New month

I haven't written a gratitude list since September 12, and for several years I've had a tradition of trying to include gratitude lists in every post in November. I'm not sure how many posts I'll write this month, but I am going to try to include a long list of blessings over the course of the month.

1. I'm eternally grateful for the gift of salvation made possible through Jesus Christ.

2. We live in a country where we can still worship Him freely. Given what has happened in recent years elsewhere (such as in Canada), I'm assuming that pastors won't always have freedom of speech in the pulpit in the future in our country, but so far, they still do. 

3. Although we haven't yet taken our kids on a mission trip to a third world country, we are able to participate in service projects locally that benefit those in need around the world. In the last several weeks we have been packing five shoeboxes for kids through Operation Christmas Child, on two occasions have packed meals for kids in Uganda, Dominican Republic, and Ecuador, and have also packed hygiene kits for refugees and persecuted Christians around the world. 

4. Although I've never forgotten our babies that went to Heaven before we could hold them in our arms here on earth, I'm eternally grateful for the three children I have had the privilege to parent for the past 10-14 years. 

5. I also treasure the opportunity to homeschool our children. Including field trip days, today was our 62nd day of school for this school year. We technically hit the 45th day on October 10, but in terms of completing our curriculum, today was the end of our first quarter. I am not actually going to give Nadia a report card until next week because Nadia and Ian are taking their first quarterly exam in Biology on November 8. It will be Nadia's very first report card. I think at this point her goal is to earn a B in Geometry and an A in everything else. 

6. Field trip opportunities are back to what they were prior to COVID. We've been on 21 field trips so far this school year. We are headed to the Wolf Sanctuary this Thursday, but we don't have many planned this month. However, in December (2022) and April (2023) our calendar contains many exciting plans!

7. I've fully recovered from my ankle surgery last fall. I typically walk 3-4 miles a day with Milo. 

8. I've been more specific in my expectations for what Ian and Nadia need to do each day in their preparation for Bible quizzing on the book of Acts this year. Ian's coach said he's a completely different quizzer this fall! I'm very pleased to hear how well he is doing and hoping that Nadia will also do better than she has in the past. Their first competition is in Ohio next week.

9. A few days ago, it was below freezing when I took Milo for his first walk in the morning. Thankfully, the weather has been much warmer since then. I didn't even need to wear any kind of coat on some of my walks with him today! I'll take unseasonably warm weather in November any day of the week! 

10. I raked the leaves at the right time this year so that they were able to be sucked up by a truck that went around our neighborhood on Monday. 

11. I never aspired to own a dog, but I love Milo very much. He's MUCH better behaved now, and it's such a blessing that our neighbors can usually watch him when we're gone too many hours in a day or are on a weekend getaway or a longer vacation. 

Drought

(Some of the kids who participated in the program today)

Today I took the kids to a three-hour program on waterfalls and hydrogeology at Ricketts Glen State Park. Oliver was concerned because the program was advertised to be for grades 7-12, but thankfully other families also brought younger siblings, so he definitely wasn't the youngest child present. We've been there several times over the past five years, but it looked very different today because of the drought we've experienced this summer. In general, I feel like I'm "back to normal" following my ankle surgery, but on today's hike I was reminded that I haven't fully overcome my fear of falling that I've had for almost a year. I'm hoping as more time passes, I will also rebound back to normal in that regard as well. According to my log, today was our sixteenth day of school for 2022-23, but as far as days when we do math, science, history, etc., yesterday was our seventh day. I anticipate that at least 35 of the 180 days of school will be field trip days like today. The kids each read independently, we listened to audiobooks, and they watched World Watch news, but that was all I required because of the field trip. Ian also finished a biology experiment that he didn't complete earlier in the week. Although we saw very little water coming over the waterfalls and the stream beds were dry at the state park, Oliver got to enjoy being in water this evening as our neighbors who have a heated outdoor pool invited Oliver and some other kids in the neighborhood over for a pool party. 

Our first field trips of the school year have been seeing A Midnight Summer's Dream, visiting the National Canal Museum (and riding in a canal boat pulled by two mules), visiting the Lehigh Valley Zoo, attending the Roasting Ears of Corn Festival at the Museum of Indian Culture, touring the Old Mill Creamery, and attending the program at Ricketts Glen State Park. We had never been to Old Mill Creamery, but I imagine we will return again in the future! Their ice cream is amazing! They make it from the milk that comes from the cows right on their property. Nadia liked the teaberry flavor she tried, but in general the consensus was that Peanut Butter Oreo was amazing!! Our first day of "school" was last Wednesday, which meant we only had three days of school last week. This week we only did a few subjects at home on Tuesday because of the 10:00am tour at the creamery, which is housed in a building that is almost 200 years old, and we didn't do any subjects aside from reading today because of our time at Ricketts Glen. I think between August 24 (our first day of school) and November 4 we will not have any five-day weeks of school because of field trip days. Originally, the field trip I had planned for next week was to spend 5 hours at Christian Aid Ministries in Ephrata on Thursday, but my friend, Cheri, won't be able to join us after all so I think we'll try to go there next spring instead. However, I've signed us up for two other field trips next week, a tour of a dairy on Tuesday and a Monarch butterfly class on Wednesday. I'm very thankful that the field trip opportunities are plentiful again this year for the first time since 2019! In light of the many field trips that we are taking this month (including an eight-day vacation to New England), we are going to do schoolwork on Monday even though it's Labor Day. I told the kids they still got a three-day weekend since we didn't do schoolwork today. We don't have anything special planned for tomorrow. On Sunday we are having lunch at Panera with a missionary couple after church and Paul is taking Nadia on a bowling date later in the day. Monday will just be a typical school day for us, and Paul plans to go to work that day. 

Nadia took this picture of her friend, Macey, last weekend

Last weekend Nadia had a friend over for a sleepover on Saturday night, and we took her to church with us on Sunday morning. Another family from our church came over for dinner on Sunday evening. Nadia and Ian had their first choir rehearsals for the season on Monday night, and the boys had their second Ninjastics class. On Wednesday afternoon Oliver and I helped out for a couple of hours at our church's food pantry distribution, and I had a Zoom meeting last night as I am now on a leadership committee of Experience Missions. I feel like our school year has gotten off to a good start. Nadia and Ian both earned a 100% on their first test in Biology yesterday! Ian is also off to a great start with Algebra I. 

Thankful Thursday

1. We still enjoy chapter books together. We're going to do something special after we finish book #1,000, and I believe we'll hit that mark sometime in 2023 because we're already at #902.

2. Nadia has been reading voraciously through books written by Karen Kingsbury. Although she loves owning books, I'm very thankful we can get them from the public library. I've been getting her five at a time because she reads them so quickly. She is reading those books for leisure. For school she's currently reading Screwtape Letters. Ian is reading The Monster in the Hollows for leisure and Beorn the Proud for school. Oliver doesn't read for leisure (yet). Another book I've been doing with the boys is War Horse so we just started watching the movie based on that book yesterday. 

3. I'm very thankful that Paul works to support our family and enable me to be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom. I have the kids draw their self-portrait the first day of school every year. You can see Nadia and Ian's self-portraits from yesterday in this post. I also started a new tradition of having the kids each write at least four goals for themselves (faith, physical, academic, and personal). That wasn't an easy task for them. My mental list of goals for each one of them is far longer than what they wrote, ha ha! 

4. Last Thursday Nadia and Ian auditioned to be promoted to the Camerata (middle school) and Valley Singers (high school) choirs of the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale. They were successful!

5. I took the kids to see a free outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last Friday night. They weren't excited about going so I sweetened the outing with a stop at Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt. 

6. Paul took off work on Saturday, and the five of us visited the Lehigh Valley Zoo, National Canal Museum, and a festival held outside the Museum of Indian Culture. 

7. The kids ate dinner at home by themselves for the first time in their lives on Monday as I was attending a missions committee meeting at our church. I'm thankful that they are old enough that I can leave them at home for a couple of hours without paying anyone to babysit. 

8. The boys enjoyed their first Ninjastics class on Monday night. The last time Oliver took gymnastics was the fall of 2019; I was amazed that the Gym director remembered his name!

9. The last two pounds took a LONG time to shed, but I've lost fifteen pounds so far. I want to lose at least eight more. Hoping I keep this weight off for years to come! 

10. The kids enjoyed bowling, the trampoline park, arcades, laser tag, and the lunch buffet on Tuesday for the Homeschool Expo. I can't say the experience was helpful in any other way, but the kids had fun. I bowled one game with them. Ian was the winner! 

11. My allergies have been giving me far less grief lately. I've even been able to mow and weed whack. I also feel like I've gotten totally back to normal with my ankle. My right elbow also doesn't typically bother me anymore. It did hurt to hold a bowling ball, but I can go years without bowling so that's not a big deal. I'm still waiting to regain my hearing in my left ear. 

12. The price of gas has come down some. It's still higher than it was last year, but I'm thankful for the reduction in price. Last year we spent $4,120 on gas, and I'm expecting that we'll probably spend around $6,000 in that category this year. 

13. Our wonderful neighbor took Milo out for a walk once on Saturday since we were gone for about twelve hours. 

14. We have reached the end as far as trying to reduce the size of the hospital bill from my ankle surgery. The outcome certainly wasn't what we wanted, but I'm thankful that the suspense has come to an end. We hadn't heard anything from the hospital for five months. All our efforts didn't help one iota. They still say we owe another $19.923 in addition to what we already paid. It's mind boggling. They will give us 10% off if we pay the full bill within 30 days. That's their standard policy which we have known all along. I did the math, and I expect we will spend at least $29K on either medical "insurance" or medical bills this year. I say "insurance" because we don't have actual medical insurance anymore (because of this fiasco - what's the point of paying for medical insurance if they won't pay for a surgery to repair a broken ankle?). We now contribute monthly to Christian medical sharing program. We haven't had any expenses yet that were eligible for reimbursement through that program, but I feel confident if I needed a surgery now that we would only pay $400 for it not more than $20K. Anyhow not counting what we give away in charitable donations, I expect medical expenses will end up being close to 40% of the amount we spend altogether this year. The next biggest category in the budget will either be food or gas, as I expect both of those will rise to about $6,000 each, but time will tell exactly which one will be the biggest. So, in the very year that we are experiencing the highest inflation that we have in 40 years, we also are hit with what is for us an astronomically large medical bill. In our 21 years of marriage, Paul and I have only spent more than $10K for two things - a home or a vehicle. I honestly would have skipped having the surgery had I known it would cost us $10K much less $20K. The only time Paul and I have spent more than $1,000 on any medical expense was with fertility treatments, and those were definitely worthwhile as they resulted in us having three children. If we ever have medical insurance again, I will NEVER trust any hospital to do the preauthorization. Either Paul or I will call to make sure it is preauthorized, and although we have had various appointments and hospitalizations at that hospital in the past (ex. that's where I typically went for my annual mammogram), we are going to try to avoid that hospital like the plague the rest of our lives if at all possible. I'm not planning on getting a mammogram anywhere for a while as those aren't covered by our medical sharing program, and the thought of incurring any additional "large" medical bills right now is abhorrent. Of course, a mammogram costs a LOT less than an ankle surgery, but still, it costs more than $1,000 without insurance. Thankfully, we have a way to pay the bill. There were years in the past we would have had no way to come up with the funds to pay this size of a bill, but Paul in the last two years had started setting aside some money as a retirement account for himself, and we are using some of that money to pay this bill. 

Thankful Thursday

The last time I wrote a gratitude post was March 24. I'm not going to attempt to make a list today that encompasses all the time since then, but here are a few of the things that I'm thankful for today.

1. My ankle has improved SO much!!! I can walk as much as I want to. The only time I've had pain over the last couple of weeks has been when I stand for too long. I'm not sure why standing bothers me and walking doesn't, but I'm so grateful that I can walk for miles a day again!!! I've been taking Milo for multiple walks a day as long as it's not raining, and I've been walking an average of probably around 3 miles per day.

2. I hadn't attempted to lose any weight since August of 2020. I lost some in 2019, regained some of it, and lost it again in 2020. I started dieting again last Wednesday, and in the first seven days I lost 2.2 pounds. I'd like to lose 21 more. I really, really, really, really hope I do a better job of keeping it off this time around! I'm thankful I'm headed in the right direction.

3. Typically I haven't done a good job of inviting other people to our home for a meal aside from relatives. My goal is to have 12 couples or families come over for dinner in 2022 (not counting relatives). We've had three so far, and three more families or couples are already scheduled to come over sometime this summer. 

4. I'm so thankful that the family who lives across from us is always willing to give food and water to our guinea pigs when we're away. They'll be doing so this weekend when we're in Delaware. I'm also very thankful that another neighbor family takes care of Milo when we're away. After this weekend I don't think we'll need to ask for their help again until September, but it's a huge blessing to have someone who lives so close be willing to help us out. Some of the times they've even turned down the money we've tried to give them! 

5. Faith's mom helped me out a few times last week with taking Nadia and Ian to Bible quizzing practices which was a huge blessing. Her son, Xandir, and Oliver enjoyed playing together at our house during the practices. Yesterday the quizzing practice was held at Macey's home and included swimming and dinner. I served as the scorekeeper during the individual competition and quizmaster during the team competition. Oliver had a blast playing with the coach's three youngest children during the practice. 

6. We had a lovely vacation last month. Aside from being a little hotter than we prefer at the start of the trip, the weather was ideal. No bones were broken!!

7. I'm thankful for people who set up field trips in the area. We toured a snowboard factory yesterday, and on Tuesday we had a 90-minute tour of a courthouse that included a demonstration by a K-9 dog.

8. The candidate that I voted for Governor in the primary election won. Unfortunately, the person I really didn't want to win for Senator won by a very narrow margin. If I could go back in time, I would have voted for the man who was neck and neck with the winner instead of the woman I voted for although she did come in third place among the seven candidates. It's tempting to vote third party for Senator in the general election, but considering the make-up of the US Senate right now, I'll probably end up voting for the one who won and hoping against hope he'll be better than I think he will be. I am very thankful for the freedom to vote! I'm really glad I didn't live in the era when women were excluded from voting.

2,972 miles

Last September we went on a 25-day vacation that involved driving around 7,000 miles through twenty-five different states and visiting twenty-seven National Park sites. Over the last fifteen days we drove 2,972 miles through nine states and visited sixteen National Park sites and four amusement parks. Last September we saw the license plates for all 50 states, DC, and several provinces of Canada during our vacation. This time we saw the license plates of 40 states, DC, and five provinces of Canada. We're going to see how long it takes us to spot license plates for the last ten states. For many years we've included at least one science museum in just about every vacation, but that didn't happen this time because the science museum in Charlotte wasn't open the day we were there and because the kids decided they'd rather spend more time at the Canaveral seashore, so we skipped the Orlando Science Center. We had visited the Carnegie Science Center earlier in May, but we didn't visit any during this vacation. During our trip in September the only times we saw any friends of family were when we visited my sister's family in Chicago and Nadia met her pen pal in person in Illinois. During this southeast trip we were able to spend time with my friend Jo and her family, my dad and Margie, and my Aunt Tina and her friend, Janice. With both trips we were very fortunate in terms of the weather. It was very hot at the start of this trip, but rain was never an issue, for which we were grateful. I worked on Duolingo every day during both vacations. During this recent vacation I achieved the badge in Duolingo that is earned by doing Duolingo every single day for a full year. We were also very thankful that no one broke any bones on this trip! Gasoline was definitely more expensive on this trip than our trip last fall. Of the nine states we drove through in May, the cheapest place to buy gas was in Georgia. We actually paid less than $4 a gallon once in that state! Here in Pennsylvania the price is inching closer to $5 a gallon. EEK!

I had made changes to the National Parks we would visit on the first and last days of our trip because some of the parks are currently only open five days a week. In September 2020 I learned to keep checking on the hours that places were open while we were on vacation because things were constantly changing. On this vacation I didn't do that, and this was a mistake in one instance. On Tuesday morning our first stop was the Peaks of Otter Visitor Center, which is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park. Unfortunately, it was closed, and driving there added about 40 minutes of driving time (round trip). Some of the other Visitor Centers in that park were open that day, but at that point we decided we'd rather just get home to Milo a little sooner. The kids earned another Junior Ranger badge at the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, which is part of the Shenandoah National Park, after we hiked the Fox Hollow Trail. 

I took very few pictures from September 12, 2021 - April 30, 2022. I haven't made a photo book for 8 months, which again is very unusual for me. I took more pictures in the last month than I took over the combined previous

seven months. I'm going to make a video about our vacation and then start working on a photobook so that I will be ready the next time Shutterfly has an unlimited pages coupon code. There was a code that expired yesterday, but I had too many other things to do yesterday. Last October I was very frustrated when we came home because I was unable to help with much of anything. The grass was really tall when we got home. Paul started mowing it on Tuesday night while I was unpacking. On Wednesday morning I finished mowing the lawn, did the weed whacking, did two loads of laundry, vacuumed the van, and trimmed some of the bushes. I didn't finish the yardwork because it was really hot out, and I was exhausted. The most painful day for me in terms of my ankle on the vacation was May 24. The pain level was very high that night even when I was in bed. The next day my ankle only bothered me when I was standing still for extended periods of time. From May 27 to the present, I've had zero ankle pain! PTL!! Three months ago, I was beginning to wonder if my ankle would ever be back to normal. I am so, so thankful that I think it's back to normal now! I didn't take Milo for a long walk yesterday, but I'm planning to resume that habit starting today. Yesterday I also started dieting again. I am hoping to lose at least 23 pounds. 

Nadia and Ian had Bible quizzing and youth group yesterday from 4:30-8:15. Because the national competition is only 2 weeks away, they will have quite a few extra practices in the coming days. Today and tomorrow, the homeschoolers on the team are practicing from ten to noon. Xandir is going to hang out with Oliver at our house while their siblings are at the practice. Tomorrow two of Nadia's friends are coming here for a sleepover, and Ian and Oliver are going to Xandir's house for a sleepover. The whole Bible quizzing team will practice on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. All three kids are going over to the Schreck's house on Saturday afternoon so that Paul and I can have our second date this year, which is a huge improvement as previously we had gone 49 months without a date. I'm very thankful that I feel my ankle is ready to go ballroom dancing with Paul for the first time in I'm not sure how many years. We joined a swimming pool again this summer, and the pool opens on Monday. Tomorrow will be the last day of school for kids in our area. 

Forts, Family, and Friends

On Saturday the kids each earned at least three Junior Ranger badges. Our first stop was Fort Frederica in Georgia. Our second stop was Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, Florida. The plantation owner's wife was a freed slave. It was definitely surprising to hear that as a free woman she owned slaves herself. Our third National Park site that day was Fort Caroline which is also part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve. My friend, Jo, whom I met online in 2003 lives less than ten minutes from Fort Caroline. Over the past years we've met in person three times in Pennsylvania and now twice in Florida. The last time we met at the Jacksonville Zoo in May of 2013. I had previously met her husband and two eldest children, but this was the first time I met her five-year-old daughter, Eden. We spent a few hours at their house and had a lovely time. The kids played games together and also enjoyed meeting their kittens, and the adults enjoyed chatting together. Jo served a delicious dinner. Over the last nine years I've seen my Aunt Tina twice in Florida, once in Virginia (my dad's wedding), and twice in Maryland (funerals). Nine years ago, we spent time with Tina at the zoo, her apartment and swimming pool, and a beach near her home in Ponte Vedra Beach. On this trip she was originally planning to meet us on Sunday in St. Augustine, but due to car trouble, she asked her best friend to drive her to our hotel on Saturday evening. She and Janice spent about two hours visiting with us at the indoor pool at our hotel. It wasn't exactly the most photogenic place for photos, but we got some. Sadly, I forgot to take more pictures at my friend's house. I only snapped one showing Noah, Ian, and Nadia playing a game together. I had originally thought of trying to also connect with two friends from my childhood who live in Atlanta on this trip, but when it turns out they live west of Atlanta. I'm thankful that we were able to spend time with dad, Margie, Tina, and Jo's family. 

We visited forts #14-15 on Sunday. The kids enjoyed these two the most of the five we saw on this vacation. Our first stop was Castillo de San Marcos, which was a Spanish fort built in St. Augustine over 300 years ago. Oliver just earned a badge. Ian and Nadia earned both a badge and a patch. And they each received a Spanish "gold" doubloon after they played a game the soldiers played hundreds of years ago. On both Saturday and Sunday mornings we had a very nice hot breakfast. We typically don't eat lunch on vacation. We had packed sandwiches for our first day, and we had lunch with dad and Margie the second day, but since then we haven't had lunch. It's much easier to skip lunch when we have a nice breakfast. You could argue that our lunch yesterday was chocolate because we participated in a chocolate tasting tour at Whestone Chocolate from 11:15-12:15. We learned about the history of chocolate and this company in particular, walked through the factory (which wasn't in operation since we were there on a Sunday), and tasted five different kinds of chocolate plus one kind of fudge. Our tour guide was hysterical! Paul's favorites were the San Marco blend white chocolate and the cookies and cream fudge. Nadia's favorite was the De Leon blend dark chocolate that contained 47% cocoa. The healthiest one we ate was the Menendez blend dark chocolate that had 72% cocoa. My favorite was the Aviles blend milk chocolate, which had 31% cocoa. Paul and the kids each purchased a treat of some sort in the gift shop after our tour concluded. There are so many different sites one can visit in St. Augustine. The kids wished I had included the Alligator Farm on the itinerary. I hadn't because we visit Reptiland near our home once a year. I'm going to try to keep that request in mind for future reference now that I know they would have enjoyed that. We had planned to visit the lighthouse, but it was closed for renovations. Our last stop in St. Augustine was Fort Matanzas. It was a smaller fort, but we rode a free ferry out to the fort, climbed up a steep ladder through a very narrow hole to get to the top of the fort, and enjoyed seeing a variety of animals on a nature trail such as gopher tortoises, lizards, crabs, etc.  Oliver just earned a badge. Ian and Nadia earned both a badge and a patch. I should also add that it's such a relief not to need to wear masks at National Parks like we had to in 2021. COVID hasn't really been a factor at all on this vacation so far, which is a first in 2+ years.

We had an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse and played miniature golf before we checked in at our hotel at Daytona Beach. Paul came in first at miniature golf, I was second, Ian was third, and Oliver came in fourth. The kids each made at least one hole in one, but Paul and I didn't accomplish that feat. This hotel doesn't include a free breakfast, so we'll be stopping at Dunkin Donuts this morning. Since this place also doesn't have a swimming pool, we let the kids swim in the ocean last night. I picked a suite that had two bedrooms plus two sofa beds. Since Nadia usually has the sofa bed on our vacations, we let her have one of the queen size beds, and the boys each slept on a sofa bed in the living room. They usually sleep together in the same bed on vacation, so they enjoyed having their own beds last night. 

It has rained a few times during our vacation thus far, but it's never rained when we've been outside for which we are thankful. It was really hot on Thursday and Friday, but since we were at the beach on Friday, the only time it really bothered us was on Thursday. Despite using sunscreen many times that day, Ian and Nadia both got sunburned pretty badly on Friday. Today is our next day at the beach. We're using different sunscreen and hoping they don't get any more sunburn today! As for my ankle, it bothered me quite a bit when we were walking on the beach last night, but in general it hasn't been much of a factor at all on this trip! I'm so thankful that unlike our last vacation I'm not wearing a boot, using crutches, using office chairs as wheelchairs, etc. I'm not taking my mobility for granted!!!

Fort Matanzas

Exhausted!

Last Thursday was our last day of "school." To me the counting of days is rather arbitrary. We listen to audiobooks almost if not every day of the year. On Friday the kids participated in a three-hour program about soil at Ricketts Glen State Park; so obviously I'm still trying to provide the kids with educational experiences even if we're officially on summer break. Saturday morning Nadia and I planned to spend multiple hours shopping at yard sales as she needs summer clothes, but the almost non-stop rain we had on Friday and Saturday thwarted those plans along with my plan to mow the lawn. Our youth pastor and his family came over for dinner at our home that evening. His wife grew up in Thailand, and it was interesting to learn more about her experiences. 

The Stars on Ice show had two other performances in Pennsylvania which were actually closer to our home than Pittsburgh, but those shows were at 7:30pm, and since I'm not a night owl, I chose the 4:00 show in Pittsburgh. If I had known that Nadia's drama rehearsal schedule would be so demanding this week, I wouldn't have made the choice I did. On Sunday morning we left our house around 7:15am. Our first stop was the Carnegie Science Center which is right next to the Steelers' stadium. Unfortunately, because there was a flood warning for the Ohio River that day, the submarine was closed. We are 0-3 in touring that submarine! Our time in the science museum included a planetarium show and a program about liquid nitrogen. The last time we were there we had seen the electricity program that featured a Tesla coil. Our only cost (aside from gas to get there) was parking. I had planned to use gift cards at a TGIF near the Penguins' stadium, but it turned out the restaurant has permanently closed. We rolled with the punches and shared a large pizza instead. Eating a pizza is faster than eating at TGIF so we had some time so spare and considered visiting another site in the city, but in the end, we opted to arrive at the ice show earlier. The show was outstanding; our two favorites were Nathan Chen and Jason Brown. For 10+ years I've had this experience where I well up with happy tears when I'm experiencing something special with my kids. That hadn't happened for about 3 years, but in the past, it's happened when I took the kids to the circus, Disney on Ice, a Broadway musical, etc. Even though I find it a bit embarrassing to shed happy tears at random moments, I'm truly grateful for the privilege to create memories with my three kids. Oliver gave me a Mother's Day card on Saturday, Ian gave me one on Sunday morning, and Nadia made me one during the drive to Pittsburgh. I also received a card from my dad and Margie. Since we had a very early "dinner" at 2:15pm, we stopped for ice cream at Dairy Queen on the drive home. We got home around 10pm and were so very thrilled to receive a very good report from our neighbor about Milo's behavior at their home in our absence. We tried to give them $20, but they declined any payment, which was very kind of them. Hopefully this means he will be a little angel while we're on vacation for the last two weeks of May. 

Monday morning the kids and I were out the door a little before 8:30 for drama. I was planning to sign Nadia up for drama at the co-op next spring as well as sign Nadia and Ian both up for art at the co-op next spring, but this tech week schedule has been BRUTAL. As of now I'm thinking I'll sign them up for chorus and possibly art at the Christian school instead. What made the schedule particularly repulsive to me was the fact that they were expecting the four of us to spend 48 hours at the church this week. I have never been asked to stay at any of Nadia's drama rehearsals over the last nine years that she's been involved in theatre. Ian helped out as a member of the stage crew. Oliver helped some and played some. I was working in the kitchen for many of those hours as three of us were responsible for cooking dinner for eighty people four nights in a row plus providing snacks for the cast all the hours they were there. I pushed myself too much on Monday as I was up at 6am cooking our dinner, started mowing the lawn around 4:15pm after we got home from drama, finished mowing and weed whacked after dinner, and then cooked sloppy joe meat to bring to the co-op on Tuesday. 

On Tuesday morning I was not in good shape physically or emotionally. I chipped a tooth the day before Easter, and the earliest I could be seen by the dentist was May 10. At the time I thought my 2pm appointment would mean Nadia was only leaving a little early from drama, but they lengthened the rehearsal that day to 11 hours long. Although I don't enjoy having my mouth numb for 3 hours, I was thankful that the dentist appointment gave us an excuse to leave much earlier that day. Lately the only places we've had to wear masks have been medical facilities. I was pleased to see that masks are now optional at the dentist for the first time in two years. 

I have been careful NOT to push myself at home the last three days, although I have still taken Milo for a 30-60 minute walk each day. This morning we had our homeschool evaluation from 9-10am. Thankfully our evaluator came to our home. Paul didn't get home from work until 9:15pm on Monday. I asked him to come home a bit earlier on Wednesday for Milo's sake as the kids and I didn't get home from co-op until 9:30pm that night. Paul and Pop Pop plan to attend Nadia's show this evening. Oliver and I left around 6:30pm to come home since Paul could take Nadia and Ian home. The Schrecks, Oliver, and I plan to attend the show tomorrow night. There was a cast/crew party this evening that was supposed to last until midnight (seriously are these people all energizer bunnies?), but our kids aren't participating due to the time of day the party is being held and the fact we will have another long day tomorrow. Our evaluator took literally more than 1,000 pictures during a dress rehearsal yesterday, so I didn't bring my good camera to the co-op yet. I probably will bring my camera tomorrow, but since she was allowed to move in very close to the actors, I hope she got some great shots.

Part of what has made the week challenging for me is the number of hours I have spent on my feet every day. The pain level has gone up dramatically over the last four days, but maybe this is a blessing in disguise if it will help me to be better prepared for our upcoming vacation? I'm learning to just deal with the pain as I refuse to be a couch potato any longer. On Saturday I had two things on the agenda - a program about snakes and a couple I've known for 26 years (they're in their 80's) are coming up for dinner at our house. I think we're going to skip the snake program as this week has been very draining for me. On Sunday we're planning to go to church and then to Knoebels. Monday I'll be getting ready for our vacation: mowing the lawn, getting a haircut, getting the oil changed and the tires rotated on the van, and packing. And Tuesday will be the first day of our vacation. The primary election is on Tuesday, so I mailed in an absentee ballot today. Sometimes I feel like it's challenging to know whom to vote for in a primary election. I rarely have that conundrum during a general election.

Today marks exactly one year since Paul's mom passed away. I was given one thing of hers following her passing - a yellow tablecloth. I have that tablecloth on our dining room table now, and I think of her every time I look at the table. I'm grateful that she's no longer in any pain, but we miss her very much! Unfortunately, Oliver doesn't have any memories of my mom because he was only three when she passed away. Thankfully, all three of my kids have memories of Paul's mom. 

Half a century

I've been alive for half of a century. Only God knows what fraction of my life here on earth I have already lived, but I assume I am past the half-way mark. 

When I turned ten, I was a fourth grader at Grace Christian School in Bowie, Maryland and had two sisters. We had moved from Texas to Maryland the previous summer. Our family attended Belcroft Bible Church.

When I turned twenty, I was student teaching in a middle school in Dayton, Ohio. I graduated from college a few weeks after I turned twenty, and in the fall of 1992, I began my career in education as a middle school teacher in Maryland. I had two sisters and a brother and was driving a Toyota Tercel. This was the only vehicle that I've owned that had manual transmission and didn't have air conditioning. I was singing in the choir of a Baptist church in Cedarville, Ohio. It cost about $1 to buy a gallon of gas. I was accustomed to having a cat as a pet.

When I turned thirty, I had been married for eight months and was living in a house in Pottsville, Pennsylvania that I had purchased 15 months earlier. I was the principal of a Christian school and was working on my dissertation at IUP. I graduated with my doctorate at the end of 2002. I was driving a Toyota Corolla. Paul and I went on two vacations in 2002; we spent two weeks in England/France and ten days in Mexico. I was a member of Grace Evangelical Free Church in Cressona.

When I turned forty, I was pregnant with Oliver, the mother of a three-year-old girl and a two-year-old son, and a tenured Associate Professor at Bloomsburg University. We had lived in our home in Watsontown for about 3.5 years. I was driving a red Toyota Prius, but in September 2012 I began driving a Toyota Sienna. I was a member of First Baptist Church in Milton.

At the age of fifty, I am a homeschooling mom of three kids between the ages of nine and thirteen. We have two two-year-old female guinea pigs and a male eighteen-month-old Bichon Frise. My youngest now sits beside me in church, fills in the sermon outline, and writes me messages like "Mom, I love you so, so much" on the bulletin. Nadia has three weeks left of middle school as she'll be entering high school this fall. I'm entering a new decade without my brother, mother, or mother-in-law. Over the last decade the type of gifts I ask request for my birthday and Christmas has changed. Paul used to get me good jewelry, but over the at least last five years I've preferred to receive things like a new sink faucet (my 45th birthday gift). Dad and Margie are giving me a new door for our home for my birthday this year, which is something I'm very, very grateful to receive at this stage of life. I'm currently a member of Christ Wesleyan Church in Milton. During the past decade my skills in photography improved dramatically. I used to enjoy riding almost every ride at an amusement park, but over the last decade that changed dramatically. Now I ride very few rides and instead prefer to take pictures of my kids on the rides. I'm driving a Honda Odyssey, our second minivan and my first vehicle with heated seats. It costs over $4 to buy a gallon of gas. Over the last decade we purchased our first iPad, Kindle, and smart phones. In addition to photography, I feel that I also expanded my skills in the kitchen over the past ten years. Most of my life I never raised my hands in worship, but over the last few years I have begun to do so. 

If I live to see my sixtieth birthday, I might have an empty nest as Oliver will probably graduate from high school in May of 2031. Milo could still be alive. I have no idea what all will happen over the next ten years, should the Lord tarry, but I want to soak up every minute that I can with my kids as the years that they live under our roof are numbered. I gained some weight over the last two years so I'm hoping I weigh less when I turn sixty than I do now. Lord willing, we will have achieved our goals of visiting all fifty states, gone on a short-term mission trip together, and the kids will each have earned at least 200 Junior Ranger badges before I enter another decade. I'm also hoping I will have achieved my goal of speaking Spanish fluently in the next few years. Although I would love to become a grandma at some point, there's a good chance that will not happen until after I turn sixty.

I think that physical changes are more significant between ages 40-50 than from 30-40 although some of it has more to do with my ankle surgery. Here are some of the changes I have noticed over the last ten years.

• I now wear bifocal glasses. Even with the magnification, I can read things that are close up more easily without my glasses, so in the last several months I've gotten in the habit of taking them off and on many times a day. For about 30 years of my life, I had worn contact lenses. 
• My height has shrunk about 1/2 inch, and my shoe size has also gone down 1/2 size.
• It probably has more to do with three pregnancies than age but sneezing or jumping can cause bladder issues.
• I've had numbness in my hands due to carpal tunnel since my mid 30's, but in the last few years the numbness has spread to my elbows. This happens most frequently when I am sleeping.
• Sleeping in bed became a painful experience for my back around age 36, and it has only gotten worse over the last decade.
• Perimenopause
• My skin is getting thinner. In particular, my hands are prone to bleeding more easily. 
• More grey hair or "old" hair as Oliver calls it. Thankfully my hair is not turning grey as early as mom's hair did.
• My short-term memory is not what it used to be. I also am far more prone to saying the wrong name. I rarely do this with Nadia's name, but I often mix around Oliver, Ian, and Milo's names. 
• Due to the plate in my ankle, I think my days of ice skating and snow skiing are permanently over. 
• I've been nervous about walking on icy roads or sidewalks for about 30 years because I had two previous falls (concussion when I was in college and then another bad spill when I was a principal), but due to my fall in September, my fear of falling has grown exponentially. I gladly hold on to someone else if there is any ice or even water on the ground.
• I'm by nature a "Type A" personality, but I've definitely chilled out some over the last decade. I think the pandemic played a role in this. Maybe there are times I should be more motivated (ex. I didn't have my kids participate in the Living History homeschool fair in February), but in general I feel that being more relaxed and not filling our calendar quite as much is a good thing. 
• I'm entering this decade with a right elbow that is in pain every day from all the weight bearing I did with my arm while my right leg was out of commission. Thankfully the pain has been decreasing recently.
• I'm also still dealing with ankle pain and swelling in my right foot which means I spend far more time sitting in a recliner than I ever have at any other point in my life. Hopefully before I turn 51, I'll feel like I've returned back to normal in terms of being able to stand and walk without tightness/pain.  Thankfully the massage therapy has been helping me make progress.
• Up until Nadia was born, I didn't have trouble falling back asleep during the night. This was a big problem when I was nursing each of my children during the night. Since Oliver was weaned, I had a few years where I could again fall back to sleep easily during the night. Unfortunately, it's again a lot more challenging to fall back asleep. Sometimes I get up much earlier than I really want to get up just because I can't fall back asleep even though I'm still tired. 

One other change that I've noticed over the last several years is that for the first time in my life I find myself thinking that I prefer how things were in previous decades. I realize we have had many technological advantages. For example, I enjoy being able to take pictures with my smart phone and the fact that my vehicle has many features that didn't exist in previous decades. Communicating with a sister who lives in another country is much easier now than it would have been thirty years ago. But I could list many ways I think life was better a few decades ago than it is now. Appliances were built to last for far more years. Biological males didn't compete in women's sports. Freedom of speech wasn't so frequently taken away here in the USA. And the list could go on and on. Sometimes it has more to do with matters of taste rather than values. For example, I find myself longing to sing music in church that more closely resembles what we sang in previous decades. 

Some years we have not done anything to celebrate my birthday, but that is not the case this year. I've never received a birthday gift from one of the kids before, but this year Nadia and Ian together paid for a $10 Kindle book for me. I haven't been with a sibling near my birthday in I can't remember how many years, but Wendy took me out for dinner last week as an early birthday celebration. Nadia needed some new clothes for our vacation, and most things are 50% off at the thrift store on Wednesdays. We hadn't been there since last summer. Yeseterday afternoon I took the kids to the thrift store and then we used a coupon for a free birthday meal at Red Robin when the kids and I had dinner at Red Robin before we went to church. My friend Cheri, who turned 65 in January, is planning to take me out to lunch next Monday while the kids are at gym class. And I made plans for the five of us (plus Paul's dad) to spend some time in Lancaster today. We have tickets to see David at Sight and Sound, and we're planning to have lunch at Shady Maple (a first for Paul and the kids), tour the replica of the Tabernacle, and tour Wheatland, the home of President Buchanan. I had made similar plans for April 21, 2020 (Esther instead of David), but those were cancelled because of COVID. It seems far more probable the plans will actually come to fruition today. I'm thankful for the fifty years that the Lord has given me so far. Knowing my brother only made it to his 35th birthday, I don't take these years for granted. If I were to live as long as my mother did, I would have 21 more years left to live. I hope to use whatever time the Lord gives me wisely. 

Thankful Thursday

1. My friend, Cheri, joined the kids and I at our service project on Friday afternoon. We packed hygiene kits for Voice of the Martyrs for 3+ hours on Friday afternoon. We were making room in the warehouse so volunteers can begin packing kits for Christian Aid Ministries for Ukrainians.  

2. The kids stayed with the Schrecks from 12pm on Saturday through 8:50am on Sunday. They attended Isaiah's last Upward basketball game for the season and also visited Reptiland with them. A baby kangaroo was at Reptiland on Saturday. 

3. Paul and I went on our first date in 49 months! Hopefully we will not wait anywhere near that long before our next date. If my ankle fully recovers, I'd like to go ballroom dancing sometime this year. Paul and I attended a touring Broadway performance of Fiddler on the Roof in Hershey. Fiddler on the Roof was the very first musical that I saw aside from church productions. I saw it at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster during a high school band trip. Paul hadn't ever seen the musical and only saw the classic movie for the first-time last year. We planned to have dinner at Applebee's, but because of a wait for a table and the traffic we sat in when exiting the Hershey Theatre, we ended up just getting food at a drive-thru at Wendy's because Milo would have been locked up in his crate for too many hours. It's been 4+ years since Paul and I ate a meal just the two of us that wasn't eaten in a vehicle so I hope we can also accomplish that feat sometime this year. We used a code for a free On Demand movie with Redbox to watch An American Underdog, which is about Kurt Warner. I haven't watched any football games in a couple of years, but the only two movies I've watched so far in 2022 have been about football players or coaches. Milo slept in our bed on Saturday night. I'm grateful he usually sleeps with Ian or Nadia.

4. I had another 25-minute massage on my right calf and foot on Monday while the kids were at their gym class. The bad news is that on Monday night the pain came back in part of my foot. The very good news is that the tendon which has been very tight for 6+ months is much looser. Progress! I took a longer walk on Monday afternoon with Oliver and Milo, maybe that is why the pain returned? The massage therapist said I should wait two weeks to return for my third 25-minute massage.

5. I'm taking Nadia on a date tonight to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Some of her friends from church are in the musical. 

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul and I enjoyed some pie during our Sunday School class this past Sunday. There were three pieces left of the lemon meringue pie when I brought it back home. Nadia and I enjoyed eating them over the last few days. 

2. Nadia has been doing a little more cooking/baking than usual lately of her own initiative. This week she made hamantaschen cookies, which happened to be perfect timing as yesterday was Purim. She loves those cookies but not too many of the rest of us do so I think next time she wants to make those I'll have her cut the recipe down. 

3. Ian has been enjoying Python coding so much that he has begun writing his own programs in addition to completing the exercises in the book. 

4. Paul's dad came up again on Monday. I enjoyed chatting with Tab during the kids' gym class, and then Pop Pop took the kids to Bonanza for lunch before coming back to play with the kids for a few hours. He did Snap Circuits with Oliver and worked on building and programming a different Lego robot with Ian. 

5. We had snow and cold weather on Saturday and Sunday, but then we've had gorgeous (much warmer) weather the last few days. I took a short walk on Monday with Milo and again with Oliver and Milo yesterday. 

6. I don't think that time necessarily "heals all wounds," but for me personally time definitely has helped ease the grief over losing my mom, brother, and mother-in-law over the last several years. Maurice passed away in early March three years ago, and my mom's birthday was March 20. I sent four sympathy cards out this week - one to a woman who delivered a stillborn baby boy during the 2nd trimester, a woman in our church whose dad passed away last week, a couple in our church whose twenty-five-year-old son passed away, and to a woman in our church whose mom passed away last week. Earlier this month a fifth-grade boy in our school district was killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. I'm praying for each of these families as they grieve. Although I still miss all three of our loved ones who passed away in the last 5+ years, I'm grateful that I know I will be able to see them again one day. 

7. I had a 25-minute massage on my right foot and calf on Tuesday. I wish I had done so a lot sooner, but better late than never! What a difference!! The progress I've felt the last couple of days gives me some hope that I might be able to stand and walk a lot more in two months without excessive pain. My next massage appointment is scheduled for Monday while the kids are in gym class.

8. I've had a goal for a while to begin introducing the kids to Shakespeare, and finally this week we have begun studying A Midsummer's Night Dream. The kids aren't too enthralled yet, but hopefully their appreciation will grow with time. Also, speaking of books although we still liked A Place to Hang the Moon better, we also enjoyed The Last Cuentista, which was the book that won the most recent Newberry Award. 

9. Prices are pretty frightening in general these days. I paid $75 for gas on Monday morning. Ouch. I intended to buy some yogurt yesterday evening, but the price for the generic brand had jumped more than 60% in one week. I didn't buy any. I placed a small order at Sam's Club to pick up on the way home from Nadia's drama class on Tuesday. Some of the prices at Sam's are good, and some are not, but I was very pleased to find out that their price for romaine hearts is much better than what I usually pay. Nadia was thrilled because I came home with more romaine than I usually do. I try to rotate through the recipes and not repeat them more than 3 times a year, but I might need to make an exception for chicken wraps. Everyone in the family really enjoys them. I make mine a salad without a tortilla. I love it when I find something that is healthy, easy to make, and everyone likes it! 

Spring Forward

This weekend we change our clocks again. Paul never likes losing an hour. As a parent I have found that falling backward is harder for the kids to adjust to than springing forward, but now that Ian has changed to being a kid who likes to sleep in, I don't think "falling backward" an hour will be as challenging as it was in the past. March is one of those months in our state where the weather is typically ALL over the map. Just this week we've had temps as high as the 70's (yahoo!!!) and then it snowed on Wednesday and Saturday. I did take my first walk in six months on Monday. I didn't go nearly as far as I would have gone prior to breaking my leg and there was a lot more pain involved, but I just couldn't stay inside on such a pretty day. Next week, on my mom's birthday, it will officially be spring. Winter is my least favorite season, so I always eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring. Yvonne and Joshua flew to Maryland to be home during Jenna's spring break. Yvonne, Joshua, Jenna, and Toby were planning to come up yesterday and leave today, but when they learned that we were supposed to get snow today, they changed their plans and spent 24 hours with us starting at 5:30pm on Thursday. They met us at the ice-skating rink for the second half of the kids' ice-skating party. Because of our guests, I gave the kids the day off of school yesterday. I don't usually cook a hot breakfast, but because we had guests, I made a bacon cheese frittata for breakfast yesterday and chicken parmesan for dinner. Not long after they left, the kids and I left to attend a worship service that our church holds four times a year on a Friday night. Today we are just staying at home sweet home all day long, which hasn't happened for me since March 1. Tomorrow we're having pie day at Sunday School since it's one day before Pi Day (3/14), and I signed up to bring a lemon meringue pie so that is one item on my to do list for the day. 

I haven't written a gratitude list since February 24, so here goes:

1. Margie had her sixth round of chemo, which means she's DONE! Her completion of chemo is a much happier ending than my mom experienced in 2016. 

2. I was pleased with Nadia's standardized test scores. I was nervous about how she would do on the math test. It was her lowest score, but I was fine with the score she received. Next year we get a break from standardized tests because 7th and 9th graders don't need to take a test, and I am going to consider Oliver to be repeating fourth grade, which means we'll wait a year on having him take the 5th grade test.

3. Ian and Nadia did well on the written portion of the Bible quizzing on James on February 26. We had memorized James 1-4 at that point which helped them out!

4. Nadia got a 95% on her physical science test yesterday, which was on electricity and magnetism.

5. I attended a women's conference that was broadcasting a simulcast from Texas on March 4-5. The church that hosted the event didn't charge anyone a dime, and they really went above and beyond providing nice touches to the event such as fresh flowers at the table, very delicious food both days, etc. The speakers included Francis Chan, Jennie Allen, Curt Thompson, Ann Voskamp, a pastor who spoke live from Ukraine, etc. They asked for donations to an organization called Illuminations which is working to coordinate the efforts of ten different Bible translation organizations around the world. They estimate that by 2033 (or sooner) the Bible will be translated in EVERY language on the globe which was astounding to me because I know there are still MANY people around the world who still have no way to access a Bible in their language. Last year women around the world who "attended" the conference gave over 2 million dollars towards translating the Bible into some of the languages spoken in Iran, and the same thing happened this year! It's obviously a VERY risky activity to work on translating the Bible in Iran. My friend, Cheri, attended the event with me, which made it even better! We have seen each other on four different occasions so far this year and it's only March 12! That's far more often than usual.

6. The homeschool gym class resumed on Monday. We hadn't participated in it since the spring of 2019. I enjoyed chatting with Tab during the 90 minutes the kids were in gym class. Paul's dad watched the kids in the gym, took them to lunch, and the worked with Ian on programming the Lego robot. Ian has worked on the Lego robot more since he was here. He's made three of the five different types of robots so far.

7. It was lovely to be able to have my sister, Jenna, Toby, and Joshua at our house for about 24 hours this week. We definitely see them more while they are living in Quito than we did when they lived in Turkey. This is primarily due to the fact that their kids are older and need to be in the US to attend college, get their driver's licenses, work at Chick-Fil-A, take the SATs, etc. Yvonne and the kids plan to come back the end of May and stay through some time in August. Yvonne told me I should buy a "tennis elbow" brace for my right warm, which should relieve the pain I have had in that elbow for almost 6 months due to injuring it when I wasn't able to use my right leg. As for my foot, Yvonne pointed out the places where I still have inflammation and tightness and suggested that I use massage and also ice to decrease the pain. She suggested a massage therapist might be more helpful than a physical therapist at this point as she thinks I have probably regained full range of motion. She also suggested I might need to use a knee walker on our vacation in May. I really hope that's not the case. I hope that massage plus ice can bring about a lot of improvement over the next two months. 

8. Although it didn't count as one of her "dates" with a parent, I took Nadia to see Les Misérables at a local high school last Saturday afternoon. I also am planning to take her to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers later this month. The kids and I had to wear masks and they had everyone really spread out when we saw Secret Garden in February. There wasn't any social distancing at Les Misérables, the crowd was MUCH bigger, and no masks were required. I am very thankful for the easing of the COVID regulations.

9. Paul's brother took Oliver to Winter Jam last week at PSU. Nadia and Ian could have attended with the youth group, but for whatever reason they didn't sign up to go. Oliver is too young to go with the youth group, and one of his favorite artists (Skillet) was part of the tour. Uncle Al made the evening very special for Oliver. He liked the food they ate, Al bought him a t-shirt, and they attended a meet and greet with some of the artists. One of the highlights for Oliver was when Matthew West was walking up to the stage, he walked through and aisle. One of the people whom he gave a high five to was Oliver! 

10. Albeit I am ready for spring weather, Oliver is having fun playing in the snow today. 

11. I love my new laptop. If my old laptop had continued to work, I wouldn't have asked for a new one, but wow the new one is much faster! I don't think my new microwave is an improvement over the one that died, but at least it consistently works, which couldn't be said for the old one.