Thankful Thursday

It's been exactly one month since my last gratitude post so here are some things I've been thankful for over the last month.

1. Ian enjoyed the cybersecurity camp at Messiah University as well as the time spent with Nathan, Jenna, and Toby.

2. Oliver enjoyed having time with Micah, Julianna, and Wesley at our house for several days. Micah, Julianna, and Oliver enjoyed bowling with our youth group on June 10. 

3. I was very relieved that the it was a simple fix to eliminate the strange noise the van was making that week.

4. Ian has been enjoying his job at the kennel and earning money. He spent most of what he made the first few weeks when he bought himself a Nintendo Switch 2. 

5. The boys and I enjoyed helping with VBS at our church from June 16-19. 

6. I am grateful to be able to serve on the board of Meadowbrook Christian School. My first meeting was on June 16. 

7. In June I managed to escape the bug that the rest of the family had. Nadia had the mildest case. Oliver and Paul were each sick for about two weeks. Thankfully we're all healthy again.

8. Paul was able to attend his Aunt and Uncle's 50th anniversary vow renewal ceremony and lunch. 

9. I'm very, very thankful that Nadia was born eighteen years ago on June 24! Four of Nadia's friends joined her at an art studio to celebrate Nadia's birthday on June 23. The staff member was so impressed with Faith's artistic skills that night that they hired her and she started working there on July 6!

10. I'm very thankful that Milo is fully recovered from his anal gland problems. It was such a relief when he finally ate some dog food (after 4 days of not doing so) and started walking again. The vet bills were over $600 which we weren't anticipating, but we've saved a lot of money over the years by me being his groomer and trading dog sitting duties with the Seiberts. Hopefully it will be a long time until we enounter another large vet bill.

11. Bible quizzing went well in New York last month. Ian's team finished in second place. They won seven of eight matches. Nadia's team finished in third place. They won four of eight matches. Nadia finished in 10th place in the individual competition, and Ian finished in seventh place. Ian has been listening to the whole book of John two times every day he works at the kennel. He's also memorized the first 40 verses of John chapter one so far. Hopefully he will continue to stay motivated!

12. Amazon offered us a deal of paying $3.50 per month for three months of Amazon Prime and then it is $6.99/ month after that. We usually only have Amazon for a month every now and then throughout the year, but at $3.50/ month I plan to keep it for at least three months. 

13. I found out rececntly that the place where I've had my mammogram done lately isn't doing them any more. I picked them because they only charged $200, which is much less than most places. Thankfully, I found a place in Williamsport that does them for $55 for two days in October. I'm hoping to get an appointment on one of those days.

14. Our kitchen sink faucet has been leaking for a few months. Paul replaced it last week. This new faucet has a lifetime warranty. I was happy to see that because our last one only lasted nine years.

15. On Sunday morning we weren't sure we were going to make it to church because we couldn't get the garage door to open. Thankfully, Paul was able to get it open eventually. We parked the van in the driveway when we came home. We got new garage doors in September 2020, but the garage door openers are about 27 years old. Lowe's delivered new ones today, and they are supposed to be installed next week. Since our other car is at Camp Susque right now, I've been parking the van where we usually park the Subaru since that garage door opener is still working. 

16. Oliver and Xandir had a great week of camp at PMBC. 

17. Ian has enjoyed his first two voice lessons. He's been working on Olaf's song "In Summer" from Frozen. Thankfully, his voice teacher lives only five minutes away from our home.

18. Ian really enjoyed playing cornhole with the Creegers at Ben's graduation party.

19. In light of Amazon offering us a deal on Prime, Paul and I watched the movie Sarah's Oil last night. Movies based on a true story are typically my favorite genre, and this one did not disappoint!

20. I *think* we've done all the paperwork and such for Nadia to start at Liberty this fall. Recently her PCP signed the immunization form for LU, and I requested that LU send LU her transcript (for the third time in 13 months) as ridiculous as that might sound. I also had to remind them that MCS doesn't issue transcripts for homeschoolers (as they requested that again, even though MCS sent them a letter last year saying that ). She got her ID, requested a loft kit for her bed, and completed a new student orientation course online. The only thing I'm not positive that she has completed is the technology assessment. It's all very, very bittersweet. We want our kids to become independent, but at the same time it's hard to let them go! I'm very thankful I'll still have two boys at home with us. 

Nationals times three

Nadia joined our church's Bible quizzing team in January 2020. Nationals were cancelled that year. I don't regret that I didn't join the team when they went to Oklahoma in 2021 as that is a very long drive, but if I had to do it over again, I'd have traveled to South Carolina in 2022 and Indiana in 2023. Both of those times the drive plus what to do with Milo and Oliver factored into my decision. All five of us attended Nationals in New York in 2024 and in Indiana in 2025. I thought the same would be true last week, but due to Milo and Paul being under the weather, only four of us were at Houghton last week. It was the third time Oliver and I were at Nationals, and the first (and only) time that that all three of my kids were participating. This was the sixth time Nadia competed at Nationals, first time for Oliver, and fifth time for Ian. Nadia was the captain of the B team. Her teammates were Lucy, Daniel, and Alex. Ben was the captain of the A team. His teammates were Ian, Leila, and Joey. This was Ian's third year in a row of being on the A team with Ben and Leila. The fourth member of the team was different each year (Faith, Isaiah, and Joey). Jillian was the captain of the C team. Her teammates were Isaac, Abby, and Oliver. 

A team

In the six preliminary rounds of team quizzing on Thursday and Friday, Ian's team was undefeated, North Rome A only lost one match, and Nadia's team only lost two matches. There were supposed to be eight teams competing, but at the last minute one team from Indiana changed their mind and did not attend. Our C team was technically the fourth seed, but they were beaten by large margins when going against the top three teams, and the matches were neck and neck when they went against the bottom three teams. So, the decision was made to have only three teams in the A division for the final found on Saturday. Nadia's team lost both of their matches, so they finished in third place. Oliver's team won all of their matches on Saturday (by 5-10 points each time); they finished in fourth place. Ian's team beat Nadia's team but lost to North Rome A. Looking at the three days of quizzing, North Rome A and Milton A each had only one loss, but because they lost in the preliminary round and we lost in the final round, it meant that they were the champions and we finished in second place. 

Boys

In 2024 North Rome entered the finals as the second seed, but they ended in third place behind our team and Sweetser. Last year North Rome entered the finals as the second seed, but a loss to our B team during the finals meant that they didn't compete in the championship round. Our A team won the championship from 2021-2025. Last year there was a three-way tie for second place, and the tiebreaker was the score on the writtens, which meant North Rome was in second place and our B and C teams were in third and fourth places. Three members of North Rome's A team this year had memorized all of I and II Corinthians. I am guessing our coach wouldn't share my sentiment, but I honestly felt like North Rome deserved to win as I feel their team was more prepared as a whole than our team was. Ruth scored a perfect on the writtens (answered 110 questions correctly). Her sister, Julia, answered 109 of the questions correctly, and one of their teammates answered 104 of them correctly. There were two reasons why some didn't feel the match was totally fair. First, of all they had six kids on their team, whereas we only had four on ours. If one or two of their quizzers quizzed out, they would still have four kids on their team, whereas if one of our kids quizzed out, we'd only have three kids left. Secondly, part way through the second half of the championship round, their team began eating up the clock. If they buzzed in first, instead of quickly giving the answer to the question, they would keep quoting from the appropriate passage until time expired. I don't think the outcome would have been different even if they hadn't worked to use up as much time off the clock. Daniel was one of our top quizzers, but our coach put him on the B team so that team would also be competitive. The coach of North Rome put all his best quizzers on his A team. 

C team

Ian listened to the whole book of John twice while he was at work this morning. If he continues to do that, I think he will be a much stronger quizzer next year. He, Joey, and Daniel have made plans to work on memorizing all of the book of John together over the next year. I hope they all achieve that goal! If they do, I think we will be better prepared to quiz against North Rome A next year. I think the fact they did not win first place the sixth year in a row will help at least some members of the team to be more motivated to study over the next twelve months. In 2024 Ian finished in 8th place in both the writtens and individuals. In 2025 and 2026 he finished in 7th place in the individuals. Last year he was in 9th place for the writtens. He wasn't in the top ten this year for writtens. Nadia finished in the top ten once in the writtens (tied for 10th in 2025) and twice in the individuals (tied for 9th place in 2025 and tied for 10th place in 2026). The plan is that Nationals will be held in South Carolina in 2027 and Indiana in 2028. I hope it is held in South Carolina one of the next two years as I have some places I'd like to visit in connection with Nationals such as the Biltmore Estate and Billy Graham Library. For five months Oliver kept asking Paul and I if he could stop participating in Bible quizzing. At the beginning of June I fnally agreed to his request, and then last week he told me he wants to stay on the team. Go figure. He told me he will memorize at least forty of the memory verses, which would be a lot more than he learned this year. 

A team vs. B team

June 21 was Father's Day. Paul's dad came up to spend several hours with us. Nadia made oatmeal raisin cookies the previous night as they are one of Pop Pop's favorites. Ian (using our handy dandy Walmart+ membership) bought Paul a jar of peanuts and Pop Pop a jar of cashews. Oliver made them each a card. I had some of Pop Pop's favorite ice cream in our freezer and bought shrimp for Oliver and Pop Pop to share. I also defrosted two ribeye steaks that Paul grilled for Ian, Pop Pop, and himself to share. I also served watermelon, corn on the cob, and mashed potatoes. The six of us played SkyJo together. Ian and Pop Pop played chess while Paul and Oliver played each other. Those four also played some Mario game on the Switch. I called my dad, and I also grieved a little for the baby we lost in 2005. I used a Father's Day card to tell Paul that I was pregnant, so I always remember our first baby at Father's Day each year. 

Unfortunately, Paul and Ian were a bit under the weather on Father's Day. Ian had started not feeling well the previous night. Oliver, Nadia, and I were the only ones who went to church that morning. That evening Nadia also started to not feel well. Thankfully hers was just a 24-hour bug. She called off sick on Monday, but I think she could have worked that day. Ian went to work on Monday even though he was sicker than Nadia. Thankfully, all of the kids were feeling fine by Wednesday. Nadia had a physical on Tuesday. The doctor's office is less than a mile from our home so we drove it two cars so I could sign Nadia in and pay the bill. Mostly she just needed the doctor to sign her immunization record for Liberty. I was gone for less than ten minutes, but during that time Milo was biting at his butt and caused it to bleed. I called the vet to ask if I should just clean him up or bring him in. They thought I should bring him in. They sedated him because they thought one of his anal glands was abscessed. There was inflammation but that was about it. Unfortunately, Milo takes after me (ha ha) and doesn't do well with sedation. Even though they gave him an anti-nausea medication, he threw up for the next almost 24 hours. He wouldn't eat or drink. I spent a couple more hours with him at the vet the next day. They gave him a shot of antibiotics since he wouldn't take any oral medications, and they gave him fluids under his skin. His behavior continued to get worse. He wouldn't even walk one tiny step. Paul had to carry him in the house. Thankfully, he finally peed on Thursday, and he pooped for the first time in five days on Saturday morning. He also started walking (at least some of the time) that morning, and when I came home on Saturday night from Houghton, he ate dog food for the first time in five days. I managed to escape the respiratory bug, and the kids are all healthy again. Milo is definitely on the mend. Paul didn't go to church again yesterday, but he is feeling a bit better today. Hopefully by next Sunday he'll be back to normal.

B team

We had booked an Airbnb (same one that Oliver, Paul, and I stayed at two years ago), but this time we thought we'd have it to ourselves as Oliver would be in the dorm with the team. It was very strange staying in an Airbnb by myself. My lodging in the dorm would have been free since I was an official, so had we known Paul wouldn't be able to come, I wouldn't have paid for that expense. My meals were free. I was supposed to get two t-shirts, but I wasn't present on Wednesday night when Houghton gave out free shirts (which would have been special to me because my mom attended Houghton in 1963), and some of the kids took a different size quizzing shirt than the one their parents had ordered for them so all that were left were two size small, and I had asked for size large. Sometimes I can wear a medium, but I know from experience that these particular ones run small. Either way, I knew I couldn't wear a size small. I'm hoping it works out for Nadia to be a coach or an official the next two years so that all five of us can be at Nationals again. Time will tell if she'll be able to do that or not. 

Since I drove a little less than three hours on Saturday night, I would have loved to stay home on Sunday afternoon, but Paul didn't feel up to driving Oliver and Xandir to camp in the Poconos. Thankfully, I stayed awake. That was not an easy task as I was very tired as I was driving out there. I ate a little something at PMBC, so I had an easy time staying awake on the drive home. Faith (and Melinda) will be driving out there on Saturday to pick the boys up. Nadia is at Camp Susque until July 18 so Ian had to ride his bike to and from work yesterday due to me driving to PMBC. The kennel is a little less than 3 miles from our home. 

Ian only had one piano lesson in May and one piano lesson in June, but I think he'll have five piano lessons in July. He's having his first voice lesson tomorrow. 

My dad also had a tough week last week physically. He fell on Thursday night and broke his back. Thankfully, it was "only" a compression fracture - no brace or surgery necessary. He still plans to get married on July 18. Praying for a swift recovery! 

Milo has been in our family since December 12, 2020. Prior to last week, the only times we took him to the vet were for his annual physical, immunizations, and to be neutered. Last week we spent a little shy of $600 at the vet which was definitely unexpected. However, when I consider that we have only had to pay for him to be at the kennel once in the last two years (due to swapping dog sitting with the Seiberts) and we only paid for him to be groomed once (I've done it myself since then), we have spent a lot less money on Milo than most dog owners probably spend over a 5.5 year period. Hoping we can go a long time before we encounter another vet bill that large. 

Oliver and Xandir eating dinner on Saturday night at camp

Thankful Thursday

1. The kids were able to participate in a Bible quizzing competition that our church hosted on January 9-10. Ironically the teams closest to us (also in Pennsylvania) didn't come, but some teams from two different churches in Indiana participated. Ian's team came in second place, and he also tied for fourth place in the individual part of the competition. I served as an official from 6-10 pm on Friday night and from about 9-4 on Saturday. I'm thankful the kids can participate in this program, and I'm praying that all three of them will put more time into studying I & II Corinthians over the next five months. 

2. While I was serving as an official, Paul took the van for an oil change and tire rotation. Typically, I'm the one who takes our vehicles for all their appointments, so I was happy to relinquish that duty this time around. Unfortunately, I forgot to give him a coupon he could have used at the appointment. 😞It was possible for us to be doing two things at the same time because we are back to owning two cars for which I am very thankful.

3. On Sunday afternoon Nadia, Abby, and her older brother went ice skating.

Nadia made this in art class at MCS - Lion Witch and the Wardrobe inspired

4. There are two shows that I look forward to watching the new episodes each year - All Creatures Great and Small on PBS and The Chosen. The newest season of All Creatures was released on January 11. Paul and I have watched three episodes together so far, which are sort of like little dates. I had planned for us to attend a ballroom dance at a Methodist Church on Saturday night, but Paul wanted to work on spackling in the kitchen. Hopefully, we'll make it to the next dance I have on our calenda (March 7). Wendy got me my first pair of ballroom dancing shoes for Christmas, and I want to try them out! My first ballroom dancing lesson was on January 31, 1997. It's about time I actually own the correct shoes 🤣. I've read or listened to quite a few of James Herriot's books. I'm not sure how many seasons PBS will make of the show, but they have no lack of material to use from his many books! 

5. Nadia drove the Subaru for the first time on January 10 while I was in the vehicle. She began driving herself to work and herself plus her brothers to church for art class, Little Mermaid rehearsals, and youth group starting on January 12. Thankfully, all has gone well so far. I don't take that for granted. I also appreciate a temporary reduction in the amount of chauffeuring. Ian plans to get his learner's permit this summer, but for the next about four months I shouldn't need to drive as much as I usually do. 

6. Ian's piano teacher was flexible and allowed us to move Ian's piano lesson from Friday to Tuesday so she could help him prepare for being part of the youth worship team on Wednesday night. In addition to working on his recital piece by Rachmaninoff, he also has begun working on one by Bach.

 7. Paul and I joined a new small group on Wednesday nights. We are discussing the book Hearing God by Dallas Willard. 

8. Our co-op resumed on Tuesday. We have 16 students participating this session as Ben has moved to New York and two girls have left our co-op to join one that just started this month. This session will be much easier for me as another mom is teaching art, Paul is doing chess and physics, and one of the students in the co-op is teaching ASL. I created the lesson plans for the ASL class, but the only things I am teaching are photography and book groups. In art the students studied some of Grandma Moses' artwork and then began drawing a sketch of a project they will be painting with watercolors. Some weeks I might be babysitting the art teacher's three youngest children for 90 minutes, but this week she didn't need to bring them along. Each week I have two different students choose what games are played from 12:30-1:30. This week Julianna chose Dutch Blitz and Lydia chose Jackbox Games. 

9. I'm continuing to make progress with planning our vacation to Europe, which is only four months away. We have our rental cars, lodging, and airfare. I've booked a few of the activities. Would you believe the time slot I had originally chosen for touring Jane Austen's house was already booked? For many of the attractions it's still too soon to book the tickets. Unfortunately, the Palace of Holyroodhouse will be closed on the days we will be in Edinburgh, but so far that's the only thing I've had to completely scratch from the itinerary. 

10. For most of the day yesterday I was unable to make or receive phone calls due to a problem Verizon was having. Thankfully, Nadia's and Paul's phones were not impacted so I was able to use their phones to make a few phone calls. Today I found out Verizon is giving me a $20 credit on our next bill due to the inconvenience.

11. I recently listened to The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge. I did so because he's one of Paul's favorite presidents. I didn't know that much about him prior to listening to this book. I agree with Paul's assessment. I wonder if we'll ever have a president like him again. I am not at all happy with our current president, but I rest in the knowledge that God is in control. I am thankful that over the years *some* of our presidents have been excellent albeit it's been a while since we've had one I'd put in that category. 

Thankful Thursday

 

1. Then van repair took longer than expected due to them waiting for parts, but it was finally completed on June 9. Unfortunately, they didn't fix the crack in the rearview mirror that the deer caused, so we're waiting to hear if the insurance will pay for that. I'm grateful to have my van back and thankful it no longer looks awful.

2. The kids enjoyed the cast party on June 6, and Paul and I really enjoyed four weeks of salsa lessons, which began on June 6. Next up will be merengue lessons! Neither of us had learned salsa before, and we both enjoyed it.

3. We saw the musical Into the Woods on June 7. We liked the first half far more than the second half. We had never seen that musical before. It's on the list of one of our least favorites. 

4. Ian and Oliver enjoyed attending Isaiah's graduation party on June 8. Nadia enjoyed working at Camp Susque/attending counselor orientation from June 8-21. She's looking forward to returning on July 4 to work there for four more weeks.

5. Ian picked his song for the next piano recital. He took MANY months to choose last year. I'm thankful it's not a last-minute selection this time around. He's doing a piece by Rachmaninoff.

6. Four of us saw The Play that Goes Wrong on June 12. Now THAT was a very, very funny play. Paul said it was one of his most favorite plays he's ever seen. 

7. Paul and I enjoyed attending a 50th anniversary party for a couple in our Sunday School class on June 14.

8. Paul's dad spent some time with us on Father's Day.

9. The boys and I were volunteers for our church's VBS the week of June 17.

10. The kids did very well at the Bible quizzing competition in Indiana, and Paul and I were able to have dinner with Kay and Allen while we were out there.

11. I'm very thankful I've been able to be Nadia's mom for the past 17 years!

12. It seems highly probable that Ian will be attending Cedarville University as a residential student starting in the fall of 2028. This week I registered him to take two classes through dual enrollment this fall. We spent about 4 hours at Cedarville on June 26.

13. Yvonne said that most of her family would like to join us at Great Wolf Lodge in December to celebrate Ian's birthday! I booked two rooms that together can accommodate 14 people for one night in December through a homeschool group. 

14. We've been watching Season 5 of The Chosen on Prime. We don't usually have Prime, but it was worth it to us to pay for one month so we could watch those eight episodes.

15. Similarly, I paid (with a 50% discount) for one month of the Angel app so that we could watch The Last Rodeo, Rule Breakers, and King of Kings. 

16. The boys and I were able to help spread the word about Operation Christmas Child through a 4th of July parade in Lewisburg on June 28. 

17. Cheri came over for dinner on Tuesday night. 

18. I was able to help at Experience Missions yesterday. I've also been preparing to teach Sunday School the next two weeks. 

19. Milo was able to stay with some of the Seiberts while we were in Indiana. Today Cooper is coming over here to spend a little over a week with us. This swapping of dog sitting is working beautifully!

20. I've continued to make progress with sanding, priming, and painting the wooden trim (baseboards and around the windows/doors). We have also made progress in painting walls in the foyer and upstairs hallway.

21. Nadia only goes to the doctor once a year - for her physical. I declined the vision/hearing screening as that costs an additional $50. Thankfully, we don't have to pay for their vaccines. She got the meningitis vaccine on Monday. 

22. A friend told me where Nadia can take College Algebra online at a very reasonable price. Thanks, Jen!

23. We've been enjoying the delicious foods we usually only have in the summer - corn on the cob, peaches, cherries, honeydew, watermelon, etc. I made two fruit pizzas last Saturday - one for our family and the other for our Sunday School class. Yum! The kids and I picked blueberries at a farm very close to our home on Tuesday so that I could serve blueberry crisp for dessert when Cheri came over. 

Bible Quizzing Finals

Nadia joined our church's Bible quizzing team in December 2019. The meets with our churches were naturally cancelled in 2020. The first time she attended Nationals was in 2021 in Oklahoma. Ian joined the team in the fall of 2021, and his first Nationals was in South Carolina in 2022. Paul, Oliver, and I have attended the Nationals in New York last year and this week in Indiana. We're hoping that all three kids will participate next year when they quiz on 1 and 2 Corinthians in South Carolina. This year they studied Luke, which has the most verses of any book in the New Testament (1,151). I and II Corinthians have 694 verses put together. Next year will be Nadia's last year, which means she won't be quizzing when presumably Ian and Oliver will be studying John (2026-27).

Nadia had her best year of quizzing. In 2022 and 2023 she was on the team that won the B division. Last year her team placed 4th in the A division. She was the captain of her team last year and this year. This year after the preliminary competitions on Monday and Tuesday, her team was ranked as the 3rd seed in the A division. They beat the 2nd placed seed during the finals, which meant their schedule was adjusted so that they would play in the championship round against the first seed. However, in between those two matches they lost to Milton C (the 4th seed) whom they had beaten in the preliminary rounds. In the finals today, Milton A (Ian's team) was undefeated, and the other three teams in the A division all ended up with the same record. The tie breaker is the score on the writtens, and North Rome had the better score with their writtens. So, Nadia's team ended up in 3rd place. Nadia has never placed in the top ten in either writtens or individuals. This year she was tied for 10th place in the writtens with Xandir, and she was tied for 9th place with Lucy in the individuals. They recognized 10 students in the individuals and 11 in the writtens. She and Xandir were the only two with a tied score in the writtens, but there were four ties in the individuals. We are very proud of how well she did! 

Ian was on the team that won the B division in 2022 and 2023. He was on the team that won the A division in 2024 and 2025. Last year and this year his team was undefeated at the Nationals. Last year he finished in 8th place for both the individuals and writtens. This year he finished in 7th place in the individual competition and 9th in the written competition. 

Ian and Nadia rode out to Indiana in the church's bus on Sunday. Oliver rode with Paul and I in our van. Oliver, Paul, and I have stayed in an Airbnb that is within walking distance of IWU. Nadia and Ian have stayed in the dorm. Last year Oliver, Paul, and I only ate one meal on campus. Because I served as an official this year, my meals were free. We opted to buy a meal pass for Paul and Oliver this time. Oliver did spend some time playing games and hanging out with the kids in the dorm prior to bedtime. I was a scorekeeper in one room. The only time I was able to attend a match in which I wasn't an official was the championship match. Paul bounced around between the rooms so he could see Nadia and Ian's matches. On Monday night Paul and I didn't eat dinner on campus because we drove about one hour south to spend about 3 hours with Kay and Allen. They are in their late 80s and had moved from Pennsylvania to Indiana last fall. It was a delight to see them. Tuesday was Nadia's birthday, and the team went out for ice cream. If it were up to me, I would have chosen to drive to Ohio this evening so that we wouldn't be in the car for as many hours tomorrow, but the kids wanted to spend the night with their friends even if it means we have to leave by 6:30 tomorrow morning so that we can arrive at Cedarville in time for Ian's college visit. It's been VERY hot while we've been out here, but the university and the Airbnb have air conditioning. I'm very thankful the kids can participate in the Bible quizzing program. They have made wonderful friends through this, and more importantly have spent many, many hours studying and memorizing God's Word. I hope that they put what they've studied into practice because that's FAR more important than doing well at a quizzing competition. 

Thankful Thursday

1. Our spring session of our co-op came to an end on May 6. We ended the day eating lunch in our town's park and most of the kids playing a game of Whiffleball. 

2. My grandpa paid for my bachelor's and master's degrees. I paid for half of my doctorate, and the school where I was principal paid for the other half. Paul and I paid for Nadia's college tuition for the last two years, but the trust (consisting of money from my grandpa) has paid for her tuition at Liberty for the upcoming school year. 

3. We finished our school year on May 8. Some homeschoolers do their schooling year-round. I understand the benefits of going that route, but we enjoy having the summer off. Nadia finished her government class through Liberty on May 9. She earned another A. 

4. The kids had a good practice quiz in Indiana on May 9-10.

5. Paul and I enjoyed spending time with Andrew, Brendan, Jenna, and Toby at Jenna's graduation on May 10.

6. We enjoyed hearing the kids sing at the spring program on May 13. Paul's dad also attended. We also brought home some of their artwork that was on display that night. 

7. It was a blessing to be able to stay at my sister's house in Maryland on May 13 and again on May 28. The first time one of their neighbors gave us a ride to the airport early the next morning. The second time Joe picked us up and then we were able to enjoy some time with Yvonne's family. 

8. Milo was well taken care of by the Seiberts while we were away. 

9. We were all healthy during our trip. Almost everything went smoothly. We were able to visit new places, see different animals, try different foods, etc. It never rained during the trip. 

10. Nadia has been able to work almost every day since we've been back from vacation. 

11. The boys enjoyed spending the night at Xandir's house on May 31.

12. Nadia and four of her friends enjoyed painting pottery and spending time at our house to celebrate Nadia's 17th birthday.

13. Oliver is enjoying the early birthday present (new bike) that he received from Paul's dad. 

14. We enjoyed spending time with Jenna and Toby on Sunday. They only live 90 minutes from us. We shared a meal, played games, and did an engagement photo shoot. They have asked me to be their wedding photographer for their wedding in February. I took a little less than 100 photos of them at a park near our home, and I sent them about 50 photos. 

15. A deer ran into the van at the end of March. The van has been at the shop since Monday morning. We're supposed to be able to pick it back up tomorrow. I am very grateful as I haven't enjoyed driving in a dented van. 

16. The Schrecks plus one niece and nephew came over for dinner at our house on Monday night. 

17. Tomorrow night Paul and I are beginning a ballroom dancing class in salsa and merengue! The kids are looking forward to a Wizard of Oz cast party that's happening tomorrow night. 

18. Paul had begun spackling/sanding in the living room the week of April 14. He had to take a break while we were on vacation, but he finished on May 30. We started painting the room on May 30 and finished it in the morning on May 31. I think it looks great! My sister said it makes the room look larger. Paul's dad doesn't usually make comments about the house, but he gave positive feedback on that room when he was here last Saturday. The changes in the room included new paint color (orange to grey), baseboards and windows went from stained wood to painted white, from miniblinds to curtains, and one chair (that was hardly ever used) was replaced with a plant. 

19. Nadia continues to help me with almost all the cooking and baking. Some things she does on her own, and some things we have been making together. 

20. Yesterday I ordered a gallon of paint from Lowe's. I had no idea that they would do a same day delivery for free. In addition to saving me a trip there, I used a Capital One browser extension that had a $40 rebate so the gallon of paint will end up costing me a little over $10 after that rebate. I chose a beige color for the foyer and upstairs hallway. From the time I ordered it until it was delivered was less than two hours, not that I needed it that quickly, but that service is impressive!

21. Submitting Nadia's preliminary high school transcript to Liberty was far more complicated that necessary. I had to submit a letter from Meadowbrook stating they would not be issuing her a transcript for art, drama, or chorus because she's a homeschooler. I also had to request that LU send LU transcripts two different times within the last month. Seriously?!? Anyhow, they are finally satisfied that we have submitted everything necessary for them to make an enrollment decision. Considering she has a 4.0 at LU at the moment, I can't imagine why they wouldn't accept her. 

22. It won't work out for us to use our six free passes at Montage Mountain water park later this month. Thankfully, a family involved in our co-op is planning to use them. Their daughter who is Ian's age, has never been to a water park before so I'm happy they can make use of them. 

Graduation #1

As a professor, I attended many graduation ceremonies. As a student, my last graduation was in December 2002 when I received my doctorate. Paul graduated three times after I earned my doctorate, but he didn't actually participate in any ceremonies for his BS, MS, or PhD. Jenna, Joshua, and Andrew didn't have a high school graduation ceremony due to being homeschooled. We didn't attend Susie's due to the fact they live in Chicago, and we don't plan to attend Adam's this year for the same reason. There are graduations for homeschoolers in our area, but Nadia has also said she doesn't care to participate in one. All that to say despite the fact I have 3 kids, and my sisters have 13 kids, Jenna's graduation today was the first one we've attended for a relative in quite a while. Jenna attended my graduation in 2002. She was less than a month old. Her boyfriend, Toby, also graduated this week with his BS from Liberty, but like Paul he didn't participate in a ceremony. Jenna actually completed her BS in December 2024. She's been working on her MS in Occupational Therapy since then and expects to graduate again next year. Jenna had six family members attend her graduation at Messiah University - Yvonne (her mom), Toby (her boyfriend), Paul and I, and two of her brothers (Andrew and Brendan). After the almost 2-hour outdoor ceremony concluded, we took pictures and then eventually made our way to Texas Roadhouse for a late lunch. Milo was home alone for 9 hours, so he was very glad when we returned home. 

Toby has accepted a job offer for a job in Harrisburg, and he found an apartment to live in until he and Jenna buy a townhouse that isn't far from where Jenna lives or his new job. They plan to get married in 2026 and settle down in the Camp Hill area. Normally, when there isn't massive amount of traffic due to a graduation (ha ha), it only takes us about 90 minutes to get to that area. It is nice having at least one niece live within a reasonable drive of our home. Adam is going to be starting at the University of Florida in the fall, and Joshua will be starting at Appalachian Bible College, which is in West Virginia. Next spring there will be four people graduating - Nadia from high school, Susie and Andrew with their BS degrees, and Jenna with her MS degree. Because Andrew's graduation is on the same day as the homeschool prom, I don't think we'll be driving to Ohio for that graduation. Whether we attend Jenna's graduation next year will depend on when we end up going to Europe. We will make it a priority to attend her wedding. 

Our kids didn't attend Jenna's graduation because they were in Indiana today. Yesterday morning Ed picked them up at 6:15 am on his way to church. They left the church around 7:00 to drive to IWU, which is about eight hours away without stops. Last night they completed the written and preliminary individual portions of the competition. Ten of the kids from our church (including Nadia and Ian) qualified to be in the individual finals (meaning no one from another church did). The teams from North Rome didn't attend this quiz. I expect some of their quizzers (Ruth and Julia at the minimum) to qualify for individual finals in June. As for the writtens, Nadia finished in 9th place, and Ian finished in 10th place. In the team competition, Ian's team (Ben, Ian, and Isaiah) finished in 3rd place, and Nadia's team (Nadia, Faith, and Jill) were in 4th place. Two teams from our church were in 1st and 2nd place. It seems they drove all the way to Indiana just to compete against their own teammates although there were other teams there. For the individual finals, Ian and Nadia were in a four-way tie with Alex and Faith for 5th place. Daniel, Joey, Isaiah, and Ben were ahead of them. Oliver was on the team that won first place in the team competition (Joey, Xandir, Daniel, and Oliver) but I highly doubt Oliver had anything to do with their victory. Despite the fact he probably didn't help them one iota, he received 1/4 of what their team received in cash for having won the team competition. I think the winnings should have just been split between the other three boys, but that's not how it works. So ironically, the child of mine who did the least studying by far is the one who received a cash prize. However, we are not allowing him to compete in the competition next month due to the paltry effort he has put forth in studying Luke this year. Hopefully he will put a lot more effort in studying 1 & 2 Corinthians over the next 13 months. 

Graduation ceremonies are frankly pretty boring, but it was a pleasure to spend some time with my sister and some of her kids. Here are some other things I'm thankful for right now:

1. Our second year of having a co-op meet at our house came to an end on Tuesday. The kids usually eat lunch at our house, but on that day Ben and I drove the kids to the park in our town for a picnic lunch and a game of Wiffle ball. 

2. On Wednesday I had a conversation with my dad and one of my cousins as the three of us are joint trustees for a trust that uses money Grandpa set aside to pay for his great grandchildren's college education. When he was alive, he paid all twelve of his grandchildren to go to college. Now his money is being used to pay for my cousins' kids, my nieces/nephews, and my own kids to go to college. On our side of the family those monies have only gone toward Susie, Jenna, and Andrew so far, but Yvonne recently asked if there was a way money could be used from the fund to pay for college tuition bills incurred through dual enrollment (when they are still in high school). Yvonne and Joe paid for the first 30 or so credits of Andrew's college degree while he was in high school, and Paul and I have already paid for Nadia's first 34 credits. Through our discussion we decided that from now on the fund can pay for dual enrollment courses as long as the student realizes they will still be limited to the maximum we will pay altogether for each student's degree. So, the process was already begun for Nadia's upcoming tuition bill to paid by the trust, for which I am very grateful! Thank you, Grandpa!! 

3. I'm grateful the kids can participate in the Bible quizzing program at our church. They meet for 90 minutes every Wednesday. I'm thankful they had a safe trip out to Indiana yesterday and am praying the last few hours of their trip home will go smoothly. The Bible quizzing team has been the place where they have developed most of their closest friendships.

4. Yesterday after I took Paul's car for its annual inspection, I met Cheri for lunch at Panera. We had planned to walk, but it was cold and rainy, so I had my favorite salad for the first time this year. 

5. As tomorrow is Mother's Day, I'm very thankful for the mom God gave me. I still miss her very much. I also miss my mother-in-law. I am very grateful God gave me three children. I love being their mother. I also feel like a "dog mom" so I have to say I'm also thankful for Milo. I longed for decades for the day I'd become a mom. I had zero desire to ever have a dog, but I'm very glad Milo is part of our family. 

Thankful Tuesday

I can't believe it will be February 1 in just 4 days. It would have been Maurice's 41st birthday. It's been very cold, so I don't mind if winter flies by as I prefer the warmer weather. Here are some things I am thankful for today.

1. The kids were able to participate in a Bible quizzing competition at our church on January 10-11. I served as a scorekeeper on the 11th. Ian and Nadia have recently stepped up the amount of time they've been studying the book of Luke so we shall see how they do at the next competition.

2. The eldest member of the Bible quizzing team (Isaiah) recently turned eighteen. All three kids were invited to his birthday party.

3. Isaiah and three of his siblings are joining our co-op starting next week. We will have 8 boys and 7 girls, and if you go by grade level, we'll have three 6th graders, one 7th grader, one 8th grader, five 9th graders, two 10th graders, two 11th graders, and one 12th grader in our co-op this spring. 

4. Ian's surgery went well on January 15. The first few days were rough partially because there was a mix-up over his pain medication. He slept in my lazy boy recliner the first eight nights, and it took longer than that for him to be able to resume wearing his eyeglasses, but life is back to normal at this point. The surgeon removed the splints and some of the stitches last Tuesday. She wasn't able to tell yet if the surgery was a success or not because there is still too much blood in there. He can't breathe through his nose yet, but hopefully that day is just around the corner. Paul will be taking him back for the next follow-up appointment in early March. I'm also thankful the surgery only cost $2,948. We should be reimbursed for all of that eventually through the medical sharing program, but even if we weren't that's so much better than the $20K I was charged for the ankle surgery in 2021. 

5. Nadia didn't work much at all for four weeks, but thankfully that changed starting on January 17. We're also thankful for the flexibility of her boss. Nadia missed a Wizard of Oz rehearsal on January 18, but her boss didn't schedule her for any Saturdays in February due to the musical. 

6. Since the stock market was closed on January 20, Paul took the opportunity to go spend the day with a friend in Carlisle.

7. Oliver and I saw the eye doctor on January 21. Oliver hadn't been wearing his glasses that he got a little over two years ago. The doctor changed the guidance from wearing them only when he is reading to wearing them all the time. This did NOT go over well with Oliver, but thankfully over the past week he's adjusted to wearing his glasses. We had to reschedule Ian's appointment as it would have been too painful for him to have an eye appointment last week due to his nose. 

8. Paul got the flu shot and pneumonia vaccine on January 22. They didn't tell him until after they stabbed him that the vaccine costs almost $300. The last time he got a flu shot he was really sick afterwards. He didn't feel well the first couple of days after the shot this time around, but his side effects weren't as severe, thankfully. 

9. I took my friend out for dinner to celebrate her 68th birthday. 

10. We enjoyed watching the movie White Bird as a family last weekend. I had checked it out of the library.  Paul and I enjoyed watching the 5th season of All Creatures Great and Small on the PBS app.

11. I used to shop at CVS 1-2 times a month until the CVS in our town closed. I have hardly shopped at a CVS since then, but I've recently been resuming that habit due to the fact that they haven't had much of a cereal selection at Surplus Outlet. A few weeks ago, I paid less than $1 per box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes at CVS! I do love finding a good bargain. 

12. Ian is finally caught up. We switched back to Teaching Textbooks for geometry, and he got everything turned in by the end of the second marking period for all the other subjects. I hope he never gets that far behind again. 

13. Ian finally picked his song for the piano recital (February 2) on January 20. I told his piano teacher let's pick his song MUCH earlier next time around. She agrees. Thankfully he is managing to pull it off despite choosing much later than normal. The piece was too long (12 minutes), but she picked out parts for him to play as she likes the pieces not to be longer than 4-5 minutes so that the recital isn't too lengthy. 

14. One of the books I recently listened to was Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Quereshi. It was outstanding! I highly recommend it! Some books we've enjoyed together as a family recently would include: Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai, Wink by Rob Harrell, The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman, The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez, and The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. 

15. My parents each grew up with one sister, and so I only had two uncles. My dad also has a half-sister, but she never married. Uncle Bill passed away in 1992 at the age of 49. Uncle Dick passed away last week at the age of 83. Wendy lives the closest to Indiana, so she is attending the burial today as the representative of our family. I'm thankful Wendy can attend on our behalf. 

16. I go in spurts when it comes to working on planning future vacations. Recently I used Turo gift cards I got through credit card points to almost completely pay for renting a minivan on Oahu for four days and on Maui for 2.5 days. I still need to rent one on the Big Island for a week. 

Opting out

 I don't recall exactly when I joined Facebook, but I'm guessing it was no later than 2007. From at least 2016 until 2024 I have had times where I have temporarily deactivated my account for varying amounts of time, but I never considered permanently deleting my account. However, that's the step I recently took. For a period of thirty days, I have the opportunity to undo that decision. Once the thirty days pass, it will truly all be gone. I decided that the "cons" outweighed the "pros." I have never used Twitter, and I had an extremely short stint of looking at Instagram. I do post the videos I create onto YouTube, but I view things on YouTube very infrequently - sometimes to watch church online or to watch a Bible Recap video or the like. I used to read far more blogs, but most of the people I used to follow no longer post on their blog or they do so very infrequently, so I don't spend much time in a year reading blog posts that others have written. I think this means that if I find out something about someone I know, it's going to be the old-fashioned way - because they told me, emailed me, or texted me about it. When I deactivated my account, I was still able to use Facebook Messenger. I don't have access to it any longer because I went the deletion route this time. I had a private Facebook group that I used with my homeschool evaluator, but I've let her know I'll be switching to sending her a monthly email instead, which is one of the options she provides all of her families. I might be in the dark about some events in the future because of this choice I've made, but in general I don't think we'll feel too much of an impact by my choice. I created an account for Paul many years ago, and he's never accessed his account. Paul has done fine with never using Facebook for the past 17 years. It can be done! Paul uses Twitter now because of his new investment "job."

I've also decided I am done using Duolingo because I finally finished the Spanish course! It "only" took me 1,244 days to accomplish that feat. I currently have a 1,246-day streak, but I'm planning to let that go. I'm also on a lengthy streak when it comes to being in the diamond league (169 weeks), and my friends quest streak is also fairly long. I've earned the monthly badge every month from June 2021 to October 2024. On Sunday night I won the final round of the diamond tournament for my 6th time. My current Spanish score is 120 out of 160. Since I finished the course, I now have access to the "Daily Refresh," but I have been very unimpressed with that feature of the program, which is why I'm planning on letting my "streak" drop from 1,246 down to 0. Most days I spend 30 minutes on Duolingo. Hopefully what I've learned in Spanish will be useful at some point in my life. I can understand the letters we get from the Compassion kids we sponsor who speak Spanish without reading the translation into English. As is normal for learning another language, my receptive comprehension is far better than my expressive skills, especially when it comes to all the verb tenses. Duolingo can only take you so far, but I know now far more words in Spanish than I've ever known at any other time in my life. 

All of the photos in this post are from the homeschool co-op that meets in our home on Tuesdays. We've been having debates (first one was on whether cigarettes should be banned in the US, the second was on animal testing, and the next one will be about zoos), doing artwork (completed three of the six art projects I planned for this session, and we've started the fourth project which is an acrylic painting of a lighthouse). discussing books (Sign of the Beaver, The Two Towers, and Listening for Lions), playing games, and doing chemistry lab experiments (this last Tuesday one involved hydrochloric acid and an egg). I haven't touched my camera in quite a few weeks. I don't plan to opt out of that though! I need to do a better job of taking pictures more often. 

Here are some other random updates from the past three weeks:

1. This month our church began a campaign to raise 4 million dollars over the next 3 years to pay off existing debt (1.7) plus build a new, bigger facility for the Sunbury campus and Recovery Church (2.3). 

2. Nadia had a sleepover at a friend's house two weekends in a row. She was one of three girls from Meadowbrook who auditioned to be in the district chorus. Unfortunately, they didn't make the cut. Nadia has been taking two Bible classes through Liberty for six weeks. On October 21 her third class through LU began - an art history class. I recently registered her for three classes (7 credits total) for the spring semester - two Bible classes plus a government class. She also has a job interview on November 1 for a job that involves grooming dogs. She has logged around 35 of the required 65 hours of driving so far. We found out today that the dates of the Nationals for Bible quizzing next summer won't interfere with the dates Nadia will hopefully be a counselor at Camp Susque. PTL!!!

3. Ian and Oliver spent several hours at a friend's house last Saturday. Ian played the piano for the youth worship team for the first time ever on October 9. 

4. All three kids auditioned to be in the Wizard of Oz at MCS. Oliver and Nadia will just be in the ensemble. Ian was given two parts - a crow plus Nikko (head of the flying monkeys). All three kids are looking forward to going to a glow-in-the-dark dodgeball birthday party tomorrow afternoon. 

5. All five of us helped pack meals at our church on October 12 (collectively packed 125,000 meals for people in Uganda and Ecuador) and at Experience Missions on October 22. All five of us also attended a Colton Dixon concert at our church on October 18. Ian, Nadia, and I were volunteers with Compassion that night. Twenty-two kids were sponsored!

6. Oliver attended two trunk or treat events on October 19-20. This is his last year of being eligible for these events due to his age. The boys will be helping as candy runners at the trunk or treat at our church on October 25 while Nadia and I attend a For King and Country concert with Cheri in Hershey as Compassion volunteers.

7. I was the substitute teacher for our Sunday School this past Sunday. I taught a lesson on Haggai.

New School Year!

I haven't finished writing about our trip to Alaska. I will get caught up on that eventually, but this is our first week of school. The schools in our area had been in session for about 8 days before we got started due to our trip. We started our school year on Labor Day as that isn't really a holiday we celebrate. To celebrate our new school year, I told the kids we'd go to Becky's, which is an ice cream place not that far from us. On Tuesdays from 6:00 to closing, they offer dogs a free small dish of vanilla soft serve, and we had never taken advantage of that offer although we'd talked about doing it many times over the last few years. Today was the day! After we ate dinner, Nadia drove the kids and I to the park for our back-to-school pictures, and then she drove us a few more minutes to Becky's for ice cream. Milo didn't finish his treat. It was too much for a little dog. He loved it, but he was shivering like crazy after he stopped eating. He's never had something that cold before to eat! I said it was also an early birthday treat for him as he turns four at the end of this month. 

Nadia will begin her classes with Liberty University on September 16, and the co-op at our home will begin on September 24. Two other kids might be joining our co-op later this year. Nadia had her first voice lesson today, and Ian will continue to have piano lessons on Mondays with Lyn DeVito. Nadia has been faithfully practicing the piano, and she's planning on auditioning for district chorus. She has set a goal of finishing two levels this year in piano. Tomorrow the kids will attend art and chorus for the first time this school year at MCS. It will be Oliver's first time ever taking any classes there. All three plan on auditioning to be in the spring musical. We've been told they'll either be doing Willy Wonka, the Wizard of Oz, or Barnum. Bible quizzing and youth group also resume tomorrow, which again are firsts for Oliver. Our first field trip (not counting the ones we took in July/August) will be to the PSU Nuclear Reactor on September 17, and their first homeschool party is at the roller-skating rink on September 18. Here are some things the kids will be studying this year:

1. Ian and Nadia are studying chemistry (Life of Fred and Apologia). Oliver is completing an elementary level chemistry/physics and also an elementary level botany science textbook. Paul is doing a chemistry lab during the co-op.
2. In math the kids are doing Pre-Calculus (Nadia), Geometry (Ian), and 6th grade math (Oliver). We use Life of Fred plus Teaching Textbooks. Ian will also be using Art of Problem Solving. 
3. In history we are studying from 1708 to the present. 
4. Oliver is working on his typing skills, level 7 of spelling, and level 3 of Fix it Grammar. 
5. Nadia and Ian are completing a University Ready Writing course through IEW. 
6. Nadia is learning French through Duolingo, and Ian is studying Spanish.
7. Nadia is learning how to drive, and she wants to get a job so she can have enough money to pay for her car insurance once she gets her license. She has applied for a job at Lingle's (grocery store) but is hoping to get a job at a horse farm or Warrior Run Petcare. 
8. We are working on memorizing verses (or in the case of Ian and Nadia chapters) from the book of Luke. 
9. I'm giving more specific assignments for literature for Nadia and Ian. This week they both started reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and soon they will also be starting The Two Towers, as that is a book many of the kids will be discussing at co-op this fall. Sometimes I will choose what Oliver needs to read on school days, but other times it will be his choice. Right now he's reading books from the Dead Sea Squirrels series, but he'll be reading Sign of the Beaver for co-op later this month.
10. We've started our fifth year of watching World Watch News five days a week all year long. 
11. We continue to listen to audiobooks together as a family. Currently we're listening to The Night War by Kimberly Bradley and Stellarlune by Shannon Messenger. 
12. In our fall session of the co-op we'll be doing chemistry lab, art, book groups, debates, and geography. In the spring session we'll be doing book groups, personal finance, drama, and chemistry lab.

I'm very grateful to be starting my twelfth year as a homeschool mom! Praying for the kids to grow physically, academically, spiritually, and emotionally over the coming year!