Home sweet home

Saturday morning we left Aunt Janet's house around 9:30am. We drove for about 40 minutes and then spent a little over two hours at Old Bethpage Village Restoration. One of the homes was from the colonial time period (early 1700's) but the vast majority of the buildings were from the 1800's. I think we all learned a few things, but given we've been to quite a few living history places (most recently Williamsburg) it wasn't that amazing. It had been on my list of places to visit on Long Island for the last three years. Now we can say been there, done that, and I doubt we'll ever return. The traffic was much better on the way home on Saturday than it was on the way out on Sunday, and aside from the time spent at OBVR, we didn't make any stops. We had stopped to get gas and go to the bathroom on our way there on Sunday. Altogether the trip took about 75 minutes less on Saturday than it did on Sunday, for which I was very grateful as I am not a big fan of long drives or of sitting in traffic in NYC. This was our second time in NYC this year as we visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in May. I'm

expecting we'll make two more trips to NYC this year as we're planning to spend four days there in August with Wendy and her kids and then we're thinking of making a one day trip in December for Ian's birthday. Depending on the traffic, it can actually take us less time to get to NYC than Philadelphia.

When I get home from a vacation I feel like I always hit the ground running - unpacking, doing laundry, buying groceries, cooking, and mowing the lawn ASAP. I wasn't able to mow the lawn last night because it was raining cats and dogs after dinner. I mowed the lawn today despite how HOT it was because it had been 9 days since I had last mowed. Whew. Last night I also put time into preparing for the lesson I taught the K-2nd and then 3rd-5th graders during the second service today on the calling of the 12 disciples. Aunt Janet is very thoughtful. She had packed up a bag and also a cooler of food and drinks for us to take in the van. We ate lunch in the van after we left OBVR, and since she had included grilled chicken skewers in the cooler, dinner preparation was

very easy last night. One of the treats she packed was a bag of Cracker Jacks. The kids were very excited to try those out at lunch today! Aside from church this morning, mowing the lawn, and taking the kids to and from VBS this evening, my main project was to create a 110 page photobook on Shutterfly. I created one of pictures from February 24 through July 7. At some point, when I feel I can handle it emotionally, I also want to create one about Maurice just like I did one about my Mom in 2016.

Tonight the kids started their third week of VBS for the summer. Next week will be their fourth and final week of VBS for 2019. This week is Nadia's last week because she'll be at Camp Susque next week. Each church has selected a different curriculum this year so they aren't experiencing any repeats. This is Nadia's 9th year of attending multiple VBS programs each summer. Tomorrow the kids start their week at Camp Good News (9-3). This will be my second (and last) week of the summer where all three kids will be at the same camp for 6 hours straight. I am trying to decide what projects around the house I want to tackle while they're at camp.

P.S. Nadia loves the dress I got for her at a yard sale for $3 while she was at Creation. It helps that it's her favorite color! The previous owner had cut the tag out of the dress so I wasn't sure what size it was. I was thankful the dress fit her (see first two pics in the post).