Field trip woes

The kids  have had three field trips thus far this month - Safety Day at Camp Susque on September 6, Mary Poppins on September 8, and a painting class at Paint, Party, and More on September 22. All of the other trips have been cancelled or postponed including: a program at RB Winter State park, a fossil dig at the Montour Preserve, Jamestown, Williamsburg (two days), Yorktown, Graeme Park/ Da Vinci Science Museum, and a program and hay ride at Rohrbach's Farm. So that means eight of the eleven field trips I had scheduled for this month were cancelled or postponed. We were supposed to go to Graeme Park this Friday and also Da Vinci Science Center. Maurice was planning to take some buses and meet us at Graeme Park. I cancelled Friday's trip because the thought of driving almost to Philadelphia on Friday is too repulsive at the moment considering I am often driving over 100 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays between driving to the university plus visiting student teachers. Instead the kids will attend art and gym class on Friday, and I'm planning to visit one student teacher on Friday morning because I visited two yesterday

and plan to visit two tomorrow, and I am trying to see five per week. The other seven field trips were cancelled because of rain. We enjoyed a few days without rain, which was greatly appreciated especially when we were at the Bloomsburg Fair on Sunday for the Casting Crowns concert. Yesterday the rain returned. Paul didn't see the messages the farm sent saying the program had been rescheduled for next month due to the farm. When my first class ended at 9:15, I noticed the messages and sent him a text. He was already part of the way there, but my text did spare him from driving the whole way there in vain. I have eleven field trips scheduled for October. Hopefully the kids will be able to attend most or all of those! Going on many field trips is one of the perks of homeschooling in my opinion. I'm also hoping we can have a break from the RAIN. We have had far too much rain over the past two months. Thankfully, we didn't get much rain from Florence. Our basement is dry, and the humidity level is now down to 50%. Hopefully it will keep dropping.

Here are some things I am thankful for today...

1. The kids had fun with their grandparents last Thursday.

2. They painted sea turtles on Saturday morning. It ended up being a private class just for my three kids!

3. We enjoyed going to the Bloomsburg Fair on Sunday evening. I used to go every year starting in 1997, but then I had only been once in more than ten years. My mom and I took the kids there in September 2012 (Oliver was still on oxygen at that point), but none of the kids remember that. We have gone to at least one fair almost every summer, but lately we had gone to one closer to our house. We went primarily to attend the Casting Crowns concert, but we also saw a circus act and explored various exhibit halls to see the huge pumpkins, crafts, livestock, etc. We also had dinner there. It's a much bigger fair than the ones we have attended the last several years. This translated to it taking us a full 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot when we were leaving.

4. The Steelers and Giants both had lousy starts this season, but both of our teams won on Sunday and Monday. Night games don't work well for me, as I get up at 5:30 on Tuesday morning. I had work to do once I got home from Bible study on Monday night, and then I went to bed so I only watched a couple of minutes of the game.

5. I have used the elliptical four times in the past eight days! My goal is to use it for at least 20 minutes a day on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturdays. I didn't do it on Friday, but I did it last Wednesday, Saturday, Monday, and today. Nadia has been using it almost every day! I'm so glad that the elliptical is getting used more regularly as it wasn't cheap and we didn't use it much in the first year we owned it. I'm also very thankful we weren't charge for the repairs.

6. The weather has finally cooled off! Our electric bill is the highest it has ever been for October. We are paying about twice what we usually do. It was our highest bill of the year and that is definitely not usually the case. Right now we are in that wonderful time when we don't need the heat or air conditioning.

I haven't taken many pictures lately so I am going through my phone and uploading things I hadn't uploaded previously - so it's an odd assortment of photos and videos. I still need to upload videos from Nadia's musical last month. The videos are from Niagara Falls.

Photo taken on August 22 at Dorney Park

Ten Years Ago

On this day 10 years ago we sold our previous house, bought, and moved into our current house. My mom was there with us that day, which was a big blessing to me as Nadia turned three months old that very day. I wasn't getting much sleep at night, and I also had gone back to work (FT) when Nadia was 8 weeks old. This marks the first time in my life that I've lived 10 consecutive years in the same house. Paul lived more than 10 years in the house where his parents still live. From 1972-77 I lived in Clearfield, PA, 1977-78 Birmingham, AL, 1979-81 DeSoto, TX, 1981-1990 Glenn Dale, MD, 1990-92 Cedarville, OH, 1992-94 Glenn Dale, MD, 1994-96 Arnold, MD, 1996-2000 Port Carbon, PA, 2001-04 Pottsville, PA, 2004-08 Catawissa, PA, and 9/24/08 to present Watsontown. When I bought my first home (January 2001) I didn't expect we'd live there for decades, but I didn't think we'd be moving 3.5 years later. When we bought our second home (July 2004), that time I remember saying the day we moved in that I hoped we would live there for decades. That house was much cheaper

than our present house and also involved a much shorter commute to work for both of us. If I could go back in time, I think it would have been better if we had never moved in 2004. We moved so that Paul's commute to PSU (which he made from 2008-2012) would be shorter. We didn't look at many houses when we bought our present house because we assumed it would be very temporary (3-4 years). Ironically this is the house where we've stayed the longest in our marriage thus far.

We do like the house aside from the occasional problems with water in the basement. The kids have more children to play with in the neighborhood than they would have in our previous house as the houses were fewer and farther between out there. When we moved in there were three of us in the house. Now there are five of us plus two guinea pigs. It was definitely easier to keep the house clean when we first moved in, but I will take a messier house over an empty nest any day of the week! I was reminded of this last Thursday. The kids spent

the day at their grandparents house while Paul was at work. I gave them the day off of school work in light of our vacation being cancelled. I got home from work around 5:45pm, but the kids and Paul didn't get home until a little after 8pm. It's hard enough being away from the kids when I'm at work. I come home to an empty house on Tuesdays because they are at gymnastics. I'm grateful that normally I don't come home to an empty house on Thursday.

The first few years we were here I didn't make many changes to the house because I thought we weren't going to live here very long. I remember telling my mom that if we ended up living her on a more long term basis the first thing I would do is replace the carpet in the dining room. Ironically, in the last two years we replaced the flooring in several rooms but not that one. Since the dining room table has become a Lego table, it doesn't really bother me that there is carpet under the table. I will insist that the table be cleared off before Christmas as we will need to use that table for eating when are hosting the Benners,

Maurice, my dad, and Margie at Christmas. Ironically, the most expensive project is one I regret that we undertook. We had a fence installed in 2009. It has never been helpful for us, and it has created extra work (weed whacking under it and cleaning the fence). Although I'm not a dog person, if we end up getting a dog some day, it will help me feel better about the thousands we invested in the fence. Back then I was trying to decide whether to replace the deck or get a fence. I wish I had picked the deck back in 2009! We are going to do something with the deck this fall. I'm thinking of hiring someone to build some steps and eventually Paul can put down some concrete pavers to make a small patio for the grill. Speaking of cleaning the fence. I spent over two hours cleaning it on Saturday and it looks better than it has in years.

When we were in Maryland last month, my sister asked me if I had considered moving to a house that would be closer to work for both Paul and I. Although I'm not a fan of having a longer commute, I really don't want to move. Moving is such an exhausting, stressful, and time consuming process. We will lose money on this house when we sell it. We have put time, effort, and money into fixing up the house over the past two years, and we'd have to start all over if we moved to a new house. Plus, if we moved we would have to borrow more money as the houses are more expensive there, and I am trying to get out of debt his year so that if I return to being a SAHM it will be more possible to live off of one income. We shall see how long we end up living here! It's the only house that Ian or Oliver have ever lived in and the only house Nadia remembers since she was an infant when we moved here.

Thankful Thursday

1. It was a challenge to teach Ian how to write his manuscript letters when he was five. It has been such a pleasant surprise to find out that it was been a breeze to teach him to write in cursive (thus far anyhow). He's writing beautifully and of his own initiative writing in cursive at other points in the day such as when working on spelling.

2. One of the libraries within the library system we usually use recently acquired 24 more sets of Adventures in Odyssey cds (previously they only owned 8 sets). Nadia is thrilled! It's wonderful to be able to check out so many from the library rather than needing to keep buying so many for her own personal collection.

3. It's nice having Nadia and Ian in the same AWANA book for the first (and last) time ever. They are both in T and T. It means they are memorizing the same verses (Titus 3:4-5 this week). The picture at left was taken yesterday morning as last night was "Fashion Disaster" night at AWANA. Nadia configured both outfits. They changed their outfits several times over the course of the day. I'm thankful they don't usually wear this many articles of clothing in a single day! In the end Ian wore Nadia's pink pajama pants to AWANA, and Nadia wore some of his shirts and ties.

4. Our elliptical was repaired on September 12, and I don't believe we are going to be billed for it for which I am thankful. Also hoping and praying our basement stays dry so it doesn't get wet again! Now I need to start using it on a regular basis. I used it for the first time in many months yesterday.

5. Paul took the kids to Safety Day at Camp Susque on September 6, and I took the kids to the Not Back to School Pond Party on September 7. They enjoyed both events!

6. Paul took Nadia to the WGRC Skate Night on September 6, and Nadia won a cd!

7. The kids and I enjoyed seeing Mary Poppins on September 8.

8. The kids and I are participating in a BSF study for the first time ever. We are studying Joshua right now. I help them with their BSF homework on M/W/F. On September 10, I had too full of a schedule - homeschooled the kids, got my haircut (while the kids were with me), and then Paul came home early so I could go to faculty meeting on

campus. I came home to eat dinner, and then we went to Bible study. I was questioning the sanity of signing up for a Bible study. This past Monday we were home aside from a quick trip to the grocery store and I didn't feel so tired at the Bible study. I could have attended another faculty meeting OR a meeting at church related to singing in the choir. I skipped both of those so I could attend the Bible study and also so I wouldn't overload my schedule.

9. The kids enjoyed playing at Micah and Isaiah's house on September 12. Part of the time they were there I had my annual eye appointment. There was no change to the top part of my bifocals, but the bottom part will be strengthened when I order new frames next month.

10. Oliver had his first ever art class last Friday. The Christian school is going to give me $150 back of the $200 I paid for Ian's tuition for the year. We decided to keep Nadia in the 5th grade Christian school art class. Oliver and Ian are in the homeschool art class. All three of them had their first homeschool gym class for the 2018-19 school year last Friday. I'm very thankful our church offers these classes! The fact that they have art from 9:15-10:00 and gym from 10:00-11:30 means I can do some observations on Friday mornings. Last Friday I did one during that time frame. The boys play in the playland from 11:35-12:25 while Nadia is in her art class.

11. We were able to see many members of Paul's dad's side of the family on Saturday as we celebrated the life of Paul's grandmother.

12. The kids are back in the Soul Patrol choir at church, and my first choir rehearsal for the new school year was last night. I love the arrangement of "Amazing Grace" that we're going to sing for Easter this coming spring. I'm thankful that the kids were able to sing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" at Great Gram's funeral on Saturday.

13. We received $169 back of the $458 we had spent in advance for the vacation in Williamsburg that we ended up canceling due to Hurricane Florence.

14. Paul and I received our new bedspread on Tuesday. It's the first one I've purchased for our bedroom in our 17 years of marriage. The one we had used for the last I am not sure exactly how many years had been a wedding gift. I was somewhat limited in my choices as we have light blue walls and navy blue carpet, but I found an inexpensive set on JCPenney's website that went with those colors. The set included 2 shams and 3 throw pillows. I also purchased a new bed skirt and new valences for the windows as the maroon bed skirt and maroon valences didn't go with the new bedspread.

15. Since before the semester began I had put on my syllabi that they wouldn't have class on September 18 due to our planned vacation. I had planned to use a personal day. I didn't think the students would like me changing the plans and telling them that now we were going to have class after all so I went and visited student teachers instead. Normally I am gone from 6:30am to at least 5:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but this Tuesday I left at 8:15am and got home at 3:30pm. It was less exhausting even though I still drove well over 100 miles that day (just for work - not counting the miles to Bible study).

16. Phil Vischer has a new show on Right Now Media called "The Mr. Phil Show" that the kids are enjoying. Any show that teaches them more about the Bible is appreciated by me!

17. I'm thankful we don't have many apples this year. It means I have to buy more apples, but it's a lot less work! Yesterday I made apple crisp, which typically I only make with apples from our trees, but the grocery store had apples on sale for 88 cents a pound so I bought a lot of apples and used some of them for apple crisp, which is something Nadia and I both really, really enjoy eating.

So long, Great Gram

 Paul's grandmother passed away on Tuesday; she would have turned 96 in December. Like me he never met one of his grandparents. In his case it was his mom's father. In my case it was my dad's father. His other grandparents passed away in 2004 and 2005. His mom's mother had lived with them for many years. He was very close to his Nan. For a few decades his father's parents had lived in the house next to Paul's parents' house. Paul worked at the plant for years with his Pop. Great Gram loved to make things with her hands. She made each of our Christmas stockings. She made and framed a cross-stitched piece of artwork for each of her great grandchildren (including my three kids). And the list could go on and on of the many things she made for people throughout the years. On Friday afternoon Paul's mom asked if I would be the Scripture reader and if the kids would sing at the service on Saturday morning. I chose some verses from the end of Romans 8 and Christ the Lord is Risen Today. I picked that hymn for the kids in part because they had learned the first verse of the hymn in kids' choir at church and also it seemed to be a good hymn when focusing on the joy of knowing that Great Gram is now in Glory with her Lord and Savior.

This occasion meant that we were able to see some of Paul's extended family whom we generally only see at weddings and funerals. We had seen all of them a little less than six years ago at Gram's 90th birthday party. The two women pictured above with the kids are Pop Pop's sisters. On the left is Aunt Marlene (who lives in CA), and on the right is Aunt Diane, who lives in Florida. We visited Aunt Diane in 2013 when we were in Florida. Pop Pop's brother (Dick) passed away many years before his parents did. Dick's daughters (Paul's cousins Lisa and Jessica) were there along with their mom (Aunt Barbara who is pictured at right), their husbands, their children, and one granddaughter. Oliver enjoyed playing with Olivia who is Lisa's three-year-old granddaughter. Since Lisa is Paul's first cousin, if I am understanding how the cousin terminology works, I think that means Olivia is Paul's first cousin twice removed. I think it also means that Oliver and Olivia are fourth cousins. It's confusing if you ask me! Paul's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill were also there albeit they are relatives from his mom's side of the family.

Ian loves to tell jokes whether that be puns or knock knock jokes, etc. Some of his jokes are funny, some make absolutely no sense, and some are a bit too obvious to be funny. After the funeral there was a time for cookies and coffee in the church's fellowship hall, and then the family went to a restaurant for a meal that was served family style. Ian was sitting across from Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill, and I think he kept them rather entertained. As someone said that day, Ian looks like me the most (of our three kids) but he certainly takes after his dad in several ways -one of which would be that he laughs at his own jokes (just like Paul does). After the meal, most of us went back to Paul's parents house. People stayed varying lengths of time. We stayed until a little after 7pm. The fact we spent the day with extended family made me feel a little better about our decision to cancel our vacation. We got the money back from Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg ($169 total between the two), but we didn't get the money back from the time share ($289). The kids were already at

Colonial Williamsburg once (2015). I think we'll wait maybe five years to reschedule our visit to that site, but I'm hoping that sometime in 2019 we will make it to Jamestown and Yorktown (just two days not an entire week). Hopefully whenever we do Colonial Williamsburg again we can also visit Virginia Beach. I have many fond memories of that beach as we went there many times as my dad's cousin and his family lived there.

Gram collected angels. Although her collection had already been purged a few times over the years, she still had a lot of angels in her efficiency. Many were on display at the church on Saturday and guests were encouraged to take as many as they wanted. Oliver only took one but my other two took a few each. Some are ornaments we can display on the Christmas tree.
The kids each also picked one of her stuffed animals to take  home. At Paul's parents house they had photographs and jewelry up for grabs. I selected one necklace and one pair of earrings. Nadia picked a lot

more than I did. At church today she was wearing earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet that all used to be her Great Gram's. Gram was the only great grandparent that any of our kids met as all the rest had passed away before they were born. We used to see her at family gatherings (ex. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, the kids' birthdays, etc.), but lately she hadn't been leaving the assisted living home even for those events. Ian and Nadia remember her, but Oliver doesn't. So he was VERY confused as to who died. He kept thinking it was Grandma or Pop Pop (Paul's parents) who died and at the restaurant asked if it was Aunt Debbie who died (nope she's alive and well and sitting at the same table eating with you, LOL). He also was very confused as to what a "funeral" was. He kept referring to it as a party, and since he's been obsessed with water balloons the last few months, he asked if there would be water balloons at the "party." Um no. Although it was a joyous occasion as the Lord granted her desire and called her to Heaven, we didn't throw water balloons. As Pop Pop said during the service, considering his current age (will be 76 in December) it won't likely be that many years until he is reunited with his Mom in Glory.

Rain, Rain, and more Rain!

From July 21 to the present we have had an insane amount of rain. For at least the third time in less than two months our backyards have been covered in water to the point you couldn't see any grass. Although many in our area deal with flooding from the Susquehanna River, that is not our situation. As I drove home from work this evening I saw more and more roads were closed due to flooding, and many of those were very close to the river. The river had overflowed its banks in some spots. Our problem is that the ground is so oversaturated that there is standing water in many places. Our new sump pump (which we purchased last month when our basement flooded due to the previous pump giving up the ghost) is doing a good job, but yesterday we had some water in the basement this time because it came through some of the tiny windows. Again it was because the ground is just SO oversaturated. Last Wednesday a repair guy came to fix the elliptical. The company had sent the wrong parts; he's supposed to come again tomorrow morning as we received the correct part on Saturday. Here's to hoping he can repair it tomorrow and that we don't receive a bill for the parts or repair service. It's under warranty, but that could be a moot point if they feel it's due to water damage. Also, I am wondering if we should move the elliptical somewhere else in the house to make sure it stays dry, but I can't think of where else it could go. 

Today Paul was going to take the kids to RB Winter State Park for a program for homeschoolers scheduled to take place from 9-3, but last night I received an email that due to the stream there having too high a volume of water, the event was cancelled. I quickly sent Paul a different set of lesson plans for today. This Thursday we had planned to drive to Williamsburg, Virginia. Due to Hurricane Florence, those plans have been scrapped. It is disappointing as we had plans to visit Jamestown, Yorktown, Virginia Beach, and Colonial Williamsburg. We are studying that time period right now. The kids were at Colonial Williamsburg in 2015, but they have never been to the other places. Paul's parents had planned to join us. I already received an email from Colonial Williamsburg suggesting that I call them to receive a refund for our reservations. I am planning to do the same with Jamestown/Yorktown tomorrow (it was one ticket for both places). The biggest expense was the $289 we paid for a three bedroom unit for seven nights. I am also going to see if they will give us a refund or allow us to change the dates. I have been a member of Interval (the time share company) for over 18 years and have never made such a request before. There was one other time we didn't use a week we had paid for. The other instance it had nothing to do with the weather but was due to me deciding to teach in the summer on campus. The kids are very disappointed as they knew the resort had an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, etc., but there is no way we are heading toward a place that is about to be hit by an intense hurricane! I am hoping Florence doesn't bring us much rain. 

I had requested a personal day for September 18. I am attempting to cancel that request. I had already told my students since the first day of class that we would not be meeting on 9/18. They would  be rather upset if I changed the schedule at this point. I had already given them an alternative activity in place of class. So presuming my request to cancel my personal day is approved, I think I will spend the day visiting student teachers. I visited two today, and I plan to visit two more on Thursday, which means I need to visit six of them next week. 

It looked as if our schedule was totally clear for Saturday, but it turns out we'll be attending a funeral because Paul's Gram died today. She would have turned 96 years old in December. Paul and I attended his Nan's funeral (his mom's mom) and his Pop's funeral (his dad's dad). Considering my mom already passed away, it's not a shocker that now Paul (at the age of 48) no longer has any living grandparents. I was in my late 20's when one of my grandparents died and in my early 30's when my other two grandparents died (I never met my dad's dad). Even if Hurricane Florence hadn't interfered with our travel plans, it turns out Paul's parents wouldn't have been joining us after all due to this death in the family. Great Gram had been very ready to go to Heaven so to me it doesn't seem like a sad event. When a person lives a full life and is longing to go to Glory, how can we feel sad when they pass away? 

Pond Party

Every fall the homeschooling group we are apart of has a "not back to school pond party" at a bed and breakfast. Usually we have had a scheduling conflict of some sort, but today we were actually able to attend the party! I wasn't sure if the weather was going to cooperate (we have had SO much rain since the end of July), but it didn't rain while we were there. The kids had a blast using the pedal boats and such. Ian didn't spend much time in the water, but Oliver and Nadia were in the water the vast majority of the 3.5 hours we were there. We also enjoyed a potluck dinner as well as roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire (to make s'mores of course!). I enjoyed chatting with some homeschool moms - many I hadn't seen in quite a few months.

In addition to our usual homeschool work, Nadia and Ian had art at the Christian school today. This evening I found out that same art teacher will be teaching a homeschool art class on Fridays from 9:15-10:00 starting next week. I am trying to find out if I can get a refund from the Christian school as I already paid Nadia and Ian's tuition for the art class for the year.

Nadia wants to stay in the 5th grade art class because she knows some of the girls in the class. I am trying to decide whether to sign all three of them up for the homeschool class or just put the boys in that class and keep Nadia in the 5th grade class. First, I need to find out if MCS will give me a refund on most of the tuition I paid. I'm thankful to have more than one option, but sometimes it's not easy to make decisions like this.

Last night Paul took Nadia roller skating, and she won one of the door prizes from the Christian radio station. She picked a CD by Lauren Daigle.

Tomorrow I am taking the kids to see a production of Mary Poppins. Other than that I plan to stay at home sweet home tomorrow. Last year I made the mistake of acting like I was in a nine month sprint. This year I am trying very hard to view it as a marathon and keep to a more reasonable pace. I pushed myself too hard and then was so depleted of energy it took me almost the whole summer to begin to bounce back. I'm trying to do my best not to let that happen again.

Office Time

Last week I was in my office the bare minimum required - 2.5 hours total over the course of two days because I was out and about visiting student teachers. I did some traveling on Tuesday, but today I was in my office from 10:45-3:15. On the one hand I am not crazy about spending extra time in my office because it is time I *could* have spent with my kids. I should also add that since I am an adjunct professor at the moment, I don't have advisees as I did years ago (100+ per year). This means that I can go many months without a single student coming to see me in my office. The upside of having more time in my office is that I can get a lot of work done! Today I stopped at Walmart on my way to work (at about 7:15am which is not an hour I usual enter a Walmart). I needed to pick up a couple of things I need for tomorrow (for a science experiment and also to make for the pond party we're attending). After I taught two math methods classes, I did some grading and got a few other things done for my courses. I had brought some homeschooling documents on my flash drive, and I also got some more planning done for homeschooling. Finally, I made an appointment for the van's annual inspection and Ian's nine-year-old well visit.

Tuesdays are already a day I barely see the kids because I leave before they get up and they don't get home from gymnastics until it's about Oliver's bedtime. Normally on Thursdays I could eat dinner with them as I usually get home sometime around 5:30, but tonight Nadia wanted to go to the monthly skate night hosted by our local Christian radio station. There was an accident on I80 so my trip home was 30 minutes longer than usual (I got home at 6:00). Oliver can't roller skate without assistance yet, and Paul didn't want to skate tonight so Oliver needed to stay home with me. Because of that they had to arrive a bit late at the event, as it starts at 6:00 and is about 30 minutes from our house (plus they had to stop at the library on the way there). When I am in the university classroom, I will say I really enjoy my job. When I think about all the time I'm missing with my kids, like their field trip to Camp Susque for Safety Day today, I long to return to being a SAHM. I think if I could totally have my cake and eat it too, I would like to teach online or evening classes. That is what I did from 2009-2012. I taught during the day from 2003-2008, but after I had Nadia I asked for online or evening classes. The difference is back then I was tenured and had far more say in what my schedule looked like. I have very little say as an adjunct. So we shall see how long I will keep doing this.

I was really hungry when I got home. The casserole that Paul and the boys ate for dinner was all gone. Nadia had made herself eggs for dinner. I just had a hot pocket for dinner as I was too hungry to take the time to cook myself something. Then I enjoyed my boys until it was time for bed. I am going to bed early. Tuesday night I went to bed at 8:30 and slept for 11 hours! On the days I teach I am very ready for bed at the end of the day.

As you can see from the last two pics, there are pictures of Oliver on posters around my campus! He did enjoy playing in all the boxes last fall and has already been asking when he can do that again.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Paul hooked up a hose to the dehumidifier which means it goes directly where the sump pump is, which means I don't have to keep emptying the bucket multiple times a day as I have been doing. It also means the humidity level in the basement is finally starting to drop. Unfortunately water is still coming into the basement at one section of the wall. We have just had TOO much rain and the ground is oversaturated.

2. Although my first preference would be the one doing the homeschooling all week, I am thankful that Paul is teaching the kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We love the woman who babysat and helped with homeschooling last year, but with this arrangement the kids are getting to spend a lot more time with their Daddy each week than they did the last two years.

3. I'm thankful Nadia likes her new math curriculum. It's so unusual to have her doing more math than I require her to do each week! She still gets frustrated easily, but I'm hoping in time that will also improve.

4. The last weekend in August all fifteen cousins were together, and I was with two of my siblings. Then Wendy and her kids came and spent a couple days at our house last week. I treasure time with my siblings, nieces, and nephews!!

5. Wendy watched seven kids on Thursday part of the time while I was at work so that Paul could mow the lawn, trim the bushes, go to the library, and take the van to Walmart for an oil change and tire rotation.

6. Maurice has gotten settled in his new apartment in Philadelphia! Hoping he has a great first year at Penn. We are hoping to meet up with him when we'll be out that way for a field trip on September 28.

7. Although we all caught a respiratory virus in Maryland, thankfully it was a mild one that didn't last too many days.

8. I had a different hygienist at my dentist appointment on 8/24, and she was really gentle!

9. The department chair asked me last Monday if I would be interested in teaching an online class during the winter session. Teaching online courses is ideal for me because I can do it from home. Yahoo!!!

10. Oliver accepted Christ as his personal Savior on August 27! This was a big answer to prayer!

11. Paul, Nadia, and Ian enjoyed seeing Hotel Transylvania at the theatre on Sunday. We had coupons for that particular movie since we purchased Life cereal at the Surplus Outlet.

12. Paul worked on repairing our bathroom floor yesterday. YAHOOO! It will be so wonderful whenever that project is completed as it's been over a year since we've been able to use our master bathroom shower.

13.  As usual, I am very thankful for our public library. As I look at the list of books and videos we've used thus far in science and history this school year, I am reminded that almost all of them came from the library.

14. I'm thankful that I got behind in posting pictures, which means I still have some to use in posts this week even though I haven't taken many pictures in the past week.

15. As of today I have driven to all the school buildings and met my ten cooperating teachers. There is a learning curve involved - which door to use to enter the building (sometimes I had to drive around as I was at the incorrect door), where to find the classroom within each building (some feel like a maze), and how each school handles their security (some I give my driver's license, some I turn in my keys, some I go through a metal detector, some take my picture, etc.). This means I have 10 visits done and 62 to go this semester.

16. The cable was reinstalled today for our tv for the next four months (or a bit longer if our teams make it to the playoffs). The kids are looking forward to having access to channels like Disney Jr, although lately they've been enjoying getting DVDs from the library.

17. Yesterday was a pretty normal day for us in that I homeschooled the kids and Paul was at work, but one perk of it being a holiday was that Paul got home at 4:30pm (a lot earlier than usual), which meant he was able to join us for dinner. I made lasagna last night, and he's made chicken bacon bowtie bake today. It's nice having him help in the kitchen a little bit this semester. His repertoire of different dishes he has cooked will be expanding greatly!

Week Two

Today we are beginning our second week of the school year. Last week was a short week for the kids since four of their cousins arrived at our house on Wednesday night. Their cousins' first day of school will be tomorrow in Chicago. Paul homeschooled them on Monday morning, and I took over around 12:45 after I got home from work. He was the teacher on Tuesday, and I was the teacher on Wednesday. I did a little bit of schoolwork with them on Saturday to make up for having missed two days. Three goals I have for this year which represent changes from last year are to #1 do more experiments in science, #2 have the kids write more and spend more time focused on grammar and writing, and #3 have Nadia and Ian learn to play the recorder. We did our first experiment on Sunday evening (would have been done earlier in the week if not for taking Thursday and Friday off). The kids enjoyed it because they got to eat some M and M candies which were part of our simulation about camouflage and natural selection. As for the writing, all I had them do last week was

write in their journal each day. We will do more this week, but that was a start in the right direction. I only plan to do the recorder once a week and have them practice the piano the other four days so we didn't do the recorder last week. Hopefully we will get around to that this week. We took off for cousins, but we didn't take off for Labor Day. The last two years our Bible curriculum has primarily focused on me reading the Old Testament aloud (2016-17) and then New Testament aloud (2017-18). This year we started with an inductive Bible study workbook on James for Nadia and Ian. Nadia loved marking up the first chapter of James with colored pencils. Then we discovered that Phil Vischer had released another devotional series on Right Now Media; the newest one is on Philippians. That is what the kids started yesterday and will keep working through this week. We will get back to the James study at some point. Some weeks they will be doing their homework for our Monday night BSF study, and this week I also want to start a daily devotional that incorporates a different hymn

each day.

Oliver's schoolwork takes the least amount of time, Nadia is the second one done, and Ian consistently takes the longest. He has a harder time focusing and does things like starts drawing instead of accomplishing what he's supposed to be doing. Up until this year social studies has focused on me reading a variety of picture and chapter books to the kids and watching some DVDs (such as they watched one on Columbus last week). This year I am adding in written work for the first time a "test" they are to complete for each chapter of volume 3 of Story of the World. In the past I let Nadia and Ian select what chapter books they would read each day. Sometimes I will let them choose, but sometimes this year I am giving them just a couple of choices that are related either to what we are studying in science or social studies. For example, right now Ian is reading Sign of the Beaver and Nadia is reading I walk in dread : The diary of Deliverance Trembley which is about the Salem witch trials. As

usual, I am reading chapter books to the kids during each of our meals. We are almost done with A journey to the New World : the diary of Remember Patience Whipple, which is about being on the Mayflower and the Plymouth settlement. Lately the kids have been choosing to use Duolingo instead of Rosetta Stone for their Spanish lessons. Nadia really likes the math textbook since it's on the computer. She is already more than one week ahead of schedule. 

Many of the field trips this year happen to fall on a Tuesday or a Thursday, which means Paul will be taking them on more field trips than I will. The first one is this Thursday - Safety Day at Camp Susque. I'm planning to take them to a homeschool "Not Back to School" party at a bed and breakfast on Friday night which includes swimming in a pond, a potluck dinner, etc. In just ten days we'll be headed to Williamsburg for a week!

Gymnastics and art class resumed last week. This week the kids will return to AWANA on Wednesday night, and Soul Patrol kids' choir gets back into gear next Sunday.