1. This Thursday night will be the last night of VBS for the boys this summer. Ian will have attended VBS 14 days this summer, Oliver 17 days, and Nadia 11 days. I will have taken at least one child to VBS a total of 19 days this summer. Nadia has outgrown the one at our church. She can help next summer since she'll be too old to participate. The other churches include middle schoolers in their VBS programs. I'm thankful the kids are able to participate in several each summer! The VBS they are attending this week provides a free dinner to the kids at 5:00 (M-Th). Since the boys are having a (free) lunch at the playground this week, it means they are only eating breakfast at home M-F as Friday we'll be eating dinner at Knoebels at a pavilion with some people from our church. I'm only cooking dinner for Paul and myself four days this week. Although the kids enjoy VBS, and I'm glad that they have the opportunity to study God's word, learn about missionaries, play games, etc., I'm also growing VERY weary of all the chauffeuring. Next week they'll have a softball/baseball clinic for four nights, and then our evening commitments are done for the summer. I am looking forward to just being able to stay at HOME in the evenings in August.
2. Earlier this summer our grocery store had 6 packs of flavored water on sale for $1. I usually just drink tap water, but zero calorie flavored water is a special treat. I usually don't spend any money on drinks for myself, but at that price I decided to splurge. I've really enjoyed my flavored water this summer! Paul and the kids drank some of them on our vacation.
4. I found out that Family Life Network (based in NY) offers Christian theatre camps in the summer at various churhces - one of which is about 20 minutes from our house!! I wish I had known about this previously, but better late than never! I'm planning to sign Nadia and Ian up for that theatre camp next summer. This will save me SO much driving time. It *might* mean Nadia can't go to Creation next summer as this year they held the camp at that church the same week as Creation. We shall see, but I was very excited to learn about this on Sunday! It will also be a way to save money as it's cheaper than the ones Nadia has attended the past few years. I think Ian has a lot of talent when it comes to singing and drama so I'm excited about him participating in a theatre camp for the first time ever with his sister, who has been in a theatre camp every year since 2013.
5. We recently used a free 30 day Netflix dvd subscription. The first two DVDs were for the kids and all the rest were for Paul. I didn't watch any of them. Since it has been several years since we used Netflix at all, yesterday I activated a free 30 day subscription to their streaming service. We have Hulu (for 99 cents a month) plus Amazon Prime, but Netflix definitely surpasses both of those so Paul and the kids are enjoying having access to some shows and movies they wouldn't otherwise have access to.
7. Nadia and Ian both received an award at Camp Good News on Friday! Each summer they pick about nine children to win an award for a character quality. None of my kids had been picked in the past. Last week Nadia was chosen for a leadership award and Ian was chosen for cooperation. That melted my heart! Next year will be the last year Nadia can be a camper in Camp Good News. She will have to skip the camp in 2021, but in 2022 she can return as a junior counselor. She wants to be a counselor at Camp Good News starting in 2022 until she is old enough to be a counselor at Camp Susque. They tried to convince her to try their overnight camp, but she isn't willing to give it a try if it means not going to Camp Susque. Oliver said he wanted to try the overnight camp put on my Camp Good News next summer, and Ian said he was fine with either one. So at the moment, the plan is for the boys to go to Camp Good News next summer. That camp is 6 nights long (compared to 7 nights at Camp Susque). It's also cheaper, which of course I won't complain about. I suggested they could try it once and then decide which they like better.
8. I've received $100 so far from selling things over the past several days, and I'm scheduled to sell something else on Friday for $50. The best part is there is less clutter in our basement. Going through everything also reintroduced the kids to some toys they forgot we owned, and the kids are happy with what they purchased with the money I gave them from the sales.
9. I am planning to meet my friend, Cheri, today while the boys are in a chemistry class; Paul knows the man teaching the class from his time at Bucknell. They enjoyed the first session yesterday afternoon. I have seen Cheri more regularly this summer than I have since we moved here almost 11 years ago. This is partially due to the fact that she is now retired.
10. This morning the boys and I are riding a paddlewheel riverboat. We rode it four years ago, but they have no memory of that. Tab and her boys are joining us, and after our one hour cruise we are all going bowling together since the kids can bowl for free.
11. Speaking of bowling, Paul and the boys bowled on Saturday evening. Paul didn't join us for the first four trips to Camp Susque this summer, but he joined us for trip number five. This Saturday will be the sixth (and final) trip for the summer when we pick up Nadia. The kids had seen very little of Paul for two weeks due to us being in New York for a week and then there were only a few minutes each day that Paul was in the house while the kids were awake the week after we got back. He came home from work earlier than usual on Saturday which meant he could join us for taking Nadia to Camp Susque, eating pizza at Domino's (thanks to a gift card), and bowling. I haven't bowled at all this summer because it's only free for kids. Paul has bowling shoes, so we only had to pay for his two games. Ian did a great job! His score was 100 in the first game and 99 in the second (with bumpers). Paul didn't do well in the second game so Ian actually beat Daddy!
12. Several adults gave me positive feedback regarding the lesson I taught on Nehemiah with the K-5th graders on Sunday. It was very encouraging.
13. We attended a yard sale on Saturday morning, and we purchased a few things such as a pair of white Sunday shoes for Nadia for $1. I also bought some plums at the grocery store on Saturday. I paid more per pound than I typically am willing to pay for fruit, but Nadia and I LOVE plums, and I decided to splurge and buy four plums. Yummy! They were worth it.
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