Thankful Thursday

1. Over the last few weeks we've only had a few ants in our kitchen, which is a big improvement.

2. I can start teaching today! I was issued 50%foot of my contract yesterday, which is evidently enough for me to start teaching. Hopefully today I'll be able to sign the full contract this afternoon when I meet with HR to do my I-9 and other paperwork. I'm not at all thrilled with the rank/step where they put me for this semester, but they did come up a little bit, and a month ago I didn't think I'd be earning any money this semester so something is better than nothing. Praying that it won't take long for everything to get set up by the university - meaning giving me an email account, giving me access to the learning management software, giving me a parking permit, giving me a key to my office and the computers in the classroom, etc. The last minute nature of everything has been stressful for me, but hopefully in the near future things will settle down.

3. Tab is going to take the kids to the Montour Preserve today for a nature scavenger hunt that was a part of our science curriculum this week. She's going to do an awesome job teaching my kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm very thankful for her!

4. Maurice made it back safely to Texas. We are praying for the people dealing with the horrible flooding in that state!

5. The Towfighis made it back safely to Turkey. We are praying for one of their suitcases to be found by the airline.

6. Margie was cleared by her pulmonolgist to have foot surgery tomorrow.

7.  The washing machine has been working again, and I even was able to wash some towels and sheets yesterday. I doubt it's going to last too much longer, but I've decided to hold off on replacing to see if we can at least get a few more months out of this one.

8. I have been printing like crazy due to my job at Bloomsburg. I'm so thankful we switched to a laser printer earlier this summer, as it is much more efficient when it comes to ink/toner usage.

9. Aside from issues I continue to have with my eyes, we are all healthy!!!

Juggling

As a mom, I don't think there's ever an opportunity for boredom. There are always more things on my list of things I'd like to accomplish than I could possibly complete. For example, I have a hard time carving out the time I'd like to work through some photography courses I've purchased along the way. I've been a stay-at-home mom for 5 years (plus 1 month) at this point. I was technically on maternity leave until January 2013, but the last time I taught a course was July 2012. Most of the semesters since Fall 2008 (when I was a new mom) I worked PT. I did work FT at least one semester along the way, but often I worked 50% or 75%. From spring 2009 to Summer 2012 I taught online and evening classes to minimize the hours that Nadia (and then also Ian) would be with a babysitter. Somewhere along the way we hired a cleaning service to help lighten my load as a working mom. Now that I'm returning to the work force, I am trying to figure out how to make this manageable for myself. I already was very busy. The only thing that's being taken away from my current duties are that I won't be caring for my children or teaching them from 7:00AM to 3:45PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am still planning our their lessons for those two days. I can't add

a FT job to my schedule and have that be the only change. It's not as if I'm going to give up a few hours of sleep each night to get the work done. The first decision I made was to deactivate my Facebook account as that can be a time waster. I did so for awhile, and then on Monday night I reactivated it because I wanted to post the first day of school pictures. I plan to deactivate it again today. I contemplated also giving up this blog, but I decided not to go that route at least for now for two reasons #1 I think if I didn't have a blog or use Facebook I'd take far

fewer pictures, and #2 I think having this journal of sorts is beneficial for my emotional health. In the beginning I partially did it as an alternative to the daily emails I used to write my mom, and of course she's not even reading this blog any longer, but after these almost 11 years I've gotten very accustomed to writing posts on a regular basis. My second decision was to only sign up for one Bible study this fall. Last spring I was in two Bible studies at the same time. I picked one on Nehemiah on Monday nights. I really enjoy participating in a Bible

study, it's spiritually beneficial, and it means Paul will come home earlier one night (every other week if I am only in one study) as he has to be home by 6:15, which means he gets more time with the kids that night. Frankly it would be worth signing up for a Bible study just for that reason alone. I am glad I decided not to sign Nadia up for the acting class. Right now we have three evening commitments a week for the next two months - my Bible study on Monday nights, flag football practices on Tuesday nights, and choir for me and AWANA for

the kids on Wednesday nights. Our three other regular commitments each week are gym class on Friday mornings, football games on Saturday mornings, and church on Sunday mornings.

At the moment I am not inclined toward hiring a cleaning service. For one thing I am trying to teach the kids various skills and also with three kids and two guinea pigs (they make a mess!), even if we had a cleaning service I'd end up doing a lot of cleaning because we only had them come every other week.

I don't know my salary yet so I haven't gotten to the point of making a plan as to how it will be spent, but one thing I do know is that I will be putting some of it toward increasing the entertainment budget so that we can afford to either buy takeout pizza or go out to eat once a week. Doing a little less cooking will be a help to me. As for other financial commitments, I know part of my salary will be used to pay for Paul's mole removal (ended up costing us $1K), two new tires for the van, a new washing machine, and tickets to see Disney on Ice. Due to our

limited budget since I quit working, we haven't been to one of those performances since 2012. I'm sure Ian has no memory of it, and I was pregnant with Oliver at the time. I'm also definitely going to use part of my salary for a family vacation in 2018 - maybe to San Diego, and part of it will go toward paying down the mortgage. When I am feeling frazzled as I try to find time to prepare these new classes, I keep reminding myself of #1 how much I love teaching and #2 how we will appreciate the extra income. If I had been PT, my income for one

semester plus Paul's for the year would have put us back to where we were when Paul taught at Bucknell. That was a depressing thought - to think he has to work far more hours and I also have to get a job just to equal what he used to make on his own. That's another reason I'm very grateful I'm being offered a FT job because then our combined income will be significantly higher than what his was at Bucknell. I am not sure if I will have any benefits. If I was being offered a full year contract I definitely would, but I'm not sure since it's just a one semester

contract. We don't need health insurance, but I would love to have access to the vision plan. It was amazing. If I don't get access to it, then part of my salary will be going to pay for eye exams for Paul, Ian, and myself and for glasses and/or contacts as needed. I for one cannot wait for that to happen. The headaches I am getting from vision issues are truly problematic. I've scheduled the appointment for two new tires and started looking at washing machines. Next on the list is to get myself an eye appointment!

I admit the last several days I have felt like I've bit off more than I can chew. Trying to prepare for three classes, two of which I've never taught before while taking care of three children and homeschooling all three of them has been challenging. Naturally I've had to say "no" to them some times when they've wanted me to do something with them. I think though in time the amount of hours I am spending per day doing work for the university should decrease although I will have an additional email account to maintain, assignments and exams to

grade, etc. Hopefully I will be able to get some of the work done during my office hours on campus. It's just a one semester contract. Although I had been hoping at some point this could translate back into a permanent position (particularly if they took me back with tenure and at Associate Professor), maybe after this semester I'll realize it's too much for me to juggle. As much as I enjoy mowing the lawn (because I like getting exercise), I'm glad that won't need to be done much longer because my plate is full to overflowing at the moment. Trying

to juggle caring for the kids, homeschooling them, being a professor, laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. is a challenge at the moment. It would be more manageable if Paul didn't work such long hours. Many days I function as a single parent because Paul either doesn't see the kids at all (ex. he got home at 8:30pm on Monday night and he usually leaves around 3AM while we're sleeping), or he sees them for a few minutes at night before they go to bed. He usually works Monday through Saturday, and sometimes he also works on

Sunday (which has been the case the last two Sundays).

We are also shifting our schedule toward getting up earlier and starting our day sooner in light of the fact we'll have to be out the door by 6:45am on T/Th. I bought a bunch of pop tarts and told the kids those are only for T/Th as I figure that way they can eat breakfast in the van as we drive to the babysitter's house. I'll still eat my oatmeal at home, but I eat much faster than they do. I do love homeschooling them, and I am so glad that can continue. Yesterday

we were separating plastic and stuffed animals into different phylums and classes, as you can see from some of the photos. I imagine we will go on fewer field trips this fall due to my job. Don't tell that to Nadia. She would not be happy as field trips are SUPER important to her. I signed Paul up for one on September 12. He'll have the kids that day instead of me taking them to the babysitter. Here's to hoping we have an awesome semester, and that I find ways to make this work!

Thankful Tuesday

1. For the first three weeks of August I had very little energy. I think it was a combination of being ill (stomach bug and then a respiratory bug plus pink eye), having 15 people live in our house for part of that time, doing a lot more driving than usual (to Virginia and back and then for Nadia's theater camp), etc. I actually was leaning toward not going to Dutch Wonderland on August 21, and part of the reason I was at one point not planning to go was because I was so utterly tired I had no interest in going. And usually taking the kids to an amusement park is one of the highlights of the year for me. It's something I love to do, but it wasn't an appealing idea a few days before hand. Thankfully last week my energy level returned, which was very encouraging. I was starting to wonder if I had mono or something like that. I've gotten back into exercising. I'm not doing very much compared to the days when I used to run for four hours a week, but something is better than nothing. Once I start teaching, my plan is to exercise at least 20 minutes a day, five days a week (skipping

Tuesdays and Thursdays).

2. I will be teaching FT at Bloomsburg this fall, and my classes are all on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we have a wonderful babysitter lined up who will homeschool my kiddos those days along with her son. I haven't gotten the official job offer as far as switching from PT to FT, and I don't know my salary yet. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have things like an email account, key to my office and the computers in the classrooms, parking permit, access to the website where the students post their assignments for my classes, etc.

3. I taught the Bible story for grades K-5 on Sunday morning for the last time this year. I was asked to continue doing so, which was appreciated (always nice to feel wanted!), but I'll wait until next summer to teach the children again.

4. All my clearances have come back. The child abuse one came through on Sunday, and the results of the second time I was fingerprinted for the FBI came in the mail on Monday.

Unfortunately the red tape process on campus moves very slowly. I had been told on Friday I would be able to teach starting on Tuesday, but then yesterday I was told I can't start teaching until Thursday because HR hasn't issued me a contract yet, even though on August 9 I said YES I wanted to teach the classes. The red tape is unbelievably slow, even knowing the semester was going to start on August 28. The upside to them cancelling my Tuesday classes this week was that I had some more time to get ready for the first day, and I get to teach my own kids four days this week. Hopefully my pay for the semester (whatever it ends up being) isn't docked due to them cancelling the first day of my classes.

5. The kids and I were able to see our very first Little League World Series game on August 23.

6. The kids were in GPS again (they performed it in May at our church) on August 26 and 27. Paul's parents came up to see it on Saturday, and my dad drove up from Maryland to see it on

Sunday. He had been planning to spend Sunday night at our house, but due to the hurricane in Texas, Maurice moved his flight back to Austin from Saturday to yesterday, and my dad needed to drive back on Sunday night so he could make two round trips to the airport yesterday. First to take Maurice so he could fly back to Texas, and second to take the Towfighis to the airport so they could return to Turkey. He spent 2.5 hours with us before the musical, and then left from the church after it was over. In other words he spent far more time driving here and back than he did with us. We greatly appreciated him coming. He hadn't been able to make it to see their GPS performance in May. Oliver actually participated in this one. Ian had a small solo. Nadia had a speaking part (played the part of Emma) and a small solo. The funniest part for me (again) was watching Ian trying to figure out which fingers to use when showing the numbers 1-10 in the song about the ten commandments. I took some pictures and videos that hopefully I can upload at some

point. The child who really knocked my socks off was Ian - particularly on Saturday night. He sang with enthusiasm and really SMILED. Reminded me a little bit of Nadia when she sang in her first musical in August 2012. Can you believe this was her sixth summer singing in a musical at this church? She has two years left before she'll be too old to participate. There were far fewer kids in the program this year. Last year I remember breaking down and sobbing outside the church because I was missing my mom so much. She had missed the first one (in 2012) because the Towfighis were in Maryland, but she had attended all of the ones from 2013-2016. Last year neither of my parents could make it because my mom was in Heaven and my dad was in Indiana. I certainly thought of my mom again during the musical, but this time it didn't cause me to have a melt down like it did last year.

7. The kids and I enjoyed a church potluck on Sunday afternoon. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and Nadia won a door prize (big

bag of fun size Snickers). Paul worked on Sunday. He got home around 5:30PM on Sunday, so he was able to come to their musical both nights.

8. Paul got home from work on Saturday afternoon at a time that enabled me to dash out and get a haircut and get back in time for the musical. It had been 3 months since I had a haircut, and I wanted to look nice for the start of the semester. I am also even more appreciative of my new dresses that I got at JCPenney this summer. If I had known I'd be going back to work, I would have bought more clothes when they were 80-90% off. I'm thankful for the ones I did buy. The past 5 years I've pretty much only gotten dressed up on Sundays, but now I'll be getting dressed up three days a week.

9. Paul's parents watched the kids from 8AM to 5PM on Friday, and then they were at their dress rehearsal. This meant I was able to work on my classes for 15 hours on Friday as I worked until 11pm. I won't continue at that pace, but it helped me make a lot of

progress on setting up two of the three courses. I planned to finish the third one yesterday, but then when I got the word that I wasn't teaching until Thursday I took a little reprieve to do things like write this post and upload some photos. I plan to finish the last syllabus today.

10. Last Thursday I met with a professor on campus. She shared a variety of things with me. Then on Friday she and another professor gave me their log in information which allowed me to access articles on the library's website, see their syllabi and other course documents (they had both taught at least one of the courses I'll be teaching this fall), etc. It would have been much harder to develop two new courses with such little notice without their willingness to share with me. Another friend who taught at Kutztown also sent me her syllabus for one of the courses also. I'm very appreciative!

11. We got the flag football game schedule, and it's wonderful! Many of the weeks the games are back to back (ex. one game at 9AM and the other at 10AM). This week that's not the case, but there's just one hour in between. The last week of the season both games are at the same time. That's the only time that is supposed to happen this season.

12. I declared yesterday to be our "first day" of this school year meaning it was our first FULL day of school. I am so thankful to be able to homeschool my three children, and I'm also thankful Tab is going to help me out with that over the next 15 weeks on T/Th. We did our annual first day of school pictures yesterday. This year Ian said he wants to be an inventor (had said work at the Lego company the past couple of years), Nadia wants to be a missionary (in particular she wants to get a nursing degree and then be a missionary who works with orphans in another country), and Oliver (out of the blue) said  he wants to be a police officer. Ian said the same thing a few years ago. Praying we have a great school year! In science this semester we're studying flying creatures (bats, birds, insects, and flying dinosaurs), and this year we're studying Rome to the Reformation in social studies. We're also going to read through the NT, which is a much less formidable task than reading the whole OT out loud last year. Yesterday we did Matthew chapters 1-2 using a video on YouTube that is a visualized account of the book of Matthew with the narration being every single verse from that book. It was a different way of listening to the book since it was also visual, which never happened when we read the OT.

13. My dad brought up a crockpot with him on Sunday. My mom had given it to me in January 2016 so naturally I'm rather sentimental about it, plus I will certainly put it to good use. I used it yesterday to make some beef stew.

Canada vs. Japan

Yesterday we accomplished one last thing on our summer bucket list - going to a Little League World Series game for the very first time. We live about 20 minutes from where the games are played each year. It's free to watch the game (no ticket needed), and there is a family fun zone that has free activities each day sponsored by various businesses. We went to that area first and then headed to the stadium to make sure we got a seat. I paid $5 for parking and $3.50 so the kids could share a Gatorade (they were hot and thirsty). We watched the first half of the game, and when we left we had a feeling Japan was going to beat Canada, and that's what happened. Oliver was rooting for Japan, and the rest of us were rooting for Canada.

Today was the first time in at least two years that I paid a babysitter. In 2016 we went on three dates. Paul's parents watched the kids when we went out once in April and August, and we had another date when Community Baptist Church had a parent's night out event (free childcare). In 2017 we haven't been on any dates thus far. It's been a little more than five years since I paid for a babysitter due to my job. Today I met with a professor on campus, the one who was scheduled to teach the courses I will be teaching this fall. Our next door neighbor watched my kids for 2.5 hours. She was also watching another neighbor's two girls. Her three children were all at school as today was the first day back for our district, and her youngest started Kindergarten today. The other mom is a stay-at-home mom, but she had a doctor appointment today. Speaking of school starting, I've decided that Monday (August 28) will be our "official" first day, which means we'll get back into doing all the subjects, and I'll take our first day photos that day. However, this week I've been gradually easing the kids back into school. We've been doing 10 minutes of math flashcards each day (started that on Tuesday), reading a chapter from our history book each day about Rome (The Story of the World), Nadia  has resumed practicing the piano, and we finished the last 12 chapters of Ezekiel this week, which means we have finished the whole Old Testament (minus Song of Solomon). Next week we'll start in Matthew on MWF, and Tab will be doing a study of Romans with the kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I was hoping to get a key for my office and the computer in the classroom and a parking permit today, but that wasn't possible because I don't have a contract yet. Part of the reason I don't have a contract yet is that one of my three clearances hasn't been processed yet (child abuse one). I have one from last year, but they want a new one. Hoping that comes ASAP as the semester starts on Monday, and my classes start on Tuesday. I am also still in suspense as to whether I'll be teaching 2, 3, or 4 classes this semester. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll find that out. I asked Paul if he could go in to work later that usual tomorrow (leave around 7AM instead of 3AM) and get home earlier than usual (6PM instead of 7-9PM), and he agreed. He's going to take the kids to Paul's parents' house, and I will get the whole day to myself!!! I had thought I'd have 5 days like that earlier this month, but that didn't happen. All three kids are healthy (necessary so they can be around Paul's mom), and we haven't officially started our school year yet. I am going to use the day to prepare for teaching. If by some miracle I receive a contract tomorrow and can pick up my key and parking permit and such, I will make another trip to the university tomorrow.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia really enjoyed the Juniors Theater Camp, and the boys and I survived all the driving. Six of us (including Paul's parents) enjoyed her show on Friday night. I would have liked to have seen her two shows on Saturday, but that would have involved buying 6 more tickets (for the boys and I), which would have cost $48 total so we only saw one show. I asked her Saturday morning if she wanted to skip the last two performances (which would have meant she could attend her friend's entire party), but she was adamant that she wanted to participate in all three performances.

2. I had to pick the kids up early because Oliver threw up at the summer musical rehearsal on Wednesday night, but since then he has gotten back to full health. I was glad to put the nebulizer away again. Oliver had his five year old well visit today. He had lost a little weight during the illness so he weighed in at 39 pounds (with clothes but no shoes) which put him at the 40th percentile for weight and 43.5 inches (55th percentile), which means his BMI was totally fine

(19th percentile). In comparison, Ian was 41 inches tall when he turned 5 years old (12th percentile) and weighed the same as Oliver (39 pounds). Nadia's 5 year appointment was 4.5 months past her birthday, but at her appointment in November 2013 she weighed 47 pounds and was 42.5 inches tall. So between the three kids Nadia weighed the most and Oliver was the tallest. The doctor today gave me a referral for Oliver to see a GI doctor regarding his umbilical hernia. Oliver had previously said he didn't want the surgery, and now today for the first time he says he wants it. I am hesitating for two reasons #1 our co-pay will be $500 and #2 I'm never too thrilled about my children going under anesthesia. But I don't want him to be teased about something unnecessarily. On the other hand his belly button almost NEVER shows because even when he swims he wears a rash guard. Paul and I have decided to wait for now. If he brings it up again when he's older, we will consider it, but for now we're going to hold off.

3. Ian was stung by a wasp and a

small bee on Saturday at a state park. I was thankful to discover he's not allergic, and I was thankful that someone in the park office was able to put some medicine on it and also give him an ice pack. He really hollered over the wasp sting on his neck (under his ear). Ironically he was stung again at a picnic at church on Sunday afternoon, but he didn't scream over that one. The poor guy was stung three times in two days! Nadia is always a magnet for mosquito bites, and unfortunately the last couple of years she has gotten in the bad habit of picking at them until they bleed. She is definitely going to have scars on her arms. Every time I look at her arms I think she looks like she has Chicken pox. I'll be thrilled when she breaks that habit!

4. When I dropped Nadia off at the birthday party at 3:00 on Saturday, I thought the boys and I were going to need to head to a playground to kill more time as we had done from 9:30-2:15 while she was at the theater. I was thrilled when Claire's mom offered to take Nadia home at the end (they live very close to

us but the party was at Claire's grandmother's house in another town). I'm thankful Nadia was invited and got to be there for at least part of the party. She arrived right before they were starting to hit the piñata.

5. Nadia asked to wear matching dresses with me on Sunday. I had been planning to wear the dress I wore to my dad's wedding, but I was happy to change plans and match her. We got several compliments. Last year we never got a picture of us wearing these dresses. Paul was gone on Sunday (at work) until 5:15pm so I asked Ian to take our picture. It was his first time using a DSLR camera. I'm thankful he managed to get one of us.

6. We enjoyed attending a picnic for the volunteers who teach in the children's classes on Sunday after church.

7. Lately most of the things planned for this month on our bucket list  have been changed to the strikethrough font because we skipped them due to illness, exhaustion, etc. However yesterday we did one more thing

on the list - visited Dutch Wonderland amusement park in Lancaster. It was our second time going there; our first visit was two years ago. Paul's parents met us there and joined us for dinner at Friendly's afterward. Paul only worked for two hours (gone from 3AM-7AM) that day, which meant he could join us for our adventure. We watched one diving show and spent some time in the water area, but mostly we were on the dry rides. It was the fourth amusement park we visited this year, and I believe it's our last for 2017. Next year we want

to go back to Sesame Place and Six Flags, which we didn't visit this year.

8. The washing machine has been working as long as we don't wash any bedding or towels. Shopping for a new one is on my to do list once I feel like I'm in a better place with my preparations for this semester. If you have any suggestions on a good brand/model of washing machine, I'm all ears!

9. Nadia had two baby teeth extracted today (our copay was

$76). She did really well. One tooth we probably could have gotten out ourselves, but the other one still had a huge root and wasn't anywhere close to coming out on its own. In both cases the adult tooth erupted months ago and so now those permanent teeth can move into the proper locations.

10. I thought we'd miss the flag football practices this evening because of the Jordan Feliz concert, but we skipped the fair. The practices were cancelled for weather reasons. Nadia's was moved to

Thursday; so she won't be missing her practice after all. The boys' practice was just cancelled. We are planning tomorrow to do one last thing from our summer bucket list - go to our very first Little League World Series game. We're going to try to see Canada vs. Japan.

11. Yesterday the interim Dean called me to offer me the job of teaching two classes. The good news is that it was wonderful to have it be official. The bad news was that she offered to start me at a lower step and rank than I started out in 2004 at

the same university. I was very demoralized considering I have a doctorate and twenty years of experience. Today the department chair called and asked if I'd be interested in teaching a third class  - a second section of one of the new classes, and then a couple of hours later she asked if I would be interested in teaching four classes (FT). I said YES in part because the Dean had said my rank/step would be negotiable if I was FT. The classes would be from 8:00-1:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She said I would find out in the next couple of

days whether I'm teaching 2, 3, or 4 classes. The good news is the 4th class would be one I've taught many times in contrast to the other two that I've never taught before. I'm praying that if I am offered a FT position that I can be placed at a reasonable rank and step. I'm also praying that they will move quickly with getting me set up with access to technology I need to have the class ready by next Tuesday (including getting a parking permit, key to the computer station in the classrooms, etc.). I had been fingerprinted on Thursday, but evidently I didn't do it

the way they wanted so I was fingerprinted again today. They paid for today's finger printing appointment. I'm anxious to find out exactly how many classes I'll be teaching next week. I didn't expect to be teaching at all, and I might be full-time this semester! I'm grateful that FT can be only two days a week as I'll miss my kiddos. I'm very thankful Tab (a certified teacher who just finished her master's degree in reading) is going to do the homeschooling with them those two days.

12. We all enjoyed seeing the solar eclipse yesterday! At the peak it was around 80% where we were.