La Leche

Of my three kids, I would say Ian has been using Spanish the most, and Oliver by far uses it the least. In fact there are phrases I've been using EVERY day such as "put the forks on the table, please," and he has no idea what I'm saying. So it caught me by surprise earlier this week when I was doing spelling with him, and a sentence he was supposed to spell contained the word "milk," and he proceeded to begin spelling the word "la leche." That definitely earned a pompom for our jar! I still required him to spell "milk" in Ingles, but that definitely put a smile on my face! It is fitting that he knows how to say "milk" in Spanish because he definitely consumes more milk that anyone else in the family! 

Nadia's drawing of Alice in Wonderland

I haven't listed it on my gratitude lists recently, but I have to say again how thankful I am that I am able to stay home and homeschool our kids. Did I enjoy being a professor? Absolutely! However, it is such an incredible blessing to have life slow down to a far more manageable pace. I remember in the fall of 2016 how I was so exhausted and I was really struggling with Paul's long hours as he had just transitioned from higher education back to the concrete plant. It's pretty funny at the moment, but at that time I felt overwhelmed by how few hours he was at home each week. I find it funny because little did I know that one year later I would be adding a FT job to my load! My workload from August 2017 through May 2019 was just insane - doing all the housework, yard work, cooking, a FT job at BU, writing lesson plans for my three kids for the two days they spent with the babysitter, and homeschooling the kids three days a week. In August 2019 the pace of my life returned to what it was in August 2016, but three years later I didn't find my workload to be exhausting even though Paul's hours at work hadn't changed. I think in part it's the context. In the fall the first time it's 50 degrees out, it feels SO, SO cold because you're accustomed to warmer weather, but if it reaches 50 degrees in February, you think it's a downright balmy day out and wonder if you even need to wear a coat. From August 2013-May 2016 Paul had been a professor and gone to work about 3 days a week on average, and those days he was at work were much shorter days than when he works at the concrete plant. Plus there were MANY weeks during the year he didn't go to the university at all, whereas he works almost every week of the year at the plant. This meant I could go for a run in the morning at say 6AM because he was at home, we ate far more meals together as a family each week, and we spent our evenings together as a family. In contrast, in the fall of 2016 I felt like a single parent from Monday morning until late Saturday afternoon each week. Now I'm accustomed to this schedule. It also helps that the kids are older, and I can leave them at home when I run short errands. I can make it to our new library and back in twenty minutes, for example. So all this to say I am very grateful that I no longer feel like I am drowning. I have down time, which is something I didn't have those two years. This week I read John Grisham's newest book, and I also put a lot of time into reading international cookbooks from the library and selecting recipes for us to try in the coming weeks and months. These are things I definitely didn't have time for when I was also juggling a FT job. Yes, our income was much greater when I was employed, but my sanity is also a valuable commodity! 

Speaking of recipes, we've tried thirty-one "new" foods so far over the past two months. I say "new" because some foods Paul and I had already eaten or the kids had eaten once five years ago. I would say that about ten of those foods we'd like to have again. I made jerk chicken this week. Paul and I have eaten it before in the Caribbean, but it was my first time ever making it. The kids really, really liked it. My list of recipes to try is growing, but I've also eliminated a few because when I first made the list I was forgetting about Ian's allergies to nuts. For example, I had baklava on the list. Nope. I used a green pepper in one dish that I made this fall, and all the rest of my family let me know how much they do not like green peppers. I had planned to make fajitas for the first time as well as chicken cacciatore, but I've also scratched those off the list considering how averse they are to mushrooms, onions, red peppers, and green peppers. The ingredient that I really, really, really wish others in my family liked was a tomato. Oh how I love tomatoes, but I'm the only one who does, so I also try to select recipes that don't include tomatoes. Tonight I made two things I had never cooked before - Hasselback potatoes (origin - Sweden) and French onion soup. I have had French onion soup at restaurants, but Paul and the kids had never had French onion soup before. I took the onions out of their soup before serving it to them. Although I thought the soup was delicious, I won't be making it again. It's not hard to find desserts that the kids like, so finding new dessert recipes that they enjoy isn't nearly as exciting as finding main dishes that they like. Jerk chicken, Swedish meatballs, and croque Monsieur are three main dishes I'm going to add to our meal rotation. Hopefully over the coming months we'll discover some other main dishes that can be added to the list. I think our biggest "fail" this far was the tamales. I have made most of the new foods, but a few I purchased. This worked out well when it came to cannoli and blintzes, but the tamales I bought at the grocery store were downright awful. The kids had never eaten a tamale before. I have eaten them at restaurants, but I wasn't sure I could make them myself. In hindsight, I should have given it a whirl. Yesterday I made pan de Muertos, which is a Mexican yeast bread. I thought of my Grandma when I made it because she was the one who taught me to make yeast bread. In December Ian will start helping me cook one meal a week. I want all of my kids to be able to cook a variety of dishes before they graduate from high school. Nadia made rigatoni and meatballs earlier this week. 

The activities that kept me busy today were mowing the lawn (wearing a winter coat!), washing/drying our sheets and towels, vacuuming, cooking dinner, and taking the kids trick or treating. Nadia wore her Hermione costume to a party last night, but she went as the juice box again tonight and received many compliments. Ian was Spiderman again tonight, and Oliver went as Buzz Lightyear. Nadia wore a face shield at the party last night, but we didn't wear shields or face masks this evening. She enjoyed playing Guesstures (a game we also own) and Mafia last night. Between mowing the lawn and trick or treating, I walked about 5 1/2 miles today, which is far more exercise than I have been getting in one day lately. Did you know today was a "blue moon"? That refers to a month in which there are two full moons. It happens only once every 2.5 years.

 

Pumpkin Time

 

Peppa often licks Nadia's face - so sweet!

While we were on vacation I got Nadia a pumpkin at Aldi for her to carve. The kids are generally NOT fans of scooping the pulp and seeds out of the pumpkins, and so I thought maybe we'd just do one pumpkin this year. Nadia is supposed to bring a carved pumpkin to the cast party this Friday night. Amazon delivered the goodies I ordered last week for our Christmas shoe boxes - stuffed animals, calculators, glue sticks, soap, marbles, jump ropes, etc. As we started filling our five boxes, we realized we needed to buy some more things. We thankfully had finished our schoolwork before lunch today. Usually there is at least one child still doing schoolwork until about 2pm. So we headed to the Dollar Tree after lunch to buy more things for our shoe boxes. I also went across the street to the grocery store to buy a couple of things and saw they had all their pumpkins on sale for $2. I asked the boys if they wanted to carve a pumpkin this year. Ian wasn't interested, but Oliver wanted one. So after we finished packing our shoe boxes, we worked on carving two pumpkins. Since Oliver really, really likes

Paw Patrol, Ian suggested a Paw Patrol badge. Nadia made a scared face on her pumpkin. She carved the mouth. I carved her eyes and the paw print on Oliver's pumpkin. They both helped with scooping out the pulp and seeds. 

I don't create report cards for my kids. I will probably start keeping track of Nadia's grades next year, which is one year earlier than I am required to do so. If I was making report cards, I think we would have completed our first marking period because we started school a little over two months ago. Today was technically our 71st day out of the 180, but some of those were from this summer or field trips so we we're only about 1/4th of the way through the curriculum. I'm not going to record an analysis of each child in every subject but rather I thought I'd make a list of some of my favorite resources (in no particular order):

1. Audiobooks -We use either Audible, Hoopla, or Overdrive every day to listen to audiobooks. Right now we're listening to The Brooklyn Bridge by Karen Hesse and Daring to Hope by Katie

Davis Majors. 

2. World Watch News - We watch this about 10 minute news broadcast once a day M-F. I think it's great!

3. Seterra Geography - This is a website that the kids use to learn the countries of the world and the capitals of some of the countries. They have a wide assortment of map quizzes. So far Nadia and Ian have passed the ones for the provinces of Canada, all of the countries of North and South America, and the capitals of most of the countries in the western Hemisphere (didn't have them learn the capitals of the islands in the Caribbean) 

4. Life of Fred - We love this series of math books! Math is the subject we have been spending the most time on this year. Nadia has been doing two math lessons a day through Teaching Textbooks because she wants to work through both Math 7 and Pre-Algebra this year. We use Life of Fred as a supplement. We're in the Fractions book now, and I really like the extra problems they give in what

he calls the Bridge. After completing five lessons they have to pass a bridge to move on to the next lesson. The books are very humorous and include concepts from many other facets of life.

5. Beast Academy - Oliver is currently in 2A, and Ian recently started 5B. This is a challenging curriculum but really excellent at fostering creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.

6. Creating a Masterpiece - I'm thankful I signed up for another subscription that gives us access to a wide array of art lessons. This week Nadia is taking two art classes by Zoom through the Berks Youth Chorus, but most weeks our art will be through Creating a Masterpiece. 

7. Sermon on the Mount - I'm glad the kids have been able to participate in AWANA in the past, but I have to say I prefer memorizing one bigger chunk of Scripture over memorizing a verse here and another verse there. So far we've memorized Matthew 5:1-18 together. We're planning to

memorize chapters 5-7 by the end of our school year. 

8. Talkbox.mom - This is a fun way to learn another language! For example, today we played a memory game about the sounds that animals make in Spanish. We are actually making progress with using Spanish throughout the day. When we were doing the service project last week, I was counting "uno, dos, tres" many times as we were putting the rice, beans, and vegetables into the meal bags, and then after the third one I'd say "bien hecho" (good job). All three kids definitely learned that phrase that day! Each day I try to add at least one phrase to my repertoire. Yesterday I worked on using "ven aqui" or "vengan aqui" (come here in both singular and plural).  

9. Public libraries - In addition to getting audiobooks for free, we also check out books from two different library systems - picture books, chapter books for the kids, and books for me as well. I'm really, really hoping that the libraries don't shut down again due to COVID-19. 

10. All About Spelling - Some of the resources on this list are ones we are using for the first time this year such as World Watch News, Talkbox.mom, and Seterra's website. Others on this list we've been using since I began homeschooling Nadia in 2013. AAS is one of the resources we've been using the entire time. Nadia finished the curriculum in the spring, but Ian is in Level 6, and Oliver is in Level 3.

11. Fix It Grammar - I think this is a quick and excellent way to cover a little grammar each day. Nadia and Ian are in the third book (Frog Prince). Today for example we talked about the difference between affect and effect. 

Trunk or Treat

When Paul and I were kids, we went trick-or-treating on October 31. Paul went all around the town of Gordon. My siblings and I just went to a small number of homes in our neighborhood. We didn't do anything for Halloween the first three years we were parents. In 2011 we took Nadia and Ian to a trunk or treat event at the Methodist Church that is about 1 mile from our house. In 2013 we took the kids trick or treating for the first time in addition to the trunk or treat events that we had been taking them to the previous two years. Some years they have gone to as many as four trunk or treat events (3 at churches and 1 at the McCann School of Business) plus trick or treating in our town. That translates to a LOT of candy. Sometimes they've exchanged some of their candy for $1 coins at one of the dentists in our town. Sometimes the kids would wear a different costume to each event. I took the kids to a trunk or treat tonight at the same church where we went to our first trunk or treat nine years ago. It was very different because of COVID-19, but the kids were able to wear their costumes and receive a bag filled with candy, chips, juice, fruit, etc.

Because so much was eliminated, we were only there for about 5 minutes, but since it's so close to our home, I was fine with that. I saw that Lowe's stores are doing a drive thru trunk or treat this year, but I'm not going to drive as far as we would have to drive to get to a Lowe's just to receive three bags of candy. I believe that will be our only trunk or treat event this year unless I end up taking the boys to our church's drive-thru trunk or treat on Friday night. Nadia is attending a Halloween party on Friday night that is a cast party for the kids who were in the play that was recorded on Zoom this past Friday night. Nadia is supposed to come in costume and bring a carved pumpkin to the party. We're also planning to take the kids trick or treating in our town on Saturday night. I'm guessing that fewer people will be passing out candy due to COVID. We shall see.

Nadia made her costume for the first time this year. She went as a box of Juicy Juice apple juice. I bought Ian's costume at Walmart; it was the first time I bought him a costume from a store when it wasn't on sale. I did the same for

Nadia last year, but all the other costumes came from yard sales, thrift stores, or after Halloween sales. Ian is going as Spiderman this year. He had other characters in mind, but they didn't have those available at Walmart. Oliver wore the same Batman costume he wore last year. It's a bit small on him so I'm going to ask him to pick a different costume for Saturday night. We own some other that would fit him better. 

At this time of year you NEVER know what the weather will be like in Pennsylvania. We had a big snowstorm in 2011 at the end of October - enough that the kids built a big snowman. A few days ago it was over 80 degrees! It was in the 70's on Friday. I wish I had mowed the lawn on Friday afternoon. A cold front came through yesterday and BRRR it was about 40 degrees when we went to church this morning. I think it's going to be COLD on Saturday night when we take the kids trick-or-treating. We will have to bundle up before we head out!

Pet research

This morning the kids and I returned to the site of the Missions Expo. We helped with packing more meals. There were only 5,000 left to do this morning as the other 95,000 had been completed the past three days. We also helped with the seed packing project (a total of 50,000 packets of collared greens seeds were packed this week). The whole project cost $48,000 as far as what was spent to buy all the rice, lentils, beans, seeds, items that VOM requested, shipping, etc. Six large Gaylord boxes were filled with Christian literature and packed to ship to a ministry in Illinois that will distribute them around the world, and another Gaylord was filled with Bibles to send to a ministry in Georgia. Since today was the last day of the project, they ended the session with a lunch. No, we didn't eat the lentils/rice/vegetable meals that we packed for the Haitians. We had pizza, salad, chips, desserts, etc. The meal packets did not look big enough to feed six people, especially since the people who are eating those meals are often only eating one meal a day. I had planned to make Swedish meatballs and egg noodles for dinner tonight, but the kids and I only want a light meal in light of how much we ate at lunch today. Since we were out and about the last several days I would have liked to just stay at home all day today, but I am thankful we helped at the service project again today. It's not often that we can participate in a project of this magnitude this close to our home. 

It's just two months until Christmas, which means it's time to start thinking about Christmas gifts. I don't like doing it at the last minute. Today I ordered four Christmas ornaments on Shutterfly and had them shipped to family members. I also started buying things to fill our five Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. I bought one Christmas gift for a nephew from an Amazon wish list. It's a start. Nadia wants another pet for Christmas. At first she asked for a turtle. After I did more research about reptiles that like to be handled, I discovered that the top two choices would probably be either a bearded dragon or leopard gecko. Susie has a corn snake, and those were also high on that list, but neither Nadia or I are interested in having a snake in our house. Bearded dragons are evidently very friendly, but the thought of keeping crickets alive just so we can feed them to the bearded dragon is rather unappealing for one thing. There are other drawbacks. I think the bottom line is that the kids REALLY want a cat or a dog. Cats are out of the question due to Paul's allergies. So I find myself trying to contemplate how we could care for a dog. This year we have been home more than usual - so this year it wouldn't have been as challenging, but even this year we went skiing twice, spent a day at Refreshing Mountain, went to Six Flags five times, spent a week at Aunt Janet's, took field trips to Hershey, Gettysburg, and Scranton, and took a vacation for a week. Who would take the dog for walks on those days like that? I know the kids would really enjoy a dog, but I don't think they want to give up field trips, skiing, amusement parks, and vacations just so we can have a dog. I think for now the kids need to be content with two fish and three guinea pigs. I'd like to see Nadia and Ian take over responsibility of cleaning the guinea pig cage. 

P.S. I actually was yellow and won the Connect Four game. Nadia wanted it to seem like she had won, so she held a yellow checker when I got out my camera, ha ha! On the other hand, although we didn't finish the game, Ian was beating me at "billiards."

Fall Fun

A very large "operation" type game

Almost every year I've taken the kids to a pumpkin patch and/or corn maze; some years Paul and my parents or his parents joined us. Most of the years we've gone to Ard's Farm. Today we went with a homeschool group to Kohl's; it was our second time at this location as we also went there in 2017. Last year was their favorite trip to Ard's because four of their cousins were with us when we went. For many years I've had a tradition of having the kids wear pumpkin shirts for this outing. I didn't buy any pumpkin shirts this year. The size 10/12 shirt that Nadia had worn was not one I could pass on to Ian because even though the shirt was orange, the pumpkin was definitely feminine. Nadia has decided she has outgrown wearing shirts like that. We had two shirts in size 8 so both boys wore them today even though it was warm enough out to wear a short sleeve shirt. Thank you, boys!! This was definitely our warmest trip to a pumpkin patch. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was yesterday. It got into the low 80's yesterday. I wouldn't have asked the boys to wear a long sleeve shirt today if it was as warm as yesterday. I'll have to remember to buy the boys new pumpkin shirts next fall. I can usually get them for less than $5 each on the Children's Place website. The hay ride at Ard's is very short but includes a free pumpkin of your choosing. The hay ride at Kohl's was more than 30 minutes long, but the $$ we paid for the corn maze, games, and hay ride didn't include a pumpkin. We spent almost 3 hours playing the games/ going through the corn maze. The kids asked me a few minutes before we were about to leave if they could do the 2.5 mile corn maze. We had done the 1 mile one earlier. I would have been willing to do it, but not at that time. It was a beautiful day, and due to COVID we hadn't seen people from this homeschool group since February. Although the kids missed the slide they have at Ard's, they did really enjoy the wide variety of games that Kohl's has.

Ian in the small corn maze

Paul's typical schedule is that he leaves for work sometime between 5-6am and gets home between 7-8pm (M-F). On Saturdays he usually gets home between 2-3pm. I say typical because sometimes he leaves for work earlier than 5am and gets home from work after 8pm. He usually doesn't work at the plant on Sundays. If he does, he's only there in the morning. His time at the plant plus his commute to and from work add up to around 80 hours in a typical week. So far this year he took off one day of work to go skiing with us, one day off to go to Six Flags, and seven days off for our family vacation. This year he's taken far more days off for medical appointments than he usually does. He went back to his PCP as a follow-up earlier this month to discuss the results of the upper and lower EMG tests and stress test. All those results were normal except he has carpal tunnel. At the follow-up appointment the PCP advised him to see the eye doctor because he thought Paul had a cataract. Paul went into work later than usual this morning because he had an eye appointment at 7:40am. Nope. He doesn't have a cataract. Paul has known for 20+ years that he has keratoconus, and the eye doctor guessed that's probably what the PCP misdiagnosed as a cataract. He also wanted to remove another one of Paul's moles. Personally, I can't picture ever having a PCP do any kind of surgery on me. This PCP removed a mole from Paul in 2017. It became infected, and at that point I strongly urged Paul to see a dermatologist rather than to return to the PCP, which is what he did. I reminded him of this when he told me earlier this month that the PCP had scheduled him for a procedure to remove another mole. I think he's going to reschedule the appointment with a dermatologist instead. I wonder sometimes if doctors take the cost of procedures and blood work into account when they order them. It seems like good news to get the report that the results of a test are normal (if truly you don't have a medical problem that needs to be addressed), but it also feels like we wasted money when we are spending $500+ per test and all the results are negative. Hopefully the mole removal will go smoothly this time around, and hopefully Paul can stay away from the doctors, ER, hospital, etc. next year. At least he knows he can wait 10 years until his next colonoscopy! Thankfully aside from one trip to the eye doctor for Ian because his glasses were broken and annual well child appointments, the kids and I haven't needed to see any doctors this year. 

The boys spent a TON of time in these!

It was a good thing I didn't agree to the idea of starting the large corn maze at 2:15, as shortly after we got home Paul's parents surprised us with a brief visit in our driveway. They had been shopping for a cabinet at a store less than a mile from our house. The last time Grandma was in our house was for Ian's birthday last December, and the last time we were in their house was Christmas Day. It's yet another way that 2020 has been a very strange year for us. In 2020 we've seen her twice so far- on June 24 for a few minutes in my friend's driveway and today in our driveway for a few minutes. We're planning to go to their home for Thanksgiving this year. Last year Al and Millie joined us for Thanksgiving dinner at our house, but we didn't see Paul's parents at Thanksgiving last year. This year we had Easter dinner with only our immediate family - so Thanksgiving Dinner will be our first holiday celebrated with others in 2020.

Nadia played  game of checkers with another girl. At one point Nadia was WAY behind the other girl, and the other girl asked if she wanted to end the game early. Nadia said she wanted to finish the game, and surprisingly, Nadia ended up winning the game!

Thankful Thursday

1. One goal I've had the last few years has been to participate in more service projects. So many times when I've found one, we have had a scheduling conflict. For example, there was a food packing event near us at the beginning on October, but it took place while we were on vacation. Thankfully I found another one that was taking place this week. I had invited Tab and her boys to join us, and the session that worked for them was this morning at 10:00. Ironically, they had to back out at the last minute, but we were very glad we were able to help today. We're planning on helping once more on Saturday morning. They started the projects yesterday and are wrapping them up on Saturday morning. This Missions Expo is being held at a Methodist Church about 15 minutes from our home. They are packing 100,000 meals that will be sent to Haiti through the organization Kids Around the World, packing 600 family medical packs and 225 action packs for refugees in the Middle East through Voice of the Martyrs, raising money for BioSand water filters through Samaritan's Purse, packing bags of school supplies, and packing boxes of Bible and other Christian literature. We packed food from 10:00-12:15, and during that time 12,000 meals were packed. The kids and I packed a little more than 400 bags in about 2 hours, which accounts for a little more than 2,400 meals! Each bag contained lentils, rice, and vitamins. The bag of food didn't seem very large considering it was supposed to provide six meals. We are so very spoiled here in the USA. Hopefully I will be be able to find more service projects for us to participate in during the coming months and years. It is better to give than to receive!

2. Isaiah and Micah came over to our house last Friday for a few hours, and Tab and their two dogs joined us for part of that time. Face-to-face time with a friend is a rare treat for me. I don't take it for granted! 

3. Tonight is Nadia's last rehearsal for Bad Auditions by Bad Actors. The performance will be aired live tomorrow night via Zoom and aired on Demand on Saturday. Although putting on a theatre performance by Zoom is certainly not ideal, one perk is that we haven't had to drive anywhere for the rehearsals.

4. We have chosen an orthodontist for Ian! I'm thankful he charges a bit less and won't require Ian to wear a headgear. Hoping this will be a beneficial experience and go as smoothly as possible. I had braces for 8 years, and my teeth are still messed up! Hopefully he will have a better experience than I did.

5. Margie saw two different surgeons on Tuesday, and yesterday they chose the one closest to their home. Her surgery has been scheduled for early November. We're thankful she doesn't have to wait a long time to have the surgery and praying all the cancer will be successfully removed.

6. The boys enjoyed playing in the Lewisburg Children's Museum for about an hour yesterday while the van was being serviced across the street. I had asked them to do the annual inspection plus rotate the tires. They also ended up patching one tire that had a screw in it. I'm thankful we didn't have a flat tire!

7. I recently ordered some photo books, Christmas cards, and calendars on Shutterfly. I can't get things totally for free as I used to be able to do a few years ago, but I still can get things for a very low price (I only pay for the shipping). I used to make 20 page photo books, but for the past 3 years I've been making 111 page photo books for less than $10 including shipping. The kids love looking through photo books. For example, today I ordered 11 tri-fold 5x7 Christmas cards for a grand total of $2.07. 

8. Pastor Branden, who will likely become our senior pastor in the spring when Pastor Arlie retires, preached an outstanding sermon on I John 2 on Sunday. I enjoyed teaching a lesson on Moses to the 1st/2nd grade boys during the second service. 

9. I'm thankful I finally buckled down and got the kids started in an online art curriculum. I'm looking forward to seeing what all the kids will create in the coming months!

10. We've continued to make progress with trying new recipes. So far this week I've made egg and bacon pie (a recipe from New Zealand), beef tostadas, tres leches cake, empanadas de pollo, and empanadas abiertas de humita. The boys really liked the egg and bacon pie. Paul hasn't come home from work yet, but the kids and I all liked the cake. The kids struggled to eat the empanadas that had corn in them. My favorite of the new foods we tried this week was the tostadas. I had made tres leches cake once five years ago, but it still seemed like a new food. 

11. The kids and I enjoyed watching the new Secret Garden movie last night. I rarely watch tv, but that was a treat! We thought we'd see it in the theatre, but I don't think we'll be going to see a movie at a theater in 2020. Maybe in 2021?

Art classes

Of all the subjects that I've taught my kids, the two that are definitely NOT my forte are art and Spanish. I generally earned all A's on my report cards. If I had less than an "A" in a subject, it was almost always art or PE. If the PE teacher graded me on effort and sportsmanship, then I'd get an A. If the PE teacher graded my on ability, I'd usually get either an A-, B+, or B. Although I did teach Oliver how to ride his bike without training wheels and taught Nadia how to ski, for the most part I have delegated physical education instruction to others by signing the kids up for tennis lessons, swimming lessons, ice skating lessons, gymnastics classes, homeschool gym classes, and having them play on basketball teams, soccer teams, a softball team, and a flag football team. I took Spanish, German, and ASL when I was in middle school and high school. I did fine in those classes, but I forgot most of what I learned in Spanish and German and never was fluent in either language. I wish I had stuck with one language when I was in high school. Sometimes when I'm trying to speak in Spanish the first words that pop into my brain are in German. Trying to have the kids learn Spanish independently wasn't a successful approach. We've been using Talkbox.mom for a little less than two months, but I already feel much more confident that this approach will be far more successful, primarily because I am working on improving my ability to speak the language. 

We started our school year towards the end of August, but we didn't resume every subject right from the start. We didn't resume writing or typing until after we returned from our vacation earlier this month. The kids have been doing some very quick drawing exercises using Draw Write Now books, but that has been it thus far for art. I had included some multicultural crafts in my lesson plans, but thus far hadn't actually done any of them. In addition to not feeling very talented when it comes to arts/crafts, I also have an aversion to messes, and art or crafts can be messy! Ian spends a lot of time drawing each week of his own volition. He put a lot of time into his science assignment yesterday, which was to create a comic strip about Venus. Nadia and Ian had taken art at MCS the last three years, but due to COVID-19, I decided not to enroll them this fall since we didn't receive a refund for all the classes we paid for but didn't receive from March-May. I told Nadia that I am not going to sign her up for classes at MCS again until the pandemic is behind us. 

Over the last few weeks both Nadia and Oliver asked me when we were going to start doing art. Earlier this week I received an email that the organization where the kids have taken gymnastics classes in the past has begun to offer art classes. I considered signing the kids up until I saw the cost involved. A once a week one hour class would be $225 per month for three kids or a two hour class would be $360 a month for three kids. Yikes!!! Then I saw that a two hour class on a Saturday at a local art studio would cost $81 for three kids. I decided I'd prefer to find an online class, even though that means I have to deal with the mess and will be more involved in teaching the art lessons than I would be if they took art elsewhere. Several years ago we had a membership to art classes through Creating a Masterpiece. I decided to go that route again. There are SO many online art classes, I was having a hard time knowing which one to choose, so I went with one we were already familiar with. Sharon has added many projects since the last time we paid to access her site. Instead of paying for an annual membership, I opted to pay for one month at a time as we might only use it for six months. Going this route only costs $30 per month plus whatever supplies are needed, which is far more affordable than the other options. The 160 lessons vary greatly in difficulty and involve the use of a variety of media. Today we did two simple and quick drawing lessons. Using a pencil doesn't involve making a mess, which I appreciated. We will do some painting later in the year, but we're starting with projects that require the use of pencil, charcoal, or colored pencils. The last time Nadia and Ian completed some of Sharon's projects, I framed some of them, and they are still hanging on our walls. Hopefully we'll end up with some more masterpieces this year -  this time by all three kids!

Today I took the van for its annual inspection plus a tire rotation. They found a screw in one tire and patched the tire. Nadia stayed at home, and the boys played in the children's museum across the street for an hour while the van was serviced. I prefer to have our schoolwork done before we leave the house, but that wasn't possible since we had to leave around 12:30pm. The work on the van was done a little after 2pm, but since we also stopped at the library and picked up a few things at a grocery store on the way home, it was a little after 3pm by the time we got home. We had to eat dinner before Nadia's theatre rehearsal via Zoom (5-7pm), which meant it was a little after 6:00pm before Oliver finished his school work for the day - much later than usual! The four of us watched the 2020 Secret Garden movie after Nadia's rehearsal was done. It's been awhile since I saw the 1993 version of the movie; I used to own a VHS of that movie, ha ha! I want to see that one again with the kids, and then we four can decide which of the two movies we like better. I read them the book in 2013. I think we also need to listen to the book again, or maybe Nadia will read the book for the first time. Right now we're listening to Nory Ryan's Song and The Kite Fighters. 

Orthodontist #3

Today Ian and I met another orthodontist, and we received our second estimate. We've seen Dr. S once or twice a year for the past few years, but we don't have an estimate from him as it would cost $250. We met with Dr. W on September 29. We decided not to select his office because Ian would have to wear a headgear for 22 hours a day, the doctor rubbed us the wrong way, and it's farther away from our home. As it was with science museums in OH/KY, I find there is little consistency between orthodontists in how they are handling COVID. Dr. W's office took Ian's temperature and had me sign a form saying he hadn't been exposed to someone who has tested positive and doesn't have any symptoms. Dr. S's office also took his temperature, but their form was even lengthier and included "have you traveled outside the state within the last 14 days." Because I answered yes, to this our appointment last Monday was cancelled. At Dr. L's office today no temperatures were taken, no COVID forms were filled out, one of the receptionists wasn't wearing a mask, and they didn't have the plexiglass at the front desk that seems to be pretty standard these days. Dr. L said that phase one (the expander phase) will cost $2,655. I also asked for a ballpark estimate on phase two, and I was it would likely be around $3,300. This orthodontist doesn't use facemasks. He didn't do any x-rays today. Dr. S and Dr. W took x-rays, but he did call our dentist, and the dentist emailed Ian's last panoramic x-ray from December 2017. He would like a new x-ray. I'm assuming they would have planned to do that this December since it will have been three years since the last one. He also mentioned that one tooth needs to be extracted, which I was already expecting once I saw one had erupted in his palate. His bad bite has already caused some chipping on one of his permanent teeth. :( A friend said she paid a little over $7K for both phases at Dr. S's. We can't know for certain since we didn't get an estimate from Dr. S, but if Ian's cost the same amount, then we're saving about $1K by picking Dr. L. Dr. L's office is about 5 minutes farther from our home than Dr. S's, but one upside is that it's very close to an ALDI. Dr. W's office is very close to another ALDI; Dr. S's isn't near an ALDI, but that is not a factor we're using in our decision, ha ha. I need to talk to Paul, but my thinking at the moment is to cancel the appointment for November 2nd which would have involved meeting a fourth orthodontist. I'm also not planning to call Dr. S's office to reschedule the appointment that was cancelled last Monday. I'm thinking at the moment that we'll start phase 1 for Ian with Dr. L in January. I had budgeted $5K, and it seems like my estimate will only be off by $1K if we go with Dr. L. 

We have several credit cards that we use. We have repeatedly had trouble with one of those regarding the number being stolen and people trying to use it to make purchases. Earlier this year we were told that the person also supposedly made a fake of my driver's license. I was required to file a police report that time, which was the first time I had ever filed a police report of any kind. They gave us a new credit card, and would you believe less than one year later it happened again. This time someone tried to charge a LARGE amount for an online grocery order with Walmart. I don't know if it was the location of where the Walmart was located or the fact that the total was much, much larger than any grocery order I've ever paid for in person or on-line, but the credit card company had the wisdom to immediately decline the charges. I don't think I'll have to file a police report this time. I cut up the card once I knew they were closing that account, and I forgot to put one of our other cards in my wallet on Saturday. I don't usually carry much cash in my wallet, but thankfully I did have some because I needed to get some gasoline. It was the first time I paid cash for gas in more than 20 years. It reminded me of when I moved to Pennsylvania in 1996, and the first time I went to pay for my gas I literally didn't know what to do because the *only* way I had paid for gas from 1988-1996 was with a credit card at the pump. I was stunned to learn that "Pay the pump" hadn't been introduced in that area yet. Back then gas was around 99 cents a gallon so I could fill the tank of my car with $10! I gave the cashier $40 before I filled the van's tank on Saturday. Do the credit card companies just absorb the charges when they don't proactively decline them, or do they actually try to track the criminals down and have THEM pay? I'm thankful that we aren't liable for fraudulent activity. I also wish it wasn't such a prevalent problem!

Every year when there is an election I am always looking forward to when it is over. I don't like seeing all the signs everywhere, or the suspense of wondering what the outcome will be. This year I have an additional reason for looking forward to getting past the election - receiving SO, SO, SO many texts and mailers asking me to request an absentee ballot. For Pete's sake, I'm planning to vote IN PERSON. I am really looking forward to the end of that type of text and junk mail. Now when it comes to telemarketer phone calls, I haven't received any regarding the elections. Almost every single phone call from a telemarketer is about the warranty on the van, which is eight years old. I usually don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the caller. We don't want to buy an extended warranty!!!

COVID-19 has been very, very bad for many people financially. Some companies on the other hand have done very, very well this year. COVID-19 has been good for Nadia financially because I have to pay her to babysit Oliver when Ian has an appointment because I'm not allowed to bring Oliver with me. I'm so thankful that Nadia and Oliver can reach me on my cell phone via the Echo dot when I'm with Ian, and I can also send them announcements. At some point we'll get Nadia a cell phone, but until that time I'm very thankful we can communicate via Alexa.ia

Brrr!

The weather is typically the most volatile here in Pennsylvania in the fall and spring. On Thursday it got up into the mid 70's, which is warmer than usual for October. Yesterday the high was in the 50's. This morning we actually wore our winter coats when we left the house because it was only in the 30's. Brr! Although in general I'm not a fan of colder weather, there are some perks such as no more mosquito bites, no more flies in the house, and a decrease in the sneezing in our house. As someone who has had allergies my whole life, I am always thankful for a good hard frost as it spells allergy relief.

The reason we left our house this morning was because we thought the kids were going to participate in an owl pellet dissection at the Children's Museum at 10:00. We had made plans to meet the director of the play Nadia is in at the museum so she could give Nadia some costumes for their play next week. Prior to COVID, you didn't need to register ahead of time to attend the museum, but since they reopened in late July, that has been a requirement. I had registered for the 10:00-12:00 slot because the activity was listed as being from 10:00-11:30. However when we got there we discovered that the activity was being held outside the museum and you had to complete a separate registration for the activity. The kids have done an owl pellet dissection before and skipping the activity meant we didn't have to stay outside in 30 degree weather for 90 minutes, but still I was disappointed. We went into the museum for a few minutes, but due to COVID they've removed many things and also Nadia is getting to the age where she feels she has outgrown that type of museum. I had received a 3 year membership when the museum first opened because I gave a donation toward the opening of the museum in 2016. Our membership was supposed to expire in September, but they extended it a few months because it was closed for 4 months due to COVID. If I see another free program that interests me, I'll be sure to register for the program. I'm not planning on renewing our membership when it expires. I'm planning to take Oliver there next Wednesday while the van is having its annual inspection and also a tire rotation, but that might be our last visit to the museum. 

We would have left the museum immediately, but I had placed a grocery order at Walmart, and it was too early to pick it up. We went to the library and then to Walmart. In addition to picking up the grocery order, we went in the store because I had forgotten to include two items in the grocery order and Ian was considering buying a very small Lego set. They were out of stock of the Lego set, but I did buy him a Spiderman costume. Most of our costumes are too small for Ian. 99% of the time I buy costumes at yard sales, thrift stores, or after Halloween when they are marked down at least 50%. Last year was the only time I recall buying a costume at full price, and it was for Nadia. I had told Ian at first just to make a costume because I wasn't going to spend $40 on a costume, especially as the kids aren't into costumes as much as they used to be. They used to wear multiple costumes almost every day of the year. Walmart didn't have any of the ones that he really wanted, but he picked a $15 Spiderman costume. I figured if I bought Nadia one last year it was fair to buy him one this year.

One of the items I tried to buy at Walmart was apple butter. They were out of stock of that item. On our way home we stopped at the grocery store in our town, and they were also out of stock of apple butter. Seriously?!? So I stopped at an Amish stand near our home and bought a small jar of homemade apple butter. Back when we had two apple trees that produced a lot of apples, I used to make homemade apples, but we cut one tree down and the last couple of years the second tree has produced very, very little fruit. The animals have eaten what the tree has produced. I had made cornbread earlier this week, and the kids and I really like to have apple butter on our corn bread, and we had polished off a jar earlier this week, but we still have some corn bread left so we really wanted to get some apple butter. I fully realize that having trouble buying apple butter is an extremely trivial issue, but I'm just amazed that seven months later the stores are still having trouble keeping things in stock. Apple butter is by no means the only thing out of stock. I never would have guessed in March what life would be like in October. I do grasp it now though that life might not be back to normal for another year or more. And we are SO blessed. The kids and I have been listening to Kisses from Katie which is about a young woman who traveled to Uganda right after she graduated from high school and at this point she is the mother of 14 as she adopted 13 girls and give birth to one boy. She also oversees a program that provides daily meals for almost 1,000 kids in Uganda and also pays for the school fees and school supplies so all of those kids can live with their parents and also be able to go to school - something their parents couldn't afford to provide for their children. We haven't finished the book yet, but I highly recommend it. I'm also planning on reading her second book that came out more recently. Reading a book like this reminds us of how many around the world suffer from malnutrition and starvation. 

I received a letter in the mail from one of the orthodontists, and it turns out that the first appointment is free, but in order to receive an estimate for the treatment plan, you have to pay $200. So of the six orthodontists whom I called, only two of them give you an estimate for free. I wasn't keen on the first doctor, so I'm hoping we like the guy we are seeing this coming Monday. Of the ones that charge a fee to receive an estimate, the fees range from $200, $250, $335, to $400+. If we don't choose to go with the doctor we are scheduled to see on Monday, I will still likely cancel the appointment currently scheduled for November 2nd even though that one charges $50 less for the estimate than the doctor we have been seeing the last few years. When Tab was here yesterday she texted her aunt and asked how much she had paid for her daughter's braces because she has been going to the same doctor we had been going to (the one who wouldn't see Ian on Monday because we had visited Kentucky less than 2 weeks ago). She said her daughter had a pretty difficult case (as will be the case for Ian) and it cost about $7K for both phases of the treatment put together. That gives me a frame of reference for when we get the next estimate on Monday. Either way it seems my $5K estimate was probably on the low side. Oliver's teeth used to be straight when he just had baby teeth. Here's to hoping his permanent teeth straighten out on their own so that Ian will be the only child who requires orthodontic care. Nadia is relieved that we've decided not to pursue braces for her at this point anyhow. I know Ian will breathe much better after phase one is completed.

Today we tried our seventeenth new food since the school year began - cannoli. At first I planned to try to time when we ate the new food with when we were studying that particular continent. We haven't gotten to Europe yet, but I decided to just keep regularly trying new foods without always aligning it with the area of the world we're studying at that time. Of the seventeen foods, I made fourteen of them and bought the other three. I had made latkes five years ago, but this time around I bought them. I also bought the blintzes and cannoli. The cannoli were definitely a hit. The next two I'm planning to make are beef empanadas and an egg and bacon pie. The egg and bacon pie recipe is from New Zealand and involves puff pastry, which I've never used before in a recipe. Beef empanadas originated in Spain but are also commonly served in Latin America, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Hopefully we'll like them more than the tourtiere we ate several weeks ago.