NYC Day #2

Our use of public transportation went much more smoothly on Thursday than it had on Wednesday. We left via the hotel shuttle at 9:00. Leaving late had caused a more than one hour delay on Wednesday because we had to wait a long time for the next bus. Most of the Benners decided to hang out in the hotel room that morning. Rachel joined my kids, and the five of us took the shuttle to Secaucus Junction where we boarded a train that took us to Penn Station in NYC. In Penn Station we boarded a Subway train that took us directly to the American Museum of Natural History. We were never outside from the time we entered Secaucus Junction until we left the museum to eat our packed lunch in Central Park. It was warmer, but we were often able to find shade in the park plus the kids got wet in three splashpads at the 3 playgrounds we visited in Central Park (there are 21 playgrounds). Thankfully it never rained as I hadn't brought an umbrella like I had the previous day. If there is any chance of rain I try to bring an umbrella to protect my camera. Aside from walking around the

museum, we didn't walk much in the morning. We walked quite a bit throughout the park in the afternoon even though we only covered a small portion of the park. We went to the Loeb Boathouse where we planned to rent a row boat for an hour, but we couldn't actually do so because they had a limit of four people per boat and also had a rule that at least one adult had to be in the boat if there were children under the age of 15 in the boat. Since I was the only adult with four kids ages 6-11, there wasn't any way for me to rent one or two boats. We did visit Belvedere Castle as planned. Around 4:00pm Wendy and the rest of her kids met the five of us at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I wanted my kids to visit the inside of a cathedral since it looks very different from our church (or any other church they've ever been in before). It's much easier than taking them to Europe to see a cathedral! After shopping at FAO Schwartz and Nintendo NY, we ate dinner in the Rockefeller Plaza before taking the subway back to Penn Station. We didn't have any delays on our return trip and

made it back just in time for our 7:30 hotel shuttle from Secaucus Junction back to our hotel. On Wednesday my phone says I took 16,768 steps (7.6 miles), and Thursday it says I took 25,385 steps (12.7 miles). Because the four kids with me were such troopers (especially Rachel who is not accustomed to walking anywhere near that long), I bought each of them a treat of their choosing from a vendor. They picked popsicles, snow cone, and an ice cream sandwich. I picked a big cold water. 

Our plan had been to visit Brooklyn on Friday - take a ferry, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, and visit the Transit Museum and the Brooklyn Children's Museum, which is the oldest children's museum (opened 1899) in the US and possibly the world. We could have gotten into free to both museums through our ASTC membership. Considering Rachel was the only one who joined us Thursday, I thought maybe the kids would rather just go back to our house to play instead. My kids like visiting museums and such, but they like being with cousins even more. Our four days in NYC shrank to two days. It seems really odd that we spent three nights in a hotel to only spend two days in NYC. If we plan to spend two days in a city we only spend one night in a hotel, but the good news is that this hotel stay didn't cost us any money. I think the lesson learned is that the kids just enjoy playing together and there's no need to travel anywhere when their cousins come to visit. They would rather just play at our house. Hopefully there was something they each enjoyed about our time in NYC. I had tried to pick things that would be enjoyable to kids of a variety of ages as Wendy's children range from 6-15 years old. Typically when the Benners are with their Dad's side of the family they do a variety of interesting outings such as Six Flags, escape room, Go Ape (zip lining), beach, etc. Wendy thought we should plan something more than just hanging out at our house this time. Her first suggestion was Great Wolf Lodge, which I think would have been a hit with all seven kids, but it was out of our price range now that I'm a stay-

at-home mom. Wendy next suggested NYC because her kids had never been there. I liked the idea because although my kids have been there before, we had just cancelled a trip to NYC in March due to Maurice's funeral. If I plan any outings when we are in Chicago in April, I'll try to make sure they are activities that the Benner kids will also enjoy. Rachel, Adam, and Nadia watched Harry Potter movies on tv for a few hours yesterday morning in one hotel room while Wendy and Susie went shopping for clothes. I let Grace, Ian, and Oliver watch a little bit of Paw Patrol and Sesame Street, but mostly they played in the other hotel room and ate an early lunch. If the hotel had a swimming pool that would have helped. I wish I had thought of packing games, but I didn't think we'd spend that much time in our hotel rooms aside from when we were sleeping. The trip out there took three hours, but the trip back took almost four hours because we hit a lot of traffic on I-80 in a most unexpected location. Usually if traffic lengthens the trip to NYC it happens when we are getting close to NYC. Once we got

home I immediately began defrosting meat and such as I hadn't planned to cook dinner that night, but cooking for 10 was much cheaper than buying dinner for four at a restaurant. I had already been to the Intrepid, Central Park, Natural History Museum, Times Square, FAO Schwartz, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. The two things I had been looking forward to experiencing for the first time were a boat ride in Central Park and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I'm doubtful we'll return to Central Park, but some day we might go to Brooklyn so maybe I'll walk over that bridge at some point in my life. I would never, ever, ever want to live in NYC, but I'm grateful we live only 3 hours away so visiting the city is not that arduous. Rachel, who lives in Chicago, said that NYC smells much worse than Chicago. The smell is not the primary reason I wouldn't want to live there, but I agree there were parts of the city that didn't smell very nice!

For the two nights at our house the sleeping arrangement was that Adam slept on an air mattress in Ian's room, Rachel

slept on an air mattress in Nadia's room, Susie slept on the couch in the family room, and Wendy/Grace shared the sofa bed in the living room. When we were in New Jersey, Oliver and I shared a queen bed and Adam and Ian shared the other queen bed in one room. In the other room Rachel and Nadia shared one bed, Wendy and Susie shared another, and Grace slept on a pillow bed on the floor. Grace (age 6 1/2) is entering 1st grade on Tuesday. She and Oliver were pretty much inseparable all of the hours they were awake. Sometimes Oliver called her Julianna. Oops! On Tuesday the word of the day for those two seemed to be "doomed." They played together very nicely. Oliver said he'd like to have orange hair like Grace. She does have beautiful hair! Oliver is taller than Grace. Between the seven kids we have one child in the following grades: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10. Rachel (age 10) is in 5th grade. She is taller than Nadia even though she's 11 months younger than Nadia. Rachel is 7 months older than Ian. Nadia played some with Adam, but the vast majority of her time was spent

with Rachel. Adam (age 12 1/2) is in 7th grade, and his favorite thing is to be on his iPad. Susie (age 15) had already passed me out in height, but since I saw her last she also had grown taller than her mom. I learned on this trip how Rachel loves bacon as much as my boys do and that if you ask Grace where we should eat, she will suggest Pizza Hut every day. Rachel made a reference on our drive home yesterday to our "guest room." I was puzzled as we don't have a guest room. It turns out she meant the living room. It makes total sense that she views it as a guest room since the couch in that room becomes a sofa bed when they are here, but for the vast majority of the year no one sleeps in our living room aside from our two guinea pigs. Another "funny' was when Susie asked me if we had any yellow Scotch tape. Thankfully I realized she meant masking tape. At the moment her current aspiration is to become an art teacher. She is a very talented artist and has such a sweet personality. I think she'd be a wonderful art teacher!

Ian had $11 saved up, and he

spent $10.88 at the Nintendo store on a plush. Nadia brought over $50 to NYC, but she also spent $10.88. Because Ian was wearing a Mario shirt when he made his purchase, they also gave him a free wallet. Nadia wished she had been wearing a Mario shirt! Oliver and I didn't buy anything in NYC. Ian told me he wants to do extra chores to save up enough money to buy Nadia an Incredibles game for the Nintendo Switch for Christmas. That is very sweet of him!

It is always sad to say goodbye to my sister and her kids. We wish we lived closer together! We see each other at least once a year and often twice a year. In recent years due to funerals, mom's illness, Dad's wedding, etc. we've seen each other a little more regularly. The kids have traveled to Chicago once, but we are planning to return this coming April. I'm grateful that my kids really, really enjoy spending time with their cousins. I have barely had any contact with my cousins over the past 25+ years, but I'm hoping that my kids might be able to stay in touch with some

of their cousins even when they are adults. I realize it's more challenging when they live so far apart. Rachel commented while we were in Central Park that she doesn't really know Uncle Paul. I understand why she feels that way as the last few years he hasn't been with us when our families have been together in Maryland, Ohio, Chicago, etc. And as Rachel said, "when we stay at your house we still don't see him except for a few minutes at night because he's always at work." I explained to her that he only eats a meal with us on Sundays. That was shocking to her as her Dad is certainly around a lot more.

My tasks for today included a few loads of laundry (washing all the extra bed linens plus our own), mowing the lawn, going to the library and grocery store, doing dishes, etc. I hadn't planned to go to the library today, but I told Nadia if she wants to see all the Harry Potter movies she needs to read the books first, and she didn't want to wait until Tuesday to start the first book. The library is closed Sunday and on Labor Day, so we went there and she already read more than 100 pages of the book this evening. We also checked out the first DVD so she can watch it after she finishes the book. I predict we'll be watching the movie on Monday at the pace she's going! She finished Daddy-Long-Legs this morning which meant her next book didn't need to be from the list I created. Ian did read some while the cousins were here, but I don't think Nadia did so today she got back into her books!

Big Apple with Cousins!

We left our home yesterday afternoon and arrived in New Jersey last evening; we stopped and had pizza at a restaurant right around the half-way point of our three hour drive. This morning we enjoyed the hotel's free hot buffet breakfast. We had planned to take the free shuttle, but given our group size (9) we hadn't made our reservations early enough. We planned to walk out of the hotel at 9:00 to walk 4 minutes to the bus stop, but we left the hotel almost 20 minutes late, which meant we missed our bus and had to wait at the station another 45 minutes for the next bus. The NJ transit buses are very plush and reasonably priced. An adult fare is $3.50 and the children are only $1.55. We could have taken a subway for most of the next mile to the Intrepid, but in light of how long we waited for the bus we opted to walk. We spent a couple of hours at the Intrepid which includes an aircraft carrier and nuclear submarine used during the Cold War. We ate the lunch we had packed prior to touring the submarine. Then we walked to Times Square. My kids had been there last summer, but today was the first time their kids were ever in

the state of New York or NYC in particular. Susie purchased something at a BTS store (her favorite band). Some of the kids were really complaining about the amount of walking we were doing (their cousins are not as accustomed to long walks like my kids are) so we took the subway for one mile to the National Museum of Mathematics. The subway in NYC is more expensive than in DC. Our one mile trip cost more than the trip from NJ (which was longer). We spent about 75 minutes in the math museum. The kids really enjoyed it. We all got into both the Intrepid and Mo Math for free because of our ASTC membership, and our hotel stay is free thanks to Drayton's credit card points. So our only expenses today were 2 trips on the bus, 2 trips on the Subway, and dinner at the Shake Shack in Madison Square park. Our last stop was the LEGO store. Our timing was off again on the way home as we spent more than 45 minutes waiting in the Port Authority for our bus back to NJ. Aside from our transportation snafus, everything went smoothly. It rained a little bit now and then, but I had brought an umbrella to keep my camera dry. We have two more days in the city, and hopefully we can have more success with our timing of shuttles and public transportation. My kids didn't spend any money today although they certainly saw things they liked at the LEGO store. I expect they will make purchases tomorrow at either FAO Schwartz or Nintendo NY.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia has been learning a new skill this summer - running the sound board during the youth worship on Sunday mornings. She shadowed someone for several weeks until she became able to do it independently. She also helps out in the youth café; her job there is making smoothies.

2. Oliver made another friend in our development. His newest buddy is a three-year-old named Dawson. He spent quite a few hours playing with Dawson last week. When we were playing the game of Life last Friday and he landed on the "get married" space, when he put the little pink person in his car he said, "My wife's name is Karyss." Karyss (age 7 1/2) is one of our next door neighbors and certainly is the child he enjoys playing with the most.

3. Nadia and Ian had their first rehearsals last night for the youth chorale. I'm hoping they will grow musically over the next three months. Oliver enjoyed returning to gymnastics on Monday night as well. Nadia and Ian will have a total of 11 choir rehearsals and participate

in three concerts. Oliver will have a total of 8 sessions of gymnastics.

4. Last week our grocery store had some really great sales. I bought a few things I don't usually buy because they were selling them at such a great price. The kids have been enjoying eating Klondike bars for the first time, for example! The freezer is currently well stocked with meat, and the pantry is well stocked with cereal thanks to some coupons on Amazon. Also, I have resumed couponing at CVS. I used to go every other week. I am not certain if I'll go that often, but I am planning to go at least once a month because I joined a program they have where you pay $48 to receive $120 over the course of the year ($10 a month that can be used toward anything in the store). With coupons I paid $2 total for 8 boxes of cereal at CVS on Thursday, and since they were boxes of Kellogg's cereal, that also meant I will be receiving 8 free books because I bought those boxes of cereal. Years ago I had looked into a "free" book promotion through Kellogg's

and hadn't participated because the shipping wasn't free. I'm not sure when they change the program, but now the shipping is free for up to ten free books. I've ordered three books so far.

5. Wendy and her kids arrived at our house at 8:30pm last night. We had planned to leave bright and early for NYC this morning, but Wendy and I decided last night that our kids would prefer to have more time to just play at our house (plus this meant her two eldest could sleep in this morning). We'll be driving to New Jersey later today to check into our hotel and will spend the next three days in NYC. Normally I would have wanted to maximize the benefit of the three free nights at the hotel, but I'm a more relaxed person these days, and I'm fine with just hanging here at home today. Nadia is usual the last of my three kids to get up, but since she had Rachel as her roommate, the girls were the first ones up today (even though they went to bed much later than Ian and Oliver did). Since they only see their cousins typically 1-2 times a year (should be three times this year due to Maurice's funeral), it's a special treat for them to have a few days with their cousins! They plan to stay at our house on Friday night before they start heading back to Chicago. The public schools in Chicago don't go back to school until after Labor Day.

6. Paul was able to bring home the grill on Saturday evening that my Dad and Margie had purchased for our 18th anniversary. I can go years without buying any steak, partially because of the cost and partially because I don't like steak. Paul does love steak, and I'm not sure if the kids have ever had steak before so I purchased two different kids of steak last Thursday at the grocery store as it was on sale. At some point Paul will grill the steaks!

7. The kids and I enjoyed playing a game of LIFE while Walmart took care of the oil change and tire rotation for the van.

8. We were able to see the new Pilgrim's Progress movie online for free on Sunday. It had been in the theater this past April. I need to read the book again to the kids as I don't think they remember the first time I read them an abridged version of it.

9. A roofer inspected our roof last Tuesday and said we can get at least one more year out of our roof. That is good news! I am still curious to see what his estimate will be so I'll know what the cost might be if we choose to stay in this house. Although I am not in any way a fan of the idea of moving, I think we might need to consider it because Paul drives 100 miles a day (round trip) to work which adds up in terms of both gas and wear/tear on his vehicle.

10. We spent a couple of hours at a friend's swimming pool last Tuesday afternoon. All three kids enjoyed swimming with friends.

11. I'm thankful that our new school year is off to a good start albeit we only have three days under our belts thus far. When my brother was really young I remember he loved the Spot books (the yellow dog), and when he had moved past that stage of book I remember one of his favorite authors was Bill Peet. We don't own any Bill Peet books, but I brought home several over the past week from the library, and the kids (especially Ian) are enjoying his books. Although it would be really helpful for Nadia to learn more Spanish since she's hoping to go on a mission trip to Guatemala next summer, I'm happy all three are enjoying learning some sign language.

500th Book

At lunch on Thursday we finished our 500th chapter book. I have at times realized I had forgotten to add a title to the list so my guess is that we have actually read (or listened to) more than 500 chapter books. For the first few years I read all the books aloud. Over time we also started checking out books on CD from the library and listening to audiobooks via Audible, Hoopla, or Overdrive. Book #500 was the fourth book in the Melendy quartet. A Spiderweb for Two. During the school year many of the books I choose are historical fiction that relate to what time period we're studying. This summer we enjoyed series like the Penderwicks and Melendy family. Since Thursday was the day we went "back to school," we started The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail at dinner on Thursday because we're learning a little about Queen Victoria right now. We should finish chapter book #501 tomorrow. Naturally the books vary in length. One we should be listening to in the near future via Audible is Rifles for Watie, which takes place during the Civil War. It will take us longer to finish that one as it's 12 hours long. Speaking of Queen Victoria, yesterday one of the picture books we enjoyed (from the library) was Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine.

We've only completed two days of school and neither of those included every single subject because we're gradually easing into the new school year, but I am feeling very positive about the new school year. I feel SO much more relaxed. The last two years I felt like we had to rush, rush, rush. I really want my kids to have a lot of time to play, but this year I don't want to pay as much attention to what time we finish our schoolwork each day. The new additions to our weekly schedule have gotten off to a great start. Ian picked Clue as the game we played on Thursday. Oliver was on my team. Nadia picked Life yesterday, and I decided we'd play the game at Sheetz while the van was having an oil change plus tire rotation/balance at Walmart. It was a great way to pass the time, and it was better to do something free rather than shop during the appointment. I won both Clue and Life. When I paid the bill at Walmart they told me one of the tires needs to be replaced, which means we'll be playing another game while the van is at Walmart sometime in September because the inspection is due in October and that tire won't pass inspection. We recently bought four new tires for Paul's car. Vehicles and houses are not to cheap to purchase or maintain! I used to buy all of our tires at Sears, but the Sears stores in our area closed. I preferred Sears automotive, but thankfully Walmart has the same policy of offering free tire rotation/balance if you buy your tires from them. 

All three kids really enjoyed the first ASL lesson on Thursday. Nadia learned some sign language this summer as one of the girls at horseback riding camp was deaf. The library in Lewisburg is offering two levels of free ASL classes this school year. I've heard good things about the class, but since my goal is not to have too many commitments outside the house in our schedule, I'm opting just to teach the kids ASL myself for now. Nadia had her first photography lesson on Friday. We're starting with working on the exposure triangle (ISO, shutter speed, and aperture).

Speaking of book lists, Nadia finished her 400th chapter book this week. Right now she's in the middle of three books which will be numbers 402-404 on her list. Lately she's been reading the Whatever After series by Sarah Mlynowski and Mother Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick. Now that we've started the new school year, she is also supposed to be reading books from the list I created for her. The three books she's currently reading include the 14th Whatever After book, 7th Mother Daughter Book Club book, and Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (from her list). Another new routine we've begun is to read at least 4 picture books (or poems) each day. The kids and I each pick one. Although we own a nice collection of picture books, I encouraged them to pick out some at the library yesterday. Nadia went with her favorite picture book author - Patricia Polacco. Oliver sits on my lap, and Nadia and Ian are on either side of me. It's one of my favorite parts of the day without a doubt.  In between our visits to the library and Walmart's auto center yesterday we went to Sweet Frog. It was the boys' first visit and Nadia's second. They really enjoyed their treats!  

Back to School!

Today is the first day of school in our local school district. I had been thinking August 26 would be our first day of school, but that was before I knew we'd be in NYC from August 27-30. I decided we'd get in three days of school before our trip. Some subjects (such as science) won't begin until September. Yesterday I took the back to school pictures and also had each child draw his/her self portrait. Both of those are annual traditions. I usually take two pictures of each child with my grandmother's slate. One states the grade, and the other one says what the child wants to be when he or she grows up. In Kindergarten, first, and fourth grade Ian said he wanted to work for the Lego company. At the start of K4 he wanted to be a police officer, and at the beginning of second grade he said he wanted to be an inventor. Last fall he said he wanted to be a missionary in Papua New Guinea. Oliver told me yesterday that his first choice of career was to be a scientist, his second was to be a police officer, and his third was to clean windows on sky scrapers. Last year he said he

wanted to be a soldier, and in Kindergarten he wanted to be a police officer. I didn't start taking the "I want to be" pictures until Nadia was in 1st grade. She said astronaut in 1st grade and 2nd grade, teacher in 3rd grade, and missionary in 4th and 5th grade. This year I only took one picture of Nadia because she said has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up.

When I was a child and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a Mom. If that didn't seem to be considered a satisfactory response (since it's not exactly a "career"), I would say a teacher. I know most children change their minds countless times, which is perfectly fine. The only time it becomes problematic is when a student in college keeps changing their major. My childhood aspirations came true. I am a mom, and I am a teacher! I certainly didn't envision homeschooling my kids when I was in elementary school. My mom homeschooled my brother, but he didn't enter Kindergarten until I was a freshman in college, and so I'm not even

certain I had an awareness of the term "home schooling" when I was in elementary school. I envisioned myself teaching in a Christian school since I attended Christian schools from K-11th grade, and that is where I started my teaching career in 1992. My main decision when choosing a major in college was what type of teacher did I want to be? I considered being a music teacher or history teacher, and then settled on elementary education. I think Paul would find it humorous that I seriously considered being a secondary education history major since his love of history far surpasses mine, but it was one of my most favorite subjects in school! Although I was only a middle school teacher for four years, I have worked full-time in the field of education for more than 20 years - teacher, principal, and professor (teacher educator). Although I'm not drawing a paycheck this year, I still consider myself a teacher since I am teaching grades 2, 4, and 6 this year. Considering I worked FT outside the home for more than 20 years, I admit it does feel strange at times to think that I am unemployed even though

 long before we had children (while we were still dating) Paul and I had agreed that I would be a stay-at-home mom like my mom had been. It feels strange to fill out a medical form for my children and leave the blank for mother's employer empty. However, I am thrilled that it means I get to homeschool my kids five days a week this year, as I only homeschooled them an average of three days a week the past two years. I am REALLY loving the idea of not feeling rushed. That's also why we're not doing the homeschool gym class this fall. And although my load feels so, so, so much lighter, in reality my plate is still full. Paul works long hours six (and sometimes seven) days a week. Usually he's home a bit earlier on Saturday, but that's not always the case. This past Saturday he didn't get home until almost 8pm. He leaves the house before we even get up. For example this week on Tuesday he left for work at 4am and got home at 8:15pm, and then he left for work at 3am the next morning. I was tucking Oliver into bed when Paul came home on Tuesday night. So considering I function as a

single parent for usually six days a week, homeschooling three kids plus cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork, taking care of the finances, etc. is more than enough to keep me busy. At some point I hope to get back into a Bible study, but for the most part I am trying to be very judicious about taking on more commitments.

I hope that the four of us have a fabulous school year. Some new additions this year are the chorale for Nadia and Ian on Monday nights for 11 weeks this fall, Nadia cooking one meal a week (she made homemade calzones this Tuesday which meant she kneaded dough for the first time), teaching the children some ASL, and teaching Nadia some photography (how to shoot in manual with a DSLR). Oliver will be starting to take piano lessons. To make this first day of school special, I made monkey bread for breakfast. I think we might make that a new annual tradition! Oliver received a $10 gift card to Sweet Frog for his birthday. Nadia is the only one who has ever been there before, but I'm planning on taking all three kids to Sweet Frog on Friday at the end of our second day of school.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia enjoyed being in the Lion King last week. I'm sure she was glad that Paul's parents came to see her last performance and took her to Bonanza for dinner. Someone in the camp gave her a poster  (which includes all the kids names on it). She has it on her bedroom wall! My boys were thankful that the man sitting next to Oliver bought them each a popcorn and a drink.

2. The boys have been able to swim a little bit in the neighbor's new inground pool. Their son (Camden) has also been spending a fair amount of time playing at our house lately. Camden is a year older than Oliver. They recently added a diving board to the pool!

3. Paul was able to assemble my new lawn mower on Sunday afternoon. He didn't get home from work until 7:45pm on Saturday, but I didn't plan to mow until Monday morning so that wasn't any problem. I waited until yesterday morning because it's been HOT lately, and I was trying to mow when it was a bit cooler out. It was MUCH easier to mow with my new mower! It definitely was helpful that I had raked and bagged clippings last weekend because the only part of the lawn where the new mower struggled was where I hadn't raked last weekend. This mower has a mulching option - no side discharge, which means I don't think I'll have to rake clippings for as long as this mower works.

4. I took Oliver to the doctor for his 7 year physical yesterday. I had scheduled his physical at 1:15 and an oil change/ tire rotation for the van at 2:00. The physical went smoothly; the appointment at Walmart was a bust. We waited for an hour only to find out they hadn't even taken the van back yet. Considering I was there with three kids, I said I'd reschedule the appointment. Oliver weighs 56 pounds (75th percentile) and is 49 inches tall (68th percentile). He gained 11 pounds over the past year and grew 3 inches. He's still on track to be our tallest child. Time will tell! Without eyeglasses (he forgot to wear them) his vision was 20/30 in both eyes. He passed his hearing screening. The doctor gave me an order for him having a fasting lipid panel in light of Maurice's diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia. It was a different pediatrician who saw Nadia last month, and both doctors thought it was highly unlikely that the kids might have it since I don't, but he agreed to have Oliver tested. Yvonne has been having her kids tested. I am going to see how much the bloodwork will cost to help me decide if it will be cheaper to have them do 23andme (which the kids would prefer since they just have to spit for that one) or the bloodwork. I'm very thankful that Oliver has been healthy over the past year!

5. I've been enjoying the sermon series on Malachi. I think we have two weeks left in that series, and then we are starting a 52 week series! That's much longer than normal for this pastor. We're being encouraged to purchase a book that includes 5 devotionals per week that correspond to the sermon series that goes through the Bible. Also, we are all supposed to try to memorize 1-2 verses per week, and the pastor said he'll be having us recite them in church together on Sunday mornings. The kids will be studying the same topics for 52 weeks in their Sunday School classes. This sounds great!

6. Nadia and Ian succeeded in their auditions with the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale last night. Ian will be in the Preparatory choir and Nadia will sing in the Camerata Choir this fall. The kids' choirs (there are three different choirs) will put on a patriotic concert in November, and they will also sing at the adult chorale's Christmas candlelight concert in December. I've chosen to rent rather than purchase their concert attire.

7. I booked our night at Great Wolf Lodge for December 2. The kids are excited!! We booked through a homeschool group for a great discount. I have a feeling this might become an annual tradition for Ian's birthday.

8. Nadia and Ian are close to being back to normal. Unfortunately Paul is still sick. I managed to dodge this bug, and Oliver only had the tiniest trace of it.

9. The cable guy came this morning. Paul will be glad to be able to see most of his football games. I'm thankful we found a cheaper package (about $16 per month more than what we have been paying just for the internet). We won't be able to see Monday night games as we don't have ESPN.

Rafiki #9

We haven't seen the new Lion King movie yet, but my week revolved around the Lion King. Nadia has participated in theatre classes or camps with four different organizations over the past seven years. In 2013, 2014, and 2018 she spent 1-2 weeks at the Community Theatre League in Williamsport. Last year she had a part in their musical "A Kid's Life." In 2015 and 2016 she was in a musical with the Kids' Theatre Experience at a church in Selinsgrove. In 2015 she played the part of Pepper in Annie, and in 2016 she was in the ensemble of The Little Mermaid. In 2017 she took an acting class at the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and also was in Madagascar at Millbrook Playhouse, which is where she was again this week. Of these seven productions, she said her two most favorite were Annie and Lion King. My two favorite times of watching here were in the musical at the Alliance Church in August 2012 and Annie in July 2015. She's thrilled that next year she'll be old enough to audition for a musical at our church. In the Lion King, about ten of the children had one of the lead roles (Scar, Mufasa, Simba, Pumba, etc.). The rest of the children were either hyenas or one of the Rafikis. Nadia was Rafiki #9 of the 13 Rafikis. The Rafikis were the narrators. I would have enjoyed being in shows like this when I was a child. I organized kids in the neighborhood and we put on little productions for the parents such as Peter Pan. Aside from Passion Plays at church, the only formal theater experience I have was when I was 17 (a freshman in college) I played a part in Agatha Christie's Mousetrap. Maybe at some point in my life I will be in another musical? It would be fun to do it with Nadia at some point, especially if Ian and/or Oliver also were participating. Time will tell.

Nadia and Ian have their auditions for the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale on Monday. Nadia is planning to sing "My Country 'tis of Thee" because the fall concert this year will be a patriotic one to honor veterans. Ian is planning to sing Hakuna Matata for his audition. You would think he was the one who had just been in The Lion King! I know I am biased, but I honestly think he would have done a better job in the musical this week than the girl who did play the part of Pumba. Paul attended the 6:00 show last night, the boys and I attended the 11:00 show today, and Grandma and Pop Pop attended the 3:30 show today. I am very glad it's over because I am not a fan of driving 90-180 miles a day, but I'm glad Nadia had this opportunity. They don't allow parents to take pictures or videos during the performances. The pictures were taken after the 11:00 show today. I paid for a $20 DVD so Nadia will be able to watch one of her performances in the years to come.

My new lawnmower was delivered on Thursday. Home Depot offered free delivery. Paul is hoping to assemble it this evening. The last few days I worked on organizing our meals through the end of November. I ended up purchasing an app for that as well. It took time to enter everything, but I think it will be very helpful. I entered the contents of our pantry into the app so the app tells me if we already have everything needed for a recipe, or it creates a shopping list of the items we don't have. I imported over 120 recipes. My primary goal is to eat a wider variety of foods. I've included new recipes as well as ones I haven't used in a long time. It's so easy to get into a rut and cycle through a small list of favorites - rigatoni and meatballs, tuna noodle casserole, chicken bacon bowtie bake, etc. Hopefully the kids will discover some new favorites. I can go years without making pork chops, and Ian told me yesterday that he likes pork chops. I have that in the plan. I'm hoping that the kids will improve their attitude towards some foods such as rice. Nadia escaped the rice dish this evening as her grandparents took her to Bonanza. They had taken the boys to Red Robin on Tuesday. Oliver did well with the rice tonight even though at the beginning he objected. I also typically serve very simple meals. I planned out more side dishes than usual. For example, Nadia and Oliver like jello, and typically I can go very long periods of time without making any. I'm planning to cook more often so that #1 we won't buy takeout pizza as often (trying to cut back financially now that we're down to one income) and #2 so that Paul will be able to take leftovers to work for lunch. Nadia also likes to have either a hot pocket or leftovers for lunch, and leftovers will be cheaper than buying hot pockets. She had to pack a lunch at camp this week. Most of the days she had an egg salad sandwich, but she is really NOT a fan of sandwiches. The boys and I are easy to please at lunch. Hopefully the two apps I purchased this week will be helpful with cleaning and cooking! One of our neighbors said she wished she could tell Alexa to cook dinner. I think we'd all love that! Ha ha!

When I planned out the menus, most weeks I scheduled breakfast for dinner once a week. Paul doesn't eat pancakes, waffles, french toast, etc. so I am assuming he'll eat leftovers whenever we eat breakfast for dinner. Most weeks we only eat together on Sundays so it's not a big deal for him to eat something different than the rest of us. The boys top two choices for breakfast for dinner at chocolate chip pancakes with bacon or a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. I set up a rotation so that it is at least six weeks before we repeat a breakfast for dinner menu item. I included pasta at least once per week. The kids like all pasta except for spaghetti. I included spaghetti with chicken parmesan a couple of times as I think it would be good if they got accustomed to that type of noodle. They prefer shells, egg noodles, or rigatoni. I also included manicotti and lasagna. Once a week I included pizza or something similar to pizza like homemade calzones or stromboli. Once a week I included a soup or stew. This will not be their favorite night of the week, but hopefully as we try a wider variety of soups they will find some that they like. I am planning to serve a bread of some type with each soup - cornbread, biscuits, garlic bread, or bread sticks. The other nights include a wide variety of meals. Another goal I had when organizing the meals was to include a wider variety of vegetables and serve salad more often. There is still definitely room for growth with the vegetables. I didn't include broccoli or cauliflower (aside from one night of stir-fry) or asparagus or Brussels sprouts. We're taking baby steps in this category. Currently the kids will eat lettuce, carrots, green beans, and corn without any complaints. Oliver and Ian will eat celery. They struggle with sugar snap peas, lima beans, and peas.

Yesterday the kids had a pizza party (if we sent in $5 toward that) which meant the boys and I only had to make one trip as Paul attended the 6:00 show and took her home after that was over. I thought we'd be able to leave after the 11:00 show today, but Nadia had to stay with us until the 2:15 call time for the third show. We had packed lunches and spent about two hours at a playground. Prior to the 11:00 show Oliver was talking to the man sitting next to him. He was very generous and went to the snack bar and bought both of my boys each a popcorn and a drink. Oliver picked a bottle of water, and Ian picked a glass bottle of root beer. The kindness of a stranger always really touches me. It was really hot while we were at the playground, and Nadia still doesn't have her full energy level. She opted to read at the playground. She's on the last book of the seven book Bother Daughter Book Club series. We finished the fifth Penderwick book this week and started the fourth Melendy book. After today we just have four days left of summer vacation. I'm ready for the new school year, but I think the kids would love it if summer lasted even longer. Since we wrapped things up in early May, they've already had more than three months off. It's almost time to start grades 2, 4, and 6!

Hump Day

I haven't often been one to think about Wednesday being "hump day." Today it definitely crossed my mind in terms of theater camp. The boys opted to make two round trips today and tomorrow so that they can have more time at home. This means I'm making nine round trips to Millbrook Playhouse this week. Today was the third day of the six day Lion King Experience, and I made my fourth and fifth round trips today, which means I am over the hump! Two round trips tomorrow and one round trip each on Friday and Saturday thanks to the fact Paul is making one round trip Friday night and Paul's parents are making one round trip on Saturday afternoon. I'm not a huge fan (AT ALL) of spending 3 hours on the road two days in a row, but I keep reminding myself that I am doing this because I love my daughter and also that the drive to the theater is very similar to what my commute to work was, and I won't be making that commute this year.

Yesterday Nadia said she slept during the last hour of theater camp, and she slept on the drive home and then went straight to

bed. I got her up around 7:45pm to see if she wanted to eat anything and to check on her. I got her to eat a little bit as all she had for lunch was a string cheese and she hadn't eaten any dinner. She was awake for a little bit and ate part of a yogurt, but she slept for almost 15 hours straight! I questioned her this morning to make sure she was well enough to go to camp today, and she said she felt a little better. She's a trooper! I would agree with her assessment because she didn't take any naps and stayed up until 9:30pm, which is her usual bedtime now that she is 11 years old. She had a small breakfast and a very small dinner, but she said she ate a big lunch. I had to wake Ian up at 7:50 this morning so he could get dressed and brush his teeth before hopping in the van. I made him a bagel he could eat in the vehicle. This proves he hasn't been feeling well because he's usually up before 7:00. He asked for Tylenol last night, but he didn't ask for any today. He's not back to normal yet, but he's definitely on the mend. Paul stayed home and slept most of the day on Tuesday while I was in Lock Haven. In the evening he drove down to get the boys and bring them back home. He went back to work today. Thankfully thus far it seems that Grandma, Pop Pop, Oliver, and I have escaped the bug. Hoping that continues to be the case and that Ian, Nadia, and Paul are back to full health in the near future. I was alone almost the entire day yesterday due to Nadia's camp and the fact she slept so long. I was grateful today to have the boys with me. I played Blokus and Chutes and Ladders with Ian and helped Oliver with a jigsaw puzzle. I really, really don't like to think about the day when our house becomes an empty nest, but thankfully that shouldn't happen for at least 11 more years.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Last Tuesday we had a wonderful time at DelGrosso's. The weather was perfect, which was a huge relief after having been rained out recently at Knoebels. Tab, Micah, Isaiah, Dad, and Margie joined us there to celebrate Oliver's 7th birthday. Parking is free, we received five free wristbands, and my Dad treated everyone to pizza for dinner. Our only costs for the outing were buying two wristbands (for Micah and Isaiah) and one funnel cake that we all shared!

2. When the first air conditioning man came to our house he told me the estimate would likely be between $7-10K, at which my heart sank as I had been hoping we wouldn't have to pay more than $5K. Last week on Monday we got the first estimates, which were from $6-7K. On Tuesday as we were driving home from DelGrosso's the second one came in at $4,460, which was such a relief! The third man took longer to give us the estimate, but it was worth the wait. For just air conditioning, his was $4,080, but he recommended we get a heat pump instead, which would bring the total to $4,920. So we have made the decision to go with the heat pump even though it's $840 more. Basically if the air temperature is above 35 degrees, the heat pump (which will be cooling our house in the summer) will be used. Our natural gas furnace will only turn on when the outside temperature is below 35 degrees. Considering our current air conditioning system is 20 years old, it's not nearly as energy efficient as the newer air conditioning units plus with the heat pump we'll really be more energy efficient. Hopefully this will lead to lower natural gas bills in the years to come and we'll be grateful we spent that extra $840. I'm thankful that my original estimate of $5K was accurate. Hopefully in early September our air conditioning will be working again. Paul's parents loaned us an old window unit that Paul's grandmother had used. We haven't turned it on yet because thankfully it's been getting cool at night which with leaving the windows open has helped keep our house from turning into a sauna.

3. Three of the neighbors on our street replaced their roof within the past year. One neighbor had said theirs cost $10K, and their roof is simpler and smaller than ours. I was figuring we'd have to pay at least $10K. The neighbor who had their roof done most recently used an Amish company. I asked the neighbor this past Saturday if he was satisfied with their service, and he said he was very satisfied and that it only cost $4,600 for a new roof and gutters! This put a HUGE smile on my face to find out that we probably don't have to spend $10K on the roof. I have put a call in to the company he used and am hoping the estimate will be closer to $5K. If so, maybe we can afford to have something done to help keep our basement dry. The next appliance that I think we'll have to replace is the oven. It's also 20 years old. The hood (fan/light) already stopped working, but the range and oven haven't given me any grief yet. There are times when I wish we had a landlord who could handle all of this, but then I think of the fact we aren't paying any rent (and don't have a mortgage payment), and I know in the long run it's better to own than rent.

4. The kids had fun roller skating on Wednesday night and also were glad that Paul's parents came to our house for dinner that day. Oliver liked his birthday presents, cake, and chocolate covered pretzels!

5. Nadia learned CPR and such at her Safe Sitters class at the hospital last Friday.

6. We went swimming for about an hour for free at a local pool on Saturday as the library was having a pool party. The cooler temps at night lowered the water temperature in the pool so the boys didn't last too long, but Nadia had fun playing with one of our neighbors who was also there. Nadia swam for about 5 hours on Sunday as she attended a pool party at the home of one of the youth group leaders. She also got to make smores, eat hot dogs, etc. I don't think we'll use our bathing suits again until September when we travel to New York to visit Saratoga and Ticonderoga, as I made our 2 night reservation at a hotel with an indoor pool.

7. As of Sunday Paul and I have been married for eighteen years! Dad and Margie got us a grill for our anniversary! Paul gave me a new lawnmower for our anniversary. It was getting really, really hard to mow the lawn. Clippings have been part of the problem so I raked up a lot of the grass clippings this past weekend. I filled 17 big garbage bags with grass clippings and dumped them in an unused field near our house. The old mower was about to be the death of me. The new one I ordered from Home Depot is supposed to be delivered next week! Have I mentioned owning a house is expensive? I haven't been exercising this summer so I'm grateful that yard work (mowing, raking, cleaning the fence) gives me opportunities for exercise.

8. The boys have spent three days with their grandparents. Paul was going to wake them up at 5:45am on Sunday to drive them down, but since Ian hadn't been feeling well on Saturday, he changed his arrival time at work and asked me to wake the boys up at 7:00am. The boys went to church with Grandma and Pop Pop and have been at their house for three days. I miss them SOOOOO much! I can't wait to give them big hugs when they come home this evening. Selfishly I didn't want them to be at their grandparents for that long of a time period, but I am sure they are thrilled to be down there, and it has meant they didn't have to take Nadia to camp yesterday or today.

9. I very rarely purchase any apps for myself, but I bought one recently (Tody) to help with knowing when it's time to accomplish certain cleaning tasks. Years ago I used Motivated Mom, but that one had to be purchased every year. This one is also more customizable. In some cases I think a task needs done more frequently than what the default was set for (ex. how often to clean the bathtub), and in other instances I thought the default was too frequent (ex. how often to wash the bedding). I am not using the app for things I do on a daily basis such as loading the dishwasher, sweeping the kitchen floor, etc. but rather for things that sometimes I let go too long such as cleaning out the microwave, dusting the vents, clipping the boys' fingernails, etc. Yesterday Nadia started her theatre camp. I was planning to hang out in the Lock Haven area, but because Ian wasn't feeling well, I drove home after dropping her off (and ordering tickets to the shows which took about 30 minutes as the line was long). Paul had said he might pick Ian up and bring him home so that I could take him to the doctor. That didn't happen for two reasons #1 Ian was feeling better and #2 Paul was feeling worse which seemed to indicate that it was a virus not bacterial. Ian had complained on Friday of a headache. Saturday he complained of a headache, sore throat, and stiff neck, and he was very lethargic on Saturday - even took a nap which is unheard of for him. I kept taking his temperature, and he never had a fever. I did give him Tylenol for the headache. While he was at Grandma and Pop Pop's on Sunday, he said his ear was also hurting. Anyhow since I drove the extra 90 minutes (round trip)  yesterday to come home while she was at camp, I decided to tackle some cleaning projects. I swept the entire garage floor and organized everything - which included doing some purging. I vacuumed the minivan, and I cleaned the fence. That is one of my least favorite projects. I rue the day we bought a fence. It has never been helpful, and it creates more work for me (weed whacking plus cleaning it). This means it's just clutter at this point - creating extra work and not beneficial in any way. There are times I'm tempted to just remove the fence, but I haven't because if we ever do end up getting a dog, then the fence will come in handy at that point. I am happy our fence is back to being white (mostly - I am not a perfectionist).  Here's to hoping this app will help me keep the house cleaner!

10. Today I opted to stay in Lock Haven. I am at a public library. My goal today is to do work on meal planning and find some recipes to try. Last year I had plans to have us try foods from the 1700's, but very few of those plans actually came to fruition. I think we'll have more success this year in terms of me actually following through and also of the kids liking what we try. I was looking up what were some of Abraham Lincoln's favorite foods and found several the kids would like. Staying in Lock Haven means I won't drive for 3 hours like I did yesterday. Another reason I'm glad I stayed here is evidently Nadia isn't feeling well. Someone from the camp called me at 10:00 to tell me Nadia was sick but she thought she could stick it out. I'm happy I'm only 10 minutes away from the camp if I need to get her sooner than planned. Here's to hoping and praying that Oliver and I escape this bug and that Ian didn't give it to Grandma or Pop Pop. I'm thankful that this is the LAST camp of the summer. When Nadia did a theatre camp here in 2017 I said I'd never do that again. I should have known better than to use the word "never." Here I am doing it again two years later! I do hope though that this is the last time. I'm really hoping to sign the kids up for the Christian theater camp in Montoursville next summer (much closer) put on by the Family Life Network in NY. On Friday I'm definitely driving home after taking her to camp as Paul is going to the first performance at 6:30 on Friday and bringing her home. I will leave it up to the boys as to whether they want to hang out at a state park the next two days or spend more time in the car so they can be at home for 5.5 hours.

11. Yesterday we sold Nadia's softball bat, bag, helmet, and glove for $30. I gave her the money. I have been suggesting she buy a scooter (she often uses Oliver's), but I think her first priority is to buy extenders for the stilts that Dad and Margie got her for her birthday.

12. The boys have been asking me to read a lot of picture books lately. Ian has really been into Dr. Seuss. Nadia and Ian have been playing chess more, and we've played other games as well such as the past two nights we did Monopoly and Rummikub. I have fond memories of playing Rummikub with my Grandma Lillian. Hopefully Nadia will have fond memories some day of playing games with me! :)

13. Last Thursday we had a nice time at Reptiland. Nadia's favorite part was feeding the birds. I was surprised that Oliver didn't want to be squirted by the dinosaur (that squirted Nadia) as usually he loves to get wet! It's nice that it's only six minutes from our house.

14. I'm still thankful for my camera. I thought for sure when I went back to work that I'd buy myself a new lens. I didn't. It's been three years since I got a new lens, and in light of what we need for the house (roof, air conditioning, etc.) I'm glad I hadn't made that splurge. I don't use my camera every day, but when I get some good pictures of the kids, it brings me great joy. I know there are many ways I could improve my photography skills, but I am pleased with the progress I have made over the years. I'm looking forward to teaching Nadia some photography skills this school year!