Year 3, February 21st-23rd, 2018: Heavenbound and Timmy's!

We've had an interesting week.  I won't lie, there's been some tough spots because we think Abishai is giving up his nap.  This means we have to reorient ourselves and how we homeschool so that he isn't on electronics all day.  You see, I cheat and have him watch up to two hrs of screen time to keep my sanity.  Otherwise, he literally is into everything and I have to get up every 2 minutes (I am not exaggerating) to get him out of trouble.  It's a stage, it's a phase, he's 3, I get it, but we weren't mentally prepared for it.  I'll still try to put him down for a nap everyday for a while, but we will have to plan that he won't take a nap.  That means, I will be playing with while the others do their individual work as always.  But then we won't be letting him do TV time before 2pm like we have been.  Instead, I will check the individual assignments with one while the other entertains Abishai and then switch.  This usually occurs around lunch time, especially on days where we get up later, so it can sometimes feel like I am literally going in circles putting out fires all day.  It's very exhausting and draining to me.  And then around 2 pm, Abishai will go for his nap or he'll have screen time.  Then I will work with the middles on history, science, Latin and other things we do together.  If we are lucky, we will finish around 4pm.  No, our bookwork doesn't take 6-7 hrs but because of the interruptions of a preschooler, it does take that long to fit it in.  I like to have that break between 4-5pm before I start supper, especially so I can make phone calls, so I'll need to be patient on days when that doesn't happen.  I feel like I never have time to just relax.  If I don't move steadily through the day, things don't get done.  And that's very frustrating to me because I don't feel like I can take the time to step back and enjoy the moments that are good.  Instead, I go from one fight to another, one mess to another, and again, it doesn't bode well with my physical health.  I'm also still dealing with gut health issues and that's incredibly limiting and frustrating.

I basically had a meltdown this week.  But there's a reason for it.  I have to retool my brain for Abishai's changes in napping, but also, for some odd reason, the death of Billy Graham hit me hard.  I don't have a personal connection with him, but I know that many, many people do and his presence was a shining light in our culture for so many years, so many presidents found comfort in his prayers (which he did off the books) and I have steadily followed him, his son Franklin, and Samirtan's purse for many, many years now.  But then it hit me that it's not Mr. Graham I'm missing, but my parents, who get to talk to him (perhaps, I don't pretend to know what all goes on in heaven, it's just a nice thought).  Which brought me back around to really, really missing New Hampshire, and PEI and you know how that throws me into a tailspin.  And it wasn't hormonal this time!  Again, this is my personal journey, BUT it directly impacts the kids and Jared, so I share it here as a record that I'm still struggling but Kids, I am really trying hard to be a better mom!  Promise!  Oh, and I was listening to some new Newsboys songs in preparation for their concert we are attending next month and found out that they put together a record full of covers of hymns!  And one of them was my mom's favorite, "It Is Well."  Yup, and the 8th anniversary of her death is coming up in April.  Anyway, if it wasn't for leaning on Jared, and a little bit on God, I'm not sure where I would be.  Jared is my rock and always have been.  We've been friends for almost 20 years!  We've grown up together pretty much.  It's an incredible feeling to put your trust in someone who loves you unconditionally like God does.  Sometimes it's hard to feel God's presence and you need that physical touch.  I know it's hard for some people to understand if they haven't struggled with their faith, but I'm wading through this journey right now.  One step at a time, one ugly cry at a time, one outburst at a time.  Many prayers that God will redeem my wrong parenting as good things for the kids.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to instill in them something good.

Speaking of good, Benaiah has this master plan of working at Kroger as soon as possible, get his license, audition for drums at big church, buy a car, pay for some schooling, etc. etc.  He's got drive when he wants to.  He's actually done a lot of homework today (Friday) instead of playing on his computer and didn't complain when we took a special trip to the westside of Indy.  He tries to be helpful and encourage his siblings to do the right thing, even if it's the wrong timing or we feel he's overstepping his boundaries.  He counsels his classmates in their social relationships.  He's a leader and he knows it.  It's amazing to watch, albeit, frustrating at times, too. 

Jared likes to make the duplos into towers or pyramids to fit in the boxes better.  So, Abishai decided to use one as a mountain for his "white wing" (aka Lightning McQueen).  He even put a ramp up to it!

Lighning on a mountain!

Abishai built this himself!

Sweet creations!

Abishai is constantly on the move!

I pulled this off of a Twitter post from one of our weathermen.  How cool are those lights making a heart on on one of the buildings on the circle?  That's the lights that look like Christmas tree at Christmastime.  Love it!

The pot hole situation in our city.  Lots and lots of people complain about them, and yet, they occur every year.  I know it's a bad year because weather has been back and forth from above freezing and below freezing constantly but still, you live in Indiana, this is our weather, get over it.

Brand new bakery in Beech Grove has gluten free and sugar free pastries!  I can't wait to go visit!

I was telling the family about it, and I love Aaron's reply to the news of the bakery and Billy Graham's death.  He always has a way with the puns.

Now this was a great funny moment for us this week.  Keturah and I stopped by the library on the way home from her eye appointment (it was a check up and it went well, she doesn't need surgery).  I picked up and checked out Justin's book order but didn't realize until afterwards that it was in Spanish!!!!  Somehow he had ordered a Spanish book!  But there's no English version in the library catalogue, only an audiobook version I did order for him.  Crazy boy!

Since I had already checked it out of the library, we brought it home and said, "Here you go!"  And it took him a few minutes to realize he couldn't read it!  Lol!  So Grandma took it back to the library when she went to get her own books she ordered.

"I love my doggie!"

Abishai tried to lead Socks around with him today.

I don't know why, but I keep reposting others' comments about Billy Graham and a ton of music personalities also posted their own pictures with Billy Graham.  Michael W. Smith did play for many revivals and a relationship with Mr. Graham.

And so did this old band called DCTalk.  This picture was taken back in 1994 when their Jesus Freak album was at the top of the charts.  Sweet!

And here's Michael and DCTalk together with Billy Graham.  Pretty neat.

See this boy? He's super sneaky!  He kept dragging over the stools (which he hadn't touched for like 4 months!) to reach the pizza and ate off all the sausage and cheese!  I had to stand there and guard the pizza!  He is so stubburn, so bold, so tiring!

Then two days later, he climbs up on the other side of the counter, climbs up over the divider, and just sits there all cute looking at his book.  It's a good thing you're cute kid!

He also found his water cups and started playing with pouring the water into the different cups.  He got his foot and pants wet and immediately got down and took off his pants to change them.  So, at least we know he can do that part of going the bathroom by himself.

I thought this was a great post by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son.  It is a momentous thing when someone like this passes away.  Actually, Bill Graham was in our Classical Conversations memory work this week of all things.  What he did, his faith, his fervor was just as important to include as was the seven wonders of the ancient world, Christopher Columbus discovering the new world, the mound builders of Ohio, etc etc and of course the Creation of the world.  That's a pretty big personality and legacy to leave.

And then today, we had a fun field trip to make!  Yes, we scheduled a field trip to Tim's on the west side of Indianapolis!  We didn't do on our way to errands, it WAS THE errand!  We drove 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back just for coffee, hot chocolate, lemonade doughnuts and bagels.  And we were all incredibly excited about it!  I know I'm not the only one who has very fond memories of Canada and misses these kinds of little things.

There it is!  Tim Horton's!  I think we are getting a Tim's about 15-20 minutes north of us in Lawrence on E. 56th St., and Benaiah says he wants to work there when it opens, lol!

Wahoo!

It...was..worth..every..bit..of..pain..I'll..have..later!  Now, I won't make it a habit to get the doughnut because it affects my body for days.  But the coffee is a staple.  They actually made it with soy milk, so my tummy wasn't so offended by it!  It was a cafe mocha with whipped cream.  They don't have raspberry flavor, boo, but I might ask for the strawberry flavoring they put in the strawberry lemonade.

Prayertime for our sweets!

It's a bummer his eyes were closed, but he really wanted the sprinkle timbits!

Boston creme!

Strawberry shortcake!

Benaiah got his favorite strawberry lemonade and bagel! He said they don't have the same mixing skills here as they do in Canada for the drink.

Ah....I haven't seen this screen a long time!  Ok, I saw it on vacation, but now, it's within driving distance!  And it's still produced by Bell, which is a Canadian company! (At least I think so.)

Ah,...Timmy's!!!  It feels soooooo good to have a piece of Canada here!  The building structure looks different and Jared noticed that the indoor seating catered to two people sharing a coffee together.  There were no booths, no electric fire places, oh, and no ceramic plates and mugs!  I knew some things would be different.  Oh, and no "roll up to win!" either!

Doesn't this look so great in the van?  It's where it belongs!

We had fun with our little Tim Horton's field trip.  Keturah said that whenever we go to pick up a person from the airport, we need to go to Tim's instead of Steak and Shake on the way home.  Tim's is about 5-10 minutes north of the airport, which is the opposite direction that we need to go to get back home, but, if I'm driving, I might just do that!

Jared said this is the newest and biggest cargo airplane yet!  And it comes from Luxemburg!

Abishai entertained us at dinner tonight by stuffing himself into a box with his balls.

Little stinker!!

I wore my first Canada sweatshirt I got on our 2nd trip to Canada to look for housing (I had to fix the burn hole on it first though) and my PEI shirt to Tim's today.  Ah, it feels so comforting to put these things together.

I'm strange, I know, but Mr. Tim's cup (which I did throw away, I promise) had to take some selfies with his fellow Canadian memorabilia.

Ah, perfection.

And Michael W. Smith's 2nd album of the month came today, on it's release day!  It's a live worship album called "Surrounded" that he recorded "in the round" at Rocketown the Club in downtown Nashville, TN.  He wants to promote unity so he invited people of every race and ability to share in a special night of worship.  And yes, it's also signed as well.  Both signatures look real, and not printed.  And they didn't cost anymore than unsigned copies.

Last week Michael W. Smith did a live Q & A that I did watch live answering questions about "A Million Lights" album.  This week, he and Mr. Jim Daneker, his backup keyboardist and programmer whom I also love, kicked off the release of "Surrounded" by playing at the the new Bible Museum in Washington, D.C. and a fellow fan streamed it live on YouTube and Facebook, and a little bit on Instagram.  I got to catch a bunch of it, although the sound on YouTube had an echo.  But how cool that he got to play at the brand new Bible museum?  Lucky guy!  I hope to see them both in concert on May 4th.  Tickets aren't on sale yet, so fingers crossed that I get good seats.

Ah, music is so healing.  I've missed it so much.  I tried playing some today as we were getting breakfast, and Justin wanted to change it on me and then people started bickering and it was all too chaotic and loud.  I don't know how people listen to music while they are doing things and their kids are buzzing around.  Maybe I'm overly sensitive.  But, I am enjoying getting back into the music scene.  It's very helpful on my healing journey.  It brings me great joy, and I'm excited the boys are joining me on it.  Now, onto taxes and a full Sunday schedule.  Next week looks fairly open though.  Yeah! We love staying home!

Year 3: February 19th-20th, 2018: NCAA Hall of Champions

Monday, Monday.  It was a Monday.  Sort of.  Benaiah had the day off of school because it was Presidents' Day.  The local township schools typically have it off, too, but they needed to use it as a make up day.  That meant, that going to a local museum that purposefully had a "free admission" day to attract those families with nothing to do but had kids had home was actually not very busy.  The Children's Museum of Indianapolis was probably packed, but not the relatively small NCAA Hall of Champions Museum located near the Etiljorg and Indiana State Museums.  The NCAA museum has some great displays and information on collegiate sports, as well as a room for those honored in sports and some places to touch and feel some of the sports.  I'm sure it's a huge deal for those in the NCAA, but to us non sports folk, it's just a little museum full of little interesting things.  I just wanted to check it out because it's there and because well, March Madness is coming up, which was one my dad's favorite months of the year!  We always followed his school, UNC-Chapel Hill and cheered for them during the tournament.  I still do.  And it was a way to get out of the house on a rainy day.  And I got to take all 4 kids, which is a rare treat.

What isn't rare, because it's happening more frequently, is Abishai's 3 yr old temper trantrum, run away from you and scream self going crazy and becoming hard to handle.  I guess it had been a big weekend and it was one too many outings.  I didn't have high expectations of reading every sign so I didn't care if we had to exit quickly.  I think we spent maybe a little over 1 hr there.  You could probably stay that long or a bit longer if you were really interested and had lots of questions.  I think the kids did have fun.  They had some extra stations where you got to try some things run by former college athletes where you could get a card punched and earn a prize.  They were very, very gracious in giving everyone all the punches whether or not they did the activity, which I appreciated today.  The point of those kinds of "scavenger hunts" is to get you to explore all aspects of a place, but sometimes, that's impossible with a preschooler. Benaiah was a big help with him, chasing him he ran away.  We spent the rest of the day doing school, including Benaiah working on a diorama for English class involving hot glue and popsicle sticks.  Yippee!  (Or not in his case).

Tuesday was an at home day and it was 77 degrees F outside!!!!  So I made sure we spent a ton of time outside today.  It will cool off again tomorrow back to normal temps of 40's and 50's with tons of rain.  The kids spent 20 minutes outside this morning and then another 30-90 minutes late this afternoon.  It's hard to get the older ones to stay outside.  I measured our backyard so I can start walking and tracking it while Abishai is asleep.  I used to walk the backyard of our house in Beech Grove during naptime, too.  5 laps around the backyard is 0.5 miles.  Keturah and I also spent 40 minutes doing the winter dog poo clean up and now my back hurts from bending over.  But it's done.  Abishai was in and out with pj's or play clothes, shoes and no shoes, bike or no bike, and as happy as a preschooler can be to have so much freedom!  We did school of course, too.  The kids were grounded from electronics, so that helped us make the time to be outside.  I cut Keturah's lessons a bit short and whoops, forgot to go back over them tonight after supper like I had planned to.  She won't be able to do them until later tomorrow anyways because of gymnastics and an eye doctor follow up.

Meanwhile, the boys went to school and did their thing.  While the truck spent the day in one repair shop and is now at another repair shop getting fixed for a big sum of money. Great.  Not.  Not sure how that's going to fit into the budget, but oh well, here goes.  Oh, the start of the day was worse.  Way worse.  Abishai woke up and was in my room about 5 am.  Benaiah thinks it was when he got up at 6, but I think it was 4:50 am.  Abishai was restless in our bed and the dog was clickety clacking around so I let him out and back in and tried to lay down in the fireside room.  Well, the dog wouldn't settle AT ALL.  So I tried moving to the living room couch and that still didn't work.  Finally, I put the dog outside.  Then Benaiah came out of his room and flicked on the light!  I was so mad.  And by this point I couldn't get back to sleep.  Finally, Jared got up with Abishai and got him some breakfast and kept him entertained for a while and I finally fell back asleep for a little bit.  Jared brought in the dog and put him in the garage to keep him quiet for a bit, too.  Thankfully, I managed to move on and we had a great day, but it was a super frustrating way to start the day.  I'm not sleeping as deeply because I lowered the dosages of one of my meds that has the side effect of sleepiness.  It's for restless legs and yes, I can feel the restless legs again.  I just want to try and treat it a different way. And if not, back on the medication I go again for awhile before I'm ready to try to get off again.  My whole body feels off again, although I'm trying to stay strict on what I consume.  I just want to eat everything that everybody else can but I know if I do, I'll feel even worse.  And to add lack of sleep due to outside factors (and not my own stupidity of staying up too late) doesn't help.  But again the day redeemed itself and I'm very grateful for it.

Replicas of a basketball, peach basket, and handwritten basketball game rules from the 1800's.

Hall of Fame for extraordinary athletes that exhibit not only athletic skills but sportsmanship and leadership.  There's actually not that many here.  It's a very select list.

You could look up your school on this neat touch screen on a clear glass panel (pretty futuristic/movie looking) and find out if any of your athletes are here.  Well, there was one lady from UNC Chapel Hill up there from tennis.  So that's neat!

Gymnastics!

Two types of downline skis and one type of cross country ski.

Sorry, buddy, you can't play with these balls!  But I did learn that the basketball for ladies is a bit smaller than for the men's because they have smaller hands.  They play on the same size court though.

Men's and women's hurdles.  And Justin pretending to jump them.

The current champions from 2017.  I saw the University of Florida Gators three times!  Jared worked near there for about 3 months in 2006.  There was even a Wesleyan school up there.  Men's and women's sports of all kinds.

Go Tarheels!

I didn't get to read a lot about this statue but it looks cool!

The kids got to practice their free shows!  There were banners everywhere for all kinds of sports, too.

Justin made about half of his baskets!  Maybe we should get him back into basketball!  He's got the huge hands for it!  And nimbleness when he wants to be.  And he certainly is growing taller!

My camera was on the wrong setting so a lot of these pictures are darker than I want them to be.  But Justin did a great job with the ball!

The tennis balls were coming at you at 86 mph like a college athlete's serve would be.  And it was coming at you randomly so it scared us when it hit the plexiglass.

Three types of swords for fencing.  You could lift them up (but not out) to see how each one felt differently.  When we told Jared at supper he knew exactly what their names were.  Of course he knew that.  He knows everything, lol!

Justin trying on a fencing mask.

Then Justin and Keturah tried out their vertical jumps.  Justin's was a 12 1/2 inch jump!

Keturah had a 10 in jump!  You hit the pegs that swung out and that's how you could tell how tall your jump was.

This is a ski training machine.  Justin couldn't get it to move though.

Benaiah got it to move, but it was difficult.

Nice display of equipment and the different balls or pucks or discs in the different sports.  They also had a huge rowing boat hanging from the ceiling.

Running blocks.

Pool block for swimmers.  We won't supposed to jump off of it, but it kept little man entertained for awhile.

The differences in a hockey net and a soccer net.

And field hockey (?) net and a water polo net.

Soccer training, except Abishai wanted to throw the ball at the screen.  He did kick it too, though.  And then I tried to strap him into his stroller, which he promptly got out of.  There's no holding back this crazy kid!

The kids sat and played this trivia game for awhile.

Pole vaulting and javelin throwing.  Humongous!

Back at home, Abishai randomly pressed batteries to his cheek.  I guess he really is the Energizer Bunny now.

Yeah!  We went outside!  In our jammies and trike with a "grocery bag" for cars on front.

Cutie!

We borrowed a car from the parents, so Jared walked home.  Abishai is very good about not going into the street without permission, but of course he had to go get Daddy.

Daddy's turn with the new RC car.

77 degrees calls for things to start growing.

Very, very tired little guy hanging with his favorite person.

Cute boy showing off his new jammies from Grandma and Grandpa.

Oh goodness, this is a story!  So Abishai comes into my room saying "my motorcycle is down there" and pointing to under the house!  I was very confused and then thought, "did he get it down one of the open vents by accident?"  Nope, he had it "down there" at the bottom of the toy garage elevator.  Ok, then, you scared me for a few minutes!

Cutest little basketball player!  You have to remember that he was learning to crawl and walk when Justin took basketball on PEI.  We were there for most weekly practices, so Abishai got used to the court.  Plus, it's Indiana.  There's a lot of basketball going on here.

Outside the Hall of Champions facing east across the canal.

NCAA Hall of Champions

Downtown facing east.

I let little man outside first.  I found him like this picking off the bark from a piece of tree trunk.  #outdoorboy

They were so happy to be outside!  I'm not joking!  And Benaiah's classmates petitioned one of their teachers to take their class outside today.

So sweet!

Justin's idea!  He put one of his t-shirts on Abishai so they could pretend to have spikes on their backs like a stegosaurus using balloons!  Oh my goodness, we couldn't stop laughing!  Abishai totally looks like a hunchback.  But he hammed it up and roared and bounced into Justin and had a blast!

We didn't need the coupon, but it gives you more information of where I got the idea from.

Another random moment.  I was outside walking, Abishai had woken up, so the kids entertained him with this random thought of putting the balls in the bathtub.  I believe we did this at the condo.  They did put towels down inside the tub first to absorb any water.  Innovative kids!

Gorgeous day!

Abishai can now push the big tire wing a bit and LEAP onto the swing while it's moving!  He's 3!  Not 13!  Dude, slow down!

The kids and I finally finished this book!  It was SOOOOOOO good!  It's based on Bible stories from Isaiah through when Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt with baby Jesus.  It includes a lot of Scripture and a very interesting storyline where these talking immortal animals help to carry out the Masters' plan.  I love reading adapatation of the Bible stories that keep me asking "hm, I wonder if they really thought like that?  How scared was Mary?  What was Isaiah doing and thinking when he wrote that?"  Of course, that stuff is speculation, but it helps to put the truth into perspective especially when you know the stories well.

It was very, very thick and took us months to read aloud together.  There's a couple of prequels to this one and several books after.  I just ordered the next book, which is Jesus' life through the first part of Acts, as seen by Handel's eyes when he was writing the Passion.  I read a book from Mary's perspective once that totally changed how I saw who Jesus was during his growing up years and when he was called and how he might have interacted with his family prior to ministry.  I can't wait for the next one!