Home Alone

A few months ago the kids watched a couple of the Home Alone movies. I had forgotten that Trump was in one of the movies, but they spotted him and asked "isn't that President Trump?" Tonight I am home alone. Paul called me as I was making dinner to say that he was going to come home around 7:30pm and then leave shortly after that to take the kids to his parents' house. Earlier he had said that he would be taking the kids to his parents when he went to work on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Normally Paul stays home from work those two days to homeschool the kids while I'm at work. His brother and sister-in-law are on vacation this week, and this is a busy time of year for the plant. When the weather warms up people are more likely to shop at a lawn and garden store. He didn't think he could stay away from the plant while his brother was away. I readjusted the lesson plans somewhat, and I also had the kids do twice as much work in some subjects today to try and make up for the fact they won't be doing any schoolwork tomorrow. Instead of my kids being outside playing while the neighbors are in school, today it was the opposite. The kids in the neighborhood didn't have school today (due to Easter break), and my kids were inside doing schoolwork. I did make sure they had some time to play outside before we had to leave for their gymnastics classes. This means Paul just has three more days of helping with homeschooling the kids for this school year (April 30, May 2, and May 6). Whether he continues to help some next school year will depend on whether I continue teaching at BU or not. My interview has been scheduled for this Wednesday morning. Math, science, and history are the three subjects he enjoys teaching the most although zoology is not his favorite aspect of science. One of our topics recently has been the Erie Canal. It's so much easier to talk about canals and locks considering they actually experienced them last August when we boarded an Erie canal cruise in Lockport, NY. We've also been talking about the Mexican American War, but a field trip to the Alamo is out of the question at the moment. I'm thankful though that it's possible to drive to many different historical sites given where we live.

Today was the last gymnastics class for this session. It might be the last one ever for our kids. Nadia has been in Bolts (level 2) for many years. Ian only joined that level this past fall. For awhile now she has really wanted to be promoted to Surge (level 3), but she hasn't mastered all the skills that are required for that promotion. It's been hard for her to watch children as young as six years old be promoted when she is told she still has to stay in Bolts at the age of almost eleven years old. I feel badly that she wasn't able to achieve her goal of making it to level 3. One upside is the gymnastic classes are not cheap so we will definitely save money by eliminating that expense from the budget. The other upside is it gives us another day that we can just stay home each week. We haven't done gymnastics year round. We always take a break in the summer (sometimes we've done it until the end of June but that's the longest we've gone), and we haven't done it while they've been doing a team sport (whether that was soccer, basketball, softball, or flag football). If we bring an end to gymnastics and tennis lessons, that means the athletic things the kids will be involved in will be as follows: homeschool gym class (90 minutes on Fridays), Upward basketball (one game a week for eight weeks plus a few more weeks than that of one night a week practices), and ice skating lessons. I wasn't as impressed with the swimming lessons this year at Bucknell so I'm not certain if I'd splurge on that again next year or not.

It's going to be strange to wake up tomorrow without anyone else in the house. Usually Oliver is the first one up, and he usually snuggles with me before we go downstairs. This morning Ian was the first one up (about 6:45), and we snuggled for awhile. Oliver and Nadia didn't actually get up until 8:30 this morning, which meant we started schoolwork later than usual, which wasn't the ideal scenario since we were trying to do more work than usual today, but I hate to wake the kids up so I usually let them sleep whenever possible. Typically we start breakfast by 7:30. I will miss the hugs and snuggles tomorrow morning. I'll be observing a student teacher at 9:00 and then heading to the university. I'll get home around 8:15pm. I will have a little time to shop at Lowe's on my way to the university tomorrow as my office hours don't start until 12:00. I have some coupons that expire the end of this month so I'm planning to buy a few things like new window well covers and Drylok (for the basement walls). Paul suggested getting a new grill. Ours was broken last week when a tornado went through the area. Our grill was flipped upside down. We don't use the grill very often, and frankly the thing terrifies me after the fire I experienced on the deck when using it once a few years ago. He also suggested I could get a storm door as I've wanted one of those for several years, but until he finishes the master bathroom floor (which has been on the to do list for almost exactly 3 years), I don't want to buy something else that will be added to his to do list.

The good news is that I only have FIVE more days of being separated from the kids due to being at work  - two days this week, two days next week, and one the week after that. The end is in sight. Usually if I see a student teacher and have a little gap I come home to help with homeschooling and eat an early lunch before leaving the house at 11:15, but since the kids won't be at home I decided to see if my friend, Cheri, could meet me at Lowe's tomorrow. I haven't seen her in many months. It will be great to see her, plus she worked at Lowe's for several years so that is right up her alley.