Day 309: Busy weekend ahead.

I'm hiding out in my room, despite the kids not being in bed yet because I've been with people all day long.  It was another day of Bible Bowl competition.  Jared stayed home with Keturah and Abishai and had a grand time with them, including eating cheesecake, and only cheesecake, for lunch!  Abishai almost ate his entire piece by himself!  Yes, we are the Johnsons and we LOVE cheesecake!  I told Justin that they were eating cheesecake for lunch and he said, "That's MY cheesecake!  I hope they don't eat all MY cheesecake!"  We had bought it for our guests yesterday, but Justin did pick it out and choose it over mint chocolate chip ice cream (which I still bought because well, I could).  

Jared also said that Abishai starting giving kisses today!  He already gives great hugs, and now he kisses, too!  Combine that with his loud noises and evil laughs and you've got a great sidekick.

Back to Bible Bowl.  The boys' team did fine.  They both buzzed in and Justin was able to single handedly answer a bonus question on a memory verse.  He didn't do as well on the written test though, so we'll have to work on how to take tests and know the material better.  Benaiah increased his score by 1/3, so we were really pleased with it.  They pray before each round and when it was Justin's turn, he thanked God for the "infamous" test.  Actually, he and I had a disagreement about what "infamous" means.  It's a game he plays, and I wasn't sure he knew what it meant.  He said, "famous for being evil."  I said, "No, it's just means very famous."  So I looked it up and he was right!  Awesome!

And I got to spend time with my cross stitching piece.  I seem to only work on it during Bible Bowl competitions and I had several people ask me about it.  Handicrafts are becoming a lost art, and I'm glad I can introduce young kids to it.

We came home and within an hour we were back out the door for church.  When we took Abishai to his class, he couldn't wait to go in!  He had been hesitant when we first introduced it to him this summer.  Now he looks forward to playing with his friends!  Sweet!

Then we came home, moved the clocks back 1 hr (and discovered a nice flying insect behind the one near the patio door), had some snacks, some TV time and bedtime at normal time.  We'll see how early little man wakes up tomorrow, lol.  It usually isn't too hard for us to get on the new time.  Tomorrow is a full day as well, but I'm hoping to work on stuff for co op and take a nap.  I'm wiped!

I play this game on my phone where you have to figure out where colors go on a pixelated picture based on certain numbers.  I find some the results quite cool like this one of Scooby Doo.

First, a sample of Benaiah's handwriting.  Second, he scored over 100 points!  A perfect score is 150.  The top 20 kids usually tie with 148 and 149 points.  But it is an improvement over last month's score!

Keturah actually got our her Barbies for once!  I've been getting quite frustrated lately with the amount of toys we have in boxes.  I would love to have a large playroom and a nicer way to store them.  I do need to get rid of some as well.  But it's very hard because I try to make sure the kids have various kinds of  things to play with.  And certain things, like my Barbies, I don't want to part with.  Unfortunately, this is how I had to play with my Barbies as well.  I had just this amount of floor space and I would have to clean it up before bedtime so my sisters could walk through the room.  Someday I'll figure out a better way .to handle all of this

No matter how messy the house is, or how many toys are left out, this is what it's all about.  Loving siblings.

The cross stitch I'm working on.  It's actually pretty complicated with so many colors in various places.  But I enjoy it.

Abishai played cars on the bed while Jared listened to an audiobook.  Vroom!

Abishai did some reading as well.

A little gift a friend sent me.  The Tardis and a Van Gogh painting bookmark.

There was a ton of fog this morning AND I had to scrape my car for the first time today!  I wish I could have stopped to get some pictures of it!  There's nothing like fog on farm fields! Normally I would have had my first scraping about mid September on PEI.  The scraper was in the garage where I could get it easily and it didn't take very long to take care of it.  But this picture is of the sunset from Indian Creek's parking lot after church tonight.  Very beautiful!

Day 308: They were here, now they're gone.

Yup, our PEI friends came to visit, and besides a brief hello at church tomorrow night, they'll be heading back to the Maritimes soon.  Sigh.  It's been a mixed emotional day for me, but mostly positive.  I took the kids to the grocery store because we were fixing dinner for the crew tonight (humble pizza and salad and gluten free pasta for our GF guests), and well, we needed groceries and there was going to be no time to do it this weekend.  I was extremely happy with how well the kids behaved in the store today that I got them several treats.  They got to pick out pop and mints and cheesecake and pumpkin spice marshmellows and regular marshmellows.  Oh, and chocolate chip mint ice cream because Justin was dying to make a milkshake since Keturah has had several recently from Steak and Shake.  The grocery bill itself was actually not too bad either.  We've been going shopping about every 10 days, so if we spend a little more than we would on a weekly budget, it actually equals out quite nicely.  And that's all thanks to the store called Aldi's.  I love that store.  I love that store so much because they sell unique items like venus fly trap plants!  Yes! I had to get one because well, we homeschool, and it will be a fun experiment.  It will be dormant for the winter, but maybe if it lives, it can eat the bugs in the spring.

The kids did their math and I read them a lesson on the breakup of Yugoslavia, putting in the bits about Jared going on a mission trip to Kosovo and a mutual friend being a missonary there for a couple of years, as well as one of our favorite families being in one of the provinces for 4 years, during the same years we were gone to Canada.  I remember hearing the names of Kosovo and Sarajevo on the news many, many times.  Three people groups, three religions, equals lots of conflicts.  It's actually very sad because I know they still struggle economically and spiritually.  I don't think the kids really understand that.  Except that Justin was trying to understand the unrelated phrase, "a rolling rock never grows moss."  He actually tried to apply it to people who change their beliefs or religion often and never have a solid belief system.  His wheels turn in his head in very interesting ways.

Then our PEI friends came over for a bit.  They were exhausted from the conference and allergies, so they couldn't stay all evening.  The kids wanted to have a fire and roast the marshmellows we got, but those will have to wait until another evening. They did haul in the groceries and the firewood though with much less complaining than usual.  They also played video games and watched a movie together.  I love days where there is less fighting!

Abishai was shy at first with our friends, but he warmed up quickly when he saw pizza and cheesy dip.  He even dipped his raisins and apples in the cheese!  The two younger guests, our friend Megan, and our 3 kids went outside for awhile, and so Abishai got to hang out with Megan and get to know her.  So when she went to leave, Abishai let her hold him and gave her a hug.  Megan is one of our favorite, favorite college students that we got to know on PEI.  She is currently working on our Masters degree long distance with Lincoln Christian University.  She was supposed to take a class this week, but was unable to get her student visa.

Which brings me to a sad part of the day.  I got a letter in the mail that said my MRI was NOT approved because I hadn't done physical therapy recently enough and it wasn't medically necessary.  I am getting very sick of the go around with the medical system here.  Why can't we just get rid of insurance and pay cash for everything?  It would be cheaper because doctors would have to compete.  But alas, it's not the case.  I see a holistic doctor in a few weeks, so I'm just going to wait until then.  I'm way too busy to try and do anything else this month.  Not to mention Abishai not having insurance because he doesn't have a social security number because the government is super slow in telling us what they need in order to prove that we live here and we are his parents.  So dumb and frustrating.  We need less government intervention, not more.  So vote appropriately, please and thanks.

Mr. Cool Dude at the the grocery store.

Miss Megan from PEI!!

Our Venus Fly trap plant.  I think I'm supposed to take the clear cup off and maybe put this in a bigger pot, but I didn't do that today.  So, we'll see how it goes.  At least it's fun to look at!

Day 307: At Home

Today, the kids and I stayed home while Jared went with Gary and Leah to an annual leadership conference called ReChurch at our church.  I have mixed emotions about that, and I will share with you at the end of today's blog what I wrote today on Facebook.  Why do I want to share?  Because, these kinds of things affect the whole family, and I believe in not only writing down the fun stuff, but sometimes sharing the hard stuff as well.  I had a good cry, and was able to move alone with my day ok.

It was hard for me to get motivated to teach anything but the basics today, but we were able to sneak in one of our own history lessons.  We are trying to finish up the Mystery of History series, which is 4 volumes starting with Creation and finishing up through Revelation.  Well, really, it was published in 2014, so it's up to date and then she includes a lesson on Revelation.  We are up to 1991 right now.  I want to go back to the beginning and start with Creation again because Keturah was only 4 years old when we started this series.  I'm also anxious to relearn again some of the things I learned for the first time 4 years ago like Tubal-Cain and such!  And since the author teaches most of the Old and New Testament material including major and minor prophets, it makes for a great overview of the Bible.  So, we keep moving along.  The last few weeks of co op homework has seemed lighter because one or two classes have not had any homework.  And that's been a blessing, especially with the flu last week.

We also got outside for 1 1/2 hrs this evening because 65 degrees with a warm sun beating down on us and no breeze.  Justin climbed a tree, Keturah tried on the in line skates, and Abishai toddled around on his trike.  I wanted to get more pictures but I only brought my phone outside and I ran out of battery.  It's an old phone and the battery doesn't last very long, especially if I'm taking video or listening to podcasts.

Then we came in for a quick supper of veggies and sausage.  Keturah finished her typing assignment.  I ironed Jared's new shirt.  And Justin made cookies that the neighbor lady shared with us.  She gave us some other groceries as well, and really, it's been a blessing to be able to stretch our food budget just a little more.  She goes to a food pantry, so she's just sharing what has been given to her as well. She did give us some energy drinks, the kind that contains more caffeine than 3 cups of regular caffeine coffee.  So I tried drinking half of one today and I didn't like the flavor that much.  I let the kids have a sip but warned them not to try it without me.

Learning about the countries that gained independence from the USSR in 1991.  We took off one block per country in the order they declared independence.

Independence does not equal prosperity.  I know most eastern European countries are still struggling economically.

Playing a toddler game found in one of our last toy boxes in the garage, Elefun!  I always liked the idea of the game, and it works pretty good.  Abishai didn't care about it though.

My little go getter.

Abishai riding his trike

Both kids got to type their first papers today!  Justin was much faster than I thought he would and he tried to type like adults do.  Keturah has never really typed on a computer before, so she did one letter at a time, but she was able to use the shift key and found all the letters and symbols she needed.

Being domestic!  Cookies (Butterfinger!) and ironing on my mother's ironing board.  I have a smaller one that I've used most often, but I think my mom bought this ironing board in the 70's because it's that icky green color.  But the top is newer.  Lots of quilts and projects were lined up on this ironing board.  Lots of love.  I will never get rid of it.  Just the sound of opening and closing it brings back memories.

Because I did organize stuff before we moved and I was very careful what came into the condo and what was stored, I actually had some pretty paper available to us instead of finding a fancy border on our document writing program.  Yeah for organization!

Pretty paper!

Now, here is the post I put on Facebook.  I choose my words carefully, but I also want to share my heart.  Here it is.

Many of you are celebrating the win of your favorite baseball team, and some of you are sad your team lost. But, today, I feel sad for another reason. Today is a reminder of how much has changed in the last 6 months. Today, Jared has the privilege of accompanying his dad to ReChurch, a conference held at our church for church leaders. I, has the dutiful "minister's" wife, get to stay home with our kids. In the past 4 years when there's been a leadership local conference at MCC, I took the kids to the school during breaks so that I could visit people and get to know them and they could see the kids. It's inappropriate for me to do that today. Jared isn't the man in charge anymore. We aren't in the spotlight anymore. I don't have to know and engage other leaders. In one way, that's a relief, but in another way, I enjoyed being a part of what Jared did. Today, I feel lost, unneeded, like an outcast. I want to be part of something bigger than our home. I want to be at Jared's side, lifting him up as he lifts up others. I don't know how he feels about it, or how humbling it is for him to be on a lower rung of the ladder. It has too hurt somehow. It certainly hurts me. We were rejected, pushed aside. And all we wanted to do was humbly help. But we weren't good enough.

Again, I felt much better the rest of the day.  Sometimes, just putting one foot in front of the other is all you can do.  Also, I started the intensive Bible Study homework and that helped to put some of my thoughts on paper.  I knew it was going to be a study I needed to hear.  The teacher has some similar struggles as I and I've been following her blog for awhile.  She's also a type A first born, as am I.  I can't wait to see what God does through this particular 6 week study.  Until next time!

Day 306: What season is it?!

So, what season is Indiana in?  Apparently, it's still summer!  It still holds true that you really can't put away your summer clothes for good except for maybe January and February because you get these really warm days every other month of the year.  I'm talking 78 degrees F!  While Prince Edward Island has already done the full switch and there is no going back.  They even have hats and mittens on with winter coats just to go trick or treating.  And New Hampshire is somewhere in between.  It just doesn't feel like Thanksgiving if you are wearing shorts, and it never did when I lived here before.  So, below are the actual forecasts for today.

Indianapolis IN

Prince Edward Island

Manchester, New Hampshire

Little Brothers Rock!  And I think all his siblings agree!  He put his cars and such in his lap and then covered his lap with his book to hide them.

Even on days like yesterday where I can't sit with them, these two have learned to be diligent and get their work done.  And when they need help, they are flexible enough to work beside me as I work on chores or computer work.

Even Abishai likes to work with us.  Now that Daddy has a desk, Abishai can line up his cars there and then beg Daddy to sit in Daddy's lap to play with the computer.

Abishai hiding his cars behind Daddy's computer.  It's just so hard to work sometimes when you got Mr. Cuteness trying to help you.

Keturah and I were out for an appointment today, and we often stop for Half Price Drinks and Shakes Hours at Steak and Shake.  She gets a small shake and I get a diet cherry coke (it's not fully diet since the syrup is put into regular diet coke and it's not sugar free).  These are the new holiday flavors.  She choose Peppermint Chocolate Chip.

I think I've talked about my computer printer woes as of late.  But just in case, I bought a cheap recycled ink cartridge off of Amazon and I think it was a big mistake.  I did all I could going through all the cleaning and alignment processes, but it still would print very blurry pages.  So, instead of investing in another ink cartridge, Jared decided to go ahead and just buy me a brand new printer!  I had bought my previous one off of a college student for $20 so I knew it wouldn't last terribly long.  So, here is the beauty.  I think I wrote yesterday that there are two things every homeschooler needs, a library card and a printer.  A third would be connection to the Internet through a laptop computer.  And yes, I need a scanner and for it to print in color.  I don't need a fax or even photo printing.

Sweet!  It was very easy to install with a USB cord, but I'm having trouble making it a wireless printer like was advertised.  That will be a challenge for me to figure out, and I like those kinds of challenges.

No joke!  This thing is called "Envy!"  Who comes up with these names?  Weird.  But I guess I could say, "Be envious, I got a new printer!"  But I'm also not THAT mean and it's just a printer.  That I got before Christmas, but it will count as a gift to myself, along with the blender, and numerous other things I buy myself now and then.  We have to be careful this year on how much we spend on Christmas, so I am not joking about this.  I'll print pictures and wrap the in a box of all the new things I've gotten this year.  Because all of these are luxuries, even a printer and a blender.  We've made due without them.  But to buy them ourselves and not feel like we have to wait until a holiday feels good.  It reminds us that we do have enough income to live monetarily richly.  And that I am able to stay home and homeschool my kids.  That I can afford a doctor of my choosing.  God' has blessed us immensely.

Day 305: So busy, make it stop!

It's great to be up and running and on the go, but I feel totally behind and barely cranking things out in time.  I have Bible Study tomorrow night and had no idea there was intensive daily study with it, oops!  And I'm not going to be able to do that tonight with the little brain power I have left.  Remember, I'm a type A personality, so I'm a perfectionist, and I've got to get it all right all the time.  But, I've got things mostly "reset" for tomorrow for school and the kitchen and laundry, so that's a plus.

Today was school, appointment, storage for documents and winter gear, dinner, Minions movie for middles, homework for Benaiah and make a gigantic mess by Abishai.  I cleaned up emails and Jared went to Staples to make copies and look at printers.  I'm in need of ink or a new printer.  This one was bought from a student on PEI for $20.  I've done what I can to repair it, and it might just that I bought a recycled off brand ink cartridge, but it's still coming out all blurry, even after I tried all the nozzle cleaning and alignment stuff.  I need a printer that can scan and print in black and white and color.  I don't care if it's laserjet or inkjet.  But a homeschooler is lost without a printer!  And a library card of course.

It was a gorgeous, 75 degree day here! And that felt odd to me.  By now, PEI is usually rainy and cold.  And NH is cooler as well.  I never liked warm Novembers before, and it's still odd now.  But, it lets the kids be outside for longer and they get to play in the leaves at Grandpa's house along with Socks.  Benaiah got to mow all the leaves yesterday.

Tomorrow is full, and I'm not sure what Thursday and Friday will bring with some of the family busy with a conference and friends coming to town.  We shall see!

Grandma was busy today, so Grandpa got to babysit.  Awww......

This is what it looks like when you are told you need to prove your residency of the last 10 years just so you can get your Canadian born son a Social Security number.  Yes, that's 10 years of taxes and bills, b/c you know, I keep everything "just in case" and yes this is JUST the moment it was WORTH it!

Abishai had a 15 minute screaming toddler fit about wanting to play with that truck up on the countertop DURING supper prep.  It was awful.  He's really got some loud and bad tantrums.  We ignore some, we put him in time out for others.  But they are usually headache producing.

Abishai mess.  And he picked his nose and tasted it for the first time today!

My minions watching Minions.

Oo, look what I found!  A new shirt sporting Jared's new job!  e2 Ministries! Effective elders is all about training elders and leaders of churches.  Jared gets to use his administrative skills so the other guys can keep their day jobs and do the teaching while on the road.  Nice!

Day 304: Happy Reformation Day!

Happy Reformation Day everyone!  And that is my opinion on what October 31st means to me and I will not go into the why's we don't celebrate this day like others do.  Just not for us.  But what is Reformation Day?  Look it up!  It's when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of a church in Wittenburg in 1517 that pointed out the faults of the Roman Catholic Church.  It's the birth of the Reformation and the Protestant Church.  Some families celebrate in bigger ways by having a feast or dressing up like those in the 16th century.  I just say, "Happy Reformation Day!"

Anyway, this happened:

One of our homeschool co op moms is a face painting artist!  Since some of us don't celebrate the holiday, we put a little fun into our day by adding some color.  She did it in between classes.  Otherwise, there was no mention of the day and I didn't hear anyone ask my kids what they were going as.  #WIN

A dolphin, of course, and Keturah was begging for more.  I told her she can get out the face painting kits in the bathroom and mess around if she wants and she can go on YouTube and watch how it's done.  And she can use regular paints to practice on paper, too.  I've always been afraid of the messes, but I'm getting better at letting go of it.

While Daddy was taking the pictures, Abishai at and watched the "show" and after each picture he would clap and say, "Yeah!"  Cute picture of him, too.

"Hello, I'm Barry Allen, and I'm the fastest man alive!"

TONS of details!

A little bit like Elsa from Frozen and there were sparkles!!

Random idea since toddler needed to be entertained while we ate - put food on his trains!

He LOVES to stack and his VERY good at it!  He did this all by himself, even figuring out that he had to rearrange it to make the last two pieces work.  He's an engineer.

Candy bar from Grandma.

Then he put all 3 pieces in his mouth at once.

These are the details of mine.  There were lots of sparkles too! I was totally giddy over them!

Justin wanted me to get the pumpkin like one of the other mom's had.  Although orange isn't my color, I happily obliged.

Our friend did my face in less than 10 minutes.  She can be hired to do this, but I don't guarantee that she has time.  She's also the kids' botany teacher and you've seen what they are creating for their fairy gardens.  She's also a herbalist and makes soaps and lotions.  Very talented lady.

Benaiah stayed home from school one more day, so Grandma had him and Abishai at their house today.  Abishai was struggling with his Jell-O, so Grandma was said, "Yeah!" when he finally got a bite in his mouth.  So then he had to copy her and clap for himself when he did it a second time!  As you can see, man child is on his computer, once again.  Actually, he doesn't get to spend a lot of time during the week on it like he used to, so his weekends are his downtime.  Or maybe he's studying for his geography test.  Either way, I'm sure it's fun!

I found a friend my size! Abishai was sooo excited!  This little one just turned 1.  Adorable!

There, there, Wonder Woman, Superman isn't dead. (Batman v. Superman)

Then we ran errands, dinner, the kids watched Angry Birds with Daddy, and I got our house in order for the week.  The End.