6,600 pieces in 2 weeks!

We did a LOT of puzzles earlier this year, and then had taken a break. Nadia started doing puzzles again two weeks ago, and in the past fourteen days she did two 750 piece puzzles, seven 300 piece puzzles, and six 500 piece puzzles all by herself. She's come a long way during this pandemic with her skills at doing puzzles! Several months ago she didn't even want to do a 750 piece puzzle WITH help, and now she is doing that size without help. I ordered a few new puzzles for the kids for Christmas so she'll have some new ones to do in a few weeks. A day "off" from school for Nadia meant hours of listening to audiobooks while doing puzzles (today she listened to A Long Walk to Water and Riding Freedom) as well as finishing one art project (monarch) and doing a second one from start to finish (owl). The rain didn't stop Oliver from playing outside today, although he didn't last as long as he usually does primarily because he was the only child playing outside in the neighborhood today. Yesterday we received a delivery of the bedding for the guinea pigs, and the kids had fun playing with those boxes today. 

Paul wanted me to go to the doctor on Saturday morning. I talked to Yvonne and decided to follow her recommendations, and if I didn't see improvement I'd see a doctor on Monday.  The pain peaked at 2am on Sunday morning and my fever returned. If it hadn't been the middle of the night, I'd have gone to see a doctor at that point. It was an hour before I could take another Aleve so I took two Tylenol and prayed for God to intervene. I believe He did because when I woke up at 6am my pain had greatly diminished and my range of motion had greatly increased. I didn't wear the sling yesterday but continued to take Aleve every 8 hours and use ice. This morning when I got up I discovered my full range of motion had returned and the pain was very minimal. The swelling in my hand and fingers and the fever have completely gone away. I am very, very thankful! I discovered on Friday and Saturday how challenging it is to do things like cook and get dressed without being able to move one's left arm. Ian had a very, very hard time remembering not to hug me or snuggle on my left side. Ouch!!! 

We are praying for comfort for our friends as their beloved long-haired dachshund, Ruby, passed away today. Nadia was very fond of Ruby. The doctors hadn't quite figured out how to properly adjust Paul's mom's medication because the medication that lowers her heart rate (which has been too high) causes her blood pressure to be too low, but she was discharged from the hospital today because of COVID. First the hospital wants to discharge as many patients as they possibly can to have more beds available for COVID patients and also they were concerned about her risk of contracting COVID considering how many COVID patients are in the hospital right now. We're continuing to pray for Grandma. 

Ouch!

Thursday night I went to bed without any unusual aches or pains. Friday morning I woke up with a throbbing left arm and a very limited range of motion. The pain level didn't decrease over the course of the day. I kept wondering why I was so cold. I kept putting on more layers, and then it struck me I probably had a fever. The thermometer confirmed I did. Since I had no other symptoms, I assumed the fever was just due to the pain I had been enduring all day. Although it's not my dominant arm, I discovered yesterday that MANY activities are very challenging to do with only one hand. I was so exhausted from the pain that I took ibuprofen and went to bed shortly after Paul got home from work at 7pm. He had to help me change into my pajamas. I slept for about 11 hours on either my back or my right side. Usually I alternate between my right and left sides throughout the night. I am not sure why I didn't take any ibuprofen yesterday until Paul came home from work. I have dealt with back pain many times over the years, but I can't ever recall having arm pain before. My hands frequently go numb due to carpal tunnel, but that has never been extremely painful. Paul was planning to go to work today, but when he saw that I was still in pain and could only move my arm a little bit, he thought he should take me to the doctor this morning. He didn't think I could drive. I called my sister instead. She was an occupational therapist so this type of thing is up her alley so to speak. She suggested buying Aleve and a sling and using ice. I used a heating pad last night. The CVS didn't open until 9:00, and by the time Paul got home from going there, he didn't think it was worth driving to work as he usually comes home about 5 hours earlier on Saturdays than he does M-F. The ice + Aleve + sling has helped me in that I'm no longer in a constant state of pain. However most tasks that involve using both hands are still excruciating such as cutting two apples into slices at lunch today. The swelling in my hand and fingers in that hand is also going down some although not enough for me to get my wedding band on yet. I should add that we never got my wedding band sized. It's usually loose on me, but since we did get the engagement ring sized I've never worried that I might lose the wedding band. So my finger has to be fairly swollen if I can't even put my wedding band on. Usually in the winter when I'm cold all my rings a little big on me, but not my left hand right now. Yvonne advised that if I don't see improvement by Monday to go to a doctor at that point. I'm hoping that the Aleve plus sling plus ice will do the trick. I am assuming I injured myself while sleeping on Thursday night. I hope I never do that again!!!!

Thankfully, shopping online on Black Friday doesn't require me to my left arm. I have 37 people on my list as far as whom I am buy Christmas gifts for - that includes our five kids we sponsor through Compassion and the five shoe boxes we filled for kids through Samaritan's Purse. In the case of the Compassion kids, we send each of them money. The other 27 people are family members and some of them (such as Paul, Paul's dad, my dad, and Ian) I'm also buying them birthday gifts as their birthdays are between December 10-January 3. I had already purchased and wrapped some gifts, but I did a lot more shopping online over the last two days. I have finished the birthday shopping, and I only have four people left to buy Christmas gifts for. The end is in sight! I really cut back how much we spent on gifts from August 2019 to October 2020 because we were back to living on one income, but even though 2020 was a tough year for some people financially, it wasn't for our family so just in the last two weeks I've spent almost as much on gifts as I did in the previous twelve months put together because I decided to put the gift budget back to closer to what it had been in the past. Although most of my "Black Friday" purchases were for Christmas gifts, I did also buy six bags of bedding for the guinea pigs because the pet stores were having good sales, and I bought quite a few books because both Target and Amazon are having a buy two books get one free sale. Some of the books will be Christmas gifts for Paul, Nadia, and Julianna. I got myself one book, and I bought nine books that I plan to use with the kids for our family devotions together. Lately we've been using books from the Inductive Bible Studies for Kids series by Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt. We finished one on prayer and have almost finished one on the names of God. A few years ago I bought five of them at a book sale at the Lewisburg library.

Speaking of the budget, I've started working on our budget for 2021. Some categories are very easy to predict such as what we spend for my phone, car insurance, life insurance, the internet, garbage collection, water, sewer, and clothes. Of the categories I just listed, the one that has varied more than the others would be clothing, but the difference is still rather small. The past four years we spent between $502-642 per year on clothes; we spent a bit less than normal this year ($474). Personal (things Paul and I buy that don't fit anywhere else in the budget) is also a fairly stable category aside from the year I bought my new camera body, but again we still spent less than usual in that category this year. The cost for internet goes up every spring, but they didn't raise the price this year! I am guessing that due to COVID they decided it wasn't the time for the annual price hike. Other categories are rather hard to predict. How much we've spent on medical expenses has ranged from as high as $14K in 2011 to as little as $306 last year. This year we spent about $1,500. Car repairs is another unpredictable category (from as little as $179 to as much as $1,773 over the past 5 years). We've typically spent between $2K-4K on gas each year. Since it was close to $4K last year and this year, that's what I'm budgeting for next year. Although Paul's vehicle gets better gas mileage than the van, he drives at least 600 miles a week, which means he buys gas far more often than I do. How much we've spent on the house has also varied greatly from as little as $231 in 2014 to almost $12K last year because we replaced the deck, furnace, and A/C. We spent far less on the house this year as the garage doors cost a lot less than last year's projects did. I'm not sure when we will replace the 22 year old roof, but I'm guessing we'll be replacing the oven next year. One of the four burners gave up the ghost already. 

This year we spent less than I expected in several categories. We used to have cable year round, but from 2013-2019 we only had cable for a few months each year so our total expenditure for tv (which includes our Amazon Prime subscription), was generally less than $400 per year. This year we spent less than $200 because we didn't turn the cable on this fall as we usually do. I'm thinking our only "tv" expenditures for next year will be our Amazon Prime membership plus our Disney+ membership. I honestly never thought Paul would lose interest in watching the Giants, but 2020 has been a very unique year. Although the cost of most things tends to rise over time (ex. from 2008 to the present our monthly internet bill went from $33 to $76), natural gas is one that has gone down over the years - from a high of $1,112 in 2009 to a low of $450 this year. Our electric bills have also declined over the years - from a high of $2,126 in 2011 to a low of $1,186 in 2017. I'm going to estimate $1,400 for next year's budget. I had planned to try to spend less on the kids, entertainment, and gifts this year in light of living off of one income. We spent far more on the kids in 2018 and 2019 than we had any other year (homeschool materials, summer camps, purchases for the guinea pigs, athletics, and other classes are what primarily constitute that category). COVID-19 made it easier than expected to cut back in that category in 2020. We spent about $3K less this year on the kids than we did last year. COVID also meant we spent less on vacations. Our vacation budget this year was 1/2 of what we typically spend and 1/4 of what we spent in 2018. In 2018 we spent far more on entertainment than we usually do. We cut back a lot last year, and I had planned to cut back more this year, and again COVID made that a piece of cake. I'd have to go back to 2010 to find a year we spent less on entertainment than we did this year. One category we spent more in this year was food. From 2016-2018 we spent around $4600 per year on food. Last year we spent a little over $5K on food. I had set a goal to try to get back to $4,600 but we actually spent a little more this year than last year. However considering we spent far less on entertainment and took far fewer vacations, I think we did well. Three weeks of vacations were cancelled this year which means I bought groceries for three more weeks of the year than I would have if there wasn't a pandemic. Plus the kids' appetites are growing so it might prove impossible to get back to $4600, but I will start 2021 with more meat in the freezer than usual so who knows. Maybe it will be possible to get back to $4,600? Time will tell, but I'm setting the food budget at $5,000 for 2021 to err on the safe side. One of the unexpected financial bonuses was the "stimulus" check we received. Since the government already has an insanely large deficit, I hope there won't be another check coming our way from the government.  At some point we'll need to replace my 7 year old phone and my almost 5 year old laptop, for example. Because we already have money set aside for replacing the roof, Ian's braces, and replacing my vehicle, it will be easier for us to afford other "unexpected" type of expenses that will inevitably come up from time to time. I'm grateful to be entering 2021 without the financial stress I had in 2019 once I realized I was returning to being a stay-at-home mom.

Ian made quite the procession to visit Baby Jesus!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We always have SO much to be thankful for, and yet it's unfortunately all too easy for us to complain. I think the verse I quote the most frequently in our house is one that is short but can be challenging to follow - "Do everything without arguing or complaining." For the past 8 months life hasn't exactly gone smoothly. When I reflect on 2020 it's easy to focus on everything that was cancelled rather than the blessings. I'm grateful that we have a day set aside to focus on giving thanks, but truly every single day of the year should be a "thanksgiving" day, even when we are in the midst of a pandemic and might not be very happy with the outcome of an election. Probably some people got together with the same people they always do on Thanksgiving even if that meant what is currently defined as too large of a gathering, and other families chose to just celebrate Thanksgiving with their immediate family due to the pandemic. Last Easter I think far more people just celebrated with those who live in their house, but this time around it seems like people aren't quite as willing to jump on board with the "safer at home" mandates. In my opinion the "mandates" are contradictory because on the one hand it says on the governor's website we should stay at home and on the other hand it says whenever you are with people you don't live with - whether outside or inside your home -wear masks even if you are staying at least 6 feet apart from each other. If we're technically not "allowed' to go into anyone else's house, why is their a "rule" about wearing a mask inside a home? In our case there were eight people gathered around our dining room table as Paul's dad, brother, and sister-in-law joined us. We didn't wear masks, but we each wore a personal air purifier and also had three air purifiers running in the kitchen, dining room, and half bathroom. Years ago the guest list also would have included Shawn, Brandi, and Great Gram. Great Gram has gone to Glory, Brandi lives in Florida, and Shawn doesn't join us very often even though he still lives with Al and Millie. Grandma would have loved to join us, but she's still in the hospital. 

Pop Pop joined us around 12:00, and Al and Millie came a couple of hours later. Pop Pop played chess with Ian, Spot it with Oliver, and Suspend and Blokus with Nadia, Ian, and myself. Al and Millie played Suspend with Nadia and Ian and Jenga with Nadia. Pop Pop also played the Wii with the kids. Because it was a holiday I let the kids play the Wii longer than usual and didn't require them to earn the privilege of using the Wii or watching tv. We watched part of the movie Swiss Family Robinson as a family after Pop Pop, Al, and Millie left. The kids had never seen the movie (or listened to the book). It was nice to have Paul at home all day with us. We listened to part of the book Small Steps today, which is about how a woman overcame polio in 1949. Paul hung a collage picture frame that Fed Ex had delivered earlier this week. It has one 8x10 opening and four 5x7 openings. He hung the frame in Nadia's room so that she can display five piece of her artwork in it. The kids like to see their artwork on display in our home. 

Black Friday shopping is different this year for some people, but it's not different for me because I've never been tempted to join hordes or people shopping in the middle of the night. I went to CVS this morning and bought 18 items (boxes of cereal, toothpaste, nail polish, Doritos, etc.) for a grand total of 74 cents total. I also bought some Nintendo Switch games online from Walmart as they had some that Ian wanted marked down 50%. He has a lot of Lego sets on his wish lists, but I just can't bring myself to buy him any big Lego sets this year because we already own what feels like five zillion Legos. So this year he'll be getting several Switch games from us for his birthday and Christmas instead of lots of Legos. If I do any other Black Friday shopping over the next few days, it will be online shopping. The last time I saw Maurice in person was on Black Friday two years ago. I felt very prone to crying today on several occasions because I really miss him, but I'm very grateful he didn't have to deal with COVID-19. The isolation would have been hard for him emotionally, and wearing a mask would have been a nightmare for him physically as he already had trouble breathing. I know he's in a much better place, but I miss him very much.

Meet a Geologist

Field trips have been a rare commodity in 2020, but we have managed to have two this month! My friend, Cheri, and I took the kids to Hawk Mountain for a hike earlier in the month, and today the kids participated in a program put on by geology professors at Bucknell. I had placed a request for 30 library books on Monday and planned to pick them up this afternoon in conjunction with the field trip. Yesterday afternoon I got an email stating that #1 that library system would be returning to pick-up service only (no browsing, making copies, etc.) and #2 the Lewisburg Library was closed indefinitely starting immediately due to plumbing issues. It's just impossible to make plans in 2020! My stack of 30 books was sitting there in the library with my name on it while I returned books outside the library today, but I'll have to make a separate trip if I want to get those 30 books as the library sent an email out this afternoon stating the plumbing problem was resolved, and the lobby will be reopening on Friday. I did go to the Montgomery Library yesterday. That librarian said she hasn't heard yet of any changes in their system yet. I'm hoping against hope that the libraries won't totally shut down this time around. I have no problem with a pick-up only service. I would like to stop using the Lewisburg library and just use the Montgomery Library as it's much closer to our home. Maybe I'll cancel all my requests and not retrieve that stack of 30 books after all. 

It was sprinkling as we were driving to the geology program so I decided to leave my camera in the van, but it never rained while we were walking around the site. I did take a few pictures with my cell phone. I know some people get great photos with their phone, but I vastly prefer my camera. However a cell phone picture is better than nothing! My phone is seven years old. I imagine whenever we replace my phone I'll notice an improvement in the quality of cell phone pictures. 

Because of today's field trip, we did a little bit of extra schoolwork the past two days so that we could have a light day today. Yesterday ended up being a VERY long school day for me. Aside from one quick trip to run a few errands (about 45 minutes), I literally was doing schoolwork with at least one child for almost exactly 12 hours straight. Usually we're done by 2pm and sometimes as early as 1pm. Ian and I didn't finish math until 7pm last night. I had a headache by that point. Today we were done by 1pm although Oliver hasn't quite finished his math yet. We went on our field trip, and as soon as we got home Oliver went outside to play with kids in the neighborhood. Aside from coming in for just a very few minutes to wolf down a slice of pizza, Oliver was outside for four hours straight because I let him stay out and play flashlight games in the dark with some kids in the neighborhood. The local school district lengthened the Thanksgiving break to a full seven days off and then December 2-4 they will only be offering distance learning. They *might* return in person on December 7. I had planned to resume our schoolwork on December 1. Unless it's raining that day, it's going to be a bit of a challenge as today several kids in the neighborhood were knocking on our door and asking Oliver to come up multiple times this morning because their Thanksgiving break started today, and we did schoolwork this morning. I was pleased though that aside from a few math problems (Oliver) we were done by 1pm. The kids and I are looking forward to having the next five days off! I am planning on working with the boys on a few spelling words, we will still listen to audiobooks, and if they want to use electronics or watch TV they'll still need to earn that privilege through reading, doing a puzzle, or practicing the piano, etc., but that will be it as far as "school work" for the next five days. 

Today I'm giving thanks:

1. That Margie got a good pathology report on Tuesday. The surgeon got all the cancer the second time around! Now we're praying for good results from the MammaPrint because that will mean she'll only need radiation rather than chemo and radiation. 

2. That it *seems* like the COVID type regulations won't be as drastic this second time around as they were in the spring. It seems like local school districts are making decisions rather than ALL of the schools being shut down simultaneously, which never made sense to me because the virus was much worse in some parts of the state and very minimal in other parts. Although many businesses are limited as to capacity, at least they aren't being totally shut down as they were in the spring. I'm hoping this means the libraries and churches won't be totally shut down again. To be honest I haven't seen many people actually changing their behavior even though the regulations have changed. In some businesses (ex. the grocery store) almost everyone wears a mask or face shield. In other places, no one is wearing them. I go by the philosophy of "when in Rome." If others are wearing a mask, I wear mine. If I walk into a place and realize I'm the only one wearing a mask, I take mine off. We are supposed to be wearing masks ANY time we are with other people who don't live in our house even if we are staying more than 6 feet apart. This rule now applies to ANY time you are inside or outside no matter where you are, but the kids aren't wearing masks when they're playing together in our neighborhood., and even though they are now asking those in grades 6-12 to keep their masks or shields on at church, I was surprised this past Sunday that the policy in the worship service didn't change. We were allowed to take it off once we we found our seats. The one thing that is stricter this time around is crossing state borders, but we didn't have plans to leave the state. 

3. That we were able to attend the geology program today. It only cost $10 per family. They said they are planning to offer a program there once a month in the spring on a variety of topics - art, poetry, etc. 

4. I read and discussed the book Good Pictures Bad Pictures with the kids today. It's not a topic I was exactly wanting to discuss with them, but in this day and age one that must be addressed, and I was very thankful to have that book to guide our discussion! 

5. The boys  have been sleeping in! This is part of the reason why we didn't finish our schoolwork by 2pm on Monday or Tuesday, but it will be fine if they sleep in the next five days! I'm grateful they have fully adjusted to the time change. I also moved Ian's bedtime to 9:30, and maybe that is part of the reason he hasn't been getting up too early. Nadia likes to start her math at 7:00am, but I know she'll choose to sleep in over the next five days.

6. Paul got his tires rotated, oil changed, and a had one tire patched on Sunday while the kids and I were at church. It's a challenge for him to get his car serviced since he typically works six days a week. During the first 11 years of our marriage I took care of getting both vehicles serviced. Over the last 8 years I've only taken care of the minivan. I faithfully take vehicles for the maintenance at the recommended mileage, but Paul drives his car far longer than the recommended mileage before taking it for service. He actually was able to take the vehicle to Walmart Auto Center. They finally reopened! The last time I tried to get an appointment there was in July, and they were still closed. We shall see if they will be open the next time the minivan is due for an oil change and tire rotation. Paul racks up the miles much faster than I do on the van. 

7. Paul's mom is still in the hospital, but Paul's dad, brother, and sister-in-law are planning to come up and have Thanksgiving dinner with us. It seems our Thanksgiving traditions don't need to change. Tomorrow morning the kids and I will write our annual gratitude lists in the Thanksgiving Day journal I started several years ago. Yes, three people who don't live in our house will be spending time with us in our home tomorrow which goes against "safer at home" policy in effect right now, but that's not exactly a large gathering of people. I made Canadian butter tarts this evening for one of our desserts for tomorrow, and I'm planning to make apple crisp in the morning. Although I've been trying many new recipes (such as the butter tarts), it's also nice to make some recipes we already know we like!

Different names

As I've been looking through many books that include recipes from around the world, I've noticed that there are so many dishes that a very similar (or even identical) but have different names in different countries. In France they call it hachis Parmetier, but in other places it's called shepherd's pie. Macaroni Bechamel is the French version of pastistio, which is a Greek/Egyptian dish. It seems most countries have a small stuffed pocket of dough whether it's called a brik, pupusa, empanada, pastie, calzone, boureka, etc. Flatbreads also have a wide variety of names around the globe: tortillas, crepes, injera, chapati, blini, damper, etc.  In contrast, sometimes two foods have the same name but actually are very different. I made Johnny cakes a few years ago since that was a very common food during the Revolutionary War. The kids and I gave them two thumbs DOWN, but I am planning to try a recipe called Johnny cakes that is frequently served in Belize and the Caribbean. It looks very different. Hopefully we will have a more favorable opinion of this version of Johnny cakes! We've tried 54 new recipes over the past 3 months, which means we're about 1/3 of the way through the list I've made of new recipes to try this school year.

I don't know for sure that Ian is allergic to almonds, but since he's allergic to at least three other tree nuts (pecans, walnuts, and cashews), I'm trying to have him avoid ALL tree nuts. Looking online I've read that some kids are allergic to ALL tree nuts, but some are allergic to only certain tree nuts. Evidently there are smaller groups within the tree nuts based on the similarity of their protein structures. Pecans and walnuts are in the same group. Pistachios are in the same group as cashews, so I think he should definitely avoid pistachios. The third group includes almonds and hazelnut. When he was first diagnosed with an allergy to milk, soy, eggs, and more when he was a toddler, he drank almond milk and coconut milk. I believe he's eaten Almond Joy candy bars without any issues, but his tree nut allergy has been getting worse as he's gotten older so I haven't been letting him eat Almond Joy as it seems better to air on the side of caution in this instance, but I had NO idea how may recipes include almonds. It seems to me that almonds are the most frequently used nut in recipes around the globe. I was thinking of making La Galette des Rois for Three Kings Day on January 6, but I'm going to need to pick another recipe for that day as you can't really make that recipe without almonds. 

Before I share my gratitude list, I'd ask for prayer for Paul's mom. She was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, which is the fourth time in 13 months that she's been hospitalized. 

1. Evanna was able to spend the night at our house last Friday night. 

2. I'm thankful for libraries. I just finished reading the book Let Them Be Kids by Jessica Smartt that I got from the library; I liked it so much that I'm wanting to read her other book, Memory-Making Mom.. I was at both libraries on Friday, and I am planning to pickup some more books from the Montgomery library tomorrow and the Lewisburg library on Wednesday. As more school districts are switching back to only offering distance learning, my fear that the public libraries might shut down again is growing, but I'm trying to take advantage of the resources while I can.

3. Nadia and Evanna enjoyed the social at the church on Friday night. 

4. Paul bought a toilet last week at Lowe's. Hopefully Ken will be able to install it this week!

5. I went to CVS on Sunday as the week of Black Friday is always the best week to shop at CVS. I plan to return there again sometime between Thursday-Saturday for some of their other specials. That will be the extent of my Black Friday shopping unless I do a little online. 

6. The kids are really, really enjoying Alice's Farm. The boys also really enjoyed Peter Pan. 

7. We were able to donate 6 blankets and 25 baggies of baked goods for a Thanksgiving outreach this week in Sunbury.

8. We were able to spend 2 hours with my sister and 7 of her kids on Thursday afternoon! Time with extended family is definitely a rare treat in 2020.

9. The weather was unseasonably warm for a couple of days last week. 

10. I'm very thankful for the privilege to stay home as a homeschooling mom. I'm also very thankful that life has slowed down to a more manageable pace which means I can do things like read books and spend more time with meal planning and cooking than I have in the past. 

11. The Steelers are 10-0. Wow! This is a first!

12. Margie's second surgery went well on Thursday. Hopefully the pathology report this week will show that he got ALL the cancer the second time around. We're also praying her infection that the surgeon discovered will clear up ASAP.

Among Us

This evening I took four kids to the Family Art Night at a library near us. The four kids I brought were ages 8, 10, 12, and 14, and the other kids who attended were definitely younger. First the kids did a scavenger hunt and then they rotated between two art stations. Nadia and Evanna opted to browse the books instead. They did join the rest for a sort of "musical chairs" type art activity. The program was supposed to last for one hour, but we left at 5:45 so I could take Nadia and Evanna to a social at church. The youth group hadn't hosted any events since since February. They were playing an in real life version of Among Us. I guess I'm officially an old fogey, because I had NO idea what Among Us is. Oliver piped up that he had played the game with Camden (friend in our neighborhood). Had the youth pastor given more advance notice about the Among Us event, I wouldn't have signed the kids up for the art night at the library. We left the art night before it was done, and the girls showed up about 5 minutes late to the Among Us event. Evanna is spending the night, and we don't have any plans to leave the house tomorrow. 

Many of our annual Christmas traditions won't be taking place this year. We're not going to see a candy cane demonstration at Purity Candy, not going to make a hand blown glass ornament in Corning or attend the Rockwell Museum, not going to get together with any of my relatives because they all live outside the state of Pennsylvania, not going to attend the Christmas program at the large church in Camp Hill, not going to be singing Christmas carols at the Warrior Run Manor, etc. The kids have always done their shopping for Christmas gifts for their family at AWANA. Since that won't be happening, I guess they won't be giving gifts to anyone unless they make them, and my kids have never really made gifts before. We have usually baked pumpkin bread or Christmas cookies and given them to the kids' Sunday School teachers, choir directors, AWANA leaders, etc. Since they aren't in any choirs or AWANA right now due to COVID-19, I'm not planning on doing that either, but we ARE doing some baking this weekend for others. There is a woman in Sunbury who organizes a free Thanksgiving meal for 1,000+ people each year. She can't do it "as usual" due to COVID-19, but she's going to be distributing bagged meals this year instead. We've volunteered to make baked goods (cookies and brownies) and put them in baggies for some of the lunches. We're baking for others for Thanksgiving this year instead of Christmas. We're planning to make shortbread cookies, brownies, and thumbprint cookies. Speaking of baking, I was planning to make saffron buns next month for our celebration of the Swedish holiday - St. Lucia Day. Now I'm not so sure. Did you know that saffron is the most expensive spice? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it or not. I can get the spice more cheaply through Amazon than Walmart or Wegman's, but I'm not sure if I want to spend more than $10 on 2 grams of a spice for a bread recipe. 

Last Hurrah

This week there were some changes regarding coronavirus policies in our state. We have been wearing masks or shields part of the time we've been at church, but yesterday evening Nadia had to keep her shield on the whole almost 4 hours she was at church. She's VERY thankful I bought shields as she greatly prefers the shield to a mask. She also had her temperature taken at church for the first time. The boys and I have already had ours taken at church far more than one time. The boys and I have already been wearing our masks during the entire second service so it's not a big change to keep them on during the first service. I generally follow the rules, but I have drawn the line when it comes to wearing masks in our own home. The new guidelines state that if other people are in your home, everyone must wear masks even if you are staying six feet apart from each other. We rarely have people in our home. The only time we plan to have others in our home for the rest of 2020 are Nadia's friend is coming over for a sleepover tomorrow and I invited two boys over a sleepover for Ian's birthday in December. I already feel like the government has REALLY overstepped its bounds this year, but telling me what I have to wear when I am in my own home - that's just too much for me to stomach. 

If someone wants to enter PA from another state (or a resident of PA wants to return to PA), starting tomorrow you have to have a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of entering the state. I texted this update to Yvonne as we had been discussing whether they might make a trip to PA in December or not. They quickly made arrangements to see Joe's relatives in Hershey and our family for a visit today before the new policies went into effect. I only had purchased Christmas gifts for two of their eight children so far. We have no idea when we might see them again. We fully realize it might be a few months from now so I wished them a Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday (3 of them have birthdays next week), Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and hoped we'd see them before Easter. Hopefully things will improve once the vaccines begin to be administered, but who knows when the restrictions will be eased. We don't have any plans to leave the state for the foreseeable future. I'm grateful these travel restrictions weren't in place in August when the kids and I visited Long Island or the beginning of October when we had our family vacation. 

My Dad and Margie were going to meet us in Lancaster next month to see Esther at Sight and Sound. They cancelled those plans last week because of Margie's health issues, but now I realize they would have had to be tested for COVID again to be able to come see the show. Jenna wasn't able to come today because of she's working at Chick-Fil-A. When we saw six of their kids at Refreshing Mountain the end of September, Joe had brought the kids there and Yvonne had stayed home with Wesley and Jenna. Today Joe stayed home with Jenna; they met Yvonne and the rest of the family in Hershey this afternoon. This was the sixth time this year we've seen at least some of the Towfighis. Hopefully we'll be able to see them all sometime in 2021 before they move to Quito. Jenna plans to begin attending college in Pennsylvania next fall. They were only able to stay for two hours today, but two hours was far better than nothing! They ate lunch and played a little. Nadia played Jenga and Suspend with some of her cousins. I only took two pictures unfortunately. I noticed when looking at the picture below that Joel is taller than Ian even though Ian is 18 months older than Joel. Yvonne knows far more Spanish than I do, and she corrected my pronunciation on a word that I've been saying incorrectly many times a day for the past almost 3 months. I hope I'm not making tons of other pronunciation mistakes. :( I'm giving it my best shot. I've never professed to be an excellent Spanish teacher.

Thankful Tuesday

 

1. Nadia was able to participate in a Bible quizzing event at our church for 7 hours on Saturday, and then she went home with one of the girls on her team for an impromptu sleepover. It's the second time this year she's spent the night at a friend's house, and she's had friends over for a sleepover at our house at least five times this year. I'm thankful she's developed friendships at church - primarily through Bible quizzing.

2. I enjoyed teaching the 1st-5th grade boy's class at church on Sunday. We were studying the third and fourth commandments.

3. The boys and I enjoyed the delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Pastor Ken's house on Sunday evening. That meal is usually my favorite meal of the year - baked pineapple casserole, baked corn casserole, pumpkin roll, and Watergate salad are foods that I really, really love and typically only eat at a potluck meal. Oliver's favorite dish that night was no surprise - sweet potatoes. I enjoyed those also! Ian liked the turkey the best.

4. The first few years we had guinea pigs, we didn't have trouble with their water bottle. We have had LOTS of water bottle problems this year with both the rabbits and then the guinea pigs. I bought our fourth water bottle recently, and it seems we have found the "winner" as my mom would have said.

It doesn't drip (which means the bedding will last longer) and doesn't have to be removed from the cage in order to be refilled. As long as Nadia refills it once a day, I think we will be set!

5. Margie received the good news last week that the cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes. Unfortunately the pathology report also showed that the surgeon hadn't removed all of the cancer. She's having another surgery this Thursday to remove the rest of the cancer. Six weeks later she'll begin radiation treatments.

6. Something was crossed off the house "to do" list yesterday! Paul had a dermatologist appointment yesterday morning and decided to come home and do some work for the business on his computer rather than going in to the plant. Paul installed a window well cover. I had bought two in April 2019. He installed one. While waiting for the other one to be installed, it had been broken. Paul bought another one in April 2020, and he installed it yesterday. So now the list has five projects on it. I'm very thankful Paul was able to accomplish one task around the house for me! Also, Ken came today and said he thinks he can finish three or four of the other projects on my list in one night next week. WOOHOO! I am so excited!! 

7. The kids and I enjoyed the sirniki (cheese pancakes) on Friday. Almost everyone loved the pommes aligot and chicken Kiev that I made on Saturday. Nadia and I really, really liked the peach kuchen I made on Sunday. Now since what I'm planning to make tomorrow includes rice, it probably won't go over very well, but I'm thankful that the majority of new recipes have gone over well so far. I have struggled to find some of the ingredients, but last night it hit me that I could probably find those ingredients at Wegmans. Sure enough, they do! The next time I take the kids to the place where they have trampolines, laser tag, arcades, bowling, etc. I will also pick up a few things at Wegmans.

8. The Steelers are 9-0 for the first time EVER. I actually watched a few minutes of the game on Sunday at Pastor Ken's house, which was the first time I watched any football in 2020. 

9. There are about 2,500 people who consider our church to be their church (far fewer than that are official members and far fewer than that attend on a given Sunday especially due to COVID). Over the past eight months we've only had four people come down with COVID-19 within our church, which is less than two tenths of one percent. Up until Sunday I wasn't aware of anyone I personally knew who had COVID-19, but the couple (#3-4) who came down with it recently were in the same Sunday School class I used to attend prior to COVID (the class hasn't resumed meeting yet). I'm thankful that our area hasn't been hit very hard and that a vaccine has been developed. Praying the numbers will start falling around the country and around the globe once the vaccine distribution begins. 

10. It took a little over two weeks, but Ian's body has finally adjusted to the time change. This morning was the first time he slept in past 7am since the time changed. He had been getting up between 6:00-6:30 each morning. Oliver slept in until almost 9:00am! I'm not really wanting him to sleep in that late on a regular basis, but to me that is one of the benefits of homeschooling. If he needs that much sleep, he can get that much sleep. Oliver goes to bed at 8:30, and the other two go to bed at 9:30.

First Fifty

Tomorrow I plan to make new recipes #49-50 from the list of new recipes to try this school year - two desserts that I will bring to the Thanksgiving dinner we're having at one of our pastor's homes at 5pm tomorrow. I'm planning to make a German peach kuchen and a Polish gingerbread called piernik. The list at the moment contains 119 different recipes from around the world. I continue to add and sometimes subtract from the list. We are also learning about different holidays this year. This week we learned about Diwali, an Indian festival. Paul got home early from work on Thursday because he had a dentist appointment at 3:00 so I thought that was the perfect night for us to play a game together. We played Teen Pathi, which is a card game played during Diwali. I had planned to make barfi yesterday (an Indian dessert), but the Diwali book we got from the library had a recipe for peda, and that is what I made. The kids like it, but I don't think I'll make it again. For dinner yesterday the kids and I had sirniki which is a Russian/Ukrainian recipe for cheese pancakes. I bought farmer's cheese for the first time to make them. All four of us liked it! I made Paul something else for his dinner later that night. Nadia and Oliver were enjoying eating slices of farmer's cheese as I had some left over after I made the sirniki.  For tonight's dinner I made pommes aligot, which is a French recipe for cheesy mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and Chicken Kiev, which is another Russian/ Ukrainian recipe. The pommes aligot and Chicken Kiev were time consuming to make, but they were well received. I didn't use a new recipe for the sweet potatoes, but Paul actually tried some, found he liked it, and asked for more! Usually he doesn't try anything I make with sweet potatoes. I made them at Oliver's request. Oliver and I dropped Nadia off at church at 8:00am for a Bible Bowl quizzing event. Paul was planning to pick her up at 3:30 on his way home from work, but she ended up going home with the coach's family. Their daughter (who is in 5th grade) is on Nadia's quizzing team. I'm going to bring Nadia a change of clothes tomorrow morning as they will bring her to church at 8:45. 

The kids and I stayed home all day on Thursday. Yesterday Oliver and I ran errands for close to three hours. Aside from taking Nadia to church this morning, the boys and I have been at home all day. Paul brought home Mulan on DVD from Redbox yesterday. We had planned to see it in the theatre in March, but due to COVID it was never released in the theatres. In early September it was released on Disney+ for an extra $30. I wasn't willing to pay $30. We can see it for free on Disney+ starting in December, but I was fine with paying $1 to see it a few weeks earlier. Tonight the four of us watched the new episode of Mandalorian. Most days Nadia watches something on the iPad while the boys watch something on the tv that doesn't interest me one iota. I enjoy it when we watch something together from time to time. 

We did two more art lessons this week. Nadia wasn't happy with how her rabbit turned out. Nadia used charcoal (as instructed) for the toad (above). Ian opted to use a pencil because he found using the charcoal when making the rabbit to be very messy. 

My friend Carol's husband passed away last night. The last time I saw them was when we stayed at their house for one night in May 2019. Margie got the good news that the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes as well as the bad news that the surgeon didn't get all of the cancer on Monday. She's going to have another surgery next week to get the rest of the cancer and then will have 6 weeks of radiation treatments after she recovers from the surgeries. 

 

Thankful Thursday

 1. It was wonderful to celebrate Grandma's birthday with her on Saturday and to be able to spend time with Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law for several hours for the first time in 2020.

2. The weather lately has been gorgeous - unseasonably warm for November!

3. As yesterday was Veteran's Day, I'm thankful for the men and women who have served in the military in our country in the past and are serving at this time. Freedom isn't free!

4. Some of the recent new recipes have been well received: Pop Pop, Uncle Al, and I enjoyed the apple strudel, the kids enjoyed the cheese soufflé last night, the boys and I have been enjoying the yiaourtopita (lemon pound cake made with Greek yogurt), and the kids and I REALLY liked the paninis we had for lunch on Monday. 

5. We enjoyed hiking at Hawk Mountain on Tuesday. In addition to seeing a bald eagle and turkey vultures soaring above us, Ian spotted a walking stick on the ground. The highlight for me was being able to spend about seven hours with my friend whom I don't get to see very often. I think the kids' favorite part of the day was having dinner at Friendly's, which didn't cost us any money thanks to gift cards we had received previously.

6. Margie's surgery went well on Monday, and the surgeon feels very optimistic that the cancer hasn't spread to her lymph nodes. We're praying the pathology report will confirm that this week.

7. Paul gave me permission to hire someone to do some odd jobs around the house. I had asked for permission once or twice a year over the past three years, and the only thing he had said yes to in the past was hiring someone to replace our downstairs toilet. I am SO, SO happy that now I have permission to hire a handyman to replace a small section of drywall behind our refrigerator, replace the downstairs toilet, and some other odd jobs. The one that will please me the most (by far) when it is complete is our shower! Twice this week I got up and wanted to get a shower and had to wait 20-30 minutes for Ian to get out of that bathroom so I could get a shower, which caused problems because Nadia likes to start doing math at 7:00am.. I cannot wait to have our master bathroom shower working again. Paul started that project 4.5 years ago so I've had to wait far longer than I ever thought I would. Hopefully the projects will be completed before the end of 2020! I am very, very thankful that I have permission to hire a handyman!!!

8. We finished the book of Leviticus this morning! Some books of the Bible are easier to study, and then there are others (like Leviticus) where it can be challenging to see how you can glean something from a chapter to apply to your life. We've been reading some Psalms along with the chapters of Leviticus. Tomorrow we start Numbers. We've finished Genesis through Leviticus thus far this year.

Hawk Mountain

When Paul and I were dating we hiked at Hawk Mountain on more than one occasion. I also went there with my brother once. I'm not sure how many times I had been there before, but it had been at least 16 years since I had been there. Last week my friend, Cheri, asked if the kids and I would join her at Hawk Mountain this week as she had never been there before. She figured we should take advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures lately. On Sunday our pastor said that he was thrilled with how short our winter was this year and that we were already moving into spring. Ha ha! I wish that were true. Anyhow it has gotten up into the low 70's the last several days, which is NOT a normal high for November in Pennsylvania. I wish it was! They have people posted at two lookouts from sunrise to sunset from August 15-December 15 keeping a count of the raptors as they migrate south. We mostly saw turkey vultures, but we did get to see one bald eagle soaring above us. From the south lookout to the north lookout we ascended 221 feet (1,521). When Paul and I did the River of Rocks trail many years ago (elevation 700) we saw a large bear coming our direction. I had hoped to go back to Hawk Mountain with my kids and Maurice, but that became impossible 20 months ago. One thing that surprised me was that the VAST majority of people hiking the trails today were wearing masks. I had never seen so many people wearing masks outdoors aside from when we were at an amusement park where we were required to do so. We brought them but hardly wore them at all. It was easy to stay 6 feet away from people so I chose that over wearing a mask. Cheri said she thinks we will be wearing masks until sometime in 2022. I already assumed we'd be wearing masks for a good chunk of 2021, but I admit I was hoping we could ditch them in 2022. Time will tell.

I was surprised to find that they were charging a fee to hike the trail. It cost $25 for the kids and I. We dropped Cheri off at her house, she let her dogs out for a few minutes, and then she joined us at Friendly's for dinner. Paul had told me that Friendly's had filed for bankruptcy. We had been given two gift cards for Friendly's over the last 10 months, so he thought we should use it in the near future in case the restaurant near us was closed. I hadn't seen my friend since we went on a hike together in July with her foster son. Knowing I'd have many hours to chat with her was the main reason I was willing to drive over 3.5 hours today round trip. I was pleasantly surprised on the way home to discover the on ramp to I-80 had been reopened in Danville. I was surprised that Paul hadn't mentioned it because for the months it's been closed his trip home has been at least 10 minutes longer than usual, which when your commute is already 60 minutes long one way, you really feel that extra 10 minutes. When he came home tonight I asked him about it, and he said he didn't realize it had been reopened. I'm sure he'll appreciate being able to use the ramp tomorrow and avoid the detour he's been taking for months. 

Because we packed our lunches and used the gift cards at Friendly's for dinner, I got the day off in terms of cooking. Yesterday I made paninis for lunch - pepperoni and mozzarella for Ian and ham and mozzarella for Nadia, Oliver, and myself. The kids LOVED them. They were telling me I should buy a panini press. I told them the method I used worked just fine and didn't involve me finding a place to store another gadget in the kitchen. For dinner I made chicken chilaquiles. Those did not go over very well. I thought a recipe that primarily consisted of tortilla chips, chicken, and cheese would be accepted better than it was. I had originally planned to make two chilaquiles recipes - the other one featuring eggs rather than chicken, but since they were not fans, I'm taking the other one off the list. I've tried 43 new recipes over the past 2+ months, but we still have many new recipes to try in the coming months. I'm happy that the kids discovered that panini sandwiches can be delicious. My first choice at Panera is the strawberry salad they only offer in the summer, but if we go there when that isn't available, I get a panini. 

Happy birthday, Grandma!

If my mom was still alive, she would have turned 75 in March. Yesterday, Paul's mom turned 76. Margie turned 77 last month, my Dad will turn 77 on December 10, Aunt Janet will turn 78 on December 9, and Paul's dad's will be turning 79 on December 20. It had been 10.5 months since we had been in Grandma and Pop Pop's house. We had seen Grandma very briefly (5 minutes or less) on two occasions - once in my friend's driveway on Nadia's birthday in June and once more recently in our driveway. Oliver had spent some time shopping for a bike with Pop Pop in early August. We spent about six hours at Grandma's house yesterday to celebrate her birthday. This was the first time the kids and I had seen Uncle Al and Aunt Millie since Christmas. We brought four games and played two of them - Paul won Bubble Talk and Pop Pop won Suspend. The boys also played on the Wii with Pop Pop. Millie and Al brought pizza, cookies, cupcakes, candy, and cake. We brought balloons, an apple strudel, and yiaourtopita (a lemon pound cake made with Greek yogurt). I had baked the strudel and cake yesterday morning. Pop Pop, Uncle Al, and I all really liked the apple strudel. Since Nadia loves apple pie I thought she's also love the strudel. She said it was okay, which means I probably won't make it again.

The reason we were allowed to come to their house for the first time in almost 11 months was because we were each wearing a Fresh Air purifier around our necks plus they have a couple larger air purifiers running in their home. They have also purchased one for our home so that they will be able to visit our house, as they haven't been here since Ian's birthday in December 2019. Last year Al and Millie came to our house for Thanksgiving, but this year all ten of us plan to be together at Thanksgiving. Usually we get together for Easter, Mother's Day, and the kids' birthdays, but yesterday was the first family gathering of 2020 as we hadn't gotten together for Easter, Mother's Day, Nadia's birthday, or Oliver's birthday. Even though it was Grandma's birthday yesterday, the boys each came home with one gift. Oliver brought home a Hess truck that Paul's parents gave him for Christmas last year, but it had been accidentally left at their home. Al and Millie bought Ian a plush white guinea pig in memory of Patches, who died in February. 

My mom had lost some height (as we all do when we age), but I still don't think Nadia would have been taller than her yet, if she were still alive. At some point she probably would have been taller than my mom, but Nadia has already passed Paul's mom out in height, although it might not be clear in the photo above. As for my nieces and nephews, Susie (age 16) and Andrew (age 15) have both passed me out. Susie has her driver's license! Jenna will be turning 18 later this month. I remember holding Jenna when she was a newborn at my doctoral graduation. Time truly does fly!

Laser tag, trampolines, and more!

 

The roller skating rink that is closest to our house has a free skating session the first Wednesday of each month. In the past we could only take advantage of this in the summer because during the school year I'd have choir rehearsal and the kids would have AWANA, but due to COVID-19, there's no choir at my church and AWANA is by Zoom. We opted not to participate in AWANA by Zoom. Nadia is at church from 4:30-8:15 on Wednesdays between her Bible quizzing meeting and then the youth group small groups. Yesterday I still took a 3rd grader, 5th grader, and 7th grader to the roller skating rink, but the seventh grader was a neighbor named Maddox since Nadia was at church. Oliver and I drop her off at 4:30, and Paul picks her up at 8:15 on his way home from work. Just eight months ago Oliver really didn't know how to roller skate. Ian and Oliver's rollerblading abilities have improved dramatically this year. I bought two pairs of roller blades during the pandemic through Facebook. I had purchased another pair in September 2019, which means all three kids now have their own pair of roller blades. Oliver and Ian were really flying around the rink last night, and Oliver was one of the last three left in the limbo contest. The man who won the four corners game gave Oliver his token for a free drink or popcorn.

Today I took the kids to Williamsport as a homeschool group had set up an outing that included one hour of either bowling or arcade games plus one hour to play laser tag and/or jump at the Fly World trampoline park. It cost $10 per child, which seemed like a pretty good price for 2 hours. The kids chose to play arcade games for the first hour, and then they jumped on the trampolines for about 20 minutes before they headed up to play a game of laser tag with five other homeschool kids (two teams of four). Oliver was on the winning (blue) team. Ian and Nadia were on the red team. Nadia had been to Fly World once with Aunt Wendy, Rachel, and Grace so she already had a pair of Fly World socks. The Sky Zone trampoline park in Pittston that we usually visit once a year for free via our PBS station ONLY accepts *their* socks. They wouldn't accept the Fly World socks, but this trampoline park isn't particular as long as you're wearing trampoline socks. Nadia wore her Fly World socks, and the boys wore Sky Zone socks. Although we haven't gone bowling yet in 2020, the kids remember going bowling many times over the years whereas they don't recall having played arcade games before although they've been to Chuck E Cheese in Maryland with the Towfighis and once in Harrisburg for Oliver's third birthday party in 2015. We had our main meal at lunch (potato cheese soufflé) and ate sandwiches and fruit in the van  as the event was from 4-6pm, but next time I'll have the kids bring water bottles. They became thirsty, and due to COVID they couldn't use the drinking fountains. I splurged and bought them each a drink. The homeschool group has this outing once a month during the school year. The kids said they want to return next month! The only downside is that Nadia likes to go roller skating at a different skating rink when the Christian radio station hosts an event there once a month, and they also hold it on the first Thursday of the month. I think next month I'll see if any kids in the neighborhood want to come with us for this two hour event. 

1. I'm thankful that the kids have adjusted to the time change. Monday morning Ian climbed into bed with us at 5:55am. I had changed several clocks around the house on Sunday, but I had forgotten to change Ian's clock. 

2. Speaking  of sleep, Paul and I didn't get much sleep on Tuesday night because of the election. Paul stayed up until 2:30am. I went to bed at 9:30, got up at 1:30 to check on how things were going, went back to bed at 2:30 (but it took me a long time to go back to sleep), and then I was up again at 6:15. Thankfully, last night I slept very soundly for nine hours. 

3. Nadia and I have been enjoying the key lime pie I made this week. I figured if we are making international recipes this school year, we should also try one that has its origin in the USA, right? I required the boys to have one tiny little taste of it just so they would know what it tasted like, but I never require the kids to eat a dessert they don't like. I also made a soufflé for the first time today. Today's was a potato cheese soufflé. Later I'm going to try another one. Oliver absolutely loved it. Nadia and Ian thought it was "fine" so I imagine it won't be the last time I make it. The recipe called for two cheeses - Morbier and muenster. The grocery store didn't have Morbier cheese, so I used cheddar instead, but I did buy muenster cheese for the first time. Nadia loved the muenster cheese and is planning to use the rest of it to make grilled cheese sandwiches, which is typically what she has for lunch most days. She said she liked it as much as swiss cheese, which has been her most favorite cheese for months. 

4. Paul and the boys are really enjoying the Mandalorian show on Disney+. It's the first time in my kids lives that they are waiting for one new episode of a show to come out each week. Last Friday the first episode of the second season was released. The second episode will be released tomorrow. There will be eight new episodes over the coming weeks. The boys often have a count down of how many days until they see baby Yoda!

5. Ian, Oliver, and Maddox had fun roller skating last night, and my three kids had fun playing arcade games, jumping on the trampolines, and playing laser tag today! 

6. I haven't been watching the games at all, but the Steelers are the only undefeated team in the NFL at the moment. A 7-0 start is quite impressive, especially since the last two weeks we played teams that were either undefeated or had only lost one game prior to playing the Steelers. My Dad is hoping this season will end with their seventh Super Bowl victory!