Thankful Tuesday

1. I haven't been doing as much couponing over the past two years, but now that I am returning to being a stay-at-home mom, I need to put more time into that again. Last week I got some good deals through Amazon. For example, one order contained 12 boxes of cereal (two of which were family size), 2 bags of chips, and a 23oz can of unsweetened cacao, for a grand total of $18.89. The most expensive item (by far) was the can of Hershey's Cocoa. The last time I bought some I got the generic brand at our local grocery store. Many times I'm fine with the generic brand. I quickly discovered that from now on I'll be sticking with Hershey's when it comes to unsweetened cacao! Nadia was thrilled because ten of the boxes were of her current favorite cereal - Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch.

2. For several years I've owned three wreaths for the front door - spring, fall, and Christmas. I use the spring one in spring and summer, but I usually don't have anything up in January through March. Last Tuesday I shopped with my friend during chemistry camp, and I purchased a beautiful winter wreath that I plan to use during those months in the future, and it only cost $25, for which I was grateful as wreaths can easily cost $40 or more.

3. I had a lengthy conversation with my sister on her birthday on Wednesday. Considering I have no idea how many years I will have to wait until I talk to my brother again, I am not taking something like this for granted!

4. The boys enjoyed chemistry camp. Monday they focused on forensic chemistry - fingerprints, shoeprints, chromatography with a pen smear, testing "blood" samples, etc. Gill T. Ascharged was the culprit! Tuesday they learned about material chemistry, and the boys came home that day with a vial of nylon that they created through a polymer reaction. Wednesday was one of their favorite days as their study of physical chemistry included a lot of explosions - including 1,000 ping pong balls (thanks to liquid nitrogen). On Thursday they came home with containers of water from a creek that they had tested as they studied environmental chemistry. The highlight on Friday when they studied food chemistry was the ice cream they created (and ate) using liquid nitrogen. Ian enjoyed seeing the DNA of a strawberry that day. On Tuesday Ian told me he learned about hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances. Here's a video that show some highlights of chemistry camp!

5. Despite the heat, we had fun at Knoebels on Friday night! I was able to meet a woman near the park to sell my bread maker for $50. I have plans to sell an easel for $10, and the rest of the toys I had unsuccessfully attempted to sell I donated to Goodwill on Thursday. Yay for less clutter!

6. Paul and the kids enjoyed a production of Snoopy, the Musical on Saturday night in Lewisburg. Ian said two of the girls in that production were in their chemistry camp.

7. Nadia had a great week at Camp Susque! The girl she spent the most time with lives in Lewisburg so hopefully we can find a way for the girls to spend some time together over the coming months.

8. Last Tuesday we rode the Hiawatha riverboat and then went bowling. Ian got a strike for the first time this year, and Oliver got a spare for the first time. He got 3 spares in his first game and 1 in his second game! Oliver actually beat Ian in the first game. In the second game there were five bowlers on their lane. Tab (former babysitter) got first place with 135, Ian had second place, and Oliver took third place in the second game. Their bowling skills have improved over the summer. Oliver wore Ian's bowling shoes, and Ian wore Nadia's bowling shoes. Since I didn't bowl the bowling was free, and it only cost $15 for the three of us to ride the riverboat, and that included eight different hands-on activities about coal mining. The kids' favorite activity was were they "mined" the chocolate out of chocolate chip cookies.

9. The boys enjoyed VBS last Thursday night, and Paul and all three kids attended the lunch and closing activities on Sunday afternoon. Oliver and Ian enjoyed the inflatable and slip and slide. Nadia just stayed in the gym where it was air conditioned.

10. Yesterday Nadia had her 11 year old well visit. I had scheduled it for the week of her birthday (last month) but had to reschedule it once she made plans to join the youth group at the Creation music festival. She actually hadn't been seen by a doctor for 19 months. My bed rest during Oliver's pregnancy plus his NICU stay had postponed her four year old well visit by several months and over time it ended up taking place six months after her birthday. Because shots are involved with the 11 year old visit and the school district requires those to be up to date, I had planned to allow 18 months to pass in between her well visits this time so that the insurance will still cover the visit and also she'd be old enough to receive the immunizations. She hadn't had any shots in six years so she was really dreading these. She had two shots in her right arm (Tdap and Meningitis), and I think it wasn't as bad as she anticipated it would be. I declined the HPV immunization which isn't mandatory. From age three to age eleven her weight has gone from 34 to 91 pounds. Her percentile has varied over those years from a low of 55 percentile to a high of 80th percentile. Her weight is currently in the 65th percentile. Her height has gone from 36 inches tall (three years old) to 56.5 inches tall (now). Her height percentile has varied over those years from a low of 25th percentile to a high of 45th percentile which is where she is now. Her BMI has often been around 80 percentile; the doctors want it to be less than 85. Her BMI was much lower in 2014 as her weight and height percentiles were very close at that time. Her BMI today was at the 78th percentile so the doctor didn't say anything about it, which was good news. I told him about my brother's passing and asked if my kids needed to be tested. He said it was highly unlikely that they would have the genetic mutation if I don't have it, and I do not. It still wouldn't hurt to have them checked at some point, but considering she was having two shots today I wasn't going to also request blood to be drawn. I am very thankful that Nadia is such a healthy girl and continues to be the only one in our family who doesn't need to wear eyeglasses.

11. Yesterday I wasn't dizzy, and I had enough energy to stay awake and vertical during the hours I am usually awake. I still have a cough, but I think I'm over the worst of the bug, and thus far no one in the family seems to have caught it from me.

12. It cooled down yesterday. The house got down to 79 yesterday, and this morning it got down to 74 degrees in the house! It was SO nice to be able to sleep with something on top of me last night for the first time in several nights. I don't like sleeping on top of my sheet, but it was even hotter upstairs. Hopefully it won't get THAT hot again this summer and we can get our air conditioner fixed or replaced before next summer.

Fun at Knoebels!

My dad's family owned an amusement park in Pittsburgh so it seems that enjoying amusement parks is in my DNA. Since Nadia was old enough to ride kiddie rides we have been going to Knoebels and other amusement parks every summer. I think this is the latest into the summer we ever waited until our first trip. We had plans to go to Knoebels twice in May and to Montage Mountain (water park) in June, but the weather interfered with all of those plans. At this point last year we had already been to eight different amusement parks - Knoebels, Sesame Place, Six Flags, Disneyland, Legoland, Montage Mountain, Sea World, and Aquatica. On Friday I drove the boys directly from chemistry camp to Elysburg (the town where Knoebels is located). We met a woman at a gas station, and she gave me $50 for my bread maker. Then we joined some people from our church in pavilion. Those who helped in their VBS in June received a free meal and either a bargain night handstamp or some tickets (for the volunteer plus his/her immediate family). The meals included a hotdog, hamburger,

ice cream, sweet tea, coleslaw, and macaroni and cheese. None of us ate our entire meal, which worked out well as we were able to save two hamburgers, two ice creams, one macaroni and cheese, and sweet tea for Paul when he arrived later. None of us took any coleslaw.

I chose the tickets over the handstamp because the handstamp didn't include the roller coasters. If they do this again next summer, hopefully I'll remember to get handstamps for the kids and tickets for Paul and I and then we can give the kids our tickets to use on the roller coasters. The upside of having done it the way we did is we still have tickets left over that we can use when we go back (weather permitting) in 12 days for WGRC Day (our local Christian radio station). Oliver didn't try the Impulse. It was the first year he was tall enough to ride it. He says he'll try it with Nadia the next time we're there. It's a steel rollercoaster that goes upside down multiple times. Oliver rode the Phoenix twice with Ian, the Twister once with Paul, the flume twice with Ian, and the Skloosh once with me

and once with Ian. We should have done the Skloosh earlier in the night as you get drenched on that one. It was a very hot day, but thankfully Knoebels has a lot of trees that provide shade. Also, I think the heat helped keep the crowd on the smaller side. The boys also did the Haunted House for the first time. No handstamp covers that ride so it was the perfect day to ride it since we were using tickets. Ian enjoyed it. Oliver at first said he'd NEVER do it again, and then later he said maybe he'd ride it again when he's ten years old. On our ride home he talked to Grandma on the phone (before he fell asleep), and he talked the most about the haunted house. We were on the rides for about two hours. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to return to Knoebels in 12 days as Nadia hasn't been on any rides yet this summer. We also plan to go to Del Grosso's in early August for Oliver's birthday. Since parking is free at Knoebels and we were given a meal and tickets, our only expenses for this fun evening included buying Paul a soda and a milkshake and buying a cup of

soft ice cream that the boys and I shared.

On Wednesday I came down with a respiratory bug of some sort. I had the hardest time just staying awake that day. I didn't take the boys to VBS on Tuesday or Wednesday. I slept 10 hours on Wednesday night and 11 hours on Thursday night. Thursday I had a bit more energy. I took the kids to VBS that evening and asked Paul to pick them up. Because of our trip to Knoebels I went to bed later on Friday night, and the boys got up earlier than usual which translated to me only getting 7 hours of sleep. That coupled with all the activity on Friday meant I took several steps backward in how I was feeling yesterday. We have been in a heat wave. The high temperature has been in the 90's and with the humidity the "real feel" has been around 107. I thought if I mowed the lawn at 8:00am it wouldn't be unbearably hot at that time of day, but I was wrong. I started to have some heat exhaustion so I quit even though I wasn't quite done mowing and took a very cold shower. I could tell if I

tried to finish mowing I was likely to faint. My worst incident of heat exhaustion was when I was at camp (as a high schooler) and I passed out right before I was about to climb on a horse. It would have been much worse to faint while on the horse, but I still was treated to an ice bath by the camp nurse. While the boys were in chemistry camp I wasn't sure I had it in me to drive to Knoebels, but I went to CVS and bought some lozenges plus a bottle of water that had vitamins and caffeine and such in it. That perked me up enough that I didn't cancel the trip to Knoebels. The past two days I have been paying the price for pushing myself on Friday.

Normally I can't take a sick day - moms don't usually get that luxury, but I actually have been able to this weekend. Paul usually works on Saturday. Yesterday he got up and got dressed for work but then changed his mind. I was surprised when I came down for breakfast to see him still here sitting in the family room in his work clothes. He decided to take the day off. All four of us went to get Nadia at camp that morning. I started a load of laundry and a load of dishes and then laid down. I literally can go years without taking a nap. I am NOT a napper. But I took a nap yesterday afternoon, which shows how utterly exhausted I was. I probably would have slept longer than I did, but it was a sauna in our bedroom. I was sweating like crazy. We need to replace the compressor for our air conditioning. We will wait a bit because I'm sure we'd pay top dollar right now in the middle of a heat wave, but with the A/C on our house is close to 90 degrees downstairs, which means it's well over 90 degrees upstairs. Usually the house comes down to 74 or 75 (where we typically have it set) by the morning, but this morning it had only cooled down to 81 in our house even during the night! Thankfully the temperature is supposed to drop 20 degrees tomorrow. I literally was using an ice pack on my temples yesterday in the house because I was so hot. We were all at home from 11:00-6:30, and then Paul and the kids left to see a musical about Snoopy. I had planned to take them, but he went in my place, and I went to bed at 7pm.

We had planned to go to the Civil War Days at Landis Valley Farm today. I had this on the calendar for a full year, which is why last fall I purchased a family membership to the farm when Paul took the kids there for a different event. Since I'm under the weather and it's so stinking hot out today those plans were scratched. It means the membership was not the way to go financially, but I'll just have to consider it a donation to a worthwhile organization. My plan is to not leave the house at all today. I am still rather dizzy. I'm hoping that two days of rest (not counting the trip to Camp Susque yesterday morning) will help me get over this bug more quickly. Paul and the kids are at church, and then they will stop at First Baptist (where the boys went to VBS last week) for inflatables, a slip and slide, etc. Nadia will be able to go to the Middle (youth group she attends at the Methodist church) this evening. She hasn't gone there in a few months. Thankfully the next two days are pretty calm. I have three chauffeuring duties over those two days - take Nadia to the doctor for her eleven year old physical on Monday morning and take all three kids to a baseball/softball clinic Monday and Tuesday night.

Christmas in July

Next Thursday they will be having Christmas in July at Kid's Café. From past experience I know this entails a turkey dinner, Christmas decorations, Christmas music, and the kids each picking out some toys to take home with them. Kid's Café lasts from 11:00-12:30, and three days next week my kids will be in a history camp from 9-12 that is located about 20 minutes from the park. So we shall see if we get there in time or not. This week I bought some Christmas presents. Amazon's Prime Days have become contagious so to speak as other businesses have begun offering great deals on those days as well. It feels very similar to Black Friday in November. I bought some books for Nadia for Christmas and spiritual birthday gifts on Amazon and Target using coupon codes. Legos very rarely are on sale, but Amazon even had some Lego sets marked down 30% or more. I got two big Lego sets for Ian for his birthday and Christmas gifts. I always feel like we are drowning in Legos so last year I didn't buy him Legos, but Legos are his favorite toy so I bought more of something I think we need as much as a hole in the head. I also got two games which I will give as a Christmas gifts to nieces and nephews from Walmart.

Last week I put time into working on our budget in light of the fact our income will be less than 50% of what it has been for the past two years. I tried to figure out where we could cut back. Our clothing budget is already very tiny so I'm not cutting there! In terms of housing expenses I'm thinking for the foreseeable future we should only spend money on the house if it's really necessary (ex. if we need to replace the air compressor because it's broken). If I could go back in time, I wouldn't have gotten the deck replaced, but it's water under the bridge at this point. The category where I'm cutting the most was vacations. We spent very little on vacations in 2017 as I took the kids to Chicago for a week in April and to Long Island for a week in July that year, and since we drove and stayed with relatives, basically our only cost was the gasoline and tolls it took to drive those places and back. Next April I'm planning on extending the Chicago trip to include time in Detroit and Pittsburgh so the trip won't be AS cheap as the one in April 2017, but still it will be a lot cheaper than our trip to San Diego in May 2018. We will naturally be tithing less since our income will be a lot less. It's emotionally hard to cut back in that category, but it must be done if we

want to save money to pay for things like Ian's braces, a replacement for the van in a few years, a new roof for our house, etc. We also need to cut back in the "gift" category. There were some areas I thought that when I was working FT that we'd be spending more money such as paying babysitters so that we could go ballroom dancing, but since I went back to work we only went on one date (and never went ballroom dancing). So there won't be any change in that regard due to me returning to the status of stay-at-home mom.

Although it wasn't my choice to stay home this next year, one thing I am really looking forward to is being able to put my all into homeschooling. Feeling like I had to settle for "good enough" in regards to just about everything the past two years was very vexing but necessary as there weren't enough hours in the day for me to do anything to my fullest potential given how much I was juggling. I have been under the weather the past couple of days, which has lead me to go slashing through the calendar and deleting things that I had scheduled for this month and in August so that we'll have more days just at home sweet home. I hope to eventually take the kids to many of the places that I deleted for this summer. For example, I rescheduled a trip to the Erie Maritime Museum to April 2020 on our way out to Ohio/Chicago. We were going to visit a fort in Altoona this Saturday, but I scratched that. I didn't scratch the plan to visit the Landis Valley Museum on Sunday because we purchased an annual membership last fall so we can attend that Civil War event for free this summer. I deleted more things from our summer bucket list like picking blueberries, picking raspberries, seeing Junie B. Jones at Millbrook Playhouse, etc. I got a lot of fruit at ALDI for a reasonable price yesterday including blueberries. I'm sure some year we will pick them again but not this summer. The boys didn't end up attending VBS the last two nights, but they went tonight. I did all the chauffeuring to and from VBS this summer up until tonight. I took them there this evening, but Paul is picking them up tonight, which I greatly appreciate.

I've been putting time into my lesson plans for next school year. They passed a law recently that changed the age you have to be in school from eight down to six, but it doesn't go into effect until the 2020-21 school year so it doesn't impact me because Oliver will turn eight in August 2020. One thing I haven't decided is where they might do gym and/or art class this school year. Ian and Nadia will be in a choir from late August through the middle of November, which involves a weekly rehearsal on Monday nights. Oliver will have gymnastics during most of those Mondays. Ever since our church started offering homeschool gym class on Fridays we've participated in every single session they've offered. In light of the fact our kids play on a basketball team, take ice skating lessons, etc. I've decided this year we will only do the gym classes some of the sessions not all of them. I'm trying to decide which sessions and whether to continue at our church or try the Miller Center for one session as they offer a homeschool gym and art class on Tuesdays. I'm not going to make any firm decisions until August when I find out Meadowbrook's schedule (the Christian school where Nadia has taken art the past two years). All I know is I want to be careful not to fill our schedule too much. I want to take life at a more relaxing pace. Ian will like that because he's a homebody.

Another budget category where we can cut back is what we spend on the kids in a year. Next summer I'm not planning on signing them up for as many camps. I'm planning to skip horseback riding camp. The kids are doing a 3 day history camp next week that Nadia and Ian did a few years ago. I wanted to do it one more time so that Oliver could also participate and before Nadia is too old. I don't plan to ever do that one again. I only signed the boys up for the chemistry camp this week because we will be studying chemistry this fall. I don't plan on signing them up for any camps at the Lewisburg Children's museum next summer. Nadia and Ian did the softball/baseball clinic a few years ago. Just like the history camp I mentioned, I wanted to do it once more so that Oliver could do it once before Nadia was too old to participate. The kids don't play baseball or softball in their gym class. Nadia was on a softball team for one season, but the boys have never played tee ball or baseball, so I wanted to do this four night clinic one last time so at least they all will have a tiny bit of experience playing baseball. Next year I think they'll each have one week of overnight camp (the boys will be together), one week of Camp Good News (day camp), and one week of theater camp (half-day for 5 days). I'm also considering a music camp for Nadia (and possibly Ian) that is connected to the choir they are joining this fall. The camp is only about 10 minutes from our house. Whether or not they do it will probably come down to if we can afford it or not. I'm thinking of sending all three of them to overnight camp the same week (Nadia to Camp Susque for 7 nights of girl's camp and the boys to Camp Good News for 6 nights). If we do that the last week of July 2020, it would mean they also wouldn't be in the history camp at the Taber Museum that Nadia and Ian did last year and all three are doing this year. So I will spend less time chauffeuring next summer which means we'll also spend less money on gas in addition to spending less money on enrollment fees. The kids had been talking about getting a dog, but that is also going to have to wait as I know from hearing friends talk (who have dogs) how much they cost in terms of vet bills as such. We've never taken the guinea pigs to the vet. Our only expenses for them are for their food, hay, and bedding.

The last budget category that I feel we can trim is entertainment. We don't eat out very much aside from getting takeout pizza, but we have spent more the last two years on tickets to concerts and such. I had already promised the kids we'd go to Uprise in September. I wouldn't have made that promise had I known I'd be staying home this fall, but I am not going to break my word. I did delete going to the concert at the Bloomsburg Fair from the calendar as well as a trip to NYC to see the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall. I still want to take the kids there some year before they leave the nest, but it doesn't need to be this year. That was going to be our way of celebrating Ian's birthday this year. Instead we're going to spend one night at Great Wolf Lodge like we did last year. That will be MUCH cheaper than buying five tickets to see the Christmas show in NYC, and the kids loved it and had already been asking when we were going back. We might not be able to afford to go to as many concerts and shows as we did over the past year, but thankfully in the summer there are three free concerts in August. This past spring we attended a concert without paying much because Nadia and I were free (we volunteered with Compassion), and because we sponsor kids through Compassion we were given 50% off other tickets. I'm hoping something like that might be possible for a concert they are sponsoring in November that will feature Hillsong Worship, Casting Crowns, and Elevation Worship. That sounds like an amazing lineup!

I didn't take any of the pictures in this post. Some were from Camp Susque's Facebook page, and the ones from chemistry camp were from a shared Google drive. They also posted a video on the children's museum Facebook page that showed them sending 1,000 ping pong balls into the air with the aid of liquid nitrogen. I did take pictures on Tuesday on the riverboat and also at the bowling alley.

Thankful Tuesday

1. This Thursday night will be the last night of VBS for the boys this summer. Ian will have attended VBS 14 days this summer, Oliver 17 days, and Nadia 11 days. I will have taken at least one child to VBS a total of 19 days this summer. Nadia has outgrown the one at our church. She can help next summer since she'll be too old to participate. The other churches include middle schoolers in their VBS programs. I'm thankful the kids are able to participate in several each summer! The VBS they are attending this week provides a free dinner to the kids at 5:00 (M-Th). Since the boys are having a (free) lunch at the playground this week, it means they are only eating breakfast at home M-F as Friday we'll be eating dinner at Knoebels at a pavilion with some people from our church. I'm only cooking dinner for Paul and myself four days this week. Although the kids enjoy VBS, and I'm glad that they have the opportunity to study God's word, learn about missionaries, play games, etc., I'm also growing VERY weary of all the chauffeuring. Next week they'll have a softball/baseball clinic for four nights, and then our evening commitments are done for the summer. I am looking forward to just being able to stay at HOME in the evenings in August.

2. Earlier this summer our grocery store had 6 packs of flavored water on sale for $1. I usually just drink tap water, but zero calorie flavored water is a special treat. I usually don't spend any money on drinks for myself, but at that price I decided to splurge. I've really enjoyed my flavored water this summer! Paul and the kids drank some of them on our vacation.

3. Usually we have unwelcome visitors each summer - ants and houseflies. We have had flies this summer, but ants haven't been a problem (at least not yet). In general I much prefer the warm weather, but that has in the past been one positive to me of winter (no ants in the house). It's wonderful to not have ants in the house even in the summer!

4. I found out that Family Life Network (based in NY) offers Christian theatre camps in the summer at various churhces - one of which is about 20 minutes from our house!! I wish I had known about this previously, but better late than never! I'm planning to sign Nadia and Ian up for that theatre camp next summer. This will save me SO much driving time. It *might* mean Nadia can't go to Creation next summer as this year they held the camp at that church the same week as Creation. We shall see, but I was very excited to learn about this on Sunday! It will also be a way to save money as it's cheaper than the ones Nadia has attended the past few years. I think Ian has a lot of talent when it comes to singing and drama so I'm excited about him participating in a theatre camp for the first time ever with his sister, who has been in a theatre camp every year since 2013.

5. We recently used a free 30 day Netflix dvd subscription. The first two DVDs were for the kids and all the rest were for Paul. I didn't watch any of them. Since it has been several years since we used Netflix at all, yesterday I activated a free 30 day subscription to their streaming service. We have Hulu (for 99 cents a month) plus Amazon Prime, but Netflix definitely surpasses both of those so Paul and the kids are enjoying having access to some shows and movies they wouldn't otherwise have access to.

6. Nadia is at Camp Susque, which she says is her favorite week of the year. She's having much better weather thus far this year than she did last year when it rained incessantly! I miss her very much (as does Ian), but one perk of her absence is the boys are playing together FAR more than usual.

7. Nadia and Ian both received an award at Camp Good News on Friday! Each summer they pick about nine children to win an award for a character quality. None of my kids had been picked in the past. Last week Nadia was chosen for a leadership award and Ian was chosen for cooperation. That melted my heart! Next year will be the last year Nadia can be a camper in Camp Good News. She will have to skip the camp in 2021, but in 2022 she can return as a junior counselor. She wants to be a counselor at Camp Good News starting in 2022 until she is old enough to be a counselor at Camp Susque. They tried to convince her to try their overnight camp, but she isn't willing to give it a try if it means not going to Camp Susque. Oliver said he wanted to try the overnight camp put on my Camp Good News next summer, and Ian said he was fine with either one. So at the moment, the plan is for the boys to go to Camp Good News next summer. That camp is 6 nights long (compared to 7 nights at Camp Susque). It's also cheaper, which of course I won't complain about. I suggested they could try it once and then decide which they like better.

8. I've received $100 so far from selling things over the past several days, and I'm scheduled to sell something else on Friday for $50. The best part is there is less clutter in our basement. Going through everything also reintroduced the kids to some toys they forgot we owned, and the kids are happy with what they purchased with the money I gave them from the sales.

9. I am planning to meet my friend, Cheri, today while the boys are in a chemistry class; Paul knows the man teaching the class from his time at Bucknell. They enjoyed the first session yesterday afternoon. I have seen Cheri more regularly this summer than I have since we moved here almost 11 years ago. This is partially due to the fact that she is now retired.

10. This morning the boys and I are riding a paddlewheel riverboat. We rode it four years ago, but they have no memory of that. Tab and her boys are joining us, and after our one hour cruise we are all going bowling together since the kids can bowl for free.

11. Speaking of bowling, Paul and the boys bowled on Saturday evening. Paul didn't join us for the first four trips to Camp Susque this summer, but he joined us for trip number five. This Saturday will be the sixth (and final) trip for the summer when we pick up Nadia. The kids had seen very little of Paul for two weeks due to us being in New York for a week and then there were only a few minutes each day that Paul was in the house while the kids were awake the week after we got back. He came home from work earlier than usual on Saturday which meant he could join us for taking Nadia to Camp Susque, eating pizza at Domino's (thanks to a gift card), and bowling. I haven't bowled at all this summer because it's only free for kids. Paul has bowling shoes, so we only had to pay for his two games. Ian did a great job! His score was 100 in the first game and 99 in the second (with bumpers). Paul didn't do well in the second game so Ian actually beat Daddy!

12. Several adults gave me positive feedback regarding the lesson I taught on Nehemiah with the K-5th graders on Sunday. It was very encouraging.

13. We attended a yard sale on Saturday morning, and we purchased a few things such as a pair of white Sunday shoes for Nadia for $1. I also bought some plums at the grocery store on Saturday. I paid more per pound than I typically am willing to pay for fruit, but Nadia and I LOVE plums, and I decided to splurge and buy four plums. Yummy! They were worth it.

Sentimental

I definitely would not call myself a pack rat. If I feel we are accumulating too much stuff, I personally find that to be stressful. I have been grateful for the purging the kids and I have done lately. Some went into the garbage, I donated some, and I have been selling some of the stuff. There are times though when I am sentimental and save things. Lately the kids and I have been expressing how we are sentimentally attached to a few things that weren't things we opted to save. For example, I had been using a bottle of lavender dish detergent from my brother's apartment. We used it up earlier this month. It might sound strange, but I had a hard time throwing the empty bottle into the recycling bin. What a goofy thing to be attached to. Maurice had quite a few half dollars in his apartment. If he was still alive, I'd love to ask him why that was the only type of coin we found in his apartment. I had split the coins between his nieces/nephews back in March. My kids didn't want to spend theirs, but again it didn't seem like something we actually wanted to save in memory of Maurice. Each year I add coins to a container, and then each summer we give all the coins we've collected for the past 11 months in the offerings at each VBS and at Camp Good News. I told the kids I thought Maurice would like that his half dollars were being given to a missionary (that's what the offering was going toward). They agreed. We experienced the same thing while sorting through their toys. One we kept in part because it had been a gift from my Mom. Nadia had a hard time parting with a coloring book which she said my mom gave her. I asked if she thought she'd ever use it again. She said, "no." Then I said I don't think we should keep it.

Ian purchased a Lego set with his share of the money from the toys I have sold thus far. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow. He's very excited! All three kids have been enjoying Oliver's new scooter. Nadia has had that scooter on her wish list for over a year. I almost got it for her birthday, but I knew I planned to get one for Oliver for his birthday, and so I got her the swing. The swing is also a huge hit with our three kids and also Karyss (neighbor). The boys were having a blast on it today. One perk of Nadia being at camp is the boys play together a lot more than usual. I think the swing was a good choice for Nadia's birthday, but I think I need to buy another scooter at some point so three kids aren't trying to share one scooter. Nadia could have gotten herself a scooter with her birthday money, but she bought a set of books and a Lego set instead.

Unpleasant tasks

Yesterday I crossed some things off my to do list that I had been dreading for months. I cleaned the guinea pig cage yesterday while the kids were at Camp Good News, but that's not what I'm referring to, although cleaning their cage definitely qualifies as an unpleasant task in my opinion given the icky smell involved. Last summer Paul and I went to the lawyer and revised our wills and power of attorney documents. Unfortunately, we had Maurice listed on both. I really don't want to go to the lawyer again this summer, but I knew we needed to at least change our contingent beneficiary as he was listed in that capacity on all of our retirement accounts and life insurance policies. I had been dreading it, but I finally completed the task yesterday. It was really hard emotionally to click "delete" by his name on the screens related to our beneficiaries, but it really makes zero sense to have someone who is in Heaven listed as a beneficiary on a retirement account or life insurance policy. This week I believe I also finished the task of contacting the businesses who had been sending him bills in the mail. Most of them wanted a copy of the death certificate. The lab

I contacted this week actually didn't require anything of me, which was appreciated. Since I had to soldier through those tasks, I figured I'd also power through making a photo book while I was at it. It was hard not to burst into tears. I kept reminding myself of how Wendy and I just focused on accomplishing the task at hand when we cleaned out his apartment a few days after we learned of his passing. Now the next time I have a code for a free photo book, I can start ordering copies of the photo book about Maurice for my siblings, my kids, etc. just like I did three years ago for my mom. I'm hoping NOT to be making another "in memory of" photo book for a while. Oh and speaking of death certificates, in hind sight ordering ONE would have been plenty. The funeral home suggested I order a few of them, so I did because I had zero idea how many I'd need. In every instance I only needed to submit a copy of the death certificate, so I still have all of the original death certificates.

Originally I thought I'd be filing the estate paperwork in Philadelphia. Yvonne, Dad, and

Wendy had a form signed and notarized so the court could appoint me as his personal administrator. Then I found out I would have to go to the court in Philadelphia in person. I called them in May, and I found out that I didn't need to file any paperwork. The only problem I could see was that I knew from when I tried to file his taxes in April that I needed something from a court to file his taxes. I also did research into that issue yesterday and found that because he made a VERY tiny amount of money in 2018, his taxes don't have to be filed. He's technically deserving a small refund from the IRS, but it's not worth the headache to go to a court and have one of us appointed as his representative (since we couldn't locate his will) just to get a tiny refund from the IRS. So I think my duties as executrix are done. Speaking of the passing of loved ones, as of today mom has been in Glory for three years. It's hard to believe that much time has passed since I heard her voice or wrapped my arms around her. She experienced multiple miscarriages plus Maurice was reunited with her a little over four months ago

so she has some of her children with her in Heaven. Her three daughters still on earth miss her very much though!

I enjoy organizing things. That is not an unpleasant task for me. However, I don't enjoy seeing something go back to a state of disarray shortly after I organize it. Yesterday I tackled the craft cabinet again. I don't want to try and count how many times I have done that over the years. I am trying a totally different system this time around, and hopefully it will be more successful! Nadia and Ian do not enjoy taking their Legos off the dining room table. The last time they did it was around the first of the year when I switched from a Christmas to a winter tablecloth. I think I have been rather patient as it's July 12. Normally I would have switched to a spring one and then to my patriotic one. This morning I asked them to take the Legos off so I could take off the winter tablecloth. Although they hated taking them off, they did enjoy rearranging them as they put them back on the table.

I haven't been taking pictures this week. I nabbed all of these from the Facebook page of the church where the kids attended VBS this week. Oh and Oliver actually gave me an idea for what to get him for his birthday. Problem solved. Thank goodness. I love that he rarely asks for things, but it does make it challenging to come up with ideas at Christmas and his birthday!