Here we go again!

I've had an approximately 13-month break from turning an expander. Ian had two expanders last year, but he has been wearing a retainer since then. There were some challenging moments along the way in terms of turning Ian's expander. I don't recall having those difficulties when I turned my own expander 41 years ago. Oliver's first expander was put in his mouth today. I'm hoping turning his expander will go more smoothly. Being an "orthodontist" isn't exactly my favorite job title as a mom!

Today the kids had their first day of a theatre camp put on by a Christian radio station based in Bath, New York. This is Ian and Nadia's third consecutive year to participate in this camp, and it's Oliver's second time. Ian and Nadia both were given speaking parts today. Ian is playing the part of the apostle Paul. Nadia is playing the part of a bully named Jamie. Tomorrow they will be auditioning for solos. Some days I plan to stay up in that area instead of coming home during their four-hour rehearsal because the church where it is being held is almost 30 minutes from our home, but I came home this morning for Milo's sake because I knew we wouldn't be coming home right after I picked them up at 12:30 because of Oliver's orthodontist appointment. I treated the kids to lunch (used a gift card for Oliver at Taco Bell and used some reward points at McDonald's to reduce the cost of Ian and Nadia's meal), and I let Oliver pick out some paper plates and such for his upcoming birthday party at a bowling alley. I am thankful this is the last week of a non-overnight camp because it means less driving for me. There have been summers in the past when I signed the kids up for more weeks of camp - art camp, horseback riding camp, etc., but I wasn't tempted to do so this year.

We haven't been locking Milo in his crate when we leave. We hadn't been doing that if we were going to be gone for much more than four hours, but on Saturday he was alone out of his crate for about six hours, and it went fine. Yesterday morning he was fine when we went to church in the morning, but when we went swimming for an hour in the evening, he pooped in the house. I put the responsibility for that on the child who took him out for a walk before we left. When I take him out for a walk, I give him enough time to poop, but the kids are often prone to taking him out for short periods of time. I've been trying to walk for at least three miles a day, and Milo joins me for most of my walks.

On Sunday Dave (who also works at Kennedy Concrete) and his wife joined us at our church. We worshipped outside. The upside is that we could combine both services which isn't possible indoors. The downside was we don't usually get sunburned during church. The service was a bit longer than usual as it included communion plus fourteen baptisms, and each person shares a testimony before being baptized. After the service the church provided hotdogs, bottles of water, and ice cream. I hadn't realized our church would be providing food that day when I invited them to our home. We ate our main meal a little earlier than usual because we knew it would take Dave and Marla about 90 minutes to get home. I served tuna melt pie, focaccia bread, apple crisp, Jell-O, and a tossed salad. My goal is to have twelve couples or families come to our home for a meal in 2022 (not counting relatives), and they were the fifth. I already have two families scheduled to come in August and have extended an invitation to a third family. On Sunday we played a game of Codenames before we ate our meal. They had never played the game before. 

Nadia started going to VBS in 2011, and Ian began participating in 2013. They both attended every year through 2021 with the exception of 2020 when VBS wasn't held because of COVID. I didn't know it at the time, but 2021 ended up being their last year of VBS because the Methodist church closed (their VSB used to go from age 3 to 12th grade) and the Baptist church lowered the maximum grade from 8th to 5th. Oliver participated in our church's VBS last month. He opted not to participate in the one at the Alliance Church this summer (which at least one my kids attended every year from 2011-2019 and again in 2021), but he did ask me to sign up for the VBS at the Wesleyan church in our town. That is taking place this week starting this evening. Hopefully it won't be too much for him to have theatre camp from 8:15am - 12:30pm and then VBS from 6:00-8:30pm this week.