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!!
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