Year 4, November 22nd-24th, 2019: Can't Catch A Break! Or Did We?

I'm putting this first because it was the best part of the whole weekend. He knew it perfectly several hours after learning it at church.  I had zero to do with this.  Way to go Kidustrial Park Leaders!:

Ok, ok, it's not THAT bad. But it's been a bad week sleep wise.  This whole thing of Abishai sleeping in the fireside room thing isn't working.  Against my better judgment, he slept in a short sleeve pj top and ended up in our room by 6:15 because he was cold.  But of course he didn't want to sleep. He wanted to roll around, talk, and ask for breakfast.  I did get up eventually because I was hoping to go to go get my blood drawn for labs today.  Well, on that note, it's a good thing I called first because yes, I did have to make an appointment at this particular clinic.  It's usually the next day, so I'll go first thing on Monday since it's a lab where you have to fast first and you want your lowest cortisol and blood sugar levels possible. I was generally annoyed and felt unable to accomplish much so I ended up texting Jared, "Would you like an office buddy?" after telling him my multiple woes of the morning.  And he said yes! He usually says no because Friday is his most productive day. So, Abishai packed himself up and spent the whole afternoon at Daddy's office playing cars and running around the office.  I'm sure he had some screen time in there as well. That way, I could come home and nap and boy, did I nap! 90 minutes at least! I woke up a new woman!

Meanwhile, Justin went to Grandpa's house to hang Christmas lights outside and Keturah finished her work and had her screen time. I managed to do laundry, put away dishes, take a shower, clean the bathtub and the toilets. Oh, and when I did get up this afternoon, I watched some of the videos Justin is watching for school and cleaned up some of my email that was waiting for a quiet environment to listen to or read more thoroughly. Benaiah is gone today and tomorrow to Anderson to help set up sound/lights for a conference.  We were supposed to watch Carter, but he got a contagious mouth sore.  We were very bummed, and so was his mom who wanted to be at her daughter's school program. I looked up the diagnosis and it definitely was pretty contagious and nasty and we both agreed that we didn't need to spread it to my family, especially when I already have open wounds from the biopsies still. I love helping other moms and I typically let head colds and coughs slide, but not when it's something highly contagious and hard to get rid of. Bummers for all of us.  But at least I got my nap in!

And that's about it.  We are taking next week off of school so we can start the Christmas decorating since Jared and Benaiah are both also off from school.  Then it's to Michigan for Thanksgiving. Normal weekend ahead.

Ooooooo, the way they've been wording things this week it sounded like this was going to be the end of the tour, but.....he said with a sly smile at the very end, that perhaps they can do some more dates in the spring!  I've been praying for this because I should have made the effort to go this fall.What kind of fan am I who doesn't see the one show that has music from all the records in it? But all the dates were 4 plus hrs away. Even if the tour dates are 3 hrs away, I'm finding a buddy and I'm going. That's it. No regrets. I've been pretty jealous since the tour kicked off, so I bought tickets to the Christmas show of his and Amy Grant's here in town in a week and a half, last minute. I have seen the Christmas twice, once a long time ago, and the last time I met him and that one was with Amy Grant and I met her, too. Anyway, yes, time for Smitty fun!

Uh, yup, this kid is an organizer. He took his two packages of fruit snacks and arranged them by color because he wanted to see how many there were of each color. Type A personality? Type 1 or Type 3 on the Enneagram? Who knows, but he's got some definite particular behaviors.

This guy, our nephew Auggie (Augstin), turned 9 today!  He doesn't quite look 9 to me, but he is 9 because one of the last things my sister told my mom before she died was that she was pregnant.  My mom died in 2010. Also, he was born a day before my Mom's birthday, which is tomorrow, Nov. 23rd, so it's easy to remember his birthday!  Happy 9th birthday, Auggie!

"Mom, take a picture of this!" Uh, I thought he had a leg over the fence.  Nope, he's just stretching out his pants.  Why? Who knows!

When I told him he was going to Daddy's office, it took him less than 5 minutes to get ready.  And I made him change out of his pjs.  He just put on what was still left on his floor from Sunday.  Whoops. I was just going to hang them back up anyway because they weren't dirty. He's got a gun, cars, water, snacks, and a warm hat.  He's good to go!

I find this ironic that Facebook suggested that I'm a "conversation starter" in a the Michael W. Smith fan group! When I scrolled through, I did have a lot of posts in the last few months compared to others. And I did get some interaction on those posts. I wish that happened in a lot of other places on Facebook or Instagram. Plus, I'm really only a conversation starter online. I have the worst time trying to start a conversation in real life. Once I get going, depending on the topic, I'm fine, so feel free to start a conversation with me anytime. This cracks me up though!

Yes, indeed, I put my heater under my desk sometimes when I'm really cold and crank it up to 90 degrees F so it will keep running for awhile. It's like sitting really close to a fire. And then after a while I do move it down to beside me and keep it at 80 degrees.  I find that having a constant flow of heat is better than it turning on and off when I'm sitting at my computer in the sunroom. It's set at 75 during the day to take the edge off when we are in and out of the room. I took the picture to show my inlwas and sister in law because Shauna had shared a picture of a fake fireplace channel on Netflix saying that they have the ambiance but they had to turn the air conditioner back on today because it got up to 78 degrees! That's 40 degrees warmer than we were today! I don't like to be cold, but I need the 4 seasons in my life! No thank you! We keep the house at 71 when Jared is home and 73 when he's not.  If my nose and fingers are cold, despite wearing multiple layers and moving around a bit, than it's too cold for me. End of story. I can only wear two layers of clothing (long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt) in the house before they become a hindrance to moving and too "heavy" for my muscles and restrictive, so my muscles have to work harder. I'll bundle up if I'm outside in the winter, but I don't move that much when I'm out there and it's usually for only a few minutes or hrs at most. It's a bit of sensory thing, and yes, a neurological issue with my extremities. I don't like cold feet either so I wear socks and slippers, too.  It's my space. I'll keep it as warm as I want to. It's a "luxury" to keep it the thermostat that high, but I both live and work here 90% of the time. If we were gone more, I would turn it down more. I do freeze when I'm at church or Gary and Leah's house (it's only 67 degrees over there). Anyway, it works for me!

Ok, time for some Saturday fun.  First of all, the internet is really slow today because it's Saturday and it's rainy so everyone in the neighborhood is online I suspect.  I checked my computer and I have plenty of drive space. Oh well. It forces us to not use our devices. I left early on in the day to go to my counseling.  Today was the only time she could get in their south office this week. Otherwise, she's now working mostly out of their new north office which is closer to her house I'm sure. It's a 40 minutes drive to he north side one on a good day, never mind the ridiculous traffic up there, so I politely declined going up there.  Anyway, after counseling, I went Christmas shopping!  We needed a few things from Meijer that we can't get at Aldi's anyway, and since I didn't have kids, it was a perfect time to pick up the majority of things.  I had some ideas in mind, but for Keturah especially, I didn't have a clue.  So I took my time and browsed all the toy aisles and came up with some decent solutions. Then whatever I couldn't get there, I got on Amazon. I picked up the necessary gift cards as well. So, all six of us are done except for maybe a little more sorting out for the stockings.  The traditional Howell Christmas candy has been bought (except I forgot Life Savers book! Whoops!) I couldn't find any special treats for Socks either.  Now, Aaron and Shauna are pretty much the only ones I don't have a clue for. I've got a couple of things for Gary and Leah and my siblings. Then I bought some grocery items like the special brand Scharr bread that I looked for at the other Meijer and couldn't find!  But I knew kind of wear the gluten free stuff was at our Meijer and boom, there they were! Soft rolls here I come! So, all in all it was a great shopping trip.  I have to go back out tomorrow if I want to use a coupon at a different store for some white elephant exchange gifts, but if I don't, it's ok, too.  Oh, and no Christmas shopping trip would be complete without a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks made with almond milk!  That very large gift card is coming in handy! I did have a McDonald's mocha the other day and it's not as sweet as Starbucks. But I was a little disappointed again in the temperature of the drink. It was actually drinkable right then and there. I'd like it to be a little warmer than that to start, especially on a cold and wet rainy day. I'll have to ask next time.  At least the staff were fast and friendly.

Keturah and Justin helped me unload the car and I was honest with them and said that I had to rearrange the bags a bit because there were Christmas gifts, so look away, and they did! I've hidden gifts in multiple spots in all kinds of different plastic bags and the kids are so clueless that they haven't found any.  Or, in Keturah's case, she spends all day in her bed.  Oh, the poor thing!  She took off her cast for a shower and left it off for awhile so the indents in her arm would go away.  She was cleaning her room and forgot about her arm and used her left hand to get up and really hurt herself! It took a bit of time for her arm to calm down again, and then put the cast back on.  Lesson learned for both of us, because I was trying to be lenient and let her arm breathe. Whoops. I'm sure she didn't do any more damage because it was a slight movement, but eek!

Someone gave Gary and Leah some regular sized turkeys and since I don't have room in my fridge for it, I let it thaw in a pan in the garage overnight and cooked it up today, along with mashed potatoes, salad, frozen veggies, leftover sweet potatoes, and canned jellied cranberry sauce.  Abishai thought the cranberry sauce was jello and asked for some but then didn't take a second bite because it wasn't sweet enough. Whoops!  Poor guy!  I could have made stuffing, but that's ok.  Too many carbs overall and I'm stuffed! Oh, and there was leftover cabbage Jared and made in the morning, as well as bacon and bacon grease we added to the potatoes. We also basted the turkey with bacon grease.  Yum! That means, by next weekend, we will have had 4 turkey dinners!  One for Leah's birthday last Tuesday.  One today and tomorrow (leftovers after church).  One with the Cook family on Thursday.  And then one with the Johnson family in Muskegon on Friday.  This will be the first time we are going from Lansing to Muskegon in the same trip.  But I'm excited because we finally get to see cousins RJ and Eric, Donna's brothers!  We haven't seen them in 10 years! It's kind of a last minute road trip, but it's worth it.  I'll manage. We don't have anything going on here for this holiday and not much for Christmas either. Nice and quiet compared to last year when Shauna and the girls were up spending time with Shauna's mom.  Oh well, yeah. I remember them having a turkey dinner meal together in the hospital complete with decorations and a few days later, Nancy gave the girls their Christmas presents early.  Then she passed away about a week later. Oh well, I hope Shauna's doing ok.

I almost teared up today myself because today would have been my Mom's 70th birthday. Of course I got her favorite Christmas cherry cordial chocolates (I buy the dark ones now but she liked the milk chocolate ones, and now there are ones with coconut, too!) with the rest of the Howell candy traditions.  I didn't even care about the price that much.  It's a Howell tradition and since I don't have to buy gifts for my parents, it's just a way to remember that specific tradition.  In fact, I need to go clean out the Christmas tree jar from candy I think that is two or even three years old! Whoops! Not having my family around during the holidays is a blessing and a curse at the same time. It's a blessing that we don't have to worry about planning things together and making it all work out, but it's a curse because it does feel like something's missing and I do feel the loneliness. So although this is the first Thanksgiving without her mom but the second Christmas without her mom, I'm sure Shauna has a lot of mixed emotions this year. I know they had a quiet Christmas last year because they had just gotten home from here. And now Shauna has had a whole to process not only her Mom's death, but her own cancer, and I'm sure she's still recovering from that.  That's why I did go ahead and make plans for us to go down to New Orleans over Christmas break.  We haven't seen them since July and I want to see for myself how Shauna is doing.  They are driving up to TN to be with one of her sisters before Christmas, so that will be good and not dramatic since it's the sister she gets along with. Lots to think about and pray about as we go through this season.

Anywho, Jared built a fire today because I asked for it, so I diligently sat in the fireside room with him this afternoon and got my two sewing repairs done.  One was a 5 minute simple seam fix on a sweater, but the other one was much more complicated.  I didn't take pictures though.  It was the horse from an '80s TV show called Rainbow Brite, so the horse belongs to me. Well, they used some interesting fabric and plastic discs to make the hooves and the plastic discs had worn though the fabric. Keturah and I both think we threw away the one disc that was fully missing, which is a bummer.  But I'm afraid the fabric is the kind that sort of rots over time, and I fear it's just going to rip through the stitches again. I managed to get all the stuffing back inside the leg, which took me a long while, and sew it back up ok.  But I took my time on the stitches since it can't be replaced.  Then I actually took some super glue and glued all the stitching around the hooves, my stitches and the original stitching, just to secure it even more.  My stitching, no matter what type of stitch I use, seems to come undone over time.  I'm definitely not the sewer that my mom was, but I try. I even got to use a new color from the little spools of thread she gave me in my first sewing kit 25 or so years ago. She would be proud of Benaiah though because he was one of two people who could sew on a button in his Adulting class at school last week.  He was quite proud of that fact. My dad knew how to sew buttons and basic hems, too. A lot of tailors used to be men. Anyway, the horse took a lot longer than I expected and then I had to go make the rest of dinner.

So, I didn't get to do the computer stuff I wanted to do today.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow. We have a quiet afternoon, and I'll be home most of the evening.  I'll get caught up then.  I think I'll wait to undo the Christmas boxes until Monday.  I have a nice stack of them plus more stuff on top so I'll have to get it all down. Oh, and I discovered that my favorite storage totes, Rubbermaid Roughnecks, were discontinued! Ah!  In all of our moving of boxes in the last 18 years, I've only had one, maybe two, lids crack on me and NEVER the tote itself.  However, the other brands from the dollar store to the Sterilite ones, have broken on numerous occasions.  I was able to find some Rubbermaid totes on a feed and seed online farm store, so I bought more than I really need right now, just in case.  Yes, I should clean out the old totes and reuse them, but there are the non brand names one I would like to replace.  I really just needed a large tote for some clothes that will be going to Abishai and then a couple of smaller ones for the last two cardboard boxes holding a certain type of toy like the Paw Patrol and the marble works. I do have several large clear bins for other toys, too. Anyway, it's hard when you're favorite thing is discontinued.  In conclusion, I spent a huge amount of money today. But Christmas is nearly done, totes are bought, and a few necessities, too, like milk and fresh vegetables. I wish Jared had been as productive as I have been, but that's just not how it goes.

Ok, lots of writing, I know, but when I don't have any pictures to show because I'm busy all day, that's what you get.  Lol.

It looks Daddy joined Abishai in his artwork today. It's a tank!

Jared said we had a visit having a feast on our pumpkin.  Uh, wow, a squirrel did this within 15 minutes?  I hadn't noticed it on my way into the house. I'm surprised it's lasted this long.  We should move it to a place where the critters can enjoy it without making such a mess on our sidewalk.  Abishai was saddened by it though.  That's his pumpkin!

Abishai watched Justin play a little DS today in Justin's bed. Abishai was a crazy one today with his "pickle chin" and Justin chasing him around the house calling "Buddy!" every time Abishai trolled him and

Nearly perfect.  The turkey was definitely tender! I did good!

I love it when Keturah gets down from her bed and interacts with the family, especially making Abishai laugh!  Abishai just has that charm that everybody loves and wants to play with.

Mood. Yup. It got better as the day went on and I got some stuff done.  I get tired of having to follow up on everyone to make sure tasks get done, so I just do them myself sometimes instead of enlisting help.  Hopefully I don't regret that tomorrow. You wanted to switch vehicles, so when are you going to clean out one and put your stuff in the other? You all saw that the squirrel ate the pumpkin and there are leaves all over the sidewalk making it slippery, but all choose to ignore it.  And a myriad of other things that are completely ignored by all and they think that "magic" happens and everything is put right like having clean clothes and laundry and cooked food to eat. Yup, it's the same old story. Is "responsibility fatigue" a thing?  Because if it is, I have it.  "Delegate" they say makes life easier.  I would disagree. Not if you have a certain level of expectation. When 14 yr olds forget to brush their teeth or take their sister's lemonade not thinking whose it might be and offers it to his friend. When the 11 yr old still can't seem to wash her hair properly because if she did, she would be out of shampoo by now and her hair wouldn't look so greasy. There's lots of other things that really should be other's responsibilities but they either don't care or don't know how or give up too easily when it gets tough, and then those responsibilities become mine after a period of time.  Sometimes, I just can't wait any longer and can't walk paste a fire alarm that should have been put up 6 months ago.  What good does it do on a pile of boxes that were supposed to be taken care of 1 year ago? I take care of 95% of the cleaning, organizing, and yes, fixing sometimes of the house.  I'm responsible for 6 mouths to feed and clothe and then I'm told that I need to go to bed earlier when the only time I don't have to pay attention to anyone is between 11pm and 1am. Yup, introvert over here needs her alone time and time to be "off the clock."  And that's where I stand today.

Today's sermon was decent. Some good points for every family member of ours. Shifting blame. Idol worship (like ministry work, homeschooling, traveling, food, etc). Breaking covenants. Listening to bad influences. Oh yeah, lots of things. Leah still had some vertigo so we didn't have lunch with her today.  Thank goodness we had lots of leftovers from yesterday. Elliot came over as well. Screen time happened. Youth group happened. Abishai and I had some one on one time. I figured out a schedule for the week so I don't go too crazy with holiday travel.

Benaiah told me late last night how he had a great time being a roadie setting up the stage and lights and sound.  And he got to be the STAGE MANAGER to Jason French (beloved CIY speaker!) and hang out with many other cool people that have done things with CIY. He doesn't enjoy the hard labor as much as sitting behind a computer pushing buttons but he learned a lot and is making himself known even more.  Oh, and one of the guys remembered him as the talented Rubix cube solver because he had one out on he desk! This kid is great at networking, just like his grandfather. He's not afraid to talk to adults and listen and learn. You couldn't have said that about him 4 years ago though. So maybe there's hope for his siblings.  They will have a much different experience than he did, which is a great thing in lots of ways, but I worry that they have a "soft" life and haven't been forced to grow up because they are home.  Oh, that's what happened.  Neither Keturah nor Justin put their alarm clocks on, and I figured they've been getting up in time, so I didn't put mine on either.  Well, at 8:20am, I finally walk out to the kitchen, and Keturah's painting a rainbow and still in her pjs and she hasn't eaten anything.  Grandma was going to be picking them up in 15 minutes. Justin was still in bed! I'm so grateful I don't have to wake them up early for school every day to get them out the door because what a panic! Justin had a leftover brownie and a banana and Keturah had a package of cracker sticks with fake cheese for breakfast. That's not enough food for the morning. Good grief!  I was so mad! They are 11 and 14 and yes you both have regular alarm clocks that don't require using a phone so, figure it out. Ah!

Benaiah got another sweet package of goodies from Ozark! I don't know if they treat all their recruits that way, or they just want people from Indian Creek, but it's appreciated! And yes, we do need to finish his official application.  I don't know where we left off with it exactly.  Maybe just the FAFSA?  Maybe official SAT/ACT scores? I don't know.  We don't have an exactly time table because we really don't have to do anything until next fall. We are considering this a practice run and if we don't get all the steps right the first time, then that's ok.  He really doesn't want  to submit test scores until he brings them up.

Today's outfit came out to be "professional."

Finally got to wear a shirt I bought last year from Goodwill. It doesn't fit any better, but I found a way to hide that fact and dealt with it being form fitting.

Shoes were ok.  A bit uncomfortable. I wore my new jeans and then kept them on the rest of the day to get used to them.  Not too bad.

Leah liked how the frost on the car looked symmetrical this morning when she picked up the kids.

Not the best day to be dusting and notice this picture again. Mom's 70th birthday would have been yesterday.  She died 9 years ago. Dad died 8 years ago. Kristina, in the pink, won't talk to me. Paul-Mike, in the back, just finalized a nasty divorce and is doing ok, but has gained a lot of weight after leaving the National Guard.  Stefanie, in the striped black shirt and I are ok, but she divorced the guy sitting next to her. And this was the second to last picture we took of all of us. The last one would be in my mother's hospital room with her wearing a wig.  We did have one more kid then. Circa 2005. Oh, and Jared had hair.  That's always a plus for me.

At least the kids spent a few minutes outside today.

Real gold (now safely hidden away again), 100% pure essential oils Frankincense and Myrrh.  I had Abishai smell them tonight and play with the gold for 10 seconds. Kind of cool when you have the real deal on hand without thinking about it.

Speaking of real deals. THIS was what the turkey grease and bones made from the turkey we made yesterday. Oh man oh man. So full of rich goodness!  I put everything into the crockpot after Jared deboned the turkey and cooked it low and slow overnight. There was still so much turkey left on the bone! I then took out all the bones and came up with 3 bags of turkey broth with bits of meat in it ready for some soup!

My ingenious hack to hold the bags open. I think I recently saw an Instagram video of someone putting icing into a piping bag (which I've done this trick before) by putting the bag into a tall glass and then folding the edges over the side of the glass. So I thought I would apply it here.  And it worked extremely well!  Note to self!

I had to find my biggest platters that would still fit in the freezer so I could lay out the turkey brother flat while it froze, making it easy to store later.  The tricky part was keeping the closure folder over just in case there was any spillage from kids knocking it in the freezer.  I wish I had a deep freezer where I could things out on trays, but I don't.

I bet every set of parents from the Baby Boomer generation had one of these.  Leah still uses hers.  This was my mom's. I only use it in the rare occasion I have a turkey too big for the crockpot. I have to thoroughly clean off the sticky grease and dust that accumulates on it from sitting up on top of a cabinet from lack of use.  I don't think I've used it in this house before. But it's a keeper.

I don't understand why I get a ton of goosebumps with the trailers and special videos they keep putting out.  No, I don't have tickets yet. I'm sure it will be in the theaters for two months or more. Yes, we should have a movie marathon before we go. My parents, especially my dad, loved science fiction and I'm sure he saw the originals in the movie theater during their original run in the '70's. We have two boxed VHS sets, one from the early 80's and another when they rereleased them in the late '90's or something.  I don't know if we own all the other episodes, but I've seen them at least once.  Abishai loves Star Wars. He can name all the characters and vehicles. And the other kids know a lot about it too. Yup, we appreciate it Star Wars a lot.

Abishai was training his new recruit, Benny, how to be a policeman on a motorcycle.

Oh wow! Keturah is a celebrity now! Just kidding, but I love that so many people signed her cast!  And because this one won't be cut into and thrown away by the doctor, it's kind of like a memory tool for who she knew in her middle grade years.  Even Luke Green (pizza king) signed it!  And Sam I Am! Ah! Keturah smiled a lot when she showed me. She is well loved by her small group and the leaders at church.  My mama heart is full!

Awww, so many friends!

The End

Year 4, November 18th-21st, 2019: Rest and Recovery

Hi!  It's Monday! And we worked hard today!  I finally had all the pieces to Abishai's track he got for Christmas last year, so we put that up on the wall.  Only to discover one last piece was missing! I found something that did the trick, but as I go through the other bins this week, I'm hoping I find it because I thought I saw it somewhere. Then I spent most of the rest of the day finally cleaning up the sunroom enough so I could gather all the odds and ends and cars/trucks/planes/balls from all parts of the house to do a big sort of them.  I'm hoping to condense them and get rid of some.  It's going to be hard because Abishai loves them all.  We'll see though. I'm just tired of bins and bins of stuff when I know there's room in each bin if they were sorted properly.  I also cleaned off the fireplace, the bench behind the couch in the fireside room, and removed almost every toy from the living room except Abishai's specific Legos and the Kinex (the crane is still built, so I didn't want to tear that apart yet). I also removed all toys from the fireside room in preparation for Christmas decorating next week.  Tomorrow I will tackle books in that room and also the garage so we can move the upside table thing out there. The goal is to do a good sort, give some toys away, and then put some back in the shed again. It's hard to know exactly what you have unless you put it all together in one spot. Isn't that part of the Konmari method? Lol. Maybe it is, but it is the way I prefer to do it so I don't have duplicates. I've been lazy sometimes though and end up with duplicates.

In the midst of pre clean up prep, the doctor called and asked if Keturah could come at 1:30 pm today to get started on a cast.  I said sure, why not, so off we trotted.  We were there for less than 30 minutes. Boom, done! A removable cast was put on her after it had been warmed up slightly so it would mold to her.  Think of a more rigid splint or brace.  She can only take it off for showering. It comes with washable sleeves that you put on first, so I'm guessing it will cut down on the itchiness and ugly skin that comes from casts holding the dead skin on the body. It is only available for the forearm I think.  And now we won't have to go back for another 4 weeks for an updated x ray and to see if she can keep it off permanently.  Easy peasy.  She has asked for ibuprofen a couple of times, once last night, and then a couple of hours after she woke up this morning.  She asked for more this afternoon, but she wasn't close enough to her next dose.  I also wanted to wait until bedtime because it's supposed to last 8 hrs and I don't want her getting up in the middle of the night for more. She slept ok last night though and got all her school work done just fine today.  Thank goodness it was her left arm and not her right!  I asked her if she feels embarrassed or clumsy or stupid and she said no.  I'm just happy that the ER visit took under hrs, it was a simple torus break easy to heal and care of, and we got get right into the doctor and not have to wait for the swelling to go down to put a cast on. We did everything through St. Francis, and they seem to take medicaid so I hope we don't have any residual bills.  When Justin went to Riley for his broken arm, he was fully covered.  It was a much more serious break so the ER wanted Riley to handle it and then we finished up through them. That meant trips downtown, which isn't my favorite.  St. Francis Indianapolis is where my ob-gyn was when we lived here from 2001-2012 and the three oldest kids were all born there. But when we had an emergency, we would go to the Beech Grove campus, which no longer exists, literally 100 yards from our front door on 16th street.  Jared used their ER and then had his surgeries for his broken arms at Community East. Oh, and the St. Francis system still had us living on 16th St in Beech Grove! It's crazy how they kept our records although we were gone for 4 yrs and we don't typically use them! That's a good/bad thing.  At least the doctor today could use the x rays from the ER literally downstairs from them.

I made a nice dinner of baby potatoes and chicken using two of the dressing packets I got with my salad from Chick Fil A during the "the Talk."  They had sent one packet of every kind in the bag so I saved them!  And boy was it yummy! I used the lite Italian and the apple cider vinaigrette. Then I went over Justin's homework since we couldn't do that this afternoon.  He spent the afternoon working in Grandpa's yard mulching all the leaves.  He will need to go back and do more of that tomorrow. Jared came home midday because Gary said he could/should go to Keturah's appointment.  Instead, he stayed home with Abishai for me.  Then he spent the rest of the afternoon keeping Abishai busy so I could do school with Keturah. So that was fun and unexpected and helpful. I also asked him to come home if he could so he could pop open the thing under the sink where things get trapped because Benaiah thought his bracelet from Ava had fallen into the sink again.  When I got that text this morning before Benaiah had to leave his phone in the office for the day, I was a bit fanatical about no one using that bathroom until the bracelet was found.  I could not find it!  I shook out the clothing in the laundry basket, looked under the rugs, and in all the corners. Benaiah texted back at 1:30 when he picked up his phone from the office (school policy) that he actually did have it on him.  It probably had gotten stuck in his sweatshirt or something.  Phew!  I was going to be very upset if we hadn't found it.  He's had it for a while and this is the first time something has happened to it. If I find it in the bathroom, I immediately put it on his desk. He wears it often, even to bed. He and I are romantic fools, I know.  It's fun.

Ok, time to finish up this entry and then go back and finish the last post.  I keep stopping in the middle because I keep falling asleep typing and the words don't make any sense! It's only 9:15, so hopefully I can get both done tonight!

Oo, I wonder what is going on done at the Beavers' house!  The sign reads: "Workers ahead."

Not too much.  Just some extra trucks.  They finished the roof today though. I don't know if electricity was going in yet or not.

Poop!  The camera did it again!  Why is it that I can't get clear pictures anymore?! It must be the latest update on the phone or something.  I might retake this one tomorrow, but how sweet is this? I'm pretty frustrated though because I keep missing some great moments!

And then I get clear pics of things I don't really want. Somehow the wood got separated from the counter top.  It's not holding up the countertop, but creates a ledge for the "breakfast bar" part.  Jared wants to get rid of the ledge, but I find it useful.

This is the last piece we need to make the track work perfectly.

Abishai absolutely loves it!  I sent pictures and videos to Brenda, Caiden's mom, who I had purchased it from.  Yeah!

Of course Justin is never too old to play with things like Hot Wheels.  The trick is to find the right size and weight of car and then you can get it to make several rounds of loops.  There's a speed booster that is powered by 4 D batteries at the bottom there.

The actual x-rays from last night.  Now, the huge lines yo usee near the rest are the growth plates.  I can't really find the fracture but it seems to me with my untrained eye that the arm bone is slightly bent.

Hm, not much to see.

Keturah's splint last night.  It was like a flimsy wad of cotton batting and then within a few minutes it was hard.  Sweet!

Waiting to be fitted with the cast.

Yup, that's a cast!  They warmed it up, and then manipulated it over her arm as it cooled.  With that knob there towards her elbow, you can tighten and loose the strings enough to get it off and on.  It kind of reminded me of the prosthetic limb that a vlogger uses to do work outs with.  She lost her hand and part of her forearm in a boating accident.  Her prosthetic has a similar knob to tighten down the prosthetic to her stump.

Much harder than a brace, believe me. You put on the black sleeve first, and the sleeve is washable!  The cast comes with two of them.  Isn't technology incredible?

So Daddy was home today so what do they naturally do but play Minecraft!  Abishai didn't "want to go to bed" so his character kept getting up and Daddy's character had to keep chasing him done.  Abishai laughed hysterically!

I'm kind of glad this one got blurred out.  I was trying to get rid of anything that wasn't a DVD or VHS on the DVD and VHS shelves and found a pair of Keturah's underwear!  Say what?!  How on earth did that get on the TOP SHELF which is where I can't reach?! Did someone fling it up there and forget about it?  Ewwww!!!! 

Spoiled munchkin not only gets to sleep on the couch in the fireside room (he's practicing for Christmas Eve), but Daddy built a fire for him!  Spoiled!

I briefly out of the corner of my eye saw notification that Shauna was online and Keturah told me she sent some pictures to her.  So, I went back to the app to see who else Keturah had talked to and found these. I didn't know she knew how to text and use emjois like that, but gifs! Alrighty then!  We have to get the silver type of sharpies so that they will show up on the cast, and the cast is ours, so we can do what we want with it. Her friends told her they would sign her cast next week, not expecting this type of cast.  I think that's so sweet that they want to do that!

Aww, it hurts a lot, I know.  Poor thing.

Tuesday was more of the same.  I kept working in the sunroom and sorted all the toys into categories and condensed boxes to get rid of cardboard boxes and such.  That was no easy task when all Abishai wanted to do was take each new toy he hadn't seen in awhile to play with. But we got it done.  I did get a small bag of stuff ready for the giving box.  I don't know if I want to get rid of more or what exactly to get rid of.  Maybe when he's older he will be more objective. There are some remote controlled cars I'm willing to part with and some McDonald's toys for sure. But he still wants them and does play with them, so for now, at least they are categorized and he seems to understand the categories. Now, which ones can I take to the shed or garage?  Who knows.  But I did but some boxes behind my desk chair in the "storage" area.  I really want to teach Abishai how to pick up a type of toy before he dumps another box out.  I don't mind if a couple of boxes are dumped out because creativity comes with playing with different toys all at once.  But, if the floor is covered, it's time to put something away.

In the afternoon, Keturah and I did a major round of schoolwork but the time also got away from us, too.  Oh, that's what happened, Justin had to go to Grandpa's house to finish mulching the leaves. That put him behind on schoolwork so we didn't finish his math until late and had to do the final check this morning. Sorry kid, when you have to balance school and work you don't have time for video games, just ask Benaiah.

Then in the evening, we went to Gary and Leah's for a full Sunday type meal for Leah's birthday.  Benaiah was able to join us because he had asked for the day off to go to a concert, but his friend forgot to buy the tickets.  Some friend! Yes, Leah prepared her own birthday supper and that's totally ok.  We don't like eating out because of expense and the noise level of a lot of restaurants. And Leah said she wanted leftover turkey, which she never gets when we get together with her side of the family.  So, she made a Thanksgiving type meal.  Cooking is her gift and I'm sure she was just happy to have all of us there on her birthday.  She didn't have Lifebridge because there was no school because of the Red for Ed event (see below). So, it all worked out. The only thing missing was the cranberry sauce which isn't a staple in the Johnson Thanksgiving.  But, it's a staple in mine, so I usually make it and bring it.  Well, I bring the dessert version with apples, jello, and whole berry sauce.  My parents would just serve cranberry sauce straight from the cane. For dessert, Leah made this yummy apple crumble thing which called for almond paste.  She said she had never bought and used it before.  It's not the texture of almond butter.  It has added ingredients like sugar and resembles more of a fudge than anything.  She let me have the rest of the box and I think I could eat the whole box straight out of it. It MADE the dessert so much yummier!  But then again, I love nuts in as many foods as I can and I'm used to drinking almond milk and using it as an alternative in cooking. Yes I've used plain unsweetened almond milk in mashed potatoes before.  It's fine. Anyway, almond paste is super yummy.

Jared then took Abishai over to Jim's house for their weekly discipleship hour. The man cave/shed is done, so Derrick and Abishai spent the hour in the shed playing a vintage arcade game while the men talked. Lucky, the dog, was the only girl allowed into the shed, lol.  On Wednesday, Abishai asked if he could go play with Derrick again.  So sweet considering Derrick is several years older than him.  That's when Gary, Leah, Benaiah, Justin, and Keturah played nerts (card game) together with 4 decks, a first in the Johnson household.  Fun was had by all and Keturah and Grandma won! And that was the day!

So, you are telling me that $10,000 per student per year isn't enough to educate them?  I educate mine for way less than that.  Plus, Jared makes the same amount of money as an average teacher, and we make it work. In a two income family, that should be enough.

True, and I believe the teachers and general public believe that, but according to my credible sources, Red for Ed started with a socialist part in Arizona.  So, who knows what's going to happen or if it will do any good.  So many teachers went to the state house today to participate that a lot of school districts canceled school and instead used it as an e-learning day.  They will make up the day in the spring. After some long discussions on Facebook, my conclusion still is that our children will become adults before anything changes, so we are not sending our kids into that enviornment. We pray for our friends who are teachers and for the law makers etc. to make some progress on a local level, but I doubt anything will change any time soon.  It's a broken system.  Plus, half of Indiana's budget already goes to education. So, it's not about funding, it's about allocation of those funds and the waste in administrative costs to make sure standardized tests are done right and who gets to have the funds, etc. I haven't had any phone calls or emails from parents withdrawing their kids from school in order to homeshcool them yet, but there's been a ton of new people on our FB group who did just that. I'm all prepped and ready to help.

Abishai helped to write his first real "A" in a birthday card!  He seems a bit interested (he wrote A in the sand at the big hike we did, and now he was willing to do this one!) so we are taking baby steps towards more formal education.  I'm still going to keep it much more relaxed than the other kids, but there's hope that he will take an interest in it whereas a few months ago he refused to.

So many different writing styles!  Benaiah's name is missing because we signed it before we went to Grandma's house for dinner.

The rowdiest game of nerts ever!  4 decks! Grandma and Keturah were a team (and they actually switched seats) but the guys all played for themselves.  I think this is the first time that three of our kids have played nerts together.  Keturah and Grandma kept winning every hand and ultimately won the game!  Justin, as he usually is, was the slowest.  Even Benaiah and Grandpa couldn't keep up.  These moments are so precious because they are so rare.  Between Gary's and Benaiah's schedules, we are hardly ever all together and it makes me extremely sad and I fight against it.

Benaiah finally won a hand!  Now we need to teach Ava how to play!  Benaiah said he would be ruthless with her when he teaches her.  He's so mean!

This is true.

Wednesday I woke up and felt off.  Abishai was all up in my face as usual, but it made me pretty irritated.  Although I didn't do much heavy lifting, I think steadily working for two days in a row plus the fluctuating weather did me in. Time to rest.  I gave myself grace and slowed down today.  I had tons of brain fog, so I just went slowly and surely and got done a couple of things.  Health insurance is still pending, so I can't do anything with our medical bills. I checked on the claim from Benaiah's minor accident in August and it said closed on the website, but there's no other information so I emailed our insurance rep to be sure.  I've never had to follow up on a claim before, so I'm just triple checking. I did have a chiropractor appointment, so I did that.  And then Jared drove Keturah all the way over to dance before her instructor called me to say she (the instructor) had fallen and wouldn't make it to class.  Oh well. Benaiah is playing drums tonight for an hour long special worship night for the youth group during their normal small group time but at church. That means I drove Justin to church and will pick him up in a little bit. (Trying to get ahead of my evening routine here since I didn't get to the blog yesterday and of course regret it because I don't remember much from day to day, like if I had corn casserole last night or not and it did have wheat in it, oi!)

Ava drove Benaiah to and from school today and it went well she said.  They went to leadership this afternoon and then I assume she went home and Benaiah stayed to practice for tonight.  He said that he can't bring Justin home because now that he can drive friends, he's helping Lisa out by driving Ethan around when he can. Ok, fine, dude, it's a good thing church is 5 minutes away. He's going to Anderson (an hour away) with Matt McConnell from church to help set up for a youth conference up there.  Indian Creek typically does the stage set up and sound system for whoever is going.  It's a conference that is older than CIY (maybe, I'll have to fact check Leah because I went to CIY in 1998, so 21 years ago, and if this conference is only a bit over 30 yrs old, they are basically the same age.  Perhaps Indian Creek didn't participate very heavily in CIY back then because it was further and more expensive, who knows.)  Benaiah is going with a few other people and then he gets to share a hotel with another guy and will spend all day Saturday up there. He had to ask off for work, which means in the last two months he's had much smaller paychecks.  So, he's trying not to take off too much for Christmas.  He got his schedule for Thanksgiving and he does have to work on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but not the Wednesday before. Anyway, that means if he goes Black Friday shopping, he will have to do it in the morning because he has an afternoon/evening shift.  Fun!

Otherwise, Abishai played all day and was up to his usual antics. He's now playing video games with Daddy.  I think we are going to encourage him to sleep in his own bed because he keeps waking up early I think because he's lonely and cold in the fireside room. It was fun while it lasted. Back to bedtime reading in our bed?  Or reading on the couch and tuck him into his bed?  Hm,...we don't want him to grow up too fast, that's for sure!  But when I was looking up why he might be making a slurping sound when he talks a lot, I typed in "5 yr old" because in three short months he'll be 5!  Ah!  I want a baby! And that means next year I'll be homeschooling 3 kids again.  Eeek! Don't worry, it won't be much different because whatever time I play with him now while translate into school time next year. Kindergarten takes 30-60 minutes broken up into 5-10minute segments.  Easy peasy and I can't wait to teach him to read!  It's been a long time since I did that! Ok, only 6 years, but that feels like forever ago! Oh, and math!  Yeah! Have I told you how I love math, especially the "plug and chug" of Algebra 1?  I adore it! Black and white thinking is how I operate.  My moodiness and "answer varies" of the language arts drives me crazy!

Keturah's right thumb is being irritated by the cast and I sort of felt bad but also told her to suck it up because if it was an unmovable cast, there's nothing we could do.  We took off the cast briefly to check to it and it wasn't that bad.  I know it's annoying, but that's the consequences of your curiousity, kid.  She had been standing on the chair to look into the Christmas Advent boxes that are going to be handed out to families.  Uh, not sure why she needed to look inside them.  I'm guessing she'll second guess herself next time.  I did overhear her tell her cousins today how it happened and where it happened, i.e. because she had been standing on a high chair AND it was very near the spot where Justin got injured.  So, she's been listening to us tell the story and remembering those details, but she can't remember if she's had sugar earlier in the day or if she was grounded from the tablet or that I told her to finish certain subjects by Monday and even write it down in her assignment book, but she forgets to open it up. SMH Anyway, I'm glad she can remember some things.  It's just hard to have sympathy when she was doing something she shouldn't have been AND I've been in a lot of pain myself today. The mole biopsy spots are darn right itchy and so enjoying and sore. No amount of oils and lotions and benadryl products are helping. It's just a matter of time. At least Keturah didn't ask for more pain mediation today, and she didn't wince when we took the cast off and on. She has zero swelling from what I can tell and not bruising, so it was a pretty minor break. Thank goodness.  I still have to find her the right markers so that her friends can sign her cast. It's a good thing that we are poor enough that the kids are fully covered by medicaid. Jared and I, on the other hand, have a nice high deductible of $13,000 together, so,....who knows how my bills were actually be.

Ok, enough of that.  Tomorrow is another full day at home and we'll finish up most lessons for the week because we are babysitting Carter on Friday.  Yeah! Oh, yeah, that means I need to clean up the legos or wall them off somehow.  I do have one play yard in the house right now.  And I should get out the other toddler toys from the shed.....but I don't want to!  And it's going to rain, so that might have to wait until Friday. Grandpa asked Justin to put up the outdoor Christmas lights today but he couldn't because I was gone.  And tomorrow it's going to rain.  And Grandpa is gone Friday-Sunday again.  I guess it will wait until next week.  That's what happens when you are now gone 50 out of 52 weekends a year and the rest of the family has plenty of activities during the week to keep us busy. It makes it hard to invite people over for family dinner, too.

Yup, Momma's still moody.  Back to getting some work done like watching a show for Justin's schooling and reading Calvin and other heavy theology books, oh fun! Give me math instead, please?! Lol.

Yup

Abishai told lots and lots of stories to himself today using the "new" toys. They are too cute!

Looking comfy for screen time.

Mom, do you have to take a picture? Actually, do you see the small piece on the roof of the barn?  That's an old laptop in the attic Abishai said.

Using his Paw Patrol city scape to set up the Linocln Log town.  He and I played for awhile with this set up.  I kept making my character fall asleep (at the laptop, after looking at the animals, after chasing the loose animals, etc.)  It was a fun game.  Then he destroyed the houses so we could make another bigger house on the instruction sheet, which is so torn up but I have most of the pieces of it in the plastic bag, plus I've made them so many times, it's easy to build them just by looking at one picture.

Oh my goodness.  I'm so exhausted. Jared was tossing and turning last night and then Abishai came into our room at 6:45am. He snuggled for a bit, and then went to find breakfast.  Well, he was quiet so I thought he was just playing with toys, so I feel back asleep!  I slept until 8:30am or so.  When I got up, I found Abishai playing Justin's expensive (and still fairly new) DS2!  He had been playing for at least an hour!  No wonder he was quiet!  It was both Justin's and my fault because we hadn't sorted the ds's and put them away yet.  Thankfully, he was just playing on some demo games and didn't ruin Justin's progress on his Pokemon game. I'm grateful for the extra sleep but now he's going to have extra screen time for the day. I guess it will balance out with tomorrow because we won't have our typical afternoon of screens when we are babysitting Carter.

That's what we did with part of our day.  We prepared for Carter to come over.  I was able to get the clothing boxes out to the shed and bring in the toddler toys box.  I should just leave that box at the top of the piles or even in the garage because it was all the way down on the bottom of the back pile toys.  I had to have Justin help with moving boxes around so I wouldn't be so sore later.  We brought in a baby play yard and put it around Abishai's Lego table.  We plan to put away all the toys tonight so we can vacuum fully in the morning and make sure anything little is put up. Carter is older now, but still would probably swallow a Lego or marble.  Abishai is very excited to have a little person to play with and look after.  He's been concerned all day about making sure Carter doesn't find something to choke on. Abishai and I also had a raspberry blowing contest and I let him play on one of phone games.  He did have two more hours of screen time because I finally got work with the other kids on their schoolwork from 2-4pm.  It seems like I have to wait all day for them to be ready for me, especially when they don't start until 10:30am because they slept in.

School was ok. I wish the kids had better attention spans and retention skills.  Sometimes it takes a lot of questioning to get them to respond in a way that lets me know they've read the material and understand. Even when we have had tests, they don't do that great on them.  I'm trying not to worry about it because I don't know what to do about it, if anything. Those frontal lobes are still in the process of reloading so, I know they need more time.  I really just need more sleep.  My body hurts, I can't think straight, and I know if I pick up a book to try and read it like I should, I'll fall asleep.  So I'm typing this up early so I can get right on some videos and head to bed early.  I want to try and fit in my blood draw in the morning and then call the dermatologist because my biopsy on my leg is still very tender.  I don't have time to go down there tomorrow, but maybe on Monday or maybe they can call a prescription in given my history so far.  Who knows, but I'll try.  I should also do some prep work on some IAHE stuff so I can start making phone calls and sending out emails. I did do a few little things today, so that's good. Ok, piano lesson and then videos and then bedtime.

Abishai insisted that Socks looked cute so I needed to take a picture of him.

Aww, Mr. Long Legs who won't quit barking at the squirrels that seem to be hyperactive this week.

Keturah played with Abishai this morning and they built garages for all the Paw Patrol vehicles.  He then used Rubble's bulldozer to push some jingle blocks into the polar bear cave from the toddler box.  The polar bear used to roar, but when I put in fresh batteries, it still wouldn't work.  The whole set goes for less than $20 on eBay so I might get it off of there.  I'll add it to my "favorite searches" list where I keep looking but never buy because do we really need to replace broken toys just because they used to be favorites?

A coach for the Boston Celtics I think special ordered these sneakers!  They have the PEI flag and the Confederation Bridge on them.  Cool!

Since we didn't get pictures done yet, and I know that we would like to wear these clothes again soon, I took this picture so I would remember what I picked out in case we get another opportunity like in front of the Christmas tree display at church in a few weeks.

Still very red and irritated despite keeping it covered with vaseline and a bandaid, or letting it air out, or a number of combinations of lotions and essential oils.  Time to call the dermatologist.

Here's the one on my back.  It's much more healed up. And it's a good thing that I can't reach it because I would probably scratch off the scab.

Update: I didn't call the dermatologist because the leg one finally scabbed over after I left it unbandaged (but protected by my pj pants).  Yeah!  It's still tender and red, but I found the prescription cream that the doctor gave me in September for all of them.  It felt a bit better as the day went on (Friday, which is in the next blog). I just didn't want to bug the dermatologist and/or go out of the house. I'll call Monday if I need to.  Trying to be patient and trying NOT to be a hypochondriac.

Abishai had asked Daddy what he wanted for Christmas and Daddy said, "A big tree."  This was Abishai's response.

The End