In the hospital again

I had high hopes that we could avoid any hospitalizations this year. This hope was based on the facts that the boys' urological surgeries are done and because Oliver didn't need to be hospitalized last May when he had pneumonia. I was wrong. When I checked his saturation at 1:15 am on Friday it was 83, and I knew that meant we needed to pack a bag and drive straight to the ER. I knew the  pediatrician would expect that we would go to the hospital where he works, but I chose to go to the bigger hospital which has a Children's Hospital within it.  We had no wait in the ER and within a few minutes Oliver was on 6 liters of oxygen.  ER and hospital were very full. We stayed in her room in the emergency department in which several patients were  in the same room for the first four hours, and then we spent the next five hours is a private room in the emergency department.  Then when there was a bed available on one of the children's floors, we were moved up to the room where we still are now. This room is much nicer than the one in the ER or the ones in the PICU  because there's a bathroom in the room which has a shower I can use, and there's a couch that can be pulled out to become a bed for me to use.  Thursday night I only got three hours of sleep because I went to bed at 10 PM and got up at 1 AM and was up the rest of the day. Last night I was horizontal for more hours than usual, But I got a lot less sleep than usual because Oliver's alarm was going off most of the night.  On Friday during the day he was on 4 L of oxygen, but last night he was on 5 L and his saturations were still too low.  The nurse who came on duty this morning at 7 AM was very helpful is doing chest PT and cleaning out his nose. Doing this greatly improved his saturation, And he was for a large part of the day on only one liter of oxygen.  Then towards the evening he needed to be on 2 L and now that he's asleep he is on 3 L. They have started to decrease the frequency of his breathing treatments which were given every two hours  at first. He does not have RSV this time, but rather he has human menopneumo virus.  Because it's viral they discontinued the antibiotic the pediatrician had started him on on Thursday evening.  They have him on a steroid.  So far he has no appetite, but he is drinking apple juice, water, and chocolate milk so they did not put an IV in him.

 I contacted three homeschooling moms by Facebook early on Friday morning asking if any of them could watch Nadia and in from 11:30 to 4:30 that same day.  All three moms have children in the home school gym class that they are in from 10 to 11:30 on Fridays.  Thankfully one mom agreed to take them home with her, and Paul was able to take the kids to gym class at 10 and pick them up at her house after his lap was done on Friday afternoon. Paul took them to their basketball games and a free Lego build at Toys "R" Us today.  I was disappointed to miss not his game today because I had missed her last couple of games, and I was even sorrier to miss it when I found out that she scored her very first basket today.  During her first season of basketball she never made any baskets, and during her second season she made baskets during practice but never during the games. The hoop is higher now that she's on a second and third grade team, but she was finally able to score her first basket during a game, and Paul said it was a buzzer beater no less.  I am very happy for her, and I wish I had seen it in person. Hopefully she'll make another basket the season that I can witness. And her first seasons of soccer she only scored one goal. I hope that isn't the case for basketball.

 Earlier today when Oliver was doing so well on 1 L and actually did well on a brief room air trial I had my hopes up that we could be discharged on Sunday, but now that he's requiring 3 L this evening I am thinking  A Monday discharge is more feasible. Please pray that is discharged by Monday at the latest, because Paul teaches all day on Tuesday starting at 8 AM. Oliver really needs me to be here with him.  When I stepped out to get some food from the cafetorium he is in the room by himself, and the nurses are responsible for several children at the same time. I do not think Oliver would understand the concept of pushing a button to call for a nurse when he has to go to the bathroom. It is an ordeal to take him to the bathroom because I have to disconnect  four wires, and then I have to transfer his oxygen to a portable tank which I to take into the bathroom with him.  I hate to see him going through all this, and I really miss Nadia and Ian because I only saw them on two of the past eight days between my trip to Maryland and now my stay in the hospital with Oliver.  So I ask for prayer that Oliver will get better quickly so we can all be at home together again.  I also ask for prayer for my mother who is also having some breathing difficulties.

Pneumonia again

Sometimes I wish I had some medical training under my belt. I never aspired to a career in a medical field; education is definitely my niche (if I had to pick something else maybe I'd pick travel agent). Sometimes when I've been caring for my mom (like when she had a 102 degree fever on Sunday) or my kids, I've wished I was a nurse or a doctor. I certainly have more medical knowledge now than I did 15 years ago after going through various infertility treatments (giving myself hundreds of shots for one thing), having three babies spend time in the NICU, Ian's eosinophilic esophagitis, both boys' urological surgeries, etc. Anyhow Oliver came down sick on Monday with my in-laws (bless their hearts I was not intending to give them three sick children to care for in my absence!), but today he really took a turn for the worse. He was sleeping almost the whole day (as seen in these pics), not eating anything, throwing up, high fever, etc. He registered a fever of 103.6 at the doctor's office, and the pediatrician said he has pneumonia. His respiration rate was very high, and his saturation level fluxuated between 92-93 (earlier at home it had been at 95%). He gave me a Rx for an antibiotic and told me to push fluids (or foods like jello and applesauce that contain a lot of water) and keep checking him with the pulse oximeter at home (we have certainly gotten our money out of that thing!).

The doctor said he is on call this evening and can see Oliver at the hospital tonight if he's admitted. He said if his saturation level drops below 92 (when awake) we are to call him. It did register lower than that shortly after we got home, but we gave it some time and it came back up. I was thankful that Paul was able to come home in time to take Nadia and Ian to ice skating lessons while I took Oliver to the doctor and CVS. After they got home, I went to the grocery store and bought jello, apple juice, applesauce, etc. in the hopes of enticing Oliver to consume more fluids.

Oliver had pneumonia last May (over Memorial Day weekend), and he was border line that time over needing to be hospitalized and put on oxygen, but he did avoid a hospitalization that time, and I am hoping the same will be true this time, although I will certainly take him there if it's needed. Please pray he responds quickly to the antibiotics and that it will be very clear to me whether or not I need to take him to the ER. I have asked Paul to take Nadia and Ian to homeschool gym class tomorrow morning, and I will pick them up at the end; this way Oliver can stay home during most of the class, although usually he loves playing in the play land during their class. The doctor was assuming it's a bacterial infection, but just in case it's viral, I don't want to spread any of his germs with the other kids in the play land! In other medical news, I am very happy to report that my mom (after a 2 week delay) was able to have her second chemo treatment today (yay!) and it went very smoothly (PTL!). Please be praying that she will have as few side effects as possible in the coming days and can also stay out of the hospital.

The realtor called today for the first time in almost 2 months to set up a showing for tomorrow. When the people said they were ONLY able to come at 2:00 tomorrow, I said we'd have to pass because that's Oliver's nap time. I figured they can't really be that interested in the house if they are being that inflexible. I said he naps from 1-3, and they could come any other time during the day aside from 1-3. I told the realtor he was sick, and I really wasn't going to have him skip his nap when he was sick. She was fine with my turning it down. I've never turned a showing down before. After I found out Oliver had pneumonia, I knew I made the right call. We aren't in a rush to sell the house anyhow.

Although the kids were sick, Nadia and Ian did enjoy sledding at Grandma and Pop Pop's house on Monday. Since they live on a mountain, they have a MUCH bigger hill in their back yard than we do. Here is a video of Ian sledding down their hill.

Ian's glasses

Paul picked up Ian's glasses today. Hopefully he will have a smooth transition, and I'm hoping these glasses will last for awhile as they were not cheap. I think he still looks very cute. Now to see when or if the other two might end up wearing glasses. I got my first pair when I was about Ian's age, but Paul didn't get his first pair until his late 20's. Maybe Oliver and Nadia will take after Paul and not have glasses for a long time. I recently purchased my first pair of reading glasses. I just need them to read small print.

Nadia had commented recently that we hadn't been on any field trips lately. They only went on one in January (to an animal hospital). So today I took them to the Children's Museum. The homeschool hangout activities today focused on forces and motion. They had fun, and we left early enough that Oliver was still able to take his nap at home. It meant he took a nap in his bed two days in a row, which was a relief to me as he hadn't done well with his naps over the past week. Below you will find the video of Nadia identifying the countries of Africa. Good job, Nadia! I didn't learn the countries of Africa until I was in college taking a 3 credit course titled "Geography of Africa." Sadly I have forgotten many of them, but Paul has an excellent memory when it comes to geography so he helped her learn the countries. Only one more continent to go - Asia!

Thankful Tuesday

1. Paul's 7.5 year old desktop computer died on Friday. Thankfully he had many files backed up on an external hard drive so he's probably not going to invest any more time trying to revive his computer one last time to retrieve more files. I had a laptop on my wish list for Christmas instead of something for my camera because my 6 year old laptop computer has been acting up more and more. I am very grateful my parents gave me a laptop for Christmas. It arrived at our house today. My laptop hasn't totally died yet, but when it does I am sure we will be fine with sharing the laptop because once Paul is done with Bucknell (3 months from now) he won't be on the computer at home very often, and we do have an iPad and a smart phone which can be used for going online. I will use the laptop for blogging, editing photographs, and using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I wouldn't have picked such a big laptop if it was just for me, but Paul likes a bigger screen so we got one with a 17 inch monitor. It doesn't have a touch screen, which seems to be standard these days, but we can do without that.

2. It snowed a little during the night last night and has continued to snow today. In December when it snowed the first time I had the kids do their schoolwork first thinking that they would play in the snow after lunch, but it melted before
we had lunch. Oops! I felt awful about that and promised the next time it snowed they could play in the snow FIRST. I was in Maryland the last time it snowed, so this morning I let them play in the snow first although in this instance it would have been fine to wait because the snow has definitely not melted but rather has gotten deeper as it hasn't stopped snowing yet, but I felt it was important to keep my promise. I love the flexibility of home schooling.

3. Nadia has come a LONG way with playing the piano over the last two weeks. The light bulb has finally clicked, and she is enjoying it a lot more. She is doing much better at reading the music. She finished one of her two books yesterday, and once she learns the last three songs in the other book, we will be headed to Bonanza for dinner to use the gift card my parents gave Paul for his birthday. They love that restaurant, so everyone is pulling for Nadia to achieve the goal. I took a video of the song that is currently her favorite. The next video I will be taking is of Nadia identifying 52 countries in Africa on a map.

4. Ian is working on level four reading to earn the privilege of seeing the movie "Return of the
Jedi." In a little over two weeks he did 23 lessons of the curriculum! If he keeps at this pace, he will be watching the movie in about four weeks. Yesterday's lesson was on "gn" words (a gnat and gnu were two of the main characters in the story).

5. Ian didn't do very well in his basketball game on Saturday (he looked totally clueless out there to be honest), but he did dribble the ball some and made one attempt at making a basket. Nadia showed a lot of improvement in her game and made three attempts at making a basket. We all attended Ian's game, but the boys and I stayed home during her game on Saturday so that Oliver could take a nap.

6. Ian now enjoys eating clementines and baby carrots with ranch dressing. YAY! He eats both of those much faster than a banana, which is such a relief. All five of us like baby carrots (I don't use dip) and clementines.

7. The kids enjoyed playing dodgeball in gym class on Friday, Oliver enjoyed playing in the playland, and I enjoyed talking to another homeschool mom.

8. Nadia has been tearing through chapter books that are about 200 pages long. She finished the Ramona series and now is reading the Henry Huggins series. I told her if she reads 150 books this year I will give her $10. She is on pace to achieve that goal. In the van we've been listening to Twenty One Balloons, and I have been

alternating at home between Larry Boy books and biographies of missionaries in Africa. First we read one on David Livingstone, and now we are reading one about Lillan Trasher, who established an orphanage in Egypt around the time of WWI. During her lifetime she cared for almost 10,000 widows and orphans in Egypt. I had never heard of her before, but we are all enjoying her biography.

9. Nadia and Ian are making good progress in their ice skating lessons. They are learning how to swizzle.

10. I prefer exegetical sermons (rather than topical) and it had been awhile since our pastor had done an exegetical series. I have been enjoying the series on 1&2 Thessalonians. At the start of each sermon a woman (who is a veterinarian) recites from memory the passage that sermon is focused on (sometimes more than one chapter). She has memorized quite a few books of the Bible in their entirety. She recites the passage with a lot of expression. I memorized those two books of the Bible when I was in 9th grade, but I couldn't recite them from memory now. I missed a few of the sermons due to being in Maryland, but I was able to watch them online, which was nice. This past Sunday was actually the first time I had sung with the choir on a Sunday morning in 2016, and I loved the anthem we sang. "In Pastures Green" was a very majestic piece. I also loved that we sang "How Great thou art" on Sunday as they sing more choruses than hymns, and I love that hymn.

11. I saved the best for last. After 21 days in the hospital, my mom is going HOME this evening. WOOHOO! Please pray for a smooth transition.

3 1/2 years old!

My baby will turn four six years old months from today. Here are some ways he has changed over the last three months:

1. He has gotten MUCH better about not spilling his milk. Thank heavens. Now if we could get him to feed himself more consistently. This doesn't actually bother me, but it does bother Paul.

2. Although he has had a rough time over the past week with his nap, he still takes a nap from 1-3 most days, and in fact some days I have to wake him up after he has slept a full three hours. Here's to hoping and praying he doesn't give up his nap any time soon, although I know he'll most likely give it up before the end of 2016.

3. He's starting to learn his alphabet and numbers. He always identifies the letter "O" and the number "3" correctly, and he is usually able to identify a few other letters such as P, N, and M.

4. He's still a fabulous eater who eats almost every single thing he is offered. I even got him to eat eggs for the first time recently (during our study of Holland). Previously the only two things he would consistently reject were bananas and eggs. He keeps adding more fruits to the

list of foods he enjoys. A recent addition would be clementines. For example, he enjoyed the pita bread and hummus we ate last week during our study of Egypt, and Nadia, Ian, and I were not keen on the hummus.

5. He always says the correct age when someone asks him how old he is. Now we shall see whether he starts saying three and a half or not.

6. He has shown a lot of improvement with controlling his temper. Yay!

7. He's starting to outgrow some size 3T clothing. Say it isn't so! He weighs 35 pounds.

8. If he doesn't remember what his lesson was about in Sunday School, he says it was about "Jesus dying on the cross." Evidently they study that most weeks. Not really. Several weeks ago when Grandma and Pop Pop took the kids to church (when I was in Maryland), Oliver told them that his lesson was about "Peter jumping into the water." I am guessing it was on Peter walking on the water. His favorite song that he sings at church is "I'm in the Lord's Army." I'll have to take a video of him singing that song. He sang it for Grandma on the phone recently.

Ian's first basketball game

Today Nadia began her third season of Upward basketball and Ian had his very first game. The games last Saturday were cancelled due to snow so today was the first day of games for the 2016 season. It was fun watching Ian. He sure got his exercise running around the court. Sometimes I thought he looked like he was playing a game of tag with the child he was guarding. He doesn't understand the difference between offense and defense. He was guarding his player on both sides of the court. Oops! He did dribble and make some good passes. He never made any attempts at getting a basket. He was all smiles though. It did my heart good to watch him because he was having SO much fun out there, even if he was one weakest players on the court. His game was at 11:00, but when we arrived at 10:45 they were only having half-time for the 10:00 games. The rest of the games they had a very short half-time, but they were still running 30 minutes late when we left the gym at 2:30. Nadia's game was supposed to begin at 1:00. I took the boys over to the play land at our church for about 25 minutes in between the two games. Paul and his parents watched one of the 12:00 games. Oliver did pretty well considering we were there for three hours altogether, especially since he also missed his nap (which has been at least two hours long lately).

Although this was Nadia's third season, it was her first game playing on a 2nd/3rd grade team. There are some differences with the rules for those games compared to the K/1st grade games. For one thing they do keep score. I had the impression her team was being slaughtered by the other team, but actually they only lost by 4 points (28-32). The basketball hoop is higher, there are foul shots, the defense is allowed to steal the ball when someone is dribbling (not allowed for the K/1st grade games), and in general the referee enforces a lot more rules than they do with the youngest kids. It is still a co-ed team playing on a half court. Starting in fourth grade the kids play on a full court and the teams are not co-ed. We have yet to experience seeing one of our kids make a basket during a game. Maybe this will be the year? We shall see. I hope that both of them improve in their skills, show good sportsmanship, and have fun.

I didn't realize until today that I hadn't touched my camera in a little more than a month. The last time I took a picture was December 28. That is by far the longest I ever went without using a camera in the past 7 1/2 years. Since Nadia and Ian's uniforms this year are navy blue and yellow, I had Oliver wear a sweater sporting those same colors. He asked me to take his picture, and I was happy to oblige. I don't want him to feel left out even though he's not old enough to be on the basketball court yet.

Paul's parents met us at the church for the games and then came over and spent a few hours at our house (and treated us to pizza for dinner). So all around it was a special day.

Grateful Friday

It's been far more than a week since I last wrote a "Thankful Thursday" post so here we go...

1. I am thankful that Paul's parents watched the kids during my third trip to Maryland and that Paul watched them during my fourth trip.

2. I am thankful for the extra time I was able to spend with my sisters and mother although I wish it were for another reason. It was especially nice to see Yvonne, Micah, Jenna, and Andrew, as I hadn't seen them in 13 months. They are en route back to Turkey as I type this post.

3. Nadia and Ian are enjoying their ice skating lessons. They had their fourth lesson yesterday.

4. Nadia and Ian have also been enjoying their 90 minute gym class on Friday mornings. This month they did basketball two weeks and field hockey the other two weeks. The next three weeks they will be doing hockey, glow in the dark dodgeball, and capture the flag.

5. I was glad that their basketball games were cancelled last Saturday because I really didn't want to miss Ian's very first game. I am grateful that Grandma and Pop Pop are planning to come up for their games tomorrow.

6. I am thankful that West Chester invited me to have a phone interview. I will find out in a couple of weeks if I will be invited to interview on their campus next month.

7. As usual, I am very thankful for the public library. We have moved on to our fourth continent (Africa). This week the kids and I enjoyed eating mandazi (Kenyan donuts). Oliver and I liked the Jollof rice. None of us were too keen on the chapati (flatbread), but we did finish eating it. We all (including Paul) loved the book Listening for Lions. We give it two thumbs up! The kids also really enjoyed the picture books about Owen and Mzee (a true story about a hippo and tortoise in Kenya). I also have recently downloaded some free books on my Kindle that I checked out at the library and read while I was in Maryland.

8. Nadia and Ian are doing better at eating peas. They definitely prefer green beans or carrots, but it's nice to know that they will not have a total meltdown over peas any more. Ian also discovered he likes clementines! Progress.

9. Nadia has been FLYING through the Ramona chapter books. They are each almost 200 pages long, and she only takes 1-2 days to read one of the books. I figured she would love them because she really enjoyed them when I read them aloud to them a couple of years ago, but previously she was intimidated by the length. I love to see her reading! Ian also is making great progress with reading. He is moving quickly through Level Four. He is motivated because he has to finish that level before he can see the movie Return of the Jedi.

10. Ian tried on his glasses yesterday (with demo lenses) to make sure it was the frame we wanted, and I think they look nice on him. Hoping he will take good care of his glasses once we pick them up. I told him Aunt Wendy's advice "if the glasses aren't on your face, they should be in your case."

11. My mom made it through the 3 hour surgery on one of her lungs on Wednesday (decortication). She is hoping to be discharged on February 1 (she has been hospitalized since January 20). I have appreciated all the prayer support on her behalf. I know my mom has received MANY cards from folks who love her and are praying for her. I received my second card today - this time from someone at our previous church, which was very thoughtful.

Prayers appreciated

Last Wednesday my mother nearly died, but thankfully by God's grace the ambulance got her to the ER in time and the Lord pulled her through a very close call. Wendy flew from Chicago to Baltimore that evening, I drove down the next morning, and Yvonne arrived on Thursday evening from Turkey with three of her seven children. We spent Thursday night at our parents' house, and then on Friday morning we checked into a house owned by the hospital (similar to a Ronald McDonald House) in light of the approximately two feet of snow that was headed our way. Maurice and Yvonne's two oldest children stayed at my parents' house. My dad had reserved one room that had a queen size bed, cot, and a pack 'n play for Micah (who is 16 months old). This was sufficient for the five of us since one of us spent the night in mom's room each night. Wendy slept in the hospital room on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday night. I slept in the hospital room on Friday and Saturday night. During this hospitalization she was diagnosed with diabetes, thrush, and c-diff. Getting treatment for these conditions and having her fourth thoracentesis meant she had more emotional and physical energy when I left than when she arrived at the hospital.

You usually need to be rated at a 0-2 to receive chemo (sometimes they will give it to someone deemed a "3"). When she arrived at the hospital she was a 4 (which means hospice not chemo), but when I left she was a 3 and was very motivated to try and get back to a 2 so that she could have her next chemo treatment. The thoracic surgeon discussed two surgeries she could have on her lungs. Her left lung just needs a catheter so the fluid can be drained at home (no more thoracentesis procedures). That's a 20 minute procedure. Tomorrow morning at 11:00 she is scheduled to have a more complex surgery (2-3 hours long) on her right lung. She has been in the hospital since January 20 and will probably be discharged on the 29th or 30th. I would appreciate prayers that the surgery will go smoothly and will be a success in helping my mother's breathing and in turn give her more energy so that she can have her next chemo treatment on February 4. She does not want to go on hospice yet. This will only be my mom's second surgery in her life (she's 70 years old). Her first surgery was to remove her gallbladder several years ago. We are hoping that in several weeks she can have her third surgery to remove her ovaries, spleen, portions of her intestine, portions of her colon, the pleural cavities of her lungs, omentum, fallopian tubes, and anywhere else the cancer has spread. However the first step is to get her strong enough to have her second round of chemo next week, and we are hoping this surgery will help make that possible.


I came back home on Sunday night once the roads were cleared. We only got 3 inches of snow, but the places I was driving through on the way back home had received 20-30 inches of snow. Wendy flew back to Chicago yesterday evening, and Yvonne and her kids will probably leave on Friday evening. I have not planned my next trip down, but I am assuming it will be sometime within the next ten days or so. I have lived in Pennsylvania since June 1996, and in the past almost 20 years I have never made four trips to Maryland within a month (which is what happened between December 25- January 24). This last trip was very unique in that most of the time was spent with my two sisters and my parents. That hasn't happened in more than ten years as usually we have our husbands and children with us. I am grateful that we all have remained close to each other even though we live rather spread apart geographically. We love each other deeply and although we hope for more years together here on earth, we have the assurance of being reunited in Heaven and spending eternity together.

While I'm asking for prayer for my mom's surgery tomorrow, I would also appreciate prayers for a phone interview I am to have tomorrow with West Chester University at 10:15. I received a rejection from Millersville earlier this month and haven't heard anything yet from East Stroudsburg. The application deadline for Lock Haven isn't until March so I know I will not hear from them for awhile. There are basically three hurdles to pass to receive a job offer. First, one must be selected for a phone interview. I have made it past that hurdle with West Chester. Next, I am hoping to be selected for an in-person interview, and then the third hurdle is to be selected for the position. When I was hired at Bloomsburg University in 2004 I thought my days of interviewing were over (especially after I earned tenure and was promoted in 2008), but here I go again. On the one hand I feel a little bit rusty, but on the other hand I have the experience of having chaired many searches during my eight years at Bloomsburg.

Ian is getting glasses

The past three weeks have been a whirlwind and an emotional roller coaster. In order to respect my mom's request for privacy, I deactivated my Facebook account and temporarily stopped blogging, but yesterday was a big day for Ian, and I felt it deserved a post. Yesterday was Ian's second spiritual birthday. I bought a gallon chocolate milk on Tuesday in honor of that, and yesterday we stopped and had a donut at Dunkin Donuts on the way to their eye doctor appointment. Ian had two donuts, and the rest of us had one. Paul wasn't with us, but we brought his donut home. Ian's present this year was four Larry Boy books that I purchased for our Kindle. From Dunkin Donuts we went to the eye doctor where Ian and Nadia had their first eye exams (not counting the ones Ian had when he was an infant due to his prematurity to make sure he didn't have ROP). Nadia's vision is fine (yay!), but Ian is farsighted and has a lot of astigmatism. The astigmatism is interfering with both his near and far vision. I was surprised to hear the doctor say he was farsighted because both Paul and I are nearsighted. Paul didn't need glasses until his late twenties, but I got glasses when I was in first grade. Not surprisingly, Ian picked frames that were green because that is his favorite color. The woman said that the color he picked is by far the most popular color by both girls and boys. The lenses are rimless. Here's to hoping and praying that we picked ones that will really look nice on him and that he will take good care of them. The insurance paid over $400 toward the exam and glasses, and we paid about $150. Nadia's exam only cost us $5. We stopped at the library on our way home, and we happened to be there during preschool story hour which hadn't attended in years. Sometimes I feel badly for Oliver that he doesn't get to do things like that which his siblings did.

When I got home for lunch I learned that my sister from Turkey had bought airline tickets to fly to Maryland today and also that my mom had taken a turn for the worse. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital yesterday afternoon. When I arrived last Friday I was stunned to see how much she had gone downhill in the eight days I had been away, but it seems that since I left this Monday she had gone downhill even farther. Wendy was due to fly in today, but due to my mom's health she came in yesterday. I am leaving in a few hours so it will be the first time in 13 months that I will be with all my siblings. Because a blizzard is supposed to start in Maryland tomorrow (18-24 inches of snow is expected between Friday and Saturday), my dad has made reservations for us for rooms near the hospital in Annapolis as we won't be able to drive back to my parents house from the hospital for a few days. We ended Ian's birthday celebration by having dinner at Friendly's. I want to write more but don't have time. Please pray for my mom and my entire family as we walk through this together. Please pray for Ian as he was crying a lot yesterday over the thought of losing his Grandma. Please pray for Oliver as he had hard time with my separation. The kids stayed with Paul's parents during my last trip to Maryland. I really want to be in Maryland right now, but it's also really hard for me to leave my kids. Paul will be watching them the first couple of days and then Paul's parents will probably watch them for a couple of days. I don't know exactly how long I will be gone.

Goals for 2016

In 2014 I focused on habits and traditions. There are certainly a few that the kids really enjoy like having donuts for breakfast on each of our birthdays and me buying a gallon of chocolate milk the week each child has a birthday. Last year I focused on grace - being more willing to bend the rules from time to time and being a bit more relaxed about school work. The fact that I took off a week from school work the week of Thanksgiving was proof that I have been more relaxed this year. This year I want to focus on patience and gentleness. I am thinking of moments such as when Oliver spills milk for the second time that day or writes with a marker on the couch. I want to show more love and less frustration. Hopefully this list is realistic, but even if we only achieve some of the goals, that will represent progress!

1. Once the weather gets warmer I'd like to get back in the habit of running 3-4 times a week and gradually increase my pace and by next fall I'd like to be able to run as far as 10 miles and also

be able to run one mile in 12-13 minutes (maybe that is overly ambitious, but it's a goal to shoot toward anyhow). I'd also like to lose at least 6 more pounds (or more if I gained weight since I last weighed myself). I think it is going to be much harder for me to run once Paul starts working FT for Kennedy Concrete in May, but I hope to find a way to work it into the schedule. If I get a job, then we can afford to pay a babysitter while I run.

2. Having a regular family fun night and a regular family game night. I think we should target Saturday night for the family fun night (rotate among us as to who picks what we do that night together), and I think Friday night would be a good night to declare as our game night for the first four months of the year. Once Paul starts working FT at Kennedy Concrete, I think Sunday night will be best for game night because M-F when he works at the plant by the time he gets home and takes a shower, it is usually time to put the boys to bed.

3. Although all three kids are potty trained, there is still room for growth in this area. All three could do a much better job with remembering to flush. Oliver needs to learn to put his own
clothes back on afterward and making sure all the pee goes IN the potty. Ian needs to remember that toilet paper goes in the toilet not the trash can. Oliver and Nadia need to remember to close the door for privacy.

4. Ian and Nadia need to continue to like a wider variety of foods, particularly vegetables and soups. Oliver needs to become more independent with eating. He *can* feed himself, but often times he still prefers for me to feed him. I want to keep trying new recipes even after we finish studying different countries each week. Ian needs to consistently finish his lunch and his dinner in an hour or less. I would love to see Ian and Nadia learn how to cut their own food and remember to stay seated until they are done eating.

5. I want to work with Nadia and Ian on memorizing their basic addition and subtraction facts, using coins, and telling time. Ian also needs to work on being able to count to 100 by ones and fives (he can already do so by tens). I would like for Oliver to learn to count to 20 and identify the numerals 0-10 accurately. By the end of 2016 I think Ian will have completed the first grade math textbook and Nadia will have completed the third grade math textbook.

6. Oliver needs to learn to identify the letters of the alphabet and begin learning how to write upper case letters. I would like to see Ian finish Level 3 of reading and also complete Level 4 of the reading curriculum. I hope that by the end of 2016 he is reading easy chapter books independently.

7. The household chore I would like to focus on this year is dusting. I am making that Ian's new chore now that he's six years old, and I think if he and I dust a part of the house each week, that would be a big improvement. Ian and Nadia need to hang up their wet towels and do more than just pull the comforter over their beds each morning.

8. If we do move this year, I really, really want to go all out at trying to make at least one or two friends for myself. I also need to make progress with emotionally handling this drastic change of plans for our lives. I am hoping to meet with a counselor or pastor at church next month to that end. If I
go back to work, I need to make the transition from being a SAHM to being a mom who has a FT job. Hopefully we will still be able to homeschool the children, but if not, they will also need to make the transition to attending school.

9.  Ian needs to break the belly button habit, learn to tie his shoes, obey the first time I ask him to do something, and decrease the whining and complaining.

10. I would love to see Oliver learn to ride a bike with training wheels, be kinder with his words, learn to do a forward tuck roll, and continue to make progress with controlling his temper.

11. I want to have Nadia start using a writing curriculum, get back to using Rosetta stone for Spanish, get back to working on her keyboarding skills, finish the fourth grade spelling textbook by the end of 2016, become more flexible (she's become VERY picky lately in regards to many different things), learn to write in cursive, remember to put the hairbrush back where it belongs, not scream when her hair is brushed, and see drastic
improvements with her attitude and tone of voice.

12. I want to continue to hone my photography skills. I am planning on using most of the money my Aunt Janet gave me for Christmas toward a Lightroom course. I think taking that class will be very helpful and "force" me to make progress (and start shooting in raw).

13. I have not read through the whole Bible in a year lately. I would like to do that in 2016. I also want to help Nadia get in habit of having a daily time of prayer and Bible reading.

14. The financial goal for 2016 is to no longer have a mortgage. We've paid off the van and Paul's student loans. I want the only debt we have to be a loan from my retirement accounts to buy our next house because it means we would not paying interest to any bank.

15. I wrote most of this post a few weeks ago and just added pictures to it this week, but this final goal I only wrote last night. My mother was told yesterday she has cancer. We don't know any particulars yet in terms of exactly what kind, how far along it is, what the treatment will be, etc., but my goal is to be as much help to her as I possibly can. They usually make more trips up here to visit us than we do down there to visit them, but I imagine we will be making more trips than usual in 2016 to help my mom out through this battle with cancer. I wish with all my heart that she did not have to go through this, but I am praying for the Lord to heal her as only He can.