Year 2, Day 296 & 297: The Busy Days

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busy days of the week.  But we survived and I didn't have a meltdown this time.  I say meltdown because I typically feel overwhelmed that we didn't do enough school between those two days, but I'm learning to let go of that a bit.  I simply can't teach them everything every semester or year.  Some years I need to be heavier on science, and some years I need to place more emphasis on handwriting.  I.e. Keturah doesn't know cursive yet because I want to sit beside her this time, which I didn't do with the boys.  And her manuscript is lacking.  None of my poor children have had a teacher who has really sat down and teach them the right strokes for each letter.  I let the book do it or I was hoping my mom would do it for me.  So, there's that.  They certainly do write enough words between grammar and our writing program, writing things out for Grandpa for Bible class, book reports, etc.  But I need to work on correcting each letter and having them practice, and it's definitely an area I struggle in.....

.....anyway...I know it's important, but it's one of those things that I am not good at.  Like art.  So it doesn't tend to get done.  But I digress, again....

Ok, yesterday's trip to the library was SUCCESSFUL!  Abishai was encouraged to share one of his coveted big machine vehicles with another boy, and he finally did without tears.  Then they made a couple of other exchanges, too. The other guy was shy because he immediately sensed that Abishai was not really willing to give up his toys to him.  But I outright told the other mom that this is exactly why we are here, so let's practice.  Same thing happened at the puppet theater and eventually, Abishai did share.  And since it was going so well, we stayed for an extra long time versus last week when we left quickly because of Abishai's bad behavior.  So, Abishai's "schooling" for the day was complete!  Justin and Keturah hadn't brought their school work, though, so that put us a bit behind for the day on that.

To combat Tuesday and Wednesdays shorter days, I have decided to tweak our schedule to better match when Jared and Benaiah leave for school and work because Abishai is usually up, too.  So if we wake up at 7, we have plenty of time to get breakfast, chores, and a couple of subjects done before we leave for a couple of hrs each of those mornings.  Then maybe we can go back to my original plan of having together time while Abishai watches his screentime before nap.  Then I won't have to be doing school all through naptime and I can actually make a phone call without sacrificing school time.  Sigh.  This is the constant struggle in a homeschooling mom's life.  But the beauty is that we can change it as often as needed.  No one has to fit in a neat little box.

But we did get enough done and the kids were co-opreating.  Also, it has turned VERY COLD like 45 degrees F for a high kind of cold and that is keeping us indoors a bit more.  It did rain a bit on Monday and Tuesday, but today it was clear and crisp.  So we are hopefully going to the bigger park with the stream tomorrow so I can get some candids of fall in the woods near the stream.  We'll go right after lunch when the weather has warmed up a bit to a high of 60 F.  In fact, PEI was at 70 F degrees today!  Then it will be cold and 90% chance of rain on Friday, and the fall colors will probably be gone after that.  I'm excited to have one more chance at getting these pictures.  Benaiah will be in school, so I won't have any of him, but I guess that also just tells the story that soon enough he won't be around and family dynamics will change.  Sad, but true.  I am glad that we had those neat field trips together.  Those are memories I will cherish because I don't know if it will happen again next year or not.

So, a couple more days of slowness and then another weekend chock full of events.  I guess our sabbath rest will come on Friday when it's downpouring again.

Abishai knows exactly which books have the trucks and cars in them during the library storyhour.  And he knows all their names, too and tries to name their colors as well.

We did a pumpkin craft at the library!  I think it's the first time Abishai used real liquid glue!  The librarian dumped some out in a bowl and we used toothpicks to spread it on the shapes.  I tried not to help too much, but I did do a lot of the glue spreading and arranging of the face.  He tried to spread glue and push down on the features.

Ta da! I'm a preschooler!

The white "teeth" you see is glue that hasn't dried yet.

As you might be able to tell, there are 3 trucks instead of 4 this week and that's because Abishai is learning to share the toys with the others!  Next time we will work on him sitting on the rug with the other kids and of course I will sit with him, too.  We are skipping next week because it falls on Halloween and it will be heavily Halloween themed. 

This brings back memories of when my Dad would play this game with Justin at this age.  We still have the Reader Rabbit preschool CD's but can't seem to get them to work on our computers.  Great company and programs though!

Learning to share with another boy of his size and demeanor.

"Hi, Daddy, I love you!" Yes, he did say that!  The phone plays a prerecorded narrating of a book, and of course this month's book is Halloween themed as well.

The other two took goofy selfies to mess around with on the kid computers.  This is Justin's open mouth in the picture.

5 daddy ducks and 2 mommy ducks, but Abishai thought they were babies.  He loves watching them!

This is "Dump it out Abishai" (compare that to the "dump it out trucks" he plays with.

I was too busy chasing the toddler at gymnastics who wouldn't stay off the gym floor so I didn't get any pictures this time.  But they worked on kicking their legs up higher and straighter in their cartwheels using mats on either side of them that they weren't supposed to hit with their feet.  Cool concept!  So, with Abishai bursting to run and climb, we headed to the Brookville Community Chruch's free for the public playground that is open daily.  It was super quiet in there, and I felt bad because my kids where playing on the really loud slide made from the roller tables you find in warehouses.  Technically, only Abishai was allowed in there, but I designated Justin and Keturah as mother's helpers and they stayed right with Abishai.  And what I thought would help, made things a bit worse because then Abishai didn't want to leave!  Whoops!

Abishai can now climb this whole thing by himself!  I don't think we've been here in 6 months or so.

New jammies, and we've got a little artist!  He scribbled while I went over homework with Keturah Wednesday evening while the boys were at Bible Bowl.

When we got home from the library, he decided to become a traveling bard and sing for his supper in all kinds of different arrangements all over the kitchen.

And each time he moved the drum set and rocking chair AND foot pedal, he put it in front of the walking path as I was getting lunch ready.

Yes, he did ALL the work himself.  He's going to be such a handful and it's going to take us all to keep him in line.

And being a perfectionist, he had to keep adjusting the pedal and the chair to match perfectly.

His favorite songs are the garbage truck and excavator songs from Blippi, so he imitated them.

Two perfectly packed Operation Christmas Child boxes!  I love the new boxes you can purchase at Hobby Lobby!  And we picked the perfect amount to fit into the box without overflowing it.  That's what you get with 14 years worth of experience packing shoeboxes!  We even did this in Canada, too.  This if for Benaiah's school because they were having a collecting effort.

We always include a note and picture, which this time had to be sent in black and white because my printer needs a little TLC so it can print in color again. Sigh.

When Baba goes to school, the other boys take over his bed!

Here's the Bible Bowl trophy that the boys earned at last month's competition.  Remember, the team gets to keep it for the month, but then it goes back so it can be reused each much Then the team that wins for the whole year will get to keep it come May next year.

Boys watching "Gone in 60 Seconds" clips from the end of that movie.  The only dialogue is the police chatter just like on the video game that they all love, "Need For Speed," which was probably developed because of this movie.  The movie is set in the 80's so it's interesting to note all the different clothing and car styles.

This big one finally weighed himself and he's officially bigger than his father by weight and height.  He's only 15! And he won't stop eating!  And he eats like a hobbit!  Crazy teenager!

 

Year 2, Day 295: Falling Back In

The weather took a nosedive today and got really rainy and cold, so it was perfect timing to get back into the books after a week off.  I'm a project and to do list person, so I'm a bit sad to reshelve my projects again, but they will always be there waiting to be done when I get a chance.  It was a great school day with only a little bit of protest.  What made it great was just being a bit more patient and not pushing so hard on things like math for Keturah.  We spent 30 solid minutes on 3 multi digit multiplication problems.  She doesn't have her math facts memorized, so it simply takes her longer.  She worked hard on those 3 problems and she understood her mistakes.  She's nearing the end of this book, which some would think makes her "behind" because it was last year's book, but this is a mastery program and if you just make steady progress, that's all that's important.  If you don't understand these basic concepts well, then you can't do the higher maths.  So, we'll just take our time and as long as she cooperates like she did today, the experience will be fine.

Justin was a handful though during history lessons.  They both have hard time keeping their mouth shut and I think it's because they are just used to having opportunities all day to talk versus sitting and listening to the teacher up front.  But I know they can do it because I watched them sit through multiple worship services this weekend and behave just fine.  It's just me that they seem to think they have the freedom to speak their minds with.  I guess that's a good thing.  But, today, Keturah was able to narrate back to me more information than Justin was.  His mind was somewhere else.  He did see his friends yesterday, and that peer to peer interaction just doesn't something to his brain and he gets all goofy crazy.  Think: he doesn't sit upright on the couch but rather upside down with his head practically on the floor and his feet in the air.  Or he's making some kind of ridiculous sound.  Justin gets giddy.  And that's perfectly normal.

We finished Keturah's clothes sorting today, although she doesn't like dresses with many buttons or frills.  I have a hard time putting them away though and I like to save some for "just in case" there's a fancy event.  And she looks so beautiful in them!  I'm guessing she doesn't want to attract attention to herself since she is more of an introvert.  I can understand that.  I probably dress that way, too, to be honest.  I like to blend into the background and never go for the glam and glitzy.  Plain jane we are.

And those streamers!  They were dragged around alot today and at one point Keturah had them wrapped around one wrist and hand as well as both ankles separately like ace bandages.  They do get less fun to play with the more you crunch them up because they become thinner and just look like a silver rope.  So we'll see how long they actual last.

I showed Abishai the clips of Jack Jack from the movie "The Incredibles" and he was scared when Jack Jack was a fireball.  He has a very caring heart which is evident in his play because after hurting his cars, he often "fixes" them back up, too.  He even noticed a car with it's hood up at a Jiffy Lube we passed yesterday and sounded really concerned about it.

Sissy is a great teacher and she makes sure he says please and thank you.

Little boy in a big room full of stuff.  There was a point to this picture, but I don't remember.  I still have some work to do in here though.  We pulled all of Benaiah's stuff out and I'm going to reorganize it for him into categories and such, and maybe even set stuff aside that he wants long term, but not in a dorm room.  I also just want it to fit in the closet better and I know there are huge gaps in all the boxes.  The boxes to the left are the leftover books and paperwork I need to go through when we have another break from school.  And no, actually, I don't have time to even do one box a day right now.

Just reading books together in a plastic tub.  That's totally normal, right?

I was busy on my computer, Jared was busy in the garage and Keturah was off doing something in her room, too.  I came in and found the three boys stuck to three different screens.  Check out how Abishai likes to cross his legs like his big brothers.  Oh, and I purchased some things to finish off the picture wall, so I hope to get to that later this week.  Super cheap and I have this vision for it that involves a tiny bit of craftiness.  I love crafts!  In fact, I wanted Keturah to do a simple cut and paste worksheet for school and I ended up being the one to glue it together after she cut it because I love crafting!  Plus, I'm a bit impatient and she actually doesn't have that much experience (none of them do) in the typical art projects other kids do at school.  I don't seek out busywork like that.  But I do have paints and doo dahs and glue and now colored clay and somewhere we have charcoal pencils and real artist paper.  It's all there, but that kind of art is not something I know how to do.  It's available and I'm willing to do it anytime, even painting, if I have the chance to lay some newspaper down.  Ding, ding, ding!  I have an idea of where I can get Abishai into doing more of it, too.  Anyway, every house project will come together at some point.  Piece by piece.

Grandma brought over leftovers and glowsticks!  Exciting times!  We don't use glowsticks often, so it was a great surprise!

And the camera caught the action quite nicely in this particular lighting.  I'm super stoked that I can fiddle with the settings on my camera just a tiny bit and capture something like this.

Pretty!

Round and round the arm.

Science lesson: Justin asked why the blue isn't as bright as the others and of course the answer is that the wavelengths of blues and purples are much longer than reds and oranges, so they are more subtle.

So neat!

Light sabers!

Thomas got some special "glow in the dark" treatment.  Then Abishai brought the glowstick in my bed the next morning.  I know they are non toxic, but the contents do stain if the stick breaks.  Naturally, it made me nervous, but nothing happened.

Hiding from diaper time.  Abishai gets nervous about getting his diaper changed after a BM.  Sometimes the area gets raw and it does hurt, so I don't blame him.  No judging, but we still haven't focused on potty training yet.  When I'm ready, we will did it.  I did successfully potty train 3 other kids with some help, so, I know I can do this.  I just don't want to.  Oh, and those pj's will definitely become a favorite because they have "dump it out" trucks and "excadators" on them (dump trucks and excavators).

Year 2, Day 294: Celebration Day 2

Here, there and everywhere, that's where everyone was today.  The families that were there at services last night were asked to go to the Shelby St. campus of Indian Creek today for their services so that they would feel included in the festivities.  Again, some of us in our family went earlier than others.  Even the J6 was scattered with Benaiah and Justin both serving at Franklin Rd. and Jared going to the first service at Shelby St., and I, with Keturah, Nora (since she spent the night at our house) and Abishai joining him later.  I'm not sure when Aaron, Shauna, and Everly arrived at Shelby.  It was my first time at that location, so I did a lot of "scoping it out."  Similar verbage and color schemes and what not, but at the same time, it was different.  It actually felt kind of weird because the Shelby St. campus already has 400 people in attendance which is a decent sized church!  We have lighter numbers at the Franklin Rd. campus because of the Shelby St. campus, so most of those attenders are just transfers, and so we are still averaging the same overall.  We did see a few people we don't normally get to see, though, which was fun.  But to think it is still part of the Creek is crazy!  I know it's pretty normal now, but after being in church's that are that size period, it just makes me think.  I just find it interesting.

Sleeping princesses.  They can both still fit on a twin bed together.

Socks and Abishai, the best alarm clocks in the world! I know Ethan and Bryce also think that way when they stay over.

3 little monkeys snuggling in the bed!

There's always a book nearby to read.

See, the tomato is getting red!

Baby peppers.

The fall foliage is at its peak and we are too busy to fully enjoy it, ah!

The foyer at Shelby St.  Kidustrial Park is there, although the rooms are combined.  All the walkers up through those who haven't potty trained are in the same room.  All the 4th and 5th graders are always together in the same room as well.  AND, I guess the programs' databases on linked for printing kid tags because our names weren't on the list!  We just used visitor tags to save time this time.  But, they had the same balloons and banners, plus, they had doughnuts!  Franklin Rd didn't have doughnuts, lol.

I recognize these chairs!  They are from the "box" when it was used for the other worship area at church before they turned it into Kidustrial Park. 

I can understand why Benaiah feels a bit claustrophobic in here.  The ceilings are much shorter.  But there is an intimate feel that you miss when you are in the big sanctury at Franklin Road.  I recognized about half of the band and singers, two of which also play and sing at Franklin Rd. for sure.

Weirdest moment for me was when we heard the exact same sermon in the exact same way because guess what?  Shelby St. usually plays the recorded sermon from the 5:30 pm Saturday service at Franklin Rd.  AND, it was Benaiah on camera this weekend, so it's all his handiwork, too.  That's pretty cool!  We did get up and do the "we were sent" moment and they had others praying for the "past, present, future" moment, so the services were nearly identical.  They also sing the same worship songs, but not always in the same way.  One song that started out slow and with a vocalist and maybe guitar at Franklin Rd, started out full on with everyone here at Shelby St.  It just depends on who is leading either place.

Special guests at Sunday dinner, Seokin and Esther Payne and one of their 5 (I think there is 5) children.  The Paynes go way back in the Johnson history to when Gary preached in Waynesville, Illinois.  They spend 7 months of the year (typically winter time for us) in their home country of Liberia teaching ministry leaders.  This particular son now lives only 15 minute from Gary and Leah.  For a time, the family actually lived in my neck of the woods in Rhode Island.  I'm sure it's been neat to see the boys grow up, have families, go into ministry, etc.

Last weekend for good blooms on the flowering plants!  It's supposed to be cold and rainy next week.

The fab 5 enjoying their turkey dinner.  Truth be told, we actually haven't had Sunday dinner at Gary and Leah's house in two months.  Why?  Because it's the busy season for Gary and if he's not gone, someone else is.

There's always time for uncles and nephews.

We have 3 birthdays to celebrate in late October and into November, Nora, Shauna and Leah's, but instead of birthday cake, we had pie, both apple and pumpkin! We had a turkey dinner because Aaron and Shauna won't be up for Thanksgiving.  They usually stay in NOLA anyways.  We sang happy birthday, Nora blew out the candles, and then Abishai wanted the candles relit so he could blow them out.  And of course, Grandpa obliged.

Abishai was showing Aunt Shauna how to ride the rocking horse.  I think she's a bit big, don't you think?

Everly takes after her tall parents.  She'll be taller than me soon!

It's not a jack in the box, it's an Abishai in the box!  Or footstool in this case.  He did try every which way to fit fully in there, but he's too big.

Knowing that the weather was going to turn on us this week and that Everly and Nora don't have as many pretty cool fall days with all the fall foliage and such, I made them all go outside, even the big one, who wanted to stay inside at the adult table.

Gorgeous sky!  And Benaiah is about to climb the tree.  Full driveway, too!

Oooo, lots of solar flare, or a dirty lens.  I love how Justin, like the rest of my family, doesn't care about fashion.  Check out those BB8 knee socks with shorts!

Multi colored leaf!

See! Being outside is fun!  You've been climbing this tree every since it and you were toddlers!

Canada. Always.

3 big monkeys climbing in the tree!  Kind of reminds me of when the kids used to climb the tree at the Cornwall Christian Church in their good Sunday clothes.

While the other adults talked, I, with Jared's help, got these silly kids to pose.  Actually, they are pretty good at posing themselves.

Yeah, we now have an updated version of this picture and it includes Abishai!  I'm sure I took one maybe in August or perhaps last Christmas, but nonetheless, I made sure it happened again.  I unearthed a picture of Gary and Leah with the 5 grandchildren when Nora was just a baby, so it was on my mind.

Trying to squeeze in a round of a board game before we all scampered off again to different places.

Oh no! These kids discovered funny cat videos on YouTube!  Like the one that is 10 years old where the cat is on the ceiling fan, and the person turns the fan on sending the cat flying across the room accidentally.  Yes, that one.  They even shared it with Gary, and he laughed.  Then they watched other cat videos that were NOT accidents.  I had to put a stop to that because it's just plain mean.

Birthday presents for Nora.  Sorry, Shauna, this is the only picture I got.  It was funny though that the gift wrapping was all polka dots.  She got a stuffed animal, clothes, the board game of Life, and a coloring book from Grandma and Grandpa, and a journal to write verses in, or book quotes, or keep lists of books read and Bible verses memorized.  And I gave one to each of the other two girls.  They were told it is not just a random book to draw something in and tear it out, etc.  And if they use it, great, if they don't, then we planted the seed.  Keturah started writing things and verses she has memorized in her book already.

Sharing some temporary tattoo love.

Keturah had bought them at the dollar store with her own money.  I'm so glad she thought to share with the girls!

And the girls and their parents were off to visit with one of Shauna's sisters.  The rest of us were all going to church again for the worship night put on by Crave, the middle and high school groups.  Oh, and the Paynes had left mid afternoon after lunch, I believe for Illinois.

He's getting so big!  He was so excited to take a nap at Grandma's house again!  Seriously, he wanted to!  He hadn't had a nap there in quite a long time.  I had to wake him up and thankfully, after just a little snuggle, he was on board to go back to church again.

The youth group had strung up more banners in the sanctuary and on each pennant was a word or a few words representing the stories of different people in different groups and how the church has impacted their stories. Words like "transformed" or "consistent."  They also showed a video of a few people explaining them.  Then, one of the worship elements was for us to write down something as well.  The worship time is always louder and crazier and what some would consider more fun when the youth band plays.  Although, we did have both main worship ministers up there, too.  Benaiah was doing his thing as video switcher behind the scenes again.  He loves it, but I wish he could have a chance to be out in the audience sometimes, too.

A little live background music while people wrote things down on their pennants.

Justin found his usually buddies (or girls in this case) to sit next, too.  Kylie and Lydia.

The pennants were then clipped to some cording and then lifted up to match the other ones.  It was kind of neat to see the big red cord come down out of the ceiling so the other cords could be attached to it and then pulled back up.  The idea came from the phrase, "lift your banners high."  They also had these cards for people to fill out about how "a church prayer for what's to come (the founding members of Indian Creek) and then...." and we were supposed to fill out what we dreamed of happening next, or what our next steps were, etc.  Then we were to clip those to some doors scattered across the room.  And as Jared was doing that, I was journaling away on my own because it's the only time I can think without being interrupted, Abishai got down from the bench, slipped through my fingers, slipped through a friend of mine's fingers and ran up front to Jared through the large crowd with no fear at all.  Keturah had gone to her children's choir rehearsal at this point.  Oh, and  did miss a video in the beginning of the service because it's hard getting the kids in and settled on time.

Dan and Gary closed out the service.

They had these banners up last night and today, but I think they might have added more for tonight.  Not sure.

The teenaged toddlers at it again, running around the church like they owned the place, and their bigness bumping into stuff.  Benaiah at some point event poked Ethan in the eye!  I hope these two end up rooming together at college and get married on the same day and have kids about the same time and all that sappy stuff because they can be inseparable.  And tons of trouble.  Poor Justin gets to play the middle man between these two giants.

Phew!  That was a long, long day!  It's a good thing tomorrow is a completely at home day.  I'm not excited to start school, but at the same time, we must.  On with it!

P.S. I will also note here that while it was great weekend in some ways, I also had a very hard time with it all.  While I know e2 is a ministry position, I feel like us being "sent" to Canada was why we were up on stage in the first place.  And I have many personal feelings on that one topic alone.  Their were many other families there that were "sent" to be a minister at Indian Creek or a local organization, too.  But I really struggle with some of this stuff and it affects everyone around me.  And I'm sorry it does.  The healing still needs to take place and time can only do so much for it.  So while the rest of them celebrated, I had a hard time fully participating emotionally.  It is what it is, but it is also part of my, and our, journey.  The great, the good, and the ugly.  If you take me out of the equation, it was a beautifully put together perfect celebration.  Much thought and prep was done for it, from getting the banners sent out and gathered from many different small groups, to sending out invites around the world to bring together the people that have been sent out from the Creek, to what was shared and how it was presented, to everything not being too overdone either.  Thank you, Staff and families, for all your hard work and pulling this off.  It's refreshing when you don't have to be part of the party planning and prep work and you get to just show up and partake.  Thank you!