Thankful Tuesday

1. A few weeks ago the kids received Junior Ranger patches through the mail for the first time. The first one they completed online was for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Last week they completed the activities to earn their badges for Clara Barton and Frederick Douglas. Hopefully in the near future we'll receive those badges in the mail. Their collections are growing! Hopefully they'll complete several in person in Virginia next month as we plan to visit a few Civil War battlefields.

2. I have price points for most of the things I buy at a grocery store. If it's something that's harder to get at a certain price, then I try to stock up on it so that hopefully I won't need to buy it again until it's at that price again sometime in the future. Even though I can't stand soda, I have been buying quite a bit of soda for the past 18+ years since Paul drinks a lot of soda every week. My price point for all these years for soda has been $1. Rarely have I been willing to pay more than $1 for a 2 liter of soda. Most of the years it wasn't

challenging to find Pepsi or Coke for that price. CVS usually alternated from week to week which was on sale - Pepsi one week and Coke the next. Lately (maybe the last couple of years?) it's been more challenging to find soda for that price. It certainly isn't a weekly occurrence these days. To be honest I wish Paul would give up the soda habit - however I don't see that happening. He likes both Pepsi and Coke, but given the choice, he prefers Coke. In general it's easier to find Pepsi on sale than Coke. Our local grocery store had Coke on sale for 99 cents last week without any restrictions on how much you buy. Many stores place a limit on the quantity. He has been to the grocery store twice since it went on sale, and I also bought a bunch on Saturday. We bought more than thirty 2 liters

of Coke so that should last him several weeks. I'm grateful to have a break from looking for a soda bargain, and I use the Coke caps to earn other things like popcorn, drinks, and free movie tickets. We don't get anything from Pepsi.

3. The kids enjoyed their field trip to Refreshing Mountain on October 3. Their favorite parts were the elevated obstacle course, ziplining, and the farm animals. As an added bonus, Tab drove (yahoo) and we spent the day with Tab and her boys.

4. Paul took Nadia roller skating on October 3.

5. We enjoyed our tour of a bank on October 10, and Nadia and I enjoyed the Building 429 concert on October 11.

6. Paul's mom is OFF the ventilator. She can eat! She can talk! She can sit in a chair after being in a bed for almost two weeks!

7. We got to spend a couple of hours with all ten Towfighis on Friday, and we're enjoying the company of four of their kids for an entire week. My kids LOVE to spend time with their cousins!

8. I took seven kids to Ard's Farm on Saturday to enjoy the large slide, shooting corn, a corn maze, hayride, etc. They also enjoyed getting a slushie or ice cream at the Purple Cow.

9. I planted some grass seed a couple of weeks ago, and this time I bought a bale of straw so I'd have some to put on top. I didn't succeed completely, but I got a lot more grass this time than earlier this summer. I have been trying to get grass to grow in the place that used to be covered by a deck but isn't any longer because our new deck is smaller than the old deck. I definitely am not ready to be a landscaper, but I'm happy that more grass is growing near the deck. Part of what had me

motivated is the kids were tracking a lot of dirt on the deck when there wasn't any grass at the bottom of the deck. Yesterday I also started a project I've wanted to do for several months of putting some stones in behind the bush on the one side of the deck so I'll have less weed whacking to do.

10. Paul has made a lot of progress with the bathroom repair. Whenever we're allowed to use the shower again I am going to be SO appreciative. I haven't had a shower in more than 2 weeks, and I really miss it!  I'm not a big fan of using the jacuzzi tub to shampoo my hair, but I'm thankful we have had that option or we'd really be up a creek without a paddle! We've also been waiting for him to repair that toilet. The timing hasn't exactly been ideal to go from 3 to 2 toilets when we added more people to the house and to have zero showers when they are 9 people living here for a week, but the end is in sight. Paul never expected it to be such a huge project! He took off work Thursday through Saturday and put in a lot of hours on it Thursday thought Sunday. It

makes me wonder how long it's going to take to finish the master bathroom, but for now I'm just focusing on the fact that soon we should be at least be able to use the bath/shower in the kids' bathroom!

11. I'm thankful the weather has been nice. The kids have played outside a lot including at a playground in Lewisburg last night while Ian, Nadia, and Oliver were in choir/gymnastics. Speaking of which, last night was Oliver's last night of gymnastics for the year, which means I won't be running around quite as much the next four Mondays (last four nights of choir for Nadia and Ian). He's made definite progress on the beam, with his cartwheel, with his backward tuck roll, etc.

Fall fun with cousins

Ten Towfighis arrived at our house at 4:00 on Friday. The kids immediately started playing with each other. We had pizza about an hour later. Awhile back I purchased four tickets to a concert at a church in our town (which is extremely rare because our town is very small). At first I planned on taking my three kids to hear Building 429 (the numbers refer to Ephesians 4:29), and then my friend, Cheri, wanted to join us for dinner and the concert so then the plans were that I would make chicken parmigiana for dinner and then Ian, Nadia, Cheri, and I would go to the concert and Oliver would stay home with Paul. Cheri decided not to come once she found out that my sister and her family would be here, and although my boys really enjoy concerts, playing with cousins trumps a concert. So two of the tickets I purchased weren't used by anyone. My sister had purchased four tickets for herself, Andrew, Jenna, and Joshua (her three eldest), and Nadia and I joined them. The concert was from 7-10pm, which meant that the six Towfighis who drove back to MD got home sometime after

2:00am.

Yvonne and Joe gave me some money to use for a special activity with the kids this week, which was very thoughtful and generous of them. I asked the kids what they would like to do. I threw out a variety of suggestions. I thought a trip to Knoebels would be the one they would pick, but surprisingly they didn't. One of my nephews asked for a trip to Chuck E Cheese, but we don't have any near us. I saw the weather was supposed to be nice Saturday and Sunday so I figured we should do something outside, and since it's October, I thought we'd go to a pumpkin patch. Let me tell you that corn mazes are absolutely not my thing. We had done one at Fort Ticonderoga last month, and so I thought I was done with mazes for this year. The kids enjoyed the 75 foot slide, rolling inside barrels, feeding goats and sheep, the corn maze, and shooting the corn cannon. We also took a short hay ride to the pumpkin patch, which meant we came home with eight pumpkins. I'm planning on having the kids carve four pumpkins later this week and then take the other

four (uncarved) pumpkins to Maryland on Friday so Yvonne can use them for making pumpkin pies or however she chooses. There is an ice cream shop across from the farm called the Purple Cow. I told the kids they could have dessert before dinner if they promised to eat their dinner when we got home. Four of the kids chose to have a slushie (two grape and two strawberry), and the other four of us chose to have ice cream.  During dinner Julianna asked everyone to share three "smiles," and something that put a smile on my face was that a few of the Towfighis said that dinner (chicken and dumplings) was one of their three "smiles." Had we done the "'smile" thing today, my kids might have mentioned dinner today as one of their three smiles as they love rigatoni and meatballs, but none of them would think of saying that about chicken and dumplings. As I was serving lunch today Nathan said to me, "you're the best aunt ever." I am certain that's not an accurate statement, but it certainly melted my heart to hear him say that!

This morning I had to leave for

church at 7:50. Julianna, Nadia, and Joshua went with me. Paul left with the others about 40 minutes later. Joshua and Nadia attended the 9:00 worship service with Paul and I. The other five kids attended Sunday School during the first service and went to the kids' choir during the second service. Joshua and Nadia attended the youth service during the second service. The choir is on the platform for a significant portion of both services, and then I attended a small group after the choir went off the platform in the second service.

Several of us were home the rest of the day. Nathan, Joshua, and Nadia attended the Bible study that Nadia usually attends on Sunday nights. Joel and Nathan watched the Eagles football game. Julianna and I made a batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I mowed the lawn in between doing dishes, making dinner, making cookies, and shuttling the kids back and forth to the Middle group this evening. I finished just as it became too dark for me to see the lawn. Aside from sitting in church a little (not too much as the choir stands on the platform) and the time I was driving, I was on my feet from 7:05 am to 7:55 pm. I'm pooped! I think the cousins are having a good week together so far. Nathan and Julianna are also really enjoying our guinea pigs albeit Julianna has the hardest time saying the word "guinea." At least the word "pigs" is easy to say!

Seven kids for seven days

My sister and her husband are flying to Texas this weekend where they will be for a week. They are taking their youngest two boys with them (ages 2 and 5). Their two teenagers will be staying in Maryland, and the four in the middle will be staying with us. Nathan will be turning 11 next month, but at the moment the four who are staying are 6, 8, 10, and 12 years old and my three are currently 7, 9, and 11 years old, which means that I'll have one child who is 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 years old - two girls and five boys. I rearranged the lesson plans in such a way that my kids will have fewer subjects than usual M-Th and won't do any schoolwork next Friday as we'll be driving at least 6 hours round trip that day to take the cousins back to MD. Yesterday we had a 75 minute tour of a bank (see photo above of our tour group). I purposefully didn't sign up for any field trips next week as I figured the cousins would just want to play together. On Wednesday we cleared the dining room table of all the Legos. Ian took his to the basement. Nadia put hers on the bookshelves, which means I need to avert my eyes from the bookshelves for the next week as the clutter literally makes me want to scream. The upside is that I was able to change the tablecloth to a pretty one with fall leaves on it. I don't often get access to the tablecloth. All ten of them will be here for dinner tonight. Our kitchen table has six chairs. I'm planning on putting the piano bench at the dining room table for two kids to sit on, and that will mean eight people total can sit at the dining room table, which means I'll have enough seating for fourteen people, which will be enough as Paul doesn't plan to be here for dinner. We blew up an air mattress in Nadia's room for Julianna and one in Oliver's room for Joel. Yvonne and Joe are bringing up two air mattresses we can use in Ian's room for Nathan and Joshua for the next week.

The kids' shower/tub isn't usable yet, but Paul has been working hard on it the past two days. I'm sure he didn't envision this project taking two weeks when he started it.

They took Paul's mom off the ventilator on Tuesday morning, but they had to put her back on it that night. I went to visit her on Wednesday afternoon. The kids spent about two hours playing with Micah and Isaiah at their house while I was at the hospital. She had a heart catheterization right after I left on Wednesday, which confirmed that her heart problems are due to weakness (damage) not a blockage. There isn't anything they can do surgically to improve the function of her heart. They did put her on water pills to lower the pressure inside her heart which was twice as high as it should be. We're hoping she'll go off the ventilator tomorrow and stay off of it this time. Once she is discharged (hopefully in a few days), she's going to need to be very careful and take it easy for the rest of her life. The doctors have to figure out whether or not she can continue to have the monthly IVIG infusions (for her immune system) and/or her quarterly chemo infusions (for her cancer). They don't want to do something that might put any strain on her heart, but the chemo has been helping to keep the cancer in check. Which is the greater "risk" at this point - cancer or her heart? Realizing that she might not be able to travel any more, I am very grateful for all the vacations that we had together. In 2015 I had no idea the vacation in Williamsburg would be the last one with my mom, and I didn't realize the one this year in Myrtle Beach would (likely) be the last one my mother-in-law could take with us. Situations like this definitely make it easy to live out the verse "pray without ceasing." I'm sure it's harder (emotionally) on people like Paul, his brother, Debbie (his mom's sister), his dad, etc., but I've loved her for 22 years and so I've also shed some tears over the last 10 days. I remember in the fall of 2014 she had a very close call, and she's had another five years here on earth since that point. Losing my mom in 2016 and my brother this year has made the fragility of human life very real to me. My mother-in-law has battled cancer for about 12 years so she's definitely a fighter! We'll keep praying for her and will be thankful for each day the Lord gives her.

First quarter almost complete

Friday was our 43rd day of "school" this academic year; since we are required to log at least 180 days of school, that means this coming Tuesday when we hit day 45 we'll be 25% done. Eleven of those days were logged in July and August through field trips and camps (ex. history camp) before we actually got out the textbooks and such. Additionally, seven of the days logged between August 22 to October 4 were wholly devoted to field trips - Antietam, Refreshing Mountain, Saratoga, Fort Ticonderoga, NYC, etc. So that means as of Tuesday we will only had 27 "regular" school days thus far. We did have some short field trips on some of those "regular" days such as to the Post Office and waste water treatment plant. Here are some thoughts on what would be the first marking period in a traditional school. I don't actually give the kids any grades. Nadia uses Teaching Textbooks (online) for her math curriculum, and so she does receive a grade each day when she completes either a lesson or a quiz. Other than that, the kids don't receive any grades, which is fine with me. So as of this

coming Tuesday....

1. In math, Nadia will have completed three quizzes and twenty lessons. Her current average is 90%. Oliver is definitely making some progress with addition, subtraction, and measurement, but he still  can't recall how to write most of the numbers; he looks on his paper or a calendar so he has a reference to look at when writing a number. He is very prone to writing most of them backward if he doesn't look elsewhere first. I am very, very impressed with Beast Academy. I wish I had used it in earlier years with Ian; he's currently in the third chapter (exponents) of 4A. If Oliver makes enough progress this year, I might purchase the third grade books for him to use next year. I haven't been letting Ian write in the workbook so that hopefully Oliver will be able to use these when he's in fourth grade. I am also contemplating switching Nadia to an Art of Problem Solving text next school year, but I may stick with Teaching Textbooks for her. We shall see. As for the next marking period, two additions I would like to

make to math would be #1 to spend a little time reviewing math facts with Ian as it seems he's a bit rusty and #2 begin working with Oliver on learning his addition and subtraction facts. We're working through Life of Fred together. So far this school year we completed the  Edgewood book, and we're about half way through Farming. 

2. In Language Arts Nadia and Ian are working on punctuation, capitalization, and the parts of speech by copying one sentence per day about Robin Hood. We started using this resource at the beginning of 2019 (Nose Tree was the first one they completed), and I have to say I really like this way of teaching grammar! We work on reviewing and introducing new vocabulary words through the Robin Hood text as well as through the writing curriculum. They wrote their very first poems recently (about America). I thought they turned out nicely! This is definitely not their favorite subject, but they are definitely making progress in their writing skills. I haven't done anything thus far this year

with Oliver in terms of writing. Once he finishes his handwriting textbook (end of January), I am planning on having him write in a journal every day. Ian and Oliver are both about 1/3 of the way through their handwriting textbooks. Ian is completing his last cursive textbook (5th grade), and Oliver is completing his last manuscript textbook (2nd grade). I love seeing Ian's cursive writing; he does a beautiful job!

3. Spelling is going smoothly for all three kids. In one month Oliver should begin Level 3. Nadia is in Level 7, and Ian is in Level 5. I like the writing station activity that Nadia is using this year. She draws four slips of paper to create her writing prompt.

4. Oliver is making good progress through Level 4 of reading. Right now he's working on words with silent letters like "jostle." Nadia has read the first four Harry Potter books, and she plans to start the fifth after we get it from the library tomorrow. From July 1 through October 6 Nadia read 31 chapter books which contained a total of 7,349

pages. From July 1 through October 6 Ian read 20 chapter books which contained a total of 2,133 pages. Today Ian finished a Paddington Bear book, and he is also in the middle of a book about Clara Barton. We have been inconsistent in regards to reading picture books (that don't relate to history or science) or poems. We got off to a good start with this, but haven't done very well with that lately. Hopefully we can get back on track with that, but I'm not worked up about it. Ian has been reading a lot more picture books on his own. From July 1 to today we've enjoyed 29 chapter books together.

5. In Bible we've been working through the Young Peacemaker by Corlette Sande, memorizing verses for AWANA, and completing the weekly Core 52 assignments for church (reading an essay in the book, Scripture reading, and memorizing verses each week). Oliver memorized the books of the OT and NT last year, but he forgot some of them. He's relearning that now. Nadia has completed almost half of her AWANA book already as she's trying to finish it before

Christmas. We have been using puppets fairly regularly in conjunction with the Peacemaker curriculum.

6. Nadia and Ian are singing in the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale on Monday nights, Ian and Oliver are singing in the Soul Patrol choir at church on Sunday mornings, Nadia is singing in the middle school chorus at Meadowbrook Christian School on Thursday afternoons, Nadia is running the sound board for the youth during the second service on Sunday mornings, and all three kids are taking piano lessons. Ian and Nadia are working on the same songs in piano for the first time. I have been inconsistent in working with Oliver. He does a better job of remembering than I do! Ian has been given a speaking part in the Christmas musical at church.

7. Oliver has gymnastics in Lewisburg on Monday nights, and Ian and Nadia have art on Thursday afternoons at Meadowbrook. I have them do some drawing in conjunction with social studies through

the Draw Write Now books.

8. In history we've been primarily focusing on the Civil War. We've read biographies about Ulysses S Grant, Booker T. Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Robert E. Lee. Rifles for Watie was a novel that took place during the Civil War and The Journey of Little Charlie was a novel set in 1858. I would recommend both of those books if you are studying this time period. Oliver listens to some of what I read to them for history - primarily the picture books. I definitely did more with his siblings in science and social studies when they were his age, but I'm definitely more relaxed with Oliver - in part because of his current maturity level. Next year (when he's in third grade) I definitely want to have him kick into full gear with social studies and science.

9. This week we will be almost done with our study of chemistry, which means we'll be switching to physics in the near future. While studying physics we will still be briefly discussing one element each

day from the periodic table through a coloring book we've been working through together. Although we've done a few hands-on experiences, this is still definitely an area where there is ample room for improvement. Last week we were talking about how oil is nonpolar. I poured a little vegetable oil on each of their hands to show them that water alone couldn't clean their hands.

10. As for the other miscellaneous activities, we've played board games sporadically. The same can be said for Nadia's photography lessons, typing, and sign language. Nadia has done more typing than Ian. We have been rather consistent with having Nadia cook at least once a week. For example, last week she made a pasta casserole and a New York style cheesecake. She's not able to cook independently yet, but I'm hoping by the end of the year there will be meals she can cook without any assistance.




Here are the three prayer request updates:
1. Mimi passed away yesterday (three days after she turned 78). She's in a much better place, but prayers for her family (especially her husband of 50 years) are appreciated as their grieve this very significant loss in their lives.

2. My mother-in-law is still in the ICU. We are praying that she will be able to be taken off the ventilator and that all other requirements will be met so that she can have the heart catheterization tomorrow to determine what is causing her heart not to function properly. Paul spent time with his mom in the hospital on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

3. After taking a three day break, Paul resumed working on the kids' bathroom yesterday, and he worked on it more today. Until we have one functioning shower, we'll continue to use the jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom.

Way to go, Ian!!!

Last May we attended a homeschool day at Refreshing Mountain. Nadia and Oliver loved the zip lining and climbing the rock wall. Nadia said it was her favorite field trip of the year. As field trips go it was certainly not one of the cheapest trips, but considering how much it usually costs to do activities like zip lining, it was very reasonably priced. I figured we'd return at some point, but I wasn't planning to return five months later. In May the kids had four hours of activities - zip lining, rock wall, reptiles/amphibians, and a nature oriented scavenger hunt. Those in grades 7-12 had a survival skills activity instead of the scavenger hunt. While we were there the kids saw the elevated obstacle course, and Nadia and Oliver really wanted to give that a whirl as well. When I saw that the fall homeschool program included the elevated obstacle course and that one of the three dates was on Nadia's spiritual birthday, I decided to sign them up for it. Nadia doesn't miss a day of school for her birthday because she has a summer birthday. We don't usually take a day off of

school for spiritual birthdays, so I thought it would be special if Nadia had a field trip she loved (rather than usual schoolwork) on her 7th spiritual birthday. The attendance in May was much larger than yesterday. The upsides of this were #1 that Nadia's group (5th/6th) was very small so she was able to have five turns on the zip line compared to I believe only two turns in May and #2 they combined grades 1-4, which meant that Ian, Oliver, Micah, and Isaiah were all in the same group. The four activities this time were zip lining, elevated obstacle course, farm animals, and wildlife in Pennsylvania. Their favorite activity was the elevated obstacle course, zip lining was a close second, and farm animals was definitely their favorite of the four "nature" classes they had in May and October. They were wishing they had done the rock wall instead of the wildlife in PA class. During the farm animals class they were able to feed and/or pet a variety of animals including rabbits, goats, alpacas, donkey, horses, and pigs.

In May, Ian got suited up for the zip lining, stood on the platform, and cried. He attempted it several

times but never left the platform. We talked a lot about verses related to fear and "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." When he was crying on Wednesday night I thought it was because his Grandma is in the ICU, but in reality it was because he was worried about the zip lining. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I am very happy to say that he overcame his fear and did the zip line three times. He even took a hand off the last time he did it and had a huge smile. He discovered that it was FUN! Oliver went with no hands. Nadia went with no hands and actually flipped herself so she was hanging down the last time she went. Oliver was too young to do the middle level of the ropes course, but he did the bottom level multiple times. Nadia did the bottom level three times and the middle level once. Like Nadia, Ian also did the middle level once. There was one part he looked like he was going to quit, but he persevered and overcame his fears. I was SOOOO proud of him! He's come a long way! I remember how scared he was of climbing stairs  in our house when he was

two years old and how terrified he was after going up just a small portion of a lighthouse a few years ago. This year he climbed to the top of the Statue of Liberty, zip lined, and successfully navigated an elevated obstacle course! Woohooo!!!

The retreat center is two hours from our house, which meant we left our house at 7:45 and didn't return home until 5:15. I drove in May, but this time we rode with Tab and her two boys which meant #1 I only drove for 30 minutes (RT) yesterday and #2 I was able to chat with Tab during our drive which made it much more enjoyable for me. The weather drastically changed from Wednesday to Thursday. The temperature dropped twenty degrees, and it was cloudy/rainy. The weather wasn't ideal, but thankfully it never poured although there was a sporadic light rain throughout the time we were there. It didn't bring an end to any of the activities. We were wearing rain jackets, and I had an umbrella to keep my camera dry. I'm not expecting to return there in the spring, but I do imagine we'll go back at some point in the future.

I signed up for the field trip before I knew the kids would be in art and chorus on Thursday afternoons. I could have chosen to go on the field trip next Friday, for example. The middle school chorus has rehearsal on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I only take Nadia on Thursdays. So I thought I'd take her on Tuesday this week in light of missing Thursday. When we got there we discovered they had changed the time that chorus was held on Tuesdays. They were having chapel when Nadia arrived. Oops. Nadia didn't want to wait almost an hour until the correct time. So that was a wasted trip. Thankfully we only live 15 minutes from church. I had planned to take Nadia and Ian to art today since they didn't go yesterday, but Nadia is feeling a little under the weather today, and she asked if we could just stay home. That's fine with me! Our local school district had power outages and so the kids in our neighborhood didn't have school today. This meant Oliver was able to play with Karyss much earlier than normal.

We enjoyed her birthday donuts two days early on Tuesday morning. We started eating some of her cheesecake on Wednesday. She chose what we had for dinner on Tuesday as she helped me cook dinner that night. She definitely didn't choose to eat pasta fagioli yesterday as she pretty much doesn't like any soup, stew, or chili. She was able to have a hot pocket for lunch on Wednesday and again today. I bought the Hot Pockets and also some apple juice in honor of her birthday. We don't typically have any juice in our refrigerator. Oliver drinks some milk but the other two usually just drink water.

As for the prayer requests I shared on Tuesday, Mimi (who is in the very last stages of pancreatic cancer) was able to celebrate her 78th birthday yesterday. My mother-in-law was moved to the ICU on Wednesday. Paul spent a few hours with her at the hospital yesterday. They are trying to get her off the ventilator and do a heart catheterization to determine why her heart is only functioning at 50%. So continued prayers for Mimi (and her family) and Ellie (my MIL) are greatly appreciated. We still have zero functioning showers in our house. I hope we're not doing further damage to the master bathroom floor by using the jacuzzi. Praying that at least one of our showers will be usable again in the very near future.

I didn't take any pictures with my good camera from September 22- October 2, but I made up for that by taking oodles yesterday, and Tab also shared some with me that she took with her phone. I have plenty to use in the coming days. We have NOTHING on the calendar for tomorrow, which means we'll end up having two "stay-at-home all day" days in a row. Considering we were in a van for 4 hours yesterday, that sounds heavenly.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Our new furnace and heat pump (AC) were installed on Friday. WOOHOO! It's supposed to get up into the 80's today and tomorrow, which is unseasonably warm for Pennsylvania in October. I know air conditioning is a want not a need, but it's something all five of us really appreciate.

2. Oliver had SO much fun playing with kids in the neighborhood this past week. Yahoo! Lately the three kids he plays with the most are Karyss (who will turn 8 in December), Camden (who is already 8), and Dawson (who is 3).

3. I think our tour of the Sunbury Post Office last Tuesday was a good learning experience, and I think I did a good job of adjusting the lesson plans  accordingly.

4. The weather was rainy last Thursday, but the weather was gorgeous Friday through Sunday which meant it was nice out for our town's yard sales on Friday and Saturday and for the Family Fun Fest the Methodist church had on Sunday afternoon. I

bought some clothes, a bike for Oliver when he outgrows his current bike, and roller blades for Nadia (adjustable for sizes 3-6) for $5. The boys can use them in the future. The roller blades will start saving us money this week because normally she pays to rent them at the Christian radio station's monthly skate night. I almost bought Nadia a scooter for $5, but the bottom part was pink (handles were purple), and she has a strong aversion to the color pink. Oliver spent $8 of his money on toys at the yard sales, Ian spent $2 on a stuffed animal, and Nadia spent $3.50 on thinking putty, a stuffed animal, and two Harry Potter books. There are many food stands set up during the yard sale selling a wide variety of foods. I let each child pick out one whoopie pie from an Amish food stand.

5. The kids had a lot of fun at the Family Fun Fest on Sunday afternoon; everything was free! It included inflatables, a balloon artist, face painting, games, and yummy food including pulled pork, hot dogs, pop corn, chili, baked goods, etc. They had a little "train" which was pulled by a tractor that the boys enjoyed riding over the church's property quite a few times over the two hours we were there. I wish I had brought my camera or had taken more pictures with my phone. I did take two pictures with my cell phone showing Nadia, Ian, and one of Nadia's friends from AWANA with their balloon creations. Nadia wants us to invite this 5th grade girl (whom she's known for a couple of years from AWANA at the Alliance Church) over to our house.

6. Paul and his brother placed a 3'x3' concrete slab in our yard on Thursday night, and the plumber put the new heat pump (for the A/C) on it on Friday. The kids enjoyed spending some time with Uncle Al.

7. Today we had a yummy free lunch as the businesses in our town had  their annual customer appreciation "Pink" lunch time event. The kids each had a hotdog. I had a cup of chicken corn soup. Oliver had some ice cream, Nadia had pink lemonade, all three kids had popcorn, we each came home with some small bags of chips, cookies, apples, etc. During the time we were there, my kids were the only kids present older than the age of three. Grapes have been on sale at our grocery store the past six days. I had stopped in once on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and each time the grapes looked rather squishy so I didn't buy any. We like firm grapes. Persistence paid off, and today I was able to buy nice, firm red grapes! Yum!

8. The kids' choir at church is doing a Christmas musical this year! If I am remembering correctly, the last time they were in a Christmas program at church was in 2015. Ian has been given a speaking part, which is not surprising since #1 he had a part in the May 2018 and May 2019 musicals and #2 there is only one child in the choir this year who is older than him.

9. Yesterday in conjunction with choir, gymnastics, library, etc. we picked up donuts that we had for breakfast today. Nadia's spiritual birthday is this Thursday, but we had her donuts two days early. Oliver's spiritual birthday was on the day we drove with cousins to NYC the end of August so his pretty much flew under the radar. I gave him a new Bible and a biblical drawing book after the cousins left. He did have a donut on the morning of his spiritual birthday because Aunt Wendy had brought some extra donuts with her when she came to our house. Nadia asked for a cheesecake as her "birthday" cake. She helped me make it this evening. She can eat some of it tomorrow, and I'm sure there will still be some left over on Thursday. I'm very, very thankful that all three kids have accepted Christ as their personal Savior.

10. On Monday night the boys and I bought a few things at Walmart while Nadia was in chorale rehearsal. She had requested I buy Hot Pockets for her spiritual birthday. While there I splurged and bought a new trashcan for the kitchen. I say "splurged" because it was a want not a need. I wanted one that could be opened by a foot pedal as I found it increasingly hard to keep the other white plastic one clean, and you had to press a button on the lid of that one to open it. I didn't buy the most expensive one there (which had a motion sensor), but I didn't buy the cheapest one either. I think the new one looks much nicer, will be easier to clean, and will keep our hands cleaner now that we'll be using a foot to open the trash can. Oliver is really enjoying the new trash can. Sometimes it's the little things in life (although it cost more than I was hoping to spend on a trash can).

11. The Giants have now won two games. Paul didn't watch much of his game on Sunday due to the bathroom project. We've had cable (local channels only) for over a month, and we've barely used it at all. The Steelers finally won their first game this season last night. It was on a station we don't get right now, which was fine as I don't think I'd have watched it even if I could have, but I was glad to hear they finally won even though Ben (QB) is out for the season.

12. We've never worked together as a family to memorize the same verses. I'm enjoying it! We'll be doing it for a full year. Paul wins the gold star for last week in our family. He memorized all three verses. Woohoo! I'm not even attempting to have Oliver learn this week's verse (Genesis 3:6), as it's enough for him to memorize what he's working on for AWANA.

I know this is my weekly gratitude list, but I'd also like to share three prayer requests in case anyone is inclined to lift any of these needs up in prayer.

1. Mimi (my dad's wife's sister) is in her very last stages of pancreatic cancer. She was diagnosed in October 2016 so in my mind it's a miracle that she was given almost three full years following her diagnosis. She's turning 78 years old tomorrow and last month celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary. Remembering how ill my mom was from her diagnosis until her passing a little more than 6 months later, I have been giving thanks to the Lord for the amazing quality of life that He has given Mimi. This is obviously a hard time for Mimi's family as they know in the very near future they will be grieving her loss. So I'm praying for her husband (Gus), her three kids (would you believe that two of her kids' names are Ruth and Paul?), her grandkids, sister, niece, nephews, etc. Thankfully they know she will soon be restored to perfect health in Glory. That is a HUGE comfort in a time of loss.

2. Paul's mom was hospitalized for pneumonia today. She was hospitalized quite a few times for this in I think I was 2013-2014, but her monthly IVIG infusions have been very helpful the last few years in keeping her out of the hospital. Praying for a speedy recover for my mother-in-law!

3. It's far, far less important than the above two requests, but Paul began doing some work in the kids' bathroom this past weekend. Our master bathroom floor has been a work in progress for almost 3.5 years. On Sunday night I used the jacuzzi in the master bathroom. I can't recall the last time I took a bath as I prefer a shower, and ideally we shouldn't be using that jacuzzi since part of the bathroom floor in the master bathroom has been removed, but we are running out of options aside from asking to use a shower at a neighbor's house or using the garden hose outside. It's so unimportant in the grand scheme of life, but I'd really like to have at least ONE bathroom that is fully functional. The day when both showers are usable will be a dream come true, but for now I'll just breathe a sigh of relief when I can again take a shower in my house. Paul is hoping the kids' bathroom shower will be usable later this week. It's a bit nerve wracking for me given how long the other one has been out of commission.....