Year 2, Day 25: Trying Something New

After little guy woke us up several times this morning starting at like 4am, I finally got up at 7:30 hearing him saying, "Kie! Kie!" His blanket had gotten damp from a very wet (poopy?) diaper overnight, so Jared had to put it in the wash.  Abishai was NOT happy.  I washed it right away because I knew we needed it for naptime.  And one of Keturah's blankets was an ok substitute so we could nurse this morning (he didn't have clothes on, and we usually stay wrapped up and warm in the morning.  He was in a fog, too, and it took a bit before he could calm down for breakfast.  Sigh.  But, we were up, and the kids got breakfast and started on work early.  We kind of needed to get going because I was heading out this afternoon to talk with a lady about a Classical Conversations homeschool group.  I kind of went on a whim because I simply wanted to know more about it.  The group meets closer to where Gary and Leah live, and where we want to move to.  I won't try to explain all the differences between this group and other groups, but there were some significant things that I liked and am pondering over in the next couple of months.  I like our current homeschool co op, but I also know it has been filling in a gap as we transitioned back to Indiana this year.  It's no secret that it doesn't quite fit my philosophy of education or style that I would prefer.  So, I'm just looking into options because this CC group just popped up on another homeschool group's page.  I don't know if it's something we will do, but now I know a ton more about CC, so even if we don't do it, I can share with others what it's about.  It was great just talking about it!

Meanwhile, I was able to read today's history lesson to the kids during a snack/lunch break, while Abishai was buzzing around, which is something somewhat new for us.  It was on dinosaurs, so there was only a couple of new points I wanted the kids to learn anyway.  We are very familiar with Creation science vs. evolution and have many, many books on the subject since it was one of my mom's favorite topics.  Including books that the Answers in Genesis organization still sell!  Plus, we borrowed some of Ken Ham's books from the library (which actually came from a Christian school's library) like "D is for Dinosaur" and "A is for Adam."  If we needed more information or study on the subject, both of those two books have study guides in the back, including Scriptures to follow.  But, we know enough for now.

Then the boys had Bible Bowl, where Justin doesn't just show off his memorization skills, but gets to flirt with some of the girls, lol.  He doesn't even realize he's doing it, that's the funny thing.  He just has a compassionate heart and cares deeply for people in general.  But they did study, and they should have a competition or two coming up.  Benaiah is going to one in the middle of February at one of the colleges.  Should be fun. 

The younger two and I hung out while I put away the Christmas decor.  Everything is done except the ornaments and the lights that stay up until I get sick of them around April.  I think I'll redecorate the tree with Valentine's and St. Patrick's things just for one.  And then Easter!  When everyone got home, we had a grand time snuggling and singing the songs I sing to baby nearly every day.  Abishai thought it was the best thing to have most of us in the bed all at once.

Keturah gluing the pieces onto the lap book we did on the inauguration.  I forgot to take more pictures of the finished product, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Woke up to the flowers starting to open!

Abishai's dinner, part leftovers from earlier in the day, and then his favorite snack combo: "crakers" (cheeze its), "cookies" (vanilla wafers), and "Roars!" (animal crackers.  He had to get them all lined up perfectly in a row though.

Carb, check.  Protein from hot dog and hamburger, check. Veggies from pickles, tomatoes, and green pepper, check.  Dealing with one kid's picky eating: priceless?  Or pricey?

While Keturah and I were meeting with the CC lady, she bragged and bragged on how cute Abishai was/is to the other 8 year old there.  She loves her baby brother so much.

Not just one flower bloomed, but...

...3 blooms opened today!  Wow!  They are big and gorgeous!  I guess my purple irisis over the years where this big but I didn't get too close and personal with them like I am with these.  I think they are the same size.  Very gorgeous color!

And there's still more to open tomorrow and the next day!  Wahoo!

Year 2, Day 24: As the World Turns

Yes, I know, "As the World Turns" is a TV soap opera show.  A horsemanship mentor of mine like soap operas, and for a bit, I watched them, too.  Anyway, and, As the World Turns on its' axis because it is a sphere and not flat, thank you.

ANYWAY, up and down and away we go today.  First, we got some not so fun mail from CRA (Canada Revenue Service) saying we need to pay back most of the child tax credit we received.  I have no idea why, and it's probably going to take awhile to untangle.  We are talking big bucks here and I pray it's just a misunderstanding.  So, that's a down moment for the day, as well, "Mom, I won't do my work." attitudes, ugh.  So someone lost TV privileges again today and had to help me by bringing in the Christmas boxes from the porch so I can finally put away the Christmas decor.  The tree is staying up, so maybe we'll decorate it for Valentine's Day.  I don't want to take the time to take to storage just to move it again in 4 months, if we are blessed with a large enough house to hold everything.  And I definitely don't want it going out on the porch where spiders and bugs can get into it.  Ew!  The rest of the boxes will go out there in the meantime though.  I packed 1 box today and have 7 more to go.  I have to figure out where everything goes again and we have new things to put in the boxes so it will be a great game of tetris.  I hope to finish it up this week.

Meanwhile, the big news of the day was my holistic doctor's appointment today! I finally feel like I have hope again that someone really wants to get to the root of my health problems and not just medicate them!  So, here are the results.  Most of the my labs came back in the normal range, which is great!  I do hold onto iodine, so I need to take a little bit to keep the levels at the right amount.  The pills are fairly cheap and the issue is a minor one.  Blood sugars was a tad high, but I got the labs drawn right after Christmas where I had eaten way too much sugar.  I'm cutting back on sugar anyway to keep the headaches at bay, so no big deal there.  Great news is that I don't have an issue with candida which is bacteria in your gut.  There's no overgrowth, yeah!  I'm glad we got that one done and crossed off the list.  Thyroid came back fine as well, in all areas, TSH, T3, T4, etc so I'll stay on the dosage I have.

And finally, the big aha moment! I do not handle my B vitamins well enough for them to do their thing.  It's a bit complicated, with lots of big words, and I understand the general concept of what she was saying.  It's something that 1 out of 4 people have an issue with and it's hereditary.  I'm particularly low on the B6 vitamin.  That vitamin plays a vital role in converting whatever it converts in this "meth" something cycle that includes seratonin and melatonin.  If I understand those correctly, that means, once I get that B6 vitamin back into normal range, it will help with my anxiety, depression, energy level, and sleep.  Yeah!  This could be the answer I'm looking for!  The magic pill if you will!  Probably not totally, but it's definitely a great new step!   It's so satisfying to get these tests done and cross things off the list.  And it feels great that I have done the right things because my blood counts were normal, most vitamins were normal, etc.

So, besides new supplements, one of which is temporary and costs a TON but will help me feel better until everything else gets sorted out, the next big test is the allergy test from a blood sample, not the 100 pricks on your skin test.  I think it covers all the grass, mold, dust kind of allergens and about 12 foods.  Unfortunately, insurance doesn't cover any of this and so it was a very pricey visit.  However, I've spent so much over the last 7 years on supplements, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncture, etc. that it's just a drop in the bucket.  I want to get better so that I can enjoy the kids more and we can make more memories.  I don't want to die early because I didn't take care of my health like my mom didn't.  Praise God that we have some cash flow to cover it up front.

Phew, that's alot.  I hope you understand a bit of that.  Otherwise it was a normal day with school and playtime and Abishai cuteness.  It was cooler outside today, but still not cold cold like it is on PEI.  Jared stayed home with the kids in the morning so I could go to my appointment and then he went to the office for the afternoon.  We had a great supper of chicken and rice that finally tasted like chicken and rice.  I bought gluten free cream of chicken soup, mixed it with water and rice and Italian seasonings, put it on the bottom of the rectangle pyrex dish as always, added boneless skinless chicken thighs and it cooked up almost to perfection.  The recipe actually calls for a certain Uncle Ben's wild rice box mix and cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup, but all of that has gluten in it.  So we've been using sour cream and water and just made do.  It was yummy!

The rest of the day in pictures:

Our flower in the morning.

Lovely colors!

Abishai was walking around with Clifford when he said, "Sticky."  So he got a baby wipe and started wiping Clifford's mouth/nose and parts of his body.  Aw!

Then he cleaned his own mouth.

And he cleaned the bus.  He's definitely a Johnson like his great grandparents Johnson - neat and clean freaks!

It was only 45 degrees, maybe, but Mr. Canadian loves to peek outside anyway.

Keturah put the blanket down and Abishai got on his belly and organized his cars on it on the kitchen floor.

Because of all the balls all over the porch, I peeked over the railing to see if any had fallen through the railing.  I didn't see any balls, but I did see a matchbox car!  Whoops!  How long has that been there! I told Abishai there was a car down there and he could very sad.  He came inside and said, "vroom, vroom" in a very sad voice.  So, I had Justin go down and get the car(s).  Abishai and I watched him get it and cheered him on.

Abishai clapped and cheered for Justin like Justin was his hero because he rescued the cars!  Thank you big brother!

Our flower, just a few hours later than the above pictures, opening up!  Ah!

Justin was in my room and my closet door was open.  He glanced into my closest and saw these BB8 lights in there and said, "Hey, what are these for?" Ugh! I should have hid them better!  I wasn't saving them for anything, but still.  Whoops!  He loves them!

We got them on clearance at Barnes and Noble.  Keturah was unhappy she didn't a gift, too, but that's life.  I don't feel I need to make things even between all of them all the time.  She did get her other Chinese lantern type lights back though.  I'm just glad the lights work.  Very cute!

Oh no!  My favorite plates! Justin was taking down a different plate and didn't realize this one was on top of it.  Crash, bang on the countertop.  I didn't yell and scream on the outside, but I was sad on the inside.  So, I immediately went onto eBay to see if I can get it replaced.  And it's actually pretty popular and cheap.  $15 including shipping for 2 of these plates. Yeah!  And for the record, I have been an eBay user for 20 years!  Yes, 20 years!  That's crazy!

Because the Christmas decor wasn't put away yet, Abishai found the nativity scene again and was so excited about it!  He especially loved the baby Jesus and started carrying it around.  He even hugged and kissed it!

Jared promised Justin that they would start working on the Minecraft paperboard craft, so they started in on it, although it was really close to bedtime.

Keturah spent the evening reading in her bed.

Of course Abishai wanted to be right in the middle of  the activity.  He kept rearranging the "stone" blocks.  He handled them pretty carefully and listened when we said to be nice to the blocks.

Justin put the most complicated piece of the set together all by himself!  This is the classic Steve character from the game.

Ready, set,....

....Go!

On the next blog: checking out a Classical Conversations homeschool group!  Stay tuned!

Year 2, Day 23: All gone!

"All gone!"  That's what Abishai said when he and I finished my eggs and sausage this morning, without prompting and without signing it!  Another two word phrase!  He's making so much progress!  Yeah!

I didn't give the kids much of a warning, but I'm trying to hit the books hard this week.  We didn't have co op today because a few of the moms and kids had other things to do or were sick.  I'm very grateful we didn't, because I'm still suffering from a lot of pain and exhaustion.  I'm getting pretty frustrated with it, blaming it on the weather here and stress.  Hopefully I'll get a couple of yes or no answers at my doctor's appointment tomorrow.  The appointment that I was late to last week and had to reschedule.  But I won't be bringing kids this time.

Anyway, I got everyone back on task after a very rough first few sentences of the day between the kids.  It was bad enough that they didn't get any electronic time today, even when they finished their school work.  They did their individual subjects, and then we touched on history (Noah's Ark, easy!), a book I really want to read for the fun of it, a little piano theory for Keturah, and math corrections.  And we started a lapbook about the Inauguration, which you will see later this week when we finish it.  Abishai bounced between the TV and the dining room table as we worked.  I was able to keep him more on track with his eating instead of snacking throughout the day.  Instead we focused on eating at mealtimes and not having 10 bowls of half eaten food sitting out throughout the day.

Then, I've been working on the blog this evening.  I want to separate out my rantings/ponderings/musings from the main page, but I couldn't find a way to actually post under the new "page."  So, please be patient.  My intent is to share some things, but not for it to become the main focus of this blog.  Therefore, the main page will still focus on our family's day to day adventures.  Thanks!

Again, I don't have a green, nor a black, thumb, but my oh my do I love watching things grow!  Check out this beauty!  I think ours is a couple of days ahead of Gary and Leah's plant that arrived at the exact same time as ours.  However, their's were a little neglected by the man and almost man who looked after the house (I'm looking at you, Husband and Son).  They didn't have it in a window nor did they water it.  Anyway, I'm super excited to see what this flower is because I've never had one before.  I could look it up of course, but I'd rather it be a surprise.  Wahoo!

Keturah had to clean up the rest of her stuffed animals from rearranging her bed this morning and she had to clean up another playset she didn't properly put away.  So, I guess in doing so, she decided to get all her Barbie houses out.  The only problem was that Abishai wanted to play to!

Keturah didn't want him messing it up, so I had to keep reminding her that a) she can always fix it when he's done, b) he's not destroying it, he just wants to play and he plays gently and c) he loves to do whatever she and Justin are doing.

Abishai jumping for joy when I said he could play!  I'm not joking!  He loved the Barbie car the most, but he did want a Barbie and a baby Barbie to put in it.  Nothing wrong with that! 

Year 2, Day 22: Pushing Through

Sigh, wow, what a week.  I'm trying to get my head in the game, and it's tough going.  I think I have a tentative schedule, menu plan, and school plan for the week.  I've got to have some goals or I won't be productive.  Anywho, that's what Sundays are for!  Jared went to church with Keturah since they weren't able to go last night.  Justin had stayed overnight with Grandma and Grandpa with Benaiah and Justin's friend Bryce, so he just went to church again with them and then stayed the whole afternoon until youth group.  Bryce was picked up right after church.  Then Jared drove back down to take the boys to group.  Keturah, Abishai, and I had dinner, and Abishai had a bath.  Keturah did a little bit of sewing on her monkey and rearrange her bed.  I kept up with laundry and dishes, but those are no brainers for me.  Oh, that's right, I've spent a good portion of the day fighting with my computer as well.  It's saying Opera doesn't have enough memory space to operate properly all the time.  I was able to get the computer up long enough to delete some picture files and some other unused programs, but I'm not sure that did the trick.  It always makes me nervous to delete pictures, although I have them saved to a DVD, the external hard drive, this blog, Facebook sometimes, and all of them are on Snapfish, never mind the original SD they were take on.  It's just a little harder to access them when they aren't right there on my internal hard drive.  Wah, I know, not the end of the world.  I have documents to clean up and out, too, but today was a rush job.

Moving on, straight to the pictures and I'll tell the rest of the stories with them.

Doing what he does every day, lining up his cars.  He watches Jay Jay the Jet Plane and Thomas the Tank Engine, too.  Every day.  At least he ate a bit more today!  The rest of us are still kind of icky, but we are pushing through.

He was saying, "Ting ting!" like the guns on the Star Wars first person shooter video game.

The many faces of the wee one.  Smile (or snort)!

Are you sure you want me to smile?

He asked to wear the Cars hooded towel and wanted to wear it or the Thomas one to bed!  We didn't let him though because I was afraid he'd get caught up in it and it would be too cold because he had on nothing underneath.

Ice Cream!  And he insisted that he have the cone and that it couldn't be in a bowl.  But now we are out of cones.  He'll have to take from a bowl like everyone else next time!

Here's the Lego tomb Jared and Justin made for the funeral yesterday.  I'm going to keep it intact at least through Easter.  It's awesome!

The stone rolls away! And the tomb is risen!  I wasn't at the funeral, so I'm not sure what Gary actually said, but I can assume it was about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ so that we may live with him in heaven for eternity and that Timio is doing that right now.

The back of the tomb.

Gary also used the Revelation 21-22 part of the Brick Bible to illustrate what heaven may look like and that there will be no more tears or pain in heaven, Praise the Lord!

Cool rendering of Heaven, complete with 12 gates, 3 on each side, and the foundation made of gemstones.

Streets of gold in Heaven and a river flowing through the city.

The Brick Bible is awesome, but does contain scenes of death and destruction, complete with red bricks for blood.  They also show "He lay with his wife" moments and circumcision.  They include the verses from which they got the stories.  So, I'd have a regular Bible handy to explain any differences you find.  But it's neat to see the stories come to life this way!

Abishai asked to talk to Benaiah.  Benaiah didn't respond much because he was listening to music and messing with his rubix cube again.

Abishai wanted to wear the Thomas hooded towel to bed, so I let him do our nighttime rituals in it.  We read the Bible, he kisses Jesus at the end, we sing itsy bitsy spider, twinkle, twinkle little star, and if you're happy and you know it, songs.

What?! Why can't I wear "foo foo" to bed? He actually ran away from me with a "catch me if you can" kind of laugh.  Then he snuggled into my bed, and while there, he lifted up his rear and purposefully bubbled (tooted) at me.  Oh boy, we've got to keep a close on this one.  Hysterical laughter for tooting? And then trying to do more on purpose?  Yup, he's all boy!