Nadia was very, very disappointed when she found out last week that can't take ice skating lessons this winter. Oliver's basketball practice is from 5-6 on Thursdays and Ian's practices are from 6-7 on Thursdays. Oliver's ice skating lessons would have been from 4:30-5:15, and Nadia and Ian's would have been from 5:15-6:00. When you sign up for Upward you're allowed to mark one night that you can't make the practices. I always mark Wednesday night because of AWANA. Once they did have ice skating and basketball on Thursday nights, but the basketball practice started at a time that it didn't conflict. I felt badly for her as I know she really loves ice skating lessons, but there is nothing I can do about it. Her basketball practices are on Friday nights. I had
Last Tuesday I found out that my schedule for the spring has changed. This is all unofficial as I haven't officially been offered the job yet. Hopefully that will happen in the near future. I was going to teach from 3:30-8:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays plus have five student teachers, but two professors requested to teach "my" classes on overload. My current schedule is to teach a math methods class from 3:30-4:45 plus fifteen student teachers. On the Thursdays when the basketball season and my spring semester overlap, Tab will be taking my kids to the church at 5:00. I will meet her there around 5:15 (I think it will take about 30 minutes for me to drive to the church from the university). Every other week Paul will need to meet us there around 6:50 so that I can drive to my Bible study (I'll be studying Ezra/ Haggai starting the end of January).
Some emotional bumps for me included PDE saying they don't consider any of my 20+ years of experience to have been certified even though I had multiple valid certificates at the time. Their bone of contention is that I had a certificate from the state of Ohio but didn't teach in Ohio. The three requirements for the certificate I was pursuing were #1 have at least a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction (I have a doctorate), #2 pass the required PRAXIS test (my score was far above the minimum needed to pass), and #3 have at least five years of teaching experience (I have more than 20). It was very hard to accept this news because I spent $400 in taking the test and submitting the application (that's a lot of money to waste!) and I invested a lot of time and energy as well in studying for the test, taking the test, getting all five employers to fill out paperwork verifying my employment, etc. I will be filling out forms for PDE for each of my student teachers next semester so they can get their certification from PDE. Ironic!
The reasons I applied for this certificate were so that I could review other homeschoolers (earn some $$) and so that I could file with our local school district as a private tutor instead of homeschooling my children. Reviewers are allowed to have a certificate from another state if they are employed by an educational institution. So now that I am employed I am eligible to review other homeschoolers with my Ohio certificate. However now that I am working FT I have zero desire to earn extra money by doing this. You must have a PA certificate to be a private tutor, which means I need to maintain records and a portfolio, submit these for review every year (costs about $30 per child), and have them take the standardized tests in certain grades (3, 5, 8, and 11). That's the bitter pill to swallow. I need to go back and fill in some of my records for the past 3 1/2 months. I could apply for a different certificate, but right now I have no desire to do so. The thought of giving more of my money to PDE right now is totally repulsive. So for now I'll just continue as a homeschooler. None of my kids need to take a standardized test this year.
Helping to decorate the house in Maryland for Christmas on Friday was also very challenging emotionally. The last time I saw those decorations was when I was taking them down when my mom was in the hospital having just been diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Originally we had planned to celebrate Christmas elsewhere the first several years (I hosted it last year) because my siblings and I weren't ready to celebrate it in Maryland without my mom, but since my dad got remarried and has moved to Virginia and is planning to sell the house in Maryland in 2018, he wanted to have one last Christmas in that house that he's owned since 1981. I have had a very hard time decorating my own house for Christmas last year and this year due to missing my Mom so much. Naturally it was even harder to think about decorating in Maryland. I broke down and cried about it many times before hand, but thankfully I didn't cry at all when I was there. I did however almost pass out from hyperventilating.
Physically I experienced some bumps and bruises in Baltimore on Saturday morning. The aquarium was selling tickets for $1 each. Normally it would cost $114.80 to buy three children's tickets plus one adult ticket. So we saved $110.80, but if I had to do it over again I would have skipped it. First of all we had to stand in the freezing cold weather (it was snowing) for 2 hours and 20 minutes until we got our tickets. The security guard said that people started lining up at 5:00 AM. Those folks stood in line for FIVE hours! I stood in line for a long time in July to get deeply discounted pirate adventure tickets, but it wasn't cold out and the kids weren't in line with me. If Paul or my Dad had been with me, the kids could have enjoyed the science museum during the 2+ hours I was in line. We did spend about 45 minutes in the science museum as when we bought our aquarium tickets at 12:19 they were selling 1:30 entrance tickets. We were on our feet nonstop from 9:50 AM to 3:45 PM when we got back to our car in the parking garage. Oliver fell asleep almost immediately. As we walked to the aquarium on Saturday morning the sidewalk had a spot where one section was higher. My heel got caught and I fell down. My pants were torn at the knees, my knees were skinned and bleeding, the umbrella I was holding was broken, and the palm of my left hand was also bleeding. My hand feels much better today, but my knees are still very bruised and sore. This too shall pass.
I might possibly return to Baltimore for their annual Dollar Days event, but I doubt we'll go to the Aquarium those days. I noticed other venues which were also $1 had no lines (such as the historic ships). Hopefully I'll remember to check the weather. I *thought* I had learned that lesson last December when we got caught with snow on our drive home from Pittsburgh, but evidently I am a slow learner. We didn't have any snow here where we live, but my drive home on Saturday wasn't easy. I was gripping the steering wheel for all it was worth (does that really help?). I am so grateful we weren't in an accident. Hopefully in the future I will remember to carefully check the weather forecast, as we should have cancelled our plans to drive down there this past weekend.
Since tomorrow is Ian's birthday, I will do my gratitude list a day early.
1. The kids were able to go Christmas caroling at the Warrior Run Manor last Wednesday night with their AWANA group.
2. Thursday was my last day of teaching until January 23 (not counting final exams this week). I'm also thankful that exams can be given online. I am giving one face-to-face and the other three online. That meant that while my students were taking their exam today (from 3:30-5:30pm), I was cooking dinner, eating with my kids, driving them to gymnastics, visiting the library with Nadia, etc. Plus it saved us money as I didn't need to pay for a babysitter.
3. We had a very smooth trip down to Maryland on Friday (no delays due to traffic or bad weather). Although the kids were asking "are we almost there yet" after we had only been traveling for 40 minutes, they were pretty well behaved on the way down there. We listened to books on CD, use the iPad, and watched on Veggie Tales Christmas movie on DVD to pass the 3.5 hours. I had recently purchased a new cord for the DVD player as the other one was broken.
4. We ate pizza for lunch on Friday and went to Texas Roadhouse on Friday night for dinner to celebrate Ian's 8th birthday (Dec 12) and my Dad's 74th birthday (December 10). Margie bought an ice cream cake for Ian and a pecan pie for my Dad (I love pecan pie!). I made Dad a cherry pie (I need to remember next time that he now prefers peach over cherry). Oliver had helped me roll out the dough for one of the crusts. We gave Grandpa his gifts, and Ian received a stuffed animal and a restaurant gift card from Grandpa and Gubba.
5. We were able to spend 2 hours in the aquarium on Saturday, which was a good introduction as we will be studying ocean life in science starting in January.
6. Nadia and I enjoyed a Christmas concert in Lewisburg on Saturday evening. She doesn't often sleep in the car, but she slept as we rode home around 9:00 pm.
7. The Steelers won last night! I went to bed during the second quarter because I was too tired to stay up, but I was thrilled to find out this morning that we are now 11-2! Next week's game will be a bit of a preview of the playoffs as we'll be playing the Patriots.
8. When we came home from church yesterday we ate lunch and then Paul watched his team lose (again) on tv while the kids and I were baking. I made a batch of sugar cookies and brownies. They decorated the cookies. Then the kids and I went to one of the pastor's houses. Some of our cookies were used for the trays of cookies that we then delivered. We loaded two small church buses and went caroling for 2 1/2 hours at various locations (homes of those who are shut-in, a nursing home, a pizza place, etc.). After that we ate some yummy food at the pastor's home before we came home. I'm grateful for opportunities to bring joy to others.
9. Phil Vischer has released some Bible studies for children on Right Now Media. We started one today on I John. It's nice to have a wide variety of resources for teaching the kids about the Bible! We finished the gospel of John today, and I thought we'd study I, II, and III John before moving on to Acts.
10. I so enjoy music this time of year. A men's choir (about 30-40 men) sang yesterday morning in church. Gorgeous! I also loved the choir our (co-ed) choir sang - an a Capella arrangement of "O Come O Come Emmanuel". Our next anthem is also a Capella. A husband and wife played flute/acoustic guitar solos in the foyer before both services on Sunday. Beautiful! I wish I could play a flute duet with her sometime. I miss playing my flute. The kids' choir is singing next Sunday.
11. The kids suggest that we pray at various times. When I was reading to Nadia and Ian about the Black Plague, Oliver became very concerned and said we needed to pray for them. So Oliver prayed for the doctors to stay healthy and be able to help the people, etc. Nadia wanted to protest that this took place hundreds of years ago, but I talked to her later that I wanted to encourage Oliver's desire to pray for those in need. Today when I told the kids that the Steelers won last night and that it was more challenging to win with our best defensive player in the hospital recovering from spine stabilization surgery, Ian said we should pray for Shazier's recovery (that he wouldn't be paralyzed, etc.).
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