Step in Time

This week has been tech week for Nadia, which translates to spending about 50 hours at the church where the homeschool co-op meets. About forty of the students in grades 8-12 chose to participate in the spring drama program this year. They invited one seventh grade boy to play the part of Michael Banks. His sister, who is in high school, played the part of Jane Banks. Nadia was in three of the twenty-four scenes of the musical - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Step in Time, and Anything Can Happen. She wore the costume of a chimney sweep and star dancer for the latter two scenes. The students who played the parts of Bert, Mary Poppins, Miss Andrew, and the four members of the Banks family all did a particularly excellent job. This semester I was the chair of the hair/makeup committee and a member of the publicity committee. This week I primarily was helping in the kitchen as we served about 100 people one meal a day plus snacks throughout the day.  I brought in a batch of brownies and a batch of Rice Krispie treats and also applied foundation to some of the boys on Wednesday for the dress rehearsal and yesterday for the first performance. Nadia had four people in the audience last night who came to see her - Tab, me, Mia, and Macey. One of our pastors was surprised to see me there last night as he didn't know that Nadia was in the show. Tonight, I believe there will be ten people who are coming to see her - five Kennedys (including Paul's dad), Jill, Faith, Xandir, Lucy, and Melinda. Last year fewer were able to come to one of her performances because they conflicted with a Bible quizzing event. 

Last year the boys also spent the week with us during tech week. Ian was on the stage crew, and Oliver played with other kids. This year I made other arrangements for the boys. They spent Monday and Tuesday at Tab's house. Because they spent the night at their house, I took Nadia out to dinner at Olive Garden on Monday night for a mom/daughter date. On Tuesday the boys joined some other families at a state park. They had a blast and needed to take showers before I took them home as they had been playing in the mud at one point. Paul dropped Milo off on Monday morning when he took Ian and Oliver to their home. Unfortunately, Milo was not a good boy on Monday, so Paul had to pick Milo up on his way home from work on Monday night. Milo spent many hours at home alone on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Today he'll have far fewer hours at home alone because Paul's dad is coming up to spend several hours at our home with the boys before going up to see Nadia's show. The last two days the boys spent the day at Xandir and Faith's home. Each morning I dropped them off at their home. Paul picked them up at church at 6:30 on Wednesday after the Bible quizzing practice, and he picked them up at Melinda's home last night. The boys were already in bed by the time Nadia and I got home after 10:00 pm last night. Although I'm glad that Nadia had the opportunity to participate in this musical, I'm also very, very glad that today is the last day as this is a very exhausting week for me which translates to headaches, etc.

Margie had surgery to place a pin and rod in her hip and femur to prevent those bones from breaking. She's very thankful to be back at home as she ended up spending several days at the hospital following the surgery. Her PET scan this week revealed the good news that although she has innumerable tumors in her skeletal system (primarily near her pelvis), the cancer hasn't spread to any of her vital organs. We are praying that the radiation treatment that she will have in the near future will be helpful in greatly reducing her pain, and we are praying for wisdom regarding other treatment decisions.