Ten years at BU

I began teaching at Bloomsburg University in August 2004 as an Assistant Professor in a tenure track position and by August 2008 I was a tenured Associate Professor. When we were dating we had agreed that I would be a stay-at-home mom once we had our first baby, but since Paul started pursuing his PhD at Penn State in August 2008, I went back to work (FT) when Nadia was eight weeks old. I continued to teach at Bloomsburg University through the summer of 2012. The last class I taught that year I taught while I was in the hospital in Harrisburg during

Oliver's pregnancy. Paul was scheduled defend his dissertation in early January 2013 (and officially graduate in May 2013) so he began interviewing for teaching positions that would have begun in January 2013. I thought we would be moving to another state (ex. Indiana) and didn't want to leave my department in a lurch at the last minute, so I resigned in late December. My resignation was official around January 21, 2013. In hindsight, I wish I had not done that, but there's no point in dwelling on that now. At that point I had been at the

university for 8.5 years, which was the longest I had ever worked at one particular school because my longest stint prior to that was being the principal of a Christian school for 7 years. In August 2017 I returned to BU as a FT temporary faculty member, which means that as of this week I have now completed ten years of service at the university.

Faculty are typically honored for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc. years of service. Unfortunately, no matter how many years you are an adjunct they don't honor you for your service so my

last 1.5 years of service don't count toward any recognition. At the commencement service in May I was talking to a professor who has been an adjunct at BU for ten straight years. Adjuncts are definitely second class citizens to be sure; this is just one of many examples. When I came to BU in 2004 if someone retired or died, it was pretty much automatic to grant that department a tenure line (typically with a one year delay due to the time the search process takes). I was the chair of our department's search committee for several years,

and I remember at one point we were conducting four tenure track searches at one time. It's been more than five years since our department has been given a tenure line. We had three faculty retire just this past summer. The special education department finally was given two tenure lines (they searched last year and the individuals were hired effective August 2018), but that was only after literally more than HALF of their department was filled by adjuncts. The interim Provost who is retiring in June 2019 has already announced he is going to reject our

tenure line requests (they are due in May). Our department is still going to request a few, but we have already been told the answer will be NO. I am not the only adjunct in the department, and I am not the only professor who is on overload. If I continue FT as an adjunct, I would be promoted and tenured again in August 2022 even if the new Provost doesn't approve any tenure line requests in the spring of 2020 or 2021, but at this point I am planning to be PT the next academic year, which would mean I wouldn't then be eligible to be tenured and

promoted in 2022 because that only would happen if I was a FT temp for five straight years.

I planned to participate in one of the graduation ceremonies today, but in light of the fact I can barely talk and am frequently coughing, I emailed my student teachers and also the woman in charge of organizing commencement ceremonies yesterday to let them know I wouldn't be able to attend. It seems there was more drama than anticipated in the ceremony as police showed up, talked to the

President (after asking him to step off the platform), and then it was announced that the first ceremony was being moved to another building because of a bomb threat. They checked the building thoroughly and didn't find anything so the second ceremony was held in the usual auditorium in the afternoon. The last time I recall having a bomb threat associated with a school where I was a student or on the staff was when I was in high school in the late 80's. So it's been about 30 years. I'm grateful I've never had to deal with a school

shooting as a teacher, student, principal or professor. Because of my respiratory bug, I've cancelled a lot of plans this week - the kids and I didn't go caroling on Sunday night, I didn't go caroling with the kids on Wednesday night, we skipped the homeschool Christmas party at the bowling alley on Thursday, didn't go to commencement today, and didn't go to the Christmas service at church last night. Because I didn't go to commencement today it meant Paul was able to go to work, and I was the one who took the kids to the library to make gingerbread houses. The day I really wanted to cancel everything was Tuesday. When I woke up my head hurt so badly I honestly wasn't sure it was safe for me to drive. I took 3 Advil and that did little to ease the pain. I just wanted to stay in bed, but moms don't get sick days. So I did my last student teacher visit (which involved a little more than 90 minutes of driving time round trip), switched to homeschooling the kids when I got home, did some grading for the university, and then took the kids to gymnastics (which is a 3.5 hour total time commitment between driving time and all three kids' classes). That was a very long day for someone who felt as lousy as I did that day.

Yesterday I focused on ordering some things on Shutterfly. It takes time to create a 100+ page photobook! Today I worked on making the calendar and a mug for one of my aunts. Shutterfly didn't give out free shipping codes this year (bummer!), but I traded Coke caps with some people on Facebook to get some other codes so that all I was paying was the shipping. Today I did a reliability/ validity study for the university on three different assessments, and I also finished the last few rubrics for accreditation. I also finished emailing students who were asking me to bump up their grades. Usually this is in the form of students who have earned an A- who are telling me my class is the only one keeping them from earning a 4.0 this semester.

So I think at this point I can turn my attention to non-school related things on my to do list like sewing a tear in my winter coat, upholstering a few dining room chairs, painting the basement floor, etc. By the time May rolls around, I will have been a professor for 12 years total as I taught at another university for 1.5 years before I came to Bloomsburg. That will mean that more than half of my time as an educator will have been spent as a professor as my time as a teacher plus principal totals eleven years. Now if you count my years as a homeschooling mom that will alter the balance, but I am just counting jobs that involve a paycheck. Sometimes I still cannot fathom the notion that Paul and I are trying to homeschool three kids while we both are employed FT. It sounds insane, and sometimes it feels that way to me. Hopefully next semester will be more manageable as I won't be on overload and will only have five student teachers (who are a LOT closer to my home than the ten I had this semester). As much as I love my time teaching (meaning when I am actually in the classroom) at BU, there are still definitely moments when I just want to return to being a SAHM. I am willing to try being PT for one year first.

The first four pictures are of our "dining" room table (really a Lego table). I snapped the fifth picture yesterday when I saw Ian chose to write his sentence for spelling in cursive. He only started to learn cursive the end of August. I think he's doing a great job! The last four pictures are from when my students did a Family Math Night on November 29.

Thankful Thursday

1. We had a lovely day in Corning, NY on December 1. We spent about six hours at the two museums, decorated cookies, and the kids made blown glass ornaments, which were delivered to our house this week.

2. On December 2nd I took the kids to a local production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," which was based on a book I had read to Nadia and Ian a few years ago. The kids enjoyed it!

3. Nadia has been enjoying attending the Middle youth group (grades 4-8) at the Methodist Church about a mile from our house on Sunday evenings.

4. Someone made it possible for Todd and I to participate in the faculty meeting on December 3 by Zoom (meaning I was able to stay at home).

5. The kids had a great time at Great Wolf Lodge on December 4-5.

6. I ate some yummy food at the APSCUF luncheon

Nadia holding the ornament she made!

on campus on December 6.

7. Nadia enjoyed roller skating on December 6.

8. I gave our tickets to Hope House Christmas show to Melissa, and she rounded up a group of five to use them on December 8.

9. Instead of going to Baltimore on December 8 the kids made candy canes at Purity Candy and the boys got a picture with the Santa at the grocery store.

10. Paul was able to enjoy watching his team have a solid victory on December 9 against the Redskins.

11. Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law came up on Monday to help us celebrate Ian's 9th birthday. Millie made a yummy cake!

12. Tuesday was my last day of driving to visit a student teacher. I get a break for six weeks from doing that! On Monday I also got the REALLY good news that my five student teachers will be very close to home next semester. That is a big answer to prayer!

13. Yesterday was Ian's actual birthday. I am extremely grateful that he's a part of our family! It was nice to spend about 4 hours at Tab's house. My kids were excited to play with her boys, and Nadia always wants to snuggle with Ruby (a long haired dachshund).

14. On Monday I submitted the course grades for my student teachers and my assessment class. Yesterday I submitted the course grades for one section of my math class. Today I submitted the grades for the other section of the math class, which means I am DONE grading!! I have a few more assessments I need to do for accreditation purposes, but I am done grading, writing letters of recommendation, etc. I get 5.5 weeks off of school.  I will do some schoolwork during that time in terms of preparing for the spring semester, but I'm taking a few days off before I start tackling those items on my to do list.

15. The kids started their basketball practices tonight. Ian and Oliver are thrilled that Micah and Isaiah are on their teams (the boys they played with yesterday). Tab and her husband are Oliver's coaches. Nadia and I read during the

boys' practice, and then we came home. Paul took Nadia to her practice at 7pm, and while they were gone I wrapped Christmas presents and gave both boys a haircut.

16. I didn't do much Black Friday/ Cyber Monday type shopping this year, but I did get a few good deals. The best was that I got a $20 order from Walmart completely for free. Actually the refund (via an Amazon gift card) exceeded what I paid by a few cents. Legos for free works for me! I also got 50% off tickets to the Crayola Factory. We haven't been there since 2014, and we plan to go in the spring of 2019.

17. I came down with a bug on Sunday. I'm thankful that the fever/headache part of the bug is over as it was a REALLY intense headache. The bad news is that my voice disappeared on Tuesday afternoon, and it is still MIA. I am learning how to homeschool kids while whispering. I'm also thankful for a book on CD or on Audible because reading chapter books aloud is out of the question right now for me.

18. The kids enjoyed caroling at Warrior Run Manor last night. I usually join in that activity if I don't have choir rehearsal that particular night, but one can't sing with laryngitis. So I kept grading while they sang.

19. Tuesday was the last day I had to get up early. For quite a few days in a row I had to be out the door before 7am. My body is programmed to wake up by 5:30. This morning when that happened I did manage to fall back asleep and didn't get up until 6:30. I'm hoping my body will shift toward a later wake-up time. This also means I'll be able to get back in the habit of exercising on the elliptical. I couldn't bring myself to exercise in the morning when I had to leave the house that early.

20. We have picked a contractor for replacing our deck in the spring.

21. Ian liked the gifts I gave him yesterday. His two favorites (yesterday) were a Stitch stuffed animal and an Elves Lego set. Other gifts included 4 smart outlets (that Alexa can control), a good microscope (we already had a super cheap one but I know Ian likes microscopes and figured as homeschoolers we should invest in a quality microscope), and a Beethoven DVD that contains all 8 Beethoven movies about the St. Bernard.

22. It looks like the kids will be able to take a few private ice skating lessons this winter since they can't be in the group class due to their basketball practice being on the same day/time.

23. I have two books to read for LEISURE from the library - one is fiction and the other is about the woman who married C. S. Lewis. I haven't even taken the time to play a 2 minute Boggle game on the iPad since I can't remember when.

24. None of the kids have any cavities. Thus far none of them have ever had one. The bad news is that one of Oliver's permanent teeth fully erupted a while ago, but the baby tooth isn't loose yet. The dentist is giving him a few weeks, and if it doesn't come out then they will be extracting two of his baby teeth next month. Poor guy. I am not crazy about the idea that the FIRST tooth he loses will be by extraction in a dentist's office.

25. I've mailed our Christmas cards, we baked our sugar cookies, and I have finished almost all of the Christmas shopping (and wrapping). Usually we give trays of cookies to their AWANA leaders, choir leaders, and SS teachers, but due to a lack of energy on my part I think I'm going to buy gift cards to have the kids give instead.

Nine years old!

The shirt says "Birthday Boy" and features Mario!

On this day nine years ago Ian Alexander joined our family! The first three years were tough one due to the urological surgeries, endoscopies, eosinophilic esophagitis, and feeding issues, but thankfully almost all of that is a thing of the past at the moment. At the present he's only allergic to tree nuts, and the only other thing that causes him to regurgitate (not counting when he has a stomach bug) is if he laughs too hard. Meal times were such a struggle for many years. He still needs reminders to stay focused on the task at hand (or a meal can easily last longer than an hour), but in general he's continuing to make wonderful progress.

In general I think it's preferred to have a birthday in June than December because it means you get gifts once every six months instead of one month a year, but one perk of a December birthday is we take the day off of school. Oliver and Nadia's birthdays are in the summer (when "school" isn't in session), but Ian's birthday translates to one day off of school. Actually this

Nadia loves Ruby!!

year due to our trip to Great Wolf Lodge last week his birthday translated to three days off of school!

Birthday celebration #3 (today - his actual birthday) involved drinking apple juice (I don't usually buy any juice), having donuts for breakfast, opening his presents from his parents, having pizza for dinner, having chicken nuggets and goldfish crackers for lunch, and spending about 4 hours at Micah and Isaiah's house for a birthday play date. The kids also watched a DVD from the library that they had never seen before, and this evening they went caroling at Warrior Run Manor with the AWANA club. He received birthday calls from my dad, my Aunt Janet, and my Aunt Tina. I wasn't able to talk to any of them on the phone because I have laryngitis. I also had to miss the caroling for the same reason, and I usually love to sing Christmas carols. There were two activities today that didn't relate to his birthday  - all three kids got their teeth cleaned at the dentist, and all three participated in a 30 minute Spanish class at the library.

This was the first year I wasn't able to sing Happy Birthday to Ian on his birthday. Thankfully I was able to sing to him on Monday night at his party. So today concludes the birthday celebrations for Ian's 9th birthday, and it means yesterday was the last day the three kids were 2 years apart in age (until Oliver turns 7 next August). Now my kids are 6, 9, and 10 years old (until Nadia turns 11 in June).

Here are nine descriptions of my precious middle child....

1. His favorite toys are still Legos and stuffed animals. The dining room should more accurately be called the Lego room. Even for his birthday dinner we squeezed eight people around our kitchen table (which is really only meant for six) and Paul used a tv table as there were nine of us eating dinner together on Monday night. I have already warned the kids that they *must* remove the Legos from the dining room table before December 27 because at that point there will be twelve of us, and there's no way 12 people can eat dinner in our kitchen! His most favorite stuffed animal is also his smallest one, which he has named Squeakers.

2. He loves to play on the iPad. One of his favorite apps is Minecraft, and he asked for a Minecraft themed birthday party this year. Sometimes he chooses to use the Wii instead, but most of the time he picks the iPad. His two favorite educational apps on the iPad are Duolingo (for learning Spanish) and Stack the States (for learning the capitals, locations of the states, abbreviations of the states, state flags, etc.).

3. His favorite books are either Magic Tree House or Imagination Station books. He flies through those. If I ask him to read something else, it takes him a LOT longer to finish the book.

4. He's the most introverted of my three kids and the one who enjoys staying home the most. If we ever suggested our kids should go to a Christian school instead of being homeschooled, I know Ian would be the one to object the most to that notion.

5. He will be finishing his third grade math textbook before Christmas. He's about half-way through the fourth grade spelling textbook. Although he started piano lessons two years after Nadia did, he has almost caught up to where she is in her piano books. He's not efficient at getting his work done. Nadia always finishes long before he does because of his issues with focusing and staying on-task, but schoolwork comes pretty easily for him most of the time, and he generally has a good attitude. He doesn't get frustrated easily and is willing to persevere. Ian has an amazing memory for almost everything (one exception would be the sentence dictation portion of spelling); his listening skills could definitely use some improvement.

6. He loves to tell jokes (puns in particular), change the words to songs to fit a different topic, and he does an amazing job imitating different voices and sounds.

7. He loves to snuggle, cuddle, receive hugs, and be given piggy back rides. I savor those moments!

8. He loves to draw.

9. He wouldn't mind having a hot dog with ketchup and mustard on it every single day for lunch. When we don't have hot dogs, he eats a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich. He eats a wide assortment of things for breakfast and dinner. At lunch he also eats half of a golden delicious apple cut in three slices (with some peanut butter) or grapes, when we have grapes. He hates to wear socks; he takes them off as soon as we come home.

I love him ever so much! I pray he'll always want to give me hugs. He loves to spend time with Nadia. I hope that continues for many years to come, and in time I hope he also loves to spend time with Oliver. Thank you, Lord, for giving me Ian nine years ago!

Birthday Celebration #2

Yesterday we had Ian's 9th birthday party. Actually it was my dad's 75th birthday yesterday not Ian's actual birthday, but Mondays are the best day for Aunt Millie (due to the schedule at her bakery), and Ian's actual birthday is tomorrow, which is the night the kids will be caroling with their AWANA club. I left for work around 7am and got home about 1pm. In between that time I visited two student teachers in two different school districts and gave a final exam on campus. I also received the WONDERFUL news that my five student teachers are all going to be close to our home next semester! Last spring four of my fifteen student teachers were in Milton (15 minutes from our house). This semester none of my ten student teachers are close to my house (shortest drive was about 45 minutes and five of them were at least an hour away from home). Well next semester I will only have five student teachers - some of them are in OUR district that we live in (meaning 10 minutes or less from our house) and some are in another neighboring district (at the most 15 minutes from our home). This is a huge relief to me as I have spent many hours driving this semester.

Paul's parents arrived prior to dinner so they could play with the kids some. Paul's brother and sister-in-law came around 5:30. Since I am under the weather plus had a lot of schoolwork, Paul did most of the work in preparing dinner - rigatoni with meatballs, garlic bread, and green beans. Aunt Millie made a Minecraft birthday cake (half vanilla, half chocolate). Ian opened four gifts - two from Paul's parents (a lego set and a dragon robot kit), one from Grandpa (a dragon figure), and one from Aunt Millie and Uncle Al (a catapult launcher robot kit). Tomorrow will be the third and final birthday celebration for our soon to be nine-year-old! That means I had better find time to wrap some presents today

This past weekend we found out what the basketball schedule will be like as far as practices. The good news is that all of their practices are on Thursdays. The boys will both have practice from 5-6pm. They are thrilled because Tab and her husband, Dan, will be coaching Oliver's team as their five-year-old, Isaiah, is on that team. Ian is very excited because Isaiah's older brother (Micah) will be on Ian's team! Nadia's practices will be on Thursday nights from 7-8pm. I'm thinking we'll come home after the boys' practice and then Paul can take Nadia to her practice, and the boys can stay home with me. The only downside to this practice schedule is it means that the kids can't be in the ice skating classes as those are also on Thursdays from 5:15-6:00. We had taken ice skating lessons for a few years, but Oliver hasn't ever had any because we had this same schedule conflict last year. So I am going to look into possibly doing private ice skating lessons. We shall see. This week and next week the kids will have gymnastics on Tuesday and basketball on Thursday, but then we will be taking a break from gymnastics for a few months. Hopefully Oliver will be as motivated with basketball this year as he has been with gymnastics lately!

Goal Check-up

As this year is drawing to a close, I decided to take a gander at the goals I had listed for this year. I had made a shorter list than usual, yet as always, some were achieved and some were not.

As for the house, we did finish the curtain hanging project in the basement, I did some exterior painting, we got new carpet for Ian's bedroom, and we paid off the mortgage of the house (partially that goal was accomplished by using money from one of my retirement accounts so we're not totally debt free, but we should be debt free by May 2019). We did not get a storm door, remove the rest of the deck and replace it, or finish the master bathroom floor project that has been a work in progress since May 2016. As for the deck, we did have two men give us estimates, and we should be signing a contract this month, which means that by May 2019 we should have a new deck! I really, really hope that sometime in 2019 we will be able to resume using our master bathroom shower.

As for myself, I gained weight instead of losing weight (UGH!!!). I had a proposal accepted for a national conference, but then I found out due to being a temporary faculty member I wouldn't receive one penny towards the cost of presenting in Chicago. I told

NCSS I wouldn't be able to attend. Due to the fact that they haven't made any progress toward adding a tenure line to the department, I haven't done any work on trying to get another article published. I didn't try at least one new recipe every month, but I probably tried at least ten new recipes over the course of the year. I didn't achieve the goal of playing more board games with the kids, but I do think I have been showing them more patience.

Oliver did finish level one of the reading curriculum, and he's about 1/4 of the way through level two. His uppercase and lowercase manuscript letters and numbers definitely aren't perfect, but he has made progress. He DID learn how to swing himself on a swing and did play on a basketball team for the first time, but he did not learn how to ride his bike without the training wheels. He is half-way through the first grade spelling curriculum. Once the "light bulb" came on for him with reading, he started spelling with ease. Math still isn't easy for him, but he's making

progress in his first grade math textbook. Although he hasn't "arrived," he made significant progress with being more obedient and controlling his temper. Way to go, Oliver! Of the five of us, he definitely made the most progress in 2018.

My list of goals last  year for Nadia and Ian was really short last year. We did finish reading the New Testament aloud and the Swimming Creatures science textbook. We are almost done with the Land Animals curriculum. They have been writing more this fall, but that's still an area I need to start spending a lot more time on. We also have been doing a little bit of work with learning the parts of speech, but grammar is something I need to ramp up in 2019. Oliver and Ian will finish their handwriting textbooks this month so I'm planning on using the time that had been devoted to handwriting for grammar starting in January. Speaking of handwriting, although I didn't list it as a goal for this year, I am very pleased with the progress Ian has made with learning to write in cursive!

I'm thankful for the goals that were achieved, and I'm hoping to make additional progress towards the ones that weren't in 2019.

O Christmas Tree

Since 2001 our tradition has been to put up our Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Ever since my mom passed away in 2016, decorating has been emotionally challenging for me. My mom loved Christmas decorations. We always waited until after December 10th to decorate because that is my dad's birthday, and she wanted to make sure his birthday didn't get lost in the shuffle due to Christmas. This year due to the fact that I've been super busy juggling too many things at once plus I was dreading it emotionally due to missing my mom, I decided to wait until one of the kids asked about it. I knew eventually they would ask when we were going to put up our tree. I was curious as to when it might happen. The kids spent the day at Paul's parents house this past Thursday because Paul wanted to go in to work that day due to having spent Wednesday (a day he usually works) at Great Wolf Lodge. Nadia helped Paul's parents decorate their Christmas tree on Thursday. The next day Ian asked me when we were going to put up our tree. I said

we could start that night after Daddy got home from work. Paul assembled the tree and strung the Christmas lights on Friday night while the kids and I put out stockings and such. Then while he was at work on Saturday morning the kids and I decorated the tree.  I didn't cry this time. That represents progress compared to decorating the past two years.

We have a few Christmas traditions. Last weekend we went to Corning Museum of Glass, and we intend to keep going there the first weekend of December. Admission is free at the CMOG and the Rockwell Museum (a Smithsonian art museum also in Corning). We visited both museums and the kids made their first blown glass ornaments. Oliver's first ornament collapsed because he took a breath in while his mouth was on the tube, but his second ornament was a success. We haven't received the ornaments yet. Last year they did a fused glass ornament. Next year they say they want to do a blown glass snowman. When they are all old enough they could do a flameworking project. At both

museums they were able to decorate cookies (free), and at the CMOG there was live Christmas music and free drinks (hot chocolate, hot apple cider, etc.). We did three of the four demonstrations at the CMOG. Maybe next year we'll try a guided tour of the historical galleries (showing glass from the Roman empire until now). The kids were hoping to be picked to break glass in the one demonstration because the volunteer receives a free little glass animal (made by flameworking). Last year I won a beautiful handmade blue vase in one of the demos.

We usually go caroling at least twice. We'll be visiting some shut-ins with others from our church tonight, and on Wednesday night we'll be caroling at the Warrior Run Manor with the AWANA club. We make Christmas cookies and use some of them for the ones given to the shut-ins and then give others to the kids' leaders in AWANA and the kids' choir at church.

Yesterday we visited Purity Candy which is 5 minutes
from our house. They have been making handmade candy canes there for over 100 years, and after the candy maker demonstrates how they make candy canes, everyone present gets to twist (and keep) one candy cane. I never do one, but the kids each make one. We also visit the Santa that is in a little shed by the grocery store in our town. Originally I had planned for Paul to take the kids to Purity Candy and visit Santa next Saturday while I'm at Commencement, but because I had scratched our plans in Baltimore and Camp Hill for yesterday, I took the kids to Purity Candy for the 12pm demonstration, did a little grocery shopping, and then they met Santa a little after 1pm. Oliver went first. He told Santa he wanted a chocolate candy cane for Christmas. Santa was definitely surprised, and asked if he wanted something else. To which Oliver said, "a potato." HA HA! When Ian was asked he first said, "For Mommy to be happy" and then when Santa asked if he wanted anything else he of course said "legos." Santa asked him if he already had any legos. HA HA do we ever!

Nadia (for the first time) didn't want anything to do with Santa. I had brought three cans of food (that's the "price" for seeing Santa is a contribution to the food bank), but she decided she was too old for Santa.

The kids usually make a gingerbread house at the Milton library. They are signed up to do that next Saturday with Paul while I'm at Commencement. 

They buy gifts (with AWANA shares not real money) for their siblings and parents and wrap the gifts at AWANA. Nadia usually also buys gifts for the Benner cousins.

We use an Advent calendar every year although this year it didn't get put up until December 7. Oops!

We attend a Christmas eve service at our church plus another Christmas service on a Friday night (Dec 14 this year).

The kids take turns hiding the elf on the shelf. One less thing for me to do!!

We let the kids open their gifts from us on Christmas eve, and most years we spend Christmas Day at Paul's parents' house. This year I am hosting Christmas for my side of the family from December 26-31. Dad and Margie will come first, and then Wendy and her kids will join us on the 27th. Playing with their cousins is definitely something my kids look forward to each year!

The first two years we attended our current church the kids' choir put on a musical at Christmas, but last year they switched to only doing a musical in May. Instead they sing one Christmas song in a worship service in December (December 16 this year).

Birthday Celebration #1

Ian will be turning NINE years old on Wednesday. Really?!?!? The years are certainly flying by. The privilege that we give to our kids when they turn nine is that they get to stay up to 9pm (instead of 8:30) but we started letting him stay up until 9pm earlier this year. Currently Oliver goes to bed at 8pm, but he'll be shifting to 8:30 next summer when he turns seven. Nadia got her ears pierced when she turned ten. I'm not sure yet what privilege we'll extend to the boys when they turn ten. Nadia has been going to bed at 9pm since she turned nine, but she'll be shifting to 9:30 in June when she turns eleven, which means we'll be back to having three different bedtimes for the kids. I told Nadia she might have to stay in her room from 9:00-9:30 because Paul usually watches tv starting at 9pm, and the movies he watches are generally not appropriate for children. Speaking of bedtimes, I'm counting down the days until I can shift mine back to a later time. Right now my body is programmed to wake up by 5:30 every morning, which means I am usually in bed at 9pm (earlier sometimes). December

11 is the last day I need to get up early for work this semester. I'm hoping that it won't take too long for my body to shift to a later wake-up time, which will mean I won't need to go to bed so early.

Many times we have celebrated Nadia's birthday by seeing a show at Sight and Sound in Lancaster. The first one was Jonah. This year when she turned 10 we saw "Jesus," which was my favorite show thus far. Next year we won't be going to Sight and Sound for her birthday because they are doing Jesus again next year, but in 2020 we can see "Queen Esther" around her birthday. Since she loves drama so much, I have found another show we can see in June 2019 - Mulan, Jr. at a dinner theater. The kids have never been to a dinner theater before. This one will be a lunch show (much cheaper than a dinner show at the same place). She used to like ALL the Disney princesses, but she's down to three that are still her favorites (she's outgrown the others) - Ariel, Mulan, and Jasmine. So I know she would enjoy seeing Mulan!

We haven't had a tradition for how to celebrate Ian's birthday. Birthdays one through six both of my parents came up here to celebrate his birthday plus my Dad's birthday because their birthdays are only two days apart. My mom passed away before Ian turned seven, but my dad still came up in 2016 so we could celebrate both of their birthdays together. In 2017 we went to Baltimore the weekend before their birthdays and so I brought my Dad's homemade cherry pie and such down to Maryland last year. We didn't plan an overnight in Maryland this year, but we had been planning to spend today in Baltimore again and also see a Christmas show at a church near Harrisburg on the way back home. On Wednesday night I decided to scrap all our plans for Saturday. We had planned to go to the Star Spangled Banner House Museum and the Historic Ships (including a Powder Monkey tour) because both attractions would only cost $1 this weekend (much cheaper than usual). But due to how exhausted I was and how much work I knew I still needed to do this weekend, I deleted those

from the calendar. I contacted a friend and asked her if she'd like to use our tickets to the Christmas show, and she was thrilled to be able to use them. That means I won't drive farther than 15 minutes from our house today!

It hit me last spring that Ian had been gipped because Nadia had invited friends to her birthday parties (at the swimming pool) when she turned eight and nine. She had a surprise sleep over party with two friends (I invited more but that's all who showed up) when she turned ten. Ian has never had any friends attend any of his birthday parties. So I decided we should do something really special for his ninth birthday, and so a few months ago I booked a "Wolf Den" for one night at a Great Wolf Lodge, which is about 90 minutes from our house. I know the kids love water slides and wave pools and such. Paul drove the kids out there on Tuesday morning and they enjoyed the water park all day while I was at work. We met for dinner at a Red Robin at 5:45pm and spent the night in our "den." Ian had the top bunk, Nadia had the

bottom bunk, Oliver had the sofa bed, and Paul and I shared the queen size bed. Then on Wednesday we were at the water park for 6 more hours before we left in time for the kids to go to AWANA. I had planned to go to choir rehearsal, but I ended up staying home because I was utterly and completely exhausted. Because we were celebrating Ian's birthday, he was given special "birthday" wolf ears to wear at GWL and also was allowed to have one bowl of ice cream for free. He picked chocolate chip cookie dough and shared it with Nadia.

We have three total celebrations planned for Ian's birthday this year. On December 4-5 the kids enjoyed the water park at Great Wolf Lodge. They ate breakfast at home on the 4th, ate a packed lunch on the 4th, and ate what we packed for breakfast on the 5th. Dinner on the 4th was at Red Robin, pizza for lunch on the 5th, and Subway for dinner on the 5th. We had never been to GWL before. We (minus Paul) had been to Kalahari in Ohio in 2016, which is very similar. I have to say  the Kalahari trip made this trip a bit hard for me emotionally. I kept recalling how much I was missing my mom and also how very sick I was on that trip in 2016. I tend to miss my mom the most in December. Christmas just isn't the same without her. Ian's second celebration will be on Monday night. I'll be making rigatoni and meatballs, green beans, and garlic bread (Ian picked the menu) and Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law will be coming up. He'll open up his presents from them and eat some of Aunt Millie's cake. His third (and final) celebration will be on his actual birthday on Wednesday. He'll get donuts for breakfast and pizza for dinner. We're spending about 4 hours at Tab's house so the kids can play with Isaiah, Micah, and their two dogs (Maggie and Ruby). Tab is providing chicken nuggets for lunch (another of Ian's favorites), and I'm bringing goldfish crackers, apple juice, and a dessert. He'll open up his presents from Paul and I that day. Hopefully our nine year old will feel very loved, appreciated, and celebrated! I am ever so thankful the Lord gave him to us nine years ago!