Ok, folks, I'm bound and determined that we are wrapping up the summer this week and starting some form of schooling next week! Everyone else around us has started and I'm just ready to transition into something new. That means, I've got to dig in my heels and push through any pain I have. I have all day Tuesday and Wednesday at home. Keturah and Justin are going with Grandma, Grandpa, Ron, Nina and Luke tomorrow to the Indiana State Fair, so at least they will have fun instead of having 5 days of no activities at all. Abishai can help me sort his school stuff and books on the shelf and we'll have some bonding time. The bank account is not looking good, so I'll just have to start out on notebook paper and transfer their assignments later. I don't think we'll change our schedule much, but I'm also not adamant about making one up either. I don't think we will have any lessons together since science and language are both separate. I'm not sure if I'll include Justin in the reading of Keturah's history or not. I feel like I should because I always add my opinion to it anyway. But he's not going to do any of the assignments in that book except maybe a few maps as necessary. I just need to sit down and pace everything out for the year. I'll have to wait until Keturah is home to decide on what book she's using for math. I just hope that my brain can get in gear and I need some quiet time and a day of no activity to do that, so come on Tuesday!
Monday I spent decluttering, taking the other toys to the shed as part of the toy rotation process, and went to a doctor's appointment. I had an "urgent" dermatology appointment to do a head to toe check of my moles. I hadn't had them looked at in over 10 years. My referring doctor was concerned because I said I've had lots of new new and new freckles and pigmentation and they've been uncomfortable so I've been picking them open. I was ok with waiting, but at the same time, I'm glad I got this out of the way. The doctor was a young woman and very cordial. No lectures on sunscreen use. She wasn't concerned about the number of moles but she did find several that weren't like the others, so she biopsied three of them today. Ouch! I wasn't expecting that! They used the lidocaine mixture to numb the area and it actually gave me lower back pain relief for a few hours because two fo the moles were on my waistline. The other one was on my arm. But now, I'm starting to feel the pain and itching. She scraped off a layer of the moles and said they did bleed alot and they had to use silver (nitrate?) to stop it. I told her it sometimes takes a bit for me to stop bleeding so it's normal. I'll know in 7-10 days if it's anything to be concerned about like pre-cancerous or cancerous cells. I'm trying not to worry about that and in fact, I doubt they are. And of course, I am now thinking of other questions I could have asked today but didn't. Oh well.
My appointment was at IU Hospital on the IUPUI campus. That's where my mom had her cancer treatments so I recognize the buildings. My dad also had appointments here and there at IU and places near there. I didn't have a flood of emotions, but just a quick moment of remembering. There was lots of traffic going and coming though because it was a late in the afternoon appointment. It took me nearly an hour to get home on the backroads. Gary was going back downtown this evening to accept another citizen award at a city count meeting (that's a big deal!) so I tried to warn him to leave earlier than he thought he needed. Traffic is a nightmare because of so much construction this year. They completely shut down 1/4 of the east bound lanes of 465, the quarter that is right near us on the southeast side. That pushes traffic onto the local roads, clogging them more. The highway will be closed for two weeks and then they'll do the same thing on the west bound lanes. Eek! I'm so over it!
Meanwhile, Benaiah starts school on Wednesday, Jared missed a teacher meeting today, Uncle Aaron got an unmarked police SUV, and Gary and Leah are hosting Ron and Nina. Cousin Luke is spending the night at our house. Oh, and a huge thunderstorm, complete with tornado warning, is supposed to come through tonight. Yeah! Not! Well, we desperately need rain, just not the tornado. I made sure I secured everything this morning and downspouts were in place. All is well.
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| Benaiah says it's really yummy! And really oven baked! |
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| I opted out from going to the Christian cocnert at the fair this year. I am just too buys, tired, and don't want to deal with the heat or making all the arrangements. So, this is the closest I will get to seeing Matthew West at our fairgrounds. He had his two girls with him as well. |
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| Someone wanted to help fix the washer machine while I was folding Benaiah's work clothes. |
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| This was all his idea! So cute! |
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| Great advice is sometimes had on Instagram. |
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| I know Justin will stay outside this building and the rest of them will want some! |
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| I'm sure they will enjoy this at the fair as well. We just discovered the FFA building last year. It's the one with the huge playground inside where Abishai played while the other two kids did the mini golf. |
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| A view to the east from the third floor of the IU Hospital. |
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| Have you ever tried to make black bean brownies? This is just like that before you cook them . It doesn't take like beans at all (garbanzo beans of course) The texture is a little gritty but it's not overly sweet. I could eat the whole thing! |
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| Now this stuff is good! And it 's really "clean" as far as ingredients go, no citric acid, or coloring, or even sugar! Yeah! |
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| I think this could be eaten during a Whole30. I hope it doesn't go bad before I get to it all! I'm a little worried about the avocado spoiling but it does have lemon juice in it (like citric acid) to help keep it edible or longer. |
60 hrs.....that's how long I've had this headache for. Fingers crossed, it might have gone away in the last hour. It's been brutal! The weather pressure dropped ridiculously low. And the humidity was so high that the plastic cups that we build towers with expanded and are stuck to one another. I had to put them in front of an a/c vent to pull them apart. I guess I could try putting them in the fridge as well. Not the freezer because any moisture would then freeze them together. Oi! I tried going back to sleep after I go Keturah and Justin sent off to the fair with the grandparents, but only took a short nap and it didn't change the headache at all. I took so many essential oils and meds this morning that I almost felt sick to my stomach. I gave myself acupressure on my forehead, temples and above my ears where the headache pain is. I drank as much water as I could, and teas that I thought would help with inflammation. But I think the weather pressure is on the rise again, so hopefully that's the real cause this time. Oh, I thought I might even have some vertigo! And Jared, Benaiah, Abishai, and I also woke up with stuffy noses. So, it hasn't been the greatest day in health over here.
While the kids were at the fair, Benaiah slept in on his last day full day before his senior year starts tomorrow. Woot! Woot! He then worked a full shift at CFA as usual. He did have a meeting as well, so I'm assuming that went ok. We'll see about it when he comes home. Abishai spent some time on the screen this morning, and then he played around me while I worked on other tasks this afternoon. He's always so much calmer and quieter with the others around. He wants me to play with him but he's also happy enough to play by himself in the same room that I am in. I spent a little bit of time writing down some summer field trips that count toward our 180 days, and then listing out the subjects for the first week of school starting on Monday. I wrote down a few questions to ask the kids when they came home because I like them to be involved as much as possible. I then reorganized Abishai's "school" things. Perhaps I should have changed out his boxes with new things, but I'm not sure what to include. For now, we have an activities box he can do on his own and then one with "school" books we can do together. I was thinking of having him do 1 or 2 pages with me out of any of the books every day. We'll see. I need to incorporate more games and songs this time around. He's way past some preschool concepts, but letters and actual coloring/cutting activities we need to work on a bit.
Speaking of school, Jared came home and finalized his syllabus for the 11th grade Bible class at Southside this year. He's using "Kings" a tv show that looses parallels some of the David story and then some more recent Bible movies like Paul to compare and contrast with the real Bible truth. I'm sure there's much more to it, but at least the syllabus is done, last minute, as usual, because that's how he and Benaiah roll. For as much as Jared rails against Benaiah, Benaiah is just following in his father's footsteps, good and bad. Lol. Anyway, all is quiet on the homefront tonight. Ron, Nina, and Luke are staying until Thursday, so that interrupts are entire week, but whatever. I'm just afraid if I say not these last minute things I'll get a big side eye from the in laws as to why I'm not being hospitable. This is the 4th week that the Johnson 6 hasn't been the Johnson 6 with it's own home based routine. I was really looking forward to not having to worry about kids going back and forth between the houses and having to babysit other kids. And if you understand that, then you do, and if you don't, you don't. We are starting school next week and with the exception of my surgery, I'm just done with visitors. I'm glad our summer started off slow because it feels like it's been super fast and super busy and out of my control in the end. I just want to see my kids and be with my kids by myself in our own environment for more than a couple of hrs a day.
Ok, tomorrow is a new day.
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| No wonder my head hurts! Huge drop in air pressure! |
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| I don't know what the awards are exactly for but, yes, we know that young man, too. He's created his own apps and has even traveled because of his programming skills. His dad has a website design/graphic design business and helps out with e2 website and things. |
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| Very nice! I also know the Gogis' from way back when I was in a women's leadership group with LeeAnn. |
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| Don't know what that means, but it's kind of funny (I took these pics from LeeAnn's Instagram account.) |
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| Hey, I've been in that room! That's where we met for jury duty! Cool! |
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| Oh man, what a crew! Gary's smile makes up for Ron and Luke's non smiles! The non smiling thing was passed down from Ron, to RJ to Luke apparently because often in pictures of RJ as a kid and even now, he doesn't smile either. Jared didn't smile much then either. What a contrast though! They went to the circus, ate popcorn, had fish sliders, saw a cheese sculpture, walked through pioneer village, saw some 4H displays, ate snowcones, but not once did they see any animals. Say what?! Isn't that the whole point of the fair?! To see the animals?! Back in the day, the fairs were to celebrate the end of harvest and show off your best crops and animals. Now, the city folk think it's all about fried foods and amusement park rides. Oi! Oh, they did see the tiny houses exhibit as well. It's a good thing that I've taken the kids to fairs for most of their lives and made sure they were educational, lol. In fact, we had decided against the fair this year because we had been so busy and had done a thorough job of seeing all the educational things last year. Plus, we know friends with animals. I'm glad it was overcast and not too hot. But it was humid, so I'm glad I opted out. |
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| My little pj loving stay at home boy. He was upset he couldn't go to the fair (Gary didn't want to deal with the preschoolness), but then settled down when he got some screen time. But as soon as Keturah reappeared at 4pm, he was asking for Luke and Justin. Luke at yelled at Abishai this morning, although he was already awake, because Abishai wouldn't leave him alone. Abishai was in tears. He just wanted to play. But later on, when Luke didn't want to eat anything for breakfast, Abishai insisted he did by asking him what cereal he wanted, what size bowl he wanted, and even got him a spoon! Abishai loves to take care of people! |
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| Ouch! This is what I found when I took off my bandages tonight. I thought the doctor had said she was taking off a layer of the mole. Nope, she took off the whole thing. Yes, that's ALL the layers of skin making those ridges and that's probably the fatty layer and muscle in the middle. I have craters in my skin! 3 of them! I exposed them to the air for an hour waiting for Jared to come home and they started to itch really badly. It's going to be a long two weeks of keeping them covered. I went on Amazon and bought bandages that look like the ones I got from the doctor because they worked well. The cheap Meijer ones don't stay on my skin and it's just not going to work for something like this. And I can only put petroleum jelly on it, not antibiotic cream. If I wasn't already ingesting and applying essential oils everywhere else, I wold be putting them in or near these sites too. I will once they scab over. I can put them in the area, but not on the open wound. But wow, I wasn't expecting that! |
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| Abishai desparately wanted to go to Grandma's house all by himself. He didn't even want me to walk him down to the vacant lot. Well, I'm glad I insisted because he did get distracted and was about to go into the busy road during rush hour traffic. He road his bike down to the grass promising to take it with him, and he did! He said, "Mommy, I'll hold one handle with one hand and drag it through the grass. And I'll stay on the side of the road near the grass. And I'll go through the grass next to the neighbor's house." And he did! I walked him to the vacant lot and then let go. He took the bike with him, turned around and said, "Bye, Mom! I eat lunch with Grandma!" He did that twice! Adorable Mr. Independent. And then Grandpa said he wanted to walk home by himself later on. Eek! |
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| But he pulled that bike all by himself just like he said he would. Oh! I gave him a 3 step instruction this morning and he followed it. Well, I tried to give him 3 steps, then tried to back off to just one (bc the older kids can only handle one instruction at a time) and he wanted all 3!!! He also followed all 3! Genius kid! |
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| I tried telling him that these are electric circuit pieces, but what do you know, Abishai made another garage for his cars, lol. |
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| Pretty sunset, but I stepped outside because the noise coming from the night bugs (cicadas?) came so loud through the windows! |
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| Headbutting Daddy, literally, to make himself laugh. Why? I don't know. Because he's male? That's our usual sexist answer because it's true! Keturah is as tom boyish as they come and she doesn't do anything the boys do. Anyway, Daddy said it's time to transition from him falling asleep in our room, to falling asleep in his own bed. Sad face. But I still want Daddy to read to him and wrestle him, so we'll keep that for now. Abishai is just finding it harder to settle down at night, maybe because of daylight savings time, but he just wants that wrestling time with Daddy and he has the "fear of missing out" syndrome. |
Oh boy, the boys did not settle down well last night between too much electronic time (Jared shut off their wifi finally at 11 or midnight) and it was too hot. So, when they woke up in the morning, they wanted to sleep in until 11am. I managed to keep Abishai away from them until 8:45, but he was anxious to play with them since he didn't have time with them yesterday. Well, Luke wasn't having any of it. He didn't want to play with Abishai at all. Abishai was disapointed and heartbroken . Usually Abishai can wake up the guest and they will play with him for a few minutes so he gets his attention needs itched. Justin said he was trying to be nice, but he's usually distracted by the guest. So between all three boys and Keturah's normal nit picking of everyone, it was a very long morning. Thankfully the older boys went with Gary and Ron to see Spiderman Far From Home and stayed at their house the rest of the day. Abishai was much easier to deal with without them telling him to be quiet and leave them alone. Benaiah came home from school about 2:30 and said his truck window crank was broken so he couldn't get the window up. He went right down to Logan's to get a quote and came back. Then he, Grandpa and Dad tore apart the truck door to see if they could repair it themselves. They couldn't, but at least they tried. He'll get it fixed by Logan's next week. He also ot to spend some time with Ava as well after she got out of school. He has only 5 classes and she has 7, so he can come home/work earlier than others. I don't know how that affects his president of the study body things or cleaning the school at the end of the day, but that's not my problem.
We had a pizza dinner with everyone and heard all about Benaiah and Ava's first day of school. They worked on the truck and then Gary, Leah, Abishai and I went down to see the progress on the roundabout. We determined that the boys would be better off sleeping at Gary and Leah's, so they are over there tonight. If they sleep in the guest room, then I won't wake them when I drop the other two off at 9:45. I am an appointment with my surgeon and I'm trying not to be nervous about it, but I am. Speaking of surgery, Shauna's surgeon had an opening tomorrow, so she is having her lumpectomy at 10am. Crazy Johnsons and all their medical stuff! Oh, Jared had an ENT appointment today and the doctor said he wouldn't do anything until Jared had an all afternoon allergy test on September 12th (that's a month away!) AND a CAT scan of his sinuses. No initial diagnosis or thought pattern as to what could be the cause. What a pain! And the long wait time is hard, too. But whatever, it's not like Jared's going to die of his next sinus infection. Once we have the date for my surgery, I'll be able to better plan for the rest of the year.
In between all the squabbles today, I managed to quickly finish the bookshelves. I didn't scrutinize everything, and I like everything that is on the shelves, but I did find a few duplicates to give away. I pulled out some reading guides to 4-6th grade books that don't really fit in with our history studies but I've wanted Keturah to read for a long time. Justin, too, but he's a bit beyond that. A lot of the stories are of courage and feeling different. Most of the good ones were written in the middle 20th century where TV's weren't prevalent and cell phones didn't exist. A lot of them are outdoors or wilderness survival type novels. There's some historical ones, too. But I hope to just get her mind going on reading comprehensive and paying attention to detail and ask the why and how questions. It's the same unit studies I did at her age and I've actually used some for the boys as well. There's so much curriculum and so many books I don't get to, but I don't know what each kid will like or I really liked it as a kid, so I left those on the shelf. It's hard to find historical fiction with an overtly Christian character for instance, so I definitely keep those. Anyway, the project is done, schol is mostly prepped. Just two more appointments for the week. Craziness!
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| Benaiah wanted to create a sense of amusement and befuddlement as the student body president on the first day of school. |
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| Just read through this pictures that I put on Instagram to understand my sentiments for the day. |
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| At least I remembered to write him a note this year! I took a picture of it becuase lately I've been finding encouragement notes from others in the trash! I have been able to rescue a few of them. |
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| Yeah, the pressure is going up! |
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| "Let's reconcile" bouquet of flowers. They didn't last long though. Bummers. |
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| Luke and Justin watering the trees or are they hosing themselves down? The latter! |
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| Car soup complete with pretend noodles according to Abishai. And on the left is "car eggy toast." Yes, he was trying to make egg in a basket or frog on a lily pad or whatever where you cut a hole in the middle of a piece of bread and then fry an egg in the hole. Anyway, he's using real dishes just because he can and he has the special (and sharp, but he was well warned) bread circle cutter, too. |
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| In case anybody needs a migraine app, this one works really well! It's called Migraine Buddy and it's free! |
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| Where the moles ons my back were. Ouch! |
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| Playing piano because he wants to audition for different parts in the Crave worship band. |
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| Car soup! And he told me to stir it! |
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| This school advertisement had this interesting paper covering the words. And when it would dry, the message would be covered up again. I've never seen anything like it! |
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| Brothers gotta wrestle! |
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| #adulting101 after dinner with the grandparents. |
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| Gary and Leah have a pumpkin patch in one of the front flower beds! It must have been from the seeds the squirrel left behind when it ate one of their pumpkins! |
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| I'm a jedi knight with a long staff like Rae's! |
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| How many men does it take to get one door panel off? Apparently 4. |
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| Walking down to the roundabout to see the progress being made. It doesn't seem to be as highly involved as the other one because there's less pipes to move and they are already smoothing out the dirt. |
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| I tried to catch Abishai in the natural "golden hour" sunset light. But we wanted to get home too. |
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| Adorable! |
Today was the day of the pre op talk. I knew it was going to be a tough day. I haven't had my full cry yet because the kids have been buzzing around, but I let myself be mopey in between things. We talked about ormal surgery risks, which do make me a bit nervous, surgery recovery time, surgery specifics. The scariest part to me is that some complications would make me infertile. And while 95% of you will say, "You have 4 healthy kids. You have a second ovary. You'll be going through menopause soon enough." etc., there's just something about violating my womanhood like that that affects me so profoundly. Yes, I'm pretty sure nothing like that is going to happen, but I can't dismiss it either. I have to prepare myself for the worst. Because if I wake up from surgery and I'm rendered infertile, I just might lose it. No we don't really want to have more kids, but I want to do things the natural way, through menopause, which is my own body's timing and not a doctor forcing it. I did sign the papers for both the polyp removal (which is very low risk of affecting fertility) and the cyst removal. Because they can't see on ultrasound where the cyst is attached or how, I had to sign that it was ok for them to take the ovary and/or Fallopian tube. That's when I just about lost it. That was my moment of, "I don't want to do this. I don't want to sign this paper." Because I won't be awake during the procedures, I can't make decisions on the spot when they get the camera in there and see what's going on. The cyst removal is still voluntary at this point, so I'm going to do so more thinking and researching and praying about it. I guess I could always say no to it and get another opinion because it's not causing me pain right now. The polyps are the main problem. Jared came to the appointment and was as gentle as he could be but since he doesn't want more kids, he's fine with whatever as long as I'm alive and as healthy as I can be. And I know that is what his response would be. "You have a second ovary." Yes, I know this. That's not the point. The point is: I'm having surgery and I'm not really ok with any of it. My blood pressure was even a little higher than normal today. So, I signed papers so we can get me on the surgery schedule. We'll get pre op instructions I think in the mail or something because we didn't get them today. It will be at Methodist Hospital downtown and we wait to hear from the scheduler. Methodist is where my mom died. Shoot. It's not going to be easy to walk in there, not at all. Ok, now I'm a mess. I'm done talking about it, moving on.
Justin had spent the night at Gary and Leah's, so I took the other two over there before my appointment this morning. He also mowed their lawn. Then we all came home. After lunch and a little bit of rest, we left Justin and Abishai home and Keturah and I went to Meijer for some "retail therapy." Actually, I had accumulated a long list of items over the last few weeks. I don't like going to Meijer because I also spend too much. And today was no exception. There were no "on a whim" purchases except a couple of gluten free "treats" that I can't get at Aldi's like my special butter, bread, a couple of new granola bars, etc. I found 3 pairs of shorts for Benaiah on clearance though! Yeah! We picked up gifts for Keturah's friend's birthday party on Saturday. And then we had to get the girlie a new hairbrush and acne facewash and cream! This girlie takes after her mom sometimes! I went to my two brands we had growing up and hoping they work. Of course, they are the cheaper brands (but still name brand or equivalent). She may only be 11, but she's got all the changes happening. Keturah wakes up with aches and pains, headaches sometimes, new acne spots, greasy hair all the time, hair in certain other places, underthings, etc. It's a good thing we've already had the talk and we are just waiting for that special day when she gets to join Mom with her monthly cycles. Oh joy! Anyway, we also picked up donations for the middle school and high school's school supply drive at church and a few extra things for us including some milk and bananas.
So, Abishai's new thing for today is: he asked for a banana. I told him he couldn't have a whole one because he's eaten a whole banana every day this week and they are almost gone! I always buy two bunches or at least 10 bananas every time we grocery shop because they go so quickly! I told him I would help him get half of one. Well, he took it upon himself to get the stool out and put it next the counter where we have our cutting board and usually one or two knives left out from previous chopping. He took the full banana he got from the other countertop, took it to the cutting board, and cut the banana perfectly in half! Then he put one half back with the other bananas, peeled his half, and ate it. And he put the stool back himself. I guess we never have to worry that he'll starve! And we'll now how to make sure all the knives are put up and away somewhere. Good grief! OH! AND THEN! Tonight, he walks around the house sing singing "I'm a genius! I'm a genius!" and he doesn't even know what that means! He just knows we've called him that. Oh man, this kid!
After shopping, we chilled and ate leftovers for supper, taught a piano lesson, puttered and now it's all quiet. Luke and his grandparents went home today. Shauna had her lumpectomy which went fine and she's now resting at home with her girls and hubby. Benaiah's back in school and getting into his final school year routine of work and school and church stuff. So, all of life is settling down for a hot minute before it's my turn for surgery. Quick, what else can I distract myself with before I cry again.....
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| Abishai was cold because Jared had the house fan on all night and the house had cooled off a bit. He needed help with his zipper, but he did his hoodie himself. I think he identifies the hoodie with Benaiah, Ava, and Keturah. Too cute. And yes, he eats "raisin cookies" aka fig newtons for breakfast. He loves them! |
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| I wish I could get into reading all the books we own. I just don't make the time. |
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| Today's update. The skin looks a little yellow from the vaseline and it itches like crazy! And every time I look on the ones on my backside I cringe. These are going to be some interesting scars. Totally not what I was expecting. I should have asked more questions first. Yikes! |
The End
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