Giving Thanks

1. We had an enjoyable three day trip to Virginia. On Monday we visited the Manassas Battlefield (referred to as Bull Run by the Union) and the White House of the Confederacy. I had toured the White House on a family vacation when I was a teenager, but Paul and the kids had never been there. I was remembering how my brother used to tease me about "house tours," but then the last few years of his life he actually was interested in them because of his study of architecture and such. My brother's idea of an ideal vacation was one that involved a lot of bird watching rather than museums and house tours. On Tuesday went spent two hours at the Virginia Science Museum. The kids would have loved to spend far more than two hours there. All of the national parks we visited were free, and we got in for free to the science museum with our ASTC membership. We paid to visit the White House of the Confederacy, two Civil War Museums, and the Natural Bridge State Park. We spent Monday night at a hotel near Richmond and Tuesday night at my Dad's house. The kids

earned three Junior Ranger badges at Manassas, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Of the three museums, three national parks, White House, and state park we visited over the three days, all three kids said their top three (although the specific order varied) were the science museum, the Civil War museum in Appomattox, and the White House of the Confederacy. Part of the reason we did the Civil War museum in Richmond was because it was at the same site as a national park of where the south produced more than 1,000 canons during the Civil War. Unfortunately that national park was temporarily closed due to construction, and that particular Civil War museum wasn't as good as the one in Appomattox. Paul definitely enjoyed both battlefields even though he had already been to both of them before, but none of us had ever been to Appomattox before. Nadia and Ian liked Appomattox more than Manassas or Petersburg. Paul was impressed by the size of the natural bridge.

2. I am not one to do Black Friday shopping, although I do plan to go to the hardware store in town tomorrow as they'll be

selling gift certificates that are about half off, but I did go to CVS this morning. I bought 19 items (Coke, cereal, deodorant, razors, nail polish gift sets, Doritos, Advil, etc.) which after using $26.49 worth of coupons cost me $23.74, and my receipt included $25.49 worth of Extra Bucks to use the next time I shop at CVS. That means I really got everything for free!

3. I got three days off of cooking while on our trip. We had packed food for our lunches the three days. The boys enjoyed having bacon two days in a row as we had a free hot breakfast buffet at the hotel on Tuesday morning, and Margie cooked a hash brown casserole, scrambled eggs, bacon, and English muffins for breakfast on Wednesday morning. We used a gift card to have dinner at Red Robin on Monday night and enjoyed a potluck dinner at my Dad's church on Tuesday night. If we had stopped at Burger King last night we wouldn't have spent any money at restaurants during our trip, but we went to Wendy's because I didn't realize we only had around $9 left on the Wendy's gift card. We usually pay for one large pizza each week so we didn't spend *too* much more than that at Wendy's last night, and we won't get pizza this week.

4. Oliver has a loose tooth! His first two teeth had to be extracted by the dentist because of a case of "shark teeth" meaning that his permanent teeth came in behind the baby teeth and this meant the baby teeth weren't going to come out on their own. The same thing has happened to his top two front teeth. I am expecting the dentist to tell us next month he needs to extract those as well. I was starting to wonder if any of Oliver's teeth would come out the free way that didn't involve shots of Novocain. Also, our co-pay is $75 per tooth to have them extracted. So I am very thankful that at least one of Oliver's teeth will come out the usual way!

5. Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law came up to spend Thanksgiving with us today. I made the turkey, corn casserole, green beans and almonds, pumpkin bread, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and stuffing plus purchased some jellied cranberry that Nadia adores. Paul's parents brought deviled eggs and carrot slaw. Al and Millie brought cookies, rolls, and a pumpkin pie. I also served some bread that Margie gave us yesterday. I had planned to make (yeast) dinner rolls, but I'm glad I didn't as we had plenty of bread. Oliver was VERY grateful for the sweet potatoes. Every year I have the kids each write a gratitude list in our Thanksgiving journal. Oliver listed eight things/people (God, hugs, kisses, Mommy, Grandma, etc.) and one of his eight was sweet potatoes! I also love sweet potatoes, but they didn't make it onto my gratitude list in our journal. :)

6. Tuesday night was a rough one in terms of sleep. My back is rather picky, and I was in pain on the futon on Tuesday night. To make matters worse, Paul and I were sleeping across from Julianna, Micah, and Oliver, and Oliver and Julianna decided it was time to get up for the day at 4:30am. I eventually shared a twin sized air mattress with Oliver in the hopes that he and Julianna would stop talking and fall back asleep. Thankfully they did. I was very grateful to sleep in my own bed last night. Oliver slept until 7:50, and Nadia and Ian slept until 8:10 this morning. We were all tired, and it was heavenly to get a good night's sleep last night.

7. I got a shower on Tuesday morning at the hotel! We haven't had access to our shower for 7 of the past 9 weeks. It had been over two weeks since I had a shower. I'm really hoping and praying we aren't doing additional damage to our master bathroom floor while we're using the Jacuzzi tub, but we can't go 7 weeks without a shower or a bath. I really, really miss the shower, but I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass, and to be thankful that at least we have running water and a functioning hot water heater.

8. We had safety in our travels to Virginia and back. I'm grateful I didn't replace the tires prior to our trip as we got a bit more mileage out of those. I did the driving on Monday and Tuesday. I had a headache on Wednesday, and I was thankful Paul did the lion share of the driving that day. This was our second time driving home from Lynchburg. The first was for the wedding in August 2017. Oliver really struggles with drives that last longer than four hours. The drive home last night was rather unpleasant toward the end as I was nauseous (car sickness) and Oliver was crying, but he's come a long way. Even a three hour drive used to be very challenging with him when he was younger. We drove for about seven hours total yesterday, which was definitely past all of our comfort zones, but we survived. Driving that many hours in the van isn't cheap, but thankfully the gas is much cheaper in Virginia. I had paid more than $2.80 last Saturday for gas, but in Virginia we saw gas as cheap as $2.12 per gallon! The savings add up when you are putting 17 gallons in your tank.

9. The kids were able to enjoy playing with their cousins last Friday and Saturday morning at our house. I wasn't expecting to see them when we visited my Dad and Margie in Virginia this week. One downside is that it greatly decreased how much time they had with Grandpa and Gubba because naturally they wanted to play with their cousins. It was a breeze to leave the hotel at 8:30am on Tuesday morning, but we didn't leave until 10:00 on Wednesday. Leaving 90 minutes later than planned meant that #1 we skipped part of the Civil War Museum as we only could spend an hour there, #2 we got home later than planned, and #3 the native American village was closed by the time we got to the Natural Bridge State Park. I was very disappointed that we missed the Monacan Village, but knowing how much the kids love playing with their cousins so it was very hard for me to tell them it was time to leave that morning.

10. Originally I had planned to take the kids to the Pennsylvania Military Museum last Saturday, but when I found out Paul wouldn't be able to join us as he needed to go to work, I decided to postpone that trip for a few years because that museum is one of Paul's MOST favorite so it seemed crazy to take the kids on a day Paul wasn't going to join us. I took the kids to see Frozen 2 instead. Thanks to coupons and a gift card, our tickets, popcorn, and drinks didn't cost us any money.

11. The sermon on Sunday was on Psalm 23, and the adult choir sang a beautiful anthem that contained the text from that Psalm. The anthem included a gorgeous oboe solo.

12. Our three day trip plus Thanksgiving meant we had four days with Paul. WOOHOO! I purposefully picked a book for us to listen to that I thought he would enjoy (Across Five Aprils) as I know he's not a fan of books like the Vanderbeekers (we recently enjoyed three of those books) or All-of-a-kind Family.

13. We're all healthy! Usually in the past time spent with cousins has translated to some or all of us coming down with a GI or respiratory bug, but over the the past few months we've spent time with cousins without anyone getting sick. Yahoo!! It's especially important that we are healthy if we are going to spend time with Paul's mom.

14. The weather was REALLY gorgeous on Monday and Tuesday. It wasn't quite as nice on Wednesday, but thankfully the rain stopped by the time we arrived at Appomattox. I'm also thankful we didn't encounter any snow given the condition of the tires on the van.

Rebels

Earlier this fall we studied the Civil War. In June we had our first Civil War related field trip when we took our first trip to Gettysburg. I am planning to take the kids back to Gettysburg for a homeschool program in February. Our second Civil War field trip was to Antietam in September. Next month we are all planning to visit the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, and next May I am planning to take the kids to Ford's Theatre. Today we visited two Civil War sites in Virginia - the Manassas Battlefield and the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond. The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge at the battlefield. Originally I thought they could earn four badges on this trip, but yesterday I found out that the visitor center at the Richmond battlefield closed a few weeks ago due to building renovations.

Virginia is still considered a mid-Atlantic state by the National Park Service, just like Pennsylvania, but the weather is definitely warmer. Yesterday morning we discovered snow on the ground when we woke up. I was a bit concerned about

driving the van to church given three of my tires need to be replaced, but the kids and I did make it there safely, thankfully. Usually the boys ride to church with Paul, but yesterday he planned to go to work. He only got half-way to work before he turned around due to the conditions of the roads. Because the boys were going with me yesterday, I had to wake them up yesterday. I rarely wake the kids up, but I ended up waking them up two days in a row because we left the house a little before 7am. I bought pop tarts so Paul and the boys could eat breakfast in the van. I ate my oatmeal before we left, and Nadia brought a piece of toast in the van. Today it was warmer down here in Virginia, and we actually walked into the White House of the Confederacy without our coats on. Also, I noticed that many of the trees still have their leaves whereas ours haven't had leaves since the end of October! We made two very brief stops on our way to Manassas. In Lewisburg we returned some things outside our library and also used a coupon at a Redbox to rent the new Dora movie on DVD. The kids had been wanting to see the Dora movie since it was in the theatres this past summer.

The drive to Manassas was a little bit less than 4 hours. We arrived just in time for a 45 minute walking tour of the first battle at 11:00 and then we watched the movie at 12:00. We looked through the museum as the kids worked to complete the activities in the Junior Ranger booklets. As we were only there for 2.5 hours, we really just scratched the surface of what you can see and do at this battlefield, but the kids wouldn't have wanted to spend more time there. It was Paul's third time visiting this battlefield, and actually it's one of the few he and I had been to together before we had kids. The drive to Richmond was a little less than two hours long. We had a private guided tour of the White House of the Confederacy as the five of us were the only ones signed up to take the 4:00 tour. After the tour we had dinner at a Red Robin that was across from the hotel we're staying at tonight. We used a gift card I had gotten with credit card points. Would you believe including a tip it cost $50 for the five of us to have dinner? Thankfully the gift card was enough to cover the whole bill including the tip. The Red Robin was inside a shopping mall. I couldn't believe that the mall was actually filled with stores like Sears, JCPenney, Barnes & Noble, etc. Those stores have left the malls in our area. I thought shopping malls were soon to be a thing of the past, but this mall seemed unaffected by that trend.

As far as passing the time in the van, we listened to music for the first hour and the last 30 minutes of our driving time. In between we alternated between listening to Across Five Aprils (a Civil War book) and watching the Dora movie. Thankfully, we won't spend as much time in the van tomorrow.

17th Birthday

My sister and her family arrived at our house around 7pm on Thursday evening and left around 10am today. They brought four air mattresses with them. I own two air mattresses plus we have two queen size sofa beds. Julianna and Jenna's air mattresses were in Nadia's bedroom, Micah's was in Oliver's room, and Joel and Nathan's were in Ian's room. So there were ten people sleeping upstairs the past two nights and five sleeping on the main floor. Joshua, Andrew, Joe, and Yvonne used the sofa beds, and Wesley (age 2) was in the living room with his parents. Yesterday was Jenna's 17th birthday. When they arrived on Thursday I was in the middle of making monkey bread for breakfast on Friday. I asked if they liked it, and one of my nephews said, "I've heard of it before." My sister's kids hadn't eaten it before. They took little tastes at first the next morning, and Julianna declared, "It's actually good!" They polished it all off. I had three balloons for Jenna as well as three Happy Birthday banners in the kitchen.

Jenna picked the menu for lunch and dinner which included egg

salad sandwiches, peanut butter bars, baked ziti, corn, and a cheesecake. I wasn't sure if one cheesecake would be enough for 15 people so I picked up two pies at the grocery store (apple crumb and pumpkin) that were on sale for $2.99 each. I made the peanut butter bars and egg salad. I had some help with making the cheesecake and ziti. I tripled the ziti recipe, and that proved to be exactly the right amount of food for dinner. Jenna made a lemon topping for those who wanted to put that on their slice of cheesecake. I put 17 candles in the cheesecake, and we all sang Happy Birthday to her. Since tomorrow is Nathan's birthday, shortly before they left this morning I let him pick one dessert. He picked a slice of cheesecake. I put one candle in his slice and we all sang Happy birthday to him. Joe's birthday is next Wednesday. It's not uncommon for one of their birthdays to fall on Thanksgiving.

It was raining all morning yesterday, but it cleared by lunch time. In the afternoon we went to a playground near our house to do a little photo shoot.

Although it had stopped raining, it was windy and cold. I had thought of taking them to Montour Preserve for the photo shoot. We could have had some really amazing backgrounds there, but considering the weather we just kept it simple. Plus by doing it at a playground it gave the children something to do while I was taking someone else's picture. Considering I was taking pictures of ten people (plus a few shots that included cousins), it was very rushed. I literally only took ONE picture of some of the kids, but we still got some good pictures. And something is better than nothing, right?

The kids played several games together including Quiddler, Quirkle, Labyrinth, chess, and Clue. Jenna picked what movie we watched together. She often chooses to watch Tangled on her birthday, but this time she picked Invisible Sister (a Disney channel movie).

I probably should have gone to Walmart today to get three new tires for the van. Hopefully we won't have any issues with them in our drives to Virginia and

back next Monday through Wednesday. I have an appointment to get new tires next Saturday. What I really wanted to do today was just stay home sweet home, but the kids wanted to see Frozen 2. Oliver had received an AMC gift card for his birthday in August, but we hadn't been to a movie since July. After lunch today I took the kids to see Frozen 2. The outing didn't cost a penny (aside from the gas to drive there and back) due to the gift card plus I had coupons for 2 free popcorns and 2 free drinks that we shared. Nadia and I want to see Little Women next month, and Nadia, Paul and Ian want to see the new Star Wars movie next month. I told Nadia she needs to read the book first (Little Women) if she wants to see the movie. She finished reading A Little Princess today, which is another one of my MOST favorite books of all time. I hope she likes Little Women as much as I did! She's reading the copy my 5th grade teacher gave me as a prize for reading the most pages of all the students in my class.

I made dinner later than usual today in the hopes that Paul

might be able to eat with us, but he didn't get home until 7pm. I put Oliver to bed earlier than usual because he didn't get his usual amount of sleep the past three nights due to #1 the concert on Wednesday night and #2 the relatives being here the last two nights. When he was younger a situation like that would almost always lead to him becoming really sick and potentially ending up in the hospital. I'm thankful that these days sleep deprivation isn't as detrimental for him as it used to be.

The kids always love to spend time with their cousins! I had the kids clear the Legos off the dining room table last Saturday in preparation for Paul's family coming over last Sunday, and we left them off in light of Yvonne's family coming this week and Paul's family coming back next week for Thanksgiving. I finished reupholstering the dining room chairs last Saturday. In hind sight I should have picked a darker fabric that would hide food stains better as the sauce from the ziti and chocolate from the peanut butter bars stained some of the cushions and some of the Berber carpet. It cracks me up because I distinctly remember telling my mom in 2008 that the FIRST room in which I'd change the flooring in this house if we ended up living here after Paul graduated from PSU would be the dining room. Ironically, I've changed the flooring in three bedrooms, the family room, and the kitchen but not the dining room. I think having carpet in a dining room is unwise, but over the span of a year there are very few days in which we eat in that room, which is why I never opted to splurge and get new flooring for the dining room. Berber carpet is fine for a Lego room. I'll keep working on the stains. I can probably get them out.

One of my goals for tomorrow is to make adjustments to lesson plans. I had planned on yesterday being a school day, but that is one of the perks of homeschooling - the flexibility to take a day off to spend with cousins. My kids are getting a VERY long break for Thanksgiving as we'll be at Great Wolf Lodge on December 2-3. Technically Monday-Wednesday will count as school days due to field trips, but we do need "regular" days of school also to do things like reading, writing, and arithmetic!

M

Thankful Thursday

1. Nadia has for whatever reason recently become obsessed with dusting. She's been watching Full House (from the early 90's) and the Dad on that show is complete neat freak. Maybe Danny Tanner is rubbing off on her? Well I will NEVER object to unsolicited help with cleaning the house. Dusting is not exactly my favorite chore. Ian is supposed to dust each week, and Oliver is supposed to dust the baseboards each week, but Nadia is definitely a FAR more thorough duster these days than Ian. He doesn't mind her help either! We shall see how long this lasts, but I'm grateful.

2. Each year the Coca Cola website has a free game you can play each day to win prizes. So far I've won $25 off at Shutterfly (two of those so I have one to share with someone else if anyone wants one), two drinks at a movie theater, one movie ticket, and one popcorn at a movie theater.

3. Yesterday I tried a new recipe - ham and swiss penne. Nadia and Oliver loved it. WOOHOO! Paul didn't try it because he stopped for fast food on the way home from work. Ian didn't like it, but he managed to buckle down and eat his dinner within about 45 minutes since we were headed out the door at 4:30.I think that Paul will like it, and Nadia already asked me to make it again in the near future. I won't be making the gingerbread pancakes again that I made tonight because the only person who liked it was Ian (Paul never eats pancakes and hasn't come home from work yet so he didn't try any). I know every new recipe won't be a "winner" as my mom would have said, but I'm always thankful when I do find one that is a winner!

4. Ian was baptized on Sunday. PTL! I'm so thankful that Paul's parents, Paul's brother, sister-in-law, Tab, Dan, Micah, and Isaiah all came to Ian's baptism and also Ian and Nadia's Veteran's Day concert on Sunday. Here's a video of Ian's testimony (that was shown in church right before his baptism) and his baptism.  They kindly edited the video so it doesn't show how Ian tried to immerse himself backwards before the pastor even said anything, ha ha!

5. The kids and I enjoyed the thanksgiving dinner at Pastor Ken's house on Sunday evening. Yum!

6. The kids and I had the privilege of serving at the Milton Developmental Services on Tuesday morning for about 2 hours. Since many of the residents do not know their numbers, my kids (and other homeschoolers) helped the residents play BINGO. Tab set this up. She does a great job of setting up service projects. That is something we want to do more of in the coming months and years.

7. Last night we enjoyed a concert at Penn State featuring Elevation Worship, Hillsong Worship, and Casting Crowns. I got tickets for the boys and Paul for $10 each, and Nadia and I got in free as volunteers with Compassion. One person that Nadia gave a packet to sponsored a child last night, and four women that I gave packets to sponsored a child last night. PTL!!!! One of the packets Nadia was given was for an eleven year old girl in Bolivia whose middle name was Nadia. We are praying that particular Nadia will get a sponsor. The concert is taking place tonight in DC. Maybe someone tonight will sponsor that girl. It was tempting to agree to sponsor that girl last night, but we already sponsor four children, which is I think all we can handle at the moment on one income. Elevation Worship and Hillsong Worship together performed for the first two hours of the concert. During the speaker from Compassion and  intermission the boys slept. Oliver woke up once Casting Crowns started singing. Since it was well past the boys bedtime and a little past Nadia's bedtime, I suggested that we leave a little after 10pm. I'm guessing the concert might have gone until about 11pm, but considering our drive back home was more than an hour (70 miles mostly on Interstate 80), we decided to leave even though Casting Crowns is one of my favorite artists. I drove home because Paul had left for work at 3:30am. We got home around 11:30pm. This is why I always pick a matinee performance whenever possible because performances that start at 7:00pm are just too late for us. The last time I was at a concert at PSU the music was WAY too loud (Winter Jam tour). I was very grateful that it wasn't loud last night.

8. Nadia has really been enjoying listening to the Brinkman Adventure CDs again (a missionary family). She has seasons 1-6. I think I should get her season 7!

9. My sister and  her family will be arriving at our house in about one hour! I figured out how to seat 9 people around the dining room table by seating two people on the piano bench and another on the piano stool that is usually in Nadia's bedroom. We can sit five people in the kitchen, which means we are all set since we'll only  have 14 people eating together since Paul only eats with us on Sundays. We are celebrating Jenna's 17th birthday tomorrow! I remember holding her when she was just a few weeks old at my doctoral graduation in December 2002 at IUP. They are planning to stay through Saturday morning, and they have come knowing they won't have access to a shower while they're here. The first 8 years we lived in this house we had access to 2 showers (one with a tub) and 3 toilets. We've been down to 1 shower/tub for the past 3.5 years. Right now we only have access to 2 toilets and 0 showers, which is far from ideal considering that fifteen people will be sleeping in our house the next two nights, but at least we have a roof over our heads, indoor plumbing, a warm house, and many other blessings that so, so, so many people around the globe do not have. The kids love being with their cousins! We hope Jenna has a very special birthday tomorrow!

10. I could say it every week, but I am so, so, so grateful for all the hugs and snuggle time I get with my boys. Thank you, Lord!!!

11. I had a coupon for eBay for $3 off anything. I bought 10 Forever postage stamps for $5, which meant I paid $2.00. The seller sent me 20 postage stamps! Considering they currently cost 55 cents each, that was a great deal to get 20 stamps for $2.00!

Big Day

Originally I planned to take the kids to the annual Kid's Day event at the World of Little League Museum on November 16, but those plans changed once I knew that Nadia and Ian had a chorale dress rehearsal that morning. Oliver and I ran errands for two hours yesterday during their rehearsal. I literally bought groceries at four different stores (plus went to the library and got pizza from Venarri's). The biggest order (by far) was the one I had done online at Walmart, but I got quite a few two liters of Coke at Weis for Paul (99 cents each), my current favorite oatmeal at Giant (cranberry pecan), and potatoes and bananas at Lingle's (because they were cheaper there than the other places). Before leaving for the dress rehearsal I made cornbrad and two loaves of pumpkin bread. After the dress rehearsal I peeled potatoes and put the other ingredients for pot roast in the crock pot.

Today was a very special day. First, Ian was baptized in the 9:00 service at church. I'm looking forward to seeing the video online. There were three baptisms in the first service and four in the second service. Four adults were baptized, two children, and one teenager. The teenager and Ian both opted to have a parent assist the pastor in the baptismal tank (the teenager picked his father and Ian picked me). I was baptized in Texas when I was his age. I never thought I'd enter a baptistry again! At first I was planning to talk the boys into picking someone else, but I'm very grateful I said yes to their request because it was very special to share that experience with Ian. Many people in the congregation commented to us afterward about how they appreciated his testimony (the video). During the baptism he tried to go backward before the pastor said "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit". Oops! :) Knowing how intimidated Ian has been by the size of our church  (probably about 800 people in attendance at the first service), I was thrilled that he overcame his fear and took this step. Paul's parents were sitting with us, which was again a huge answer to prayer. If Ian had been baptized last month, his mom wouldn't have been able to be there with us. Uncle Al dropped Aunt Millie off and she walked in right as Ian's video was starting. Uncle Al unfortunately missed the baptism, but he'll be able to see the video once they get that online. Tab, Dan, and their boys also came to see Ian's baptism even though they go to a different church. Unfortunately I didn't think to tell them where the baptismal tank is located in our church so they didn't know where to sit, and we didn't see them as they couldn't stay for the whole service as they needed to get back to their church. If I hadn't been in the tank, I would have taken pictures, but I asked the two photographers who were taking pictures for the church if I could have some photos of Ian's baptism. So hopefully at some point I'll have a video and pictures from that special occasion! Times like these make me think of my mom. If she were alive she would have come up for the baptism and concert. She passed away before any of my kids were baptized. My dad was able to attend Nadia's baptism in the fall of 2016. The sermon topic today was about the importance of prophecy in the Scripture and particular focus was given to the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies. It made me think of my Dad, as the fulfillment of a Messianic prophecy was integral in his conversion when he was a student at Princeton.

Paul, his parents, brother, and sister-in-law headed to our house after the first service was over. The kids and I left the church around 12:20pm as we stayed for the second service. Shortly after we got home we ate together. I had set the table before leaving for church this morning. We had rolls, Jell-o, pumpkin bread, green beans with almonds, and pot roast (that included potatoes and carrots). Aunt Millie brought an assortment of cookies from her bakery for dessert! The second loaf of pumpkin bread is in the freezer, and I plan to pull it out for our Thanksgiving dinner. Shortly after we finished eating it was time for Nadia and Ian to change into their concert attire. Ian had to change his clothes several times today due to the baptism and concert! I took Nadia and Ian to the concert as they had to be there 45 minutes ahead of time for warm-ups, and the rest of the family followed a bit later. It was a lovely concert. All three choirs sang four songs together - The Star Spangled Banner (acapella), A Tribute to the Armed Forces, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and America the Beautiful. Ian's choir sang two songs by themselves - This Land is Your Land and Thank You, Soldiers. Nadia's choir sang two songs by themselves - In Flanders Field and My Johnny's a Soldier. Nadia and Ian's choirs sang Grand Old Flag! together. The program was one hour long and also included a violin duet and the senior high choir sang three songs by themselves. Bucknell's ROTC Color Guard Team also participated in the program. It was a good experience for both Nadia and Ian. They won't be participating in the spring, but they might again another fall, and at that point Oliver could join them as the minimum age is third grade. Nadia and Ian will be singing in two Candlelight services next month so we will hold on to their concert attire until December 15. I thought Nadia looked so pretty in that dress! Ian's pants fit perfectly, but I think a size smaller shirt would have fit him better. I saved one pew at the church for our group of eleven who were there for the concert. I really, really appreciated it that Paul's parents, brother, sister-in-law, Tab, Dan, Micah, and Isaiah came to hear Nadia and Ian sing. I know how much it meant to me when I was a child and also an adult to look out and see my mom's smiling face when I was on stage, and I hope Nadia and Ian appreciated our support today. I took a couple of pictures during the concert. Unfortunately I chose the wrong pew. I wish I had chosen a pew on the other side of the church as the director was blocking our view of Ian most of the time. I had brought the video camera, but they asked at the beginning to not make any recordings. So I can't share any videos, but I will say all of the songs were really lovely. One girl from our church is in the high school choir, and a boy in the middle school choir attends the Christian school at our church. Nadia knew him from both art class and chorus at the Christian school.

After the concert Paul came home to work on the kids' bathroom. We all really want to be able to take a shower again. The kids and I went to Pastor Ken's house. He is the one who baptized Ian today. There are eight pastors at our church, and Ian picked Pastor Ken because we often attend the monthly get together that is held at his house. Loretta made a turkey and everyone else brought side dishes. Since I knew I'd be coming straight from the concert, I opted to bring cornbread since it didn't need to be heated. I learned from a previous mistake and asked Loretta to ask everyone what foods contained either walnuts or pecans so that Ian wouldn't consume any, as he threw up at her house one time due to eating a pecan. He's allergic to pecans and walnuts but can eat peanuts and almonds. I love pecans. I ate a lot of them when we lived in Texas and had access to a pecan tree. There was SO much yummy food at that get together! Oliver was so, so, so excited that they had sweet potatoes.

Today was a very full day, but it was a very special day. Tomorrow the kids and I will be staying home sweet home all day, which will be the first time that happened on a Monday in ten weeks. I'm so grateful for the gift of salvation, the gift of music, the service of those who are or were in the military, freedom of religion in our country, that Ian had the courage to be baptized, and that Paul's family and my friend Tab (and her husband and boys) were able to come support Nadia and Ian today!

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia enjoyed roller skating last Thursday evening at the Christian radio station's monthly event. I'm grateful Paul took her.

2. The kids and I enjoyed a performance of Beauty and the Beast on Saturday afternoon.

3. I'm thankful we have a jacuzzi tub. Prior to last month, we had used it probably less than 5 times total in the eleven years we've lived in this house. The first several years it was a ball pit for the kids. Paul took out the silicone from around the tub in the kids' bathroom last weekend and then this week he's been scraping the paint off the walls. So this means neither of our two showers can be used for the time being. I really, really prefer showers, but at least we have indoor plumbing and a hot water heater, which are two things many people around the world don't have access to. And I learned my lesson the last time and once Paul started working I removed everything I could from the bathroom (valence, towels, toilet bowl brush, floor mats, toothbrushes, etc.) so I will have fewer things to clean this time around than I did the last time (sanding is messy!).

4. The kids really enjoyed the first Vanderbeeker book. Oliver is the hardest child to get "hooked" on a chapter book of my three kiddos, and he liked it a lot! He immediately asked if there were any more books, and I was able to tell him YES (two more thus far). We are in the middle of the second All of a Kind Family book which the kids like, but they like the Vanderbeekers a lot more and can't wait until we get back to that family. The Vanderbeekers have five children - four girls and one boy, who happens to be a nine-year-old named Oliver. Of the 531 chapter books we've read so far I don't recall any characters named Ian or Nadia whereas I do recall several named Oliver along the way.

5. I've gotten back into doing some couponing at CVS. This past weekend I purchased 2 big bags of M &M's (for making cookies) plus 15 boxes of cereal for a grand total of $12.95, and after I submitted my receipt to Kellogg's, I was emailed a $6 certificate that can be used toward concessions at a movie theater.

6. I've not typically done much grocery shopping at Walmart, but lately I've been placing orders online. I still go to our local store for some things, but I've found that Walmart does have good prices on quite a few things. I won't buy things like chicken breast or cereal there. It's super convenient to show up and they bring my order out to the van, and because I'm using my Discover card on those transactions, I'll be getting a 10% rebate from Discover in the near future.

7. As we celebrated Veteran's Day this week, I am very thankful to the men and women who have served in our military in the past and the present.

8. I decided it was time to get back into exercising. I know I'm out of shape. I thought all my clothes fit me again, but I found out this past weekend that my dressy black pants don't fit yet. I'm hoping exercise alone will be enough as 5 1/2 months of strict dieting was enough for me. I'm trying to use the elliptical for 30 minutes a day as many days of the week as possible. Maybe at some point I'll try to lengthen the time, but for now my goal is 30 minutes a day. I started using the elliptical again yesterday. I also know the endorphins will be appreciated.

9. I had a coupon code for the DVD kiosk at our grocery store, and we used it to see the new Lion King movie. Nadia wasn't too excited when I told  her what I had brought home, but the boys were! The movie she can't wait to see (on DVD) is the Dora movie that came out this summer.

10. I really, really liked the crock-pot chicken taquitos recipe I tried for the first time on Sunday. Oliver did as well. The other three tolerated it. All three kids LOVED the peanut butter bars I made for the first time last Saturday. Ian, Paul, and I really enjoyed the chicken Caesar wraps I made last week. In fact Ian and Paul already asked me to make it again. The other two didn't like the Caesar dressing, but they ate them.

11. I've not really been paying attention to football much at all this year. Part of the reason is that I feel that in trying to rebound from emotionally from losing my brother and my job, I don't want to watch something that might add any stress or sadness to my life. I can really get very emotionally involved in the Steelers football games. So I've just been pretty much avoiding the games. They had a horrible start this season, which further cemented my desire to just take a year off from watching football. I ended up watching part of the game on Sunday, and thankfully it had a happy ending. The Steelers finally have a winning record for the first time this season (5-4). I'm still not planning to watch much football this year, but I'm thankful I was able to see part of a game where the team won. Unfortunately the Giants are having a really crummy year (2-7). My poor hubby!

12. Penn honored my brother last Friday. My dad and Margie were able to attend. I am very proud of my brother and part of me wanted to attend, but I was pretty certain I'd be a soggy mess. I miss him something fierce. I keep thinking I've completed all the paperwork regarding his passing, but today I received another collection notice. I called them and it turned out that yes they had received the death certificate but some how that hadn't been marked in the system. That has happened more than once over the past few months. Maybe this was my last call of this nature? The Post Office can't distinguish between my Dad and my brother's names (dad is the IV and brother V) so we get more mail at our house that actually is intended for my Dad than we get for our family. Once I'm fairly certain I'm not getting any more mail intended for Maurice, I'm going to change his address to my Dad's address in Virginia so that my Dad will receive it instead of me (since almost all of it is meant for my Dad anyhow).

Choices

As you compare life in other time periods with our own, in many areas of life we have far more options to choose between than people did in the past. We will read a story that describes how a girl had two dresses - one for every day and another for dress-up occasions (such as attending church). Even though we have a pretty frugal clothing budget (over the past four years we've spent a little over $2,200 on clothes and shoes for five people which translates to about $110 per person per year), we all have quite a few choices when we get dressed each day as to what we will wear. When I was a child, if you wanted to watch something, you were limited to what was being aired on television at that particular moment. If you wanted to watch the movie aired by the Wonderful World of Disney, then you had to turn the television on during the one time of the week it was aired. When I was in middle school our family got a VCR. Now we had control over what time we watched something (and could skip the commercials) provided we took the effort to record it on to a VHS tape. In 2019 people are accustomed to being able to watch what they want to watch whenever they want to watch it thanks to various streaming services or "On Demand" options via cable. The thought of only watching a show once a week at a certain time of day is not something my kids can relate to at all, although Paul definitely pays attention to what day/time his football game will hopefully be aired. If you listen to a radio station, you don't have control over exactly what song is played, but again if you use a streaming music service, you can determine exactly which artist and/or which song is played at any given time. 

One concern I have with the proliferation of choices is that it seems easy to start expecting everything to be on our terms - exactly what we like best and precisely when we want it. If you are living alone, this is less problematic, but when you are with friends or family, some compromise is usually necessary. When the kids were younger, it wasn't that hard to get them to agree on which Veggie Tales DVD to watch. As they have gotten older, it has become increasingly difficult. Sometimes I think that they should take turns picking, and if they don't like what their sibling has chosen, they can just do something else. If I let them, I think they might easily each pick something different - one person use the TV and the other two use our two iPads to stream whatever they picked from Amazon Prime, Hulu, or Right Now Media. We've had Hulu for almost one year because last year their Black Friday special was to receive their streaming service for 99 cents a month for 12 months. I haven't let them watch three things at once, but lately they have been watching two things at once. Two kids agree to watch something on TV (ex. Oliver and Nadia have been watching Full House lately) and another watches something on an iPad (Ian's favorite lately has been Sonic Boom). When the cousins were here, there were seven kids trying to pick something to watch together on the tv. The first day it took them (without exaggeration) a full HOUR to come to a decision. Oh. My. Word. It was a bit more complicated because my kids are allowed to watch some things that their parents do not let them watch. So part of the dilemma was trying to figure out which of the DVDs we owned was permissible, but they also had very different opinions of what to choose. Thankfully it didn't take as long to choose the other days. Whew. As far as my three kids go, I understand that girls might want to watch something different than boys and that Nadia (age 11) might be interested in something different from Oliver (age 7), but still I want them to also learn to compromise and defer to the wishes of someone else rather than always getting exactly what they would prefer. I know Paul and I don't have identical tastes when it comes to movies. When we were dating we found out what we had in common (ex. we both loved the tv show Monk). In some cases, I watched things I never would have watched on my own (Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.), and Paul also watched some romantic comedies that he probably wouldn't have watched on his own. And sometimes one of us discovered that we liked a show or movie that we wouldn't have typically picked. So I wrestle with whether to continue to allow them to watch different things. There are SOME movies that the four of us watch together. We didn't see the new Lion King in the theater this summer so we are in line to check it out from the library, and I'm sure the kids and I will watch that together.

Another area that I have been contemplating regarding choices is what we eat at dinner. Each member of our family has plenty of choices for breakfast and lunch. Usually we each have something different, and there are a variety of options. For example, even if someone picks something as simple as PBJ for lunch, they can choose Italian or honey wheat bread, creamy or crunchy PB, and several choices of jelly. As far as dinner goes, I'd prefer it if most of the time we all ate the same thing. I don't want to turn into a short order cook preparing several different things for dinner. Sometimes I omit an "offensive" ingredient from a portion of the dish. For example, I really like tomatoes and salsa, but if a recipe calls for one of those ingredients I only mix it in with a small portion of the dish because I'm the only one in the family who likes tomatoes. A few days ago I made gnocchi for the first time. It was one of those moments when I said this is what we're all having tonight. Since Paul usually eats alone (after 9pm), it doesn't bother me if he opts to make himself something else if he doesn't like what I prepared for dinner. For example, one day last week I made ravioli. I made beef ravioli for Ian and cheese ravioli for Nadia, Oliver, and I. Paul doesn't like either kind of ravioli so he made an omelet and toast that night. I've been serving a wider variety of foods in part to try to expand their taste buds. If there is something in the refrigerator (leftovers) that they like or tolerate, Nadia and Ian would prefer to eat that than try something new, especially if it's a soup or stew. Obviously dinner goes more smoothly when the kids have choices as to what they eat for dinner, but if Oliver and I are the only ones eating many of the things I make, it's frustrating. It used to be really hard to get Nadia and Ian to eat peas. It's still definitely not their favorite vegetable, but now they eat them pretty easily. Repeated exposure to a food can be a positive thing, although as a child I never did learn to like Brussel sprouts. Nadia wants to go on a mission trip to Guatemala, but I think before she can go she needs to learn to eat rice and beans, which are two foods she currently avoids if at all possible. 

This week I was working on the menu plan for the next few weeks. Some new recipes that I tried over the past two months I doubt I'll ever make again, but I will try another recipe. Some foods I won't even try again such as gnocchi and tortellini. The kids really liked the nachos and pork chops. If at least three of us like a particular food it seems worth making every now and then. The problem is when it's only one or two of us eating it. Yesterday I made a chicken enchilada soup. Nadia, Paul, and Ian wouldn't even try it. It had chicken, black beans, and corn in it. Paul eats corn only if it's served separately, but he doesn't like corn to be in anything. The other two don't like black beans. Oliver usually loves soup, but he wasn't crazy about that soup last night. That means I'll probably have to eat the rest of the soup in that crock pot all by myself. I like it,but I don't really want to eat it for days on end. I'll try a different recipe for chicken enchilada soup next time (there are SO many out there) and make sure to pick one that doesn't include corn so that hopefully at least Paul, Oliver, and I will be eating it. Paul requested I make chicken Caesar wraps. I've never made them before. That is what I'm serving tonight so the choices will be either a wrap or the soup I made yesterday. I'm assuming all three kids will pick the wrap. Hopefully they will like it.

Today I'm thankful....

1. That my friend, Joyce, and her daughter are planning to meet us for the Christmas production at a church in Camp Hill. We've been friends for 23 years, and we've let 4 years pass since we've gotten together (too many!). We had a nice long chat on the phone yesterday, which I also greatly appreciated. I bought seven tickets last night - five for our family and two for Joyce and Kristin!

2. This has been a very relaxing week in terms of mostly staying at home sweet home. The kids didn't have chorus or art today because they are having parent teacher conferences at the Christian school today and tomorrow. Including tomorrow over the course of four days I won't have driven farther than 5 minutes from our house. Woohoo! Am I turning into a hermit? Well for one thing it's good not to use as much gasoline for the van. Paul drives 600-700 miles a week commuting to and from work, but I am trying to use the van a bit less if possible as we are over budget for the year in the gasoline category.

3. We've been getting one large pizza on Mondays. The first two weeks we tried to eat dinner at home before taking Ian to his chorale rehearsal. Getting everyone to finish dinner by 4:30pm was very difficult. Ian was a little late to the first rehearsal and barely on time for the second. Picking up one large pizza after dropping Ian off at chorale rehearsal has worked out MUCH better even though it has meant we eat dinner in the van. Even though Paul had dinner with his parents this week on Monday night, we saved him two slices, which he ate on Tuesday. Pizza is a food we ALL love. The only problem is that as the kids grow older it seems like one large isn't going to be quite enough for five of us to share. Chorale rehearsals are almost done. We're going to miss our weekly pizza from Venarri's! Yum!!!

4. Paul's mom was able to have her IVIG treatment today (minus the chemo). She spent most of her 75th birthday at the hospital. It's her home away from home, ha ha. We love her so much!!

5. Today was the first morning the kids all slept until at least 7:00am since the time changed. The past four days at least one of the boys was up at 6:30 each day. They are adjusting to the time change. 

Thankful Tuesday

Each November I try to post gratitude lists more frequently than just once a week. Here are a few things I'm grateful for...

1. the freedom of religion that we have in our country. On Sunday we prayed for the persecuted church and a prayer guide from the Voice of the Martyrs was in our church bulletin.

2.  the freedom to vote. We'll be studying the suffrage movement in the very near future. I exercised this right today.

3. the opportunity to stay-at-home with my kids. My schedule went from frantic (past two years) to far more manageable. Honestly there are moments when I ask myself how on earth did I add a FT job to my to do list?!?

4. the fun the kids had going trick-or-treating on Saturday night. Our community usually does it on October 31, but given the forecast for that night included not only rain but wind, thunderstorms, and a tornado watch, most of the boroughs in our area rescheduled. If trick-or-

treating had taken place on Thursday, Paul would have missed out as he didn't come home from work until 10pm that night. On Saturday the kids and I were just climbing into the van at 6:15pm when he came home from work. He asked us to wait for a couple of minutes so that he could join us. Nadia went as Hermione again. At first she was correcting people if they identified her as being Harry Potter. Oliver went as Optimus Prime (a transformer) and Ian was Lloyd again (Lego Ninjago). We were walking about for about 90 minutes although part of that time we were in a church watching a puppet show while the kids ate some popcorn. Not as many homes were giving out candy as was the norm several years ago, but the kids still came home with plenty. They shared a little with Daddy, but I bought him two bags of candy at Weis on Friday since it was VERY reduced in price. The kids picked out their least favorite candy (sweet tarts, smarties, lollipops, etc.) and put those in a bag which we took to the dentist today in exchange for $3.00.

5. the Saturday Science program at Susquehanna University. Tab and her boys went for the first time ever and took my kids along as well so that I could attend a Grief Share program at church. One of the activities during the three hour program was to design something to protect an egg when dropped from the second story of the building. Three kids and one adult succeeded in this challenge, and three of those four kids were the ones Tab brought - Oliver, Isaiah, and Nadia each received a rock with some crystals in it as the prize for their achievement! A dad who was there was the fourth winner.

6. the progress that my mother-in-law has been experiencing lately. She has finally been able to sleep in her own bed and take a shower. Progress! She'll be seeing the oncologist on Thursday, which happens to be her 75th birthday.

7. the fun the kids and I had carving pumpkins last Friday. To be honest, I was tired and could have just skipped it, but Oliver asked, and so we did it. There are times when I'm grateful that I've said no to doing certain activities or field trips and have opted to just stay home, and there are also times when I'm grateful that I did something even though I felt like skipping it.

8. very delicious apple cake. Yummmm!!!

9. the free grocery service Walmart provides. You place your order online, they gather everything you ordered, and your purchases are brought to your vehicle at the time and day you choose. Since Discover is giving 10% back this quarter for those purchases, I have been using this service more often than usual. I typically only did an order after they would send me a $10 off $50 coupon.

10. the progress Oliver is making in math. We skipped the multiplication chapter in his textbook. He's working on telling time on an analog clock, and I'm now doing addition and subtraction flashcards with him for five minutes a day to help him with learning those facts. So far we're working on adding/subtracting 1 or 2, adding 10, problems where the answer is 0, and adding 9. 

11. that Oliver really enjoyed the last chapter book I read to the kids (Prairie Thief). He asked if there was another book in the series. Getting him to be quiet and listen during chapter books has been challenging, but it's not hard when he really likes the book!

12. that my kids have a good attitude about visiting historical homes and museums. (Although Nadia is not crazy about visiting battlefields.) When we read a book today about the Smith sisters who lived in CT in the 1800's, Oliver asked if we could visit a museum to learn more about them. I'm not sure if one even exists, but I love his interest!

13. that Paul was able to watch the Monday night football game at his parent's house last night. We don't get ESPN so I suggested he spend the night at his parent's house last night so he could watch the game (albeit his team lost). This also saved him 2 hours of driving time. I'm thankful that we don't have cable all year long. The brochure said it would cost $11 more to have the local channels compared to what we pay only for the internet. But in reality we also had to pay $5 a month for a little box and $20 a month for taxes. Seriously how can an $11 service add $20 in taxes?!?! We'll be going back to just having the internet the beginning of January. The only time we use the local channels is for football, and I haven't been watching the Steelers and not all of the Giants' games are aired here so we aren't using the tv that much. My nephews were grateful we had it when they were here as they were able to watch the Eagles game. I very rarely watch anything on tv, and the kids and Paul watch things via Hulu or Amazon Prime. 

14. it's a very rare occasion when I sit alone in church these days. For the first 13 years of our marriage I sat in the worship service alone almost all the time although for some of those months I was holding a sweet baby in my arms during the service. I took each of my three babies with me until they got to the point I knew it was better to put them in the nursery. Paul has been attending church regularly for the past five years. The last couple of years if he worked on a Sunday I was still able to sit with Ian. Nadia and Oliver usually were up in Kidzway during the first service. This year Ian has been opting to attend Kidzway during the first service, but Nadia is now attending the first service with Paul and I as the middle school class meets during the second service. Paul worked this past Sunday, but I didn't sit alone as Nadia was with me. I greatly prefer having a family member sit beside me during church. 

Eight Months

As of today, my brother has been in Heaven for eight months. It has been eight months plus two days since I spoke to him last, and in a few weeks it will have been a full year since I saw him in person and gave him a hug, as the last time I saw him was the day after Thanksgiving in 2018. The "denial" phase of grief lasted four months for me. My brain has finally accepted the reality, but it's still a very painful topic to dwell upon. I think of my mom and brother at all different random times. For example, if I see Skittles or Starburst candy, I immediately think of my brother. Nadia got a 100 Grand candy bar, and she had never had one before. She asked me about them, and the first thing I told her was, that was Grandma's favorite candy bar (meaning my mom). One of the pastors (not the senior pastor) preached this morning, and during the sermon he made the statement that Jesus was 33 years old when He died. I immediately thought of a conversation I had with my brother in which he told me that Herod (the one who made the order to have the boys under the age of two killed) died in 4BC so Jesus was probably born in 5-6 BC because #1 Jesus' birth was the reason that edict was given and #2 Joseph, Mary, and Jesus came back from Egypt after Herod died. It is believed He died in either AD 30 or AD 33. Either way he was more than 33 years old when He died.


In the months following my mom's death, there were many, many instances every week when I'd have to remind myself that I couldn't call my mom because it was such a natural instinct for me to do so. I still have those moments. For example sometimes I think, "I wish Mom could hear Ian playing the piano." It's painful to me that her youngest grandchild (Wesley) never met her, and her next three youngest grandchildren (Oliver, Julianna, and Grace) probably won't have memories of her as they were only three-years-old when she died. When the cousins were here last month, we played a Memory game that I made on Shutterfly using pictures of various family members. The cousins enjoyed finding pictures of themselves on some of the cards. It hurt my heart a bit when Julianna pointed to a picture of my parents and said, "There's Grandma Margie!". Um no....

I thought of Maurice a lot yesterday because I attended a Grief Share meeting about "surviving the holidays." Thanksgiving wasn't a challenging holiday for me following the passing of my mom, and I am not anticipating it being hard this month either. Although I ate Thanksgiving dinner with my mom for more than 20 years, I hadn't eaten that meal with her many times over the past twenty years. I ate fewer Thanksgiving dinners with my brother since I was almost twelve years older than him. Christmas is another story. I honestly wanted to skip Christmas in 2016. Decorating my house was extremely painful as my mom loved decorating for Christmas. For many years I took my brother shopping so he could buy gifts for the others in the family. He loved tradition, and he really, really was particular about the exact order of the stores we had to visit each year. He became the "Santa Claus" meaning the person who would pass out the gifts during our gift exchange each year. He was missed last year at the Christmas gathering at our house, but we had NO idea at that point we'd never celebrate Christmas with him again. The thought of sitting around a tree exchanging gifts with my side of the family this December sounds incredibly painful. I have no idea how I would make it through such an event without sobbing my eyes out. His department at Penn is doing something special to honor him this Friday. We (his family) were invited to attend. My Dad and Margie are planning to attend. They invited his advisor from Austin to come and speak at a colloquium. I am so, so touched that they are honoring him in this way. It was hard for me to make it through his funeral and luncheon. I know I'd be crying way too much; so I am not planning to attend. Of course the other factors are the length of the drive as well as the fact I'll be homeschooling my kids that day. At some point I do want to go to Philadelphia and tour the museum where he gave tours, but it's likely going to be years before I'm emotionally ready for that. I had planned to take the kids to Philadelphia for several days in March 2020, but those plans have been scratched in light of my brother's passing. Knowing that my mom and brother have been reunited definitely brings me comfort as well as the knowledge that I will see them again some day, but I'd still love to be able to talk to them on the phone this week!


On a lighter note, here are two funny comments from Julianna and Oliver last month. When I picked the kids up from AWANA, the commander (director) asked me how many kids were in their family. She asked because she had wanted to give prizes to the cousins (and their siblings) for attending our AWANA for the first time. Julianna had said "I don't know" when asked that question. When asked, "How many girls?" Julianna had correctly said "two" (she has one sister). When asked "How many boys?" she said "too many to count!". HA HA! When three of her brothers heard what she had said, one of them objected, "She can count to six!". I will concur that her counting skills are excellent. When Oliver was doing his schoolwork she was frequently counting and telling him "Oliver, you have nine cards left to read" or "Oliver, you  have seven math problems left to do." After the cousins had left Oliver said to me one morning that he liked it even more when Grace came to visit. I asked him why because it seemed to me that he and Juliana had really enjoyed their time together (except I did realize that Oliver wished Julianna would play outside with him more than she did). His answer cracked me up. He said that when Grace is here she just wants to play with HIM, but Julianna spent a lot of time playing with the guinea pigs. Unlike his siblings, Oliver doesn't ever give any attention to the guinea pigs. The guinea pigs definitely spent far more time out of their cage the week the cousins were here than any other week of the past almost three years. Julianna really loved holding them!


Last night I was very tired, and so I went to bed at 8:30pm after tucking Oliver into bed. When I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, it hit me that I should have forced myself to stay up because when I went to bed early I was forgetting that the clocks would go back an hour that night. I was afraid I would wake up way too early this morning. I didn't! Would you believe I slept 11 hours last night? I was definitely tired. Usually when people comment about getting an extra hour of sleep when the clocks go back an hour, I always say nope I don't get any extra sleep that night. First of all I wake up by an internal clock not an alarm clock and it takes time to shift my internal clock. Secondly, as a parent I have found that the kids always wake up what appears to be an hour early after the time change. Of the three kids, Ian is the one that has always taken the longest to shift his internal clock by one hour. Well what do you know but the kids got up between 6:30-6:45 (new time) which isn't bad as our usual time is 7:00! Usually it feels like we're rushing to get out the door on time on Sunday mornings but considering we got up a bit earlier than usual (but not a full hour earlier) and also the fact that the choir wasn't singing today, we weren't rushing to leave this morning. When the choir sings, I have to be out the door at 7:55, but when the choir isn't singing we don't leave until about 8:35 (the service starts at 9:00). Although I love singing in the choir, I have to say it was nice to not be as rushed this morning. Well we shall see what time the kids wake up tomorrow morning. As a parent, I've found the "spring forward" transition usually goes far more smoothly than the "fall backward" one does, but maybe this year will be different.

Apples and pumpkins

For many years I said that spring and fall were my favorite seasons because I love it when the temps are not too hot and also not too cold. In particular I love it when the temps are in the 60's or 70's. Over the past 10 years my favorite season some years has shifted to the summer because I enjoyed walking to the playground in the morning and swimming in the pool in the afternoon with the kids. My dislike of cold temperatures has also grown over the years. One constant has been that winter is my least favorite season. The trees are bare, the grass is brown, there aren't any flowers, and it's COLD outside. Yes, snow is pretty to look at, but I really don't like to drive in snow or ice, and it has to be cold outside for their to be snow. In the spring there are beautiful blossoms on the trees, the flowers begin to bloom, and the grass turns green again. In the fall there are oh so beautiful leaves on the deciduous trees. Although in all reality we could eat just about any food any time of year, there are still foods that are associate with the various seasons. We eat a wider variety of fresh fruit in the summer. That's another big plus for summer! Two foods I associate with the fall are apples and pumpkins. We eat apples all year round, but I'm more prone to make apple crisp and drink apple cider in the fall. Our family's first choice when it comes to apple variety is gala, and our second choice is golden delicious. Recently I bought some Granny Smith apples for making apple cake, and we also tried two other kinds. The kids and I found a new favorite - Jonagold. I'm not sure how often that kind goes on sale ($1.00/lb. is the most I pay for apples), but the kids and I really like that kind! The rest of us didn't enjoy the Honeycrisp variety, but Paul really did. I don't typically make pumpkin pie, but I do make pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bread. There are some pumpkin things that I see at the store that seem revolting to me (ex. pumpkin yogurt or pumpkin ice cream), but most of the time I do love pumpkin! Speaking of seasonal foods, I put some eggnog ice cream on the apple cake this evening. Wow! Was that a delicious combination!!!



We got our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago when the cousins were here, but I figured we should wait until closer to Halloween to carve them. In hind sight I wish we had done it earlier in the week when it was a lot warmer outside. We've always carved our pumpkins outside, but we did it in the kitchen today. Plus I am a big fan of natural light when taking pictures. Usually Paul and I have helped the kids together with the pumpkin carving. In 2016 Pop Pop helped instead of Paul. This was the first time I was the only adult helping. We carved three of the four pumpkins. The kids all think the pulp is disgusting. They each helped some, but I did the lion share of that task. This was the first year I let Nadia carve her pumpkin. I helped her a tiny bit, but she did most of the carving. Ian drew the designs on his pumpkin and Oliver's. Oliver changed his mind from tree to spider, and eventually he settled on Frankenstein. Ian's is a three eyed alien. I know we are a day late with this project, but considering the trick-or-treating was postponed to tomorrow, we still have completed the carving one day before trick-or-treating. The wind and rain was bad last night. I can understand why they rescheduled!