12 Years

 

We moved into our current home on September 24, 2008. I have always had a hard time memorizing things with numbers such as dates, phone numbers, and Bible references. I only recall the year that previous moves took place not the month much less the specific date, but we sold the home in Catawissa and purchased this home on the day Nadia turned 3 months old, which made it very easy for me to remember. We moved in on a Wednesday, and two days later our town held its annual community yard sale. Prior to becoming a mom, I had never been interested in shopping at yard sales, but my attitude totally shifted when I was shopping for baby clothes, toys, etc. I didn't want to buy someone's unwanted household goods, but the clothes their baby outgrew - yes! I was rather dumbfounded to see what a big ordeal that a community yard sale can be in this area. More than 100 yard sales taking place within a two mile radius, thousands of people shopping at the yard sales (it's the only time each year it's hard to find a parking spot in our borough), and food trucks. We see more Amish people at the yard sales than we see at any other point in the year in our community. Over the last 10+ years I've enjoyed shopping at our borough's community yard sale in September and Milton's community yard sales in May. Milton didn't have theirs this year due to COVID. I wasn't sure if our borough would also cancel the yard sales this year, but they didn't. On Friday morning we did a little bit of schoolwork and then headed out to the yard sales for a couple of hours. We came home, had lunch, did some more schoolwork, and then headed to gym class. On Saturday morning Nadia wasn't too happy about being out the door before 8:00, as she likes to sleep in on Saturday, but she also likes to pick out clothes that she wants me to purchase. We only shopped for two hours on Saturday morning, which is far less than usual. Many of the years I was pushing at least one child in a stroller at the yard sale. I have to say we were missing the stroller yesterday. Parking is always a problem on the Saturday of the yard sales so we park and walk around the town, which means we're carrying all the bags. A stroller was useful for helping carry the bags, but at least the kids are big enough that they could lend a hand and help carry some of the bags. I had a list of things I was hoping to buy. We succeeded in getting pants for Ian and Oliver as well as some snow pants for the boys. I did buy two pairs of sneakers, but I didn't buy any dress shoes. I didn't have anything for Nadia on the list, but she got some new clothes - mostly dresses and also some books. I wasn't planning on buying Ian a hat, but he asked me to buy the hat (pictured above), and I think he looks rather dapper in it! Our tradition is that I buy four whoopie pies from an Amish food stand (50 cents each). The weather was perfect for the yard sales this year. 

Abby and Evanna came over for a sleepover yesterday afternoon. The girls baked cookies, jumped on the trampoline, played board games, played the Wii, watched Wonder, etc. Their parents will get them at church after the second service. I had planned to go to both services today, but last night Oliver started coughing. He doesn't have a fever. I'm certain he doesn't have COVID as his symptoms include sneezing which is not a symptom of COVID, but in this present time when people are very nervous about coughing, I thought he should stay home from church today. Paul is at work right now. He's going to come home in time so that he can stay home with Oliver while the rest of us attend the second service. It means none of us will attend the worship service, as we attend that at 9:00. I am signed up to be in the nursery during the 10:45 service. Ian will need to go to the elementary boys class as otherwise he'd be attending the worship service by himself. Nadia and her friends will attend the 10:45 youth service. Next Sunday is the last week of the Core 52 sermon series that has lasted a little more than one year because they took a four week break from it last December. Next week Mark Moore (the author of the book) will be preaching on the topic of heaven (Revelation 22), but we will be on vacation. The past two weeks the attendance was definitely up at our church. The number of people attending in person finally exceeded the number attending the service online. Because they removed half of the seats due to COVID, we actually had a little trouble finding seats two weeks ago. Last week we arrived a little earlier than we had been, and that solved the problem. 

We are planning to leave for our vacation on Thursday. I still have moments of thinking we should just stay HOME due to COVID-19 and also because of the protests and rioting. One of the places we are planning to stay during our trip is Louisville, which doesn't seem like a good place to visit at the moment due to the Breonna Taylor decision. In general I don't like to read much about the news because it's rarely good news, but I was happy to read of who Trump has nominated for the Supreme Court. I haven't been impressed with the most recent additions to the Supreme Court. In my opinion there are only two true Constitutional conservatives on the court - Alito and Thomas. Scalia has been greatly missed. I think if Barrett is confirmed, she will be as true to the Constitution as Thomas and Scalia.

Last week Margie was diagnosed with breast cancer. She hasn't had a scan yet. We're praying that the scan will show that the cancer hasn't spread anywhere else. My mom's ovarian cancer wasn't diagnosed until it was already at stage four. We're hoping Margie's was caught much earlier than that. Ever since we found out on Friday night, I've been praying for Margie's physical health as well as for the emotional well being of Margie, my dad, and Margie's three children.