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!