Year 4, August 5th-8th: Why So Many Appointments?!

Abishai keeps wondering why Mommy has so many appointments.  Well, some are rechecks.  Some are to figure out new issues.  But lately it seems like there's several every week.  Part of that is because we were gone on vacation so everything happened to land in the first two weeks of being back.  I'm tired of the appointments, too, because it interrupts the day and I need to be home to work on things.  Thankfully Tuesday is an at home day, although we have Everly and Nora all day while Gary and Leah drive up to see Leah's mom in Michigan.  But first, we had a field trip to a popcorn making business called "Not Just Popcorn, Etc." with our homeschool group.  We brought Leah, Everly and Nora with us and left Justin at home because he can't even stand the smell of popcorn.  We had a blast and it was well worth the 40 minute drive to downtown Edinburgh (not near the outlet mall)  We learned all about the process of popping the popcorn and how they add the flavors, package it up, label it, and ship it.  Then we bought a bunch of little packets to try at home! And boy are the flavors unique and gourmet! They better be for the price we paid, lol.

After the field trip, we dropped the girls and Grandma off at Grandma's house and I took Abishai home.  He was all out of sorts because he had fallen asleep on the way home.  It took him 10 minutes of fake crying in time out on his bed in his room for him to calm down.  Then Abishai and Justin had screen time while I went to my pcp's office for a follow up.  What I thought would take 15-20 minutes took 90 minutes because the doctor was way behind and then took forever typing in the lab results from my naturopath.  Oi! Just a little frustrating because I was hoping to have more time at home for things. I ended up going right into dinner prep when I got home.  Then Benaiah got home from work (he actually had a morning shift which is unusual for a Monday!) and Ava came over for a couple of hours.  Justin went over to Gary's house to finish up summer Bible class with the girls and then they all came over here to spend the night since Gary and Leah are getting up early to go to Michigan.  The girls spent some time on the screen with Jared and Abishai and finally fell asleep pretty late.  We will most likely stay close to home tomorrow, but we'll see.

I didn't feel well this morning, and barely made it through today.  Between our driver's seat in the van, our mattress, and my computer church, the combination of the three do a number on my body apparently because I'm in more pain at home than I was on vacation.  That's a bummer because I can't change any of those things right now.  I keep wanting to eat my trigger/inflammatory foods, too, and I know I shouldn't.  I'm still frustrated that I'm the only one cleaning up around here and yet at least some of them make the effort when we are staying somewhere else.  And this is why I don't do chores on vacation.  If I'm the only one around, fine, but I hang back when it's time to cook food or clean up food. I go on vacation so I don't have to do my chores, not transfer them to some other place.  Anyway, I'm hoping to rest tomorrow and maybe tackle some other things. We'll see!

So many flavors, so little time!

Dill pickle!  I had a piece and it didn't pucker my lips, but how fun!  Kind of like dill pick potato chips!

Patriot punch, caramel, toffee, dark blue raspberry, yum! And although the candy type flavors are "fake" they are gourmet fake flavors and are so yummy!

Kind of like muddy buddies.

Strawberry vanilla or something like that.

Sample packs of their current in store flavors.

They can customize any order but they have a minimum order amount.

Since it's a food establishment, we had to wear hairnets.  Poor Keturah had a hard time with hers since she doesn't put her hair up.

Hairnet time.

Cuties.  They look like they are either ready for a shower or to work in a food factory.

Abishai didn't hesitate to put on the hairnet and was a good boy keeping it on the whole time!

5 gallons worth of popcorn ready to go in the batch mixer!

Making confetti popcorn that tastes like fruit loops!  It's the kind Abishai got.

The three basic type of popcorns ready to be coated.  One of the types of kernels are called "mushroom" kernels because they pop with the biggest heads on them and are perfect for the candy colored/flavored ones because they are also the lightest in color.

The biggest popcorn making machine you ever did see.

Just like at home though, it doesn't take very long to make the popcorn base.

Watching the popcorn spin in the drum to cool off and come down the chute.

Ready for bagging.

Catching it in the bag.

The popcorn is still warm!

This was a batch of strawberry she had done earlier that had been sitting out for 20 minutes to cool off.  They have blowers sucking up the extra moisture and taking it outside so the popcorn doesn't get soft.

Demonstrating what a 15 gallon bag of caramel popcorn looks like.  Phew!  She makes three of these bags every week on the same day because it's a lot of work.

She showed them how she weighs the popcorn into bags and then seals them with the right amount of heat to just barely melt the plastic together.  Then she labels them.  And the other area is where they package them up to ship them across the country, even to one of our US Senators in Washington, D.C.

Back to the mixing process.  After she mixes the base popcorn with the coating for a few minutes in the mixer, she dumps it on on the table and starts to hand mix it to cool it off.  At first, you can't hear anything because the coasting is a little sticky and soft, but after a while you can hear the rustle of popcorn against the metal.  Then she will let it fully cool for 15-20 minutes before she bags it up in the big bags until she needs it to package up the individual flavors.

This is the door to their basment!  Because it's in a small town downtown, the buildings are probably close to 100 years old and this one happens to have access to the basement through the floor!  How cool!  It was also the pharmacy back in the day so there's all kinds of hidden shelves and corners, especially in the basement with old pharmacy bottles like Eli Lilly would have had.She said the basement is huge because it runs the whole length of the store.  I'm imagining a root cellar type atmosphere, so maybe there's some cirtters down there, too, but who knows.  I'm sure they don't store any food down there, just extra boxes and store decorations for different seasons.

The Hoosier Mix, cheddar, caramel, and butter.

We bought some pizza flavored popcorn for Luke Green the middle school minister.

Bacon, of course.

Buffalo Breathe.  It must be spicy with buffalo seasoning!

Popcorn lovers!

See! A quaint midwest old downtown.  Pretty quiet at 11am on a Monday morning.  The business district is actually where the outlet mall is.  I prefer the downtowns though.

Gorgeous flowers!

He was stir crazy leaving the store, so I'm not surprised he fell asleep immediately on the way home.  We were all hot in the van though because we haven't gotten the a/c fixed yet an it was 85 degrees out.  We managed just like Leah and I managed in our youths when a/c in cars was not a thing! And the popcorn we bought survived the trip home as well.  We did stop at church to drop off Luke's popcorn and say hi to Grandpa and Daddy.  Abishai did NOT want to go in and was grouchy all the way home until he had 10 minutes by himself in a time out on his bed.  Then he finally came out to eat lunch.

Mr. Clingy.  Since Daddy had to go to work and he hadn't seen Mommy much all weekend because he was playing with Daddy, he kept moving to each room I would move to and sit down to watch his screen time.

We bought a sampler pack with flavors like cookies and cream, marshmallow, blue raspberry, monkey bread, caramel,....

Toffee, basic butter, basic cheddar, vanilla hazelnut or some such thing.

Patriot crunch, maple (for me), ice cream, and confetti (fruit loops.)  Oh man are they good! Each little bag does cost $2, so you do pay premium price for this kind of popcorn.  I don't mind though since it's a mom and pop shop.

Benaiah came home from work, showered, and then Ava came to visit for a couple of hours.  Some days, I don't hear much talking, I just hear cackling.  They flirt hard.  They also decided to play Jenga.

I can't remember the last time Benaiah actually played Jenga and he wanted to use two hands.

Then little brother came over and knocked it all down with his monster truck, of course!  And Socks was barking because Benaiah and Ava were "cat" fighting.

Sorry, there's no privacy in this house.

Jared showed Ava where Benaiah's best tickling spot is on his neck under his ear.  He sounds like a little girl when he laughs about that spot!  It's like a Vulcan shoulder grab and Benaiah melts to the floor.  Gotcha!

I zomeed this in so you can read the prayer that we were encourage to put up around our homes and workspaces from our sermon on Sunday about being Christian employees and employers.  It's a good one!

Tuesday we stayed home all day with the addition of Everly and Nora.  We've had them over to our house so much in the last 10 months that Abishai has really formed a bond with them and thinks they are pat of our household, lol.  He was balling when Grandma and Grandpa picked them up tonight.  In fact, they've been here so much that Keturah and Justin fight with them! Well, it's mostly Nora and Keturah, little introverts that need to be the boss.  Everly and Justin are the peacemakers. Grandma and Grandpa made a "quick" trip to Lansing, MI (8 hrs round trip isn't quick in my book, but whatever) to see Leah's mom, who is home from the hospital and seems to be ok at the moment.  But, Grandma Cook is 92, so you never know.  Our fall plans are all up in the air as to whether or not normal Thanksgiving plans will happen because of Grandma Cook's health.  So, it's a wait and see game.  But for today, Grandma Cook was lucid and seemed to be giving correct information on her life, eating a little bit, getting around a tiny bit, etc. So, we'll see.  I'm so glad that Gary and Leah went up there now, and Leah's siblings have also been up there in the last two weeks.  Now is the time to have sweet conversations before things could get worse and very quickly.  So, lots of things are up in the air.

Including Shauna's breast cancer surgery, which is on hold for another 2-3 weeks because her white blood cells haven't risen enough yet after chemo to prevent infection from surgery.  The whole point of having the girls here was so that Shauna could have the surgery and rest without having to worry abut the girls. But, God has other plans I guess.  Ew, that means surgery might happen as the girls should be starting back up at CC and with their schoolwork.  I'm sure Shauna has other moms that can help with that, AND that's one of the BEST reasons to homeschool! You can homeschool around major life events and worry about getting behind or getting the extras done.  Who knows, maybe I'll be having surgery at the same time as Shauna, although I think hers will be a much longer recovery than mine.  Ew, I might have to get some kind of schooling started here before mine.  The girls will probably go back to NOLA this weekend, and then next week I'll have way less appointments so I'll just have to focus on prepping for school and seeing how all this will play out. Without fail, there's always something major going on that will interrupt school.  Shall we take a trip down memory lane:

2018-2019  Shauna's mom passed away in Dec. 2018
2017-2018 We moved to the new house two months before the start of school but I spent the summer setting up the house and getting all the stuff into the shed, etc.
2016-2017 Same thing, we had just moved back from Canada to the condo, and we tried out a co op
2015-2016 Abishai was an infant, we had some issues with Benaiah, and then Jared was fired from MCC in April 2016.  The middles came to Indiana a month early and finished school with Grandma.
2014-2015 I was pregnant and had Abishai, 'nuff said.  Long road trip in the summer to Indiana plus cruise in October 2014.
2013-2014 The one year nothing much happened! I think I gave up gluten and learned about food sensitivities in January 2013, which can be a steep learning curve.
2012-2013 We moved to PEI that summer before school started.
2011-2012 My dad was very sick the summer before school started, he passed away in Sept 2011, I spent the rest of the year sorting things out in prep for our move to PEI.
2010-2011 My mom had passed away in the spring, so I moved my dad closer to us and was helping him with appointments and such. Plus we got Socks in June as a puppy, so puppy training! And I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
2009-2010 Keturah was a baby, and my mom was ill with cancer, so we helped her with that, and she passed away in April of 2010.
2008-2009 Keturah was born in June 2008, so she was a tiny baby for that school year.

Yup, I'll stop there. Because I don't think anything major really happened those first few years when I had babies/toddlers and a kindergartner. I had MOPS which kept me busy, but I didn't have health issues.  Phew, that makes me exhausted just typing that out! It also make me even more grateful that we homeschool and that no matter what bookwork we did, my kids were always exposed to new things to learn, especially how to handle relationships and stress in life, and I still had enough time to be with them because they weren't sitting behind a desk at school.  There will never be that perfect school year, or the perfectly executed lesson plan. BUT, there needs to be a lesson plan to start with, so I need to get with it, don't I? This year is a little daunting because I'm trying out new curriculum, I really haven't decided on Keturah's stuff yet at all, Justin is in 9th grade, so I need to keep better track of some things, etc. I need to rekindle the homeschooling fire, but I've had such an interesting fun filled summer that I don't want to go back to school either! Oh well, I have to start planning sometime.  I guess I'll start on Thursday, because Wednesday is going to be just as busy as Monday was.

So, Tuesday the kids played outside in the water, read books, had electronic time, fought, laughed, ate three good meals, etc. etc. we survived the day at home with room to spare. Yeah!

Oooo, a policeman caught a speeding guy on a moped today right outside our window! Flashing lights and everything.  We tried to be discreet, but, we don't see the flashing lights ever (thank goodness!) on our street.  Plus, it's good to know that the speeders are being caught.  I was outside watching the kids play between 5-6pm and we had a TON more traffic on our street than we normally do.  However, they didn't seem to be speeding too much.  I've warned all the kids to be extra careful, thus why I was also outside with Abishai today, too.

My phone camera must have been dirty or it was really hazy this morning, lol.  Riding bikes before it go too hot and before they could have screen time.

Grandma Cook, 92 years old, with Leah's brother Ed, who looks after his mom, and Leah.

Everly played a lot with Abishai today, in the pool and the slip and slide.

Socks, the guard dog.  I wanted to keep him outside and kind of work with him to stay close (he'll take off if he does see someone or something), but it was really too hot for him.

Now, speedy gonzales over here played a game of cat and mouse with the cousins for over an hour, only stopping  occasionally to cool off in the slip and slide.  Watch the movements I caught on film!

This is totally how Abishai does life! At full speed from 7 am to 9 pm! Ok, screen time will keep him still for awhile, lol.

Mrs. Long Legs, who was the best "babysitter" of the day.

Justin didn't want to be out in the heat, and it was finally Keturah's turn on the tablet, so they stayed inside.  The girls were kind enough to be outside without much prodding.  Nora even said she tried making a "deal" with Keturah to make her come inside. I also don't push outside time when it's this hot.  They had all had screen time, so I just wanted them up and moving and doing something else, but it didn't have to be outside.

Miss Moody Pants in her little happy place.

Nora is never far from a book.  I was that way.  Now I "read" in snippets online and get my info that way.

Is that good enough, Mom? I put my feet in the water.

Justin has been self teaching himself how to play the Mario theme through some app (it's not sheet music, which irks me, but whatever), so he taught Nora some of it!

Oh..my...word...I think this picture shows up on my Facebook picture every year, but every year, it becomes more and more precious.  That's Jordan Minton on the far left, and she was there at Keturah's roller skating birthday party as well as Nora and Everly.  So, these girls have known of each other for 7 years at least.  And of course there's Justin who knows everyone, too. And just like always, Justin and Everly are the same height, despite being 18 months apart.  I think Keturah is behind Justin.  I believe there's another photo on my Facebook page of Keturah in this moment, too.  This was at our going away party in June of 2012.  I must have uploaded it in August though.  It was in the big adult classroom of the North Wing which has now been converted into the preschool classrooms and their big group room, how crazy is that?!  And only Abishai has been in those classrooms.  The old preschool classroom are now smaller adult classrooms called the South Rooms, where the playground used to be that is now in the gym at the Gathering in NOLA.  But boy time flies! Lol!

Well, just when I crossed off two more appointments off my list, I added more!  Ok, today's appointments are recurring ones anyway, but I also added in another appiontment NEXT WEEK to see a dermatologist about my moles being irritated.  It's been 10 years since I've had them checked and they've changed just in the last 3-6 months of my hormones changing, so,....ugh! I'll never find the time to put together homeschool plans and start school into AFTER Labor Day! Well, we'll see what I get done with my whole day tomorrow at home and parts of Friday and Saturday.  The vacation blog posts are done and posted, so I'm up to date on those.  I DID make all the phone calls and fixed passwords on accounts that I needed to do this week as well, so it's been very productive in some ways.  I just can't to be home doing my homeschool thing.  Well, sort of.  There are parts I like and parts I don't.  But anyways, it's been an interesting day with me being in and out, and different people keeping an eye on the kids, etc.  Grandma helped out his morning because Justin needed to mow at their house so Keturah and Abishai couldn't stay home.  Benaiah had the whole day off with zero obligations, but wanted to run errands and hang out with Ava.  But Benaiah had to babysit Abishai tonight while the rest of us were at church for a Kidustrial Park Volunteer Kick Off thing and Grandpa was off doing some other ministry thing.  I can't remember the last time it was just Abishai and Benaiah at home.  In fact, I don't think it has ever happened.  Usually Justin is there as well or Grandma has Abishai.

Anyway, Abishai was stir crazy and off his rocker at Grandma's house.  We call him the EXTRA extrovert, lol.  And he's also had 4 hrs of screen time today.  That's not cool.  I'm going to have to make a firm rule that Abishai only gets screen time when I'm in charge of him since I am in charge the majority of the time. The couple of hours here and there that someone else is in charge, they should be actively engaging with him and forming a relationship with him. Yes, there are times he's on a screen sitting next to me while I work, but more often than not, I'm the one who tells him no screen time and he has to go play.  It's just a pet peeve of mine because sometimes when I'm not clear on instructions, others will use screen time while they are watching him, and then when I get him back, I can't use screen time to do my work like making phone calls or getting a different kind of break (going out to appointments and errands is NOT really a break for me because it's still people time and noisy).  Ah well, once the nieces go home and school starts, we'll be in a better routine.  It's a constant battle, but it's a fight I'm willing to have.  If you're bored, go clean something!

Keturah was hungry and hovering when I just didn't have the time to have the patience to answer her questions because the pizza was cooking and we needed to leave in 30 minutes.  So I sent her to go wash the glass doors.  She actually didn't complain about it.  I had already taken away screen time for today and tomorrow because of the sass she gave me this morning, so I knew she was super bored because she had already exhausted reading at Grandma's, straightening up her room, playing in her room, and even riding her bike without being told. I wish I could just send her to do some math or something, but I know she needs help and I don't remember where we left off so that's unfair to her.  Perhaps I can at least get the math ready for them so they can get a start on it.  I'm a little unsure of language arts and even reading for school at the moment, so I can't just hand them a book.  I did take back a stack of unread library books today because oh my word, I got behind in renewing them and between that and a DVD that was not renewal and was supposed to be in 7 days ago, I've racked up $28 in fines! So I kept a couple of super important ones that I had renewed and ditched the rest.  That also included other DVD's we've had for months, too.  Yes, I've had some of these books for 6 months.  Time to move on! Again, once school starts back up I'll be more on top of it.  It's also much harder to get to the library now that our intersection is closed for its' roundabout construction.  I have to get through two subdivisions I'm unfamiliar or backtrack if I go the long way and it just takes time I don't always have.  I'm not always going that direction. Anywho, I guess that is a little bit of school planning right there.

I'm sort of itching to get started because all the public schools are in session now, but I refuse to start until I've got a gameplan.  I won't know that until I talk to my surgeon next week.  Lots of unknowns right now, which isn't making me too anxious thankfully.  One step at a time.  Tomorrow, I will attempt to get into the last of the bookshelves and pull out this year's  stuff.  There's just several big changes and I can't wrap my head around it or remember what I had thought of until I see it again. Anyway, I'm grateful that I'm caught up on housework and household business and the blog. That helps put my mind at ease for sure. Speaking of school, Benaiah was able to gather up most of the supplies he needs this year just from his supplies from last year and a few items from our stash.  Yeah!  He did that all on his own tonight (while Abishai watched TV but at least it's done).  But we need the most expensive part, this expensive calculator he will never use again: TI-84-Graphing-Calculator  Oh my word! I don't have another $130 for a calculator! And yes it can be passed down but still! It has to be that exact model.  He's only taking the class so he can get an honors diploma. He won't be taking it to college, I guarantee you that.  He already has a basic calculator that has the special functions on it, but it doesn't display the graph.  What career needs this type of math anyway?  Ok, maybe meta physics of something.  Anyway, I know I didn't and I was originally a science major who did take college physics and I managed to get by without it. Good grief! I might have to pull money out of the special education fund my parents left us for that thing.  I don't know if Justin and Abishai will need it, but I almost guarantee you Keturah won't.  I'll be happy if she makes it through Algebra II. Sheesh! I'm sure Jared had one at some point because he did take Calculus, but he gave it away a long time ago.  Ok, rant over, but now I'm on a quest to find it for cheap!

That was our Wednesday.  Now onto Thursday at home.

And you know what? It did! No pain, no bruise.  I really did slam the sliding door on it pretty hard.  Yeah for natural remedies!

This was the damage Benaiah did to the other young lady's car last week.  These scratches and I guess the car needs a total realignment costing anywhere from $1,300-$2,000 so we officially put in a claim with the insurance company today.  Ava was visiting when we talked to the agent on speaker phone.  Not even 30 minutes after that, poor Ava tapped a mailbox with her side mirror in our neighborhood.  And Leah drove past her, too!  Ava was bit mortified, but Benaiah being the calm smart kid that he is, pulled out the duct tape to secure the wires after he took the mirror off and looked up on Autozone if they could order a new mirror, etc. while Ava talked to her mom and dad.  These kiddos, though, what are we going to do with them?  They are fast becoming adults with adult problems, aren't they?   Thankfully, I'm at a point with my anxiety that I don't worry about these kinds of things much.  They happen. I get more anxious about my health issues and relationship issues.  But Ava was able to calm down and they both drove separately to the mall to look for pants for school.  Again, #adulting  You get into trouble and then you move on after dealing with it.  Benaiah did all the talking with the insurance agent today and thoroughly and accurately described the accident.  He had gotten all the right information (Jared might have helped him a bit on that, but he didn't call Jared until after he and the lady pulled into a parking lot and started talking.).  Now if it had been Justin, he probably would have freaked out and frozen in fear. So, we'll have to talk him through it when it's his turn.  I've never had to file a claim myself so it's all new to me, too.  Jared was hit a couple of times, but I'm thinking Gary took of it at the time because Jared was 16-19 years old.   Anyway, we are proud of Benaiah and what he can handle.

And there he goes with his littlest brother.  Do you think Benaiah can handle the wild child?  I think Abishai was a little bit excited to be with Benaiah.  He wasn't hesitant at all. I just know that Benaiah isn't used to Abishai like Justin is and although Abishai is very low maintenance, I don't like to use my kids as instant babysitters too much.  Well, I do use Justin often now, but Grandma is home for good now so she can help out more often, too. And it won't be as frequently when school starts.  But big and little, too cute!

Mrs. Lisa Strunk was asked to share a funny story from her years in KP, so she shared one about a 2 yr old who had a massive poop problem all over the bathroom, including the wall, his legs, the toilet, etc.  Then Luke Green was illustrating it on the other side of the wipeboard as she told it.

Here's Luke's drawing of the poop explosion including when Lisa was asking for gloves, which came after she had it cleaned up.  Nice drawings, Luke!

Then it was Luke's turn and he told how he used an old girlfriend's name instead of his current girlfriend/now wife in a story he told to teens about God being first in your relationships.  So Lisa drew the word Missouri in the way that people from Missouri write it, plus the two women with a ring between them, and the wife saying a "cuss" word which was probably something like "dum dum." Lol.  We also had two elders and Pastor Dan get up with their wives to thank the volunteers and tell stories and speak words of encouragement and pray over all of us.

Nice cookies!  Wish I could eat them!  "Known, valued, and loved" and we need to share it with the kiddos we serve and their parents.

Team building exercise.  You can't talk to the other people in your group and only one person can actually build it.  We didn't win but we were close.

Our tall creation!

KP volunteers!  I'll share more pics when they are posted.  This one has Leah in it.  I guess Keturah and Justin didn't get the memo. We brought Keturah with us because she is a volunteer on the KP worship team and I thought it would be good for her to hear how she is not only having fun, but also serving in a role that points others to Jesus.  I'm loving our soft, lightweight, muted purple shirts!  So velvety compared to the other standard cotten men's t-shirt. The old ones are just so starchy no matter how much you wash them.  I prefer the softer ones.  That's why I haven't really been wearing my KP shirts.  But I'll wear this one!  Plus the sizes ran a bit bigger and my momma's pooch needs the extra room right now until I get my hormones balanced and lose some weight.

Thursday. Oh goodness.  Long day but I didn't even have to leave the house to take Abishai and Keturah to Grandma's house this afternoon.  I got Justin to pull Abishai and his "stuff" aka trains, socks and shoes, and a DVD in the wagon.  We've been using the shortcut (with permission from the new landowners since we know them, yeah!) because the traffic in the neighborhood is very quick and rough on between the two stop signs on the cross street.  Keturah rides her bike on the street and goes the long way, but she's had to be extra careful, especially during rush hour.  They were there for 3 hrs this afternoon because I had a phone appointment but also, we thought Everly and Nora were coming back from being with Shauna's family a bit sooner than bedtime. Oh well, at least I got some stuff done without the constant "can I go on the tablet? Can I eat (usually sugar)? I'm bored." nonsense.  I was able to make my phone call, tidy up some papers, and pull out this year's school books.  It isn't perfectly arranged and nothing is put on paper yet, but I regathered the books I had sort of set aside and looked through them again.  I think tomorrow I will do Abishai's couple of boxes and try to convince him we are going to do a little bit of fun stuff this year.  I've also been hard at work finding a very specific type of graphing calculator for Benaiah.  It's been a nightmare to find and it costs $160 new.  So, eBay it is.  I'm bidding on some and hopefully going to get one for less than $90.  We'll see! He will probably only use it for this one class and I don't know if the others will use it, too.  It kind of makes me mad, but whatever.  I survived without one, or at least no one as fancy.  But it has to have color output and connect to the computer etc etc Oi!

Otherwise, oh, I switched out some toys for Abishai this morning (he's been begging for me to do that for months!), tried to stay awake, but did take  nap, taught a piano lesson, and cooked dinner.  It was a pretty slow day because my physical pain is high.  We did have some summer pop up thunderstorms that cooled the air temperature down, but it's now really muggy.  Jared decided it was still a good idea to open the windows and run that loud house fan all night again.  Blech.  I'm not sure it's even going to help bring the temperature down that much.  We've been doing that on a lot of the nights and it's only brought the temp down a degree or two.  Not worth the mugginess and sticky feeling, but whatever. I'm just tired and need to sleep.  Tomorrow is the last day with the girls, so we are hoping to take them to the park and then Grandma and Grandpa can take them to the movie and I'll stay home with Abishai.  Abishai even said "I'll stay home with you Mommy because I don't like going to movies because of the scary stuff" when he overheard the plans.  Aw, at least he knows that it's ok to say no to something.  But I think he really wants Mommy time, too.  So we'll work on more school prep stuff.  I need to pick up some planners or something as well, and the Aldi's ad looks like there are some.  Otherwise, I'll be picking up something at the store.

Ok, I think I've said enough.  Justin gets to be my high school guinea pig and while I'm excited to be doing something and finally get to some of the heavier stuff, I'm also very intimated because it means I need to be more of a teacher and read the material so we can discuss it.  I'm still liking the syllabus of the new curriculum we bought, but I'm now searching for the supplementary books and those are hard to find, too.  I'm definitely not as prepared as I was last year, but that's ok.  When I pulled everything out today, I remembered what I was thinking of doing despite not finding the paper I wrote things down on.  I'm pleased I made some progress today despite feeling crappy.  That's all I can ask for.  Oh, Justin did mow our yard too before it rained. Again, it feels good to be caught up on the weekly and daily tasks.  Then I can safely move onto the annual or quarterly things.  Yeah!

Wow, Abishai's looking so much bigger and can handle Daddy's work bag so much better now!  I think Jared has been using this bag for over 3 years, too.  Totally cute!

The bag is still big, but Abishai isn't falling over anymore.

Why yes, we are going to get a thunderstorm at some point.  It just took a few hours of skies like this in order to form.

Someone got another promotion and raise today!  He hopes to be Team Leader by the end of this year!  The back of his nametag has his ID number but also his "fun name."  He is dubbed "Baby Cherub/Trainer."  Bwahahahaha!

Geotrax!  Finally!  I had to put away the old vintage Little People and I'm not sure what I'll do when school starts, but for now, he's in heaven!  He was really into the airport piece today, making up tons of stories.  Benaiah quite playing with the airport once the airplane quit working and never used the figures on it to make up story.  Plus Abishai really wanted the box of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff as well.  Sweet!  It's like Christmas all over again!  I think I need to put away more toys though from the sunroom.  And this is why I don't get rid of toys.

Yeah!  I'll be able to use at least some of these awesome books and yes, original VHS tapes with Justin's new curriculum!

Abishai was right when he called him a "Derp a derp" the other day.  Turn down your volume before you watch the videos!

My aunt sent me two books of mostly old piano and violin books but check this out!  It's Made for Trade!  I used to play this with my siblings and by myself.  It has several different levels of play and lots of great facts about colonization of America! It has a short paragraph describing each thing you buy as well as about the merchants.  Yeah!

Sweet!  Another childhood memory I can share with my family!  Thanks!

The End