Year 2, Day 180: Ups and Downs

We had another family come over for a playdate today.  We had wanted to meet up at a local park or splash pad, but I knew I wasn't up for it.  I even had a dizzy spell while they were here.  I slept again this afternoon and it took a bit to get back up again.  I am horrible at getting to bed when Jared's gone, so I put the kids to bed early tonight, cranking this out and one more thing I hope, and then I'm saying good night early, early (as in 10pm maybe?)  During that nap, one child asked if he could walk a friend who came to the door, home, and then he came back.  The other child took off and didn't tell anyone.  So, we had a big lecture session when she got home and she's now grounded until Monday from friends.  This is a totally different world than I grew up in and even then we had these rules.  So, it was a bit of a rougher evening.  I did manage to pull off a gluten free thrown together meatloaf with veggies IN it.  (Different, but yummy!)  All 3 kids did eat it.  I did not accomplish what I had hoped to do today, so I need to hit it hard tomorrow.  I'm just so tired and moody.  Sigh.  Two more days and the boys will be home.


The boys did have an exciting day in that the Bible Bowl team did advance a couple of times and tomorrow they will be battle for 11th/12th place first thing in the morning.  Jared was able to meet up with a friend/past co worker from PEI for lunch and had a great chat.  I'm sure Gary worked the crowds, too.  And I'm sure Benaiah took notes on how to network with other ministry leaders and lay people.  It's a tiring job, but someone has to do it, right?  Lol.

Oh, we did also manage another summer time bucket list type item: homemade popsicles.  We even had the supplies in the house!  No, I didn't add the almond milk.  It was just left on the counter.

Ta-da!  Ready to go in the freezer.

Little man brought Ice Cream's cars to my bed first thing this morning.  "Ice Cream's seat"

Putting cars down his shirt because it's funny.  He was in rare form all day long.  Plus, the neighbor kid banging on the door during naptime woke him up.  Thus, early bedtime.

Look closely and you'll find a yellow goldfish in the back of "Daddy's truck."

Keturah played a hide and seek game with her friends.  Socks was loving having all that extra attention, too.

He's small enough t fit on the slide.  Then he slid backwards, folded in half, and couldn't get back up.

People liked my posts 72,000 times over the last 10 plus years!  Silly, I know.

Year 2, Day 179: Taco Tuesday!!!!!!

We finally made to Taco Tuesday!!!!!  The middle school youth group meets at Taco Bell on most Tuesdays in the summer.  And we promised Justin that we would try and make and we have forgotten for half of them! He even knew what he wanted to eat, but unfortunately, it was a shortly promoted item.  But my earache is getting worse, and so my vertigo is getting worse each day and it took me a longer than usual to get ready to go.  But making Taco Tuesday was the one and only goal for the day and we made it!  Not only that, we made it to Meijer for a few things, and then stopped at a friend's house for a little while on the way home.  It was 3:45pm before Abishai went down for his nap!  Well, that means I had to wake him up at 6:45 pm!  I let him sleep because I realized that this was the perfect time to let him stay up and go to bed way late after seeing some fireflies and the moon!  And boy was Abishai thrilled about the moon!  Perfecto evening for it! I also had a 2 hr nap, so I had just enough energy to make it through until now at 11:40 pm.  We have a playdate tomorrow so I'm going to drug myself up tonight so I can get up a little faster tomorrow.  It's hard getting older and getting sick more often like this.  I don't have time for vertigo or stomach issues.  So, on Saturday, July 1st, I start the Whole 30 diet, woot! woot!  Or not.  I bought pure sea salt free of additives like dextrose (sugar!) and iodide.  And Mrs. Dash because it has no salt or msg.  I also attempted a vinaigrette dressing of olive oil and apple cider vinegar for my salad.  So, I'm almost ready.

Sigh. There's so much work to do still.  Books. Photos to delete off my phone. And fun playdates to be had.  Yup, life is full.  But chasing a bunny under the shed and watching Justin trying to throw a carrot under the shed for it: priceless.  Seeing Abishai point to the moon and saying, "moon, moon!" equals priceless!  Finding out that your daughter almost put glitter glue on the fan blades in order to put up some streamers: priceless! And hoping that your oldest at least had fun while answering Bible questions: priceless.

Welcome packet because we changed our address!

Someone (Jared) doesn't like sunflower seeds.

Ready to go somewhere.  Where are my shoes?

Pretty streamers!  Perfect!

Taco Tuesday!

Happy Taco Tuesday boy!

Justin's friend who is as girl insisted tht he sit next to her.

Sugar rush.

Meanwhile, the Bible Bowl team gets started.

Yeah! Justin found some friends that are guys to hang out with!  They bonded over spinner competitions.

Vroom, vroom!

Random, and I think a first for Jared.  He titles this "backpack monster." 

My nose hurts because not only did Abishai scratch it a couple of days ago, he hit it as well.

Individual competition.  He placed 5th, and only the top 4 move on.  Not too shabby.

Somehow, Socks knew that it was past time for Abishai to wake up.  He wanted to go check on his little guy.

Wake up little buddy!  Maybe because it was time for a biscuit, too, which Abishai loves to give to him.  Abishai also tells me if Socks needs food or water.

A restaurant that the Bible Bowl kid went to that Mr. Bill wanted to visit.  They still went there in honor of Bill.

Team huddle.

We got our outdoor time in for the day, on our friends' neglected swing set.

The Indian Creek Christian Church Bible Bowl 2017 Team.

Yummy lunch (or dinner?)

Big salad, practicing for the next month.  The dressing I made was pretty basic, but helpful in eating all of this.

Abishai saw the balls at Meijer and they were only $2, so I got him one.  He LOVES it because it's lighter weight than the basektballs we have.  And it's red!

I think we just might have a little guy in need of some team sports (after 6 or 7 years old.)

Yeah, red ball!  He told Daddy that tonight and showed him.  He also asked "Daddy home? Daddy home?" when he heard Daddy's voice on the phone.  Abishai was also able to tell Daddy that we went to "Taco Bell" today. So adorable!

Justin had the camera and captured this.  Aww...

I had these used workbooks out for our homsechool meeting.  This one is Benaiah's 1st grade workbook.  Note the sloppy handwriting.

And here is his 4th grade workbook, with still, sloppy handwriting.  We switched to a different curriculum after this.

Tonight's colors.

Yes, we have a telescope that was Jared's and it still works, despite moving it to Canada and back.  Woot, woot!

Read for star viewing.

At least we can find the moon!

The moon!  We could see a few stars, but there was still some sun light in the west at 10:30.  Daylight Stupid Time.  But the kids enjoyed it.  Bedtime was a bit chaotic, but maybe they will sleep in tomorrow morning.  Good night!

Year 2, Day 178: Monday, Monday

I'm writing this midday so I don't forget.  Plus I'm procrastinating on unboxing books and giving myself a rest because it's been a busy morning!  I honestly wasn't on the computer all morning although we were home because it was just that kind of morning.  Crazy!  I woke up dizzy, I think from an ear infection.  But after doing some research, I refuse to go to a walk in clinic for an antibiotic because those appointments cost $100, and that's just the start!  That's nuts!  So, after being frustrated with that, I didn't need what happened next.  Abishai got a hold of a long pole that went to Keturah's Barbie swing set and put it in his mouth.  Well, he fell, so it must have hit a gum or cheek because he screamed in pain for an hour!  "Mouth hurt! Mouth hurt!"  And he wouldn't give up his paci or keep his fingers out to let the boo boo settle down.  I tried orajel and then finally gave him some motrin.  Then I texted Leah to see if she had jell-o because we didn't have any.  She had that, and she had just made pudding for cream puffs.  I was just going to send Justin over to get it, but since we had nowhere to go and Abishai's always asking to go to Ice Cream's house, I thought it would be a good distraction for all of us to walk over there, including the dog.  Leah loved that!  And so did Socks and the kids!  It's a very slow walk when Abishai is either walking or biking, but that's ok.  Again, we had nowhere to go and it distracted him long enough for his mouth to start healing.  It's times like these that make me smile and helps me have a better attitude for being here, in Indiana, in this house, in this neighborhood.  As Gary reminded me last night, they didn't remodel their whole house at once either.  They have lived there 28 years and counting, and there's always something that needs fixing.  It's just life.

Then we got home and I started cleaning Princess Sparkles mess in her room, untangled and put up the solar system mobile, which was surprisingly still in good shape all the way from Charlottetown, and getting Abishai to eat a little bit of something before naptime.  Meanwhile, Jenna, the neighborhood friend, came over and they are now playing outside with Barbies in the pool having a great time on this 72 degree, partly cloudy day!  Socks is out and running around off his leash, too.  And Abishai finally settled for a nap after being super crazy.  He does understand and settles down fairly easily every day.  Sometimes he protests a little, but it's not for long.  He know he needs the nap and then he's ready for the rest of the day.  And he's usually down for 3 hrs because he plays so hard!

Alrighty, I'm caffeinated and drugged (tramadol pain med), so let's go get some books on the shelves and put this schoolroom together!  Another thing I have to remember when it comes to how much stuff I have is that if I didn't homeschool, I wouldn't have this big library of books and craft supplies.  We have made this choice to homeschool, with all that it entails, and to live on one income, which is hard to do in this economic climate.  Both of which, I wouldn't give up for the world.  So, in time, I will learn to be more content and patient, because wow, girls playing outside can scream a ton when they are having fun!  I'm so glad they are outside and NOT on an electronic!  Praise the Lord!  And they both have friends with parents that allow them to go back and forth between the two streets (after telling parents of course).  There's lots of blessings, even when both toilets leak, and there are ants, and spiders, and sloping floors.  Now back to work.

And now.....I'm exhausted!  Friends were in and out.  Abishai woke up in pain from his morning mouth injury.  I emptied 4 boxes (sort of) of books, and placed some books in the fireside room that don't really go in the school room.  They will be resorted and purged maybe.  My lower back is aching and throbbing from bending over and making sure the dog and the toddler don't wander off and messing with a pool and cleaning up towels and and and.  I'm declaring tomorrow a "no friend" day.  I'll need a nap or just some lying down time, even if I have a good night's sleep tonight.  And Keturah is starting to show a need for alone time.  We'll hopefully make it to Taco Tuesday for Justin at lunchtime, but that's it.

And we walked over to Ice Cream's house again tonight because Abishai missed his siblings, who were gone for maybe an hour at that point.  I met two new moms today as well, and Abishai got licked by one of their Boston Terriers, and kept going back for more licks!  Oh, and I captured the sweetest, most perfect video of Abishai's best new words and phrases today.  AND he said, "um" on the phone today to Daddy when Daddy asked him a question, before he gave his answer.  Adorable!

It was one of those red posts that ended up in Abishai's mouth, stabbing his gum or cheek.  Very painful to eat or suck on his paci or sippy cup.

On our way home from Grandma's house, 3 kids and a dog.

Gorgeous day outside!

I'm pretty sure Abishai set all of these up himself.  I'll have to verify that with the kids in the morning.

He set them up just so he could plow them all down again of course.

Abishai ate kale chips!  I love vegetable (non potato) chips!

Keturah spotted the solar system display we made a few years ago, and nabbed it for her room.  Lucky for her, there were already hooks in the ceiling I could hang it from without it hitting the fan.  It does slowly spin when the fan is on which is cool.

I think Justin finally has it in him to sort his Lego bricks by color (and size maybe?).  It's what a master builder does.  He's much more into the Legos than Benaiah was and I think he could be a master builder and make displays and such.

I told Abishai to go to his bed for night time and then went off to do something.  This is what I found a few minutes later!  He "made" his bed on the couch!  Um, no, you can't do that.  I've tried just letting it go and running it with it, but it just prolongs bedtime.  

Abishai does this thing where he rubs his blankie through his toes.  I hope he isn't doing it to clean his toys.  Ew! No, it's just a comfort thing since his blankie is too  small to cover him properly.  Awww.  Oh, and, he wanted to give himself his own medicine out of the dropper tonight.  He knew how to make it plunge, maybe because he's been using the water squirtters outside.  Either way, as he tells me, he's a "big" boy.  Sigh.  Yes you are and you have the bumps and bruises and scrapes on your knees, head and inside your mouth to prove it.  And then you just get up and keep on moving.  Except today.  The pain was intolerable today.  I couldn't even find the wound, so it could have been a papercut kind of size.  I have no idea.  Poor guy.  Now off to your own bed, little man.  Good night.