Thankful Thursday

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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! 

Winding down

Our 2023-24 school year is almost complete. We already finished history, Life of Fred, Fix it Grammar, and the classes we were doing in our co-op. We had a dress rehearsal at 5:00 last night for our production of Alice, and put it on for the parents and some other family members at 6:00. After the show was over, we shared a meal together. We didn't have a set, but we had some props and costumes. The kids did a great job. Nadia had a LOT of lines to memorize, and she did a great job of projecting as we didn't use any microphones. Ian, who played the Mad Hatter, was definitely the funniest character. Julianna was sick, but her older sister filled in at the last minute as the Queen of Hearts and the March Hare. She had to read her lines as obviously she didn't have any time to memorize them. She did a great job with her part albeit she only joined us at the last minute. Nadia and Ian have also finished their art class at MCS. Today they had their last chorus rehearsal, and this evening they had their last concert for the school year. Field trips are a constant for us all year long. For example, over the next two weeks we plan to go to Hopewell Furnace NHS, Emergency Preparedness Day, a production of Little Women, Young Eagles flight, Shaver's Creek Environmental Center, Monocacy National Battlefield, Wolf Trap National Park, and Maggie Walker NHS. Although some things will continue throughout the summer such as reading and listening to audiobooks (all three), practicing the piano (Ian), and practicing the guitar (Nadia), here are the things that the kids need to finish to completely wrap up this school year:

1. Ian and Nadia need to finish Algebra 2. Ian should finish next week. It's going to take Nadia longer than that.
2. Nadia needs to finish Marine Biology, and she has until June 9 to finish her World History course through Grand Canyon University. 
3. Oliver needs to master the spelling of twenty-four more words.
4. All three of them are at varying places in demonstrating to me that they know the countries and capitals of Europe and Africa.
5. Ian and Nadia will continue to prepare for the Bible quizzing nationals which will be taking place in New York June 19-22. Ian wants to memorize the book of Colossians between now and then as he was recently told that he'll be on our church's "A" team. Nadia will be the captain of the "B" team. At the recent quiz in Indiana, the team Nadia was on placed first, Ian's team placed third, Ian tied for 2nd place in the individual competition, and Ian and Nadia were in 5th and 6th places in the written portion of the competition. Nadia won $30, and Ian won $40 at that competition. 

Because school has been winding down, I've been scheduling other types of appointments. Nadia had her first guitar lesson last week. While Nadia and Ian were in Indiana for a Bible quizzing competition, I took the van for an oil change, tire rotation, and annual inspection in the morning and then that afternoon took the van to the Honda dealer for a safety recall I had received notification about in January. While the van was being serviced in the morning, I got my first pedicure in five years. My dad gave me $100 for my birthday, and I decided to follow the advice Margie had given me when she was alive about using it for something I wouldn't normally have gotten. My first plan was to use the money towards a crockpot because the one my mom gave me in 2016 died recently, but for me a crockpot is a necessity not a splurge. I decided to use the birthday money towards my nails instead. Not that a pedicure cost $100! I'm planning to use more of that money towards a manicure next week when I take Paul's car in for an annual inspection, oil change, and tire rotation. Tomorrow Nadia and I are getting our hair cut. She typically gets hers done once a year, and I usually go 3-4 times a year. I cut Paul, Oliver, Pop Pop, and Ian's hair. I'm scheduled to have a mammogram on Thursday morning, and Ian has a cardiology appointment next Monday. Year round the boys go to the orthodontist once a month, Ian has a weekly 45-minute piano lesson, and Nadia has recently started taking a weekly 30-minute guitar lesson in Lewisburg. Ian is working on some music he's found online as well as Chopin's Military Polonaise, and a piano duet arrangement of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony. He's playing the primo part, and our neighbor, Addi, is playing the secondo part with him. 

Planning lesson plans, future vacations, and field trips is something I do regularly throughout the year. This morning, I booked an Airbnb for two nights in Houghton for Paul, Oliver, and I so we can watch part of the quizzing competition. We could also have stayed in the dorms like Ian and Nadia, but it was unappealing to us to pay $18.50 per person per night to stay in a dorm that doesn't have air conditioning. Sometimes those plans lead me to apply for a new credit card. This time I applied for an IHG credit card because the points we will be awarded after the first month of using it will be enough to pay for three nights at a Holiday Inn on Long Island in August, and whenever you use points for three nights, they give you a fourth night for free. The card has a $99 annual fee, but the card also reimburses up to $100 toward the cost of TSA Precheck, and Paul and I have a TSA Precheck appointment next month. This means we won't really be paying an annual fee, and we'll be able to stay for four nights for free on Long Island at a hotel that costs more than we usually pay per night. In the past we always stayed at Aunt Janet's home, but she moved to Reno a few years ago. It's much easier for us to travel to Long Island than to Reno. She spends a month on Long Island in August at a friend's house. We are looking forward to a wide variety of experiences over the next 3.5 months before we start the next school year. 

Thankful Thursday

 

1. I took the boys to the orthodontist on Monday. It was a very quick appointment, and he said that I don't need to return for 6 months because Ian needs to wear his retainer longer before the next step and Oliver isn't ready to begin. 

2. I used to shop the clearance racks at department stores several times a year (primarily JCPenney or Sears), but since malls have pretty much become a thing of the past, I haven't done that in several years. On Monday I used a $5 off coupon at Kohl's to get a winter dress for Nadia for $7.41 that was originally $68. I get most of the kids' clothes at yard sales, but it's not always easy to find dresses for Nadia now that she's older. It was very easy to get dresses for her at yard sales when she was younger.

3. Nadia and Ian really enjoyed the color war event at youth group the previous Wednesday night as well roller skating with the youth group last night. They also attended youth group at FBC on Sunday night. 

4. All three kids enjoyed VBS last week. Ian was thrilled to be one of the eleven children picked to "plaster the pastor" with paint on Thursday night. 

5. We bought a lot of fruit on Monday at ALDI. Eating plums, grapes, cherries, nectarines, peaches, and other types of fresh fruit is something Nadia and I really, really enjoy about the summer! Oliver has discovered he likes honeydew as much as I do. His obsession with watermelon has waned some this year.

6. Peppa's eye healed on its own. Whew! So glad we didn't need to take her to the vet, and also thankful she seems fine now.

7. We are thankful we were able to purchase a minivan during this time when it's challenging to do so. The kids and I like it a lot more than the Sienna for a variety of reasons. I'm also thankful for the 9 years we have been able to use the Sienna.

8. The kids enjoyed going to Dairy Queen on Tuesday night. It wasn't a cheap dinner! Unfortunately they didn't have any brownies as Nadia and I wanted to get a Blizzard that had brownie in it, but we still enjoyed what we selected. It brought back memories as I remember going to DQ when I was a child in Texas. When I was a principal, DQ actually delivered school lunches to our students once a week. Those school meals were FAR cheaper than what we paid on Tuesday night. 

9. Helen joined us for lunch and swimming yesterday after art camp. 

10. I installed 60 Dig Defence barriers around the fence yesterday morning so that Milo *hopefully* won't be able to escape. He wants to spend more time outside than he usually does. Paul needs to put something on the bottom of the two gates, and then Milo can have free reign in the backyard without a leash when he wants to go outside!

11. Paul is generally very good at rolling with the punches. He had a lot of practice with that this week. On Monday he drove to Reading for naught, he had to drive to Stroudsburg on Tuesday evening to sign the title, and I entered the wrong month for his dentist appointment. He showed up on Tuesday morning when actually his appointment is in August. OOPS! He was very gracious about my error. Thanks, honey! Would you believe the woman who failed to tell me on Monday that the van had been sold on Saturday night texted me on Tuesday asking if Paul had come down on Monday and said the vehicle was still there. What in the world?!? I told her that Paul had left work early and driven two hours in vain only to be told the van had been sold on Saturday evening. Oi vey!

12. Nadia and Ian have been enjoying the art camp this week. I want to frame at least one of Nadia's paintings. All of the projects have been with watercolor. It's the first time I've ever dropped my kids off at a public school! There are only eight kids in the art class - Helen, Ian, and Nadia are three of the eight.

13. Oliver's chin collided with a wall in the swimming pool yesterday. At first I thought only his lip was bleeding, but there was also a gash under his chin. Thankfully, our neighbor was also at the pool. She said Nadia, Ian, and Helen could stay for another hour. Helen's mom came an hour later to pick her up, and our  neighbor took Nadia and Ian home along with her two kids and a friend of her daughter. Years ago when Ian had a gash under his chin at the ice skating rink, I took him to the Urgent Care, and they said the only could treat with glue. Since his wound required sutures, I had to then take him to the ER. Thankfully the policy has changed over the years as they did stitch Oliver's wound at the Urgent Care this afternoon. We had a very small wait. Oliver was a trooper because wow it looked very painful to receive the injection in his face to numb the area. He screamed but was in the words of the doctor "very compliant." Unfortunately, the stitches meant we had to cancel our plans to visit DelGrosso's today (and we had invited four other people to join us). He can't swim until they come out. Hopefully he will be more careful in the future! I'll attempt to reschedule the DelGrosso's trip for sometime in August. The tickets will cost more then as today they were on sale for only $16 (half off). 

Last Day of School!

Today is officially our last day of school. Tomorrow afternoon we will have our annual evaluation and the boys will take the Woodcock Johnson test. Our previous evaluations were done by homeschool moms that we already knew. This will be our first one done by someone who doesn't already know us. It's possible our paths crossed in the past at some point as she was an adjunct professor in the special education department at Bloomsburg University, which is the same university where I taught for 10 years. Here are some of the highlights of our school year:

1. Oliver learned how to write his uppercase and lowercase letters in cursive.

2. Nadia completed a science textbook independently for the first time. She and Ian had done science with me the last several years. She also took tests in science for the first time. Her study skills improved over the course of the year, and she ended on a high note by achieving a 100% on her last test!

3. The kids completed 47 different art projects through Creating a Masterpiece that included a wide variety of media - ink, charcoal, pencil, colored pencil, pastels, watercolor, etc. 

4. Nadia completed a Personal Finance course by Dave Ramsey as well as a photography course by Kyle Schultz.

5. We memorized Matthew chapters 5-7, read half of the Old Testament, learned about various religions and cults, and completed seven inductive Bible study workbooks together. 

6. Ian and Nadia learned to identify all of the countries of the world on a map with 100% accuracy, all of the provinces of Canada, and almost all of the capitals of the world (all except for some islands in the Caribbean and in Oceania) using Seterra.com. 

7. Ian finished level 5 and and made progress in the level 6 recital and lesson books of Alfred's Basic Piano Course. Nadia had weekly private voice lessons via Zoom through Susquehanna University, and she participated in two theatre productions via Zoom - Nancy Blue and Bad Auditions by Bad Actors.

8. All three kids learned more Spanish vocabulary through curriculum from Talkbox.mom, and Nadia participated in a bi-weekly ASL class through the Public Library for Union County on Zoom during the second semester.

9. We watched one episode of World Watch News each day (M-F), celebrated 16 holidays from around the world, read at least 542 picture or nonfiction books from the library (most related to social studies and a few related to science), and tried 149 new foods from around the world.

10. We listened to 129 chapter books together (I read a few of those aloud but mostly they were audiobooks). Nadia read more than 65 chapter books (six of which were each over 500 pages long). Ian read at least 51 chapter books. Oliver transitioned from reading easy readers out loud to reading chapter books silently this year. He read 16 chapter books.

11. The kids earned 27 junior ranger badges through National Parks during the school year.

12. Oliver is making good progress with learning his multiplication facts. My goal is that he knows them all by the end of May.

13. We went on far fewer field trips this year. Most of them took place during our vacation in October and some were virtual field trips. Many were outdoors. Still we have been on 22 field trips this school year and have plans for nine more in May and June. In Pennsylvania the school year for homeschoolers can start as early as July 1 and must end no later than the end of June. 

14. Nadia and Ian wrote several different types of poems for the first time (haiku, diamante, cinquain, acrostic, limerick, and shape). They also wrote several fairy tales in which they changed the setting to a different continent. For example, Nadia wrote a Chinese version of Cinderella. Finally, Nadia and Ian each researched twelve countries and wrote 5-7 paragraphs about each country.

15. Usually I have a lot to document for physical education - homeschool gym class, ice skating lessons, Upward basketball, etc. This year the kids only had about three homeschool gym classes (outdoors), went skiing once, and went swimming quite a bit in July and August. They (especially Oliver) ride bikes, scooters, and rollerblades on a regular basis and sometimes take a walk with me. All three kids are registered for 8 hours of tennis lessons next week. I am open to registering them for another week or two of lessons in May if they are interested in doing that. 

Although I thoroughly enjoy homeschooling my children, I also enjoy the summer break. With my "extra" time I'm planning on going for more walks, listening to more audiobooks, making progress in the videography course, making progress with learning to speak Spanish, finishing planning our fall vacation, and finishing planning out the next school year. I also want to give using the Instant Pot another whirl as it's just been sitting in the basement. Although I've had weeks where I only had the boys at home and Nadia was at camp, it's been much rarer for me to only have Nadia at home, but that will be the case the end of June when the boys are at overnight camp together. Nadia and I are already making plans to make that "Mom, Nadia, and Milo week" special. Nadia will be spending a few days in Maryland with her cousins in May, going to Indiana and Oklahoma for Bible quizzing events in May and June, and will spend a week at overnight girl's camp the first week of August, so I'm thankful that I'll have a week with extra mom and daughter time since she'll be away from home for three weeks total this summer.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Grandma is being transferred back to the nursing home today from the hospital. Hopefully this time she can stay there longer than two days! She will be in quarantine for fourteen days at the nursing home.

2. Milo's surgery was uneventful. The vet said to keep him in the crate with an Elizabethan collar for two weeks aside from when we took him for walks on a leash. We by no means have followed those instructions. I'm sure Milo is very grateful we haven't. We use a pool noodle collar when he's in the crate overnight but otherwise we just watch him like a hawk. He finished his pain medication today, and the swelling is going down at his surgical site. So far he hasn't marked the territory inside the house, and he hasn't been wearing a belly band. 

These two boys have so much fun with empty boxes!

3. The kids really enjoyed watching two of the Left Behind movies together this weekend. Nadia has started reading the first book (the adult not the kids' version), which the first movie was based off of. 

4. I only have to turn the key in Ian's expander for one more week. The expander could have been removed next Monday, but the orthodontist won't be in that day, and he didn't have any available appointments for the following Monday either. So the plan is for the expander to be removed and braces to be put on Ian's teeth on May 3.

Nadia's painting

5. The boys really liked the phyllo meat pie that I made on Sunday. Ian said to me, "you definitely have to make this again." It's a recipe that is commonly served in Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Armenia, Tunisia, Bulgaria, etc. Tonight I made cheese enchiladas for the first time. I made the sauce for the first time, and let me tell you I'll be using this sauce recipe again the next time I make any type of enchilada. Usually I make chicken enchiladas, but these enchiladas that I made tonight were the tastiest I've ever made. YUM! Thankfully all three kids also liked them! Paul hasn't had dinner yet so the verdict is still out on whether he'll like them or not. 

6. My dentist appointment on Friday was uneventful. Nadia was grateful to earn a little babysitting money. 

Nadia and I have been remodeling the Death Star.

7. The kids and I enjoyed having dinner at Red Robin on Saturday. Nadia was grateful for the shoes and clothes that I bought her at a thrift store that day. She almost wears the same size shoes as me! 

8. Nadia and Ian have been having a grand time building with Legos in Ian's room lately.

Nadia and Ian have been working on this 6 story Lego structure.

9. Some of the trees have blossoms! 

10. Ian has really been enjoying reading the book Scary Stories for Young Foxes. 

A typical homeschooling day

Some homeschoolers have a tradition of recording what a typical day is like each year. One of my friends shared hers recently, so I thought it was time for me to do the same again. Here is a description of our day together on March 9, 2021. I'm not sure how many times I've written a post like this, but here's one I wrote in April 2018. 

I usually get up sometime between 6:15 and 7:00. This morning I got up at 6:20 and had showered and gotten dressed before Ian and Milo got up at 6:50. Milo typically gets up between 6:45-7:00, and Ian immediately hands him to me. I hold Milo and get his leash on him while Ian goes to the bathroom and puts on his shoes and coat. While Ian was taking Milo out this morning, I blow dried my hair. 

Sometimes Nadia sleeps in until 7:30, but if she hasn't gotten ahead with her math, then she likes to start her math promptly at 7:00, which means some mornings she gets up at 6:45 to get a shower prior to doing her math. Since we haven't been able to take a shower in our master bathroom for several years,  Nadia  and I have worked out a system that we take our showers on alternating mornings because we otherwise we're both wanting to use the shower at about the same time. I entered the password on the laptop so Nadia could start doing math on Khan academy and prepared my oatmeal and Ian's cold cereal. Paul usually leaves the house before we're up, but sometimes in the winter he doesn't leave for work as early and joins some of us for breakfast. This morning he hadn't left yet so we listened to some of Peace Child while Paul, Ian, and I were eating breakfast and Nadia was doing math. We also finished listening to Julie of the Wolves, discussed the meaning of ten vocabulary words from their grammar text, and started listening to Frog Princess by ED Baker. Oliver came down and ate some oatmeal while Nadia was finishing her math, and then he played with the Snap Circuits set. We interrupted the stories many times while I helped Nadia with her math. The boys also got dressed and brushed their teeth while Nadia continued to do her math. Ian also practiced the piano, and Oliver did part of his math lesson.

After Nadia had finished her math, gotten dressed, and taken Milo out, she started eating her breakfast around 8:30 while we all listened and discussed Judges 1-2 and Psalm 115. During this school year we've been working through the Old Testament. After the Scripture reading was over, I read Elementary Physics lesson 11 (Life of Fred) to Nadia and Ian and they answered the questions at the end. Then all four of us watched today's episode of World Watch News together. These are about ten minutes long. We also read about a country or another religion each day. Today we read about Eritrea using VOM's prayer guide. 

Nadia does science independently this year for the first time, and I've been giving her tests for the first time because starting in the fall of 2022 I have to begin giving her grades in every subject. The boys were learning about valuable minerals today (gold, silver, copper, diamonds, etc.), and they enjoyed the "mining" activity where I asked them to try to remove the chocolate chips from a cookie using only toothpicks. I don't usually let them have a cookie before lunch! While the boys were finishing science, Nadia began reading up in her room with Milo. She has to read at least 30 minutes a day from one of the books I have selected; she had been reading from Audrey of the Outback (an Australian version of Pippi Longstocking), but today she chose to read from Gold Rush Girl by Avi. The rest of the day when she is reading she can read whatever she chooses. She owns quite a few books, and I also get her more from the library. The library books she requested recently are by Beverly Lewis. While Nadia was reading, the boys each did their spelling. Oliver is in All About Spelling Level 3, and Ian is in All About Spelling Level 6. After he finished his spelling, Ian went upstairs and read until lunchtime. Today he read some of Three Go Searching by Patricia M. St. John for his required reading and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel for his leisure reading. While Nadia and Ian were reading, I worked with Oliver on his math lesson which focused on multiplication and division. My goal is for him to learn his times tables by the end of August.

After Oliver finished his math around 11:00, he took Milo out. After he came back in, Nadia and Ian came downstairs and the four of us had lunch while listening to more of The Frog Princess on a CD I got at the library on Monday. Over the course of the day we listened to that book for about one hour. After lunch we reviewed Spanish vocabulary for about 20 minutes. We were focusing on phrases related to going on a walk. 

From 12:00-1:00 Nadia played with Legos in Ian's room. I read the boys three picture books from 12:00-12:20 picture books from the library while they ate some pretzels. From 12:20-12:40 Oliver sat on my lap and read the last two chapters of a book about the Wreck of the Endurance out loud to me while Ian walked Milo and read a little bit more. From 12:40-1:00 Ian and I did some math together (Beast Academy 5C) and Oliver had a 20 minute turn using the Nintendo Switch.

From 1:00-1:45 the kids participated in a webinar about Holi put on by the Penn Museum. Part of the lesson involved them drawing a hibiscus, rose, marigold, and Palash tree. After the lesson was over, all four of us plus Milo went to the playground. The weather was perfect today! It was our first trip to a playground in many months, and it was Milo's very first time at a playground. A good time was had by all! The boys rode their bikes, and  Nadia, Milo, and I walked to playground. We talked to Grandma on the phone part of the time we were at the playground. I got the mail when we got home. Many times we only have junk mail that goes straight to the recycling bin, but today we received three things we appreciated in the mail. Nadia got a letter from her pen pal in Wisconsin. They each write each other two letters a month on average. We also received three Junior Ranger Badges from the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and six books to use when we celebrate Passover next month. We usually get two free books from PJ Our Way each month, but this was an added bonus for this month. 

After we came back inside, I sat with Ian to help him finish his math while Nadia played Minecraft in her bedroom from 3:20-4:20 while chatting on Zoom with her cousin, Rachel. They typically play Minecraft together twice a day - once when Rachel finishes her online schooling, and the last 45 minutes before Nadia goes to bed at night. During that time Ian played the Switch for 45 minutes and Oliver played outside with kids in the neighborhood. At 4:30 Nadia had her weekly 30 minute voice lesson over Zoom. The kids haven't been able to use the trampoline for a little over 3 months because of a small tear in the mat. By the time the repair kit arrived in the mail, the weather was too cold. The trampoline was covered with snow for the vast majority of the past three months. They had been waiting for Paul to do the repair. Since it was in the low 60's today, I decided it was warm enough to attempt the repair. Paul doesn't usually get home from work until 8pm (M-F), and it's supposed to be cold again starting on Saturday. So I attempted the repair today. Hopefully I did a good job. It has to dry for 24 hours so around 4pm tomorrow we can see if I succeeded. It certainly was a messy job as I had to use a lot of glue, plus I had to kneel under the trampoline part of the time. After I finished cleaning up my hands (which was no small undertaking), I began cooking dinner. Some things I cook take hours to prepare. Thankfully we were having a simple dinner of croque monsieur (ham, swiss cheese, with a béchamel sauce) and applesauce tonight. 

Once Nadia's lesson was over, it was almost time for dinner. In a typical week I cook three dinners by myself, Nadia helps me cook one dinner, Ian helps me cook one dinner, we get takeout pizza once, and we have leftovers once. I use an app for meal planning and have a long list of meals that we cycle through to avoid getting into a rut, plus we regularly try new recipes. I usually schedule one night when we have breakfast for dinner (this week it will be blini because they are celebrating Maslenitsa in Russia this week), one night when we have pasta (Nadia will make baked ziti this week), one night when we have a soup, stew, or salad, one night that we eat a "sandwich" of some sort (sloppy Joe, meatball sub, pulled pork, etc.), and the fifth night is something that doesn't fit into any of those categories. We listened to The Frog Princess some more during dinner. We listened to it for about one hour altogether today. 

After we all had finished eating and I started the dishwasher, Nadia and I took Milo for a 40 minute walk while Ian played Legos and Oliver played outside. Nadia, Milo, and I walked a little over 4 miles total today! After we got home, Nadia also played outside with some of the neighbors. Ian played with Legos, read, and had a 20 minute Switch turn. Oliver really enjoyed playing whiffle ball with the neighbors this evening. After Nadia came inside, she and Ian played Legos together. Once Oliver came inside, he and I chatted. He told me he was hungry. I don't usually let the kids eat after dinner, but I let him have a bowl of cereal after he got on his pajamas.

At 8:15 I called Nadia and Ian down for our family devotions. We just recently finished a two month study of the book of Daniel, and to continue the theme of future prophecy, we've started a study of Revelation. Tonight we read and discussed part of chapter one. After we prayed together, we tucked Oliver in to his bed around 8:30, and then I threw in a load of laundry. Nadia fed the guinea pigs and gave them water prior to her second session of the day of playing Minecraft with her cousin via Zoom. She's been choosing to play Minecraft with Rachel twice a day rather than watch TV lately. Oliver was the only one who watched a little TV today. He finished an Inspector Gadget movie on Disney+ today that he had started earlier this week. 

Some days our schoolwork takes longer than it did today. We do art through Creating a Masterpiece three times a week; that takes a good chunk of time. Whenever Nadia and Ian have a bridge to do in Life of Fred, then math takes a lot longer than usual. This week they will have a bridge on Thursday. We often read part of a chapter book for Social Studies - most recently one it was about Logical Fallacies, but we aren't reading one this week. However we don't typically do a webinar, and I counted that as our Social Studies today as the lesson was on archaeology and anthropology. Finally, I don't have Nadia and Ian do creative writing every single day. They weren't working on a writing project today. Usually Nadia is the first one day, Oliver is the second one done, and Ian is almost always the last one done with his school work. The boys don't use Zoom at all. Nadia uses it to talk to Rachel, for a weekly voice lesson, for a bi-weekly ASL lesson through the public library, and for two 2 hour long theatre rehearsals per week.

Paul carries Milo's crate up to Ian's bedroom each night. Nadia and Ian go to bed around 9:30 after Nadia takes Milo outside one last time. The kids each take him out 2-3 times per day. He used to spend a lot more time in his crate, but his behavior has been improving. Today the only time he was in his crate was when I was out repairing the trampoline. Nadia holds the guinea pigs when she's in her bedroom. Although technically one of the guinea pigs is Ian's, in reality Nadia is the only one who holds the guinea pigs. Because of Milo they have to stay in her bedroom. I usually go to bed shortly after Ian and Nadia go to bed, and that is when Paul usually eats his dinner.

So this is what life is currently like during a pandemic while homeschooling three kids in grades three, five, and seven. Our school year will be ending the end of April so our "summer" will be here before we know it! The main difference between this school year and the last seven school years has been that we've been at home far more - FAR fewer field trips, no Upward basketball, no ice skating lessons, no homeschool gym class, no choirs, no AWANA, no art class, etc. I can't believe that in the fall I will have TWO middle schoolers! I am still trying to decide whether I should hold Oliver back a grade or not. If I could go back in time, I would wait until he was six to start Kindergarten with him, but I can't go back in time. One decision I have never regretted, is our decision to homeschool the kids. I'm so, so glad that Paul had the idea to homeschool our kids and that I am able to be a full-time homeschooling mom. These precious years are just flying by far too fast! 

Lists and plans

I enjoy making plans and lists. As a homeschooling mom, I have plenty of opportunities to utilize those skills. There is menu planning which leads to online grocery orders or a grocery list if I'm shopping in person.  I have spent almost no time over the last year planning field trips, but that's usually something I really enjoy doing. Requesting library books is another regular task whether I'm requesting audiobooks from Overdrive or Hoopla or physical books from a local library. I check out hundreds of books a year from local libraries - mostly for the kids. Homeschooling three children involves making plans for each of them in various subjects. For example, we are using Creating a Masterpiece for art. I choose exactly which projects we'll do, and then I have to make sure we have all the art supplies that we will need to complete those projects. In recent months I've purchased watercolor pencils, inktense blocks, wooden eggs, various types of paper, and many other things for art. Buying Christmas gifts for thirty-two family members each year also involves a list.

Two lists I've been working on lately relate to Junior Ranger badges and future vacation plans. The kids have earned about 80 Junior Ranger badges thus far. In 2018 and 2019 they were earning them in person. They earned a few in person in 2020, but the vast majority of the ones they earned in 2020 and all of the ones they've earned so far in 2021 have been earned through the mail or online. Because of COVID, some national parks that previously only allowed children to earn badges in person have for at least the time being allowed kids to earn them from a distance. In some instances, they won't give you a physical badge if you earn it from home. I've been trying to only select those who will actually send you a physical badge or patch. My goal is 

for the kids to each earn at least 200 Junior Ranger badges. Because of COVID, some places haven't actually mailed us badges even though I mailed the booklets to them. Maybe we'll get them eventually? I realize some of the rangers are working remotely and may not have access to badges. I've picked out 133 badges that I'm planning to have the kids earn over the next four years (32 online or by mail and 101 in person), and I also have another list of another 37 that we might be able to visit at some point - mostly in NY, NJ, MD, or VA. Printing the booklets, keeping track of which child completed which booklet, mailing them at the Post Office, or scanning them and sending them by email are some of the efforts I put into the kids earning Junior Ranger badges. 

Nadia will be graduating from high school in 2026, which is a little more than five years from now. That is a sobering thought! It causes me to

want to be intentional about thinking through our future vacation plans. 2020 certainly taught us that all our plans can be scrapped right and left, but hopefully that won't be the norm for the next five years. I have done some reworking of previous plans in light of COVID and also in light of the vacations that were cancelled last year. Here is what I'm thinking at the moment:

1. This fall spend about 3 1/2 weeks on a long road trip that includes doing things in 18 states the kids haven't been in before. Some highlights would include Mammoth Cave (KY), US Space and Rocket Center (AL), Shiloh (TN), Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Chicago, and Detroit. 

2. Next year fly to Atlanta and spend some time in Georgia before driving to Florida and fly back from Tampa. This trip would be our usual length (between 1-2 weeks) and would add one state to the kids' list of states (Georgia). Highlights would include the Georgia Aquarium, fourteen National Parks in GA/FL, and three amusement parks. 

3. In the fall of 2023 I'd like us to take a 12 day vacation to New England and Canada. Since I was combining what had originally been planned as two different trips, I deleted a few stops such as Quebec City, Acadia, and some sites in CT/RI. Some of the stops are in states we've already visited (MA, NY, and the province of Ontario), but this trip would add three states (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont) and one province (Quebec) to their list. Highlights would include 20 National Parks, several science museums, a whale watching cruise, and some other historical sites in Salem, Boston, Ottawa, and Montreal. 

4. In 2024 I'm thinking we could fly out west to visit Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Portland, Mt. St. Helens, Seattle, Mt. Rainer, etc.  This trip would add three states to the kids' list (WA, OR, and NV) as they've already been to California. 

5. In the fall of 2025 spend about 2 weeks in England and France. 

Other trips that aren't included in this list would be shorter and closer to home such as in Philadelphia and D.C. I also want to take the kids on a short term missions trip sometime in the next 5 years - most likely to Guatemala. If we go on these trips, the kids will have actually done something in 43 states plus DC, Ontario, England, France, Guatemala, and Quebec. The seven states currently omitted include: Louisiana, Hawaii (which has been on my bucket list for many years), Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota, Kansas, and Missouri. It would be lovely if we could take the kids to the Caribbean at some point. Nadia was there in 2009 when she was 11 months old, Nadia and Ian were on a Caribbean cruise with us in 2011 as well as a trip to Grand Cayman in 2012, but they were too young to remember any of those trips. There are other places in the US that aren't included in the plans that would be great places to take the kids some day if possible such as Carlsbad Caverns, Glacier National Park, the Alamo, Space Center Houston, Acadia, Hoover Dam, Bryce Canyon, White Sands, Zion, and the Everglades. The kids have also expressed a desire to visit their cousins in Quito. If we make it to South America, I'd also like to meet at least some of the kids we currently sponsor as three of our five sponsored kids live in Bolivia and Peru. Our other two live in Kenya and Haiti. We might have to wait until we're in Heaven to meet our sponsored kids.

Goal Check-up

In four days we'll be entering the third month of the year so I thought I'd take the time to reflect on how we're doing with the 21 goals I set for 2021.

1. Paul took Oliver on a date this month. I told Oliver recently that when he learns all his times tables, he will earn an extra date with the parent of his choosing. Nadia and Ian are eagerly anticipating their dates.

2. We haven't been making much progress with increasing our use of Spanish. We need to get in gear!

3. The kids each earned one Junior Ranger badge in January, and they've earned four so far this month.

4. We memorized Matthew 6 over the last two months!

5. Nadia and Ian have each been cooking one dinner per week. For example, Nadia made beef noodle bake yesterday, and Ian will be making ham and cheese Stromboli on Saturday. 

6. Oliver did finish his cursive handwriting book. 

7. Nadia and Ian learned the location and capitals of all the countries in Europe and Oceania. They are working on Asia now. 

8. Milo has learned to obey a few commands (sit, down, leash, and come). If he wears a belly band, he only goes to the bathroom outside. He still tries to eat things he shouldn't (facial tissues are one of his favorites), but in general he's doing better with only chewing his toys. He's also doing better with not biting/nipping us as much, and in general he's doing better with not begging during meals.

9.  I haven't been completely regular with exercise, but I'm going in the right direction. Yesterday it got up to the low 50's!!! I took Milo on a 2.7 mile walk, and he actually had me running part of the time! I think he's going to be an excellent exercise buddy for me once the weather gets warmer. 

10. The kids have been doing art with Creating a Masterpiece three times a week lately. This week the kids did a pastel project (of hydrangeas) on Tuesday and started a colored pencil project (of a lion cub) today that they will finish tomorrow.

11. The kids and I finished Numbers, read all of Deuteronomy, more of Psalms, and we're nearing the end of Joshua. In our family devotions we've been studying Daniel for two months. We're about to start chapter 10 today. It's been the kids' first introduction to future prophecies. 

12. We've tried 33 new recipes so far in 2021. Over the next few days I'm planning on making Serbian potato moussaka, Hamantaschen, and phyllo meat pie for the first time.

We haven't made any progress toward the other nine goals yet. This week I decided to add another goal to the list even though that means I have 22 goals for 2021, ha ha. I have started a course to learn how to create cinematic home videos! Just as I have improved with my photography skills over the years, now I'm going to learn how to make MUCH nicer videos. I'm very excited about tackling this challenge after seeing what others have created! Hopefully I can create some videos that our family will treasure for years to come. 

Thankful Tuesday

1. Milo is making progress with not having accidents in the house. He had one accident on Friday, one accident on Saturday, zero accidents on Sunday,  two accidents last night, and two accidents today. We're hoping tomorrow can be another day with zero accidents. I'm also thankful that he was able to attend an individualized Puppy Kindergarten class today. We have several things to work with him on over the next two weeks before his next class. Honestly the class is more for US than him although they did also groom his face and clip his nails while we were there. I really hope that six months from now I think we made the right decision to get a dog. 

2. I bought myself a pair of boots at a yard sale this summer, and I have really, really been enjoying wearing them on Sundays to church. Nylons really don't keep my legs very warm when I'm wearing a skirt or dress to church in the winter. Now I just need to buy myself a pair of snow boots because Nadia has claimed mine.

3. We finally found a bone that will keep Milo's attention for a longer time than another other bone or chew toy that we've purchased for him over the past 3+ weeks. This puppy is expensive!

4. Millie's knee replacement surgery went well yesterday. She came home from the hospital today! Paul's mom was transferred to her usual hospital yesterday, and today she was in less pain thankfully. Margie's chemo treatment went smoothly today. We're praying that the side effects won't be too bad.

5. Each December our church has a special "Christmas blessing" offering that is used to build wells in Africa. The wells each cost $10K. This year our pastor set a goal of hoping that $100K would be given toward the wells, and over $120K was given! The church partners with another organization that matches what we raise each December, which means what we gave will translate to 24 new wells in Africa! Each well services an entire village - typically around 750 people, which means the money people in our church gave last month will help about 18,000 people have clean water! PTL! Our pastor went to Sierra Leone once to watch one of the wells being dug; he said the women and children began singing and dancing when the water spurted out of the ground. Here in the USA we take clean water for granted, but clean water is something we should be very thankful for. It is really a blessing to have a part in helping others around the world.

6. The kids really, really loved the rolls I made for dinner one night last week. I think those Portuguese rolls plus the focaccia bread are their two favorite breads I have ever made. Previously their favorite was the garlic cheddar biscuits I make that are similar to the ones served at Red Lobster. I also really liked the French apple tarte Normande that I made last week. YUM! We tried 91 new foods in the last four months! The boys really loved the Yorkshire pudding. The word "pudding" doesn't seem to fit, but rethat's what it's called. 

7. The kids are enjoying the new snow we got on Sunday. After almost exactly two weeks of no kids playing together in the neighborhood, the kids have played outside with other kids the past two days.

8. Yesterday we finished our 700th chapter book as far as the books I've read aloud to the kids or we've listened to an audiobook together. It took as a few weeks more than 8 years to accomplish that. Enjoying books with the kids is one of my favorite parts of being a mom. Right now we're listening to Peter and the Shadow Thieves on CD from the library, and I'm reading the kids Inspiring Entrepreneurs. Yesterday we read about Elijah McCoy, which is where the phrase "the real McCoy" originated. I'm learning right along with the kids sometimes! 

9. On Saturday I finally got around to doing some spackling and touch-up painting around the house. I don't even want to admit how long that had been on my to do list. Some of the dents were recent from the dog, but the one that had been on my to do list for a long time was in the living room where Ian had banged the guinea pigs' food bin into the wall. 

10. Our pastor preached a sermon from the book of Jude this past Sunday, which is not a book I've heard too many sermons on over the years. Next week he's starting a series on the book of Ruth. I greatly prefer exegetical sermons to topical ones so I'm grateful!

11. Nadia finished Math 7 on Teaching Textbooks right before Christmas break began. I had planned to have her do Pre-Algebra on Teaching Textbooks next, but I decided it was time to do something different with her for math. We're giving Khan Academy a whirl for the next few months. So far it's working out well. Also, math is going MUCH better with Oliver now that we've gone back to the same math textbook I used with his siblings. Hopefully he will use the Beast Academy Levels 2 and 3 at some point because I bought them just for Oliver. Ian is doing well with Beast Academy Level 5 at the moment. Math is usually the trickiest subject for all three kids so I'm grateful that at the moment it seems to be going smoothly. 

12. The Steelers made it to the Playoffs!

13. I hadn't bought pumpernickel bread in a long time. I really do enjoy a peanut butter and honey sandwich on pumpernickel bread. Yum!

14. Aunt Janet gave me some money for Christmas, and I used it toward a personalized framed map which I will fill with pictures of us in each state. I've ordered prints to fill seventeen of the states with photos. If we go out west in the fall, we should be able to add quite a few more photos to our map later this year! I'm excited about having this visual way of tracking our progress over the coming years. 

15. Usually the kids open Christmas gifts on multiple days, but this year they opened almost all of their gifts on Christmas morning because we haven't seen any relatives since November, but last week Paul brought home the gifts from his brother and sister-in-law. We each received a gift card (CVS, Barnes & Noble, Red Robin, and Wendy's) as well as other gifts  - gum, coloring books, toys, etc. The kids wrote all their thank you notes last week during the Christmas break. 

16. Just like Milo creates a lot of messes around the house, doing artwork with the kids can be a messy endeavor, which is why sometimes I have avoided it. In the last couple of weeks we had fuchsia colored oil pastel ground into the off-white carpet in the dining room and  two of my vinyl kitchen tablecloths permanently stained (one with paint and the other with Bombay ink). There are times when I want to say we're only going to do colored pencil projects this year, but I'm trying to persevere. The kids did two projects last week - a charcoal sailing picture and a cardinal with a Tombow pen. Today the kids did a mixed media project of a candle that utilized both oil pastels and Bombay ink. Paying a monthly fee for the art classes definitely keeps me motivated to keep doing art projects on a regular basis even if the messes try my patience. Considering my lack of talent with art, I am very grateful it's possible to stream art classes into our home. 

ABC's of 2020

Doing a puzzle in January - long before I knew we'd do MANY puzzles in 2020.

I decided to do an alphabetical "year in review" post and include some of my favorite photos from over the past year.

A - One of our two stops on the first day of our vacation was to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. This was a highlight of the trip for Paul, Ian, and Oliver! Nadia and Ian had taken art classes at the Christian school the past three years, but due to COVID we didn't pursue that for this school year. The kids are enjoying taking art classes online through our membership with Creating a Masterpiece; Nadia has done 25 art projects over the past few months and the the boys have done 21. We love to listen to audiobooks! Not counting the ones we're in the middle of right now, the kids and I listened to 143 chapter books together this year!  We've begun saving one book for just when Paul is able to listen with us (usually Saturday night and all day Sunday) - typically a biography. I paid for some through Audible, but the vast majority we got for free through Hoopla or Overdrive via the library. Nadia has been enjoying playing Among Us the past two months online with Ava.

B - In January Nadia joined a Bible Bowl team at our church. At that point she was on a team with three seventh grade girls, and they were memorizing the books of Hebrews and I and II Peter. Because of COVID, the annual competition wasn't held. In September Nadia joined a team with two fifth grade girls and one eighth grade girl, and they are studying the book of Matthew. Because she turned twelve years old in June, Nadia is now allowed to babysit. She and her friend Evanna babysat a preschooler together for several hours once, and I have paid her to babysit Oliver on multiple occasions. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, she has been able to babysit more than I anticipated. She likes being able to earn more money! All three kids got new bikes this year. Nadia sold her 24" bike and claimed my bike as her own. Ian and Oliver received new 24" mountain bikes this year, and Pop Pop built Oliver a bike ramp. Birthdays were very different in 2020. For the past 12 years we've had extended family at the kids' birthday parties. No relatives came to our house for Nadia or Ian's birthdays. We spent Oliver's birthday at Aunt Janet's house, and we saw Grandpa and Margie a few days later. 

A field trip to Gettysburg in February before I had any idea we'd go on very few field trips this year!

C - Although COVID-19, coronavirus, and cancelled are probably the first three "C" words that come to mind for 2020, I'm going to pick Cincinnati because we enjoyed our time that area in October. The playgrounds along the riverfront, the IMAX movie about dogs, the Ark Encounter, and the Creation Museum were among the top six experiences of our family vacation this year. In January and February the kids took a computer hardware class for four weeks, Oliver began learning how to write in cursive in August, and as always friends and family have been fighting cancer. One of my friends died of cancer in October, and two of my friends lost their spouses to cancer in August and November. Margie was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery on November 9. Once Nadia finished watching all the episodes of Full House, she switched to working through all the seasons of the Cosby show. I've sung in an adult church choir consistently since the fall of 1986. COVID brought an abrupt end to our choir season at the beginning of March, and it looks like the choir break will last at least one full year.

D - We paid for a subscription to Disney+ in December 2019, and due to COVID-19 some movies that were originally going to be released in the theatres went straight to Disney+ instead. Paul and the boys have also really enjoyed watching two seasons of Mandalorian this year. Baby Yoda is so cute! Last year I assumed we'd only have the subscription for one year, but we paid for another year earlier this month. One of the reasons we made this decision was because we usually pay for at least four months of cable tv each year to watch the NFL, but we didn't do that this year. The kids get a new privilege and a new responsibility each time they have a birthday. Nadia's new chore now that she is twelve years old has been to do the dishes at one meal each week. Thankfully, the five of us rarely see the doctor aside from annual physicals. This year we spent more than usual in the "medical" category of our budget ($1,500) because Paul saw the doctor a lot more than usual. Thankfully all the test results came back normal (aside from showing he has carpal tunnel). He had a colonoscopy, stress test, upper EMG, and lower EMG. 

I had no idea when I took this photo that the rabbits would only be in our house for two months.

E - We are finally making progress with learning a foreign language as the kids and I are speaking more and more Español!  Hopefully we'll make even more progress towards becoming bilingual next year through our subscription with Talkbox.mom. The three topics which I think were in the news the most in 2020 were COVID-19, riots and protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Election. As usual, the candidate I voted for didn't win. I'm praying about the special election in Georgia that is taking place in a few days. 

F - Paul turned fifty years old this year! We have been wearing face masks or face shields for the first time in our lives. Paul wears a face mask far more than the rest of us because he wears it at work. We hope that sometime next year they will no longer be mandatory. Nadia completed a personal finance class online this summer, and she also finished watching every single episode of Full House. We got our first chest freezer this year, which was somewhat of a miracle given the shortage on them due to COVID.

G - Four different guinea pigs lived in our home this year. Jenna is four years old. Sadly, we experienced the death of a pet for the first time this year as Ian's first guinea pig, Patches, suddenly died in February at the age of three. In April we brought home two more guinea pigs - Peppa (Nadia's) and Buttercup (Ian's). Unfortunately the younger ones sometimes wake me up in the night with their loud chirping. Nadia has Peppa and Jenna out a lot. They are accustomed to being held and purr quite a bit.  - - This year we also got new garage doors, and Ian got new glasses because his second pair of eyeglasses were broken by another child at Bee's Backyard in February. During the quarantine, the kids and I played 74 different games at least once! 

H- is for hoverboards! Grandpa and Margie gave Oliver a hoverboard for his birthday in August, and Nadia bought one during a Prime Day sale at Walmart in October. 

Two of Nadia's friends who came over for sleepovers several times this year.

I - The kids and I spent a week on Long Island with Aunt Janet the first week of August. It was different than our previous three trips there due to COVID and also a lengthy power outage, but we still had a great time. All three kids participated in group ice skating lessons this year, which was a first for Oliver. 

J - Although MANY our trips to National Parks were cancelled this year, the kids have earned 72 Junior Ranger badges altogether, and 50 of those were earned this year. That would never have been possible if it weren't for the fact that some can be earned from home without actually visiting the site.

K - Although some science museums have been closed since March due to COVID-19 and others have only partially reopened, the kids had a blast at the Kentucky Science Center. We also enjoyed visiting the Kentucky Derby Museum. 

L - It was a shock to have all the libraries closed for four months this year. This fall I got another library card and switched to using the Lycoming county library system as our primary library. 

M - We got a Bichon Frise puppy on December 12 named Milo! On the first day of 2020 we had two pets, I would never have guessed we would have six pets in our home by December 12. Because Nadia began studying Matthew in September and we opted not to have the boys join AWANA by Zoom this fall, the kids and I have been memorizing the Sermon on Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7). So far we have memorized chapter 5 (which has 48 verses). Ian and Nadia have been playing Minecraft lately.

N - We have had very brief shortages at other times in my life due to a snow storm or something like that. I can't ever recall any other time in my life where we had SO many national shortages this year. The list is lengthy and contains a wide array of items such as: toilet paper, napkins, pasta, bicycles, freezers, bread, cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, etc. Thankfully the grocery stores have been close to fully stocked lately. 

O - We had to attend church online for three months. Church still isn't back to "normal" - no choir, for example, but we're very thankful we can attend in-person again. We also picked an orthodontist for Ian this fall. He will begin phase one (expander) in January.

P - Puzzles is the "p" word that first comes to mind. We spent FAR more hours doing puzzles this year than ever before. I spent FAR more money on puzzles than I had ever spent before. Oliver has moved beyond 100 piece puzzles. With assistance, Nadia has done up to 1,000 piece puzzles. We listened to audiobooks for many hours while doing puzzles together during the spring. The kids couldn't attend Camp Susque this summer as they usually do, but they were able to attend Pocono Mountain Bible Conference instead. Ian continues to excel at playing the piano, and Nadia has been enjoying taking an online photography class.

Q - It's usually challenging to come up with a "q" word, but this year it's easy. In 2020 Q is for quarantine and Queen Esther. The kids and I were quarantined for three months this year. Paul continued to go to work, and he took over the grocery shopping during that time period. We originally had tickets to see Queen Esther at Sight and Sound in April, but due to the lockdown we actually went in December.

R - Nadia didn't make it to any of the WGRC skate nights in 2020 for a variety of reasons, but the boys dramatically improved in their rollerblading skills this year. All three kids own their own pair of rollerblades, and I've been taking the boys to a roller skating rink once a month. 2020 is also the year when Ian enjoyed rock climbing for the first time. He learned to enjoy ziplining in 2019. I love seeing him conquer his fears! We also had two pet rabbits for two months this year. Unfortunately, we had to take Cocoa and Coal back to the SPCA as they were spraying pee on each other and our house as well as chewing baseboards and such. We all love to READ. I'm not sure how many books Paul and I read, but I can say that both of us read more books this year than we had read in one year in quite awhile. Ian and Nadia each read at least 60 chapter books this year. I tried a lot more new recipes than usual - 87 over the past four months. We usually go to several concerts each year. This year Paul and Oliver didn't attend any concerts. Ian, Nadia, and I were able to attend The Roadshow (put on by Compassion) in Wilkes Barre in early March. 

S - We went skiing twice in one year for the first time this year! I took the kids to Elk Mountain (first time any of us  had ever been there) in January, and all five of us skied at Ski Sawmill in February. 2020 was the year Oliver learned how to ski! Probably the words that come to most people's minds for 2020 that start with "s" are safe, social distancing, six feet, and hand sanitizer. I signed us up for a Six Flags membership in early January thinking that we would visit five different Six Flags parks this year. Because of COVID we only made it to two of them, but the kids and I did spend five days at Six Flags this summer, and Paul joined us for one day. Because the parks opened later than usual, we will be able to go to Six Flags for free through the end of July 2021. Ian and Nadia received scooters for Christmas last year, and so all three kids rode their scooters quite a bit during the lockdown. We started the year without the use of either of our showers. In November we agreed to hire someone to finish the master bathroom shower which was been a project Paul began in May 2016. I  believe that project will be completed in early January. So in early 2021 we will likely have the use of TWO showers for the first time in years!

T - I think we all would agree that we've had our temperatures taken FAR more in 2020 than any other year of our lives! In past years we've seen Paul's family the most (since they only live an hour away) and the Towfighis the least (since they lived in Turkey for 15 years). This year we haven't seen Wendy's family at all, whereas usually we see them 1-2 times a year. So in this upside down year, the kids and I saw the Towfighis more than any other extended family member (I'm not counting Paul as he sees his brother and dad at work). They came to our house in June, we met at least some of them at Six Flags (MD/NJ) on three occasions, and we saw most of them at Refreshing Mountain in September and again at our house for a couple of hours in November. Finally in November we were able to spend time with Paul's extended family after not doing so for more than 10 months.

U - 2020 was Nadia's seventh and final year of playing Upward Basketball. The first several years my parents would come to at least one game, and Paul's parents would attend several games. 2020 was the first year that we didn't have any extended family members attend any of the kids' games. Thankfully their season ended right before the lockdown began. 

V - Nadia took one semester of voice lessons this fall for the first time ever (by Zoom). She was motivated to complete her piano books so that she wouldn't have to pay for the voice lessons. Originally I thought that the kids and I would be going on five vacations this year - three without Paul and one with Paul. Three vacations were cancelled (to Chicago in April, to MD/DC in May, and to Canada in August), but the kids and I did go to Long Island in August and our eight day family vacation in October to Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, and Pennsylvania DID take place although it certainly was far different than what it would have been if we weren't in the middle of a pandemic.  I prayed for a vaccine this year more than I've ever prayed for a vaccine before.  Paul and I had never paid a bill at a veterinarian  prior to this year, but we visited three different vets this year -in February for Patches (guinea pig), then for Cocoa and Coal (rabbits), and finally this month for our puppy, Milo.

W - In previous years we haven't had a plan for regularly incorporating current events into our curriculum. This fall I subscribed to a year of World Watch News, which is an approximately 10 minute show that is aired M-F. I expect we will continue to keep this subscription, as the kids and I find it to be enjoyable and informative. 

X - Although we have belonged to swimming pools in the past, we hadn't done so recently and didn't plan to join one this summer, but in light of everything that was cancelled this summer, we joined the Exchange pool in June and swam there for quite a few days this summer. 

Y - Nadia joined two youth groups in January. She attends First Baptist's youth group on Sunday nights and CWC's youth group on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Nadia has participated in a theatre camp every year from 2013 to the present. She participated in two this summer, and Ian participated with her in the second one called Youtheatre. It was his first time ever participating in a theatre camp. It was NOT his idea, but he loved it. 

Z - Oliver asked for a pet for the first time this summer. In early August he received two zebra danios. We enjoy watching them swim around when we're sitting at the kitchen table. He named them Henry and Zuma. Sadly, this morning we discovered they had both died. Probably the "z" word that comes to mind first for 2020 is Zoom. I had used Zoom previously to participate in faculty meetings from home, but Nadia used Zoom a lot this year - to just chat with a friend or her cousin Rachel OR for Bible Bowl and youth group meetings during the lockdown, and she even participated in a play that was performed on Zoom in October.  Nadia usually is on Zoom, Facetime, or Kids Messenger video from 8:45-9:30 each night, and she stays on it until 10:00pm one night per month.