Year 7, June 20th-26th, 2022: Time to Camp!

 Monday - Slow, slower, slowest!

- So sleepy!!! I gave Abishai his med, and I think they found a way to penetrate me because I literally spent hours looking at dumb videos on Facebook until I almost didn't get lunch and coffee before picking up Justin. Actually, I was in deep thought over the Keturah going to Israel thing and wrote paragraphs of thoughts to Jared that took a good portion of my morning. And I took an hour to shower as well because of my wandering thoughts. Is that a mental health day? I would say yes. I just did nothing else during those morning hours. I was mentally exhausted and then physically exhausted from the weekend.

- Abishai was his quiet self on the med, so he lounged with me and played with his extra stuff in the school boxes and read a ton of books. I do think that the medication is working perfectly for what it is. It will help him sit still better for the hours we need him to. And then, he starts to "wake up" and go crazy right around supper time, so right back to his normal self. Eating habits are a little off when he's on the medication, but he will eat, so that's good. Just as long as I can use it only on days we really need it, I think this will work. I need to ask the doctor about how consistent he needs it in his system. I have to take mine every day. I want Justin to take his every day because he does have to focus on something every day. But I want Abishai to have his crazy personality and run around when he can. And then when he's older and has more self control, he may or may not need the medication as much or maybe a different one would be better. But I do like this one and the fact that he doesn't have any major side effects like sleeplessness, nausea, moodiness, loss of appetite, etc. So, I'm happy.

- I let Keturah sleep in a bit and then let her binge watch whatever on the laptop and her phone as a reward for finishing all the mowing yesterday. After me whining about her delay fishing about it, she did come home from Grandma and Grandpa's and did the whole backyard, finishing just before the sun went down. I thought for sure she wouldn't finish it. So I'm super impressed by her efforts. She lowered the mower blades so now the lawn is super short and shouldn't need to be mowed until right before she goes to CIY, if that. It had been a couple of weeks since the last mowing and it was really only patches that were really thick and tall. She didn't trim because Jared is still working on fixing the trimmer. I don't mind. We got it done before the heat came back today, that's all that matters. No one got hurt and sick from sunstroke. So, she got to snuggle in bed and have a nice quiet day. Plus she was at the airshow on Saturday and she had worship team on Sunday, which usually wipes her out. She did grumble a bit when I asked for her help at supper time and I was running late. But that's typical when she's been in her room all day on the screen. 

- Justin drove with Jared first thing and of course Jared complained about it when he got home before he went to work. I keep telling him that Justin isn't at his best first thing in the morning. A lot of times people with ADHD need time to fully wake up in the morning and if they are taking medication, it can take up to an hour to see the full effect. Justin drove me to Greenfield in the afternoon and he did much better. I didn't have to give him as many pointers and I could concentrate on my emails. I was the one that got turned around on the way home from Greenfield because of detour. Justin worked, and then yes, I took him to Greenfield. I spent some time talking to Kellie and then Jared reminded me that it was my turn to take Abishai to Tang Soo and it was a good thing, too, because I totally forgot! I made it home just in time to pick Abishai up to go to karate! Whoops! Kellie brought Justin home at bedtime. Oh, and Justin can mobile deposit his checks now, so no more worrying about getting to the bank unless he wants to withdraw cash. Yeah! He will be off work again tomorrow because there's too many people on the schedule again. He's happy about that because it will be hot again. I'm not because he's simply not working enough at all. 12 hrs a week is not enough. He's wasting time. He needs to apply to the movie theate now. Have an interview next week, and then just give them the start date. Surely they will understand. Teens are so frustrating. Sigh.

- Abishai started learning Form 3 tonight with Teacher Uriah. There were only 5 kids there tonight. He was 4th in line though because there were 3 orange belts. Teacher Uriah had to undo my pitiful job of tying his belt and redid it. Whoops. But Teacher Uriah worked them super hard. And then they got to do their fun like frog jumps, wheelbarrow races, lots of kicks, rolls on the ground on their shoulder not their heads, some punches, downward dog/crawl through the tunnel made by the other kids' downward dogs. 

- After we got home, I was going to go straight to my computer but there was just one distraction after another. Benaiah stopped by because he had asked Jared if he could put the $300 worth of fireworks in our garage instead of Grandpa's. He just thought that Grandpa wouldn't appreciate having that much firepower in his garage. Well, I don't exactly appreciate it either, but ok, whatever. It's only going to be here for two weeks. I also had to clean off the piano and get it ready for the piano tuner guy. He comes at 9am tomorrow. And of course Abishai then needed to play around with the whole thing. I had to clean up various other things I left in shambles. Oh yeah, and I had to take time to actual eat something since I hadn't eaten since 2pm and that was only one slice of my pizza. By the time I had gotten on the computer it was 9pm and I just couldn't function writing any words, so I didn't. Instead, I messed around on some Facebook videos, clearead some email and then started to clear out some of the random stuff in my corner, like taking photos of it to put on the "free" local group. And take care of the Old Navy order that has sat here for several days. Start Keturah's passport application.

-Yes, the final answer for Keturah going to Israel. It's a yes. I had her write a paragraph or two about why she wanted to go and how it would benefit her. I told her she could stay up and write it or get up early. Well, she couldn't fall asleep, so she said she worked on it at midnight. Ok, no problem. She also wrote it up in cursive because she said she doesn't want to forget her cursive, especially her capital letters. Ok, I hadn't specified either way, so I'm pleased to hear that. And her handwriting looked very nice and neat. Her writing style was decent as well. She had a few grammar mistakes, but that's fine. I will have the photos of what she wrote below so you can read them. But she understood the assignment and her thoughts seemed very genuine. I asked her how long she had been thinking about going on this trip and if she ever felt jealous that others were being considered for she was, and she said months and yes, she had been jealous, in a good way. So now, I have to get everything ready and expedite her passport like I did with Justin's last year. Not fun at all. It's a lot of money to do it this way. I was hoping to hold off with her until she was 16 so she could have the 10 year passport. Oh well. Whatever. At least I know what I'm doing. And then wee man is another story. I can do his US Passport I think, but I think we have to find a consolate or something to his Canadian one. Much more difficult because I don't know if we even have one right here in Indianapolis. I mean, surely we do since we have an international airport, but maybe we have go to Chicago or something. I'm not sure. In any case, we'll wait and see.

Oreo pancakes for breakfast! With sooooooo many sprinkles! Or in New England fashion, lots of jimmies!

I asked Keturah to write out why she wants to go to Israel and how it would be beneficial to her. This is what she wrote. She said she wanted to write in cursive so she didn't forget how to write in cursive. This is much improved handwriting! But more importantly, after I had been on the fence for hours and hours, she got a whole hearted YES from me after I read this. I think you will see why.

This is what happens when I give him his ADHD medication. It does work well, but then I have a mopey kid for awhile. I might try a lower dose. He's still so cute though! It does wear off by dinnertime. And then he perks right up and runs around as normal.

Stretching before class. I almost forgot that it was my turn to take him to class! But, we were still the first ones to get there. Although Mr. Uriah had to retie his belt for me.

Nice!

Mr. Uriah helped with Abishai's wheelbarrow. Abishai went down the mat and back!

He's getting pretty good at basketball at this level.

Benaiah stopped by to drop off this box of fireworks. He had gone to several fireworks stores and tents one day to find the best deals and then today, took Ethan with him to make his purchases. This load cost him a little over $300, so not bad. He's so excited about this! He asked Dad if he could put it in our garage because he didn't want to make Grandpa nervous by putting it Grandpa garage. It would have been safer over there because there's no curious little fingers over there, but whatever. As long as I close the box and put something on top of it, it will be fine. The 4th of July is only two weeks away anyway. Should be a lot of fun!

Tuesday

- Piano tuner said don't open windows! He also said our piano was way, way off! And he was right, the twanginess is completely gone and it sounds so clear! If even I can hear the difference, you KNOW something is majorly wrong. I grew up playing on an out of tune piano and so my ear training was never done well. That is why I can't sing or play by ear. With all the money coming in, to this day, I do not understand why my parents wouldn't spend the money to fix our piano's sustain pedal (the main piano pedal that makes everything sound smooth) and get it in tune once or twice a year. Maybe because our house was so messy and it was hard to get to? The piano was at the front of the house so it wasn't that bad. It was on the outside wall though, which is a big no no because of the range of temperatures and humidity in the walls. It had been 2 years since our last tuning. Perhaps I had gotten it tuned right before Covid hit though. I'm sure we didn't do it during Covid. But, it's done now, and sounds wonderful, and I feel better about it. An as a piano teacher, I insist on students having a piano that is tune or use a keyboard and, I insist that we work on theory and ear training. And I teach them the tricks about getting it tuned at least once, if not twice a year in Indiana because of our variable weather. And keeping it on an inside wall. It's an expensive instrument. Treat it as such. #saynototwang That cost me $120

- Meanwhile I worked on the paperwork for Keturah's passport. I had almost everything done last night but then it asked me about her old passport and I didn't have that one hand and Jared was already in bed. So I finished that off, made copies of what I needed to, cleaned up the folder and then made an appointment for the post office to get the photo done and final check before we send it off. Both Jared and I have to be at the appointment to show our ID's and prove that we are her parents and prove her identity. I made the appointment for noon not knowing that Jared has a big lunch to celebrate e2's 10th anniversary tomorrow. Well, it would have been nice to know that in advance and I tried to ask them yesterday but he never responded to my questions yesterday because they buried in my "griping." Well, sorry, I need to write down and share thoughts. I tried to break things up. You could have read it all last night and responded last night. But that's not how he rolls. Anyway, the appointment is now set and the passport folder is at the door. And this is going to cost us at least $210 plus the cost of the photos $15 plus the priority envelope and postage. Because we have to expedite it. Because of last minute plans. Just like Justin's passport that he's now not going to use and probably won't use within the next 4 years and thus we wasted that $210+. And it all comes out of our normal budget monies. Sigh. We are broke.

- And I am sleepy. I need to wake up. I'm trying to be on point today and get some things done before our counseling appointment. We have that, then supper, then watch Obi-Wan. Then I can add photos and videos for the last 4 days. I haven't actually checked the photos and videos on the DVD's for 3 1/2 weeks. It makes me nervous and it's also cluttering my desk. And being sleepy isn't helping my mood either. I can't think straight. I can't enjoy life. I must get to bed earlier. I saw it every night and then every night, I'm late getting on my computer and I'm really behind and I don't get enough time to myself. And I don't want to go to sleep. Vicious cycle. But I have to get up now and go sort things out with Jared again. While the kids watch their screens for hours on end. I can't wait to get the pool up, so I can send them outside. But when I went to find out when Jared is available, I found out he's busy all week with e2's 10th anniversary stuff and I wasn't invited to the party. And that's not fair. Leah's invited. Jared doesn't think it's important for me to know, except, we have appointments and things to do at home during the day that he needs to be home for. So I need to know his schedule. He was at friend of our's house all day yesterday doing yard work so while I was texting him for hours on end, he couldn't respond. So he just shut off his phone. Had I known what he was actually doing, maybe I wouldn't have texted him like that. He missed vital information because he did that. He said something about doing yard work but gave me no details about where he'd be or for whom or for how long. Abishai could have been the water boy or something. Sigh. Communication would be wonderful, dear.

- I did get rid of several small bags of stuff via the local Facebook free stuff page today! Woot! Woot! Now stuff won't go waste!

- Happy 10th anniversary week, e2!

- Counseling was fine. Dinner was fine. Obi-wan was fine. Explosion with Jared after that.

- I had Keturah and Justin help set up a redneck backyard water slide for Abishai tonight that we will use more tomorrow. We put the slip and slide at the end of the regular slide. I then washed out the regular slide because it was full of bird poop. Jared helped with getting some water from the sprinkler on it and get it rinsed out. And then he also helped keep the water flowing so Abishai could easily slide down on it. I'll probably take the sprinkler head off of it tomorrow and put the hose at the top of the slide like I used to do as a kid and what we used to do in Beech Grove. I had hoped Keturah and Justin would stay outside to see all the fun Abishai had because they had literally been holed up in their rooms all day, but oh well. Tomorrow, I'm keeping their wifi's off until 3 pm. They are going to find something else in the world to do besides their screens.

- Keturah and I will be going with Jared to do her passport and Justin is tackling his Lego table. No excuses. I'm tired of the screens all day thing. I should be doing the sunroom but I know Justin is going to need help, too, so we'll see. I need to get everything out of the way for Rick May to come and look at the electrical outlets for the pool. I tried to pin Jared down for a time, but he's not being helpful. I'll just do it myself. He's now mad at me for whatever griping I did via text yesterday. I was just trying to share my thought process. He's just being a punk about it. I confronted him about some other things he said that he's tender about and now he won't talk. Great. We lasted this long. And now he completely shut down again. Don't tell me I'm the only one who hides and shuts down. Good bye then. Go huff and chuff and blow someone's house down. You obviously have some issues you are hiding from yourself. Sigh. Life moves on. 

When Abishai gets his medication and his more mopey, he tends to read more. So today he spread out his books all over the floor. This was also before I had to go through the living room and take the toys out that doesn't belong there. Socks is loving this area where he gets the benefit of both the white fan in the one corner, the a/c vent in the middle, and the black fan from down the hallway in our room. Sleepy dog all the day long, just like an elderly person.

Summer Solstice, longest day of the year! 15 hrs of daylight!

Yikes! I know how I felt 8 days out from moving! She's moving about the same time I did 10 years ago. I'm sure her head is spinning. And come to find out, John, her fiance' is away right now. Ah!

Tonight we went outside with Abishai and made that redneck waterslide using the slip and slide, the hose/sprinkler and the waterslide. It worked pretty well and he loved it! I wish Keturah and/or Justin had stayed outside to watch. It was really nice outside this evening. They just like their comfy beds too much.

This is where the big stick pile was. Jared burned the whole thing and reseeded it and this is what we got so far. Not bad. We haven't had much rain.

The bamboo is thickening up and getting a bit wild. And it looks there's some more weeds to pull.

Daddy helped keep the entertainment going.

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday - Work, work, work!

- Today I made the kids work! I held them to the "no screen until 3" rule and made them do other things. Keturah played Monopoly, Justin cleaned up his Lego table, and Abishai helped me clean up the sunroom. I was basically off of my screen for most of the day. Which means tomorrow is a screen day for me. I've got to finish putting all the photos and captions together for the blog posts. And I have a couple of phone calls to make. I might even work on IAHE stuff. We'll see. I'll need to rest a bit after today. And I still have a bit more to go! It's only 6:30pm but I still have to take Kya halfway home and meet Kellie at the gas station in New Pal for 7:30pm, then I have to take Justin to the Goodwill between 7:45/8pm on Emerson and Southport to meet up with his group so they can buy shirts probably for Move (and then they will move on to Culver's near the bank), and then take Keturah to Ritter's for the 8pm late night thing again until 9pm. I'll probably go home when she's done. Then I'll see Jared out to go collect Justin when he's done because he's supposed to be at Culver's at 9 until 10 maybe and I want to be done. Meanwhile Jared is doing Abishai's Tang Soo now until 7:15ish. Technically I guess he could do all the driving and come home in time to still put Abishai to bed but then he has no time with Abishai, so I volunteered. I haven't sat down all day, so I don't mind sitting and driving I guess. 

- Let's see. First, I opened the door to the refrigerator and noticed that there was tons of cake and cheesecake there. Uh, when did that appear last night? I didn't hear Leah drop food of from the fundraising dinner. Or maybe because the windows from my desk to the house were closed she did and I wasn't paying attention. Ok, that's nice, dessert. Let me just go put these in the other fridge. Well, I go to do that and wham, there's 5 huge serving dishes of other leftovers from the same dinner in the other fridge. Ok then. I guess this makes sense now. I guess I'll put the sweet things back were they were. Now, I've got power in my hands. Because, the next thing I did was I walked down the hallways and said in a loud voice, "Justin, Keturah, there is a ton of cake and cheesecake in the fridge for breakfast!" (it was 9am at this point) And I kid you not, the pair of them were in the kitchen IN 30 SECONDS getting cake and cheesecake. OH MY WORD so THAT'S the MAGIC WORDS. Good grief! I finally found what will get them out of bed! Keturah said she didn't believe me so she got up to see if I was right, lol. Justin had already been up because he drove with Dad. He finally hit the 20 daylight hours mark. Halfway there, woot! Woot! But yes, feed the teenagers sugar and they will come running! Lol!

- The projects that got done today were Justin's Lego table, sorting the toys in the back room, and cleaning the floor in the back room. For Justin, it only took him about 30 minutes to arrange his big sets by themes, dusting as he went. I don't know why this was so hard for him to do these past 6 months! He had to take all of Legos that Abishai had put there and gather them so I could take them to Abishai's Lego table and sort them with him. He had to put the empty Lego boxes in places to be stored as collector's items. And he had to dump any garbage that accumulated. That's all. He did most of the work and then I came through, doing a bit more dusting, picking other things up off the floor like dirty kleenex, checking thoroughly for any missed sets or random Lego pieces or an odds and ends box. I emptied the trash can which was really full. I took pictures of Benaiah's shelves to send to him because we had talked about him taking his stuff. I then put back what we had removed so Justin could reach his table better. Some of that stuff belongs in the sunroom and will return after we get that project complete. 

- Meanwhile, Abishai and I started on sorting out all the cars and trucks and stuff on the floor in the sunroom. What a mess! This project took me nearly two hours! We had Micro Machines, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, cars for Floyd's bin, Geotrax, cars for our random bin, random stuff, train tracks for the plastic Thomas toy, a marble, books, dress up clothes, stuff from the outdoor toy bins, swimming stuff, etc. And among these things were tons of dog hair, dead flies, possible mouse poo in the corner, spider webs, other dead bugs, dust, etc. How that much dog hair made it to the floor when it was totally covered in toys, I don't know. Abishai of course just wanted to play. But I made him help. I didn't get rid of anything on this round. First I needed to sort the toys into their bins and then take the bins that we keep out to the shed and out of the way so we know what's left to decide on. And that will wait until another day. The space is now open up enough where I can move the bookshelf away from that outlet and Rick can look at it and turn it around to be on the outside if he decides that the one he'll do. Now, to expose the other outlet, I just need help to move all my boxes into the fireside room. We need to make a line of some sort, like a fire brigrade. Oo, that would make a good project for Saturday when Keturah and Justin are both home doing nothing. There's a lot of odds and ends I need to tackle among those boxes before the end of summer. But I kind of went from front of the house to back of the house on my project list so we're getting there. I was also procrastinating because of the heat, and some of it I just don't want to go through. There's no deadline for this stuff either. It's a "closet" so it doesn't matter too much. The "aisle" has gotten too full though and it needs some condensing. But if I can ever get caught up on the blog, maybe I can tackle it. 

- We've already done a ton of projects and fun things so far this first month of summer. I think we've had a great balance between play days, rest days, and project days. I'm not worried about when we get the pool up just as long as we continue to work steadily towards that goal. We purchased it at least. That's the biggest step, the decision was made, it's here, and we have the action plan. We just need to execute it. Just like the big bathroom. We made our decisions, we bought the paint, and now we just need to go for it. Perhaps Gary and Jared can work on it during their off week, the week of the 4th of July. Hm. Again, we'll get there. Steady on.

- So, that was projects. Oh! Then, Jared and I took Keturah to get her passport done. And it was the easiest one yet! I had all the paperwork ready, including all the right copies, and all the right documents. She got her photo done easily. We filled out our check to the government for $175 and paid the USPS $60 for postage and the photos and handling all of it. Gary is helping to pay for it. We did go ahead and expedite it although the cashier said it's been coming back pretty quickly. We did the same for Justin a year ago and it was pretty quick. We got the passport book and card. And all told, we were gone for maybe 90 minutes. Easy peasy. Pretty exciting! Keturah is going to Israel with her aunt, uncle, and girl cousins, and grandma and grandpa. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but the maturity level in her paragraphs she wrote, and the growth she's had spiritually and mentally shows me she's ready. She did run over to her friends quickly when we were at Ritter's, so that's a good sign. This will dramatically change her more than any CIY trip ever could. Something she will have done before her brothers did. A unique trip with her grandparents, a memory of a lifetime. I'm super nervous about it, all the regular nervous feelings of having your kids overseas. But I'm glad she's going and not Justin. She's the most normal one, mentally, and can speak up for herself. I don't need to worry about that part of things. But still. Sigh. It's 4 months away. I can put the worry aside for now and focus on the next couple of weeks.

- We got back and Kellie and Kya came over. Kellie stayed for a quick visit and then she went home to work on her projects and I went on to work on mine. Normal afternoon and dinner. Jared took Abishai to Tang Soo Do. They got home and I left to do the run around. Everything went to plan, at least we thought. As I was sitting there enjoying my mint chocolate chip frozen custard shake, Justin texted me and said, "Nobody's here. I think I'm at the wrong Goodwill. Here's the photo Ron sent me." Child, you should have sent the photo to me beforehand so I made sure we went to the right place. So, I drove over and picked him and dropped him off at the other Goodwill, which was just a smidge beyond the frozen custard place. Then I went back to the frozen custard place to wait for Keturah to be done. Mind you, this stretch of Emerson, between Southport Rd. and County Line is AWFUL. It was awful before construction took place and it is doubly awful with all the construction. So there's too Goodwills within maybe 2 miles of each other on the same road. And then two Culver's on that same road, maybe 5 miles apart. Ridiculous. After Goodwill, Justin got a ride to Culver's. Well, he told me they would be at Culver's from 9-10pm. So, I took Keturah home at 9pm and said that Dad will be the one to go out and pick Justin up at 10pm. Well, Justin texted at 9:35 and said, "Where are you? We were done at 9." Um, that's not what you told me before. Sigh. I was over it. It's so hard for me to be patient with innocent mistakes like this. It's just miscommunication and we all do it, some more than others. People with inattentive ADHD do it much more often. And I have zero grace for it. I go into parent training mode way too face and lecture him instead. I should be building him up and saying, "It's ok buddy, we all make these mistakes." Instead, I blame him for not being able to have a car yet or not having friends that could drive him. I make him feel guilty. And that's not healthy. He needs love in those moments, and I fail...every....single....time. Grr. Poor guy. He just needs to learn these mistakes on his own, too. And last night, I think he did. I'm sure he was embarrassed. But he had a good time and found some retro clothing to wear for retro night so he was happy once he got home. 

- And then I crashed and binge watched my show until 4 in the morning. Because, I'm the idiot. But, now the front room has a clear floor all the way around the Lego table. The fireside room could be set up in less than 5 minutes, and I can get from my computer the rest of the house without tripping over toys and we can get to the windows and the electrical outlet and the book case and all the other wonderful toys on the taller bookshelf. The whole blue nautical rug is completely clear of boxes! And I don't feel as claustrophobic at my desk! Or dirty! I vacuumed everything really carefully with the house. That was a ton of work today, but worth it was worth it!

Well, now we all know what gets teens out of bed! Just stand in the hallway and call out, "There's cake and cheesecake in the fridge!" And within 30 seconds, I kid you not, these two were standing at the counter like this, food in hand. Keturah didn't believe me because the cheesecake was delivered after she went to bed (it was from a fundraising dinner last night). Good grief, you two!

Since there's been way too much screen time lately, it's time to get some organizational projects done. I have mine, but I can supervise theirs. First up for Justin is his Lego table. He has to sort out his sets into themes, dust them, decide on where he'll put each theme, and then remove Abishai's extra Legos he tends to just leave here. This is how it looks mid process.

Abishai decided it was a good morning to go out and get some fresh air before it got too hot. He looks so big up there!

Benaiah was talking about purging his toys and getting a bookshelf of his own for Legos or building one, so I sent him these pics to remind him of what he has at home on these particular shelves. I think he still has a box or two of stuff in the garage. Here's some Legos that he does want for sure.

And then his cubes he'll want, maybe the Lego box. Iffy on the water bottles.

The Legos here actually belong to Justin, the Nemo tin Benaiah will probably want to get rid of, the hats, will probably go, and the conch shell is kind of a family thing. And then, Justin can put some of his Legos up on the shelf and make room for Abishai to display some of his Legos that we put in their boxes.

The end result. I'm glad he took the time to dust. We did not do any organizing under the Lego table. The left side is all Star Wars. The right side has space and hot rods/racers. The blue spider thing is from the Ninjago series.

Minecraft with room for one more.

Marvel on top and some random vehicles I think. And then non Lego things on the bottom with a spare shelf. I pulled a misc box of things we need to go through from that space.

And then of course the Overwatch collection complete with boxes because a real collector keeps the instructions and the boxes.

Some more of the boxes. The rest of the boxes are under the table or on top of the third box.

AND he wants more Star Wars big vehicle sets. Oi!

The Easter lilies from last year finally grew again!

Keturah's passport photo. Poor girl immediately goes cross eyed without her glasses.

My task for today was the sunroom. We had to first sort everything into their proper bins. Then I had to detail vacuum behind everything and into every crevice. Ew!!! How can the rug get this dirty when all the toys were on top of it? I found flies and mouse poop and spider webs. All kinds of nasties!

"Mom, look! It's staying perfectly still in the middle!"

Ah, I can breathe again! There's visual space! I was getting claustrophobic! I will be putting our boxes of keep toys in the shed, as many that can fit. And then we still need to go through the many boxes of misc toys and cars and trucks and really look at getting rid of a bunch of them. That's the ones over by the dress up box. But at least we can move the picture book shelf so we can to the electrical outlet for Rick. This took me 2 hours today!

Homemade orange popsicles on the left and lemonade popsicles on the left. Check that off the summer bucket list. And now we have leftover lemonade to drink!

Yeah! I saw that this homeschool documentary movie was out to order so I ordered it and it came in just a few days! Now to find time to actually watch it! I still haven't my movies I bought myself for Christmas, so,....I mean, I could watch them any evening by myself instead of my TV show, but I want to watch them with Jared. I should just watch them and then rewatch them with him. Sigh.

Melinda, Melinda (Mary, Mary), quite contrary (ok, yes, I guess that fist me, too), how does your garden grow? Well, it grows great! Check out all my gorgeous flowers this year! We've had the perfect amount of rain this spring and then the cooler temperatures to start the summer and I guess then the perfect amount of hot weather to really make these different kinds of flowers really vibrant! I really don't know what they are because they were planted before my time. They are just pops of color throughout the garden. I just leave them be and they seem to reproduce them each year and become more and more, despite the slightly overcrowdedness now of the garden itself. I don't fertilize anything either. I let God take care of it all except for what weeding I do know how to do. I obviously know how close some of them are to each other and that some over shadow the others. And there are years that some don't grow as well as others. But this year I feel like they've all done really well. Last year, a few of the big plants didn't do as well. I don't pick my flowers either. I like to walk past them and enjoy them that way. Especially now that I'm in and out of the house so much. Enjoy "walking" through my flower garden!

These haven't bloomed quite yet, but again, they propagate into a bigger and bigger mass every year. There's this bunch and the other ones are closer to the sidewalk in between the irises. The bees like them and they are like black eyed susans.

Jared cut these way down just about 6-8 weeks ago to where the mass of leaves are at the bottom. All of this massive 4 ft of growth happened since then!

Here's the orange ones to match the magenta ones on the opposite side of the garden close to the sidewalk. See how they are squished between two other large plants? They fade quickly, but that's fine. There's also a small bunch under the original irisis but I don't think they are actually going to bloom. I think maybe I should actually move those this year finally. They were fine until the irises went in and they did bloom a few more times. I think I have just the spot for them, too.

Oh the random things I find in my house some days. Abishai went to Kroger with Daddy one day and I guess they got some stickers on the way out. And he figured he would put them on some interesting spots on the wall. This one is next to the hallway spot.

Totally me! I don't actually think about totally nothing, I've never been able to do that. I just don't think about anything that's bothering me. I usually go watch a video from the Iowa Dairy guy or Bondi Vet or something totally random that has nothing to do with me or my circumstances like my police/hospital/drama shows. Or I watch something about celebrities. Or Star Wars. Or totally random. It just depends on my mood. Some days I do want to deep dive into a subject so I'll watch video after video about it until I've satisfied the itch and have come to an understanding about, especially if it's political or controversial. And other days, I have to totally avoid social media so I don't get triggered. I'm very vulnerable that way. It's kind of like a game and I'm getting pretty good at playing it. Until I'm blindsided by a trigger or something I don't want to think about. Then who knows how I'm going to react. I didn't used to be so emotional. I walled myself in and didn't react to anything. I was nice and kind. I didn't have anger issues. But I was very timid and shy, too. I didn't have much depth. I was a Pollyanna. I'm not sure how healthy that was. I've learned how to feel more deeply now. I let down my walls now. So I get hurt more now, but I prefer to feel more deeply and passionately. I cry at movies now. I cry when my kids get hurt. I do get angry. But I get much more happy, too. I have a range of emotions. So, it's worth it. I feel more human. I've learned a ton about what it is to be human. And it's normal. And it's messy. And I like it, but I hate it because it's so hurtful to me and others sometimes. And when people tell me I'm hurtful, I take it way too personally. Because I never mean to be. I wish I was that scared little girl who just wanted everyone to be happy with her. But the social justice side of me just doesn't care anymore if someone is mad at her. Truth hurts. Truth does need to come out. And if I'm not perfect yet in how to speak it, it's ok, I'm learning. And I can only learn, by doing. So I put myself out there and try. And then I recoil into myself when I go too far and look at the beautiful trees until I feel safe to poke my head out again. Because I'm an enneagram 6 and I worry a lot.

Thursday - Sit down work

- Ok, today was do all the things that need to be done while sitting down. That means, do all the computer work. Abishai and I got right to it as soon as we could. I tried not to stall too much, but I did a bit by answering questions on Facebook. Granted, some emails needed to be read or videos watched as well.  I also played some board games with Abishai. I did give him his ADHD med this morning because I could tell he was going to be off the wall and bugging me and I needed him to focus. He opted to do his screen time early. He also asked to have a longer time since he won't get any on Friday or Saturday while he is at camp. Oh yeah! Before I had my eyes open he was already gathering his items to put in his suitcase for camp! That kept him busy for awhile. We couldn't pack it until Justin got home and got the suitcase down though. And we needed the laundry to dry, too, so he could have the pjs he wanted. He did get out toys today and scattered them all over the nice cleaned up rug in the sunroom, but, when I told him to go pick it up when he was done, he did so perfectly. Yeah! We are making progress! 

- Speaking of progress, Keturah was on her phone for a good bit this morning, and then when she took her break from the screen, she started to go through her clothes again because she found a box or bag that she had "forgotten" about and needed to purge. I don't know if she found this mystery box a few days ago when she rearranged her bookshelves of what. Among other things, she wanted me to purge out her keepsake clothes, so she brought them to me while I was typing and we went through them together. Good on her that she wants to continually purge. That's a wonderful thing! I'll keep encouraging that as much as I can. Benaiah is doing the same thing right now. He recently purged his clothes and he was going to purchase his other things soon, too. I'm proud of these two for getting in the habit now. I mean, I want to just take all the things they purge and keep them myself, but, I'm learning from their perspective what is important and what is not. Justin doesn't have a clue and would keep anything and everything because he can't make up his mind, just like me. And Abishai, he wants to keep everything, too, right now. So, we are split half and half. Not bad.  I'll take it.

- I didn't get as far as I wanted on the blog, but at least I got the main paragraphs done before I had to go get Justin from work and then take him for his haircut that got delayed last week. After that, I jumped back onto my computer to plug in the photos and videos to finish off last week's blog and do this week's blog, captioning them as I went. This is a slightly better pattern of at least getting the main paragraphs done every night and then worrying about photos and videos later. But I still want my evenings back and to be on my computer between 7-8. My medicine and caffeine starts to wear off my then and it's completely gone by 9-10pm. I'm tired and slow in the morning. I might have 2 good hours in the afternoon but if I'm out and about, then nothing happens at home, and then I start to decline again. It's all about sleep patterns and kids' activities, especially when you have to be in 3 places at once and can never fully connect with your spouse. I don't like having chaos after 6pm. I want to start settling down after dinner. 4 months in and I'm still not used to it. But I can't take Abishai away from Tang Soo Do and he wants to go all 3 nights. Which leaves Tuesday and Friday nights to cram in other things. Sigh. I know this is totally normal, but why does it have to be normal? This is why families can fall apart. This is why vacations are important. This is why intentionally connecting is vital. Ships passing in the night is never a good thing. The rat race. It's not a good race. I just want my family back home with me for these last few years of two of my children's lives. I don't want them out so much and not with each other. Sigh. I want to be the J5 as long as we can and do things together, not separately. 

- You know what, I need to stop obsessing over this blog. Why? Because what have I done the last few weeks? I've spent time with my family. I did just what the last sentence in that paragraph said. I made the memories happen. I did take the photos and videos. And even if they never see the light of day. They are there. My parents took photos of us when we were young. I've never seen them or gone through them. And I might not ever be able to. But they are there, safe and sound in my garage. And there are photos of my mom and maybe my dad when they were in their 20's. Someday I might look at them. Or I won't. What does it matter? No one really reads this blog, do they? I write this for me. To solidify my memories. To journal my thoughts and opinions. I need to chill about it. It's breaking my mental bank. I need to focus on the here and now, right?

- We pulled it off. Grandma took Keturah and her friend Ava who lives near Wolf Run park over to Killebrews house and then they all went to Kilwin's ice cream down on Mass Ave. in downtown Indy. Justin, Jared, Abishai, and I went to Tang Soo Do. Abishai had his class with teacher Uriah and it was a very full class, too. Abishai likes it when it's a smaller class because they can do more fun stuff because they get through the hard work faster. Oh well, it's good to see the class full AND there were two new kids there. Yeah! That means Abishai actually gets to move up a bit in the pack. Abishai didn't know the whole plan for tonight, so we told him to just focus on class and don't worry about why Justin and I were there and not Keturah. He thought it was something to do with them. When he was done, we all went to Kilwin's ice cream as well. We got there about the same did Killebrew's did. Keturah looked very surprised and pleased. I made several social mistakes, but alas, we got through the line with ice cream in hand. I picked Macinac fudge and cherry something. Yes, I ate real ice cream and surprisingly, my stomach is only a little bit upset. I got another digestive pill just in case. I'm feeling a little worse than I did at first, but not as bad as I thought I would feel, so I'm super happy about that. Either I built up a little bit of tolerance or overall, taking those digestive enzymes every day has helped heal my gut a bit or I just didn't eat any other triggering foods today. I didn't have dairy but I did have two cups of coffee today plus straight up chocolate covered coffee beans so, I don't know. Kilwin's originated in Michigan, so that's why they had some Michigan flavors including Blue Moon. Jared bought a tub of it to drop off to Gary and Leah later. They also had a New Orleans, too. LOADS of great flavors. Abishai even got superman flavor! GREAT ice cream, too. NOT cheap. But great! Worth the drive and price!

- It was cool enough to eat aside, so we did. We had a pleasant conversation with Mike and Kelly as always. Mike even talked about going to Workcamp in Main in 1996! Yessir, we were both there at that one! Who knew! 1,000 miles away, at a workcamp 3 people were at the same place as high schoolers serving Jesus and now, 26 years later, 3 people are still serving Jesus, sharing one daughter's birthday with another daughter as her friend in the same small group and the men work side by side in the same ministry. And the men went to the same school and we've gone to the same church more or less for 20 years. So yes, one of the longest standing acquaintances/friendship histories we have as a couple. Amazing! Who knew?! God did of course. Now I have to get out my Workcamp binder for when Mike comes by again or when we see them next and show him. He talked about two of the most hilarious guys in our youth group that most of us girls had crushes on at some point, Chris and Nathan. I don't get to talk about my youth group days at all and I absolutely love it when I do. Two of my favorite guys in the whole world, they were like big brothers, Chris and Nathan. The way Chris and his brother Matt would give my mom hugs and she loved those boys so much. And their parents were rock solid servants of God always there for us. And of course Nathan Reynolds and his whole family and their example. And then put those two knuckleheads together as teenagers and the antics they got up to. Oh my, you knew you they were always up to no good, but clean (as in not raunchy) fun! They were the protectors and leaders when you needed them. But also the fun, too. They still are. And all the others, too. The best youth group in the world. That's what I had. If only I could have a friendship group like that again. Wow. That would be amazing. Best 4 years of my life. I was so naive. And I had so much fun. And learned so much. And was so safe from the harm of regular public school. And so accepted. I never knew how accepted I was and loved I was. How much that youth group was a safe space to be myself. I was never bullied, not once. I really wasn't ignored either. Or left out. And we did it without running off to eat ice cream every week or going to someone's house every week for a pool party. We didn't have fancy screens or ice breaker games. We didn't go to CIY Move 5 times and Mix 3 times. No, we went to Workcamp 5 times or more. We studied the Bible as boys and girls separately, but with all the grades together. We didn't have a separate Sunday School classroom space, we just used the sanctuary the adults used in the morning. We did have our own worship team though. We had much older and wiser youth leaders that were mature adults. It was so different back then. So much more simple.

- I miss those days. Now I have to drive all over the township not knowing what I have to do next for a youth group event. Now we have to shell out $500 to go to "camp" where the kids get fed a lot of spiritual meat, and they get to play fancy games and listen to fancy music artists, but not once do they actually serve someone else. They live the high life. They don't see absolute abject poverty where an 80 year old woman has to use an outhouse because she doesn't have running water. She also collected water in rain barrels in order to have cooking water and water to drink and wash up in. We redid her roof, painted her ceilings and painted her very small house in the woods. I'll never forget it. That's a life long impact on your heart. Those are the memories that Mike Killebrew has and carries with him still. He learned to drywall at Workcamp. And how many times has he had to drywall since then? Loads!!! How many more mission trips has he been on where he's done drywall? Sigh. This is my yearly struggle about this time of year with CIY. The consumerism vs. the actual putting the words into action of a real mission trip. I wish my kids would want to go on mission trips more often. Benaiah talked about going to Austria again in the spring. Justin went to Houston with Grandpa a few years ago. We're getting there. At least they all serve every week and Abishai wants to start serving as soon as he's old enough. We are on our way.

- All that to say, it was a lovely time to be outside eating ice cream again, and this time with our 5 and Killebrews 6 and an extra 9th grader, Ava. We got home about 9pm which is later than I would have liked. I still have to do Abishai's actual packing because I thought I had more time this afternoon and then Jennae had gotten behind schedule so it made us late getting back. And then I barely had time to shove food in all our faces before leaving again for karate. I am not a soccer mom. I want to be home in the evening after supper. I want to go back to the way things were. I'm just an old fuddy duddy who didn't want her schedule changed. And now I'm still way behind. I guess I will catch up tomorrow afternoon after I get Abishai down to camp and drive home. Then the clock starts ticking until pick up time 27 1/2 hrs until pick up time. Hm,......what ever shall we do? Oh, I know! Have a proper lie in on Saturday until noon! Lol!

When we went to pick up Justin today, he said there were many kittens in the store today and to come take a look. I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into to. This is NOT photoshopped one bit! Those baby kitten eyes say, "Please take me home. I'm so sweet!" Justin is the resident kitten whisperer. He's allowed to cuddle the kittens as often as he wants to and to take care of their needs. Farmers and local friends of the store are allowed to bring in the kittens and they are given away for free. They are usually gone in less than 24 hrs of coming in. You can tell it's one of Justin's favorite parts of the job. He and Keturah would adopt several of the kittens if they could. Jared still thinks that humans are severely hurt with plaxotoxmosis by owning cats but from what I read, it's just not as severe as he thinks. It's a viral infection that cats have and can be treated for. And as long as you are taking proper care when taking care of their litter box, you should also be fine. But who can resist that face?!

Abishai got to hold the kitten, too. And I did as well. You could just feel the constant purring and it was wonderful! Just marvelous! So comforting to feel it and the kitten's heartbeat. I don't understand how Aaron, Leah, and Jared can hate a creature so much. Have they ever held one? Or just really looked at them? Just like every animal and human, there are really bad ones and there are really, really good ones. But just look at them all! So precious. They were created by God, too. Cats play a role in nature, too, catching mice, especially. Bringing comfort by curling up in an old woman's lap. Stroking their fur is like stroking a dog's furt, it's relaxing and comforting. Obviously not to those who are allergic, but hey, the rest of us should be able to enjoy them without getting chastised for it.

Amen.

When I returned home from taking Justin to get his haircut, I was already running late because the haircut was running late, I was greeted by this! Keturah not only was purging her clothes, but she wanted to purge her toys as well, and her keepsakes at the top of her closet. If I had known that, I would have spcifically said no. And why on earth had she felt she needed to take out all of my clothes? She doesn't even have any hang up clothes IN the closet. And the only thing they are blocking is the big box of Barbies that I am not going to work on. I'm just not. It's way, way, way down on the list, if ever. I did NOT need this, daughter.

Good on you to purge, but we have company coming in a few days!

I don't have time to sort through your things and then keep what I want and find where to put them which then clutters up my spaces. Sigh. Ugh! Not now!

Well, hopefully the CDC is right with this one!

So, Abishai, what do you see? Downtown! Why are we going downtown?! Well, Keturah and Abishai were very confused that we told Keturah Grandma was going to pick her up at 6:45pm and take her somewhere and Justin and Mommy were going to go with Daddy and Abishai to karate. Very bizarre. And then after karate, instead of going home, we head downtown. Abishai thought it was something for him. Nope, youngest, not everything is about you or for you.

The Killebrews wanted to go out to a special ice cream place called Kilwin's downtown on Mass. Ave. to celebrate Keturah's birtthday and this was the only night we all had available! So Grandma had picked up another one of Keturah's friend's, Ava, and taken them to Killebrew's house so they could ride with them to downtown together. And then we took Ava home and Keturah road home with us.

Kilwin's is very expensive but worth every single penny! It's the smoothest premium ice cream on the planet! They have the best flavors that you can't find in normal grocery stores or chain ice cream shops. I got two scoops, one of Macinac fudge and a cherry something. There was a New Orleans flavor even! Abishai got superman. And then Jared bought a tub of Blue Moon for his parents!!!! Yum!!!

Guess how big this bar of chocolate is? I didn't get the weight of it but it's massive!

See me in the mirror there down below? That's true to size! Um, yes, so big!

Once we all got our ice cream, the kids sat outside on the benches and the adults stood up and enjoyed the gorgeous breeze on this warm evening. It wasn't too hot and not even too sticky Of course it had been fairly warm during the day, though, so ice cream hit the spot! Oh, and I didn't even get that sick on the ice cream either. Just a little bit, which means they made it well. I was super impressed! Abishai of course implanted himself between two young ladies and talked their ears off.

Keturah, Bella, Ava. Yes, a lot of the girls are all legs and skinny. Keturah is the shortest in her group I think, just like I was! I am always the shortest one in any group! But definitely not the skinniest.

Superman ice cream face!

Jared made special effort to drive around Monument Circle. Check out the gorgeous summer sky and dusk lighting! Downtown was moderately busy. I think there was an event or two going on. It was awesome to see the city up and running again on a random Thursday night. It is Pride (homosexual, lgbtq+) month so those flags are out everywhere, but there was nothing specific going on for that tonight. We saw some nice old cars and cool motorcycles parked on the circle. We had a lovely evening with our friends the Killebrews celebrating Keturah's birthday (again!)

Here's another one of those Kroger stickers.

Hm,....seems suspicious to me....until you realize it's Air Force One!

Well, know, who can this be?! Kamala or Biden? From our airport or just flying over us? Either way, very cool!

Friday - Kid Free!

- Phew! What a day so far, but we made it! I became the "last minute" mom and was labeling all of Abishai's stuff just a few minutes before I was to take Justin to Greenfield so he could go to with Kellie, Kya, and Alexander to the big city pool. I was actually a tad later than I wanted to be, but it all worked out. It's a good thing Abishai is the 4th kid and I know the packing list by heart. It doesn't change much between any camp or event. I almost forgot his bathing suit, though! Phew! But I'm glad I got him all packed up BEFORE I took Justin.

- Then we booked it to Greenfield. Let's just say I'm grateful that I don't usually see cops on the backroads. I sped more than I usually do. And there were a couple of detours I forgot about. I got home just as Jared was getting home from work. We ate at home, and he kind of took his sweet time. Sigh. I was trying to rush him along. But whatever. We still made it down to Trafalgar by 1:45pm. We got there after the big rush so it really was perfect timing.

- Abishai talked the whole way down about anything and everything! He had wound himself up all morning and just couldn't help himself! He was like a puppy dog looking out the front door, wagging his tail so fast and thinking, "People, people, people!!!!" Ok extra extrovert, calm down! Your bucket will be extra extra full in 27 1/2 hrs time, promise! Cool your heels! He and I had had a great snuggle session this morning, too. Because we were the last parents to get there, we were able to both quickly get in the dorm and make his bed and get him settled in. I got my obligatory "here he is at camp on his bunk" photo. He got his string bag and water bottle, in a lovely shade of, you guessed it, e2 green! Mr. Sam put his name on his bag, and we filled it up in the boys' bathroom. And then I slipped into a stall to go the bathroom. I know, I know, it's the boys' bathroom. I was quick. They were leaving soon for their next meeting (camp rules). I got a hug and kiss from my little big boy and then we quickly left.

- And then I had a pouty face. The last one. The last one to really start on overnight camps. I only have 11 years left to play mom and then they are all grown. I have to smash all the things into only 11 years. And then what do I do with my life? Rescue hurt dogs? Go back to school? Do more homeschool related stuff? Teach my grandkids? I have no idea. I've been a stay at home mom for my whole adult life, even before I graduated high school. I don't know anything else. My whole career life is a stay at home mom. For 30 years in total, I will have been a stay at home mom with kids under the age of 18 or in K-12th grade. Yup, that's a long career. I don't want it to ever end. So, yes, I'm having the "this is the beginning of the end" blues. Sigh.

- I tried to talk to Jared on the way home, but he was silent. And then I delay fished my way on to the computer. I would like to make some headway with these photos and vids on these two last blog posts. I was flipping through my old scrapbooks for Workcamp and High School and it hit me that I really have been recording memories since I was 14 years old. And if I hadn't been, these memories would only be in my head and I wouldn't be able to share them with people like Mike. I wouldn't be able to see Chris or Nathan's faces again. I wouldn't see Michelle or Bethany. My kids wouldn't get to see me with bangs or my dogs Waggle and Daisy or my horse Trevor. And, even that when the youth group went on their fall hike, I took the same kind of photos of nature and fall colors of leaves on trees as I do now, 25 years later. I think, I'll give up the blog, somehow, I need to stop. It takes up too much time. I take too many photos, people just don't take time for it. It all blows up in smoke someday anyway. Why do I keep doing it? Because of the same reasons I started 25 years ago. Because stories matter. And with stories, you need photos. I'm a photo journalist. I want to tell stories. But the photos tell the stories better than I do. And someday, I will have my room cleaned up and I can get back to real scrapbooks again. Maybe I'll finally put together printed books with some of these photos. But for now, I at least have these stories written down and some of my thoughts processed. It's an imperfect process and has been in these busy years, but at least I've done something over the years. So, I'll continue on for now. And maybe someday I'll come up with a quicker or simpler process. But for now, it is still at least a little bit important to me so I will continue.

- I also had some thoughts about chauffeuring the kids around. My mom got to the same point in her life where she had to put her social life aside and her hobbies and just do it. She would homeschool us from 8am to about 2:30pm and then she would start her driving rounds and go until about 10pm. Sometimes she would have some breaks in between depending on if she had the carpool for gymnastics that night or not. But for 4-6 years, it's what she did, maybe longer. And then, we started to drive ourselves more and more. I didn't get to see the rest because I moved to college and got married. But eventually, we were gone. And it was just her and Dad. That's when they joined a small group with the Beachy's and dug into deeper friendships again and she started to do her handicrafts more. She did get to have that time again. She just had to be patient and wait for it. She and Dad always talked about doing their hobbies more and more after they moved out to Indiana, that's why they rented a 3 bedroom apartment so they each had a bedroom to hold their crafting stuff and stay out of each other's way. They just died too young to really enjoy that part of their life when all was said and done. And my fear has always been that I wouldn't take care of myself well enough that I would die young, too. So I wanted to enjoy life now as well as later. And the other part was that my children would be involved in each other's lives during these years instead of just off doing their own activities. I wanted to do things as a family not just as individuals. And, even when they kick and scream and pout, I can be content that I have tried my best to continue family meals, watched TV shows together like Obi Wan, gone to events as a whole family, continued teaching history as a family unit for as long as I possibly could, and at least talked about being a family unit. I know they will go their separate ways as young adults, but hopefully, when they settle down and have their own families, they can reflect and remember that I tried my best and we did at least have some moments together, some threads that tie the blood bonds together, better than what happened with my siblings and I. And now two of my siblings and I do get along just fine, and we manage ok. The other one doesn't talk to me. And I don't want that to happen with my kids. That's the part I want to prevent. And if I have prevented that, all the kicking and screaming now as teenagers was worth it. 

- So, my goal is to stop complaining about the lost time of me driving them everywhere. I'll just toodle around and do my thing enjoying teasing them and lecturing them and sometimes letting them practice their driving and getting mad at the roads. And somehow find other time to journal photos and get myself to be more efficient in other tasks at home. Or forget organizing anything at home like my mother did during those years. Not one closet changed during those years. She would organize school books, but that's it. She never purged anything until they got ready to move here in 2005. Life was too busy. She never deep cleaned. She was too busy being a mom to us. Praying over us while we were at youth group. Taking my sister to swim lessons and knitting socks for the Indian reservation instead of wasting gas driving back and forth. She barely ate and slept as it was. She had to stay up to make sure my sister's leotards were washed and on the drying rack to dry during the night and through the next day ready in case she needed that one for practice the next day. Meals were made by me half of the time because I was home. She poured over book catalogs and decided on what curriculum was best. She knew what was better than a few cobwebs. Ok, it was a lot of cobwebs. But, we all survived. And so will we. I know what is best. I do want to be like my mom, but with a slight twist. I want to stay healthy and not die at the age of 60. And I want to stay closer at a family but doing more things together as a family. Other than that, I can be just like my mom. She is one of my heroes. 

- The rest of the day was interesting. Kellie brought Justin and Kya to our house for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Jared had them sit on the couch or in the garage in Justin's man cave. They ended up playing Minecraft together! Did you know that Kya's Minecraft/Playstation name is Blanabsgirl? I can't stop smiling about that one! When Jared and I were dating and I wanted an alternative AOL Instant Messenger name, he came up with jonsonchic, yes without the H. So, he basically "claimed" me. And now, Kya basically claimed herself Justin's girl! His name on Playstation is Blanabs, which he took over from Benaiah. So it's Blanabs and Blanabsgirl.  Oh my goodness! How endearing! I swear, when the world turns sideways and I come across these innocent little things, it gives me so much hope. It makes it so worth it to fight for the big things out there. It gives me more passion to dig in and be bold and fight more for them. And to protect them. They are so precious, my little humans. Well, big humans, but my younger humans. All I want for them is a better world. I know in reality it won't come. I know what the Bible says. But I will fight for them, none the less. Because they are so cute and innocent. We've shielded them from the ugliness of the world and will continue to do so for as long as we can. I was shielded and I appreciated it in the long run. It didn't affect my overall maturity and thinking. But these two, yes, I complain about the long drives but man, I couldn't ask for a better situation at the moment. Kellie and I bend over backwards for them because we know it's worth it. Or driving downtown to see Keturah smile with her friends. Or driving 45 minutes to camp and getting pictures in return to see Abishai finding new friends his age. Sacrificing my own deep relationships right now in order for them to mature and develop is so worth it.

- I was able to finish the day by finishing the previous week's blog post completely. That felt good. Now I just have to finish this week's. I've got the big paragraphs done. It's just the pics and vids again, which should be fairly easy. We didn't go too far this week. I need to get this done because the cousins come next week. I drank a second cup of coffee so I can hold out a little longer before I get too tired to type. Tomorrow we have nothing on the agenda until we get Abishai at 5. But I hope Jared works on getting the site for the pool ready. I'm not sure what he's up to. We haven't spoken much this week. And then I have to help Keturah with her room stuff if I have time. I really wish I had time to go to the pro-life rally today because it was going to be big with all the pro-life groups. I just don't have time. Money and prayer is all I have to give these days. And plenty of shout outs on social media. I wish my fellow Christians would be loud and bold and give more shout outs about this Victory today! 50 years of Roe v. Wade. has been overturned. It's hard to be sad or mad or depressed on a day like today! I put a note on today's date on my phone calendar to celebrate it again next year. June 24th, 2022. The day that Roe v. Wade was overturned! What a rejoicing there should be! But the backlash from supposed Christians is appalling. And sad. I will try to move on. We have things to do. TV shows to watch if I can stand it. My own babies to love and grow. All told, I will have spent 30 years of my adult life as a stay at home mom raising children. That's a career. The best one. The only one I think I truly wanted. I thought about being a business woman and working at a firm in accounting for a couple of years but ultimately I was going to bring the work home. I had previously thought about being a farm vet and having my own hours so I could also be home. All things led to being home. And both those also led to some good money, too, so I could take care of my babies, not knowing what my husband would be making. And I was believing the lies that women needed to have a career outside the home in order to be happy. I'm just as busy being home as I would have been having a career. And the little bit that I did work didn't make me happier or more fulfilled. I work part time volunteering with IAHE. I spend just as much time and energy on that as I did at Crescent Project earning $11 an hour or whatever it was as their accountant. It's less stressful because it doesn't have to be as precise as accounting. But 30 years as a stay at home mom. And I still don't do all the things I want to do that I know I would be good at. Life is too interesting. Thank you ADHD for that. Thank you, God, for giving my kids all kinds of personalities so I would never get bored. There's always a new problem to be solved. I think being an accountant would probably get boring. 

So the other leader was dubbed the camera man and text string updater, so we got plenty of fun photos and videos of what was going on with the Wolf Pack over the 27 hrs that they were gone from us. It was a little strange to be able to get live updates from a kid at camp, but also pretty comforting because well, I do worry about my kid, just like all parents, do. It was fun to interact with the other parents and I hope that maybe I'll get to know the parents in the future, maybe for birthday parties or playdates. Abishai knew some of the boys going into this and now he knows more of them and knows them better. I'm not sure who is more funny, the boys, or Mr. Sam Southworth. 2nd graders are still so little and cute, but don't tell them that!

They teamed up with one of the girl groups to become __________

With Mrs. Allison

Waiting to hear about the camp rules and camp schedule.

Ready to go out on the lake! My boy is so short! And there's always a grumpy one of the bunch. I think his name is Griffin and yes, he hardly ever smiled for photos.

They all had very unique and loud personalities I heard.

Showing off their muscles.

Group project to reinforce the lesson which was on In the beginning God created.

It was Abishai's idea to be rockin' the Rockin' Road Trip Indian Creek VBS t-shirt from 2005. This was Benaiah's t-shirt because he was 3 years old and I was 7 months pregnant with Justin. How crazy is that?! Hardly anyone there at camp would have probably been part of the VBSs we used to do at the Creek. Mrs. Alison and Mr. Chad weren't there. Sam I Am was. Most of the volunteers were in their young 20's or last teens.  Crazy!

Abishai is ready for camp!

Don't take my picture, Mom!

I'm cute and I know it! Even with my very crooked glasses! I swear I take him in to get his glasses fixed every few months! He's just so active and the glasses are so pliable that they don't hold up their shape very well.

I think I'm ready for camp.

Ok, I KNOW I'm ready for camp!!

We arrived 10 minutes before we were supposed to be out of there, so we both just went in quickly and got him set up. All the other parents were already gone. No one seemed to mind. The boys didn't tease Abishai or anything. Mr. Sam liked Abishai's cool comforter and blankie. Abishai said no one teased him about his stuffie. He got his bag and water bottle and we got his water bottle filled up. We got out his hat to wear and keep the sun out. And then I quickly used the boys' bathroom and pretended I didn't see urinals in there. I had coffee at lunch. In and out so they could get on with their day. If Daddy hadn't taken so much time at lunch time, we wouldn't have left so late. But, we also missed all the crowds coming in as well. (This strategy worked well the next day as well). I barely got a good bye hug from Abishai. It was a bit chaotic, but I think he was just ready and fine to get camp started. Brave boy he is. I almost ended up in tears knowing it's the last time I drop off a 2nd grader at his first overnight camp. The last of the firsts with the last kid. I just can't handle these! And he's terribly cute, too! I'm sure he's going to do great! I'm just as nervous with him as I was with Benaiah though. It's kind of crazy!

They were all ready to walk over to their next activity as we pulled out. Look at those big little kids. 2nd graders are incredibly adorable but still handfuls. They are in great hands with Sam and Jake. I have no worries about that part. First of all, Sam is a nurse and the son of great friends of mine and Jared knows him as well. And Jared sort of knows Jake or hears his name through Mike Kellibrew. I'm so grateful that there are guys that have the ability to take off a full Friday to do this with the little guys. And then other guys that have taken the whole week off to go with the 3rd-5th graders, and the 6th-8th graders, and the 9th-12th graders. That part of Indian Creek Christian Church and every other church I've been a part of it, is incredible. Church wouldn't happen without dedicated volunteers. Especially the physical on hands people like these guys. Again, I paid my dues in that way, and I'm grateful for that phase of life and I wish I could have done more. I am reaping the benefits now of all of my years of serving and now I am my mom and I sit here and I pray for them during all of the camps, regardless if my kid is in that particular camp or not. For physical safety, for things like them drinking enough water and not getting sunstroke, to not getting broken bones, to breakthroughs spiritually, all the things my mom fervently prayed for when she couldn't go on any of the trips. Her prayers produced miracles among us. Someone had to stay behind and walk the dogs and pray. I don't hate Indian Creek or the parents or leaders like this. I'm grateful for them and I'm glad that my children can still enjoy all that there is to offer there.They are still growing and learning. All these precious 2nd graders. I love it!

Of course, my son has to be the one who doesn't do what the others do! He beats to his drum, and that is totally ok with me, EXCEPT when he's making a gun with his fingers at a church camp! Come on, now! No violence, dude! What were you thinking? SMH Oi!

In this house, we reduce, reuse and recycle. It just so happened that e2's 10th anniversary of becoming a 501(c)3 organization was on June 22nd. So they had gotten these balloons for it. Well, Jared brought them home, maybe just because of maybe because today is Justin's 10th spiritual birthday! We really haven't celebrating their spiritual birthdays yet, but since I pulled and copied out everyone's spiritual birthdays, I want to make a point of it. And it just so happened that his 10th happened this week, same as e2's. I never knew that! How cool! I do remember the year it was because it was right before we moved to Canada because he wanted to do it here with his friends before he moved. He was a bit young at being just shy of 7, but that didn't stop him or us. June 2012 was a whirlwind of a month. I have no idea how I managed. I think that's why I basically broke down emotionally when we left the Beech Grove house for the last time on July 1st, 2012. But anyway, very cool. 10 years for Justin. Benaiah will have his 13th spiritual birthday in October. Keturah's 1st spiritual birthday is at the end of July. It's just kind of fun to recognize that stuff! No need for a big to do, but it's nice to mark the day, and what a great day to do it with the end of Roe v. Wade!

Since Kellie dropped this two off for the rest of the day, (Justin had been with them for a good part of the day at the pool), and Jared stayed home after we took Abishai to camp, Jared made them sit in the sitting room or out here in the garage where he was working. So, the pair of them played on Minecraft together on their various platforms. Aren't they cute? At least they are partly outside and are sort of getting fresh air. As fresh as it can be with sanding dust is floating back in from Jared sanding primer paint off of the "J." And I guess they look comfortable enough in Justin's "man cave." Lol. Most definitely redneck. But I will tell you, I do sweep in there, and we do vacuum the rug, and I organize what I can. It may look messy, but it's definitely not. Anyway, here's what I found adorable. You see, when Kya was coming up with her Minecraft name, she couldn't think of anything that unique so she settled on Blanabsgirl. Justin is Blanabs. What is hilarious to me is that 20 something years ago, when I was coming up an alternative AOL Instant Messenger name, I choose jonsonhic, yes, without the "H." Apparently, Kya and I need a little help with our creativity and we do crush on the guys in our life alot. I love it, so much. It's so sweet and endearing. Social roles, cues, and interactions. It's so fascinating. If only I could sort them out for myself so I always produced the right result. So Blanabs and Blanabsgirl had fun playing Minecraft in Blanabs man cave! Ah! My heart melts! I'm such a romantic!

The boys learned how to play gaga ball better. Abishai said he didn't do that well. I think he's just not used to playing with kids his size. I think he also found having a lot of kids his age and size overwhelming. He wasn't used to constantly butt heads with others. He's more used to the older kids being nice to him because he is the youngest. He said the noise level at camp bothered him.

 

 

 

Saturday - 

- Well, I thought we'd all sleep in, but Jared and I were up at 8. I was told our alarm clock, Abishai, was the first one awake this morning at camp. Go figure! Lol! I love how the other dad has shared all these play by play photos with us. And videos! I've gotten to see Abishai stomp and pout when he didn't get his way. And I've gotten to see him in his life jacket, in a tree goofing off, doing his coloring page, showing off his muscles, playing gaga ball, and smiling and having a great time. And the KP page took a great photo of him in last year's Camp Allendale shirt and put it on their Instagram page. His fellow campers have some interesting personalities. Some sleep in until 10. Some are already ready for naps. Some are great at basketball. Some don't smile easily. Some like to dance. I can't wait to hear Abishai talk a mile a minute on the way home! His love tank is going to be sooooo full!  He might not even want to talk if he is feeling overwhelmed and just done with it all. Who knows. I can't wait to squeeze him! I missed him the minute I left him. It's WAY too quiet around here. And boring.

- I think Justin and Keturah both had their own agendas today and Daddy interrupted those agendas. He has them digging up part of the grass area of the front porch and doing something to make the spot for the pool out back. I didn't ask any questions. He's got his own ideas. Hopefully he knows what he's doing and the spot is not on any water lines or well lines or whatever. I don't think so. And hopefully he isn't screwing up the front grass flower bed. I know he's heard me talk about it enough about what I wanted, but, we'll just see what actually happens. The kids are outside working and something for the pool is getting done. That makes me happy. Keturah needs me to go through some of her stuff but I told her, it wasn't on my agenda for her to go through her room like that, so it will have to wait. I'm not sure what else was on her agenda today. My agenda consisted of a shower and this blog. I did sit and try to listen to some Bible, too. Jared and I tried to talk a bit as well.

 - The shower was very uncomfortable as we are trying to get through that nasty bag of salt that is making me itch like crazy. I was ok for the first 5 minutes and then I could feel the burning sensation and itch coming on me like a wave. It made me cry for the rest of my shower. I had other emotions to release, too. But seriously, it just hurts. It makes my skin hurt, burn, crawl, itch. I can't even look forward to a hot shower anymore and I need those for my muscles. So I avoid them and yes, don't take them as often. It frustrates me because it's summer. And it's basic hygiene. But when you literally dread it because the water makes your skin burn, it's awful and it makes you cry. Why is my body always freaking out about something? I can never "clean" anymore because putting on lotion right away just makes me feel greasy again. It covers up my pores causing lots of acne. And then in between showers, I still itch. And this week, I scratched so much that I actually opened up moles. You aren't supposed to be able to do that with just your fingers. My skin looks and feels terrible. All because of water softener salt.  I'm scared of our water. It's awful.

- Meanwhile, did I mention that it is too quiet around here? I did? Oh. Two more hours until it's time to pick up my baby!

- Well, my baby has been picked up, and as I had expected, he was done being with people! He mentioned that they are all so loud! Yes, they are, talking over one another, and our neighbor Andrew was in another group and said said they could hear Abishai's group quite clearly! Let's see. Abishai was the first one awake and went over to both Mr. Same and Mr. Jake to ask if he could get up about 6:30am. He was peering into their faces! Lol! They made him stay in bed until 7am. He was quite busy all day, so when we picked him up, he was super tired. Well, come to find out, part of it was that he was literally carrying around 2 lbs of rocks from camp! Both leaders said they couldn't resist his puppy dog eyes and it wasn't a hill they wanted to die on, so they let it go and wanted us to deal with it. Thanks guys! Abishai literally covered my placemat with camp rocks. He was trying to show a brave face on the way home and tell stories, but he was too tired and almost nodded off to sleep in the truck. He did appreciate that Daddy brought the truck down. I didn't appreciate it because I was I tired and cramped and it made my muscles ache. Jared was just trying to do something unique and fun. The truck doesn't have a/c, so it was hot and sweaty, too. So much for taking a shower today.

- Speaking of hot and sweaty, Abishai was hot and sweaty because he had already changed into his pjs! The leaders didn't understand why he did that until I told them that at home, because we homeshool, he pretty much wears pjs 24/7. 

I break up this steady stream of camp photos to bring you another Queen Elizabeth II photo. I share this one because it was labeled October 21st, 1950. My dad was born on August 21st, 1950. So he would have been two months old when this photo was taken. Therefore my Nana would have been around the same age as the Queen here holding her baby daughter Anne. "Four generations of the royal family gather as Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain holds her baby daughter Anne with her mother Queen Elizabeth and her grandmother, Queen Mary I October 21, 1950" Incredible!

Also incredible has been watching this crew have a 5 city Europeon tour this past week. They had two dates in Germany, two in Sweden and one in Belgium. Full band, and even a huge choir in Belgium! And some folks have traveled all the way from the Ukraine to be there! I've seen some clips from the concerts and you can tell the spirit of God was in those arenas! In fact, Michael was so moved that he did literally walk back on stage and play 3 more songs! He never does encores anymore. Incredible! Then they come home and in a few days, head the other direction to go on an Alaskan cruise with some very dedicated fans. Again, crazy! Crazy talented people!

When asked how he was able to smuggle home part of the camp, Abishai said, his leaders let him! Well, on further investigation, Jared texted Sam and Sam said it was just not a hill he wanted to die on. And when I text the whole Wolf Pack group, Jake said the same thing. Something about puppy dog eyes and Abishai proudly carried that load of rocks everywhere and they were going to leave it up to us to talk to him about it. Well thanks guys! We didn't notice until we were HOME. Now what are we supposed to do?! You get to be the cool counselors and we get to be the mean parents with the lecture. Nice one! Well, since he is the baby of the family that has the puppy dog eyes, is he going to get lectured at? Nope. Instead, we'll find a place to make a nice little rock garden where he can set up his rocks outside and play with them if he wants to. That way they don't get lost with all the other rocks and they aren't in the house scratching up furniture. But yes, my alternative thinking boy needed some rock friends. Sigh.

Mrs. Sarah Land was on photography duty for the KP Instagram account and got a great one of Abishai, crooked glasses, half closed eyes, crooked smile, cowlicked bangs, hat, and marker on his leg and all.

Making booklets from their Bible lesson this morning, which was about Jesus dying on the cross for them.

Pool time! Everybody like Abishai's cool towel!

Carpetball! When the multi purpose room at Indian Creek was the gym and Kidustrial Park area, the 3rd and 4th grade room at a carpet ball table like this. It could be this exact same one, who knows. I just remember that Benaiah really liked it. You roll the balls from a pool table and bang them into each other until they fall into a pocket at either end.

Bwahahahahaha! Abishai's face!

What Governor Holcomb is referring to is that on June 24th, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned! After nearly 50 years of abortion rights being protected by this court case, the Supreme Court has now struck down that decision and turned the power back to the states to make the laws on how much to ban abortion, what types and at what gestational ages. Indiana has decent laws, but we could always do better. I can't believe they are doing a special assembly for it and not waiting until January. I mean I'm glad, but wow. And there's a HUGE rally tomorrow with all the major pro-life groups. They were going to be there either way and just happened to somehow know that a decision was to be made today. I was going to go but I'm just too busy. I'm praying for a great turnout. I don't think that they have to be there to convince the governor though. And both of my legislators are pro-life, so I have no worries from where I stand, thankfully.

Not in focus because he was being a pain but, I found Justin snuggling his Skylar stuffed animal this morning. He maybe be 16 1/2 yrs old, but.....Benaiah used to do the same with his special pillow from Ava, so, yup, I have boys with sentimental, gentle hearts. I wouldn't want it any other way. Strong men, bold men. Men of integrity, strong character, firm in their faith. But ooey, gooey, sweet boys that have those romantic, melty hearts around girls. At least I helped raise them right in this way.

Not this one though. I didn't raise him. And it's not his mother's fault either. He's just weird. So he decided he wanted to drive the tiny truck down to pick up Abishai, in the sticky heat, without air conditioning. Um, I'm not as skinny as I used to be, dear. And this truck is much, much smaller than the F-150 we used to have. But thank goodness this one has cloth seats and not vinyl seats! Oh my did we used to stick to those seats! We didn't have a/c in that one either! So I'm still itchy and what not from my very uncomfortable shower and I don't really want to be skin to skin with him, but oh well, if he wants to do it, then fine, we'll go on this adventure. I'll survive. He thinks Abishai will think it's funny. Mind you, I do have to sit in the middle, with no shoulder belt, that's how old this truck is. It's a 1991. And Jared can barely use the stick shift and his elbow bumps into me every time. I get cramps in my legs from trying to keep them out of the way. So I decided to put both on one side off the stickshift and lean kind of sideways. It's a 45 minute ride to Camp Allendale. Fun times indeed! And to boot, this redneck suburbanite has on his oldest of old basketball shorts, we are talking from 1997 old, the shirt he was wearing to work in, so it's grubby and stinky, his grandfather's hat, and he pulls out a little cigar and his sunglasses. Oh! And he's wearing toe socks with his hi-top toe shoes. What a sight he is! I just shake my head. He's such a goof ball. And he just rolls with it. He has zero fashion sense. And therefore, his children don't either. It's up to me to teach them all about fashion and poise. I'm a Queen without a Court. I've got a farmhand who won't farm and refuses to use nature as his bathroom and can't stand to go swimming in ponds and the ocean because he has to step on nasty stuff and toes get all "icky." He's a city boy inside with a redneck exterior. He's really weird. He doesn't fit any mold. Kind of like his wife. I'm the oddball. One foot in this door and one foot in another. Wanting to look pretty and presentable, but not to the point where it's obvious that I'm trying too hard. Passionate about life, and then hiding away when it gets tough. Choosing a very alternative lifestyle but not that kind you're thinking of, but a mixture of conservative but not strict but free thinking but not liberal. Crunchy yet what's practical. Homegrown in thought, but not in deed. ADHD hyper focus, yet out of focus. Constantly changing the subject and mood and crisis to follow. I think we might quite a pair, don't you? No wonder we struggle sometimes. There's so much chaos just in all those things! We are still growing up! We are still settling into who we want to be! Eclectic, that's the best word for it. We take the best bits of what we've seen around us, which is a ton, because we are well educated and well traveled, and try to apply them. But what happens is that things don't mesh together well. The stew doesn't congeal together very well. It's lumpy and bumpy. Sometimes grumpy, too. Sometimes bland, sometimes spicy. You never know what's coming in the next bite. It's frustrating sometimes, but it's never boring. It's just who we are and what we've become.

Somebody is 100% over it. He's done with people! He said they are all too loud! He's not used to being around so many people at once in such a chaotic way. And I would agree. It's how I view a large event. It's overwhelming. He loves people. And given time, I think he'll get better at it, but he's just not used to it. It's an ADHD thing. There's so much capturing your attention that you get on overload. A lot of people with ADHD are sensitive to noise and touch. I definitely am in a slight way. I can tell when it's affecting my mood and while it's just a slight shift, when it's added onto the other parts of my ADHD, it's just one more thing to think about. He also just wanted to be near Mommy and Daddy and his own things. I honestly don't think about the differences sometimes between his peers and him in this way. I mean, I WANT him to want to be home more than he wants to be away, but I don't think about the social consequence in a situation like this. And he's a super sensitive guy. I'll have to try to foreworn his leader next year about this and just chalk it up to sensitivity and ADHD and not explain it aways as public school vs. private school. A lot of times though, people make that connection themselves.

We were talking to Sam and Jake and Abishai just started taking all his things up the hill on his own to the truck because he was THAT over it! Ok, we got the message! He stayed in the 4 season Lakeview cabin, the same one that Justin has stayed in for winter retreat. They have a boys' side and a girls' side.

Just take me home, Mom.

Just how much of camp did you bring home with you, boy? Some bring home things like a little stick (he brought home one of those as well that looked like a gun) and art projects and sand from the beach in their shoes. Our son? He brings home like 3lbs of ROCKS, not pebbles, but actual, ROCKS used to pave the roads. Sigh. Sorry, Camp Allendale, we will give him a talking to about leaving a place how you find it or better than you find it. Oi!

Having technology while at camp and having friends there where your baby is can be such a wonderful thing! I loved getting all these photo and video updates. And I know the other parents did, too. We enjoyed interacting with each other. I'm sure some of them know each other from school things, but it was good for to remember that they are my fellow humans and not the enemy and it's ok for my son to be friends with them and we are all just moms of 2nd graders. I can be very judgmental, one sided, blinded by my own pride and opinions. And for my sake and Abishai's sake, I need to better than that. I'm trying. Abishai had a great time, but I think this year, he needs a little bit of time before he's ready to go back for an even longer stay next time.

Sunday - 

- A gorgeous Sunday! I just wish I could have been outside more to enjoy it! The tale of my life! It was a pretty typical Sunday.  6 went one way, 1 went another way, and I went another way. And then we all converged at the parents house for lunch. Lunch conversation went a lot smoother this week. Abishai talked about camp. Gary brought up Roe v. Wade and even asked if Dan mentioned it.  He didn't say if he was upset or mad that Dan didn't, but I was surprised Gary asked. Dan didn't and in fact Pastor Brett didn't either. Both Pastors just launched into their sermons continuing their sermon series and both sermons were excellent as usual. You really can't tell who is better sometimes and that's the point. Dan preahced on 1 Cornithians 4 (I think, I was just listening so I didn't catch the chapter number) and talked about how Paul focused his preaching on the DEATH of Christ and essentially how that fact made Christianity different than other religions. Sacrificing for others was mentioned, but really, it was focused on the Gospel message. Pastor Brett used Daniel 9:1-19, Daniel's prayer, to teach on some of the basics of prayer, which I don't think anyone has ever done in my presence before. It was quite fascinating. I was a little sleepy but made it through. Then I got to talk to a few of my homeschooling friends on my way out instead of going to the grocery store, so I still have to do that.

- Yes, lunch was fine except Justin was anxious to get home and only told me that he wanted to ride his motorbike. I think he really wanted the restroom. I wanted him to sit down and be part of the adult conversation though and learn social skills. He always just gets up and lays down on the couch and focuses on his phone. Ugh! I get that he's tired after being with the 2nd graders, but still, suck it up buttercup. Plus he wanted his other screen time. But come to find out, he would get a short afternoon because his youth group was meeting at Southeastway at 4pm for a longer hang out time. Facebook had changed my notification settings again so I didn't get the memo. Ah! Thankfully we saw it in time and changed plans. I got him there, and then when Jared woke up from his nap, he did dinner and chore time, dropped off Keturah at Brake's house for that youth group pool party, and then came home for a bit before picking up Justin, and then Keturah again.

- Meanwhile, I'm nearly done with these blog posts! I have no idea why I keep getting so far behind! But here I am just about to finish! Just this one entry with today's photos and videos! And then onto cd's they go! And then I'll check them tonight! And I better be quick! Shauna and the girls should be arriving in 90 minutes! As they say in Britain, "Quick as you can!" And then tomorrow, I will do the rest of the catchup, the odds and ends with laundry, decluttering the kitchen table, cleaning things, email, start the IAHE July blog post, etc. I feel so behind because usually I'm ready when family comes to town so that I'm totally free to be as flexible as I need to be so they can do what they want to do with the other part of the family. But not so this time. Tomorrow I also have to pick up Justin from work, go to the chiropractor, shove dinner in my face and go to Tang Soo Do. Hm, maybe I should ask if one or two of the girls wants to come watch Abishai. We'll see. Just a thought. We also have Wednesday night, too. Although that's a fun youth group night at church. Sigh. See, doing a staycation when the other part of the family still has stuff to do is just not fun or fair. This happened the last time we were in New Orleans, too. Everly had youth group. Nora had soccer practice. We just need to go away on proper vacations with family. Or just say no to our regular activities. Something. Well, let's see how we get on.

- Cousins and Shauna came in fairly late around 9:30pm. Abishai was very stir crazy by then, but he made. He was so wound up, it wasn't even funny. He was cackling so hard! Shauna was late because the van's tires are having trouble so she will have to get it fixed tomorrow. My kids were so excited that I had to little pry them back off the furniture because they firmly planted their rear ends there and didn't want to go home. Um, guys, it's 10pm at night. We have to go HOME. You will see them tomorrow. Stop gabbing! Anyway, thankfully, after we got home, they all fell asleep easily. I got more photos loaded up to cd's but then forgot to finish out the day's paragraph so this is it (typing it on Monday). Enjoy the rest of this post and praise the Lord I'm finally up to date!

I was told to follow the young ladies and give updates. Um, all of you can also do it, but ok. Leaving home this morning.

This is why reversing Roe v. Wade on Friday was such a big deal. We have had these marches for almost 40 years! This is why it's a HUGE victory! It has been a HUGE batlle! So much hard work by so many millions of people tirelessly working year after year, decade after decade, continuing to show up talking to each new legislator to come into the master complex of government and waiting until just the right mix of Supreme Court justices were picked to finally make it happen. THIS is why we celebrate. This is a moment in HISTORY. We don't have many of these. This is just as huge as the Civil Rights movement and women's right to vote. So in honor of it, I will continue to post positive messages this week about the men and women who have FOUGHT for this. And I will post "REJOICE" on my wall. And "WE WON!" "ALL LIVES MATTER" I shared what little I know about my half brother and how my mom had him and gave him up for adoption. I got ridiculed for not knowing my half brother's birthyear! I'm like, dude, I met him once 20 something years ago. I've slept since then! His info is somewhere in a lockbox. He didn't want to stick around. We were all ok with that back then because we weren't even fully grown back then ourselves. We didn't know what to do. So we left it alone. I didn't find a letter my mom wrote to him and/or his adopted mom wrote back until we were moving back to Indiana in 2016. Dude, chill. It's ok not to know everything about everyone. I knew he had a great life with his adopted parents because he told my mom this. He just wanetd to see her and meet us. That's all. He didn't want to complicate things. And it's ok. Chill. I'm ok. My mom choose life. She was pro-life. We did it together. I had other guys who were like older brothers to me because she "adopted" them and now I know why. It's all cool and beautiful. I love Big Brother Eddie and Big Brother Chauncey. Anyway, it's been an interesting weekend trying to navigate all of that. It hasn't been terrible this time. I know how to handle the naysayers. I know my stories. I know how close we were to having another story to tell. I know how we all would have reacted to that. I even asked Benaiah today where stands on abortion when incest of a 10 yr old happens or rape. And he's with me. And I know Justin is. And I still have time to work on Keturah. This is one subject I can defend up and down on with medical science to back me up. You can ask me all you want about how I would react. I already know how I would react. I've thought it out, prayed about it. Don't mess with me on this one. This is an easy one. And if you don't want to be my friend, so be it. I'm totally fine about it. There's nothing here to negotiate with. I can be wishy washy and see your point on education. But never with abortion for anything but ectopic pregnancies or an imcomplete natural miscarriage. Everything else, there's an answer for. End of story.

Incredible! Just around this time, give or take a few years, my half brother was born and adopted. My mother could have chosen abortion. But she choose life.

48 years later and we still have the March for Life almost every single year. It's that important and people have showed up.

And God's plan. And I can't imagine, these women, look exactly what my mom would have looked like then. She was a little over 24 yrs old when this march happened, same hippie hairsytle, bell bottoms. I've seen a few photos. Incredible.

I know I have some Right to Life baby feet pins somewhere, or my parents did, but, I did find this. It's actually a little bracelet from the La Lache organization, which is a breastfeeding organization which helps new moms with well, breastfeeding and I think bottle feeding, too, I think. Don't quote me though. And it's La Leche because I think it focused most on maybe Latino or minority groups first. Anyway, it's on like a hair tie string. So technically the symbol is of a mom breastfeeding her baby, but it also looks like she is just holding her baby. So I wore it today, as well as my New Hampshire necklace. This week, Stefanie and John and Auggie leave on Thursday afternoon to move to Houston, Texas. Stefanie will be the last of the Stephen Howell clan to leave New Hampshire and I'm almost not ok with it. I'm getting too emtional over it. I have no idea what she's feeling because she's not talking to me, probably because she wants to focus hard at the task at hand and she's afraid to get distracted and emotional. She's never left the area before. She's 37 years old basically leaving home for the first time. I bet she's somewhat scared. Anyway, yeah, it's going to be an interesting week for sure. She'll be traveling to Houston as Aaron is flying north from New Orleans. It's all crazy and then my babies drive to Holland, Michigan on the 4th and then the NOLA crew drive back south on the 5th. And then all is calm again. Ah!!!!

Another pic for the Gram of the 2nd grade girls and boys. The Wolf Pack and whatever else they named themselves.

 

In response to a friend who tweeted she always plays a game on easy mode because she plays games to relax and not to challenge herself. I'm sometimes that way. Depends which one and what day;

Almost here!

Awwwww

Turn your head! They're hear!

Kids, give them space to get out of the car!!! (FYI, the rest of the photos have a reddish tint to them because it's my camera's way of adjusting to night mode since it was twilight).

Abishai can run faster than any of the cousins. He did loops around them in his bare feet!

Run! Get some circulation make into your body after 14 hrs in the car! Better you than me!

What are you all staring at? Oh yeah, Grandma and Grandpa arrined home!

Let's watch Grandpa "thread the needle) and back up into his space in the garage. He made it just fine.

Cousins.

Showing Grandpa their fireflies.

 

 

 

 

The End