December showers

Yesterday was the first day of winter, but it felt like a beautiful fall or spring day as the high was around 65 degrees! For the past five months we have had TOO much rain. The ground has never been able to completely dry out for five straight months. It started the week Nadia was at Camp Susque in July and has continued through the present. Our basement flooded in August because the sump pump died. Our basement has flooded twice since then but in these instances it had nothing to do with the sump pump. Water has been coming in through the walls and windows. The ground just can't handle this much water. Oliver discovered the water in the basement around 8:30 yesterday morning. I kicked into high gear with squeegeeing water over to the sump pump, lifting up the curtains I had hung, and moving a few things. Thankfully we got less than an inch of water this time, and because of all the stuff we lost in August we don't keep nearly as much stuff on the floor these days. The most valuable thing still on the floor is the elliptical. They repaired it under the warranty, even though the damage was from water in our

basement. I'm sure they're not going to do that twice. I lifted one end up a lot higher (the end that was damaged this summer). I had called Paul in the beginning, and he came home from work. I had already cleaned up by the time he got home and the water wasn't pouring in as it had been. He did a little more squeegeeing (and unfortunately scraped some paint off the floor) and lifted the other end of the elliptical up onto two small chairs. It rained hard a few other times yesterday but no more water came into the basement. In August I had purchased another gallon of paint to repair the damage done to the floor by squeegeeing. I hadn't had time to repaint the basement until recently. My timing was very poor. I repainted the basement on Thursday, and it was flooded again the very next day. I hadn't used the entire gallon of paint so hopefully I have enough to repair the damage done yesterday. Usually a paint job lasts more than 24 hours. Sigh. Even though I am on break from the university, I am still very busy. Homeschooling three kids, preparing for Christmas,

housework, etc. is still enough to keep me very busy. In fact, to have time to paint the basement floor on Thursday I had skipped giving Nadia and Ian piano lessons and also skipped Oliver's reading lesson that day. In hindsight, it would have been better to do the piano/reading.

As proof that Paul and I are too busy most of the time, the van had been due for a tire rotation more than 1,000 miles ago, but neither of us had the time to get that task accomplished at Walmart. Thankfully, I did accomplish that yesterday (piano went out the door again though). We did some shopping while we were there and our first Christmas gift exchange of the year. Oliver and Ian had selected the identical Lego set at AWANA on Wednesday night; Oliver picked two PJ Masks figures instead. I was really late in making calendars, ornaments, and photo books on Shutterfly this year. I finally had time to do those last weekend. It takes HOURS to make a 100+ photo book even though I have streamlined the process. For example, I just used black as the background on all the pages

whereas I used to select a color for each page. I was concerned if the items would arrive on time, but they did! My Aunt in Florida said hers arrived. I didn't send it soon enough for my Aunt in NY to receive it as she left for Lake Tahoe on December 18. I think all the others will get theirs by Christmas. I'm grateful for their speedy processing and shipping in light of my tardiness.

The conundrum I've been wrestling with the past 16 months is money vs. time/energy. When I didn't work, we didn't have the money for certain things like a vacation, major house repairs (ex. a new roof), replacing our vehicles, and some other "wants" that aren't necessities like Paul and I going on dates to go ballroom dancing. Now we have the money but lack the time and/or energy. We haven't gone ballroom dancing once since I went back to work. We went on a grand total of one date in 2018. We did go on a vacation to San Diego which the kids and Paul were able to enjoy but I was in such a poor state physically and emotionally that I didn't enjoy it. My brother introduced me to the term "anhedonia" at the time which described what I was experiencing for a few months earlier in the year. Thankfully I was feeling somewhat better in August and was able to enjoy our three day trip to Niagara Falls. Having enough money to replace a deck that is falling apart, updating Paul's car, etc. is good, but quality of life is worth something also. I enjoy teaching at the university, but yesterday I literally could have gone to bed at 5pm I was so tired. I went to bed at 8pm after putting Oliver down and calling Paul to make sure he'd be home before 9pm so he could put Nadia and Ian to bed. I slept 10 hours last night. That's not normal for me, but I'm just worn out from pushing myself during the last three semesters. Hence there are many moments I think it would be better to live off of one income as we originally planned. I see book titles like "Stretch too thin", which is a book for working mothers and I think WHY? Why are we stretching ourselves too thin? Homeschooling three kids plus doing all the housework and cooking is certainly enough to keep me very busy. There have been some splurges we've all enjoyed like seeing Aladdin in Buffalo and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in Wilkes Barre, but are they worth it? That's the $64,000 question!

Paul was at work today. The kids and I had two outings. This morning we went to a music/art studio located about 6 minutes from our house that was hosting a painting event for kids. They could choose ceramic ornaments  or figurines to paint. I paid a total of $9.50 for all of the figures the kids painted. She also had free hot chocolate and cookies for everyone. After spending about 5 hours at home, then we left to go ice skating 30 minutes away because the rink was having a free Christmas party from 4-6pm (free admission, free skate rentals, free hot chocolate, free food, gifts for every child, etc.). The kids love ice skating, and they only skated once thus far in 2018 because they weren't able to take the 10 week ice skating lessons as they had in the past due to the time conflicting with basketball. The same will happen this winter, but I'm going to sign the kids up for at least four private lessons because they love to ice skate and Oliver needs to learn how to skate without holding onto something. Nadia was excited to see that a girl from her current basketball team was there today. She spent most of her time with Aubrey, Aubrey's friend, and the girls' dads. This annual Christmas party has never worked with our schedule in the past. I think we will make this a new family Christmas tradition to go to it every year! They had donuts, cookies, candy, fruit, crackers, chips, etc. They gave Nadia a pair of Christmas socks, Ian a connect 4 game, and Oliver a fishing game. We already have the two games. The boys are hoping they'll be able to exchange them for something else at Walmart at some point.

All of the pictures in this post, except for one, were taken today. The picture of Miss Angie was taken last Sunday (second one from the top). Angie is Nadia's beloved Sunday School teacher. She's been Nadia's teacher for two years. Angie is also a homeschooling mom. Nadia will miss her next year when she moves up to middle school!  I should also note that Nadia was only holding on to her friend's green thing for the picture. Nadia can skate without one; it was her friend who needed the assistance. Oliver made progress today and skated a little at the end without holding a green thing OR the wall.