Almost done

Our school year is very close to being done. Oliver only needs to finish his final vocabulary lesson, and he'll be done with seventh grade. He finished physical science and math today. Yesterday we finished economics, which was a subject all three kids were doing together although only Ian and Nadia were taking the quizzes and tests. If I could go back in time, I would have bought the curriculum from Notgrass instead of Boundary Stone. Nadia finished 12th grade English last week, and she gave up on physics months ago. She isn't sure if she's going to attempt to pass the College Algebra CLEP test this summer. The kids will have two more art classes at MCS next week. Aside from those art classes, all Nadia really has left is to finish her Introduction to Research class. She wrote her final paper on quantitative research. She just has to complete a presentation and take the final exam. The course officially ends on May 15, but she's planning to complete it by May 8 since we're leaving for Europe on May 10. I will submit the paperwork for her to receive a Commonwealth Secondary School Diploma from the Department of Education in June. She has to be at least eighteen years old before we can submit the college transcripts for her HS diploma. Ian needs to finish reading King Lear by May 8, take one test and one semester exam in physics by May 8, and finish precalculus by June 30. He finished his Humanities course through Cedarville today. I want Oliver to keep reading every day. All three need to keep studying 1 and 2 Corinthians. Ian will keep practicing the piano every day. We'll keep watching World Watch News every day (M-F). Nadia needs to take her technology assessment for Liberty. I've already finished her high school transcript. Her cumulative unweighted GPA is 3.85. Speaking of "lasts," last night was Nadia's last night of going to youth group on a Wednesday night. She will be able to attend Bible quizzing practice on a Wednesday night three more times between now and the national competition in New York that starts on her birthday in June.

 On Tuesday seven of us traveled to Lancaster to see Sight & Sound's production of Joshua. Their special effects have come a long way over the last 14 years. I can't recall the first time I saw one of their productions, but it was definitely in the late 90's. The first time we went as a family was to see Jonah in 2012 to celebrate Nadia's fourth birthday. When Nadia was three, Jonah was definitely her favorite Bible story. I was pregnant with Oliver. Thankfully, the doctor allowed me to be discharged from the hospital and attend the show as long as I went by wheelchair. We've taken out kids there thirteen times altogether, but they've seen the same production twice (Noah in 2013 and 2025 and Moses in 2014 and 2023) so they've seen eleven shows there so far. Today they announced that next year they'll be doing Jonah again. Since I was pregnant with Oliver, Ian was 2.5 years old, and Nadia had just turned 4 when we saw Jonah in 2012, we're planning on seeing the show again next year. We'll make sure to go at a time of year when Nadia can join us. After the show, we all had a meal at Olive Garden. It turns out Paul's dad had never been to an Olive Garden before. I was pleasantly surprised that our bill (before tip) was less than $90 for seven people especially considering we purchased two additional take home meals (for Paul's dad and for Nadia) and they gave me a free dessert (black tie mousse cake) because we were there for my birthday. I figured it was close enough to my birthday (7 days later). We were too busy last week to go out to celebrate my birthday, and Tuesday was actually my 50th spiritual birthday. Ian and Oliver ordered from the kids' menu, and Cheri and I both got the soup, salad, and breadsticks option (which is cheaper than an entree), but still to spend only a little over $100 including the tip for a sit-down restaurant for 7 people (especially considering we also bought two chilled entrees). Nadia has eaten her leftovers and take-home entree the past two days, and she hasn't finished it yet. 

I've been working on next year's lesson plans and objectives. Sometime in May I need to go to the school district to get Ian's work permit, and I'm hoping to submit next year's objectives and unsworn declaration as well as the evaluations from our supervisor at the same time (if I have received them). Next year I'm planning on having both Ian and Oliver study biology and geography. It feels so strange not to be doing any lesson planning for Nadia.

I'm also almost done planning our vacation, which is good because we leave in ten days. My heart got a workout this morning after I read an email saying that our flight from Dublin to Liverpool had been cancelled. They had rescheduled us for a flight eight hours earlier in the day, which would basically mean we'd miss doing most of the activities we had planned to do in Dublin on May 11. The flight they switched us to is currently the only flight that day from Dublin to Liverpool on any airline. Thankfully, I came up with another solution. I called Aer Lingus, and they switched our flight to one that was leaving at the time I had originally chosen but is going to Manchester instead. I was able to change our rental car reservation so that we could pick it up in Manchester instead of Liverpool without any difficulty because I had booked it through credit card points. I looked into switching our first night of lodging from Liverpool to Manchester, but the reservation I had made using Alaskan Airlines miles was nonrefundable. So, we'll have a little more time on the road in the evening on May 11 (driving from the airport in Manchester to our apartment in Liverpool), but other than that the flight cancellation hasn't interfered with our plans. I'm hoping the rest of our flights will take place as scheduled. The kids are happy because I ended up booking a vehicle that is larger than the one that I had booked in November.