Goal Check-Up

It's officially spring! It felt like spring last week. I didn't dress for the weather on the day of Maurice's funeral. It was MUCH warmer that day than it had been lately. We had two days of warm weather (March 14-15) and then back to highs in the 40's. Yesterday was the first day of spring, but the weather forecast for today and tomorrow includes the possibility of snow. I can't wait until the spring weather is here to stay. The last two years March 20 was challenging for me emotionally because that was my mom's birthday. She would have turned 74 yesterday. I did think of her yesterday, and I absolutely still miss her, but my grief over losing my brother has for the last two weeks certainly been the main thing on my heart and mind. Realizing that it's March 21 makes it seem like April 1st will be here before we know, which will mean that we'll already have completed 1/4 of 2019. Nadia always disagrees with me when I state how quickly time flies, but let me tell you it definitely seems to fly by from my perspective. It seemed like a good time to look again at the goals for the year that I posted on January 1.

As for the house, this month we paid off the loan we used to pay off the mortgage last year. So that goal was achieved three months earlier than I hoped. I paid a big deposit on the new deck this month. Our last payment won't be due until the project is completed, which is supposed to be in mid May. So in less than two months we should have a new deck. No progress has been made thus far on the other eight "house" goals. Once my spring semester, I should have more time to start tackling those.

As for the fourteen goals I listed for Oliver, he did learn the books of the Old Testament. We listened to a song of them so many times that I was very relieved when his AWANA leader signed him off on saying all the books of the OT, as I was very weary of the song! He is making some progress on his table manners, eating breakfast in a timely manner, and his pronunciation of various words. Those goals are definitely still a work in progress. He sometimes regresses, but generally speaking he's also been doing a better with not making messes in the bathroom. We haven't started piano lessons or tried to teach him to ride a bike without training wheels, but he did learn how to ice skate this year! I haven't tried to teach him to tie his shoes yet because his tennis shoes have Velcro, but he has made amazing progress with reading and spelling and is registered to spend 3 nights at Camp Susque in June. His swimming lessons will start next Monday. He's made a little progress in math, but the light bulb hasn't gone off in that subject yet like it has with spelling and reading. Oliver has made great improvement with listening comprehension and with being quiet when we are listening to chapter books. It helps that he enjoys the Ramona and Henry books.

Ian and Nadia are working on their keyboarding skills usually at least four days a week. Ian is tying his shoes and is helping to clean the guinea pig cage once a week. Nadia participated in a science fair for the first time and has begun mopping the kitchen floor once a week. The rest of the goals for those two are still works in progress.

As for the goals for myself, I have lost 15 pounds. I had been exercising but it's been at least two weeks since I stepped on the elliptical, and until I begin to recover emotionally from the shock of losing my brother, I don't anticipate I'll be exercising any time soon. I also still need to drink more water, but at least I've cut back my caloric intake enough that I am losing an average of two pounds a week. All three kids participated in a wax museum event so that goal can be marked accomplished. I also have definitely been spending a lot more time working with Nadia and Ian on writing and grammar skills. The rest of the goals still need to be tackled.

This week life has partially returned to normal. The new normal that is life without a brother or a mother (here on earth). It was really hard to go back on Tuesday. I didn't feel ready to do so, but today it was much easier to go to work. Last night it hit me I hadn't made any progress on Maurice's stuff so before I went to bed I contacted his electric company to have the electricity turned off in his apartment tomorrow. Today I received word that the Medical Examiner did have his wallet and such, which was a relief as I was beginning to fear his credit cards had been stolen. I contacted the Penn library to let them know Maurice #1 wouldn't be picking up a book that had come in for him from another library and #2 wouldn't be returning a book that was overdue (I probably put it in the recycling bin when we cleaned out his apartment on March 9/10 - oops!). After Dad submits paperwork, the ME will mail Maurice's personal effects to Virginia, and then Dad can mail them to me in case he had more credit cards than the two I cancelled thus far. I have the modem boxed up and plan to drop that off at UPS on Saturday to return his cable modem to Xfinity in New Jersey. I figure if I keep doing a little bit each day then the list will eventually be complete. I also went to choir rehearsal last night. All three kids have had a cold (cough, runny nose), but thankfully Paul and I seem to have escaped the bug.

Considering we didn't end up using our tickets to see their Christmas production (a church down near Harrisburg), I was hesitant to buy tickets for the Easter production. Tonight I finally took the plunge. The downside of having waited so long is that there were barely any seats available, but I did find seven together off to the side of the auditorium.