Thankful Tuesday

1. Wendy had a safe drive back to Chicago last Wednesday. It was so nice having two days with she and Grace and five days with Rachel. We played games together, played piano duets together, listened to Wendy practice the violin and mandolin, etc. I wish we lived closer together. We're looking forward to seeing her again in less than two weeks, Lord willing!

2. We had a safe drive to Long Island on Wednesday. We were able to visit Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park. We were able to walk over the bridge over the falls just before it was closed.. It's currently closed due to construction. We also were able to go swimming with Aunt Janet and have dinner in her backyard. 

3. On Thursday the beaches were reopened after having been closed for 4 days due to Henri. We enjoyed swimming at her swimming pool and also spending many hours at her beach.

The boys enjoyed using her jacuzzi tub that night and again on Friday afternoon.

4. On Friday the kids and I took a ferry to visit Fire Island. The kids loved playing in the waves. The kids also swam in her pool, and we all started watching Cruella on Disney+. 

5. The weather wasn't as ideal on Saturday for spending time in the water, but we still swam in her pools 

and spent a little time at the beach before having dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We also played several games together over the four days we were there. Aunt Janet always sends us home with a lot of food, but because she is moving this fall, we came home with more stuff than usual - beach towels, drinking glasses, two of my Grandma's paintings, etc.  Although I'm sad this was our last trip, I am very thankful for the five trips the kids and I were able to take there.

6. Despite the fact the GPS took me right through Manhattan (WHY?!?!) we made it home safely on Sunday. We were able to visit a total of four National Parks in five days as we stopped at two in New Jersey on our way home on Sunday (Morristown and Thomas Edison's laboratory). I had to cancel our tour of Teddy Roosevelt's  home (Sagamore Hill) that I had made for Saturday in light of the fact we came home a day later than planned because we went out three days later than planned. I need to mail their Fire Island junior ranger booklets, but they already received badges and patches at the other three sites. 

7. We accomplished about 75 things on our summer bucket list this summer!

8. We had a good first day of school yesterday. I learned somewhere along the way to not have the kids do ALL the subjects when we first start back. We won't start science, Life of Fred, or handwriting (Oliver) until we get back from vacation in early October. We're not starting writing until next week. Ian really, really, really liked doing math on Teaching Textbooks. He was thrilled when he earned a 100% on the first lesson.  Since that curriculum is on the easier side, I have him doing a 7th grade textbook as he's in 6th grade. Yvonne is sharing the Math 7 textbook (on cd) for Ian and the Saxon Algebra I books for Nadia this year. I already had books for Oliver to use for math so I didn't need to buy any math books this year! Nadia was NOT anywhere close to being thrilled when we did Algebra I together, but she asked me to teach her to play the flute so she had her first flute lesson yesterday! Ian and Oliver are taking piano lessons (from me), and Nadia is learning to play the flute. If she makes enough progress, I might have her join the middle school band in our school district depending on what days/times the 8th grade band has rehearsals. She took voice lessons last year which cost us money. I can give flute and piano lessons for free. Every year I have the kids draw a self portrait on the first day of school. I scanned them and included them in this post.

9. Milo, who turned 11 months old yesterday, was a GOOD boy at the dog sitter's house. He was there from Wednesday morning until Saturday afternoon. He was very, very happy when Paul came to pick him up, but then he was confused when he got home and the rest of us weren't here. He was very, very, very, very happy when the kids and I came home on Sunday evening. Hopefully he will be good for them again when they have him for 25 days in the near future. 

10. Masks are required on all National Park sites even if you are vaccinated, but thankfully that was the only place we've had to wear masks the last few months aside from doctors offices and the dentist. 

11. It's only 8 days until our "25 day field trip" as Oliver calls it. Woohoo! The kids and I are going on a local field trip tomorrow at a state park. Although COVID is still around, I'm thankful that so far it seems we can go on more field trips this year than we did last year.

12. Wendy just recently started to learn how to play the mandolin, and her efforts have already paid off in that she will be playing both her violin and mandolin in a touring Broadway show in Chicago this fall! She's such a talented musician!! Way to go, Wendy!

Back to "school"

Although we've already logged several days of school through field trips and such, we're calling today our first day of school for the 2021-22 school year because it's the first day we're breaking open spelling books, math books, etc. This is our ninth year of homeschooling. I already felt 100% convinced this was the best choice for our family, but COVID has only reinforced that decision. I'm very thankful my kids don't need to wear masks while doing their schoolwork. 

Here are some things that we are continuing from past years:

1. Nadia and Ian are still doing grammar together using Fix it Grammar from IEW.
2. Ian and Oliver are still using All About Spelling (level 7 for Ian and level 4 for Oliver).
3. All three kids will complete some pages from All About Homophones (Ian and Nadia do it together, and Oliver does different pages).
4. Oliver is still using Handwriting without Tears to complete his 2nd cursive textbook. Nadia and Ian will be required to copy a few passages from Draw Through History in cursive throughout the year.
5. We will finish reading through the Old Testament this school year. As for Bible memory, we're memorizing the book of James plus some selected verses from Romans.
6. All three kids will read chapter books independently each day. They will need to pick books from a list I have created for each of them. Most of the books relate to what we are studying in history.
7. We're still using Apologia science textbooks. Oliver will be studying animals that fly and animals that swim. Ian and Nadia will be completing an 8th grade Physical Science textbook.
8. Most years we've gone on a lot of field trips. That wasn't the case last year, but I believe it will be the case again this year! This includes earning a lot of Junior Ranger badges at National Park sites. 
9. We'll keep listening to audiobooks together through Overdrive and Audible.
10. We took a break from IEW last year, but we're resuming that this year, and it will be Oliver's first time using the curriculum. Last year we spent a lot more time on art and not as much on creative writing. The kids type their final products which is how we incorporate keyboarding into the school year. The writing topics also correlate to what we are studying in history.
11. We're still using Life of Fred to supplement math. Ian and Nadia work through the same books together and Oliver does different books.
12. We will continue to work through inductive Bible studies together.
13. Ian will continue his piano lessons with me.

Here are some things we are doing differently this year:

1. Last year we used Talkbox.mom for Spanish. This worked really well for the first couple of boxes and then wasn't as successful. The plan this year is that each child will be required to earn at least one crown on the Duolingo app each school day, and also each child at the start of the week will pick one phrase from the Talkbox.mom book that they will try to help all four of us use throughout the week. I personally try to earn at least five crowns a day on the Duolingo app on my phone. 
2. I really, really want to do better with completing more of the demonstrations and experiments in science. This is a high priority for me this year. Hopefully it will actually happen this time!
3. We're signed up to be in a co-op on Tuesday afternoons for the fall semester, and Nadia will continue to have a drama class there in the spring semester. We haven't been in a homeschool gym class since the early part of 2019, but I'm planning on signing the kids up for the gym class at our church starting in January of 2022. It's been awhile since we've been in a co-op. Oliver was in the nursery the last time we did one so we shall see if we like it enough to continue in future years or not. I'm not signing Nadia up for voice lessons this school year like she did last year.
4. I'm going to quiz Nadia and Ian on questions from the Bible quizzing question database every school day over Romans and James.
5. Oliver will start taking piano lessons with me.
6. Ian and Nadia will begin working through two coding books (starting with Python and JavaScript).
7. Nadia took a photography course last year but didn't actually get a lot of practice with shooting in manual on a DSLR. I am going to let her use my old camera body plus one lens on our vacation and hopefully that will be the beginning of her getting more practice with shooting in manual.
8. Although we're still doing the same five year cycle in history, we're using Mystery of History this year instead of Story of the World that we used for four years in the past. We're still supplementing with many library books and books we own (picture books, chapter books, and nonfiction). This year we're doing from Creation to the time of Christ, which is slightly different than five years ago when we did Creation to the Greeks. I have many new books in the plans, but we're also rereading some of the best ones that we read five years ago.
9. It took me almost all summer to decide, but the plan for now is that Nadia will do Saxon Algebra I (her first time with a traditional textbook in a few years), Ian will do Teaching Textbooks grade 7 (first time for him to do math on a computer), and Oliver will do Beast Academy (2B, 2C, 2D, 3A, and 3B). My goal for him is to finish 5D by the end of 6th grade. All three kids really need to work on their problem solving skills - especially Oliver as his are about nonexistent at this point.
10. None of my kids have read any Shakespeare thus far. This year we plan on beginning to read some of his writings, and we plan to continue that in the years to come. Now that Nadia is in 8th grade I feel the need to make sure we've listened to (or the kids have read independently) many classic pieces of literature.
11. I purchased a book of centuries for each child. They will use them over the next four years to record with sentences and also artwork - sort of a timeline in a book. I don't usually keep much of their schoolwork, after the year is over, but I'm hoping they will save these for years to come.

Here's to hoping and praying that my 4th, 6th, and 8th graders all have a great school year!!! I'm very, very thankful I have the privilege of homeschooling them. Next year I will need to grade far more of Nadia's work  as I'll have to actually create a report card for her each quarter. This year I'm only planning on grading her work in science and math. Although I don't put a lot of stock in grades, I do want my kids to strive to do their very best in whatever task they are doing. 

Firsts and Lasts

In general it's much easier to keep track of "firsts" - the first time a child takes a step, sleeps through the night, eats solid food, drives a car, goes to school, rides a rollercoaster, loses a tooth, etc. Although we count down to some lasts, such as the last day of school, in many cases at the moment something is happening for the last time, we don't always know it is the last time. I remember being hit with that once I realized that Nadia had decided she preferred bottles to nursing. I had no idea when I nursed her that particular time it would be my last time nursing her as I had planned to nurse her for several more months. When we were on vacation with my parents in Williamsburg in 2015, I didn't know that would be my mom's last vacation. When I had dinner with my brother at Longhorn Steakhouse in Philadelphia on Black Friday in November 2018, I didn't know I'd never see my brother again here on earth. In June 2019 while we were in Myrtle Beach with Paul's parents, we didn't know that was Paul's mom's last vacation, or when we spent time with her on November 7, 2020,  that it would be the last time we'd see her here on earth. But there are some times when we know in advance that we are experiencing a "last time." I knew when I said goodbye to my mom on July 10, 2016 that I'd never see here again. Saying goodbye to her was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Ever since I knew that Aunt Janet was moving to Nevada, I've had bittersweet feelings regarding our trip to Long Island this summer. Considering that she has had health struggles the past two months (shingles and mono) plus the fact that a hurricane was forecasted to hit the island the same day we planned to arrive, we were grateful that we actually made it out here this summer. In 2017, 2018, and 2019 we came out here the week of July 4. Last year we came the first week of August. This summer the trip was postponed for a variety of reasons including our dog sitter's schedule. I have visited Long Island many times over the past almost 50 years - sometimes to visit my Grandma Lillian and other times to visit my Aunt Janet. The time with her became even more special following the passing of my mom. She only became a Grandma last month, so the last few years she considered my kids to be the closest thing she had to grandchildren. Knowing this is a last for us and having no idea when we will be able to spend time with Aunt Janet again in the future has been a bit hard to swallow emotionally. My brother, mother-in-law, and mom have gone to Heaven, Wendy lives in Chicago, and Yvonne is moving to Quito in less than 2 weeks. Knowing Aunt Janet is moving to the opposite side of the US means we won't be able to just get in the car and drive to see her any more. Ian cried his heart out the very first time we left her home in 2017. I've never cried when leaving her home before, but I'm pretty sure I'll be crying tomorrow morning as I've been fighting the tears at various points each day the last few days.

In the past we've spent a week at her place. Due to Henri, we only had three full days with her this time. Thursday morning we had breakfast, walked over and swam in the outdoor pool, had lunch, and the spent the afternoon and evening at her beach. She grilled hot dogs at the cabana for dinner. The boys took a jacuzzi bath together once we got back to her place. Friday morning we had breakfast and packed lunches before I drove the kids and I to the ferry to Fire Island, which is a National Park. We walked through the Sunken Forest and enjoyed the beach for a few hours. The kids appreciated the waves (which she doesn't have at her beach) and the softer sand (not as many rocks). We had dinner at her place, swam in the indoor pool, and then started watching Cruella on Disney+ (definitely not my favorite Disney movie). The past few days it was HOT out (in the 90's). It rained last night, and the temps were much cooler today (highs in the 70s). We followed our typical schedule of swimming in the morning and going to the beach in the afternoon, but we didn't stay at the beach as long as usual because it was cooler out and because she wanted to treat me to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. That had been a tradition each year, and we didn't do that last year because of COVID. She knows I can go years without entering a Mexican restaurant. She's very generous and thoughtful. She reminds me of my mom in that she always stocks up on our favorite foods before we come, and she sends us home with a lot of food at the end of the trip. We played Skip Bo, Exploding Kittens, Suspend, Quiddler, and Bananagrams with her over the past few days. I'm grateful my children have gotten the chance to get to know her and she has gotten to know them. We hope our paths will cross at least one more time here on earth as we hope to visit her one time in Reno at some point in the future. I'm thankful she will be able to live near two of her children and her one and only grandson, but we will definitely miss her. 

I've started working on a video about our 5 trips to Long Island. I planned to record some interviews, but I found I couldn't bring myself to record them without getting too emotional. Hopefully I can still make a nice video even though it won't have any talking in it. I should be able to finish the video in the next few days. Paul picked Milo up from the dog sitters this afternoon, and we were very relieved to hear that he did much better than when he stayed with them a month ago. Whew. I'm sure he'll still be very, very excited when the kids and I come home tomorrow!! He'll be turning 11 months old on Monday. Yesterday we were praying for Margie's mastectomy, and thankfully it seems to have gone well. She was discharged from the hospital today. We're still praying for her recovery.

Happy 105th Birthday, NPS!

This trip to Long Island was postponed more than once this summer for a variety of reasons - Nadia's theatre camp in July, our pet sitter's availability, and Hurricane/Tropical Storm Henri. We went from thinking it would be the four of us visiting Aunt Janet to five of us (including Rachel) to six of us (Rachel plus Wendy), and finally back to the four of us. Wendy, Rachel, and Grace left the house around 7:40 this morning, and they arrived back in Chicago twelve hours later. The kids and I left at the same time this morning. We bought some flowers for Aunt Janet and dropped Milo off at our friend's house. He'll be staying with them until Paul picks him up from work on his way home on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully he'll be a good boy for them! We arrived at the Paterson Great Falls National Park at 11:00am. It was exactly 1 mile from I-80 so it was a VERY small detour to stop there. We learned about Alexander Hamilton and the history of the area and walked over bridges to see the 77 foot waterfall which is second only to Niagara Falls in terms of water volume (of waterfalls east of the Mississippi). The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge. It was hot outside (in the 90's) so when an ice cream truck pulled into the parking lot, I made the mistake of offering to buy the kids a treat without knowing the price. I was stunned that two ice creams (on sticks) cost $9 total. Yikes! I should have offered to take them through the drive-thru at the Burger King nearby for ice cream or a drink. Ian agreed to wait to have a treat at Aunt Janet's place after I realized how much it cost to buy the other two a treat. Lesson learned!! 

It took us two hours to drive from the park to my Aunt's house. Considering we were driving on a weekday, the NYC traffic wasn't bad. Subtracting the stops we made, I think I drove a little less than 5 hours altogether. We arrived at Aunt Janet's house around 2:20. We brought out things in, changed into our swimsuits, and swam in her indoor pool for a couple of hours. Although the rain from the storm stopped on Monday, no one has been allowed to swim at the beach where she belongs the last two days because the bacteria levels are too high. So we opted to swim at her pool and have dinner in her backyard tonight. She grilled burgers. Tomorrow we'll either head to her beach or to Fire Island, which is on the southern side (Atlantic Beach). This is the kids' fifth and final trip to Long Island, but they've only been on the beach on the northern side in the past.

Thankful Tuesday

 1. Henri's winds weren't as bad where my Aunt lives as the storm that came through Long Island when we were there last summer. She just got a lot of rain. In hindsight we probably could have gone out there. We wouldn't have gone swimming on Sunday or Monday, but she didn't lose power as she did last year. We erred on the side of caution particularly with flights from Chicago involved in the decision. The good news is that we ARE going to drive out there tomorrow morning and come back on Sunday.

2. My sister made it here safely with Grace on Sunday evening. Her girls really wanted to go to a trampoline park. That didn't happen due to reduced hours at Kaos due to COVID, but we did go roller skating this morning. It cost $20 for me to pay for admission for my 3 kids plus rent skates for Nadia. This made me appreciate that fact that we usually skate there for free. Wendy, Rachel, and Grace hadn't roller skated in a long time. They improved over the two hours they skated and also appreciate the tips one expert skater was giving people throughout the session. Oliver was in third place in the limbo contest.

3. We played a variety of games together such as Racko, Rummikub, and Quiddler. 

4. We had lunch at Kid's Café yesterday and today, and both times Wendy and I also received a free meal although it's usually only for kids. Today was "parent's day" so all parents were offered a meal, and yesterday we were there at the end and they had so much leftover pizza they opened it up to parents at the end. The tacos and also the éclair cake were tasty today! 

5. Oliver has improved over the last several months in his ability to sit nicely during a worship service, and he's even begun to take notes (fill in the blanks in the sermon outline) on his own initiative! Way to go, Oliver!

6. Nadia and Rachel have loved having a little over 5 days together!! Wendy told me that despite the miles between them, Rachel has previously said that she considers Nadia to be her best friend. Awww!!

7.  Most of the National Parks I had planned to visit in conjunction with our trip to Long Island are currently only open Friday through Sunday due to COVID, but it turns out that Paterson Great Falls is not only open tomorrow but is having extra activities due to the fact tomorrow is the 105th birthday of the National Park system! So we are planning on stopping there on on our way to Long Island tomorrow.

Henri

One of my aunts lives in Florida. Hurricanes are something she talks about every year. In central Pennsylvania we don't give much thought to hurricanes. The worst it means to us is some extra rain as we're not close enough to the coast to be in the direct path of any hurricanes. Several years ago we had a vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia that we had to cancel because of a hurricane. On Friday night when Paul came home from work he told me about Hurricane Henri, which was headed toward Long Island; the kids and I had packed our suitcases earlier in the day without any idea we might cancel the trip. I texted my Aunt, and she suggested we wait to see if maybe it would veer East into the Gulf Stream. I woke up shortly before 3am on Saturday morning, and I never went back to sleep. It was a complicated decision because Rachel was with us and was supposed to fly back to Chicago from Long Island on Wednesday evening, and Wendy was supposed to fly from Chicago to Long Island today. In the end, Wendy decided to drive to Pennsylvania today with her eight-year-old daughter, Grace. She'll spend two days here at our house and then drive back to Chicago on Wednesday with Grace and Rachel. If my Aunt has electricity, the kids and I will drive out there on Wednesday morning and come back on Sunday. We're praying her basement won't flood and she won't lose power or will at least regain it by Wednesday. I'm not usually willing to drive through NYC on a weekday, but since she's putting her house on the market next month, I'm willing to drive out there on Wednesday this time. Given how much the world has changed over the past 18 months, I'm not certain Paul will ever agree to go to NYC again so this might be my last time ever driving in NYC. Time will tell.

One of the main takeaways from 2020 was to roll with the punches as everything was cancelled for months at a time. As someone who enjoys making plans, sometimes that is hard for me to do. I always bounce back, but sometimes it can be hard to swallow at first. The last few days quite a few things have been cancelled:

1. Paul's dad changed his mind about joining us on the vacation. The kids and I were very disappointed. He doesn't feel he can be away from the concrete plant for that long.
2. We had been planning to attend a free Christian music festival on Friday night that was only 20 minutes from our house. Yvonne had expressed an interest in their family joining us and that was part of the reason they made plans to stay with us from Thursday night through Saturday morning. While we were bowling on Friday, Rachel made it very clear she didn't want to go to the music festival so none of us ended going.  This was hard to swallow for some of us, but I did enjoy playing a game of Boggle (that Paul won) instead that night. Had she let us know this earlier, I would have cooked something for dinner that night. I only purchased pizza at the bowling alley for dinner for the 14 of us because I thought we were going straight from the bowling alley to the music festival. 
3. All of yesterday's plans were cancelled due to Henri - the Roasting Ears of Corn Festival in Allentown, National Canal Museum in Easton, Morristown National Park, and spending the night at a hotel in West Orange, NJ. Last year the plans to visit the same places/events were cancelled due to COVID. I don't think I'll schedule them a third time especially since Aunt Janet is moving to Nevada.
4. All of our plans for today were cancelled due to Henri - Thomas Edison National Park and then driving to Janet's house on Long Island. If we do go to Long Island on Wednesday, I'll have to pick which national park in New Jersey to visit on the way home next Sunday (Morristown, Thomas Edison, or Paterson Great Falls).

Amidst the disappointments, there are still many things to be thankful for such as:

1. Nadia and Ian were able to help with a service project in our town last Wednesday night.
2. We got to spend time with 9 members of Yvonne's family from Thursday evening through Saturday morning. Everyone except for Yvonne and I bowled two games on Friday afternoon. It was the first time that Julianna, Micah, or Wesley ever bowled. The kids also were able to play some arcade games as those are included in the kids bowl free program if you need to rent shoes. Joe was able to borrow Paul's bowling shoes.
3. Although I think they liked the lemon crinkle cookies I made earlier this year better than the lemon bars I made for them last week, they always like my pasta, and the cinnamon baked French toast was also a hit for breakfast along with a bacon and cheese frittata. Rachel had asked for chicken Alfredo so I made a pasta bar for Thursday night - three types of noodles (fettuccini, spaghetti, and rigatoni) and two sauces (marinara with meatballs and Alfredo sauce with chicken). 
4. The kids had lunch at Kids' Café a few times last week. 
5. After getting less than 6 hours of sleep on Friday night, I was very thankful that I got almost 11 hours of sleep last night. I can literally go years without taking a nap. I am not a napper, but I took three ibuprofen and a nap yesterday afternoon, and I woke up feeling a LOT better and my fever was gone. 
6. The hotel reservation for last night was supposed to be non-refundable, but the hotel made an exception and gave me a full refund.
7. Rachel arrived at our home on Thursday evening with the Towfighis, and she'll be here until Wednesday morning. She and Nadia are loving having so much face-to-face time after being limited to Zoom for the past 2 years. They had a "sleepover" last night. If they had followed Rachel's schedule for the evening, they wouldn't have gone to bed until 3:40am, but Nadia was ready for bed at 2:30. Paul played a few games of Racko with them, but I was asleep during their entire sleepover. 
8. Wendy and Grace are on their way here!! I haven't seen either of them in two years. I am very, very grateful that Wendy is willing to do that much driving for a two day visit. Pecan pie bars are in my oven right now as she loves pecan pie!
9. Kellogg's is offering the program to receive free books again this fall. It's been up to ten free books in the past, but we're still thankful for six free books! Ian and Nadia helped make the selections. I had purchased crackers that cost $2 which is what enabled us to earn free books.
10. I found a away to stream the new Paw Patrol movie for free on the same day it was released to the theatres on Friday. We shall see when we ever make it back to AMC. We haven't been to a movie theatre since 2019 aside from an IMAX movie at a science museum last October. I thought only the younger kids would watch the movie, but eight of the eleven cousins watched it together. Micah wanted to watch it again so he must have liked it! I don't usually let the kids watch TV in the morning, but since I thought we'd be at the music festival that night I let them watch it before we went to Kid's Café for lunch. I don't think they cared what time they watched it, lol.

3 nine-year-olds

I used to write posts comparing Nadia and Ian and then all three kids. I haven't done so in three years. At Oliver's physical yesterday he weighed 60.5 pounds and was a little shy of 55 inches tall. When Ian turned nine, he was the same weight that Oliver is now (60 pounds), but he was 4 inches shorter than Oliver so Ian's BMI was in the 50th percentile whereas Oliver's BMI is at the 8th percentile. Due to my hospitalization during Oliver's pregnancy and his NICU stay, Nadia's physicals took place months after her birthday for several years. When she was almost 9 1/2 years old, she weighed 74 pounds and was 51 inches tall which was the same height Ian was when he turned nine. Her BMI was in the 82nd percentile. The pediatricians are fine with anything between 5th-84th percentile so neither Nadia or Oliver were considered to be underweight or overweight even though they were at opposite ends of the spectrum. 

Ian's favorite toys when he turned nine were Legos and stuffed animals. Oliver plays with a wide variety of toys. Nadia's favorite toys when she turned nine were dolls - paper dolls, Barbie dolls, and an American girl doll. 

Ian also liked to draw far more than Oliver and was flying through chapter books like Imagination Station and Magic Tree House. I just started giving Oliver piano lessons. Although Ian started piano lessons two years after Nadia did, he had almost caught up to where she was when he turned nine. Oliver spends more time playing outside and playing with the neighbors than either of his siblings.

When Nadia turned nine she was reading more voraciously than Ian did when he turned nine, and she also frequently listened to Adventures in Odyssey. 

Of the three kids, Nadia was the MOST interested in doing every possible extracurricular activity, and Ian was the most interested in staying at home sweet home. Both Nadia and Oliver were extremely friendly when they turned nine, and Ian was still on the shy side. 

Nadia and Oliver turned 9 during the summer before they entered fourth grade. Ian turned 9 part way through third grade. Nadia was the bravest, and Ian was the most fearful of my three kids at this age.

I had promised Oliver an extra date once he finished his multiplication tables. We explored various possibilities including going to the Milton Rock Gym, going bowling, and seeing a movie at the theatre (which we haven't done since 2019). In the end he asked that we go to Taco Bell and the Freez (ice cream place) for lunch after his physical yesterday. He got one of the tacos that the shell is made from Doritos and a baby size cup of peanut butter/ chocolate soft ice cream. I was surprised to see that today is the last day the ice cream place will be open for 2021.

Thankful Tuesday

 1. Last Wednesday through Friday morning I used my laptop in the church's lobby while the kids were in the theatre workshop. I wish I had thought of that on Monday instead of trying in vain to go in the public library! Getting the kids out the door at 7:50 each morning isn't ideal in my opinion, but they must have had a good week because on Friday they were already talking about doing this workshop again next year. 

2. On Thursday I took the kids to McDonald's, Rita's, and bowling after their theatre workshop. 

3. Paul intended to go to work on Friday morning and come home a few hours later to attend the kids' musical which was at noon. When I woke up at 6am, I was surprised to see Paul still in bed. I'm accustomed to being the only person in our bed when I go to bed and when I get up in the morning. When I woke him up and told him the time, he was upset with himself, but at that point it was too late to go to work if he was going to attend the kids' program. Milo was thankful Paul overslept because it meant he wasn't in his crate as many hours as Paul left the house a few hours after the kids and I did. Usually we see him on Saturday evening. We only saw him for maybe two minutes on Saturday evening just before we went to bed, but we saw him FAR more on Friday than we usually do. Paul's dad also joined us for the musical and ate pizza with us at the bowling alley.

4. Paul and I repaired the screen on one window on Friday evening. I am always SO thankful when a project is accomplished from the to do list. 

5. On August 6 our apple tree split. In the past I've always trimmed the branches to make it easier for me to mow. The tree had SO many apples on it this year, I had just been dealing with branches touching down very low when I mowed. I wish I had trimmed the branches like I usually do. In my defense, our next door neighbor's apple tree branches are also bowed down to the ground, and their tree hasn't split. Anyhow on August 7 we started cutting some branches and carrying them to the tree farm in our development. One of our neighbors came over and started to help. They were a HUGE help. They used a chain and one of their vehicles to drag large branches to the tree farm. Their kids helped pick up apples, put them in buckets, and carry the buckets to the tree farm. The deer must have had an apple feast! It was so very kind of our neighbors to help. I gave each of their kids a few dollars and told their parents that I'd love to babysit their kids the next time they want to go on a date as my way of saying thanks for their help. We are trying to save the tree. Paul has a plan of what he is going to do to try to help the tree, and he's been buying the things he thinks he needs for that task. 

6. Oliver "finished" learning his times tables yesterday! We'll obviously need to keep on reviewing them over the next year, but he definitely made progress this summer.

7. One neighbor will be taking care of our guinea pigs during our lengthy vacation. Another family is watching Milo for 24 of the 25 days. Two days ago her in-laws agreed to watch Milo the last day of our trip. I'm paying one of Oliver's friends to mow our lawn once when we're on vacation. I'm thankful for each one who is helping us with our home and pets while we're away.

8. I have become friends with a mom we met at our pool. She is homeschooling two of her children - a boy who is in 6th grade (same as Ian) and a girl who is in 7th grade (one grade below Nadia).The kids have enjoyed swimming together a few times this summer, and I have enjoyed chatting with the mom. Hoping we'll find other opportunities to get together over the next year as they don't live too far from us.

9. I had thought it would be free to visit the Lowell Observatory on our trip with our ASTC membership. They haven't opened for general admission yet, but they are giving tours. The tours are rather expensive, but I found out that if we paid for a membership there, we could take a tour for free. The membership cost only a tiny bit more than paying for one person to take the tour. So I joined the Lowell Observatory yesterday as that will be a much cheaper way to have five people take the tour. I also booked our Mammoth Cave tours recently. The kids and I are excited that it's just three weeks until our trip! That thought stresses Paul out. Later this week I'm planning to book the Lowell Observatory tour and the Timpanogos Cave tour (they cannot be booked more than 30 days in advance). Then on the first day of our vacation I'm planning to book our cliff dwelling tour at Mesa Verde as they can only be booked 14 days in advance. I've put much more time into planning this vacation than any other we've ever taken. Hopefully we will have a great time!

10. I took the kids to see a free production of The Tempest on Saturday night. It was their first exposure to Shakespeare. I can't say they loved it, but they did think there were some funny parts. The next play we plan to see there is Secret Garden in February. I predict they will like that one a lot more. The Tempest won't be their last exposure to Shakespeare! The actors were all vaccinated and didn't wear masks. Everyone in the audience was required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status, and they were very careful to keep everyone spread out in the auditorium.

11.As of August 11, Paul and I have been married for twenty years. They say opposites attract. There are of course some ways in which we are very similar or can usually easily come to an agreement. In our case some of those would be finances (we rarely disagree when it comes to money), our faith, and our kids. I'm extremely grateful that Paul encouraged me to consider IVF in 2007 and then homeschooling our kids, and I'm very, very thankful that he supports our family financially so that I can be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom. They say that money and infidelity are two of the top three reasons for divorce in the US. I've never had any reason to question that Paul would be faithful to me, and most of the time we've been on the same page with finances over the years. There are naturally many ways in which we are very different. I was freezing in church this past Sunday morning, and Paul was very comfortable. The three areas where I think we differ the most that can lead to conflict are saving things (him) vs. decluttering (me), his choice of employment (because of how little time he can spend with the family most weeks), and the length of time it takes to complete projects around the house. I have been waiting, for example, for three months now for him to hang one picture on the wall. I usually do that type of task myself, but it's heavier than anything else we have on any of our walls, and my attempt was a failure. Anyhow, I am thankful for the 20 years of marriage we've enjoyed thus far. We loved traveling to the Caribbean and Europe together during the first 5 years of marriage, and we've enjoyed being parents the last 13 years. My favorite three years of the past twenty were from August 2012 - August 2015, and that's because I was at home with our three kids AND we spent FAR more time with Paul those three years. Paul's parents were married 54 years. I doubt we'll both live to make it that far, but maybe we'll make it another 20 years if the Lord doesn't return before then! One area we could definitely do better in would be to go on dates more often. Our last date was on May 4, 2018 for Pete's sake! We have one scheduled for this November. I had thought we might go on a getaway without the kids for our 20th anniversary, but it's really hard for Paul to get time off in the summer. I am very, very thankful though that he's agreed to go on a 25 day trip in September. I used our 20th anniversary as one of the reasons when I was trying to get him to agree to the length of the road trip. 

12. I contacted Nadia's pen pal's mom yesterday, and she said that we should be able to work something out for the girls to meet in person (they've been corresponding faithfully for 2 years) in early September during our vacation in Illinois or Wisconsin! 

13. The kids have been able to sleep in the past few days! I know they won't sleep in on Friday or Saturday morning as they never sleep in when cousins are in the house, but I'm enjoying a few quieter mornings at the moment.

Back to the Beginning

The kids had a theatre workshop this week from 8:15-12:30pm each day in Montoursville. The musical was called "Back to the Beginning." Paul's dad, Paul, and I attended their program at noon today. Ian did a great job of singing, smiling, and doing the motions. He had auditioned for a speaking part, but he didn't audition for a solo. Next year I told him that he MUST audition for a solo. He has a beautiful voice. Oliver tried to do the motions, and he did sing a little bit. Learning that many songs in less than five days was very challenging for him. Nadia did a good job with her small speaking part and solo. After their show, we went to a bowling alley where the kids can bowl two games for free. Paul, Ian, and Oliver have bowling shoes. I want to get Nadia bowling shoes for Christmas this year. I paid for Paul's two games plus Nadia's shoe rental. We also bought a pitcher of root beer and pizza for the six of us to share. The bowling alley gives a $5 credit towards their arcade games when you pay for a shoe rental for a child. The kids used the credit and earned a few pieces of candy. The first game they all bowled without bumpers. Paul had two strikes and four spares in the first game and ended with a score of 137. Nadia had a "strike on the second ball". That was the only spare for any of the kids in the first game. She beat her brothers with a final score of 72. Ian had 54 and Oliver had 36. After the first two frames of the second game, the kids decided to use bumpers, Paul, even though he didn't use bumpers, improved to 152 in the second game. Ian had the highest score of the three kids with 100 points. Nadia was in second with 70, and Oliver was in third with 66. Pop Pop and I just cheered on the bowlers. The worst part of this camp is the fact that we need to be out the door by 7:50 each morning. We're looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and not needing to rush out the door. I'm planning to mow the lawn tomorrow morning.

I also took the kids bowling yesterday. Monday through Wednesday we went straight home for lunch after I picked the kids up. I took them swimming in the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday I took the kids to McDonald's and Rita's before they bowled two games. I imagine Milo will be grateful the theatre workshop is over because he spent more time in his crate than he usually does this week. Yesterday the kids bowled one game with bumpers and one without. The first game Oliver had one spare, and Nadia had two consecutive strikes. She won with 93, Oliver had 88, and Ian had 75. Their scores were much lower without bumpers yesterday. Ian had 38, Oliver had 35, and Nadia had 30. Nadia didn't go bowling in 2020 so when she bowled yesterday it had probably been about two years since she had gone bowling. The boys have gone bowling more often than she has this year. As of yesterday, VBS is done for our family for 2021, and as of today all classes/camps for summer 2021 are done, but we still have 16 days left of summer break. 

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia had a great week a Camp Susque! She made some new friends, two of whom attend a Christian school about 25 minutes from our home. She is hoping to go to Camp Susque the same week as the one who is also entering 8th grade so they can be in the same cabin or tent next summer. The weather was great, and her only physical ailment was a hefty collection of mosquito bites. I'm not sure if this link is shareable, but here is a link to a 5 minute video the camp made of that week of camp. During the closing ceremony, the campers and parents sang several verses of two hymns. Tears streamed down my face as we sang "And Can it Be." I wasn't familiar with the second hymn. I also shed tears while watching the video during the part when the girls were singing "Wonderful Grace of Jesus," which was my most favorite hymn when I was Nadia's age. My mom got goosebumps when she really like a song. That was embarrassing to her. I think tears streaming down one's face is more noticeable than goosebumps. We don't sing many hymns at our church, and when we sing we can rarely hear the congregation singing, which is a bummer to me. So I really savored singing hymns on Saturday morning with only two acoustic guitars. 

2. Micah and Isaiah came over for a play date on Tuesday. They played at home with Ian and Oliver and also played at the playground before eating tacos and drinking root beer floats at Kid's Café. They also painted pottery at Centered Earth and went roller skating at Trout Pond Park where it's free to skate on the first Wednesday night of every month. We are thankful for our friendship with their family!

3. Addi and Westyn joined us on Thursday for a free game of bowling followed by arcade games, laser tag, and the trampolines at Kaos for $10 each. Our night out concluded with sharing a large pizza. 

4. The boys enjoyed having pizza with me at OIP and then spending four hours at Knoebels on Friday night. Their wristbands only cost $12. Paul joined us for the last two hours at Knoebels.

5. I'm very thankful for the nine years that Oliver has been a part of our family! He liked all of his presents; his favorite was definitely the electric scooter that Pop Pop gave him. My dad called him on the phone, and Paul's dad spent several hours with us on his birthday.

6. The kids and I plus three kids in the neighborhood have been enjoying eating the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing that Aunt Millie made Oliver.

7. Two weeks ago FedEx delivered a package to our house that was for the previous owner who sold us this house 13 years ago. I called the sender (Walter Reed), and they told me to take the package to a FedEx store. Thankfully I was able to find a phone number for the man, and he came to get his package the same day it was delivered to our house. He was thankful I helped him receive his prosthetic. 

8. I'm thankful that Ian and Oliver can participate in VBS for four nights this week at the Alliance Church. Ian has gone to VBS there since he was three years old, and this is his last year as they only do it through 5th grade. Oliver will, Lord willing, be able to go for two more summers provided there are no more closures like we experienced last year.

9. Even though I didn't intend to go to Panera yesterday, I did really enjoy the strawberry salad. I hadn't had one since Cheri took me out for my birthday in April. Today I opted to buy a $2 egg McMuffin at McDonald's instead because the salads at Panera are expensive. Most fast food restaurants in our area are still drive thru only, but thankfully the one in Williamsport is allowing people to eat in their restaurant which meant I had a place to plug in my laptop and use their Wi-Fi.

10. Although it was frustrating that due to "social distancing" I wasn't allowed to sit in the library in a room by myself yesterday, I'm thankful that for the most part things are closer to normal than they were at this point a year ago. It's wonderful not to need to wear masks, the kids don't have to have their temperatures taken each day at camp like they did last year, and VBS is being offered again.

11. We enjoyed watching the second season of The Chosen and the first season of The Benedict Society. We are eagerly anticipating watching new seasons of both shows in 2022. On Sunday we watched a video of the 2005 production of Ruth at Sight and Sound. We're looking forward to watching "David" in person in 2022 as we aren't going to Sight and Sound in 2021. The boys and Paul have also been enjoying watch Bad Batch on Disney+. The last episode of the first season will air this Friday. The kids enjoyed watching the Olympics on Locast and also the Peacock app. They learned about some sports they had never seen before. Did you see the speed rock climbing? Unbelievable!

12. I'm very thankful I have finally taken the plunge with creating some nicer videos. I hope they will be something our family can enjoy for years to come. I'm thankful I'm learning how to use a stabilizer for my cell phone and a tripod for my DSLR. Hopefully my skills will improve over the years.

13. Although Nadia was disappointed that she didn't get one of the five main parts especially considering there's only one participant older than her and none are her same age, I'm thankful that all three kids can participate in the theatre workshop this week. I'm looking forward to seeing the musical on Friday.

14. I wrote Nadia emails that they printed out and delivered to her at dinner M-F last week at Camp Susque. It made me think about all the letters I wrote my parents and received from them when I was at camp as a child and teenager. My mom wrote me thousands of emails from 1990-2016. I got an email from her almost every day, and many days I received multiple emails from her. And these were lengthy emails. I almost quit the blog after she died because one of the main reasons I started the blog was for my mom. She used to write me an email after reading almost every blog post responding to what I had said in that particular post. Unless my children at some point in their lives develop the habit of frequently emailing me, I highly doubt that anyone will ever come close to sending me even half as many emails as my mom sent me. I miss her, and I'm grateful for the time she invested in talking to me on the phone and sending me letters and emails.

15. Paul, his brother, and one other employee are on the company's health insurance policy. The premium went up recently more than 50% so Paul is discontinuing offering that as a benefit. Thankfully today I signed us up for a plan that costs less than $500 a month (which is about 1/5th of what the company had to pay for our insurance per month). The plan seems to be good in general with the exception that we'll have to pay 30% of any hospitalization or surgery. Hopefully we can stay out of the hospitals as there isn't a maximum out of pocket for this plan. 

16. I'm also VERY thankful that my phone has a feature to automatically silence phone calls that come from numbers not in my contact list because ever since I started shopping around for private health insurance I've been deluged with MANY phone calls and texts each day regarding health insurance. 

Last week of camp and VBS

The word "camp" is overused in my opinion these days. For example, our church calls their VBS "Kidzway camp." They are the rare exception in that instance. Every other church around here still seems to call it VBS. The word "class" is almost never used if it happens in the summer. For example, Ian and Nadia were in what I would call an art class for 3.5 hours a day for 4 mornings, and it was called an art camp. The kids have technically been in 5 camps this summer: overnight camp for the boys at PMBC, overnight camp for Nadia at Camp Susque, a two week afternoon theatre camp for Nadia, Camp Good News for all three kids, and art camp for Nadia and Ian. Last summer Ian and Nadia participated in a theatre workshop (evidently Family Life Network goes against the grain in terms of not using the word "camp") at a church about 25 minutes north of us. I actually held off on signing the kids up this year just because all the chauffeuring in the summer is exhausting for me, but then Nadia asked if they could do it again. I didn't see how I could say "no" considering they will be putting on a musical, and Nadia, Ian, and Oliver haven't been in a choir for the last 18 months with the exception of this same workshop last August. The workshop is for ages 8-15. Since Oliver was just turning 8 when the camp was being held and said he didn't want to do it, I didn't sign him up last summer. I didn't give him a choice this year. Ian and Nadia loved it last year. Hopefully Oliver will also have a good time! I did tell Oliver he didn't need to try to audition for one of the main parts. Ian opted out of that last year. I told him this year I did expect him to audition for a part. Nadia has never needed encouragement to audition for anything. The camp is put on by a Christian radio station located in New York. 

One perk of all three kids participating in the camp is that it means I don't have to make two round trips each morning. I'm sure Milo would rather that I did make two trips, but he can handle being in his crate for the 5+ hours we'll be away from home. This is my second time this summer to have some hours without any kids, and I don't think it will happen again until July 2022. The workshop is from 8:15-12:30. I thought I'd run a couple of errands and work on the Duolingo app (Spanish) on my phone until the library in Montoursville opened at 10:00am. The kids are at a church in Montoursville. I walked in with my laptop and sat down in a room where there were zero patrons. A librarian came up to me and said that due to social distancing they don't allow patrons to bring laptops into the library. There was ONE other patron in the entire library, and I picked a different room than she was in. I asked what if I promised to leave if anyone else came in the room. Nope. At our library (which is in the same county system as this one), they have totally gone back to normal. They even took down the plexiglass partition that was in between the librarian and patron at the check out desk. I couldn't believe I wasn't allowed to sit in the library even if I was the only person in that room. Ugh. I drove to Panera, brought my laptop in, and treated myself to my most favorite salad. Now to figure out what I will do the next four days. I toyed with getting a manicure. I got one in 2019 which was my first in probably about ten years. If it were a little cooler out, it would be a good time to take a nice long walk. One project I have this week is trying to find a new health insurance plan for our family as Paul isn't going to offer it anymore at work as the premiums went up too much recently. Well we shall see what I will do since the library in that town won't be an option this week. I'm looking forward to seeing their musical at noon on Friday!

Tonight the kids will also start their second and final week of VBS this summer. Usually they participate in more than two weeks of VBS, but last year they weren't in any so two is a big improvement! Nadia is too old to participate in this one, but she has volunteered to be a helper. Usually this VBS lasts five days, but they are only having it for four days this summer. They are using a different curriculum than the kids had at another church last month, and the church is only 1 mile from our house. 

We were going to swimming this afternoon after theatre camp, but due to a shortage of lifeguards, the pool doesn't open until 4pm today. When will all these employee shortages come to an end?!?!? I took the boys to Knoebels on Friday night, and roughly 40% of the rides were closed due to not having enough employees. The park had a hiring event recently, and they actually were raffling away a CAR to entice people to work at the park! As the signs say at Dunkin and Subway, being short staffed is the "new pandemic." 

I didn't finish Nadia's 13th birthday interview until 6 weeks after her birthday. I finished Oliver's 1 day after his birthday. I think his is better than hers although I think it's too long. I will be more selective in the future as to which photos I include to make them shorter. I included pictures from the last 12 months. If I continue to make videos throughout the year, then I won't include so many in their birthday videos in the future. And I still need to begin to follow the guidelines I learned in the videography course. I haven't done that yet, but at least I've started making videos. 

It's now less than one month until we go on vacation!  That statement puts a big smile on my face and the kids' faces, and it inspires fear in Paul that he doesn't have enough time to finish what he needs to at work. We usually go to Long Island in July, but for a variety of reasons we're going the last full week of August this year. This means our school year won't begin until August 30. We will have seven whopping days of school before we take 3.5 weeks off. So in some ways our school year won't really start in earnest until October 4. Next year we are planning to go to Georgia and Florida for our family vacation. I asked Paul whether the end of April or sometime in September would be better for him, and he said September. So we might be taking our family vacation in September again next year.

Nine Years Old!

My baby, who hates for me to use that word, turned nine years old before he woke up today. This will be my last year of having a child whose age is a single digit. Here are nine ways that I would describe Oliver Elliot:

1. Friendly - he easily talks with strangers whether they are adults or children. He absolutely loves to play with other kids whether they are his age, younger than him, or several years older than him. He absolutely needs to work on always being kind and walking away if someone is being unkind to him. 

2. Generous - he's the kind of person who would absolutely give you the shirt off his back. Oliver loves to share. Of the five people in our family, he is definitely the most generous. 

3. Loves to be outdoors and be active - it doesn't matter what time of day it is or what the weather is like, Oliver loves to be outside, especially if he can play with other kids in the neighborhood. He also is more attentive to nature (such as birds) than his siblings. We have a tree growing in a cup in our kitchen from a seed he planted. Considering how much time he spends outside, it is a blessing that he is the least prone toward getting sunburned of my three kids. Oliver is almost always on the go. He rarely chooses to do a sedentary activity in contrast to Ian and Nadia who enjoy things like playing with Legos, Barbie dolls, drawing, coloring, and reading. He has been rather accident prone most of his life. Thankfully the frequency of him needing a band-aid has gone down over the last year with the exception of him needing 4 stitches last month. 

4. Eats almost anything - The list of foods he doesn't like is rather short - cantaloupe, broccoli, or raspberries. A few foods that used to be on his dislike list in the past (ex. bananas and tomatoes) he will eat now. Sometimes he eats very quickly (such as when he sees friends are playing outside), and other times he takes F O R E V E R to finish a small meal. He is never tempted to overeat. He's 4.5 feet tall (74th percentile) and weighs 60 pounds (40th percentile) which puts his BMI at the 13th percentile. In other words he's closer to being underweight than overweight (if he lost 2 pounds he'd be underweight). He still enjoys cooking and baking. Maybe he'll be a chef someday?

5. Loves to listen to music - he uses his Echo dot, discman, and cd player to listen to music. His taste in music isn't the same as mine. He wears headphones so I don't have to listen to his music. I absolutely love hearing him sing at church. He sings more loudly in church than his siblings do. I also enjoy hearing him sing along with the radio when we're in the van. Some of his favorite artists include Toby Mac, Skillet, and Lecrae. 

6. Affectionate - Oliver loves to give and receive hugs and kisses. He loves to snuggle, and he often brushes my hair because he knows I like that. He uses the least Spanish of anyone in the family, but he has switched to calling me "Mamasita" all the time. 

7. Talkative - Oliver talks almost nonstop every minute of the day that he is awake. There are times I long for a bit of silence, but I know some day in the future I'm going to miss hearing his voice! I'm hoping over the next year he can learn to do a better job of listening to audiobooks, what I read aloud, sermons, etc. He has started taking notes during the sermons at church. He also needs to work on being careful regarding the tone of his voice when he's talking. 

8. Brave - In general he takes after his big sister in terms of never being afraid of trying new experiences such as zip lining, climbing a rock wall, etc. He's looking forward to the daring experiences we're planning to do at Snowbird resort in Utah and Riversport in Oklahoma City in September. The notable exception would be rides at amusement parks. When he was younger he would ride anything that he was tall enough to ride - even roller coasters. Last summer and this summer he has decided not to ride many dry rides that he's tall enough to ride. He still will ride all of the water slides. 

9. Easy going - Oliver is usually very flexible and willing to defer to the wishes of others. Although this is in general a wonderful trait, I do wish that he would be more motivated/competitive at times. For example, I found out that he didn't learn ANY of the Bible verses last week at Camp Good News which hurt his team. The kids wore headbands and received one bead for each verse they said plus an extra feather if they said five extra verses. Every year that Ian and Nadia have attended this camp they've always received all five beads, and they've almost always earned the second feather for learning the extra Scripture passage. I told Oliver that he wasn't going to Knoebels this Friday unless he at least learned the five verses that were for the beads last week. He learned two of them on Monday and one each day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. It's great to be content, but it's also important to be motivated to do one's best.