Driver's License!

Nadia got her first learner's permit on June 25, 2024. She logged her required 65 hours of driving experience by the end of 2024 but decided to wait on getting her license. In August she renewed her learner's permit and asked us to teach her how to parallel park. Paul took primary responsibility for that. She had no trouble learning that skill. On September 4, Nadia took her first driving test. It took multiple attempts over the last few weeks, but she passed with flying colors today! Woohoo! She and I celebrated with a stop at Rita's before I dropped her off at Camp Susque. I added her to our insurance policy this evening. Praying that all will go smoothly as she begins driving without a parent sitting next to her. For starters, we will be letting her drive to work and take herself and her brothers to art classes on Mondays/Thursdays at our church. Ian will be old enough to get his learner's permit in December. Our kids are growing up way too fast! This means that we've now checked off all 119 things listed on our 2025 first time experiences "bucket list." I know it's not Thursday, but in addition to Nadia succeeding today with passing her driving test, here are some things I'm thankful for:

1. On September 15 I walked around the church property while the kids were in art class. I was stunned to see a New Hampshire license plate on one of the vehicles near where we were parked! I'm down to one more license plate to find over the next 3.5 months - Wyoming. 

2. On September 12 Cheri and our family drove down to Camp Hill. First, we took advantage of a coupon Dairy Queen had for small blizzards that only cost 85 cents (they're usually over $5). An hour later we met Jenna at Panera for dinner. Toby also joined us for a few minutes. The primary reason we had driven down was to attend a Stephen Curtis Chapman concert. The very first Christian contemporary concert that Cheri had attended in the 80s was Stephen Curtis Chapman. In the first part of the concert, he sang the entire Speechless album (from 1999). In addition to a drummer, pianist, and guitarists, he had a string quartet accompanying him. After the intermission he sang some other songs from other albums. Nadia thinks Speechless is his best album. It was challenging for me to stay up past 11:00 pm, especially as I had been sick that week, but a good time was had by all. 

3. Oliver, Paul, and I enjoyed attending a social our Sunday School class hosted on September 13 at church. We ate lots of delicious food (potluck) and played some games to help us get to know each other better. I brought white chicken chili, and three women the next day asked me for the recipe.

4. Our first day of co-op went well on September 16. I used the dining room plus living room together for government (9:00-9:45) and drama (11:15-12:00). We brought up extra chairs for both rooms. 18 out of 19 kids were in attendance that day. I used the family room for personal finance. Paul did part of the physics lab outdoors and part of it in the dining room. He did two experiments about relative velocity and Newton's first law. Twelve of the kids stayed for lunch and games. Nadia and Ben picked what games the group would play, and the kids split into two groups for the game time. Faith stayed at our house until 10:00 pm. Xandir stayed with us until Wednesday afternoon.

5. Ian, Oliver, and Xandir enjoyed roller skating at the homeschool party on September 17. Lucy, Sincere, and Andrew were also there. 

6. On September 18 we saw a performance of A Tale of Two Cities in Lititz put on by Servant Stage. This organization provides the concessions and tickets to the shows as "pay what you wish." They even had a live orchestra! None of us had seen this musical before, and Ian is reading that book this marking period after he finishes Frankenstein. We were very impressed with the quality of the vocalists. I had originally gotten us matinee tickets for the last Saturday in September, but none of the matinee performances fit with Nadia's schedule. We didn't get home until almost midnight, which is far from ideal, but Paul graciously drove which helped. I didn't have Nadia read that book during high school. I think the only thing she read by Charles Dickens was Oliver Twist; this was another reason I thought it was good for her to attend the musical as this way she at least knows the plot of the story. 

7. Speaking of Nadia's schedule, she attended an 18th birthday party for a fellow counselor from Camp Susque. She and some other girls stayed in a cabin from September 19-21. I'm grateful for the friends she has made through being on staff at Camp Susque.

8. Paul and I had our first lesson of intermediate East Coast swing dancing this evening. We were pleasantly surprised to see a couple from our Sunday School class also in the class! They live close to us and suggested we carpool in the future. I said let's call it a double date! :) 

9. Last week Ian got behind again, which made last weekend very intense as far as getting his work done. Thankfully, he's back on track and this weekend will be much more relaxed for Ian and also me. 

10. Right now, everything is a "go" for Aunt Janet to have her knee replacement on October 1. This is an answer to prayer because her surgery was postponed once (due to COVID), and we're hoping she will visit us in February, and that was not going to be possible if her surgery was postponed again. We're continuing to pray that all will go well with her surgery. 

11. When Paul and I were in England in 2002, we saw two theatrical performances - one of Shakespeare at a theatre in the round and also the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Our kids would not want to see anything by Shakespeare, but I was hoping to take them to see Chitty Chitty. That doesn't look possible, but the good news is that in addition to Paddington (a brand-new musical which is debuting in November), it looks like we can see Phantom of the Opera, which is one of my favorite musicals and one I had hoped to take them to. Previously, they had said the show would end in London in March 2026, but they recently extended it several more months, which means we can see it in May, Lord willing!!

Thankful Thursday

 

1. Earlier this week I was sneezing and had some congestion and chalked it up to allergies. On Wednesday I realized it was actually a cold. Thankfully, I've been healthy for several months straight, and I'm also grateful that the worst of the bug seems to be over. Yesterday I didn't help at Bible quizzing, but today I was able to resume my normal activities without taking a nap. If you know me well, I am NOT a napper. I can go years without taking a nap, but I fell asleep in the family room prior to bedtime on both Tuesday and Wednesday, which shows I was not feeling well.  

2. Everything went smoothly while we watched Cooper from August 28- September 2. I'm very thankful that we can swap dog sitting with the Seiberts. 

3. Nadia enjoyed working at Camp Susque last weekend. She was helping in the kitchen for a retreat being held at the camp. Shortly after she got home on Saturday, she then went to work for two hours at the kennel. She's doing a great job of saving up money towards her first car.

4. Ian had a rough start with his college classes this semester. He is learning to read instructions more clearly and that he can't wait until the last minute to get his assignments done. He submitted two assignments late on September 1. Thankfully, since then he has submitted everything on time or early. For now, I'm helping him come up with a plan as to how to complete everything at a reasonable pace (not all at the last minute). In time, I'm hoping he will take over that responsibility. He's taking two classes, and he currently has a 100% in one of the classes, and he has plenty of time to pull his grade up in the other class. Yesterday, he had ALL of his work done (homeschool, college, and piano) for the day completed by 4:00 pm, which was wonderful. 

5. I've been increasing my expectations for Oliver this year considering he's in seventh grade. He had his first science test this week. I made it an open book test for him, and I'm not actually going to keep track of his grades, but I want to give him an idea what it's like to take tests before he's in ninth grade when I do have to give him a grade. I also have him completing a literature guide for what he's reading (Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader so far) and requiring him to complete the weekly writing assignments (300-500 words each) for government that Nadia and Ian are also completing although I'm not grading his. I'm also working with him more to study I and II Corinthians for Bible quizzing. The science notebook also takes a lot more time for him to complete than the elementary level notebooks, but he's adjusting. So far, so good.

6. Nadia was invited to attend an overnight birthday party that will be happening next weekend. In April I had purchased 3 tickets for an Anne Wilson/Jordan Feliz concert at the Bloomsburg Fair. Cheri and I were planning to attend, but Nadia is the one who really likes Anne Wilson. When she no longer wanted to attend the concert, we decided to try to sell the tickets. At first it seemed like I couldn't even give them away, but thankfully eventually someone bought them from me for almost exactly the amount I paid. 

7. Ian has kept up in government and physics, but he also got behind in literature and math. I knew that getting caught up in the college classes was the first priority. On Sunday, I had him start getting caught up in his homeschool assignments. In math, the plan was for him to complete part of Saxon's Advanced Mathematics textbook this year. There were two other times in the last 13 years that I chose one math curriculum for a child and then switched gears part way through the school year. Years ago, I had planned for Nadia to use Saxon and switched to Teaching Textbooks. That switch didn't represent a waste of money because I had borrowed the Saxon text from my sister. Last year, I planned for Ian to use Art of Problem Solving for Geometry, but he ended up using Teaching Textbooks. This year I thought Ian would be using Saxon. The Christian schools where I taught had used Saxon math. This hasn't been working for him, but I was determined not to resort back to Teaching Textbooks as I feel it wouldn't challenge Ian. This week I made the decision to sign him up for Precalculus through Arizona State University. It only costs $25. Nadia is taking College Algebra the same way. In her case, if she does well, I'll pay $400 for the 3 credits so she will be eligible to take Calculus at Liberty next year. In Ian's case, I don't see any reason to pay for the credits, but we'll have up to one year after he finishes the course to make that decision. Hopefully this will be a good fit for him this year. I don't like wasting money on curriculum that we never use, but it's much worse to have a situation that's frustrating for both parents plus Ian for months on end. I'm thankful ASU makes their courses available for such a small amount of money.

8. Paul and I have signed up for another ballroom dancing class! We're planning to take eight intermediate swing lessons on Friday nights this fall. 

9. I had been told that the kids were signed up for art class at MCS on Mondays and Thursdays at 1:20. The last two weeks they had art on Thursdays. When we showed up this week on Monday, they were told there isn't an art class at 1:20 on Mondays. It turns out the schedule changed last week, and they forgot to tell us. To make matters worse, the kids hung out with me in the car until the next period of school only to find out they were just having a study hall in art. Oi vey. That was a big waste of time. The silver lining is that having art at 2:05 on Mondays will actually be better for us than at 1:20. This Monday Nadia worked from 7:30-11:30 am and the boys had an orthodontist appointment at 10:30. We hadn't been able to get the subjects we do together done before art, but this will be more possible on a Monday that Nadia works, if art is at 2:05. 

10. Ian's piano lessons are on Fridays this school year, but when I found out on Monday that Ian was scheduled to play the keyboard with the youth worship team on Wednesday evening, his teacher offered to move his lesson to Tuesday so she could help him go over the songs before Wednesday night. We appreciate her flexibility and assistance, and I'm grateful Ian has been signed up to play the keyboard on Wednesday night every other week during this school year. Speaking of piano, sometime this summer Ian started being more careful when he practices. What a difference this has made! His teacher and I are both thrilled with this change. I'm also thankful that he's playing music that is more appealing for the rest of the family to listen to.