Pumpkins, Costumes, and Klimt

Yesterday morning I took the kids to the Children's Museum for a program about Gustav Klimt. The presenter showed the children several different examples of his artwork, and then she focused on his painting entitled "The Tree of Life." Then she gave each of the kids a canvas and guided them through making their own version of the Tree of Life. The canvases were still wet when it was time to leave, so we left them there and will pick them up the next time we're at the museum (most likely on Wednesday). I love that programs like this are free for members. We definitely get our money's worth out of our membership at the Children's Museum in Bloomsburg. I was a little nervous that I was going to end up with paint on myself. Normally I wouldn't care since the paint was washable, but my next stop was the University for an Open House event. Thankfully my outfit stayed clean, and I was able to wash the paint off my hands.

Ian selected his Bounty Hunter costume (from Star Wars) for each of the trunk or treat events. Today is day four out of our six days of Halloween. It's not my favorite costume, so I talked him out of that one for Friday night as I stopped at the park on the way to church to take their annual photos, and I didn't want him wearing one with a mask. If I had been thinking, I would have picked a costume with a mask for Oliver since he's the hardest one to get to cooperate for a photo, ha ha! Because Ian switched to Luigi, I had Oliver switch to Mario just for the photos, but actually he wore Mr. Incredible for the trunk or treat on Thursday and Ironman for the ones on Friday, Saturday, and today. Nadia has been an Egyptian princess at all of the events this year. They were doing face painting at the one Paul took them to yesterday afternoon, and they painted her face in a way that matched her costume. This afternoon they had their fourth (and final) trunk or treat. I enjoyed this one because it included yummy foods like ham and bean soup, strawberry shortcake, etc. Tomorrow they have a Halloween party at the library that they'll attend before gymnastics (Nadia) or after gymnastics (boys).

We'll be making a trip to the dentist in Watsontown who gives kids $1 per pound of candy as we have way too much candy in our house right now, and they'll still be collecting more on Tuesday night. They go through their bags and pick out what they want to keep and what they want to donate. Last year they donated six pounds so they each received two $1 coins. It was a rainy day today, but it was nice out the last three days. Thankfully the church that hosted the event today had a Hall of Treats inside the church building. After church today Paul took the kids to Bloom Bounce as it was free for WVIA members today. It worked out well for them that the Giants have a bye week and the Steelers are playing at 8:30pm, as it meant we were free to take them to Bloom Bounce and the Hall of Treats this afternoon. Usually we're watching one or two football games on Sunday afternoon. We had planned to attend a field trip at a state park tomorrow, but that has been cancelled as it's still supposed to be raining tomorrow morning. I'm happy to stay home until 5:10pm tomorrow when we leave for gymnastics.

We have another field trip planned for Wednesday, which is another reason I don't mind that tomorrow's has been cancelled. The last few days I have been putting many hours into planning field trips and vacations for the coming months. I realize some things might get rescheduled or cancelled and other new things will be added, but it still helps to do some research and have tentative plans. Here are a few highlights of the trips that are more than three hours from our home:

1. A couple of days in DC/Baltimore (Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Museum of the Bible, Museum of Industry, Museum of the American Indian) in January 2018 when Paul has a business trip to Baltimore

2. A couple of days in Philadelphia in March (my spring break) to visit the Adventure Aquarium, US Mint, Franklin Institute, Franklin Court Museum, and Garden State Discovery Center

3. Four day trip to Buffalo Museum of Science, Old Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Fort George, Rochester Museum and Science

Center, Strong Museum, and Genesee Village in May 2018

4. Chesapeake Children's Museum and Blue Angels air show in Annapolis on May 24, 2018

5. Fort McHenry and Port Discovery in Baltimore on August 17, 2018

6. Trip to Pittsburgh to visit Fort Ligonier, Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh Children's Museum, Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, Fort Pitt Museum  - August 31 - September 2, 2018

7. Jamestown, Yorktown, and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia September 14-17, 2018

8. Vacation in San Diego area October 10-15 to visit San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park, Sea World, LEGOLAND, Disneyland, Maritime Museum, USS Midway Museum

9. National Archives and National Zoo in DC in November 2018

10. Luray Caverns, Montpelier, Monticello, and Virginia Discovery Museum November 17-20, 2018

11. Vacation in Michigan in May 2019 to visit Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, Fort Mackinac, Colonial Michilimackinac, Soo Locks, National Museum of the US Air Force (OH), Flint Children's Museum, Michigan Science Center, Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, Sloan Longway, and Imagination Station (OH)

Well I'd better stop planning trips and get back to writing lesson plans and making PowerPoints. I am caught up on grading at the moment, which is always a nice feeling.

Field Trips

Oliver trying to pick up a worm for his bait.

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you probably have figured out that I place a high priority on taking my kids on field trips. Being able to go on many field trips is one of the perks of homeschooling in my opinion. That has been curtailed over the past two months due to me going back to work. In the past we skipped some field trips due to our finances being tight. Now we skip them because time is the limited commodity. On Monday I took the kids to an art class at an art studio. I brought a book that I've been trying to read as I determine which textbooks to submit to the bookstore for my classes next semester. In reality, I didn't end up reading the book during their art class. I find myself torn so many times these days as to when to just be in the moment with my kids and when to do my work although I am physically present with them. Not trying to get my work done at the same time also frees me up to take pictures of them, which is something I also really enjoy doing.

On Wednesday we went to Bald Eagle State Park for a four hour program put on by students at Penn State. The program was very well done. It included five stations plus a group session focused on a broad winged hawk, which is kept at Shaver's Creek because it is blind in one eye. Seeing the hawk was Ian's favorite part of the day. My kids were put into the red tailed hawk group. Our first stop was tree identification. Then the kids went fishing. None of my three caught any fish, but another girl in our small group caught four different fish (perch and rainbow trout). Oliver said the fishing was his favorite part of the day. We ate lunch in our van because it was COLD out. It was about 51 degrees, cloudy, and very windy. Brr! After lunch we did an activity about what to pack if you are going backpacking for a few days. That was Nadia's favorite part of the day. Our fourth station was a bird identification talk. The kids were given field guides, binoculars, etc., but we didn't see many birds. Our last station was probably my favorite as we went on a walk and then collected various macro invertebrates from the water. The kids found newts, damselfly nymphs, water spiders, etc.

Broad winged hawk

The downside of field trips is that it sometimes means we're not home very much on a given day. We still had some time at home on Monday, but on Wednesday we were gone almost the whole day between the field trip, getting the van to Sears for an oil change, tire rotation, etc., and AWANA for the kids and choir for me that night. Thursday I took the kids to the library, Walmart, and a trunk or treat event right after I picked them up from the babysitter so that was another day that we were gone from the house for about 12 hours straight. I was very grateful on Friday to stay HOME until 5pm when we left so I could take the kids to our church to help out with that trunk or treat event. Somehow Halloween has morphed from a one day event when I was a child to a six day event for my kids. Having a day at home means I have time to get work done for the university plus also time to do things like vacuum, exercise, do the laundry, etc.

Today is our first Saturday without flag football. I'm taking the kids to an art class at the Children's Museum in Bloomsburg, and then I am participating in an Open House event at the university for high schoolers who are considering being an education major at the university. Paul is taking the kids to a trunk or treat this afternoon at the church where they do Upward Basketball. The last few days I have been putting a lot of time into planning out field trips and vacations for the next about 14 months. I am hoping to take more trips once this semester is done. I am assuming next semester will be more manageable since I'll have more course preparations done before the semester starts. Having a job does make planning field trips more complicated because some of the days that a particular venue is having a "Homeschool Day" or a "Hands-on History Day" happen to fall on a day I am teaching. I'm thinking that in January or February I will know more of what my schedule for next fall might be. I'm hoping to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays again because I have planned some four day weekend trips (Friday through Monday). If I am teaching on T/Th next fall, then I think we're going to skip participating in a team sport next fall so we can go on more trips in September and October. I'm still trying to figure out a way to schedule our vacation to San Diego for October. I'm thinking we could be gone 6 days if one of the days we were on vacation I had my students take their midterm exam. It would be about $900 cheaper to go in October as the kids would get in free to LEGOLAND, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park etc. If it won't work to go in October, then I think we'll go late May or early June. I do love planning field trips and vacations! Now to get back to grading.....

Thankful Tuesday

1. The kids enjoyed playing flag football for the first time this season. It was nice that Nadia was able to sing the National Anthem at the game on Saturday and that Pop Pop was able to join us.

2. We attended a painting class yesterday morning. There were 10 homeschoolers at the painting party. Each child painted a pumpkin on a canvas. I am displaying all three canvases on our mantle for the next few weeks, and then we'll hang them on their bedroom walls. I am trying to increase the frequency of our field

trips - not to what it was when I was unemployed, but more than it has been the past two months.

3. All three kids are enjoying their gymnastics classes. They had their second class last night.

4. I took the kids to a Chemistry show at Bucknell last Tuesday night. We had schedule conflicts the previous two years, which prevented them from attending; so this year I decided to skip their final flag football practice so we could attend the event.

5. We had a wonderful time birding on Friday morning with another homeschool family and a birder from our church.

6. The kids enjoyed playing glow in the dark field hockey in gym class on Friday morning.

7. The Aldi's was reopened last week which meant we were able to shop there on Saturday after their football games. We also stopped at Sears to use two more coupons to get some very inexpensive clothing.

8. All three kids did a good job singing in kids' choir in both services on Sunday, and Nadia did well with her short solo.

9. I am still enjoying my Bible study on Nehemiah. We met last night. We will conclude our study in two weeks.

10. I'm so thankful for libraries!!!

11. The Steelers are now 5-2. Yay!

Last 2 Games

Our first season of flag football is in the books. Yesterday all three kids played at 11:30. It was the only time this season their games happened simultaneously. Pop Pop, Paul, and I didn't bother bringing our chairs on to the field as we had at all the other games because we figured we'd be walking back and forth to see parts of both games. Nadia's game ended in a tie. She didn't really have anything to do on offense, but on defense she certainly was running and trying to pull the flag of the QB or whomever had the ball. The boys' team won their game. They won the first game and last game and lost the other six games. Ian tried to pull a ball carrier's flag when he was on defense, but he didn't succeed with that this game. Ian played center for almost every play on offense, but there was one time when someone else played center and Ian was the running back on that play. He got a couple of yards. In our opinion, Oliver should have been the center. I'm not sure what we'll do next fall if we'll go back to soccer, take a break from a team sport, or maybe do Upward flag football at a different church.

We'll make that decision in the spring. If they do flag football again in the fall, Nadia and Ian could be on the same team. Oliver says he can't wait for Upward basketball. We have a little break from a team sport as those practices don't start until the middle of December, and the games don't start until the middle of January. In terms of the NFL, today was a good day for the Steelers (who are now 5-2) and a bad day for the Giants (who are now 1-6).

Nadia sang the National Anthem before their game on Saturday. I'm not sure why, but she got off pitch in one section ("o'er the ramparts we watched"). She never had trouble with that when we practiced. I was proud of her for being willing to sing a Capella in front of everyone gathered for the two games. I was also pleased that she kept going and managed to get back on pitch. She had another (smaller) solo in the song the kids' choir sang at church today. She did a perfect job in both services with that solo. I also was very pleased with Oliver. He showed GREAT improvement. I took a video of both services, especially as Paul's mom couldn't come. She's had a cold for a couple of weeks which has prevented her from having her chemo the last two weeks. She's supposed to have it every four weeks, but if she has it this week it will be seven weeks since her last treatment. Thankfully the first treatment was a lot more effective than the chemo she had been on earlier this year. Hopefully she'll be deemed healthy enough this Thursday to have the second treatment. I heard the kids sing in the both services. Paul and Pop Pop heard them in the second service.

Adjustments

The past two months I've felt like I've been making many adjustments. One has been related to my vision. For 39 years I have needed to wear glasses or contact lenses, but until recently those were just to address nearsightedness. As I got into my 40's I started to develop presbyopia, which meant I was struggling to read for the first time. I asked for this to be addressed in January of 2016, but that time the eye doctor didn't think it was severe enough to be addressed. As time passed I began to be convinced he was wrong because I was having more and more headaches, and I thought they might be related to my vision issues. I went to a different eye doctor this fall, and she said that I definitely needed bifocals or reading glasses (1.75). It was definitely an adjustment for my brain to get used to bifocals, but once I had time to adjust, I loved them and definitely had fewer headaches. Yay! I prefer contact lenses to glasses, if I can see as well with them as with the bifocals, I'd prefer to go that route. On Wednesday I picked up my monovision trial lenses. Since I was teaching yesterday I

didn't think it was a good day to try them out for the first time, so today was the first time I put them in my eyes. My left contact is to help with my nearsightedness, and my right contact is to help with my presbyopia. I have to resist the temptation to cover one eye because right now everything - far and close is blurry. She said it will take time for my brain to adjust (up to 2 weeks). I'm hoping this will work out. We shall see! If not, I can try either bifocal contacts or just stick with my bifocal glasses. Paul saw the eye doctor this week. He's going to be getting his first pair of bifocals, although his presbyopia isn't as bad as mine (1.25 for him). I got mine from Zenni (online) which was immensely cheaper than getting them at Sears or the eye doctor. We're going to order his this weekend.

The bigger adjustment has been for me to go back to work. I had worked FT from 1992-2008, but then once I became a mom I worked PT most of the semesters (I did work FT some semesters) until I resigned after having Oliver. Those years of

being a "working mom" were very different than this semester because #1 back then I was teaching online and classes that met from 5-8pm and #2 I wasn't homeschooling back then because the kids were somewhere between birth and four years old. Teaching an 8:00 class has meant I need to go to bed earlier. I have been getting up between 5-6AM seven days a week. I have told myself not to stay up past 9:30. Occasionally I have stayed up until 10pm, but there have also been plenty of days I've gone to bed as early as 8:00pm. I lecture from 8:00AM to 1:45PM, and I had never taught four 75 minute classes back to back before. The first few weeks I would literally develop a fever over the course of the day, and by the time I finished the fourth class I just wanted to take a nap. As I've become reacclimated to teaching at the university, I can now teach all four classes without developing a headache or fever or feeling the need for a nap, although I often go to bed early those two nights. I'm very thankful that my body has made that adjustment. Nadia asked me yesterday how many weeks

were left in the semester because she doesn't like getting up so early. The answer is that including final exams she only needs to get up early 13 more times. We can do it!

I have put far less time into planning field trips over the past two months, but we *did* go on one today! This morning we went birding at the Montour Preserve. I asked a birder from our church, and she also invited another homeschooling mom from our church. So three women and six kids went birding this morning for about 90 minutes. Thanks to the Audubon Society, she had binoculars we could borrow. Some of the birds we saw included Canadian geese, hairy woodpecker, pileated woodpecker, blue jays, crows, tufted titmouse, black-capped chickadee, white breasted nuthatch, golden-crowned kinglet, robin, starling, yellow-rumped warbler, cardinal, and goldfinches. We went from there to gym class, came home and had lunch, made a batch of cookies, did a little bit of schoolwork, and then I took the kids to a corn maze. We tried a different location. We spent about two hours there in the maze and maze park. They have a 3.2 mile maze and .8 mile maze. We did the shorter one (Nadia picked it), but we walked much farther than .8 miles because we were going in circles and retracing our steps quite a bit! We didn't buy a pumpkin because they were pretty pricy. I think next year we'll return to Ard's (where we've always gone in the past), but it was worth it to check this one out at least one time. Their hayrides are much longer than Ards' (30 minutes), but we didn't do the hayride today. It was a very pretty day (got into the 70's). The only downside to these fun activities was that I didn't get much grading done although I did do some work during their gym class. Snatching a few minutes here and there I did manage to finish grading one assignment today. I have two more assignments to grade this weekend (and in the case of one assignment I have 60 students that completed it). I think I'll have more time to grade tomorrow.