A new month

My brother's birthday was February 1. He would have turned 39 years old this week if the Lord hadn't called him home in 2019. I know his three sisters miss him very much. 

We didn't have any field trips in January, but we have plans for a few this month. I had one special outing in January. I treated my friend, Cheri, to lunch at a fancy restaurant for her 66th birthday. A professor had treated me to lunch there in 2004, and I hadn't been there since that time. Tonight, the kids participated in a living history fair. I asked them to choose people who lived between AD 30-1454. Next year we'll focus on 1455-1707, and two years from now we'll study from 1708 to the present. The WVIA ski day that was supposed to happen on January 4 was rescheduled to February 15. They haven't announced yet when the second ski day will be, but it's usually the last week of February. We are also planning to spend next Saturday in DC. I ended up reading or listening to 13 books in January, and I've finished one so far in February (Unoffendable by Brant Hansen). I started more than thirteen books last month, but some of them I decided not to finish. I wish I had made that call with a book the kids and I recently finished - Catherine, Called Birdy. I seriously can't believe it received a Newberry Honor Award in 1995. I asked the kids to remind me of this experience in the future if I'm tempted to persevere through a book that none of us really like. We recently re-read two books by Laura Martin, who is one of the kids' favorite authors. 

Since the time Nadia and Ian were very young, I began mentally creating a list of experiences that I wanted my kids to have. In the early years they were things like take my kids to a circus, see Disney on Ice, go to a parade, see fireworks, etc. In many cases, it was because I remembered enjoying those experiences when I was a child, and in other instances (such as attending a Trans-Siberian orchestra concert), it was something I also hadn't yet experienced. Over the last month or so, I've given more thought to what experiences the kids haven't had yet that we might try to accomplish. There were things that crossed my mind that I didn't include on the list such as riding in a hot air balloon or attending a Penn State football game. When I asked the kids if they wanted to attend a college or professional football game, they weren't interested. The only athletic event that they said they are interested in seeing is a hockey game. We moved to Maryland when I was nine years old, and we lived very close to where the Washington Capitals played so I have memories of attending hockey games. Maybe we will take them to see a Hershey Bears game? The list of specific places I hope the kids are able to visit is very long (Alamo, Alcatraz, Gateway Arch, California redwoods, etc.), but I decided to include very few specific places on the list to prevent the list from being too unwieldy. I'm definitely open to suggestions if there are things that have slipped my mind that would be good to include on the list. Nadia will be fifteen in June, so we know we don't have many more years left with her living here at home. 

Nadia was the one who requested to swim with dolphins. When I was researching other possible animal encounters, I learned about the Wilstem Wildlife Park in Indiana. I have modified our vacation plans for April to include a day there. It has greatly increased the cost of that vacation which otherwise was a fairly economical one, but the kids are SUPER excited about having animal encounters with elephants, giraffes, sloths, kangaroos, and otters. Hopefully, it will be an experience that we'll never forget! If it was up to me, I wouldn't have scheduled it. Paul admits he's the "softie" in terms of being willing to splurge on an experience that I think is too expensive, but if he says we should do it, I agree since he's currently the only breadwinner in our family.