old Keturah in the pinks and purples trying to also be a tomboy. She claims she looks chubby. I'm like, hun, you are still a bit on the chubby side. And really, she's not that chubby in either pic. Just a little more filled out than the boys were, especially Justin and Abisahi, by stick thin kiddos.

Friday - 

Justin spotted this game. Gotta love something history based.

The usual crew playing a game trying to stack the ultimate burger.

This isn't a cereal box. It's not a game. It's a 1,000 piece puzzle!

I automatically recognize this name and knew how to pronounce it correctly. Scarborough is in England and is often said in a TV show I'm currently watching called "The Royal" which was filmed 15-20 years ago based in a fictional town of Elsinby in the sixties. Ok, I went digging, it's a spinoff of an earlier police drama show called Heartbeat, so now I've saved that to my list of things to watch. Yeah for British TV! Anyway, it's a good show with some fun antics, a few, hm, we need to think about these types of topics because there were becoming topics back in that era, like black doctors and abortion. But because of the decade it was set in, there was still a lot of traditional values, too. Anyway, I enjoy it. It's not a hard name to say but I can hear the way the characters in the show say it and it's pretty neat.

This stack however is taking an advantage of what we've just been through. Not nice. I don't appreciate this developers' sense of humor. No thank you. Nope.

A sister game of Throw Throw Burrito comes Throw Throw Avocado. It's like a Hot Potato type game. It would be a good one to get Ava someday.

Socks, again, has thwarted my plans of getting Keturah awake. Stop protecting her!

Abishai was playing "the floor is lava" with couch cushins again. I gave him a new book called, "Only You Can Be You" by Nathan Clarkson and he can read it all by himself! When we read it together we talked about how other family members and friends are kind of like the people in the book and I overheard him tell Kya the other day that she's just like the quiet shy person in the book. Yes, that's right, she is.

Run, Baby, Run!

I was taking a video of Abishai, so I was just trying to get a screen grab at the same time and the photos turned out like this! How appropriate! He was running up and down the hallway using the dog as a hurdle. Lol!

Aww, now he's the dog as his pillow buddy.

Nerf wars.

Like mother, like daughter. Now because she got a dozen new books, she had to totally rearrange her books to accommodate the new ones.

Totally neat and organized, like her mother.

We were driving home from Greenfield and totally spotted a car with a Hot Wheels sticker on it! Come to find out in 2018, 50 Hot Wheel cars in real life were produced, or something like that. So, here's one of them! It was an orange and black Chevy Camaro. How cool! I totally recognized the Hot Wheels logo swish but couldn't quite make out the lettering. Justin took the photo for me.

 

Saturday - Where's My To Do List?

- Finally a Saturday where I didn't have anything to do, but I felt like I should be rushing around with a long to do list. Did I spend it productively with a book though? No. Or with my cross stitch? No. A puzzle? No. I did write out all the high school graduation cards though, all 6 of them. I had been wanting to get to those all week. Two of them were for last weekend, the open houses I didn't go to, one was for someone far away but their party wasn't until in the end of June, and then I have 3 in person ones in the next two weeks or so. Nothing else was quite due yet. I didn't want to tackle the dreadful Medicaid app yet since it wasn't June 1st yet. Oh, I did switch my long sleeve clothes for my short sleeve clothes since it is Memorial Day weekend and in my mind, the official start of summer in the Midwest. I had other projects I could have tackled with the kids but they were occupied elsewhere.

- Keturah and Justin did yardwork for Grandpa starting at 10am. Keturah wanted to earn more money, so she and Justin agreed for her to stay on. She didn't get home until after 3pm. Justin got home roughly around 1pm. He's the one who really needs the money and he's broke. But ok, he'll figure that out soon enough when I make him pay up for car insurance next month. Then Daddy made Keturah start mowing the lawn when she got home. I wasn't happy about that. I would have had her wait until Monday to do it all when she had rested up. Jared is taking them to the Indy 500 tomorrow with Jim's family and she is going to be cranky with working so hard today and it being hot and having to hike literally 1 mile or more from the parking lot to the infield to watch, but he can listen to her whine, I won't be there (long story as to why not). Justin came home and played video games and didn't bother to help her or anything. Jared did reward her by taking her to get a treat at McDonald's after dinner, so that was nice of him.

- Abishai spent the day wandering around watching Daddy do stuff outside. I think Jared primed and painted the big wood J again and planted an oak tree Abishai and he bought at Lowe's that morning. Jared did go buy the paint for the big bathroom we had decided on, which is a big step towards that project. It was beautiful weather outside, so I'm glad he was outside doing those projects first. He needed to burn some other wood still that had the carpenter bees had gotten into. We can paint when the weather is too hot or on a rainy day.

- Tomorrow, Abishai is going to church with Grandma and I'll go to the other church. I have flip flopped between going to the race or not all week. My health concerns are a real thing. It's a huge unknown event. Walking 1-2 miles quite literally from a parking spot to wherever we can sit carrying everything like lawn chairs, umbrellas, coolers, etc is not ideal for me is one big part of the concern. And then who I am going with and what mood I'm in and what I'm actually physically and emotionally that day is the other big part. So, I've decided not to go. Jared will take the middle kids this year with Jim and his family and I can try again next year to fit in taking Abishai to a practice day or when he's a bit older Jared and I can take him to the race. Or we won't. Whichever. Abishai wanted to be with Grandma in Sunday School one last time and with Solomon Spence (the kid who is our neighbor) in the 9am hr for the last time as well. So he is choosing church over being with Daddy at big huge loud event. We respect that. He'd get bored and overwhelmed. We'll watch it on YouTube or something from home if I can get the NBC feed or something. At least I'll try. I'm not sure if we can.

Good 'ole Noah Webster from Connecticut. (It's Daniel Webster who is from NH, a cousin or something, I always get the two confused). Noah Webster from the Blue Black Speller that I used with the kids to teach them to read and wrote the first American Dictionary.

He looked lost and lonely since Keturah was gone so long at the other house doing yardwork so I invited him up for a cuddle. He's so super soft! I kept telling him to go to sleep but he kept pushing his head back for more pettings! Dude! Sleep! Also, his head is a lot heavier than my beagles' heads ever were!  They used to sleep with me all the time growing up. At least until I fell asleep and then they used to sleep with my mom when she finally settled down from the night. Kind of like Socks does now with Keturah.

Sleepy eyes.

There's a big Star Wars Celebration thing going on in California this weekend and since Obi Wan Kenobi just dropped last night, Ewan McGregor (Kenobi) and Hayden Christensen (Anakin) are the talk of the town right now and are attending it although they haven't been part of the franchise for almost 20 years. So, voice actors like Ashley, who plays the animated character Ahsoka, hasn't officially met Hayden before although their characters in the animated series constantly play together in all the episodes of Clone Wars and Rebels. So, this post she made of herself fangirling over him is so adorable! She's just a cute young woman, too, and does such a great job handing over the role so gracefully to the new live action Ahsoka actor. She's the sweetest. The Obi-Wan Kenobi show is good so far. Episode 1 had some unexpected plot twists that they did great at hiding and it paid off for sure. The easter eggs of course are always the best to find. Ewan McGregor was right that we were all wrong with our assessments about the trailers. I can't wait for the rest of the 5 episodes!

Sunday -

- Whoops! Somehow I didn't wake up when everyone else was moving around and I totally missed getting up in time to make church AGAIN. Thankfully Jared woke me up just before he and the kids walked out the door to go over to Jim's to go to the race at 9:15am. Otherwise, I think I would have slept on until 11am or something! I ended up watching 3 sermons that tied in together from both our churches and the one Gary was talking at this morning. Yeah for technology! Abishai was at Indian Creek with Grandma, where he said goodbye to his favorite 1st grade volunteer, and our neighbor Solomon Spence, and had his last Sunday School class with Grandma in 1st grade. I spent too long then trying to get stuff ready to see the Indy 500 from my end before Abishai got dropped off so I had to take my shower later in the afternoon.

- After Abishai and I watched the pre-race festivities and the drop of the green flag, we called Daddy to see if we could hear the roar of the engines as they zoomed past. And we could! It was fantastic! We could barely talk to Daddy in between the groups of Indy cars that went by. You could literally hear the smile in Jared's voice though. And he tried to describe the flyover by the Thunderbirds, too. He was having a blast already. After we hung up with Daddy, we went out to McDonald's to get some lunch and run off some steam. Abishai got the normal chicken nuggets and fries and sprite. He wolfed that down and spent a long time on the indoor playground making up stories. I had my usually mocha frappe with bunless burger and fries. I dipped them in honey mustard thinking it would be sweet like CFA sauce and it was certainly not. Whoops. Meanwhile I kept watching the race on my phone. I saw the first crash and it was in turn 2. The vehicle rested finally, about 150 yds down the back stretch from the kids. There were multiple accidents throughout.

-  After Abishai was sufficiently tired out, we went home for screen time. I couldn't tear myself away from watching what was going on with the race, so I listened to it while I showered! First time doing that, lol. By the time I was done with the shower, though, there was 5 laps to go and the race had come to a full stop because of another accident! They had stopped it so that they could have "real race to the finish" line instead of being under caution. I think they have learned their lesson from years past about having dull finishes. When the race is under caution, or the yellow flag, the drivers cannot pass each other. So whatever order they are in, that's the order they would win in. And that's no fun. So, they fully stopped after they pulled off into pit row. Well, someone stalled and they couldn't actually get into their pit areas, so no one could get any help from their pit crew like extra water or gas or anything. I did see them get umbrellas for shade. But in order to keep it fair, whoever was in charge told the pit crews to stay clear. And I'm sure the pit crews easily agreed. The drivers and crews are good friends anyway. Some are teammates and I've seen a lot of drivers congratulate each other and tease each other and cheer each other on. Indy Car racing is like that, a big family. 

- It was a very hot track, 119 at surface level, and there was tons of debris from the tires being beat up, thus causing some of the accidents, too. So, when the cars did roll out, first under caution with pace car to warm their cars and tires back up, and then under green, within 1-2 laps, of real racing and a couple of changes of place, they were back under caution for the final lap! The leader was up front with 5 laps to go ended up being the winner because he just gunned it and stay up front! Marcus Ericsson, a young Swede, but I don't think he was rookie, won the day. I saw an interview between him and Tony Kanaan, a much older driver and could see Tony teasing him about gunning it and all that. I believe Tony was 2nd and he's been in the top 5 many times himself and is well known.

- Overall, it was an incredible race for Jared and the kids to go to. Thunderbirds overhead, perfect weather with clear blue skies and 83 degrees, many accidents right in front of them, very interesting ending with a Swedish young guy winning. The kids LOVED IT, which again, really surprises me, especially these two who don't show a ton of emotion. I even found Keturah this morning (it's Monday morning after the race) watching clips on YouTube before getting up for the day of the end of the race because she actually didn't see the finish line of course since they were on the other side of the track. How adorable! I'm nearly in tears that they've had this wonderful experience with their Dad. I've begged and pleaded for these kinds of bonding times for years. I'm grateful I got to experience it from home, too. I didn't have to be anxious and tax my body out there. I could just let the experience be what it was. 

- Once everyone got home, we got to spend the evening with Benaiah and Ava at Gary and Leah's house for Benaiah's early birthday dinner. Benaiah asked for grilled food, garden salad, fruit salad, and of all things asparagus! Sophisticated taste for a 20 year old! Yes, a 20 yr old! We have a 20 year old! I was 20 years old when I birthed this child. How can this be?! I really don't know how 20 years have passed. But it has. I wrote him a nice card about how proud I am of him and how I don't have to worry one ounce about him. I don't text him much because I don't need to remind him about this or that. He has everything handled. He talks to Jared if he has a question. He lets me ask questions on Sunday and he does answer them for the most part if I ask them well. We just can't get into anything political or philosophical. And I agree. I did have a few fun things I picked up for him. I board game he can play with his small group themed about the TV show "The Office" and then some macaroons to eat and some macaroon looking candles to burn. All from Aldi's of course. Uncle Aaron had sent along a gun lock from his office for when Benaiah is ready to purchase his first firearm at age 21. Benaiah is talking a lot about this and has done all the research on it, including the brand new constitutional carry law that just came into affect. He's allowed to own a gun at age 18, but can't buy one or buy ammo until age 21. And the new law means you don't need a permit anymore in the state of Indiana. Now if he goes over the border into a different state, he has to abide by those laws and he might be able to carry any guns on his own. There are other laws like having a gun and ammo separated while in a vehicle and all that. And there are still background checks when purchasing a gun. But Benaiah also already knows where to buy a gun from reputable dealers. So, like Jared, and actually more than Jared has ever done with it, Benaiah has done all the research and will be ready and responsible when the time comes. And since Ava was right there, I asked her what her feelings were on it and she said her family are very much rednecks and she's ok with it, same as I am. Benaiah's been talking to her dad a lot about it, too. So all is good there. And although we just had that mass shooting again in Texas by an 18 yr old and the other shooting by a 19 yr old in a grocery store, I trust my son and I know how we've brought him up with talking about guns and gun safety. And I totally know what my son is up to these days as well. He has zero time for video games. We had a lovely evening. No triggers. Well, except that Socks got a full piece of bread because he was acting hungry. I hadn't had a chance to feed him at home before we left. But whatever. That's why I limit my time over there. And I do my upmost for my kids and dog here. 

- It was an excellent Sunday. But now, I've been lazy all weekend and I have to tuck in and "work" on Monday. I've been in full summer do nothing mode all this week. There's no deadlines so I do nothing. I need to read. I need to start working on Justin's senior year. I should work on Abishai's Lego table. Perhaps get Abishai's next up size summer clothes down? But I'm not sure he needs them. Is there outside work for me to do? Do I push more and just buy the pool? Because now Jared is really balking at the idea. And I need to spend time just talking. There's a lot of the computer/talking/reading type of work I should be doing, so it's hard for others to see that kind of work and hard for me to acknowledge that it is work if I've just been sitting. I even went around the house on Saturday trying to find physical work to do and could find anything major to work on and what I did find I couldn't do because I need certain people to do it with. I just need to pick something and go with it. That's all. And I will.

- Happy Memorial Day, Sunday!

I followed my crew as they drove over to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway via Justin's phone. The speedway is inside the 465 highway circle, so in the city, and take up a massive amount of acreage because it's more than a mile long. The oval is 2.5 miles itself as the cars make 200 laps for 500 miles in the race itself. And then you have all the premiere parking on the grass outside the racetrack. All the homes around there also open up their grass for parking. I think our crew parked at a home because as I was tracking them home, I saw that they were at W. Lynhurst St which is weird because we have a Lynhurst Dr in our neighborhood, lol. The track is about 35 minutes from our house. I used to drive over there every other week because my first personal counselor's office was over there.

At this point, I think they were walking to the racetrack. The racetrack is big enough to house the IMS museum, part of a golf track, all the garages, room for a concert stage and party, the huge pagoda you see on TV, tons of other grass and buildings, etc. It's just humongous. The crowd today was 325,000 people. That's twice the population of everyone on PEI, the city of Manchester, or Franklin Township, all at the same venue trying to get in and get out at the same event. It's the biggest sporting event in the world. It's the biggest spectacle in racing as they say. And somehow, people go and have a great time and no one gets hurt, at least anymore. There used to be too much drinking and arrests were made for misconduct. Now it's much more family friendly. Still, I'd be too overwhelmed by it and all that walking is too much for me on a good day without crowds. But Jared and the kids seemed to have a great spot with lots of room. And I think being on the grass would be much more comfortable than being in the stands. You can stretch out, stand up, sit down, and you're really close to the action. You can stand up on the hill and see a little better for a bit if you'd like. And it looked a bit quieter, too, without the mass of people, even cooler.

They left at 9:30. It took them nearly 2 hrs to get there, walk, and get settled in.

Since I stayed home, I actually got to listen to 3 sermons today! I only caught a few minutes of Gary's sermon at E. 91st St. but it was about forgiveness. It was very appropriate for what I've been going through this week. And it went well with the other two sermons.

Pastor Brett preached on Daniel 7, one of the most important prophecy passages in all of Scripture. However, no one preaches on the prophecy passages because they get caught up on the weird beasts and meanings and what represents what. Pastor Brett did a great job sorting it all out for us. Ch. 7 is actually straight forward and correlates well with Daniel 2 and the statue made up of different materials that represents the ancient kingdoms and the coming kingdom of Jesus. The application was to not to worry because God is sovereign and he will end this at the end. There was a judgment seat in the chapter, so yes, there will be judgment on the ruler of darkness, too.

A friend of Pastor Dan's preached at the Creek today. 1 Peter about being exiles here on this earth and how as followers of Jesus, being on earth does feel uncomfortable, and it should be. It is not our home.

Finally found their area. I'm sure they could have picked anywhere within the green space. General admission was this whole area. However, it was perfect viewing of both turn 2 and turn 3 AND the accidents that happened on turn 2, bumped off the wall and landed in the grass practically in front of them down the backstretch about 100 yards! Crazy!

So close to track! Again, the videos will show just how awesome this spot was!

I tried listening on the radio, but I can't keep up with just the vocal. Plus, it's the wrong kind of gabber. I want the actual feed of what's going on, like the national anthem and such.

Here's the playlist of all our Indy 500 videos, from my recordings of our TV to Jared recording everything from the Thunderbirds and National Anthem, to the Indy Cars in their pole positions, to going fast under a green flag to going slow under a caution flag, to them coming home very slowly through traffic. Enjoy!

Indy 500 May 29th, 2022 Playlist

I found a couple of feeds on YouTube, but they had to put a logo over it because we still had a blackout. They do that for Indianapolis to encourage everyone to go to the race until all tickets are sold. The only time it was sold out was for the 100th running. People will pay now for NBC Sports or something but I think even that is blacked out, but we don't have that. You have to mess with your VPN and pretend you live somewhere else. But I could at least hear most of what was going on and get a side view. I did end up finding another video at the end of the race with no logo so that was awesome.

I took Abishai out to lunch. I watched race stuff and he got to expend some energy. It was just the same type of Sunday dinner we used to have at the Rutherfords house when Benaiah was little. That was a full on Sunday meal with roast and mashed potatoes. Allen Rutherford would jerry rig his sattelite dish to get the raw news feed of the race without all the commentary and we would watch it with him in his family room. He would sit in his easy chair and make this or that comment himself. He used to be involved with racing when he was younger. I miss his grumbles. He's still around, but we don't see them anymore. Some of the best memories though of bringing our 3 babies there though.

Food break! Gotta fill the energy meter! He just played and played and made up stories all on his own.

Speaking of fancy fast cars, there goes one.

This is a pogo stick type thing. It's great for wearing kids out!

McDonald's Playing

Crash! Turn 2! To the right of where my kids are at! Ah!

I'm having flashbacks to when Benaiah was this age/size and would wear this shirt to church, and then when I would meet MOPS moms at the Washington St. McDonald's that had a playplace. It was the only McDonald's in the area that had one. The owners of this store made an incredibly wise decision to put one in, especially when I don't think the CFA one will ever open again. And it's so small anyway. Well done!

Caution! Again!

Here's the accident!

Lots of onboard cameras these days.

And then another accident with 4 laps to go made everyone come to a full stop in pit row. Here's what the cars look like from all the tire debris. It's so hot out there on the track it melts the tires!

One of the cars stalled so they weren't allowed to go to their actual pits. So they could only get minimal help. Eventually they were allowed to have umbrellas to keep the sun off their heads. They definitely keep everything pretty fair these days.

And the winner is a young 20 something Swedish guy! I didn't even know Swedish drivers were in the race! Way to go!

You can look up the tradition, but yes, they drink/pour milk on their heads. Gross, but whatever. Abishai remembered this tradition and was excited for it. And this guy actually drank a lot of the milk this time! Some people who have been allergic to the milk have asked for and received alternative milk in their bottle or have only taken a little sip.

2022 Indy 500 Winner! Marcus Ericsson!

Flashback from Facebook to Justin in 3rd grade. Skinny as he always has been, lol. 9 years old.

I edited this photo for my sister, but this shows exactly which turn is turn 2 where the cars would bounce off the white outer wall and then come to rest in the grass in front of the kids, maybe right before them or afterwards. Crashes these days really just mean the car spins out of control. They don't tend to flip and burn anymore because they've worked so hard on making them safer from the nose cone to the low profile. And they just added the windshield thing in the last few years, so even if they did flip, the driver would be even more protected. Drivers barely get a scratch these days. Just a few bruises and slight concussion. That part makes the race a little less interesting without the big fireballs, but no one wants the damage and injuries, so let's stay safe!

Benaiah's birthday dinner was garden salad, fruit salad, hot dogs/brats/burgers and of all things asparagus! My 20 year old likes asparagus! Go figure! Oh and dessert was New York Style cheesecake. Just like his dad likes.

We had the leaf in the table so there was plenty of room for Socks to get under the table. What a goofball. I brought him because of course he needs to see his oldest brother on his birthday dinner. Benaiah won't be around on his actual birthday (June 4th) so we had to have his birthday dinner a week early).

Singing happy birthday.

Lately Grandma and Grandpa haven't bothered to put the correct number of candles on the cake because honestly, they threw away a bunch of old candles and don't have enough, so don't start counting. It somewhat bothers me, though, being the math person I am. Sigh. Whatever.

Check out that wave of curls in Benaiah's hair! He's a no fuss, no product in hair kind of guy. Ava cuts his hair now though. Just think how Jared used to look when he was that age. Hubba hubba. Benaiah of course blew out all his candles in one go.

Opening his gift from J4.

It's a gun lock! Abishai was so excited about it because he was the one who carried it back from the police station to the Uncle Aaron's house and kept the secret.

Opening Gifts

Grandma and Grandpa telling stories.

Nice clue in my crossword.

Jared showing off his position on the track. So close to the action! The videos are better though. I wish he had taken regular photos, too. The panorama view is nice, but the distortion throws me off.

This one is a bit better. I think it's looking down the track, or rather to the north. The other one is looking south or up. The cars go in a counter clock wise oval.