Weekend in Review

My goal had been to be done with grading (aside from final exams) by Thursday night. I achieved that goal. At that point I had four rubrics left to still submit online because those can only be submitted after I conduct my final three-way conference with each student teacher. On Friday the only school work I did for the university was talk to a student teacher on the phone, conference with a teacher from 8-9am, and complete one rubric online. Yesterday and today the only schoolwork I've done for the university has been to respond to a few emails from students. The end is in sight.

Friday morning I visited the student teacher, did a little homeschooling, and then dropped the kids off at gym class at 10:00. While they were in their gym class, I went to multiple yard sales as the community where the church is located was having many, many, many yard sales. Last year I skipped these due to lack of energy so I took this as a positive thing that I actually took part in it again. At one yard sale they had multiple Lego sets. I bought two of them, and when gym class was over I took the boys back to that yard sale (and a few others) while Nadia was in art class. After we picked Nadia up from art at 12:25, we came home for lunch and then I worked on reading with Oliver while Nadia and Ian took their final standardized test (Language). When they finished the test, I drove Ian to Micah's house as he had been invited to go there for a sleepover. Micah and Isaiah had a sleepover at our house in February. This was Ian's first time being invited to a friend's house for a sleepover. After we dropped Ian off, Oliver Nadia, and I drove to Lewisburg to go to the library and get pizza from our favorite pizza place (Venarris). After we ate the pizza, I mowed the lawn, which was no easy task as I tackled the area where the grass was SUPER high from the ground being turned to a swamp. The mower stopped many times, and it took just about every last bit of my strength to push that mower up the hill through VERY tall grass. Some parts there was still a lot of standing water, and I had to wait until the next day to tackle that part with a weed whacker.

I'm not sure whether I just pushed myself too hard on Friday or I didn't eat enough given the number of calories I burned mowing the lawn, but I was a mess on Saturday. I was dizzy and felt completely wiped out. I had planned to take the kids to the Maker Faire at the Children's Museum in Bloomsburg, but that plan went out the door. Nadia was disappointed, but she could tell that I was not feeling well. After picking Ian up, we hit some more yard sales. As proof of how exhausted I was, I didn't bring enough cash. I had stopped at the ATM at our bank on my way home from work on Thursday night so I'd have money for the yard sales, but the Lego purchases (which were great bargains - I paid $10 for a set that currently sells for $80 at Walmart, for example) meant I had spent more than I expected to spend. I generally charge almost everything and rarely use cash, but yard sales are one of those times when I still use cash. I looked on my phone that it was a 2 mile drive (one way) to the nearest ATM owned by our bank, and I was unwilling to drive that far. It has been more than a decade since I've paid an ATM fee. To be honest, I do believe the only time I've ever paid an ATM fee was when I was in a foreign country. I was so tired I just didn't care. I had found a wonderful yard sale where the clothes were super reasonably priced. It's a yard sale I've been to many times over the years. It's my second favorite yard sale of all the places I typically go in a year (our neighbor's is my most favorite). I like it because everything is very well organized by gender and size and hanging on hangars and the prices are very reasonable, and they have a huge selection of sizes. I am the one who pinches pennies, but at that moment I cared far more about energy exertion that spending a few extra dollars to get money at an ATM.

I also had been thinking a lot about my brother as I knew on Friday it was the 2nd month anniversary of his passing, and tomorrow will be the two month mark since I received that awful phone call from the police. I think my emotions played a part as well in how weak I was feeling physically. Speaking of which, we sang a song that I had to make sure I did NOT think about Maurice when we sang it if I wanted to make it through without crying. Sometimes I really like a song because of the words, and other times I really like a song because of musical reasons. The words in this song are very nice, but I chose to focus just on the music this morning so I didn't cry over missing my brother. If you like sacred choral music, I highly recommend you listen to another choir singing the song we sang this morning. It's one of my top three favorite songs that our choir has sung this school year. It's about six minutes long. If you only have time for part of it, listen to the last half. Just beautiful!

In case I hadn't eaten enough, I ate more on Saturday and also tried to take it easy once from lunch onward. The only exceptions would be that I did some weed whacking and also helped Paul load some boards from the deck onto his Dad's pick-up truck. I also went to bed at 8:30pm on Saturday night. I felt better this morning, but I was a bit concerned about having enough energy for an amusement park today. We planned to use six free handstamps to Knoebels this afternoon. Unfortunately the weather forecast grew worse, and this morning we decided to skip those plans as it was calling for 100% chance of rain multiple hours in a row. The kids were disappointed. They didn't know that last Sunday I also had Knoebels on the calendar (when it was BOGO for opening weekend), but the weather was very similar last Sunday. The cost of a handstamp has sky rocketed at Knoebels so I don't anticipate we'll be buying any handstamps there this year. You can use ride tickets for rides, so we are planning on giving the kids each a book of tickets once this summer and they can ride a few rollercoasters. It's a shame as we used to go to Knoebels multiple times each summer. The upside of our trip to Knoebels being cancelled was that Paul was able to keep working on removing the deck today. The contractor is scheduled to start on Tuesday although we were thrown a curve ball on Friday when our township notified him that we need a zoning permit even though this house has had a deck for 20 years, and the newer deck will be smaller than the one that was falling apart. Oi vey.

Two years ago only Nadia and I attended the church dinner as it's supposed to be for ages 9+. Last year I brought Ian and Nadia even though Ian wasn't quite nine years old. I knew he would be well behaved for the almost 3 hour program. This year they offered childcare in another room for ages 5-8. Oliver participated in that so all five of us could have gone if Paul hadn't still been working on removing the deck. Since today is May the 5th, they had a Mexican theme (Cinco de Mayo)  for the event this year. Since I was home this afternoon instead of at Knoebels, I worked on the documentation for the woman doing our homeschool review. That's one more thing crossed off my to do list. Her review is due to the school district by the end of June. I gave her one Word document that was 9 pages long - answering some questions she asked plus lists of chapter books Nadia and Ian read independently and I read to them plus a list of the textbooks we used and the field trips we went on this  year. I also sent her a 47 page document that contained my lesson plans for the school year. Next I need to work on typing up the goals for Ian and Nadia for next year. If I submit those to the school district by the end of June, it means I can start counting days for the next school year as early as July 1.

When I reflect on shopping at yard sales, I realize that two desires of mine are in a bit of conflict. First, I like to save money. Secondly, I dislike clutter. Yard sales can be a great way to save money. Nadia had put the Narnia dvds on her wish list for her birthday, and I purchased the first dvd for $1.50 at one yard sale and set it aside for her birthday. I discovered this spring that Ian's neck ties were almost all too short for him, and I bought him two nice neckties for 50 cents each. Bargains like that put a smile on my face. However when the kids are along it means they see things they want to buy with their money. Nadia bought a BIG plush Hershey bar for example. Honestly the last thing we need in our house are any more stuffed animals much less a BIG one. I feel like we own enough stuffed animals for at least 15 children. And when clothes are super cheap I am not as selective about quantity. I typically go into these community yard sales with a wish list of what I'm hoping to find - ex. winter coat size 10/12 etc. I did have a couple of things in mind like the neck ties for Ian and a grey t-shirt for Nadia, but I hadn't taken the time to do an inventory to discover what exactly I should be looking for. Some years I have done a lot of yard sale shopping. Last year I did almost none. I think this year the only other ones I'll likely do this year are our neighbor's (hopefully we won't be away when she has hers!) and our community one in September. My energy level is better than last summer, but it's definitely not back to normal. If the rain lets up some tomorrow, I would like to attempt a walk tomorrow afternoon while Oliver rides his bike. Tomorrow is our last day for grammar and writing (for Nadia and Ian). The school year is definitely winding down!