Year 4, May 6th-9th, 2019: Burnout and Recovery

Whoa, why am I all of a sudden dreading writing a blog post?  Oh yeah, because it seemed like Gary's transition weekend blog post would never be fnished.  So I'm writing this before I finish this past weekend's post.  It was a busy Saturday, as you have already read.  Anyway, it's now Monday, it was a perfect day outside, lots of things got accomplished like new routines, a couple of errands, a walk, a cleared off desk, a tiny bit of math, showers for stinky people, and lots of dirty preschooler toes.  It was a great day.  A bit tiring as I am still recovering from the weekend, but I tried to push through and then pause, giving myself some grace.  There's always tomorrow.  I thankfully didn't get sidetracked with other projects though.  That's why I like Mondays.  The high achiever in me is done lounging around (or being social) from over the weekend and is ready to dive into her own things at home that have been neglected all weekend.  We do have a cycle of events for our week for our family, and that part seems to go smoothly.  And now that our outside activities are wrapped up, we can fully embrace being at home and playing in the yard or going to playgrounds or inviting people over, etc.  I'm excited for that!  Just as long as I'm not procrastinating on my tasks.  I'm not quite ready for those tasks, my mindset isn't there, but I knew that this week I'll clear my head of last week's to do list, start up a new routine, and just get some little stuff done.  Oh and make my summer plan and goals. I started a tentative list, but I plan to sit down with it somehow and make a game plan. See, always planning, always goal setting, always thinking, never fully stopping, never relaxing too much, never letting things just permanently go.  Yup.  That's me.  The high achiever.  The enneagram #6.  The perfectionist and legalist.  The list maker!  Yup. Deal with it.

And now that that's done, let's see what fun things we did today.

This is what happens when you play with your big brother's Legos.  Uh oh. Thank goodness Justin has a lot of patience.  He gets mad but he gets over it quickly.

Abishai got tired of pedaling his bike so he pulled it instead on our way to Grandma's house.  You bring it, you deal with it.

Rocking like a Johnson.

I told Justin, "I didn't know we had a river in our backyard?  Bwahahahaha! I need to show him how to do diagonal stripes next time.

Yes, I know they need haircuts.  I've been avoiding them because of time and money.  I was trying to get the blue of Abishai's eyes but had the wrong angle.  He was telling me all kinds of things while we were outside.

Chatterbox.

Look, Mom, I can do this rock climbing wall Daddy made! (3 years ago, but now that he's bigger, he's more confident about it).

The ladder on the tree is much harder to navigate.  He couldn't do it by himself.

But this, THIS, he can do all by himself!  He can grab the bar from standing on the slide and then swing back and forth!

Daddy's turn to help.

Hanging out.

"I'm a black and white bear and I eat grass, nom, nom, nom."  He was grabbing grass by the handfuls and really chewing them!  It's a good thing we don't spray the yard for weeds!   He was just hanging out under the trampoline!  And no one was on the trampoline, by the way.

So silly and strange and yet, should be so normal.

Jared was NOT bouncing, but Abishai was pushing up on Jared from underneath!  I made sure he got out of there right after this picture.  Dangerous!

Always more wrestling.  Always.

What happens when you mow for 4 hrs on a warmish day.  He's so opposite of Benaiah, much more sensitive and delicate in many ways.  Even with drinking his water, and having lunch in between yards, he still couldn't handle doing it all in one day.  We'll break up the yards next week hopefully if the rains don't affect the schedule.

Socks and his backyard neighbor friend who is just as big as he is.

Hiding from Daddy because he doesn't want to go to bed!

Abishai Giggle Fest

On Tuesday, we brought the slip and slide and I did more yard work.  I put on Instagram the only thing I dislike more than yard work is a messy yard! Seriously, it's literally back breaking work for this weakling and I actually took a 1 hr nap after about maybe 1 1/2 to 2 hrs worth of work?  And it was slow work, I didn't work fast, but I was bending under the pine tree and raking here and there, pulling at weeds, trying to trim with the weak weed eater, etc.  I'm now starting to feel the soreness again.  My posture is horrible for these things and my muscles aren't strong enough to do it.  But it must be done.  Ok, maybe not, but I don't want a dumpy yard in a neighborhood that does a great job at keeping up with their lawn mowing and great flower beds.  So, this year, I'm trying.  I wish I could pay my kids to do it, but they would be horrible at it.  In fact, part of the reason I had to trim is because Justin missed a ton of stuff.  Sigh. Oh well.  I'll try to get it to where I can maintain it and then start on my inside projects.

I also carefully sprayed for bugs a bit inside because of the big black picnic ants we've been having.  But that was after Jared removed a sticky board with a small vole on it from beneath my desk!  Who knew how long that had been back there and how it got in.  I should have taken a picture of it.  Eww!!!  I really don't like that there is a grate directly to the crawlspace in the sunroom.  It does have mesh there, too, but I think it's way too easy for bugs and maybe even creatures to get in.  I think I might do some more block of it.  It goes directly into the crawlspace which is the equivalent of outside.  Ugh! Anyway, "country" life right? Sort of. And this is why I get made when the kids don't appreciate the wonderful yard we do have!  Other kids would love to have this much space to run in and play in!  Ok, enough of the rant.

It was a decent day, but I'm sore and tired.  There's a lot more to accomplish of course.  One day at a time.

Aww, I should have picked them, but I'm sure they will come back.  Daisies in the front garden before we finally mowed that area.

There's an air leak in the big fluffy pillow part at the top, but that doesn't stop the rest of the fun!  Keturah joined in as well but I was too busy with yard work to take pictures.  Next time though!

75 degrees and ready to go get at the water, finally!

Play hard, sleep hard.  He feel asleep 1 minute from church. Daddy carried him inside.  He then slept hard and snored on Daddy's lap.  We laid him on the couch in the office, too, and he slept until it was time for Rooted.  Meanwhile, we made Keturah do jumping jacks every time she would say something negative or argued with what I said or she growled because she was mad.  She did it so many times in a row that she had to jump 70 times!

On a nice night, you can always see a beautiful sunset at church.

Wednesday was a nice full day at home again.  I'm taking it easy this week and not pushing too hard on projects.  Kind of like a mini vacation vibe.  It's my summer break, too!  But I can't sit still so I know I'll keep pecking away at everything BUT the big book cleanout I need to do. 14 bookcases to go through.  Sigh.  10% of the books is what I committed to get rid of.  More than half of the bookshelves are short bookshelves, so that's maybe 5 books per shelf?  I'll hopefully exceed that.  Gotta be ruthless! So instead of tackling that this week, I'm finishing up odds and ends.  I started the biannual clothes switch today.  Keturah has 8 categories/areas/drawers, so I told her to go through 2 categories a day for the next 4 days.  She's usually the one I have to shop for the most.  I switched out Abishai's holey pants for shorts and straightened up his t-shirts.  He was having screen time, so I didn't make him put all this shirts on.  Plus, I did a thorough switch in the fall.  I'll just put things I find that are too short or small aside in a bin as we go (if I remember to do that this time!).  He has grown taller, but not really wider, and shorts and t-shirts on boys seem to last for 3 years sometimes.  I didn't touch Justin's clothes yet, but told him to start pulling out things he doesn't wear because he doesn't like them or doesn't fit well.  Again, we went through his stuff thoroughly in the fall, so there's really no need to do it again.  He has had the same pairs of gym shorts for a few years and they still fit in the waist.  They are just a bit shorter but appropriate length.  Same with t-shirts.  And my clothes should be easy to switch tomorrow.

We had the house fan going early this morning and it drew in the nice, cool, crisp morning air.  It's over 75 degrees outside, but the a/c has barely been on inside.  In fact, I had to go outside to warm up! I did do a tad of yardwork this morning, but the weed eater left the upper parts of my arms very weak like I had done a specific workout.  I was shaky and didn't feel great.  I think the frequency of the vibrations mess with me.  Plus, I just can't do any physical activities until I eat more, so usually after lunch is better.  I'm so quirky!  And according to our facility at Rooted, I'm spunky!  We shared words of affirmation at our meeting last night, which was our 10th and final session.  Phew, I can't believe it's over and I'm kind of sad and glad it's over it.  I'm glad I did it with Jared, but it still felt a little awkward, too.  And the last couple of weeks I haven't put as much thought into the study part.because of how busy we've been.  In fact, I was sharing some pictures with my sister, Stefanie, from the last two weeks and wow, we've done a ton of stuff!  No wonder I feel tired and just want to do nothing!  Anyway, yeah, busy, time to slow down and have a lazy summer.  The kids did finish up their morning stuff by 10:30, after getting up at 8:30, so yeah!  That worked well!  At least for today.  They are a little lost as to what to do, but that's ok.  They will find their way.

I love how my introverts don't mind staying home.  Keturah is asking to go to Bailey's because her pool is open, but that's good and I'm glad. She's going tomorrow to Bailey's house, although it's going to be raining.  And tomorrow is Benaiah's road test for his drivers' license and his junior year prom with his real girlfriend! Eeek!!!! It's been a bit of rough week between him and I because he doesn't know it yet, but I found out about his ACT score and I'm so not happy.  It's worse than the SAT.  But I won't bring it up to him until after the prom.  He seems agitated about something.  Deep breathes, patience, and just be the mom he needs.  Big week for my big man.  We shall see!

I bought some grass shears and clippers at Aldi's and put them to use today.  But Abishai also wanted to try them.  He's so careful with these things, so I let him try.  He did a great job finding the dandelions and cutting them.  Maybe HE should be doing the yardwork!

Lloyd, the green ninja, from Lego Ninjago! The character Lloyd started out evil because he is Lord Garmadon's son (the main villian, at least in season 1 of the tv series), but eventually joined the Ninjago team.  Plus, he's green Justin's favorite color.

The previous video Abishai was saying, "Calling for NO back up.  Calling for back up. Calling for NO back up.  If you push play on the tape player without a tape in it, then it still activates the mircophone.  You have to also press a button on the microphone, too.  I bought this tape player probably 7 years ago off of eBay!  Keturah loves listening to all these old tapes I have!  It's hilarious because some of them are old Sunday School songs like from the Donut Man.  Gotta love the '80's!

Lloyd's pants!  Abishai insisted on trying on the pants, too!

Isn't it so awesome we can eat outside on our tiny old deck in our pjs sitting in our Canadian chair?  I love these warm sunny days!

I lifted some bricks near the trampoline to restack them and we had an impromptu nature study science lesson on ants!  Tiny red ants, but I saw them scurrying about.  Later, Abishai was able to tell Daddy all about the holes and tunnels and the ants running around.  Awesome!

What kind of sluggish bug is that? Maybe it's one of those kinds of bugs that eats ants?

Oh, it's a grub worm!  Should have killed it!  Whoops!

Meanwhile, in another part of the yard, Abishai and I played hide and escape!  He would escape from under the slide, run around in a large circle and then crawl back in before I could catch him and pretend to sleep.  He also tried to kick me when he swung from the bar he can reach from the top of the slide.  He loves rolling around in the grass, but I think his cheeks started to look a little speckled and then I remembered he had a reaction to hay last year or the year before.  SO, I need to be careful and watchful of any irritations.  Thankfully, he loves putting lotion on, so it won't be a big deal if he does get reaction.  Poor fair skinned little guy!

Run, run, run!   He loves having a big backyard to play in!  And, I love it when it's freshly mowed and the dog poop is cleaned up so I can let him run!

Wild child!

Huh? The dog was under the trampoline and Abishai scooted under there and joined him.  It might be a nice cool place for Socks in the summer.  Obviously he knows not to be under it when someone is on it.  Sidenote: I put Benaiah's work clothes on the clothesline although I had already dried them to see if the wind and fresh air could help with the smell that we can't get out.  The clothes line is next to the trampoline so sometimes the clothes hit the sides of the net.  I used the outer ring of the trampoline to put my basket on while I pulled the items from the line.  Yeah!  And yes, the fresh air did help the clothes.  I think next time that the timing is right between washing and a dry day, I will dry Benaiah's work clothes on the line!

A well deserved popsicle!  The only ones we had were fruit/veggie ones that I had bought for myself.  This one had blueberry in it and he didn't get one single drop on his clothes or the table.  A bit on his hands and his face, but wow, he's really growing up to handle a large popsicle with no spilling!  And when the last little bite fell into the bowl, he retrieved a spoon instead of using his fingers.  Way to go, buddy!  (Can you tell I was with him a lot of the day today?)

Abishai wanted to scare Daddy with his costume when he got home.

These wildflowers look blue, but they are indeed white.  It was almost sunset when I took these photos on the opposite side of the house from the sunset. #goldenhour

We have so many wildflowers!  I hate to destroy them all!  We have those little yellow ones, too (wild strawberries?).

I love Aldi's!  I found new items tonight!!! They also had gluten free cheesecake but I didn't have room for it in my freezer.  I guess I could have just kept it in my fridge.  Oh well.  Next time!

Oh, look! e2 has joined "The 'gram!" Instagram! Way to go!  Follow them at @e2elders and the hashtag #garygoing to see where Gary is and what he's doing with his "retirement."  He's already taken not one, but TWO three day trips since leaving the Creek 10 days ago!  Eeek! Now maybe I can keep track of him better, too!  Fun times!

What a whirlwind of a day, all about Benaiah! But I will put that in a small post right after this one.  Two big milestones in one day! He passed his drivers' test and he is taking his girlfriend to prom!  Yes, a real GIRL, not Ethan pretending to be his date! Bwahahahaha, pics and such to come!

The other stayed home and didn't understand which way was up.  Abishai desperately wanted to play with someone, but I got involved in our finances and then had to rush to get ready to go for Benaiah's drivers' test.  Then it was back to Kroger for the corsage, and finally back home.  Back out again a couple of hours later for prom pictures at a park, and finally back home to clean up all the damage.  I have no idea what everyone ate today, if it was enough or not, but by the end of supper, Abishai ate two scoops of salad, two pieces of pizzas, a pretzel rod, and candy.  This little guy was hungry!  Justin finished his fortnite challenges and Keturah puttered in her room making a list of things that would make her room "perfect."  Oh boy!  She also went over to Bailey's house for a little while this afternoon.  And I'm just plain exhausted from all the driving and making sure everything ran smoothly and on time, which it did.  But it's down and tomorrow we rest.  Yeah!  Rain in the forecast so the park will be wet.  I'm very, very sore from weed eating still.  No fun! It's now Jared's turn to trim and make sure Justin is doing what he's supposed to be doing.  I'm out!

My Instagram post!

Teacher Shark! Bwahahaha!

Awww, I love how Ava is looking at him, I won't call it "love" until they let us know it is, but you can tell that she really likes him!

Big year for our boy! Nearly a full time job, college classes, a drivers' license, and a girlfriend.  I hope his big inflated ego head fits through the front door later!

Ava's mom drove them up to the venue, yes, the venue that they sanded chairs for.  Look at those two!  What a beautiful couple!  And still a bit on the awkward side, but at least they aren't all over each other, lol.

So sweet!

Wow, all grown up!

Meanwhile, back at our ranch....ranch girl had a little salad with her shredded cheese!

And Abishai declared, "I finished a snowman!" out of his carrots.  He also said a very grown up prayer the last two nights praying for specific things he heard about the day, like "Jesus Supper Family. Thank you for groceries. Help Miah with the dance. Thank you we play Star Wars. In Jesus' Name, Amen."  Adorable!!

Sleeping like a baby...well, when he was a happy doing the football goal punt.  Awww....

The End