1. Monday was our first day of school for the 2023-24 school year and Nadia's first day of General Psychology through Grand Canyon University. Ian also had his first piano lesson with someone other than me on Monday. He is working to play Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky with Josh as a piano duet at a recital in November. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to homeschool my three children and that we have the money to pay for Ian's piano lessons. In light of the fact that Nadia might attend Meadowbrook for her senior year of high school, it seemed wise to have Nadia start taking college classes in her sophomore year of high school. Most colleges only offer dual enrollment for juniors and seniors. A few months ago, I had narrowed it down to Boyce, Grand Canyon, or Bluefield. After we applied to Bluefield, we found out that sophomores had to have taken the ACT or SAT prior to applying. Boyce's course selection was rather small, so she submitted an application to Grand Canyon. I'm hoping she'll take five general education classes through Grand Canyon this year, take her Bible classes through Liberty next year, and take only one class (Calculus) through Liberty during her senior year.
3. Yesterday we had an appointment at the Post Office to submit the kids' passport applications. Both parents need to be present. Between the fees to the US Department of State and the Post Office, we paid a little over $700 for five passports. Ouch! The kids' passports will only be good for five years since they are all under 16 years of age, but the other two will be good for ten years. We shall see what passport stamps we get in those books over the next 5-10 years! It's Oliver's first passport. Ian and Nadia got their first ones when they were babies, so they've been expired for many years. I'm thankful we have the money to pay for these passports and look forward to traveling to other countries with our kids in the coming years! We think the first stamps will be in February in Ecuador.
4. We had a safe trip to Lynchburg and back on Sunday. If Nadia goes to Liberty for three years, we will be making that trip many more times in the years to come. Hopefully, we won't typically make the round trip in one day. We were in Lynchburg for 3 hours as we arrived 90 minutes before Margie's funeral, and the funeral lasted 90 minutes. We didn't get to spend much time with anyone, but the Towfighis (minus Andrew), Benners (including Drayton's parents), Lisa, Joel, Michael, Nate (and his family), and Aunt Tina were also in attendance. Becca also made a very brief appearance prior to the funeral. I'm very thankful that Margie's suffering has come to an end and that she is with her Savior.
5. Yesterday we had our third field trip of the 2023-24 school year. Our first stop was George's Furniture where we had a one-hour tour. The handmade furniture was gorgeous. None of the furniture we own compares to what we saw there. The kids really liked this one very unique "Do it all" desk. What interested me the most was the tables that had the ability to add MANY leaves and become VERY long, and there were also benches that had leaves and could be expanded. The prices were much higher, so I doubt we'll actually ever buy anything, but it was interesting to see them working and learn about the company. The primary reason we headed down to that area was to see Moses at Sight and Sound with Paul's dad. Originally, I thought we wouldn't go to Sight and Sound this year because we had seen Moses before, but I changed my mind because we saw it in 2014.
6. It was looking like we wouldn't be able to take a boat tour of Crater Lake, and then finally in the middle of August they began to announce what dates tours would be available this summer. We have tickets for a tour on Labor Day! I recently discovered that the Oakland Zoo is going to be closed on the day we planned to go there, but thankfully I was able to modify our plans for our time in San Francisco so that we could go there on a different day. We are looking forward to our upcoming vacation and praying things will go as smoothly as possible.
7. Ian wore his retainer for a little over two years, and then it was accidentally thrown away on August 8. Thankfully, the orthodontist said it was fine for him to stop wearing a retainer. He's thrilled to have a break from that! Oliver still sees the orthodontist every month for an adjustment on his braces. While Yvonne was at our house, she adjusted Ian's eyeglasses, and they are no longer sliding down his nose!
8. Our home was built in 1999. All of the rooms that had carpet in them had an off-white Berber carpet. Over the years we've been gradually replacing that carpet. Earlier this month we replaced the carpet in Oliver's bedroom, the hallway, and the stairs. We love it! It's definitely the plushest carpet we have ever had in this home or any other that we've lived in over the last 22 years. The only area in our house that still has the Berber carpet is our master bedroom closet. The next project I think we'll do on the house will be to waterproof the basement. We had water in the basement again recently.
9. Due to Paul selling the company, his days of driving down to Gordon to work six days a week are numbered. Because of that, I asked him if he'd like to join us in attending church on Wednesday evenings. I showed him the options for adults, and he chose The Chosen small group. The group will be watching and discussing episodes of the show on Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:00 starting on September 20. This will be the first time in our 22 years of marriage that we've attended church together on Wednesday evenings. I had been in a Bible study on the book of John which hadn't quite finished, and the group was going to start a study on Romans after finishing John, but I'm excited about being in a study with my husband.
10. On our first day of school I continued the tradition of having the kids each draw their self-portraits. Oliver showed VAST improvement over any he's done in the past, but he asked me not to post it anywhere, so I didn't include it here. Last year I also started a tradition of having the kids write their goals for the year, and we did that again on Monday. Hoping that we all make a lot of progress toward achieving our goals!
11. Last week when the Towfighis were here I forgot to take out the recycling. It only goes out once a month, so this was a problem. When I realized it this week, I called the garbage company and thankfully they made an exception and picked up our recycling this week. I was very appreciative of their kindness! Thankfully we live less than a mile from where they keep their trucks.
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