Soggy Sunday

 Many times it seems that weather gets into a pattern in terms of what day it snows or rains. I remember it happening many times when I was a teacher and principal that the snow days in a particular winter would usually fall on the same day of the week. Well it has been raining on quite a few Sundays lately, and so I have not yet taken my annual fall pictures of the kids in their Sunday clothes. Also, the leaves turned colors a little later than usual this fall. When I was growing up I said spring was my favorite season. I always preferred the moderate temperatures (60's and 70's) of spring and fall, but the last several years summer has become my favorite season. I have never been a fan of cold weather so winter has consistently been my least favorite season. When it comes to taking pictures, fall has been my favorite season the last several years. Several of my most favorite pics from the past 8 years are from the fall of the kids wearing pumpkin shirts or costumes or their Sunday clothes with beautiful fall leaves in the background.

 I hadn't taken any fall leave pictures yet. This is the latest I've attempted that over the past 8 years, but I didn't succeed even today. I did get a couple of pictures of the kids today but it started to rain during the photo shoot (and the lighting wasn't ideal even when I was snapping as it was rather dark out even though it was about 1pm). When Ian was getting dressed he told me that he looked like Pastor Arlie (our pastor). He said he was going to leave his suit coat unbuttoned like Pastor Arlie. Aww how sweet! There are still many trees with leaves so I will have to try again on a less soggy day. The rainy wasn't good timing for Paul. Instead of going to church he drove to the plant to get a tool so he could work on installing a door he bought almost 2 1/2 months ago. I was wishing he was at church with us. Last Sunday I sent Nadia and Ian up to Kidzway since Paul stayed home, but today they had to stay for the service (which they normally do anyhow) because the 5th Sunday of the month Thankfully they were good while I was up on the platform with the choir even though they weren't sitting with any adults.

Today I took the kids to two trunk or treat events at two churches in our town where the kids have gone to VBS the past few summers. Both events were moved indoors due to the rain. One of Ian's soccer coaches had a "trunk" at the second church. Nadia had a cup of hot chocolate at both events. She had four cups of hot chocolate in two days; I'd say she likes hot chocolate! Nadia and Ian wore the same costumes today (Mario and colonial), and Oliver went as Sully. At the first trunk or treat a public library was giving away tons of books. They were wanting people to take as many as possible. We got some good ones - a chess book, a book about guinea pigs, a few pictures books, a few chapter books, drawing books, etc. Plus of course the kids got lots of candy. We didn't stay very long at the second one because I was trying to get back before dark to help Paul with the door. Over the past four days the kids have gone to seven Halloween type events. Whew. Tomorrow night will be the grand finale - the traditional trick or treating. Thankfully it's not supposed to rain tomorrow which will be good for both trick or treating and also Paul working on the door.

End of another season

Today the kids had their last soccer games for 2017. In early April we will get back into the routine of soccer games on Saturdays. The boys will be playing again in the spring. I haven't asked Nadia yet whether she wants to continue or not. I will wait until probably January to ask her about it. Paul took the day off of work today. Aside from when we were on vacation in Massachusetts and the day of my mom's funeral in July, I can't remember him having any other Saturdays off the last five months so I didn't take it for granted. I had to wake Nadia and Ian up this morning. It will be SO nice to not be rushing out the door on Saturday mornings for games the next couple of months. We were all out of the house by 8:30. Paul took Nadia and Ian to Ian's game, and I took Oliver to his game. Both games were at 9:00. I had lined up a ride for Ian, but I sent a text to the mom last night letting her know Paul had changed his plans and would be able to take Ian. Nadia's game was at 10:30 at home. All three kids had a game at a different field, but all of the fields were within 15 minutes of our house.

Oliver played all four quarters of his game. He played better last week than he did today. The only time he came in contact with the ball was when he was doing a corner kick, goal kick, throw in, or kicking the ball to get things started after the other team scored a goal. During the game he wasn't really participating. Hopefully he'll do better in the spring. I didn't see Ian's game, but Paul said Ian played offense one quarter, defense another quarter, and was on the bench the other two quarters. Paul said Ian was a lot more aggressive in terms of going after the ball when he was playing offense. Paul's parents came up to see Nadia's game. It was the first time they had seen her play on a U10 team. She played defense the first quarter, sat out the second quarter, played offense the third quarter, and played goalie the fourth quarter. It was her second time playing goalie this season, and the other time none of us were there to see her. The other team scored one goal while she was goalie. Her coach gave the team some money to spend in the concession stand after the game. Nadia chose a cup of hot chocolate.

Paul's parents came over to our house after Nadia's game. We had lunch together, carved pumpkins, and then they played with the kids while I mowed part of the lawn. Each child designed his/her pumpkin. Ian's has ears and is supposed to be a bunny. Around 2:30 I took the kids to a party at the library then to a playground for a little, and finally to a trunk or treat event at the church where the kids do Upward basketball. The couple at the first trunk were giving out full size candy bars! We enjoyed seeing familiar faces, a wide variety of costumes, and creative trunks. The kids enjoyed collecting lots of candy. Then we ate hotdogs and drank either apple cider (boys and I) or hot chocolate (Nadia). Yesterday Nadia went as Jasmine (princess from the movie Aladdin), and the boys went as Luigi (Ian) and Mario (Oliver). Today Nadia chose to wear her colonial outfit again, Ian went as Mario (the costume Oliver wore last night), and Oliver went as a pirate. Tomorrow will be their fourth and final trunk or treat, and then we'll go trick or treating on Monday and that will be the end of Halloween 2016 although it will be awhile until all the candy has been eaten!

Five days of Halloween

Sometimes celebrations that technically fall on one day on the calendar are actually celebrated over multiple days. I know some people like to celebrate their birthday for an entire month, not just one day. Although the song is the "12 days of Christmas," it usually turns out to be three days of Christmas for our kids - one day (usually Christmas Eve) with our immediate family, one day (usually Christmas Day) with Paul's family, and one day (often December 26) with my family. Similarly, the kids usually go to a few Easter egg hunts over about an eight day period each year.

When I was a child Halloween was a one day event. We went trick or treating at just a few homes in our neighborhood and then helped my parents pass out candy to whomever came to our door. I had never even heard of "trunk or treat" events until maybe about ten years ago. Growing up I remember my friends at church and school were surprised that my parents allowed us to celebrate Halloween. My mom even decorated with windows of our

house with happy looking pumpkins, friendly looking scarecrows, and such. We were raised on the rather conservative side. Compared to the Amish, they were pretty "liberal," but compared to the average Christian we were on the far right. We were only allowed to wear pants if the activity we were doing necessitated it for modesty's sake- such as horse back riding or snow skiing. I remember being so torn as to whether I wanted to go to youth group activities at church because on the one hand I liked our youth pastor and his wife and doing the things they planned, but on the other hand I was mortified to be wearing a skirt when all the other girls were wearing pants (mostly they wore jeans, which I had never ever worn). Being a teenager is awkward enough on its own, but to be wearing something totally different from all the other girls from church made it much harder. Similarly, we were told that most music that included drums was "bad music." Drums were fine in a marching band, but if a Christian artist had a drummer - the music was bad. My friends (at the Christian

school) were baffled that my family considered contemporary Christian music to be "bad music" - not labeled that way because of a difference in taste but because it was actually deemed "wrong." Anyhow many times over the years people commented to me that they couldn't believe I was allowed to celebrate Halloween. They figured that it must be deemed taboo by my family. We never wore a costume of a ghost or a witch or the like. Speaking of which, I found a picture showing my dad using white shoe polish on my face for my clown costume. Make-up for costumes has come a long way, eh? I don't think people are using shoe polish these days, ha ha!

With my own children the first thing I took them to was a Trunk or Treat event at a church about 1 mile from our house. Then after a couple of years of just doing that, we started also taking them trick or treating on Halloween and to a party at the library. Last year it expanded to three Trunk or Treat events plus trick of treating and the library party (four total days). This year it has expanded to five days of Halloween! Yesterday afternoon we went to the library, a three day consignment sale (I got two Christmas gifts for the kids there and restrained myself from buying an adorable outfit for Oliver because it cost $15), and then to Weis. They had 10 stations around the grocery store where the kids could get a treat - ex. a cookie in the bakery, a cup of chocolate milk in the dairy section, a piece of cheese at the Deli, apple slices with caramel dip in the produce section, etc. At the end they were each given a small pumpkin to decorate and a stuffed animal (cow). Then we drove less than a mile to the McCann campus.

They had moved their trunk or treat event inside because of the rain. There were 13 "trunks" (each giving away candy), Dominos was giving away pizza, Perkins was giving away muffins and cookies, etc. After we ate our free dinner (and turned down the offer for free pumpkins), we went to to the face painting booth. Nadia asked for candy corn on one cheek, and Oliver had a pumpkin on one cheek. Ian passed because he was wearing a mask. Then they had many games for the kids to play - bowling with pumpkins, miniature golf, ring toss, etc. We spent an hour there altogether, and when we left there was a long line for entering the event. I was very glad we got there right when it started. The kids made sure to get a few Reese's PB cups for Paul. This evening they will be going through our church's trunk or treat and then passing out candy at the trunk their kids' choir is manning. Last year we waited in a ridiculous line for that event so I wasn't planning to return but #1 they won't have to wait since they will be going through before the event officially opens and #2 Paul will be there instead of me because I am going to a concert tonight with my friend, Cheri. Tomorrow I plan to take them to a party at the library and then a trunk or treat at the church where they do Upward basketball. Thankfully the weather is supposed to be much nicer today, Saturday, and Monday. It might be rainy on Sunday, but the other days it should be warmer and dryer than it was yesterday. We shall see what costumes the kids pick for the other four days of Halloween!

Thankful Thursday

1. We had wonderful time at Landis Valley Museum, the Maryland Science Center, and Port Discovery on Thursday and Friday. We also were grateful to have some time with my Dad playing games and that he joined us for our adventures in Baltimore. I am also thankful for the safe travels, and that the kids were well behaved in the van (mostly that means Oliver didn't cry much, which is a big improvement).

2. We love being able to check out books on cd from the library. The kids are really into the A to Z mystery series by Ron Roy right now.

3. Paul finished repairing the screen door. Yahoo! It looks much better than it did for the past 8+ years. He also fixed a piece of wood trim that would fall off every time I swept the kitchen floor. Now there are just six more projects on the honey do list.

4. I enjoyed going for a 3.5 mile run on Sunday afternoon. I was thankful the weather was nicer than it was on Saturday since I am somewhat of a "fair weather" runner. We went from 80 degree weather to 40 degree weather within a very short amount of time. Brr! Now to figure out how to get exercise more than just once a week....

5. The leaves are so pretty this time of year! I especially enjoy them when we're driving around different places such as up to Camp Susque today.

6. Ian has started helping Oliver get dressed in the morning. Oliver can dress himself, but he can't open his dresser drawers and doesn't do as good a job of picking out outfits as Ian does. I love seeing Ian start to blossom in his role as a big brother. Way to go, Ian!

7. The soccer practices were cancelled this evening. I had been wrestling with whether or not to take the kids to a Trunk or Treat event at McCann this evening (which includes free pizza, face painting, etc.) and the Weis grocery store near there is also giving out goodies today, but the weather made my decision easy as the practices were cancelled! We are going to be inundated with candy as the kids are going to one Trunk or Treat event each day for four days and then Trick or Treating on Monday night. Five days of wearing costumes! Today Oliver is going as Bob the tomato, Nadia as a girl from Colonial times, and Ian as a character from Star Wars (bounty hunter).

8. Oliver's coach bought pizza, chips, and drinks for the team on Tuesday. What a generous person! The parents played the kids in a game of soccer. That was my time playing soccer in almost 30 years. Nadia joined in as she doesn't have soccer on Tuesday nights. I stole the ball from her a couple of times, ha ha, but I didn't score any goals. Nadia scored one!

9. We went to the Dig into Archaeology event yesterday for homeschoolers at the Children's Museum. They had some neat activities, although now what I am supposed to do with the three Egyptian burial tombs my kids created? We hadn't been to the museum in about 7 weeks so they were happy to be there and didn't want to leave after spending 2 hours, but I told them we'll be back soon (Nadia is scheduled to do a rat dissection there in a couple of weeks for one thing).

10. Today we focused on camouflage at Camp Susque. The kids did two crafts, played two games, felt many different animal pelts (including a very large python from Africa), etc. Another mom watched Oliver at her house, and I took her five year old (Micah) with us on the field trip. Nadia and Ian enjoyed playing a few games with Micah at our house before she came to bring Oliver back and pick up Micah. Thankfully they were able to do all the activities inside (with a nice warm fire) as it was raining and cold the whole time we were there. Nadia's chameleon craft turned out particularly well (it's been floating around on Facebook and Pinterest).

11. We are singing an incredibly gorgeous arrangement of "How Great Thou Art" on Sunday. I enjoyed rehearsing it last night.

12. The kids are going to have another cousin in March! Joe (who turns 50 next month) and Yvonne (who turns 42 in January) are expecting #8.

Favorite Things

At the 70th birthday party I attended this month, Donna's three children sang several songs, and her four granddaughters plus one great granddaughter sang two songs. One of the songs the children sang was the one from Sound of Music about a few of my favorite things. I always ask the kids about their favorites in their birthday interviews, but I thought it would be nice to document a quick snapshot of a few of their favorite things as of October 2016.

Breakfast - Blueberry pop tarts (all three kids), Captain Crunch or Cocoa Puffs (Ian), and Apple Jacks (Nadia or Ian). Oliver eats a wide variety of foods for breakfast and doesn't appear to have one favorite like his siblings do. They all love to have a donut on birthdays.

Drinks - All three kids prefer milk to water and prefer chocolate milk to white milk although chocolate milk is only purchased in conjunction with birthdays. They also like to drink apple juice or any kind of drink in a box or pouch when we pack a lunch. All three also drink water.

Lunch - Nadia likes to have a Yo Crunch yogurt plus either a grilled cheese sandwich or a hot dog. Ian likes to have a Yo Crunch yogurt and either a hot dog or peanut butter and marmalade sandwich. Oliver and Ian also like to eat sandwich crackers. As for fruits and vegetables at lunch, all three love grapes, clementines, and baby carrots. The boys also love watermelon. Nadia also likes plums and apples.  All three of them love pretzels and chips. Nadia and Oliver love to eat raisins.

Toys - Oliver absolutely loves to ride his bike. All three kids play with Legos almost every day. Lately they have been enjoying a wooden castle and wooden blocks. Ian loves to draw with colored pencils. Oliver enjoys the play kitchen, and his favorite games are Candyland and Zingo. Nadia loves to play a wide variety of games such as Mancala, Uno, Racko, Clue, Apples to Apples, etc. When she is in her bedroom she plays with Barbie dolls, paper dolls, and Melissa and Doug magnetic dolls. All three of them also enjoy their daily turn on either the Wii or iPad.

Animals - Nadia would love to have a cat, but she knows we can't because Paul is allergic to them. Ian loves any kind of small animal. He adores baby animals and miniature breeds. He really wants a dog. We are actually planning to get the kids 2 guinea pigs for Christmas. Hopefully that will satisfy their pet craving for the time being.

Dinner - All three love rigatoni with meatballs, tuna noodle casserole, chicken nuggets, pulled pork, barbecue chicken, hot dogs, pancakes, goulash, and fish sticks. Nadia and Ian like pizza more than Oliver does, but he will eat just

about anything. The boys love bacon, and Nadia loves eggs. Oliver loves soups and stews; his siblings would rather not ever eat soup or stew. Potato soup is his most favorite. Oliver and Nadia love macaroni and cheese and pierogies. Oliver adores baked beans and vegetables of all kinds. Just the other day he asked me for "more salad, please." His siblings can't stand salad. Ian's favorite vegetables are cooked green beans or raw baby carrots. Nadia's favorite vegetables are cooked carrots and corn.

Desserts - All three like to eat just about every kind of dessert, although Ian is not a fan of pie. Their favorite kinds of cookies that I make are chocolate peanut butter chip, chocolate chip, Heath bar, M&M, and Reese's Pieces cookies. Nadia's favorite flavors of ice cream are cookies and cream and chocolate chip cookie dough. Ian's favorite flavor is anything with peanut butter and chocolate - his most favorite is the one by Turkey Hill called Touchdown Sundae. We don't eat cake or pie very often. The kids usually have things like pudding, brownies, cookies, ice cream, or candy for dessert.

The first four pictures in this post are from the one room schoolhouse at Landis Valley last Thursday. The fifth picture is of three photos I put in frames today. The one on the left is of myself, Wendy, and our cousin (Kurt). The photo was taken in one of those "old time" photo booths; the one on the right was taken at the same time and is of my parents, Aunt Janet, and Uncle Bill. The one in the middle is of my mom on her sixth birthday; every year their mom took a picture of them outside holding their birthday cake with candles. Nadia and Ian went through a phase (that lasted more than one year) where they were costumes almost every day. Oliver has never gone through such a phase, but he has had a thing for hat the past few months. Paul said I should take a picture when he saw Oliver was wearing a pirate hat while eating dinner.

Forgetful Fairy

Ian lost his second tooth on Saturday night. Nadia pulled it out for him, just like she did with his first tooth many months ago. I had decided awhile ago to give each child $5 for their first tooth and $1 for each tooth after that. Ian put his tooth in a special wooden tooth container someone had given him, and he put that under his pillow on Saturday night. I totally forgot about his tooth after he went to bed. The next morning he came up to me and said in a very dejected voice that his tooth was still under his pillow but the tooth fairy hadn't left him anything. I felt *horrible* and told him that maybe the tooth fairy was running behind schedule and that he should check under his pillow again after he ate his breakfast. He was very excited when he found a dollar under his pillow. I am sure I'm not the only parent to forget his/her tooth fairy duty, but still I felt badly about it. I'll try to do a better job of remembering the next time!

I have spent many hours going through old photos over the past three days. I am almost done dividing the pictures into six categories: pitch, Dad, Maurice, Wendy, Yvonne, and myself. Looking through the pictures it is obvious that in addition to many pictures of each room of every home we lived in that birthdays and Christmas were very important to my mom. I already knew that because she worked very hard to make them special for us, and growing up holidays were the times we usually got together with extended family (cousins, aunts. uncles, and grandparents). It's also obvious how much my mom loved the various cats we had through the years. They had Missie before they had me. My kids enjoyed seeing pictures of Snowflake (who was my cat in the early 90's and was Patches' older brother). Patches died only a couple of months before my mom. It was also obvious that her father's airplane was very important to her. There were MANY pictures of that airplane. I've heard pastors say in a sermon that you can tell what a person's priorities are by the ways they spend their money, and I think you can also get a glimpse into what they treasure the most by looking through their photo albums. I think it is quite obvious from my photo albums that I love my children dearly! Looking through the photos also illustrates how much photography has improved with the switch to digital cameras. The ability to see if you got a good picture (and retake immediately if necessary) is not to be taken for granted. Also what a gift to be able to delete pictures.. I remember the days of developing a whole roll of film and deciding whether to get single or double prints. I have definitely encountered some double sets of prints when going through these photos. I am looking forward to displaying more of these pictures around our house. I already put one in a frame in our bedroom.

Laughter and tears

I am grateful for the ability to both laugh and cry. Paul is one who laughs a lot. I don't laugh as often, but I do enjoy a good belly laugh now and then. Last Sunday the Pastor preached a sermon dealing with the question "How can a good and powerful God allow suffering?" The sermon topic had been picked weeks before, but it was perfect timing because a couple of days prior to that a woman in her twenties who had grown up in the church died of leukemia. We had been praying for God to heal her, but that was not His will for her. During the sermon he read a quote from Frederick Buechner, "For God to try to explain the kinds of things Job wants explained would be like Einstein explaining relativity to a littleneck clam" only he accidentally said "red neck clam" instead of "littleneck clam." Let me tell you I have never heard the congregation laugh as hard or as long as they did with that one. It was hard to stop laughing, but in the midst of a sermon on a difficult topic on a day when there was a funeral for a young woman, laughter was a blessing.

Another example that comes to mind was in the one room schoolhouse on Thursday. The teacher gave the kids spelling words and each wrote on their individual slates. She also gave some math problems, and they were to write the answer on their slate. One boy sitting near where I was standing wrote a big question mark on his slate after the teacher read a word problem. That really got my funny bone also. Of course there are many times my three kids say or do something that cracks me up. Sometimes I have to restrain myself from laughing because their behavior isn't appropriate. For example, when Oliver said "I'm done" and marched off the soccer field before the practice was over. I had to tell him to get back on the field and that he wasn't done until the coach said he was done, but inside I was laughing. I also have had some laughter while going through the photos from my dad's house. My mom labeled many of the photos on the back. This is extremely helpful and is a reminder to me that I need to use more text in my photo books, but sometimes what she wrote really cracked me up. For example, she gave the exact dimensions of the table shown in the photo. Or she had a picture of the kitchen and labeled

on the back that it was a photo of a refrigerator. Um I think that's obvious. Maybe she thought refrigerators would change so much in the future that a few decades later we wouldn't recognize it? Anyhow it provided moments of laughter. I also admit that I laughed at how thorough she was of taking pictures of every room in every house we lived in. She even included pictures of sinks and toilets - including the toilet in my first apartment in PA back in 1996. That made me laugh, and laughter is good for the soul. One last example would be today when Nadia told me she was going to memorize the book of Psalms. I am quite certain she had NO idea how long that book is. It's by far the longest book of the Bible. I told her it was probably better to start with a more reasonable goal, but I applaud her desire to memorize a book of the Bible (I think she is motivated by the knowledge that some of her cousins have memorized a couple of books of the Bible).

I also have cried more this past year than I typically do, and that's quite the understatement. At first the tears were over Paul's decision to switch careers. Then it was over watching my mom

suffer from the effects of cancer and chemo. And now the past three months it has been over her passing. I never know exactly what might prompt the tears to start flowing. I thought it might happen during this most recent trip to Maryland, but it didn't. This morning in church we sang one of my favorite hymns "Great is Thy faithfulness," and I lost it even though I was on the platform with the choir. I was overwhelmed with emotion because the last time I sang that hymn was at my mom's funeral. The choir stays on the platform for the first 30-45 minutes of both services. Paul stayed home this morning to watch the Giants football game. They were playing in England so the game was aired live at 9:00 am will be aired again this evening in the usual Sunday night time slot. Given that he is no longer a night owl, he didn't think he could stay awake until midnight so he opted to watch it this morning. He slept for 12 hours last night! He slept from 6:30-9:00pm and then from 9:30 pm to 7:00 am. I, on the other hand, slept from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am. Most of our marriage he rarely went to bed before midnight so it is a huge change.

Anyhow I opted during the second service to slip off the platform after we sang our anthem so that I would not be up there for a second time of singing that beloved hymn. I don't like crying in public, and it was nice to miss less of my Sunday School class. I am glad though that God gave us the ability to cry and the encouragement to "weep with those who weep." I also love Psalm 56:8 which says " You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." I am not exactly sure what is meant by the phrase "collected all my tears in your bottle," but I find comfort in knowing that just as God knows the number of hairs on my head, He also knows how many tears I have shed. I'm really looking forward to an eternity in Heaven that will not include any sadness or tears.