Year 3, June 26th-28th, 2018: Errands and More Errands

I'm so over going shopping! Not really, but Benaiah, Keturah, Abishai and I spent an afternoon yesterday and an evening tonight shopping.  Toys R Us is going out of business, and we've waited and waited for the last couple of months, watching the discounts get deeper and deeper.  Well, the "last call" was sounded so we went! We went to a store that was actually closing that very day and it was so surreal because we did that with the Target in Canada as well when it closed.  And boy did we ever get some great discounts!  $700 worth for $165! Now, did we really need all of it? Probably not, but we had planned on doing this.  I was hoping to save it for Christmas, but of course everyone wanted to open their stuff right away.  Oh well.  Side note: one of the craft kits Keturah bought that she had had her eye on for over a year didn't work well.  Definitely not worth the full price.  And a booklet was missing from another kit.  Kind of sad that someone would steal something like that, but that's life.  We also bought sneakers and sandals for Keturah at another store, and I bought shoes the next day at a different location, last minute, but I had looked at these shoes for about 1 1/2 months.  Buy one, get one half off sale for the win! I also had to bring the kiddos to my appointment again today because the other 3 adults were at the North American Christian Convention, this year being held in downtown Indy.  It was a quieter start of the week, but the next 4 days will be chock full of convention, warbirds, weddings, and church.  Oh, and Justin is finally home for good!  What else?  Abishai went pee in the potty on demand 4 times today! Two big poop accidents on the floor.  But he had a dry pull up even after we had been out! That's progress.  We are using pull ups and underwear now and he can pull down and up the underwear by himself because they are very loose.  I keep chipping away at projects, today being taking care of the clothes sorting in my room which has been out of control.  It's not completely done, but it's much more functional.

Yup, that's about it.  Time to load pictures, journal, and bedtime because I'm going with the men tomorrow to enjoy date "night" and see John Crist (new favorite Christian comedian) and Bo Chancey (lead servant of Manchester Christian Church where I grew up).  I'm not sure what the rest of the day will look like, but I'll take pictures.  Leah will have the kids all day, including taking Benaiah to work.  He can now cook just about anything, except maybe assemble salads and bread the chicken.  But he can cook the chicken.  Yeah!  He gets his first paycheck next week.  I'm sure it will shock him how much they take out for taxes and such.  We've got to get going on lots of his stuff like SAT/ACT/PSAT tests, enrolling at a college for dual credit classes, getting his drivers' permit done, etc.  I'm glad we have a 3 yr gap between the older 3 because it's alot to do in these last few years at home.  And the year is now half over!  That's even crazier!  Ok, now here are some pics.

This is the last year that the conference will be one big national conference.  They are going to try and split it up into regions so that more people can attend.  It's a family oriented conference for all Christians, but most people come from our "denomination" of independent Christian churches. Lots of great speakers, worship, tons of vendors (and I personally know at least dozen of them), and such.  It was at this conference 8 years ago that we met the president of Maritime Christian College, Fred Young, and started our journey to PEI.  And the conference was here in Indy that year.  It typically goes to about 3 or 4 different cities.  I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Another massive summer storm front.  It develops so quickly, but it's also easy to see on radar out here in the midwest.  At least we don't have to water the trees!

Yes, 40 mph winds, no hail, but tons of rain.  And then poof! It was done and we went shopping.

Couldn't see out the windows because the rain was coming down so fast and hard!

I bought two of these to start with, but Abishai wanted all four.  So, I went back in and got two more thinking I would save them for Christmas.  Well, he saw them and although Jared did hide them, Abishai asked for them multiple times today.  They were $40 original price but we paid $8 each.

When a store goes out of business, they also sell off their business supplies!  We just scored a Christmas tree for $15!  I don't know how big it is, but for $15, it's worth the risk!

Envelopes for Jared's office for mailings. $5 for the box.  Brochure and sign holders, again $5 for a big boxful.  I plan to split that up and give some to other direct sales friends.  There were some storage drawers but they were filthy and I didn't want to have to clean up.  They had lots of cribs left, too.

All of this for $165!

And this, too!

The employees were super nice and a manager was taking pictures.  They encouraged us to take pictures with Geoffrey the giraffe one last time.

Yes, I'll always be a Toys R Us kid.  My parents used to put toys on layaway at our Toys R Us near the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester, NH.  It's very sad that they decided to close nationwide.  But I don't think they can compete with the Walmarts and Amazons.  Their prices were always high, but their selection was incredible.  I've been in and out of their stores often with the kids, even to buy maternity wear and pick out baby clothes for Keturah.  Sigh.  The end of an era.  One employee came over to the cashier and she was talking to him about just thinking it was another day to work and do your best, and yes it's sad, but let's do this well.  I think he may have had a bit of a disability like austism or something by the way she was handling him.  I thought it was super sweet and loving.

We filled the backseat!

Then we dashed off for shoe shopping for Keturah who literally had no sandals or sneakers.  But I also have been looking to update my shoes and be more in style.  Here's a pair I like!  I like the strappy sandal look but don't like an open toed shoe, so these were an option.  I didn't buy them though.

Cute, right? $30 so I didn't go for these.

Science kits for school and Keturah's loot.  Keturah paid for some of it out of her pocket.

Justin and Benaiah.

Benaiah and Abishai's stuff.  Benaiah paid for the hockey table.  Abishai couldn't wait until I opened his trucks.  But they are cheaply made, in fact, I think most toys are cheaply made with thinner, breakable plastic than they've ever been made.  These RC toys don't have a lot of features and they retail for $30-40.  That's nuts!  We paid about $8 each.

He loves them!  I just hope they don't break too soon!

Oooo, she had had her eye on the Wonder Woman invisible jet for a good 6 months or more.  I'm glad she could find one and buy it for cheap!  It does hold both dolls, including her Supergirl doll.  What fun!

I'm in a quandary because Keturah is almost the size I was at her age and I still have some clothes I've been saving since then.  So, do I put them aside for her for the next two years?  Sure, and then we'll have a jumpstart on her wardrobe including shorts that are long enough because I always made sure that they were long enough to be modest.  Here Keturah is wearing a dress my mom made and I wore in my "senior pictures" done at Sears.  It almost fits her!

The label says "Melinda's Miscellaneous" which is one of the names my mom gave her sewing businesses.  Country Quiltworks is the one she used most often and most recently.  It's awesome having these sweet reminders of the work my mom did.

My mom made all these dresses for me and I wore them a ton!  They are mostly plain cotton, so they don't stretch and I'll never be able to wear them again, But, give Keturah a year or two and they will be perfect!  I hope she grows into wanting to wear them.  The green dress I wore when I went Col. Oliver North and about a dozen other political candidates one evening in 1995/1996.  I was wearing the dress when a local leader of a Christian organization was signing something for me and our picture got it in the newspaper the next day.  Pretty cool!

My outfit for tmorrow, sort of.  Working on sophistication.  I bought new shoes to go with the blue.

Still got some stuff to purge.  The boxes are my personally crafting supplies.  It's the clothes on top that I need to go through like tank tops and dresses.  But at least we can walk and I can open the drawers to my dresser.  A step in the right direction.

I also bought these because they will go with all the dresses I will keep and it's very comfy!

Oh, Abishai, ye who won't go to bed with Daddy home.  Will you go get the mail please?  Yes, in your "candy cane" pj's.  And yes, he did reach the mail pretty well.

This gem was on my Facebook flashback timeline.  That's Justin and Keturah at the very hot, sticky Thomas the Tank Engine event at the train station we recently visited.  Abishai just wore that outfit for 3 days in a row.  Don't you think they look somewhat alike?  Hm,,....

Year 3: June 23rd-25th, 2018: Mood

It's a term that is used on Instagram, "Mood." I think it stands for when someone's in a mood or the situation as a certain vibe to it.  Not sure, but in any case, I've been in a mood, so the title fits.  Not sure what else to say at the moment, so I'll start with some pictures.

Saturday: It was putter around the house until it was time to drop Benaiah off at work and pick up Justin from the airport.  We spent the evening at home.

You never know what kinds of things are happening downtown.  I happen to follow this fitness expert/motivational speaker from California and she happened to come to Indy this past weekend as part of this Beachbody convention or whatever.    She doesn't seem to travel to too many cities, so it was pretty neat for her to be here. 

But check this out! 20,000 people all working out at the same time for 2 hrs at 6 am in downtown Indianapolis!  Crazy! 

The Texan travelers are almost home!

Jared parked on the roof of the garage so we could see these clouds and stay away from other people scratching our car doors when they opened theirs.

Wow!  That's cool!  You scan the square thing and it will take you somewhere on the internet to help you remember where you parked. Great use of those square things!

This is also pretty neat.  The airport had free airport for travelers on our way in (or out) of the terminal.  We didn't take any, but what a kind gesture.  KIND, btw, is the international abbreviation for the Indianapolis International Airport, and IND is the national abbreviation. They are using that word/logo to describe an updated airport.  The airport terminal is maybe 8 years old, but I guess it's never too soon to start giving it facelifts.

The blue turns to red when you walk under them.  Abishai loved that!

There's also something fun to see at the airport!  Paris!

You can charge your phone by creating electricity when you pedal a stationary bike!  It was difficult because my legs are short, but it worked.

I like to go early to the airport so we can watch the comings and goings of people and planes.  When you have little people, it's not all about efficiency or get in/get out.  We did get to see many cool things while we waited!

Like watching this huge FedEx plane land!

Abishai's favorite downtown!

Grandpa, Grandma, and Justin's airplane!

They had to fly north of the city and make a huge loop in order to land going south.

Waiting for Justin to arrive.  It always seems like it takes forever for the plane to land, turn around and park, let the people off and THEN they walk down the terminal to the exit.

One of our favorite things to do at the airport, hand on the railing.

There's big brother!  Except, Abishai completely ran past him to Grandpa!

The crew!  I love our airport and how open and easy it is.  And you see that sign down there that says, "Welcome, coaches?" That's for the Beach Body event that happened this weekend.

Benaiah received his "chef's coat" this weekend.  It's vented at the sides and back.  We stopped at Chick-Fil-A on the way home from the airport because it was lunch time.  He was just about to start his shift.  I wasn't sure if we'd be back in time, so that's why we dropped him off earlier.

Look at the size of our purple daisies!  I have small hands, but still.  Humongous!

They are really tall, too, and the bees and butterflies love them.

Abishai is glad to have his Lego buddy back.

I think Justin really missed his Legos.  He does still play with them every day.

It's a family affair!  Snuggle time for Abishai and the dog.  I think they both missed Justin a lot!

 Sunday:

Tried a new hairstyle by wrapping some hair around the pony tail as the hair "elastic" and then securing with Lilla Rose u-pins.  It only held up for 4 hrs, which is not surprising because my hair is so slick.  It was pretty tight though.  I'll have to try it again.

Getting way too big for the rocking horse.

Abishai took some of his cars and trucks outside at Grandpa's house to play in the rocks.  He's obsessed with moving rocks lately.  The garbage truck needs to unpack the rocks that the other trucks put in it.  Abishai pulled Grandpa and Daddy outside to see it, too.

Monday:

Running around the backyard on a gorgeous 80 degree day with his dog.

I saw this cool homemade bubble maker experiment on Instagram, so I thought we would give it a try.  You put a sock on the end of a bottle that has it's bottom  cut off, and you secure the sock with a rubber band.  You dip the socked end into bubble solution and then blow from the smaller end.  The bubbles then come out in small chunks because of the little holes in the sock.  Pretty nifty!

Bubbles!

Helping Daddy water the trees!

It was a beautiful day, so I did my little exercises with the door open.  That way Abishai could go in and out as well.  I tried encouraging the kids to be outside all day, but they are not very motivated.  I want to get them so big ticket items, but in the meantime, I know that kids can come up with their own games and things on their own.  I know I did, and I grew up with a computer and TV in my house with similar restrictions, 1 hr a day on each because we had to share.  There are days that are very hot, so I don't push it as hard, but today was a perfect day to be outside.  I did go outside with them and we did take a walk later with Daddy, but my main projects of the year are inside, not outside.  I did work on a box near the door while Abishai was playing in the dirt though.  I don't remember my mom ever coming outside with me to play.  I just went outside on my own.  I read, I rollerbladed, I walked the dogs, we went to the nearby playground when I was a teenager (it was a bit too far when I was younger to go alone), I "tanned" and read a book and dragged my boombox outside with extension cords.  I guess I had the horses to take care of, too, at least when I was in high school, so that kept me busy.  We had a slip and slide and metal swing set.  A volleyball net at one point.  That's about it.  Sigh.  We bought a house with a huge yard and I want them to go and use it!  Why is that so difficult to grasp?

Well, at least this one still gets it.  Daddy dumped some potting soil on the back flower beds (not sure if they are staying flower beds or need to be turned back into grassy areas after till up the packed dirt).  It makes a perfect dirt pile for little man and his toys.

Boy child got up at 1 pm again, and it kind of makes me mad because I go to bed at the same time he does, and he needed to mow.  And he only ate three different carbs for breakfast, no fruit, vegetable or protein in sight.  He's having a very laid back summer compared to last year, and it's of my opinion that he should be working 40 hrs a week so he can afford all the things he wants.  That means, he should be doing yard work along with Chick Fil A, which only gives him 15 hrs a week. I think he's going to be shocked at how little he's earning compared to last year.  School's been out for over a month and he's earned almost nothing.  I don't like it when people eat the "bread of idleness" myself included.  I push myself as hard as I can but there's a fine line between idleness and having to rest because of things like fibromyalgia.  But considering a stay at home mom wears many, many hats like "preschool director" and a person working as a "preschool director" outside the home only has to focus on that job and not expected to do house projects and daily do's (houses stay clean when you are gone all day so there's less to do at home, in my opinion) at the same time, I could say I do plenty enough and have earned my phone app game time and social media browsing throughout the day.  Rest and work, work and rest.  Not hours upon hours of resting.

When you are tired of preschoolers changing their videos on YouTube by themselves and ending up on toy ads and reveals or a show in a foreign language that you aren't sure of the content, you take the controllers and remote into the bathroom so you can shower.  Also, after having 4 major accidents through his underwear, not even attempting to go the bathroom, I had to put him in a diaper so he wouldn't have an accident while I showered.  It's so counter intuitive but Mommy was on the edge of losing it.  I've been pretty good at staying calm and trying to stay on top of it, but enough is enough.  I needed a break!

Huge monarch butterfly on our flowers!  It makes me wonder why we try to groom our flower beds instead of just letting nature take it's course.  Yes, I don't want our house to stand out among the neighbors' very nice looking front lawns, but at the same time, it's such a low priority on my list because weeds just grow back.  We keep the grass mowed, but don't treat it because we don't have the money, so it still looks straggly compared to others.  But I guess it's all worth it when we're the ones with bunnies, squirrels, birds, butterflies, and bees in our yard.

Gorgeous!  Monarchs used to be (maybe they still are) my favorite butterfly.  Did you know, it's the state insect of New Hampshire?  Yes, it is!

Still fits in Daddy's lap like an infant.

Abishai knew that Grandpa usually leaves his water hose on and went immediately over to it and turned on the sprayer to water the plants.  We had taken a walk over to Grandpa's house because it was so nice out.  These days are hard to come by in the summer when it's sometimes brutally hot.

Ready to race.

Doggy came with us, too.  But Grandpa and Grandma weren't home because, come to find out, they had gone to Benaiah's school because he was giving the chapel message at summer chapel.  The school wanted to do a few chapels over the summer so that the kids would stay connected to one another and the new kids could get used to the old kids.  I dropped him off at the school on my way to my appointment and didn't even think that one of us should be there to here him.  Oh well.  At least traffic was heavy but not horrible on a route that can be stop and go traffic at 5 pm.

We didn't let Abishai bring his bike this time because we usually have to carry it home.  He cried almost the whole time on our walk over there, only stopping when he realized he could ride the scooter there.  But he had to leave the scooter, so on the way home he helped walk the dog home for a bit and then spent the rest of the time "up head" on Jared's head.  Jared got him up there using just one arm and Abishai knew where to place his feet to twist around and sit down.  It was one fluid motion!  And Abishai wasn't hesitant at all at being flung up there.

Abishai is playing a lot of hide and seek games lately.  I chased him around the yard for a bit when we got back from our walk.

More rocks!

Jared cut down the last branch of the big bush.  He had left it there as an experiment to see if it would regrow. I guess he decided he was done with the experiment.  It kept it's leaves and everything, but I'm not sure if the experiment did what Jared wanted it to or not.

Let me out! Let me out of jail!

He did need help, but I'll always be afraid of his uncanny ability to get through any barricade we put up.  He's always pushing the boundaries and escaping and thinks it's a hoot when he does.  Ugh.

He is now tall enough and brave enough to grab one branch, swing for a second, let go, and then go to another branch, grab it, swing, let go.  He went all around the bottom of the pine tree hanging off 7 or so branches in turn.  Little monkey.

Then the monkey ran up the culvert, tripped and fell, and skinned his knee.  Owie!  This is his scraped up knee after it was cleaned up.  Play hard, get bruises, heal up, then repeat.

Doin' his preachin' thing.

When she isn't on electronics, or wandering the house looking bored, she does like to color and craft.  She's coloring in the sheets to her sticker maker kit so it's easier to know where to put the colors.

Typical pose.  Leappads are educational, but they are still electronics and shouldn't be overused.  This one, however, doesn't connect to the internet without first connecting to my computer so it's a ton safer to use apps on it.

Lots of randomness, but that's what life is like sometimes, especially when Mommy is tired and her brain can't form full thoughts.