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.