Spring Forward

This weekend we change our clocks again. Paul never likes losing an hour. As a parent I have found that falling backward is harder for the kids to adjust to than springing forward, but now that Ian has changed to being a kid who likes to sleep in, I don't think "falling backward" an hour will be as challenging as it was in the past. March is one of those months in our state where the weather is typically ALL over the map. Just this week we've had temps as high as the 70's (yahoo!!!) and then it snowed on Wednesday and Saturday. I did take my first walk in six months on Monday. I didn't go nearly as far as I would have gone prior to breaking my leg and there was a lot more pain involved, but I just couldn't stay inside on such a pretty day. Next week, on my mom's birthday, it will officially be spring. Winter is my least favorite season, so I always eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring. Yvonne and Joshua flew to Maryland to be home during Jenna's spring break. Yvonne, Joshua, Jenna, and Toby were planning to come up yesterday and leave today, but when they learned that we were supposed to get snow today, they changed their plans and spent 24 hours with us starting at 5:30pm on Thursday. They met us at the ice-skating rink for the second half of the kids' ice-skating party. Because of our guests, I gave the kids the day off of school yesterday. I don't usually cook a hot breakfast, but because we had guests, I made a bacon cheese frittata for breakfast yesterday and chicken parmesan for dinner. Not long after they left, the kids and I left to attend a worship service that our church holds four times a year on a Friday night. Today we are just staying at home sweet home all day long, which hasn't happened for me since March 1. Tomorrow we're having pie day at Sunday School since it's one day before Pi Day (3/14), and I signed up to bring a lemon meringue pie so that is one item on my to do list for the day. 

I haven't written a gratitude list since February 24, so here goes:

1. Margie had her sixth round of chemo, which means she's DONE! Her completion of chemo is a much happier ending than my mom experienced in 2016. 

2. I was pleased with Nadia's standardized test scores. I was nervous about how she would do on the math test. It was her lowest score, but I was fine with the score she received. Next year we get a break from standardized tests because 7th and 9th graders don't need to take a test, and I am going to consider Oliver to be repeating fourth grade, which means we'll wait a year on having him take the 5th grade test.

3. Ian and Nadia did well on the written portion of the Bible quizzing on James on February 26. We had memorized James 1-4 at that point which helped them out!

4. Nadia got a 95% on her physical science test yesterday, which was on electricity and magnetism.

5. I attended a women's conference that was broadcasting a simulcast from Texas on March 4-5. The church that hosted the event didn't charge anyone a dime, and they really went above and beyond providing nice touches to the event such as fresh flowers at the table, very delicious food both days, etc. The speakers included Francis Chan, Jennie Allen, Curt Thompson, Ann Voskamp, a pastor who spoke live from Ukraine, etc. They asked for donations to an organization called Illuminations which is working to coordinate the efforts of ten different Bible translation organizations around the world. They estimate that by 2033 (or sooner) the Bible will be translated in EVERY language on the globe which was astounding to me because I know there are still MANY people around the world who still have no way to access a Bible in their language. Last year women around the world who "attended" the conference gave over 2 million dollars towards translating the Bible into some of the languages spoken in Iran, and the same thing happened this year! It's obviously a VERY risky activity to work on translating the Bible in Iran. My friend, Cheri, attended the event with me, which made it even better! We have seen each other on four different occasions so far this year and it's only March 12! That's far more often than usual.

6. The homeschool gym class resumed on Monday. We hadn't participated in it since the spring of 2019. I enjoyed chatting with Tab during the 90 minutes the kids were in gym class. Paul's dad watched the kids in the gym, took them to lunch, and the worked with Ian on programming the Lego robot. Ian has worked on the Lego robot more since he was here. He's made three of the five different types of robots so far.

7. It was lovely to be able to have my sister, Jenna, Toby, and Joshua at our house for about 24 hours this week. We definitely see them more while they are living in Quito than we did when they lived in Turkey. This is primarily due to the fact that their kids are older and need to be in the US to attend college, get their driver's licenses, work at Chick-Fil-A, take the SATs, etc. Yvonne and the kids plan to come back the end of May and stay through some time in August. Yvonne told me I should buy a "tennis elbow" brace for my right warm, which should relieve the pain I have had in that elbow for almost 6 months due to injuring it when I wasn't able to use my right leg. As for my foot, Yvonne pointed out the places where I still have inflammation and tightness and suggested that I use massage and also ice to decrease the pain. She suggested a massage therapist might be more helpful than a physical therapist at this point as she thinks I have probably regained full range of motion. She also suggested I might need to use a knee walker on our vacation in May. I really hope that's not the case. I hope that massage plus ice can bring about a lot of improvement over the next two months. 

8. Although it didn't count as one of her "dates" with a parent, I took Nadia to see Les Misérables at a local high school last Saturday afternoon. I also am planning to take her to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers later this month. The kids and I had to wear masks and they had everyone really spread out when we saw Secret Garden in February. There wasn't any social distancing at Les Misérables, the crowd was MUCH bigger, and no masks were required. I am very thankful for the easing of the COVID regulations.

9. Paul's brother took Oliver to Winter Jam last week at PSU. Nadia and Ian could have attended with the youth group, but for whatever reason they didn't sign up to go. Oliver is too young to go with the youth group, and one of his favorite artists (Skillet) was part of the tour. Uncle Al made the evening very special for Oliver. He liked the food they ate, Al bought him a t-shirt, and they attended a meet and greet with some of the artists. One of the highlights for Oliver was when Matthew West was walking up to the stage, he walked through and aisle. One of the people whom he gave a high five to was Oliver! 

10. Albeit I am ready for spring weather, Oliver is having fun playing in the snow today. 

11. I love my new laptop. If my old laptop had continued to work, I wouldn't have asked for a new one, but wow the new one is much faster! I don't think my new microwave is an improvement over the one that died, but at least it consistently works, which couldn't be said for the old one.