Ten Thanks

1. Although I still have a cough and need a lot of tissues, my energy level has returned to normal, my fever is gone, and my throat isn't sore. YAHOO! I was particularly appreciative that my energy has returned because Oliver decided to wake up at 5:22 this morning (and he didn't go back to sleep).

2. Nadia, Ian and Paul had fun playing "whacky golf" in our church's gym last night.

3. Nadia and Ian enjoyed a program at the public library this afternoon. They each received a free book and made two crafts. Ian cannot wait until the corn husk doll dries so he can glue "hair" (corn silk) on it.

4. Ian ate his dinner tonight! He didn't eat the chicken corn soup last night (finally ate it around 10:00 this morning), but he learned his lesson and ate it within 45 minutes this evening. Oliver of course loved it. One of these days Ian and Nadia will start liking SOME sort of stew or soup. I hope anyhow!

5. We had a fun lunch trying some colonial recipes. Nadia made popovers (the American Girl cookbook called them "Breakfast Puffs"), and she also helped me make hasty pudding. I made the "dressed eggs". Oliver and I were the only ones who ate our hasty pudding. Nadia and Ian each took a few bites and decided they weren't fans of it. Nadia, Paul, and I all enjoyed our dressed eggs. Paul didn't think he'd like them because he doesn't like cinnamon, but he learned that he likes nutmeg (which was the spice used, not cinnamon). Everyone except Paul enjoyed the popovers with some apple butter. I don't cook every recipe that is suggested in our curriculum, but we do some of them!

6. I got some GREAT deals at CVS today. Almost everything was free (about $30 worth of stuff - just based on the sale prices not the original prices) because they are giving you extra bucks that equal the cost of the items plus I had a couple of coupons. If you have a CVS near you, I recommend going there this week!

7. Paul was able to fix the vacuum cleaner (that has been broken for a couple of weeks). He got it running again, but he says it's on its last legs. One part that needs replaced costs over $100 so it seems wiser to just buy a new vacuum cleaner. We've had this one for 13 years. I was thankful though to be able to vacuum all the carpets today! I've heard good things about Dyson vacuums. I would appreciate any feedback anyone has on those!

8. My parents made it back safely to MD today.

9. My brother took the GRE this morning, and he earned a perfect score on the verbal section!!!

10. I found out today that we were given an extra "exchange" through our time share! It has to be used in the next couple of months so we are thinking of going somewhere within driving distance in early January. An exchange means you pay $200 (or less) for seven nights at a resort. Of course my first instinct was to say let's go to the Caribbean, but the airfare wouldn't be a bargain. An unexpected vacation will be wonderful, especially if we can work it out so a couple of those days are a getaway for JUST Paul and I. :) Maybe we'll go snow skiing for a day!

Ice Skating!

Oliver wore ice skates for the first time in his life today. Unfortunately the smallest size skates the rink had was toddler size 8, and he currently wears toddler size 6 so they were definitely too big for him. That coupled with the fact that I was trying to help all three kids skate, led to me taking Oliver off the ice skating rink and passing him to some moms who weren't skating. He colored most of the time. I lasted for about 90 minutes. My back was hurting from bending over pushing the kids around the ice rink, and my ankles were hurting in part because I made the wrong choice of skates. Next time I'll pick the ice hockey kind rather than the figure skating ones, and next time I won't pay for Oliver to skate. There were about twenty homeschooling parents and kids there, but only three adults were skating (another mom and one dad). The other moms stayed in the warm room where the fire was blazing. Ian lasted 15 minutes longer than I did, and Nadia skated for two hours. She probably would have kept skating (the session lasted for 2.5 hours), but I thought we should leave at 1:30 in light of Oliver's nap and my dentist appointment. The rink is 30 minutes from our house. I think in January I'll have Nadia and Ian take a session of ice skating lessons so that they can both skate without holding on to a "walker" (or whatever those things are called). This would mean breaking my "rule" that Nadia can't be involved in more than two "sports" at the same time (the reason I told her she couldn't do ballet/tap this year) because she's already scheduled to be in gymnastics and Upward basketball in the winter.

I am thankful that (#1) we could go ice skating (the cost was $4 per person and that included the cost of the skate rental), (#2) other parents helped watch Oliver since he didn't last long on the ice, (#3) hopefully today was Paul's mom's last chemo treatment (she'll have a scan next month and a bone marrow biopsy in January which will determine whether her treatments are really over or not), (#4) I am starting to feel a little better (on Tuesday night Paul tried to talk me into going to a doctor), and (#5) I've enjoyed learning more about Milton Hershey this week. I had no idea that he had built the amusement park for the workers in his factory! Reading about chocolate inspired us to make some chocolate chip cookies this evening. YUM!

Gramercy

Our pastor titled his three week series on gratitude with the archaic word "gramercy." Today I am thankful for #1 Paul bringing home pizza for dinner. Out of the blue this morning while I was doing school work with Nadia, Oliver came up to me and said "Daddy get pizza." to which Nadia and Ian immediately chimed in with similar requests. It is the first time I ever remember Oliver putting in a request as to what we were going to eat for dinner, and I was impressed that he realized the way we would have it would be if Daddy brought it home. So later I called Paul and asked him if he could bring home pizza, and he was happy to do so. All five of us love pizza!

#2 My parents made it safely to Chicago yesterday.

#3 Ian is REALLY taking off with his reading. I need to take a new video. He absolutely knocked my socks off this week as I had him start reading the second volume of the Level 1 reader (All About Reading), and he is doing a fabulous job. He read some for Paul this evening, and Paul was also thrilled. Way to go, Ian!!!

#4 I am so thankful for the many miracles that Oliver represents - overcoming placenta previa, fetal anemia, and being born 9 weeks early. Today I finally got around to looking up the IVF data for 2012 for the clinic we used. That year they did 142 IVF cycles, and 20 of those cycles were with fresh embryos from non-donor eggs of women who were between 38-40 years old. I was in that group, as I was 39 when the egg retrieval was done. Of those 20 cycles, 2 were cancelled prior to egg retrieval, 4 retrievals didn't make it to embryo transfer, and 12 embryo transfers did not result in a pregnancy. I was one of two women (out of 20) in that age range who did IVF at that clinic that year and ended up with a baby in her arms. 90% of the women didn't end up with a baby. Wow. Thank you, Lord!

#5 For the first 2+ months of the semester, Paul was getting up very early on MWF (sometimes before 5am and usually by 5:15). He has been staying in bed until at least 6am the last couple of weeks, and I greatly appreciate this. Now if we could just get Ian to sleep through the night again!

$2 Tuesday

Today we headed back to the Children's Museum. If we end up staying in the area, I am going to buy an annual membership because they do many special activities each month including neat activities every other week for homeschoolers, but for now we'll stick with going once a month, as it only costs $6 for the four of us to go on $2 Tuesdays. Although the museum doesn't plan for this to be a day for homeschoolers, many of the moms and kids who come are in fact homeschoolers so the kids had fun playing with the other children, especially in the little old fashioned school room. Different ones took turns playing the role of the teacher. Ian liked putting wood in the stove, and he wore a dinosaur costume for about two hours. Nadia enjoyed an art activity at the end that involved painting with marbles. The kids wanted to stay longer, but I only let them stay for three hours because Oliver needed a nap (his nap was much later and much shorter than usual due to our field trip, but I figured some nap was better than none at all).

Today I am thankful (#1) for our time at the Children's Museum, (#2) that the Steelers won last night, (#3) that I was able to get a good start on wrapping presents as I wrapped for two hours during the game last night, and (#4) that Oliver isn't having any peeing accidents any more (while he's awake) and it's no big deal for him to go on any toilet now. It was SUCH a relief not to need to bring the froggy potty to the Children's Museum like I did last month! Now I need to get him to stop pooping in his underwear! (#5)Yesterday I bought a pecan pie that had been marked down to $3 at the grocery store. Nadia, Oliver, and I devoured the pie over the past two days, and we three loved it. I rarely have pecan pie, and it's one of my most favorite desserts. Yum!

Are you ready?

About 25 years ago they started playing the "Are you ready for some football" song at the start of Monday night football games. I don't think they'll be playing that song tonight, but I will be watching at least part of the game tonight. I am still sick. If you don't count visits to REs or pregnancy related appointments, I've hardly gone to the doctor at all over the last 18 years. If I am sick, I usually just tough it out, in part because I assume most of the time it's viral and going to a doctor really isn't going to help anyhow. I was on antibiotics SO much during the first 20 years of my life that I have really tried to avoid them the past 20 years, but I have now been sick for 16 days, and I am starting to wonder if I should call for a doctor appointment. I'm definitely tired of having a sore throat, fever, cough, and runny nose. All I've used so far are LOTS of tissues and LOTS of cough drops and a few times I've taken some Tylenol. It's hard to have a sore throat considering how much I read to the kids, and it also has made singing in choir rather painful (and my voice doesn't sound the same as it usually does when I sing). Anyhow my way of preparing

for tonight's game was to go to bed at 8pm last night right after I tucked the kids into their beds. I was hoping that staying in bed for 10 hours last night would help me have enough energy to watch at least the first half of tonight's game. My other way of preparing for the game was to dress the kids and myself in Steelers attire. Ian didn't want to wear a Steelers shirt today (boo hoo), but Nadia and Oliver cooperated. Hopefully they will win tonight! I plan to start wrapping some Christmas and birthday gifts during the game as my way of doing inventory so I know whom I still need to buy gifts for (I know I still have a long way to go).

(1) On a cold rainy day I am thankful to be in a dry, warm house. (2) While watching the two bigger kids struggling to eat chicken and dumplings on Friday and Saturday, I was again reminded of how thankful I am that Oliver is such a great eater, as he shoveled what the others deemed offensive into his mouth and asked for seconds. (3) Even though I don't feel terrific at the moment, my illness is very minor. I am thankful that all five of us have been enjoying good health. (4) I've gone eleven years without being in car accident. Now that I usually have three precious little ones in the van with me, I am especially grateful for safety on the roads. (5) I'm ever so grateful for the privilege to be a stay-at-home homeschooling mom. There are times I miss being a professor, but my heart's desire is to invest my life in Nadia, Ian, and Oliver!

Indescribable

The kid's choir sang "Indescribable" this morning, and Grandma and Pop Pop came up to the second service to hear them! Ian has made SO much progress this year with singing in a choir. At our previous church he wouldn't even go up on the platform at first, but today he was singing, smiling, and doing some of the motions! In two years Oliver will get to join the choir if we still live in this area. It was great to see Paul's parents one more time before she goes in "hibernation" following her chemo treatment this Thursday.

Today I'm thankful (#1) that they can sing in a choir, (#2) for all who fought (thinking of Veteran's Day) for our freedoms, including the freedom of religion, (#3) for how much Paul's parents love our kids, (#4) that Oliver didn't have any accidents yesterday or today (and he used a public toilet for the first time today at church), and (#5) for a husband who helps me out such as running to the grocery store for ricotta cheese at 7am so that we could eat stuffed shells at 1pm when we got home from church.

I recorded them in both services. I'm embedding the second service below. Here's a link to the first service.

Date Night!

It's been three months since Paul and I have been on a date, so I've really been looking forward to our date tonight! We are going to have dinner at Applebee's (courtesy of a gift card obtained through credit card bonus points) and then we're going to a Russian State Symphony Orchestra concert at Bucknell! I can't remember the last time we went on this nice of a date - dinner AND a concert! The orchestra will be performing Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March, Op. 31, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, and Prokofieff's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100. The cost of babysitting plus the cost of the tickets are making this our most expensive date of the past 5 years, but considering how few times we've used babysitters over the past 2 years, I think the splurge is justified. We did get a discount on the tickets due to Paul's status as a faculty member at Bucknell.

Since I didn't post yesterday, I will write ten things I'm thankful for today. The first four I've already mentioned above (1) eating dinner that I didn't cook without any kids, (2) getting to spend a few hours with my sweetheart, (3) enjoying a fabulous concert, and (4) for the first time in the last 6 years we have a long list of babysitters to utilize! (5) Last night one of Paul's colleagues at Bucknell came over with his family to have dinner with us. The nine of us had a fun time together. I forgot to take pictures, but the lego creation Ian is holding in the picture at left is one that Dave made last night.

(6) All three kids slept through the night the last two nights (i.e. no one got up before 6:00 AM), and Oliver's nap was 3hr 10 minutes long yesterday. WOW!!!

(7) Oliver didn't have any pee accidents yesterday, and one time he told me when he needed to go.

(8) I love watching my kids play together. Two days ago Ian was giving Oliver rides on his back while Nadia was reading to me, and I had to stop and take a picture. Then Nadia also gave Oliver a ride. Yesterday at one point while I was cleaning I noticed the three kids were doing all sorts of things with the gymnastics mat together.

(9) Ian has such a thirst for learning. He keeps BEGGING to do schoolwork (he does math, handwriting, and reading).

(10) Sending out all these applications for Paul over the past 2+ years has only been possible because of the graciousness of professors at PSU, Bloomsburg, and Bucknell to send letters of recommendation. The three who are currently serving as his references are the dept chair at Bloomsburg, the dept chair at Bucknell, and Dave (former mentor and current colleague at Bucknell). We greatly appreciate the time they invest in mailing and emailing reference letters for Paul.

Thankful Thursday

Since I didn't write a post yesterday, I'm going to write a list of ten things I'm thankful for today.

1. Oliver woke up dry two mornings in a row for the first time ever! He stayed dry all night on Monday and Tuesday night. He also stayed dry during his naps three days in a row (Sunday- Tuesday). He didn't stay dry last night or during his nap today so I'm not ready to have him sleep in underwear yet, but he's making progress in that direction!

2. On Tuesday and Wednesday he didn't have any #1 type accidents! He's done this many times before, but in the past he was using the froggy potty. I was pleased he accomplished this feat after making the transition to using a regular toilet (I have him seated backwards facing the tank). He had one #1 accident today, but in general he's doing great. I was particularly pleased that he didn't have an accident at church. He went before dinner (about 4pm) and then didn't go again until we got home from church at 8:30pm. Another hurdle he needs to get over is being able to pee on public toilets (such as at church), One step at a time!

3. We've enjoyed some new recipes for our weekly breakfast for dinner meal. The last few weeks we had pumpkin waffles and pumpkin pancakes. Tonight we had apple cinnamon French toast. YUM! I will definitely use that recipe again in the future. These recipes involve more effort (both cooking and cleaning) than just ordinary pancakes, waffles, or french toast do, but they are tastier (although I think Ian would vote for just plain chocolate chip pancakes every day of the week). Oliver and Paul aren't a big fan of breakfast for dinner so they usually have leftovers, but Nadia, Ian, and I enjoy the breakfast foods, especially if I make scrambled eggs to go with the meal for Nadia.

4. Last night we rehearsed some Christmas music because it won't be long before we'll be singing Christmas music on Sunday mornings. I particularly am enjoying an acapella arrangement of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" that we're going to sing.

5. Ian slept through the night last night! Ever since the time changed, he has been wandering into our bedroom at least once a night at some random time during the night. He didn't get up until 6:00 this morning. Progress. Unfortunately, Oliver (who usually sleeps through the night) decided to wake up at 2:30, and he took a long time to go back to sleep. Hopefully they'll both sleep through the night tonight.

6. Oliver has continued to take longer naps! Twice this month his nap has been "only" 90 minutes long, but every other day it's been between 2-3 hours long. WOOHOO! This has made it easier to do schoolwork with Ian, do art projects with Nadia and Ian, clean the house, etc. He was a good napper the first nine months of his life, but over the past 18 months he hadn't taken many long naps until the last couple of weeks.

7. I'm thankful for resources that enable me to teach art since that is not my strength in life. Nadia and Ian did a bluebird project with pastels today. We made one mistake (used the wrong blue for the sky), and we were missing the dark pink pastel that we were supposed to use for some of the flowers, but for a first attempt with pastels, I think they both did a great job!

8. I've discovered a place in our house that gets good light for pictures at certain times in the day! I love it when I get a picture that really shows the sparkle in their eyes. Yay!

9. I forgot to mention that a couple of weeks ago Paul and I had our dentist appointment with the new dentist. The downside was that they have a policy that adults have to make a separate appointment (just the very first time) for the cleaning so we will be returning there next week, but the upside was that this dentist did NOT agree with me having any more gum grafting procedures. WOW was that welcome news to my ears!

10. I was starting to get concerned that there wouldn't be any good deals for Christmas cards this year, but within the past week I've ordered 30 cards from Shutterfly (with three separate coupons). I've also finally gotten started on some Christmas and birthday shopping although I need to keep the momentum going with that because there really isn't a lot of time left!

So long, froggy!

Our sermon on Sunday was about how we are commanded to be thankful in everything. It wasn't anything I hadn't heard before, but it's always a good reminder as we are so prone to complain. I can't say that I have been been two successful the past few days because of a wide variety of unpleasant or disappointing circumstances including a fever (I've had one off and on now for 9 days), sore throat, potty training problems, the Steelers playing horribly on Sunday, no one telling me that ladies Bible study was cancelled this morning (so we showed up as others were arriving for a funeral), I didn't know any of the songs we sang on Sunday except for "It is Well" (and thus felt rather awkward standing on the platform), etc. In that sermon we were challenged to write at least 5 things a day that we are thankful for over the next 3 weeks. So instead of doing a "Thankful Thursday" post each week, I am going to try to include my 5 things in each day's post. Since I missed the last two days, I am going to try to include 15 things in my list today, if I can manage to stay

awake (I've been going to bed around 8pm many days over the past week due to this bug I've had).

1. It was so kind of Paul's parents to drive up to our house and babysit Oliver and also spend time with Nadia and Ian. It had been three months since Paul's mom had been to our house, which made the visit extra special.

2. It was a treat to take Nadia and Ian to see Charlotte's Web yesterday.

3. The weather was mild (60's) yesterday and today. Today we took advantage of that and spent some time at a playground without wearing jackets!

4. Saturday morning Paul took Nadia and Ian to Lowe's to build a science kit. They are getting much better at hammering nails!

5. While they were at Lowe's, I was at JCPenney shopping with Oliver. I paid $21.92 for 8 articles of clothing (2 tops for me, 2 pants for Ian, 2 shorts for Ian to wear in the future, and 2

Frozen t-shirts that will be Christmas gifts for Nadia). The original prices came to $150. Normally if I get things for 90% off it's because I am using a coupon plus shopping from the clearance racks, but this time only the shorts were from a clearance rack so I was more impressed with being able to save 86%. I also got some great bargains at CVS later that day. I bought 6 boxes of cereal (Frosted Mini Wheats, Raisin Bran, etc.) and 3 boxes of Pop Tarts and paid less than $7 for all nine items. I love JCP and CVS!

6. On Friday evening we had a lovely time celebrating Paul's mom's 70th birthday at their house. The next morning Ian kept going on and on about how "awesome" and "amazing" her birthday party was. That boy loves his grandparents, loves pizza and chocolate cake, and loves playing with Paul's Star Wars toys that are at his parent's house. Praying that next week's chemo treatment goes well, and we're looking forward to seeing them in the middle of December!

7. Thursday night Nadia and Ian helped Paul paint twelve 3 inch Styrofoam balls that he used in his chemistry lecture yesterday morning to demonstrate a concept. It was nice to work together as a family!

8. We had a great time at the Terrific Turkey program last Thursday. It lasted about two hours and included the naturalist reading a book, showing the kids a turkey egg, turkey pelts, turkey feet, etc., playing a very lively game (I was assigned the role of a cougar!), and doing a turkey collage. There were about 20 kids there compared to last month when there were only four (including my three). Almost all the moms there are homeschooling their kids.

9. I really enjoyed singing "It is well" on Sunday. It's one of my favorite hymns!

10. We've read some great books from the library recently. Nadia read aloud Cornstalks and Cannonballs, which was about an event in Delaware during the Revolutionary War that I don't remember learning about before, and I read Tolivar's Secret to the kids, which was another excellent book that I don't think I had read before.

11. We've also been enjoying learning about the Nutcracker ballet recently. We listened to a CD of music from the ballet, read many books about the story, and today the kids started watching a VHS tape from the library of the ballet. All three kids were dancing around the family room while they were watching it. Sometimes when they are playing I have heard them taking on the roles of the mouse king, nutcracker, etc.

12. Nadia had her Upward basketball evaluation this evening. I am grateful she can participate in this program again at our previous church.

13. On Friday and Saturday I visited two different consignment shops and got some good bargains on clothes for the kids at both (had a 50% off coupon for the one store and a 40% off coupon for the other).

14. I have been able to apply for more jobs for Paul. I have completed 17 and know where number 18 will be going. Fifteen of those eighteen applications were for either physical or computational chemistry! The past two years most of the applications were for teaching general chemistry or chemistry for non-majors. All eighteen went to four year schools. Please pray that Paul will start getting interviews!

15. I saved the best for last. As of today Oliver has been wearing underwear for eight weeks. He had two accidents at McDonald's yesterday with Paul's parents (one #1 accident and one #2 accident that I cleaned up when they got home). He hadn't had a #2 accident in more than 3 weeks. It hit me that Oliver wasn't trained to go #2 on the potty, but rather I was Oliver trained. I know what to look for and what his habits are in that regard. Last week I had planned to put away the froggy potty, but he had a fever and such last Monday so I didn't push it. Today ended up being the day we said good bye after eight long weeks. Drum roll please.... TODAY he peed on the regular potty for the first time in his life, and he did it three times! He woke up dry this morning, and Paul put him on the froggy while I was showering, but the rest of the day he used the regular toilet, except he had two #2 accidents as I've decided he needs to start telling me when he needs to go so that he won't have accidents when other people are taking care of him. I know he's capable of doing this, but for now I will celebrate the fact that he FINALLY peed on a regular toilet and I can stop carrying that froggy potty everywhere. That thing is NOT coming to church with us any more. WOOHOO! Hallelujah!

Charlotte's Web!

This morning Paul's parents arrived at our house bright and early (bless their hearts!) to babysit Oliver so I could take Nadia and Ian to see Theatreworks' presentation of Charlotte's Web at Penn State. When I was a teacher in Maryland, I had taken students to see other Theatreworks' productions, so I knew they were very well done. We were not disappointed! The auditorium they used for this production was right across from the Chemistry Building where Paul had an office for 4.5 years. Ian had second doubts about attending the play because he thought Oliver had the better end of the deal since he was with his grandparents, but the kids were totally captivated by the play and were laughing at many different moments. There were 2 women and 3 men who put on the play. Everyone (except for the woman who played Charlotte) played more than one role and had to do many costume changes. There were 17 school districts present. Ian and Nadia got to play with Grandma and Pop Pop when we got back during Oliver's nap. I didn't take my camera this morning. These pictures are from yesterday. I love dressing my kids up for church on Sundays, and I'm so glad that Ian and Nadia still enjoy getting dressed up (Oliver hasn't voiced an opinion one way or the other yet. I bought Ian's 4 piece suit on Friday at a consignment shop for $4 (I only wish it had a tie). I am so glad there are very affordable ways to buy my kids their clothes!