Third game

The basketball season is eight games long. This year that works out to three games in January, three in February, and two games in March. Yesterday the boys had their third game, which means next week the season will be half over. As seems to be the norm this season, Nadia plays 4 out of 6 periods, Ian plays 3 of 6 periods, and Oliver plays 2 of 6 periods. It would be more accurate to say Oliver is on the court for two periods. It's a bit of a stretch to say he is playing basketball. He's more of a spectator. He does like to make a grand entrance when his name is announced before the game. He even did a 360 when he came in yesterday. He dribbled the ball once, and that was the extent of his participation. I was seriously contemplating pulling him off the team, but I guess we should just finish out the season. Ian played defense and certainly wasn't just a spectator although he was a bit goofy at times (looked like he and the boy he was guarding were playing tag rather than basketball). Nadia's team again dominated their opponent. They don't allow the lead to be greater than ten points so the scoreboard didn't accurately represent exactly how large their lead was over the other team. Nadia is by far the weakest link on her team. She turned the ball over

umpteen times when she was dribbling the ball. In the second half her teammates kept feeding her the ball far more than anyone else in the hopes she'd make her first basket. She made several attempts but never got a basket. The ball never went high enough, but the ball did go near the net a couple of times. It was extremely kind of her teammates to keep giving her the ball over and over and over again, but I admit I became rather self-conscious. Ian's team had lost their first two games, but according to the scoreboard their game ended in a tie yesterday. The other team had a large lead at one point so it's possible not all of the other team's points were recorded, but still they were happy the game ended in a tie.

Nadia always talks about how much she loves basketball, but she almost never touches a basketball at home. This is her fifth year playing on a basketball team. I personally am not athletic and do not have the time to work with them on basketball in addition to homeschooling them, giving them piano lessons, maintaining a full-time job, etc. Nadia was really, really disappointed that she couldn't take ice skating lessons this winter because they interfered with the boys' basketball practices. At the

moment I am thinking that next year I won't sign any of them up for basketball but will sign them all up for ice skating lessons, which is only a Thursday night commitment. At the moment basketball involves 2 hours of practice on Thursday night, 1 hour of practice on Friday night, and multiple hours of games each Saturday. I might change my mind at some point in the coming months, but at the moment I'm thinking of skipping basketball next winter.

Paul came home yesterday from Las Vegas while we were eating lunch. We didn't have time to come home in between Nadia and Oliver's games as they were at 9:00 and 11:00, but we had time to come home and eat lunch before Ian's 2:00 game. He's really sick. Nadia and Oliver were grateful to be able to stay home with Paul during Ian's game. I cheered for Ian during his game, and we stopped at the grocery store on the way home. Once Ian and I got home, Paul slept most of the rest of the day, and I haven't seen him leave our bedroom yet today (and it's 4:30pm). Unlike moms, dads do get sick days. It is very rare that he has a fever, but he had a 101 degree fever yesterday so he certainly is feeling very yucky. I slept on the couch last night, as I really don't want to catch what he has. Praying the kids and I escape it!

This morning we didn't have to leave for church as early as normal, which I really liked. The choir didn't sing this morning. It meant I had time to read and discuss Hebrews 1-2 with Nadia and Ian this morning before we went to church. The pastors and their wives were on a retreat this weekend so my Sunday School teacher was asked to preach. He called me yesterday to ask me to be his substitute in Sunday School, but I told him I was already signed up to help in the 3rd/4th grade girls' class during the 2nd service. I was disappointed as I do enjoy teaching the adult class. When I showed up to the girls' class today, I found out they didn't need me. I ended up attending the adult class after all, but thankfully someone else he had called had agreed to be his substitute. Bruce did a great job preaching today. He preached from Matthew 5, and at the end of the sermon he briefly talked about three Christians who he imagined heard "well done thou good and faithful servant" when they entered into Heaven. Oliver and Nadia were in their Sunday School classes, but Ian was with me in the worship service. The three people he told a little about were Jan Huss, Amy Carmichael, and Jim Elliot. I had already read the kids biographies of the latter two. Ian was most intrigued by

what Bruce shared about Jan Huss because we've been reading about the Reformation lately. He mentioned things like Wycliffe translating the Bible into English, indulgences, Martin Luther's 95 theses, etc. and Ian was very excited because we have been talking about all of those things recently. The biography I've been reading them lately has been about Ulrich Zwingli.

As I walked into the sanctuary the lady who was handing out bulletins at the door where we entered said, "I thought I recognized you, Dr. Kennedy"! One of my cooperating teachers attends our church. She said she told her student teacher on Thursday that she thought she recognized me but couldn't place where, and this morning she figured it out. When I was at church on Friday night for Nadia's basketball practice I ran into another cooperating teacher (one I haven't visited yet but plan to visit this Tuesday). She was there for a concert. It's a small world after all!


Nadia had been VERY anxiously awaiting this Sunday because she knew they were passing out parts in the kids'

choir for the musical they'll be doing in May. She and Ian were both given parts. Ian has a much bigger part than he's ever had before. The play has a pirate theme, and the choir director said Ian did a great job of really getting into his part (lots of "Arrrs"). She said she's hoping his enthusiasm will be contagious to the other children. That was music to my ears. I'll start having them learn their lines this week. I am far more capable of helping them with drama than I am with helping them with basketball.

First week done

On Tuesday a few students who were not enrolled in my class but rather were on the waiting list showed up for class anyhow in the hopes they would get into the class. I went down and told the secretary, and she called the department chair. The chair added another section of the course so starting yesterday I am teaching from 2:00-4:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays as I'm teaching two sections of the same class. I am now on overload (the academic term for overtime). It means I'll make a little more money which helps to balance out for the

fact I probably won't be able to teach this summer. It also makes me feel like I have pretty good job security even though I'm an adjunct at the moment, especially in light of the fact that three professors in our department are supposedly retiring this summer. Now to get back to being permanent instead of temporary. The soonest that might happen is August 2019. I'm praying to that end!

The first week back is usually more tiring than usual, but this week was particularly taxing. Waiting until the last minute to get my contract (first day of the semester) was stressful, and it meant that I wasn't able to have access to some things until Wednesday so my students didn't have their syllabus, etc. on the first day of class. The projector also wasn't working in the classroom on either day. I didn't think to use the Smartboard instead on Tuesday, but a student gave me that excellent suggestion on Thursday. Although I placed my textbook order with the university bookstore in October, the textbooks also hadn't arrived yet for my students. Hopefully the projector will be fixed

soon, and the textbooks are supposed to arrive next week. Yesterday was a hectic day. I homeschooled the kids (most of the subjects anyhow), met with five student teachers, proctored a final exam for a student who took any incomplete last semester, taught for 2.5 hours, and then met our babysitter and the kids at the church where Ian was in the middle of his basketball practice. I had packed the kids' lunches. They ate lunch and dinner with the babysitter. Until basketball season is over they're going to eat dinner with her family on Thursday nights. They'll have dinner with me on Tuesday nights when we get home around 5:30. I had packed my lunch and dinner. I intended to eat dinner at the church during Ian's basketball practice, but the church kitchen was locked, and I couldn't find a microwave anywhere else in the building. Usually we don't go home during Oliver's basketball practice, but we did yesterday because I was really hungry. It meant we drove for 30 minutes round trip to be home for 30 minutes, but I didn't regret my decision. Once I got home I caught up with emails from university personnel, cooperating teaches, students, and student teachers, and then I went straight to bed.

Today was thankfully not as exhausting of a day. I had purposefully gotten all of our Bible, science, and spelling work done for the week in four days as I knew there wouldn't be time today. I finished reading the last book from the Crispin trilogy to them this morning, and they did most of their math. We have to be out the door at 8:40 on Fridays for art and gym class so that doesn't allow for much time for schoolwork in addition to getting dressed, eating breakfast, packing lunches, feeding the guinea pigs, etc. I had brought their piano

books, AWANA books, and books for them to read while at the babysitter's house after gym class, but today my observations took less time than anticipated. I arrived at her house and the church 15 minutes late on both Tuesday and Thursday, but today I showed up at her house an hour earlier than planned. When we got home they finished their math and practiced the piano. We'll be heading back out this evening for Nadia's basketball practice. Next week shouldn't be as hectic because I'm only planning to be on campus or in a school building two days of

the week whereas I did that four days this week. I think I will be visiting schools three days a week on average.

I was too tired to write a post last night, but here are some things I'm thankful for at the moment.

1. Paul and his Dad made it safely to Las Vegas. They were tired as it was 3AM EST when they checked into their hotel on Monday night. Now we're praying they'll make it back safely to PA tomorrow.

2. I got access to all my courses in BOLT Wednesday (the learning management system). This is where students post their assignments, where I post documents they need, where grades are posted, etc. It is rather frustrating for both the students and myself when this isn't in place before the semester begins.

3. I will receive an overload payment this semester because I am teaching 15 credits, whereas 12 credits is full-time.

4. The kids and I enjoyed using a gift card for Friendly's that we received as a Christmas gift. We had dinner at Friendly's on Tuesday night.

5. As we begin a new semester, I am again grateful for the assistance of our babysitter.

6. We are all healthy!

7. Now that I am employed again, it means I am able to borrow money from my retirement account. I am planning to borrow enough that I can pay off the mortgage. It's better to pay interest to myself (my retirement account) than to pay it to the bank that holds our mortgage. It means that in hindsight it wasn't the right decision to refinance the mortgage a little over a year ago, but at the time it was the right decision as we cut the interest rate in half. I had no way of knowing then that I would be reemployed in August 2017. We took out a 15 year mortgage, and it will technically have been paid off within 15 months instead of 15 years. The retirement loan will need to be paid off in five years, but we plan on paying it off sooner than that. It will be a wonderful feeling to be debt free!

Back to School

My kids got back to "school" on January 2. The spring semester at my university started today. The supervisors were supposed to meet with their student teachers around noon today, but I saw that one supervisor in my department was meeting with his at 7:30, and I decided to do the same because our babysitter has another job on Mondays (meaning she can't babysit that day). I thought Paul could just go in to work later than usual. I asked him in December, and he agreed. Then he decided two weeks ago to go to Las Vegas this week. So yesterday evening he came up with this plan that involved waking the kids up at 6:00 (60-90 minutes earlier than they usually get up), taking them to his parents house, and then about 90 minutes later driving to meet me somewhere in between my job and his. Well hopefully this is the only day this semester they will be awakened early on account of my job. They had to do it twice a week last semester, and I thought we'd be avoiding that this semester. I had thought they would do some schoolwork with Daddy, and then I'd come home and finish up with them. While I was on campus I met with my 15 student teachers, signed my contract at HR, picked up my student evaluations from the fall semester, and got my parking permit for this semester from the university police. Now I just need to have access to things like the student roster for my class and the learning management system. It's rather frustrating, but there's nothing I can do about it. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have been able to accomplish that. A professor also helped me by showing me the way to submit mileage for reimbursement. That had changed while I was gone.

At one point today I was asked if I wanted to be on overload this semester by taking on a second section of the math class, but then the department chair realized it was too late to do that. There was a long waiting list for my class. I agreed to take as many students as would fit in the classroom. We shall see tomorrow how many that ends up being! She said in the fall they'll offer one of the sections of this class as an on-line course to solve part of the problem.

The babysitter texted me to tell me that one of her sons had a fever and probably has strep throat. She took him to the doctor today. I texted two neighbors to see if either one could babysit the kids for 3.5 hours tomorrow afternoon, but neither were available. So we're just going to hope and pray that my kids don't catch what her son has. With Paul in Nevada there isn't anything else I can do about it. I don't have a long list of babysitters because up until I went back to work last semester we hadn't been using any babysitting services for several years.

Nadia keeps asking when we will have our next field trip. We were supposed to go to the children's museum in Bloomsburg last Wednesday for a homeschool program, but it was cancelled due to the schools having a snow day that day. There is a price to be paid for me juggling a FT job while homeschooling. Hopefully we'll go on lots of field trips the week of spring break in March, and I won't be teaching this summer so I'll have a little over three months off this summer, and that gives us many opportunities for field trips/vacations.

One of my student teachers was at the Eagles football game last night. For the next two weeks I will be a HUGE Eagles fan because I really, really, really don't want the Patriots to win the Super bowl. I am assuming the Patriots will win, but I'd love to be wrong. The Giants did beat them in the Super bowl twice. It is possible.

Four Years Ago

 On this day four years ago Ian accepted Christ as his personal Savior! I have had the worst time remembering the date for Nadia's spiritual birthday, but Ian's has been very easy to remember because it's the day before my sister's birthday. Ironically, this was the date he was due to be born in 2010, but he decided to come early on December 12. So in a span of about 5 weeks we celebrate his physical birthday, Christmas, and then his spiritual birthday. I asked Paul to stop at Dunkin Donuts and buy 6 donuts on his way home from work last night so we could have donuts for breakfast this morning. Yesterday I got him a t-shirt at a Christian bookstore. It is patterned to look like a Star Wars t-shirt, but on the front it says "May the Lord be with you" instead of may the force be with you, and it has a Bible verse on the back of the t-shirt. He liked his gift. We packed lunches to eat in between two of the basketball games, but I told him we'd splurge and buy him a hot dog at the concession stand since it was his spiritual birthday. Yesterday I got two large pizzas, and we ate the second one today for dinner, which was perfect as pizza is one of his favorite foods.

Nadia and Oliver had their team pictures today. Hopefully they smiled! I only purchased a 5x7 of the team photo, which cost $5 per child. Ian's team pictures are in two weeks. We were spoiled in the fall with Ian and Oliver being on the same flag football team and most weeks the games were back to back. Today the basketball games were at 10, 12, and 2. Nadia had to be there at 9:30, and her coach didn't dismiss her team until after 11:30. We ran one quick errand in between Oliver and Ian's games. Aside from that brief errand, we were at the church from 9:30-3:10pm. Some weeks the gap between the games is bigger, which is actually better because then there's time to go home in between. Today was Nadia's very first time playing a full court game. They play 5 on 5. She and Ian each played for 4 of the 6 periods. Oliver played for 2 of 6 periods. Nadia's team won, and Ian's team lost. I was not paying any attention to the score in Oliver's game. I was just hoping he'd actually run on the court and be in the proper location. Ian showed a lot of improvement this week compared to last week, which was encouraging. Nadia looked so small on the court, but the girls range in age from 4th through 6th grade, and she's already shorter than many fourth graders so she was really dwarfed by the 5th and 6th graders. Ian and Nadia both dribbled the ball and had a couple of attempts at making a basket.

The best part of the day was finding out that this morning Hannah's parents received an email from the doctor at CHOP stating that Hannah is cancer free! Geisinger (the local hospital) had recommended chemo treatments "just to be safe," but CHOP disagreed. She just has to have an ultrasound once a year. They believe ALL of the cancer was removed during the surgery. The tumor itself was benign, but it metastasized, and there were some immature cancer cells in the lymph nodes that were removed. CHOP believes the cancer was caught very early and removed during the surgery done at Geisinger in November. PTL! Her parents were crying tears of joy over that email! We had been praying for Hannah multiple times a day, and I am so, so, so, so happy to hear this news.

Flat Tire

Yesterday I pulled out of the church parking lot after Oliver's basketball practice a little after 7pm. I noticed that the tire pressure warning light was on, but we that particular warning light frequently goes off when the weather changes. Sometimes we need to add air to one or more of the tires. Sears had told me last year that they thought there was a problem with the sensor. After I pulled out of the parking lot, I heard a strange sound and knew something didn't feel right. I pulled over into a side street, looked around the van, and saw I had a flat tire (passenger side front tire). I called Paul, and it took him about 30 minutes to get to us as he was still on his way home from work. He came straight to us instead. We had never had a flat tire with the van before. We've had the van for 5 years (plus 4 months). Paul discovered it took a lot of time and effort just to get the spare tire out from under the van and the jack from the trunk. Altogether it took over an hour for him to change the tire. One of the people in the housing development where I had parked called the police at one point to find out what we were doing. Two hours after we left the church we got home. The church is 12 minutes from our house. The kids were all tucked into bed at 9:10pm, which was five minutes after we pulled into the garage.

In the fall I had purchased two tires. Sadly, one of those tires was the one that had a hole in it. I bought the tires at Sears before I knew that the store would be closing a few months later. If the store was still open, I could take it in and get a new tire at no charge because it was under warranty, but the nearest Sears Auto Center is now too far away for me to drive on a donut. I took the tire to a shop in our town today to see if they could patch it, but it turns out it was damaged on the inside because I had driven a little bit on the flat tire. The soonest they could get me a tire that would fit our van would be Monday, and I need to drive to Bloomsburg at 6:30AM on Monday (and that's too far to drive with a donut). I called Walmart, and they had a tire in stock. I plan on buying my tires at Walmart in the future as like Sears they give you free tire rotations if you buy your tires there. At some point in the next year or so I'll need to replace the other two tires. The soonest appointment they had was for Sunday. Paul is going to take it in for me. Paul was in Baltimore for 5 days last week, and he'll be in Las Vegas from Monday through Saturday next week. I am grateful if I had a flat tire that it happened this week while he was here, as I would have had no idea how to change it myself.

Shortly before 4pm I got an email from the HR department saying that my contract is ready for me to sign. Yahoo! I will meet with my student teachers at 7:30 and then go over to HR and sign my contract. I talked to the department chair today. She said that if any of the three professors who say they are going to retire do actually retire, she will ask for a full year FT adjunct (one for each professor who retires). Hopefully if they are going to retire they'll let the university know in a timely manner. If they want to teach this summer and retire after that, it will delay their announcement. But the good news is that my department chair thinks that even if none of them retire, I will be able to be FT next fall. It just would mean I'd still be offered a contract for only one semester at a time. The schedule could change if another professor asks for these classes as overload. I know about that from experience as my schedule changed for this spring semester for that reason. At the moment she's thinking (if none of them retire),that I could teach two sections of the math class I'm going to teach this semester (she's thinking I'd teach from 8:00-10:45am on Tuesdays/Thursdays) plus have 10 student teachers. This semester I have one section of the class and 15 student teachers. It's heavenly to think of teaching the *same* class next semester considering this semester I'm not teaching any of the three different courses I taught last semester. Normally they offer one online section and one face-to-face section of the course, but she thought if an adjunct was teaching the course she'd just make both sections face-to-face. I would like to teach some online courses in the future if possible, and actually I had taught that math course as an online course before, but I am happy to teach both sections face-to-face. I'm just happy to have a job! I'm still hoping and praying that I can become permanent again in August 2019. Time will tell.

I took a video today of Oliver reading some words. He is making progress even if his kindergarten experience is FAR more relaxed than his siblings was for three reasons #1 his immaturity, #2 I've taken on a FT job, and #3 now I have three students at home. Maurice would be pleased that "fox" is one of his favorite words to read. Thus far we have worked on three letter short vowel words, and more recently we've also been working on words with "sh," "ch," and "th".

Thankful Thursday

1. We are looking forward to attending some concerts over the next three months. I recently bought tickets so that Nadia and I can attend a Plumb concert at our church in early February and a Steven Curtis Chapman concert in Williamsport in March. Tomorrow I'm planning on buying tickets for Ian, and I to attend a Jeremy Camp concert at our church in April. Uncle Al and Aunt Millie are also planning to attend that concert.

2. Last Friday when Nadia, Ian, and Melanie (another homeschooler) showed up for their 11:50 art class, they found out the fourth grade art class had been moved to 8:10AM. The art teacher graciously taught a lesson to just the three homeschoolers. She said in the future they'd need to come either at 11:00 or 8:10 on Fridays. 11:00 doesn't work because the kids have gym class from 10:00-11:30 on Fridays. I was not interested in an 8:10 art class for several reasons including how would we get our schoolwork done on Fridays, and at 8:00 we're usually eating breakfast. After having rushed out the door at 6:30AM two days a week next semester, I was not wanting to rush out the door at 7:45AM on account of an art class. I asked the principal if we could have a refund. He was very willing to give us a refund, but he suggested we see if we could work something else out with the art teacher. She suggested a third grade art class on Wednesday morning. What we're going to try first is to have the kids go at 9:10 on Fridays. It's a first grade class, but she said she'd have Nadia and Ian do the fourth grade curriculum while the first graders are doing their first grade curriculum. Nadia would much rather be in a fourth grade class than a first grade class, but compared to not having art class at all, this is the preferred solution. The 11:50 time slot was ideal for us, but 9:10 is better than 8:10. I am planning to do observations on some Fridays so it might mean that Tab will need to do a little schoolwork with them in the afternoon. I did extra spelling and science with the kids today to try to make our list shorter of what we need to accomplish tomorrow.

3. I'm thankful all three kids can participate in Upward Basketball. 

4. Sears has been sending me $14 off coupons. Instead of going to the store, I have been using them online. I have been spending about $11 so that I can get free shipping, but if I am buying things on clearance and then taking an additional $14 off of $25+, I can get some good deals. Thus far I've been buying things like underwear and pajamas, which are not things I typically buy at yard sales. So I'm thinking I might still continue shopping at Sears (online) even after the store closes in our mall as long as they send me that nice of coupons and offer shipping if your order is at least $25 before the coupon. Ian and Nadia both love the pajamas I got them this way!

5. It's nice to have Paul home this week. He was in Baltimore last week, and he'll be in Las Vegas next week.

6. The kids and Paul enjoyed a Disney on Ice show on Monday. I took the kids for the first time in April 2012 when I was pregnant with Oliver. Ian (age 2) said "yay" 100+ times that night. He loved it and cracked up the people sitting in front of him by his constant exuberance. Paul and his parents took Nadia and Ian to a Disney on Ice show in April 2013. Both of those shows were in Hershey. Nadia and Ian hadn't been to a Disney on Ice show since 2013, and neither of them remembered the first two times they went. Oliver had only been in utero. I had planned to take them to Wilkes Barre on Monday, but I had only purchased four tickets. Since Paul hasn't been joining us for vacations, trips to Maryland, etc. I assumed he wasn't interested in going. When I found out he thought we were all going together, I offered that he could use my ticket since it was my fault. I should have checked with him before buying the tickets. All three kids loved the show! He went to work that morning and asked me to drive the kids part of the way there and meet him. I talked on the phone with my sister, Yvonne, for the first time since November, and that was a nice consolation for missing the show.

7. My syllabi are done. I have only eight more PowerPoints to create for the math class. If HR can give me a contract to sign today or tomorrow, then I'll be meeting with my student teachers are 7:30AM on Monday morning on campus. They start their field experience on Tuesday. I should start teaching the math class on Tuesday afternoon provided I have been able to sign a contract before then. I still need to set up the learning management system for both the student teachers and math class, but I will not have access to it until I've signed a contract.

Oliver's first basketball game

On Saturday the 2018 season of Upward basketball kicked off in terms of the first games for most of the teams. Due to snow/ice we received during the night, the 4th-6th grade girls' games were cancelled that morning. Nadia's game was to have been at 8:00AM. This will be her fifth season of playing Upward Basketball, Ian's third season, and Oliver's first. It's Nadia's first time playing full court basketball with only girls. The K/1st and 2nd/3rd grade teams are co-ed. The K/1st grade teams play 3 on 3. The 2nd/3rd grade teams play 4 on 4. Both of the boys' games were rather decisive victories. Oliver's team (Dragons) won by a large margin (which had absolutely nothing to do with Oliver), and Ian's team (Buffaloes) was definitely the underdog in their matchup. The boys' games were back to back (1:00 and 2:00) which was very convenient for us. Paul took two days off (Saturday/Sunday) after working eighteen days straight. He came home from Baltimore on Friday evening. We hadn't seen him since Sunday. Nadia read during both games. Ian read during Oliver's game. Nadia and Oliver each used some of their money to buy soft pretzels during Ian's game.

It was obvious that Oliver was totally clueless when he was on the court. He played during two of the six 6 minute periods. At one point (while he was supposed to be playing on the court), he came to the sideline for a drink of water. Generally he was on the wrong side of the court all by himself while all the other kids (from both teams) were on the opposite side. They tried to give him the ball a couple of times. Once he didn't catch the bounce pass and so the other team stole the ball. Another time he did dribble it a little bit. He definitely needs to work on learning how to dribble. Ian was always in the correct place, except for sometimes he crossed the half-court line too early when playing defense. He never dribbled the ball (although he does know how). He attempted one basket, but he wasn't close. The hoop is higher up for 2/3rd grade than K/1, and I don't think he's made the adjustment yet. He was so focused on guarding his player that he was still trying to do that even when his team had the ball. There are eight kids on Ian's team, so each child played for three of the six 6 minute periods.

Sunday morning I found out that a family I am friends with at church found out that a couple of days earlier than their eight-year-old daughter has cancer. This past fall the parents were in the same Sunday School class that I was, and Nadia and their older daughter are playing on the same basketball team right now. Hannah had a surgery in November to remove a mass that had just been discovered that had spread to her lymph nodes. The surgery was done at a local hospital after CHOP (Children's Hospital in Philadelphia) had told them they didn't think it was cancerous. The local hospital's pathology report was that it wasn't cancer. We were thrilled to hear that news but then almost two months later they got the second pathology report (from CHOP) that there was some cancer in the mass. Hannah is having tests and such at CHOP today to see if the cancer had spread and also to begin to develop a plan of action (chemo, etc.). I was in tears during the prayer portion of the worship service. I have spent time on all but one floor of our local children's hospital. The NICU is on one floor, the PICU is on another floor, the general area for children is up another floor, etc. The top floor is for the oncology patients. I have been to that floor because that is where the shower is located for parents to use if their children are in the NICU or PICU, but I hope and pray I never have a child as a patient on that floor. The kids and I have been praying for Hannah and her family multiple times a day. Even Oliver has been praying for "Hannah to feel better."

I was already in a very sober mood from this news, and then I watched portions of a pitiful football game. It was such an awful game that I left the room and did schoolwork for large portions of it. Of course football is totally and completely unimportant compared to a child's health, but I do get emotionally involved in my team's games, having cheered for this team my whole life. When it comes to football I don't care to watch any more games this season. As far as who wins the Superbowl, I have one wish - that any team EXCEPT the Patriots wins. As long as the Patriots don't win, I'll be happy with whatever the outcome is of this year's Superbowl. Usually we disconnect the cable once the season is over for both of our teams (sometimes that's been as early as December if neither of our teams made the Playoffs), but I plan to keep it on a little longer this year and disconnect it after the Winter Olympics are over. Years ago they didn't charge us any fee to have it turned on/off, but now they charge us around $50 each time. It's annoying to pay a little over $100/year just to have the cable turned off and then on again, but we still save money by not having cable for 6-8 months a year. The cable company provides us with our internet service so we use one of their services 12 months a year.

Thankful Thursday

1. I bought an app this week. It's by far the most expensive app I ever purchased ($15), but I think we will get our money's worth out of it as I am using it for Oliver for reading (and will later use it for spelling with him) and am using it for Ian and Nadia for spelling now. They all have enjoyed it thus far!

2. The orthodontist on Monday was happy with how Ian's teeth have progressed over the past  year (some improvement), and he said Ian isn't ready yet either, which was good news to me because if they both need braces I'd like to do it at the same time. I'll take them both back in August or September for another evaluation.

3. Aside from taking the garbage out/getting the mail, I never left the house on Tuesday. Originally I had planned for us to spend Tuesday in DC but given how the boys are still getting over their colds and how much work I still need to do for the spring semester, I am really glad I cancelled our field trips this week.

4. We make good use of our church's indoor playground. Oliver plays in it while Nadia and Ian are in art class on Fridays. Nadia and Oliver play in it during Ian's basketball practice on Thursday evening. Since Paul wasn't home from work when we left at 6:45pm for Nadia's basketball practice on Friday evening, the boys played in it during her basketball practice.

5. Paul took Nadia and Oliver ice skating on Sunday afternoon.

6. My body has reverted back to letting me sleep in later in the morning (meaning I wake up between 6:30-7:30 rather than 5:15-5:30AM). Also just in the past week Ian and Oliver have also been doing better at not getting up before 7:00AM and some days they have also slept until 7:30.

7. I am making progress in my course preparations! I am finally beginning to feel like I will achieve my goal to have everything in order by January 21. I also received my official job offer today so hopefully it won't take long for them to issue

a contract so I can have access to the learning management system and get everything set up for my student teachers and math students by January 21. I am thankful for my job!

8. It has been really cold lately. I'm very thankful for a nice warm house!

9. None of the kids are healthy, but I think they're all over the worst part of the respiratory bug, although I was saddened to hear that Oliver threw up at AWANA last night (as a result of a coughing fit). I thankfully managed to escape the bug. I think getting extra sleep helped.

10. The Steelers are in the playoffs. Here's to hoping we beat the Jaguars on Sunday!

Ice Skating with Daddy

This has been an unusual Sunday. None of us went to church this morning. Paul was at work. Ian threw up last night; so I didn't think I should take him to church this morning. Nadia is doing much better. Oliver is on the mend, but he's definitely not over his respiratory bug yet. One look at his face and you know he's been blowing his nose a lot because his nose and upper lip are very red and chapped. I feel like I've been trying to fight off the bug. I have had mild symptoms. I've been getting a lot of sleep at night to try to help my body fight it off. Last night I slept for almost 11 hours! Growing up if we were not up to going to church we said we were attending "Bedside Baptist" at home. Saying that makes me think of the Sunday mornings I spent with my mom at home in 2016. Often she and I would watch a worship service on TV (such as Charles Stanley) or my church service or their church service online. Attending "Bedside Baptist" with my Mom and Wendy two days before she passed is certainly etched in my memory. I had planned for the kids and I to read Acts 10-20 this week, but when I realized we weren't going to church this morning, I changed the plan to studying Ephesians this week. We read and discussed Ephesians 1 and half of chapter 2 this morning. Reconciliation was a new concept for Nadia and Ian. We watched 4 short episodes of What is God's Plan (each episode is about 9 minutes long) on Right Now Media to go along with our study.

Paul has been working really long hours. The kids and I left for Maryland on December 28, and up until today we had almost no contact with him since we got home. For example, yesterday (Saturday) he left for work at 4AM and got home around 8PM, just as I was putting Ian and Oliver to bed. He came home earlier today (12:15) so he could take Nadia ice skating this afternoon. Oliver joined them, and Ian and I stayed home with me. The upside of me staying home was I was able to keep plugging away at my course preparation. Sometimes I feel a sense of panic that I won't get it all done by January 21, but all I can do is keep working on it every chance I get. I'm already much farther along than I was when the fall semester started. The downside of me not going with them was that no pictures were taken. If the boys' basketball practices hadn't been on Thursday nights, they'd be taking ice skating lessons right now, and Oliver would be learning how to skate independently. Hopefully it will work out for the three of them to take ice skating lessons next year. Paul is going back to work this evening, and we won't see him again until Friday evening as he'll be in Baltimore. If he hadn't come home early today, the kids would have pretty much gone 16 days without seeing their dad aside from a couple of minutes here or there on a few of the days. He's worked 13 days in a row thus far, and that total will reach 18 days in a row on Friday.

Having a job where a lot of it can be done from home is a huge blessing, but it has its challenges as well. When I am at the university, I am 100% focused on that job. When I am at home, obviously some of my attention goes toward my three precious kids as well as a myriad of other tasks that vie for my attention (ex. yesterday I was boxing up the Christmas decorations that had just been placed haphazardly in the basement and today I cleaned the bathrooms and made lasagna). We have been enjoying listening to books via Audible. Yesterday Nadia asked me if I could find some more; I only get them when they're really inexpensive. So at one point today I took a break from my course preparation to find some Audible bargains. I got Black Beauty, Little Women, and Alice in Wonderland for $2 each. We started listening to Black Beauty while eating our dinner this evening. When we go to the library tomorrow we're getting the sequel to Crispin: The cross of lead, a Newberry Award book I had never read before and really enjoyed reading to the kids. 

Thankful Thursday

1. We had a safe trip down to Maryland on December 28 and a safe trip back on January 1. We didn't hit any traffic or bad weather on either trip. The kids slept during part of the trip home, which was one of the reasons I opted to leave on Monday evening instead of Tuesday morning. Although we enjoyed seeing Coco at the theater, opening presents, and going bowling, the highlight for the kids of their trip was playing with their cousins. Ian mostly played with Adam, Oliver played with Grace, and Nadia usually played with Susie and/or Rachel. At one point they played Spyfall for two hours via FaceTime with their cousins in Turkey. Other activities included doing a puzzle (Wendy, Margie, and Grandpa did the vast majority of it), playing Boggle, playing Samurai Sword (our gift to Adam), and playing Labyrinth (Ian's gift from Wendy). I won the game of Boggle, and I did a little better than I had lately with bowling.

2. Ian and I are still healthy. Paul, Oliver, and Nadia each have a respiratory bug. Paul ended his birthday last night by helping me clean up Oliver and his bedding when he threw up at 11:40pm in his bed (we had all been asleep when it happened). I'm hoping and praying Ian and I can continue to escape the bug. I've been healthy for the past four months, for which I am grateful! Oliver didn't feel up to attending his basketball practice this evening, but Ian was able to go to his, and Nadia wants to go to hers tomorrow night. Even though Oliver is rather sick, I'm also grateful that it doesn't seem like this will result in a hospitalization as it did from 2013-2016.

3. I used a coupon at Sears on Tuesday to get Paul a shirt that was originally $30 for $2.80. I am trying to take advantage of my last few opportunities since the store will be closing by the end of this month.

4. The orthodontist said yesterday that Nadia's not ready for braces yet. He asked us to come back in 8 months. He said she doesn't have any wisdom teeth. That will be one less problem for her to deal with in the future since it seems many people have to have those extracted at one point or another.

5. As always, I'm thankful for the library. We check out books, audio books, and DVDs on a regular basis. For example, this week we've watched two DVDs from the library on oceanography in preparation for what we'll be studying in science starting next week.

6. We have NOTHING planned for Saturday. Paul's aunt's annual Christmas party was rescheduled for this Saturday because of snow last week, but Paul can't go because he needs to be at work finalizing things for the trade show in Baltimore next week. I am hoping to make significant progress in my course preparation for the spring semester on Saturday and Sunday as I am starting to feel a bit panicked about my ability to have everything completed by January 21.

7. We're thankful for the gifts we received in Maryland. Yvonne gave us a gift card to Amazon. Ian and Nadia spent their portions and are excited about receiving what they picked!

8. The gymnastics center is offering a homeschool class. They tried this once a few years ago, but there wasn't enough interest to actually complete a session. I was planning on signing them up for gymnastics again in March when basketball was over, but I decided to sign them up for the homeschool class in case our enrollment might make a difference as to whether they continue to offer the class. No one can say my kids are gipped in any way when it comes to physical education as they have a 90 minute gym class on Fridays, 2 hours of basketball a week (between the practice and the game), and now 60 minutes of gymnastics on Wednesday afternoon. I thought this might be a consolation for Nadia since we can't do ice skating lessons this year (although ice skating lessons are cheaper than gymnastics). I'm thankful that due to my job we have the money to pay for gymnastics. The biggest bonus of going the homeschool class route is that all three kids are in the same class so we'll only be there one hour (compared to 2.5 hours in November and December). My only hesitation as that I hope this won't be a problem with scheduling my visits to see student teachers. I'm hoping I can schedule all their visits to take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Happy Birthday, Paul!

Today is Paul's 48th birthday. Unfortunately he has a respiratory bug, and his birthday happens to fall right before the annual trade show in Baltimore so he's been putting in long hours at work. The kids and I were in Maryland from Thursday morning through Monday evening, and he told me even on Sunday he put in a long day (worked until 7pm) and New Year's Day wasn't a day off for him either. Since I gave Ian the day off of school on his birthday in December he thought Paul would get today off of work. Nope doesn't usually work that way when

you're an adult. He was hoping to take tomorrow off of work so that we could take the kids skiing, but that's not happening either. There are two days each winter we could take the kids snow skiing for free. Last year we only did one of the two days for the same reason (preparing for the trade show in Baltimore). One upside to not going skiing tomorrow is that I should be able to get more course preparation done. I am getting nervous about my ability to have everything done in 18 more days.

Yesterday evening the kids and I went to Dunkin Donuts and bought 6 donuts plus a breakfast sandwich for Paul. I think he ate the sandwich last night and one of his donuts this morning. The kids have made him cards, and we have his gifts ready for him to open. I made him rigatoni and meatballs for his dinner. We had that for lunch as the kids and I will eat a light meal on the run for "dinner" because Nadia has an orthodontist appointment at 4:30 and the kids have AWANA tonight while I have choir rehearsal. I'm thinking of getting pizza tomorrow.

I didn't cross paths with Paul very much yesterday so I didn't get around to asking him what he wanted for dinner on his birthday. I know pizza and rigatoni and meatballs are two of his favorites so I don't think he'll care which he has tonight vs. tomorrow night. Although bowling is much more "up Paul's alley" than ice skating, I'm hoping he'll take the kids ice skating sometime this weekend. Nadia was very disappointed that we didn't go ice skating with the Benners as we usually do each December. It was more distressing to her because she can't take ice skating lessons this winter as the lessons are at the same time as her brothers' basketball practices. Ian's choice would be to go see the newest Star Wars movie.