Double Digits!

Ian turned ten-years-old today! I love this boy oh so very much. Physical affection is one of my stronger love languages, and Ian and Oliver sure do know how to shower me with plenty of hugs. Ian says he wants to live at home and go to college online and then wants to live very close once he moves out of our house. I realize between now and then he may very well change his mind, but I'm fine with the idea that he might always live near me! We have been celebrating his birthday off and on over the past 11 days. Today is the last day of his birthday celebrations. On December 2-3 we went to Great Wolf Lodge as a part of his birthday celebration. On December 8 Paul's brother and parents came up for a birthday meal, birthday cake, and to give him his presents. On December 9-10 Ian had pepperoni pizza for dinner. On December 10 he had two donuts for breakfast. Yesterday we had a play date with two boys for 2.5 hours; they made him birthday cards. Today he got the day off from school work aside from art class at Meadowbrook, and we attended a Christmas party with our homeschool group at a bounce place from 11:00-1:00. In addition to using the inflatables, the kids were able to eat pizza, chips, brownies, cookies, donuts, chocolate covered pretzels, etc.. He also opened his gifts from Grandpa/Margie and from Paul and I. Some parents give their kids big birthday parties. I've never done that, but I think in our own way we have helped him have a very special birthday! As a side note, Nadia and I also took showers yesterday during the play date. It felt heavenly; I was very grateful my friend let us take showers at her house!

One way Ian has changed over the past year is he has shown more courage. It was NOT easy for him to climb the steps to the top of the crown of the Statue of Liberty, make his video for the baptism, go zip lining, or climb the rock wall, but he DID it. In the case of the zip lining, he found he loved it and easily did it several more times. I don't think he's itching to go rock wall climbing or climb another spiral staircase any time soon. I know he is very grateful he was baptized. He continues to be very empathetic. Of my three kids, Ian definitely took the passing of Uncle Maurice the hardest. He has only recently finally gotten out of the habit of mentioning Uncle Maurice in his prayers. Another way Ian changed this past year is that he *finally* started waking up a bit later on a more regular basis! I started to wonder if he would ever experience "sleeping-in." Although he's occasionally still the first one up, the vast majority of the time Oliver is now the first one up, and thankfully when they aren't sharing a bedroom with a cousin they rarely get up before 7am. I really, really appreciate this change. Thank you, Ian!

He had so many doctor appointments the first three years of his life, but he has been very healthy for the past seven years. At the moment the only two things we know he is allergic to are pecans and walnuts. He also has come a LONG way in overcoming the reflux (vomiting) that used to happen when he laughed. He laughs a lot, especially when his cousins are around, and he only threw up once due to laughing over the last several months. He eats breakfast and lunch quickly most of the time. Dinner can still be a challenge, but compared to what it was like when he was two-years-old, he's come SUCH a long way. It's hard to find side dishes that he likes because he doesn't like rice, macaroni and cheese, pierogies, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, French fries, or baked beans. His favorite foods include chocolate or peanut butter cereal, bologna sandwich, hot dogs, peanut butter and marmalade sandwich, yogurt, cookies, brownies, ice cream, candy, chips, popcorn, Gala apples, red grapes, green beans, salad, rolls, monkey bread, donuts, pizza, tuna noodle casserole, nachos, rigatoni and meatballs, fish sticks, Goldfish crackers, bacon, chocolate chip pancakes, steak, beef ravioli, and chicken tenders or nuggets. Oliver and Nadia are like me in that they don't like to drink anything that's carbonated. Ian is like his Dad. He does like soda. His first choice is usually root beer. He also loves to drink apple juice.

His favorite toys are still Legos and stuffed animals. He loves playing on the Nintendo Switch. He generally earns one or two 20 minute turns each day. His favorite educational app is Stack the States. His favorite books are those that involve a character that travels back in time - Imagination Station, Magic Tree House, or the series he's been reading most recently - Treasure Chest. He enjoys reading, but he is NOT a book worm. He reads for school or to earn a turn on the Switch. Nadia reads just for fun. He will read a picture book for fun, but he doesn't read a chapter book unless I require him to do so or he's trying to earn a turn. He loves to tell jokes (puns in particular), and he does an amazing job imitating different voices and sounds. He's made amazing progress in learning to play the piano. It's the one area where he is more advanced than Nadia and can give her assistance. He LOVES to draw. He draws on pretty much every bit of paper he gets his hands on all throughout the day every day. He even drew on his music during chorale rehearsal. He draws on the church bulletins, his schoolwork, etc. Although I think it's great that he enjoys drawing so much, his school work would get done in a more timely manner if he didn't draw quite so much. Finally, he loves to play with Nadia. He prefers to play Legos with her, but he will play paper dolls with her, Calico Critter animals, or basically anything she wants if it means she'll play with him. He enjoys playing board games like Sorry, Candyland, and Chess. He loves his guinea pig. He has been so gentle with Patches over the past three years that she is very docile with him. She'll just sit beside him or on his lap for long periods of time. Nadia's guinea pig is far more skittish than Ian's. 

Ian has received two birthday calls thus far today - from Aunt Janet and Grandma. Paul delayed his departure to work this morning so that he could be here when Ian opened his presents. You can tell what he likes by what he was given. Grandpa and Gubba gave him a Lego Movie 2 Lego set (706 pieces). I bought him a stuffed animal, two small Mario figurines, and a Star Wars lego set (1,060 pieces). Just for his birthday Ian received over 3,000 Legos total! I wonder how many tens of thousands of Legos we have in this house right now? Legos, anything related to Star Wars, stuffed animals, and anything related to Mario are his favorite things! We love Ian so very much, and I think his tenth birthday has been very special for him!

Thankful Tuesday

1. Our new microwave arrived yesterday. Although microwaves are only supposed to last about ten years, I'm hoping this one will last longer than that. Now to get used to the new microwave. It is possible for old dogs to learn new tricks, right?

2. Paul spent the night at his parent's house last night so he could watch the Giants game on TV as we don't get the channel that Monday Night Football is aired on. Unfortunately, the Giants lost in overtime (although plenty of our friends and family are happy with that outcome as we know many Eagles fans), but staying at his parents saved him two hours on the road.

3. I was able to schedule my mammogram for 4:45 yesterday. Even though the commute to Lewisburg is only twenty minutes, which is short compared to Paul's commute to work, I still try to make as few trips as possible. I scheduled it for that time knowing that Ian and Nadia would have their last Monday night chorale rehearsal from 5:45-6:45 last night. After the mammogram we stopped at

the library, CVS, and a pizzeria before I dropped Ian and Nadia off at their rehearsal. During their rehearsal Oliver and I bought donuts at Dunkin' for our breakfast this morning, picked up the online grocery order at Walmart, and donated some items at Goodwill.

4. The worship arts pastor told us on Sunday that people in our congregation had given over $36,000 on Giving Tuesday towards building wells in Sierra Leone. A quadruple matching offer that day meant it became over $144,000, which is enough to build 14.5 wells that will provide clean water for about 11,000 people!

5. We are so, so grateful for the almost ten years that we've had with Ian Alexander! I pray that the Lord will continue to help him grow into a godly young man! The kids and Paul have been enjoying the delicious cake that Aunt Millie made. Ian built two new Lego sets on Sunday - one of which contained over 1,100 pieces! It was nice to spend about five hours with Paul's brother and parents on Sunday at our house.

6. We used a coupon for a free large one topping pizza at Venarri's last night, which meant I didn't need to cook dinner yesterday or today as we paid for one cheese pizza in addition to the free one. I also used a coupon for a free drink at Dunkin' last night; I love their hot chocolate!

7. We were able to talk with Aunt Janet on Sunday and Monday and with Grandpa today. It sounds like they both have had special birthdays!

8. Nadia has gotten off to a great start with memorizing Hebrews! She has almost learned the first chapter over the past 10 days! The fact that she's going to be doing the Bible Bowl makes me all the more glad that we cancelled her audition to be in Annie. She and I both really like that musical, and she was eligible to audition because she is in the chorus at Meadowbrook, but the rehearsals will take place January through March, which is also when she plans to be on a basketball team and take ice skating lessons. In 2021 she will be too old to play Upward

basketball, and so if we take the year off from ice skating lessons as well, then she can probably try out for whatever musical Meadowbrook puts on in March 2021. She is planning to audition to be in Tuck Everlasting at our church in November 2020.

9. I had planned to take the kids to a free Christmas concert tonight put on by the oldest band in the United States, but I decided just having a day to stay home all day was preferable. I am thankful that I have been exercising the right to delete things from the calendar more often the last few months. When Paul came home from work at 7pm tonight, the kids and I were playing a game of Qwirkle, and earlier today we read some poetry by Robert Frost. Poetry and games are things I've been trying to include more often in our weekly routine, but we don't always succeed. Today we did!

10. I hadn't won anything for about 2.5 weeks on the Coke website, but yesterday I won a free movie ticket. Yahoo!

11. Ian and Nadia have been

playing chess with Paul more often lately.

12. The Steelers won on Sunday. I actually watched the whole game. I haven't watched much football this year. Considering we lost our QB very early in the season and started out with a pitiful record, I am quite amazed that if the season ended today we'd be going to the playoffs.

13. A woman at church who is one of the volunteer photographers emailed me some nice pictures of Ian's baptism. I really appreciate having those and also the video!

Birthday Party!

My beloved middle child will be turning ten-years-old on Thursday. On Thanksgiving Day I asked Paul's family when they would like to celebrate Ian's birthday, and they picked today. We had rigatoni and meatballs after church, which is one of Ian's most favorite meals. We usually just get one large pizza, but I have a coupon for one free large one topping pizza at our favorite pizzeria. I'm going to get two large pizzas tomorrow - one cheese and the free one will be a pepperoni. That way Ian will be able to eat pizza for dinner on Monday and Tuesday. Ian loves pepperoni pizza, and the vast majority of the time we get cheese pizza so he will really enjoy that treat. Tuesday morning he will get his birthday breakfast (donuts from Dunkin'), Wednesday afternoon they will have a play date with Micah and Isaiah, and on his actual birthday he will be eating pizza for lunch at our homeschool group's Christmas party. On Friday night he picked out two birthday balloons at Dollar Tree. When he got home from church he changed into his birthday t-shirt that he will wear again on Thursday. Aunt Millie made him

a delicious birthday cake. He will open his gifts from Paul and I on Thursday. Today he opened his gifts from Paul's family. Paul's parents gave him a large Lego Ninjago set (1,100+ pieces). Uncle Al and Aunt Millie gave him a Star Wars mask and two smaller Lego Ninjago sets. They used the minifigures from one of the sets to decorate his cake. We love Ian Alexander very much, and I can't believe he's turning ten in four days!

This is birthday week for our extended family as Aunt Janet will be turning 77 tomorrow, and my dad will be turning 76 on Tuesday. It was the norm to celebrate Ian and my Dad's birthdays together. Sometimes I picked a mandarin orange cake for Ian's birthday because my dad loves mandarin oranges. It was much easier to celebrate their birthdays together when Dad lived in Maryland. He moved to Virginia in the fall of 2017 after he married Margie. We did celebrate their birthdays together in December 2017 by meeting in Maryland. I baked Dad a cherry pie that year. I hope that Aunt Janet, my Dad,

and Ian all have special birthdays over the next four days! Eight days after Ian's birthday Paul's dad will be turning 78.

Paul's brother drove the company's pick-up truck to our house today. Paul and his brother loaded two things onto the pick-up truck - the mauve rocker recliner that we're passing on to Shawn and the red battery operated vehicle that Paul's parents gave Ian years ago. When Nadia outgrew her pink battery operated car I sold it for $100. I had planned to sell the red one once Oliver outgrew it, but it hasn't worked for a few years. Oliver barely got to drive it because around the time he was old enough to drive the red truck it stopped working. We're not planning to replace the vehicle OR the recliner. I am one of those people who finds great delight in decluttering that results in us having LESS stuff. I also like seeing Paul's "honey do" list shrink, and fixing the red truck had been on that list for a few years. Getting rid of it means there is one less thing on that list right now!

Glass Snowmen

Two years ago we began a family tradition of spending a day in Corning, NY in early December. It is always free for children to visit the Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell (art) Museum, but the first Saturday of December it's also free for adults and includes free live music, free drinks (lemonade, hot apple cider, hot chocolate, etc.), free cookies, and the make your own glass projects cost less than half of the usual prices. Two years ago the kids each made a fused glass ornament. Last year they made hand blown glass ornaments. Oliver had two tries last year because he took a breath while his mouth was on the tube, which caused his ornament to collapse. Today they made hand blown snowmen, and none of them needed a second try. If we had chosen a sandblasting project, they could have brought them home today. For all other projects that need time to cool down, you have the option to either come back and pick them up another day or pay to have them shipped. We live 90 minutes from Corning, which is a very reasonable drive, but still is not a distance I want to travel just to pick something up. I think the gas would probably cost more than what they charged me to ship the three ornaments. The snowman consisted of a hat and two balls. They were allowed to pick one color for the hat and another color for the snowman. The color choices today included blue, green, red, white, yellow, and winter mix (which was a mixture of white, blue, and purple). None of my kids picked white for the snowman's body. They chose blue, green, and winter mix for the body and red, blue, and winter mix for the hat. I'll take pictures of them once they're delivered to our door. Once the kids are grown and have moved out, I will let them take their ornaments with them. Hopefully these will be treasured for many years to come! Next year Nadia and Ian want to try a flameworking icicle project (no blowing involved). The minimum age is 10 for that project so Oliver will have to pick something else. We attended three demonstrations in the museum - glass blowing, breaking glass, and flameworking. In each one they give 1-2 pieces of glass away. I won one in 2017, but none of us one any in 2018 or today. Nadia was sitting right next to the girl who won in the breaking glass demo today. She really, really hopes to be picked for that one some day!! The kids also decorated sugar cookies.

Our second stop was the Rockwell Museum. We spent far less time there. We didn't do the scavenger hunt this year. Although we did go around and look at the artwork, their favorite parts were #1 looking at the gingerbread houses entered in a contest and #2 decorating and eating a gingerbread house cookie. Paul has joined us at Corning in past years, but he stayed home today so that he could go to work as he had taken two days off earlier this week for Great Wolf Lodge. When we got home he was working on the bathroom. He started this project the end of September. We went 4 weeks without a shower and then had it back for 12 days and now again have gone another 4 weeks without a shower. I got one shower last week in Richmond and one this week at Great Wolf Lodge, but I don't expect to get another one until he finishes one of the bathroom projects. Paul asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and it should be no surprise I said - one or both of the shower projects to be completed! I have been asking for the master bathroom project to be completed as the only gift I wanted from him for every gift giving occasion (birthday, Christmas, etc.) the past three years. 

It's been a week since I wrote a gratitude list so I shall do so today even though it's not Tuesday or Thursday, ha ha!

1. We made it safely to and from church last Sunday morning and safely to Great Wolf Lodge on Monday despite the snow and ice which we experienced in our area those two days. I was grateful that the van has new tires and new brakes. 

2. The kids had a great time at the indoor water park at Great Wolf Lodge on Monday and Tuesday. 

3. Thanks to gift cards for Friendly's, Burger King, and Dunkin' Donut (and packed lunches), we spent about $15 total over those two days on meals. We have two gift cards left. I am planning to use the one for Subway next Saturday when we're in Harrisburg and the one for Taco Bell/KFC for Paul's birthday on January 3rd as Paul loves chicken from KFC and we generally go to KFC once every couple of years.

4. We learned a lot during our two hour tour of an alpaca farm and fiber mill on Wednesday. 

5. Nadia enjoyed going roller skating on Thursday night. 

6. The boys were in a short 20 minute musical at our church last night. Tab, Micah, and Isaiah came to see their performance in addition to Paul, Nadia, and I. Oliver had two lines, and Ian had four lines. They will be presenting it again in a couple of weeks at a nursing home.

7. We've been using the dining room table more than usual the past couple of months. The Legos had been stored on the bookshelves the past few weeks. This was undesirable for me for several reasons. First, I couldn't stand how cluttered it looked. Second, it was impossible to dust the bookshelves. Third, it made it very hard to access the books and games that were behind the Lego creations. Another one of our kitchen chairs broke this week. We are down to four chairs. The vast majority of the time only four of us are sitting at the kitchen table, but Paul does eat with us at least one meal a week. I thought maybe we'd start using the dining room table as the table we eat at all the time and make the kitchen table the Lego table. We moved the Legos there, but then Nadia and Ian suggested moving the Legos to their bedrooms. This the first time we've had so many Lego creations upstairs. It's going to make it hard to dust their dressers and the top of Nadia's piano and table, but we have access to both tables, and the bookshelves no longer look cluttered and can be easily dusted. Yahoo! Tomorrow when Paul's brother and parents come for dinner we'll use the dining room table as it's much easier for six people to sit around that table. We own 6 dining room chairs (in hindsight we should have purchased 8 chairs in 2004), but we use the piano bench to seat two people when we're seating 8-9 people at that table.

8. Years ago my parents passed down a mauve rocker/recliner when they no longer had need of it. We've used it for more than ten years, and it's definitely looking worn out to me. We always have to move our glider when we put up the Christmas tree. This week when I put up our tree, I moved the glider from the living room to the family room in the spot where the mauve recliner had been. Paul's brother is bringing the pick-up truck tomorrow to take the mauve recliner from out kitchen to give to our nephew, Shawn. I'm thankful that the recliner can be a blessing to Shawn, and I think the glider looks much nicer in the family room than the recliner did. We rarely sit in the living room so I am not looking to buy another piece of furniture for the living room. We have a couch in there, and I think that is sufficient. It's been more than 10 years since we bought any new furniture. I think our next purchase will be a kitchen table, but since we still have four chairs that can be used, we can hold off on that purchase for awhile. 

9. I love Christmas music! Choir rehearsal on Wednesday night was so enjoyable. I wish our church put on Christmas cantatas, but I'm thankful we do sing some Christmas anthems on Sunday mornings in December.

Back to normal

We haven't had many "typical" days lately between cousins coming to visit us, a three day trip to Virginia, Thanksgiving, a two day trip to Great Wolf Lodge, and a field trip yesterday. From November 22 to yesterday we only had one regular school day, and that occurred on Black Friday. For some reason Nadia felt she needed to start doing her schoolwork at 6:15 this morning. She said it was because she had art and chorus today, but she really didn't need to start that early as she had finished her schoolwork, practiced the piano, and finished eating lunch by 11:30am. We don't leave for Meadowbrook until 1:00pm as she has chorus and art from 1:20-2:50. Nadia completed her AWANA book last night. That had been her goal since the beginning of September, and she achieved her goal! Ian is a little more than half-way through his AWANA book. They will be caroling at a retirement home next Wednesday and have their Christmas activities in two weeks. Then Nadia will start attending the Bible bowl meetings and middle school youth group on Wednesday

nights. I'll drop her off at 4:30 and pick her up around 8:15 after my choir rehearsal is done. Since the Bible bowl meetings started in September, Nadia is trying to get caught up on memorizing. Thus far this week she has memorized Hebrews 1:1-7. In terms of reading Nadia finished the last Harry Potter book this week, but Nadia and Ian haven't watched the last two movies yet. Right now she's reading the copy of Little Women that my fifth grade teacher gave me. She also read A Little Princess recently, which was another of my favorites when I was her age. 

This evening Paul is taking Nadia to the Christian radio station's monthly skate night, tomorrow night the boys are putting on a short Christmas musical at our church, and Saturday I'm taking the kids to Corning, New York. Some months we have many "stay at home all day" types of days. Those are not very common in December! One negative of our outings is that Paul hasn't had time to work on the bathroom. We shall see when we have a shower working in our house again.



I take far, far more pictures than videos, but I did use Paul's phone to take videos of the kids going across the lily pads at Great Wolf Lodge. All three of them went across the lily pads many, many times. It was very easy to get a video of Ian. Oliver was regularly successful but much slower. I recorded many videos of Nadia falling in the water before I got one of her getting across without falling. I should take some videos of Nadia saying her AWANA verses and of Nadia and Ian playing the piano. They played for Paul's family on Thanksgiving. I have decided to wait until Oliver is eight years old to start teaching him to play the piano.

Third fire alarm

Three times over the past seven months we have been staying in a hotel when a fire alarm has gone off. The first time was in New Jersey in May. Ian and Oliver slept through that alarm. Nadia and I were awake, but we were staying in a motel and so I just kept looking out the window so I could determine if we actually needed to leave the room. The second time was in June in Myrtle Beach. Nadia was at a different resort with Paul's parents. This time it went off earlier, which made it far less annoying than the first time. It took me forever to fall back asleep in May. Paul, the boys, and I stayed outside until the fire fighters said everyone could return to their units. On Monday night around 1:50AM we were sleeping in our room at Great Wolf Lodge when the alarm when off which included a loud sound plus strobe light in our room. Again the boys slept through the alarm. At first the announcement over the loudspeaker was that they were investigating the cause of the alarm. Then the next message over the loudspeaker was that it was a "Code Red" and everyone was to exit the building as quickly as possible because

there was an actual emergency. We woke the boys up, put on our coats and snow boots, and exited the building carrying out things like the iPad, my camera, and the Nintendo switch. Because it was very cold outside (the high during the day had been in the 20's), we waited in our minivan for about 30 minutes until an employee knocked on our vehicle and told us we could return. We got back into bed at about 2:35am, but it took Paul and I a long time to fall back asleep. Paul and the kids did sleep in the next morning to help make up for the sleep lost during the night. The alarm went off because a pipe burst in the boiler room for the indoor water park. The steam had set the alarm off and could have caused a fire, but thankfully it didn't. The kids and I aren't planning to stay at a hotel again until April 2020, so this third time should be the last for 2019. The kids don't experience fire drills at a school, but they've experienced them at hotels.

This particular Great Wolf Lodge is located in the Poconos (mountains). They received a lot of ice on Sunday. The forecast

for Monday looked awful. We were thinking of calling the resort to see if we could reschedule, but after checking various sites that gave the road conditions, we decided to head out as planned on Monday morning and turn around if the roads seemed unsafe. If Paul hadn't been with us, I don't believe I would have attempted that drive by myself. Thankfully the roads were fine. They didn't get anywhere near as much snow in the Poconos on Monday as the weather forecast predicted. Usually if you arrive early at Great Wolf Lodge you can begin using the water park, but you can't check into your room until around 4pm. Because they had so many cancellations on Sunday due to the weather, we were allowed to get in our room at 10am, which was very helpful. We headed straight to the water park after we changed into our swim suits and stayed there until we headed out for dinner. The plan had been to have dinner at Friendly's, but some restaurants were closed. The roads were fine, but we are assuming that is the reason a large percentage of restaurants we drove by were closed. We had planned to buy dinner at either Subway or Burger King on Tuesday night, but we ended up getting dinner at Burger King that was inside a gas station on Monday night. We took the food back to our hotel room because there weren't any tables inside the gas station. I had never eaten a taco at Burger King before. Hopefully I will remember in the future that they were AWFUL. Truly the worst taco I ever ate in my life. Our gift card covered all but 40 cents of our bill. We had planned to pick up sandwiches at Dunkin that night, put them in our refrigerator, and heat them in the microwave the next morning for breakfast. There is a Dunkin Donuts inside the resort, but they don't take gift cards. The DD was also closed on Monday night. I went out on Tuesday morning while Paul and the kids were sleeping and got our breakfast as Dunkin Donuts was open at that point. The gift card covered our five breakfast sandwiches.

After eating dinner the kids and Paul returned to the water park until it closed at 8pm. The kids watched part of a Disney movie and we all went to bed a little after 9pm. Nadia was on the top bunk, Ian was on the bottom bunk, Oliver was on the sofa bed, and Paul and I shared the queen sized bed. Usually Nadia ends up sleeping on the floor when the five of us share a hotel room. It's nice to be able to stay in a room that accommodates up to six people. Unfortunately the mattresses at that resort do NOT get along with my back. I was in so much pain I was literally nauseous. For a portion of the night I took the cushions from the sofa and slept on top of those on the floor. After eating breakfast, the kids and I attended a little showat 9am in the lobby that included singing animals and "snow" falling on everyone. The water park opened at 9:30, but it was closer to 10:00 before we were back down there because it took some time to take things out to the van so we could check-out.

I was the "gopher" and made multiple trips to the van to bring back lunch, clothes and boots to change into when it was time to leave, etc. Outdoor food can be brought into the resort but not into the water park. We had packed food for lunch both days. I also took pictures and videos. I used to enjoy water slides when I was a child, but frankly it wouldn't bother me any if I never went on one again. There are seven water slides that adults can ride. There are several others for younger children that Oliver went on by himself. Four of the water slides are for either 1 or 2 people at a time. One water slide can accommodate 1-3 people, one can accommodate 1-4 people, and the last one can take up to 5 people at one time. All five of us went on that one together twice. The kids also enjoyed the wave pool, lazy river, leap frog, pool with basketball hoops, and Ian's favorite - the jacuzzi. The first day Ian didn't ride too many water slides, but the second day all three kids went on many water slides. Paul did 20 water slides on Monday and 17 on Tuesday!

On Tuesday we left the park around 4:30pm and drove to Friendly's again. It was open this time. I had a coupon for 25% off the bill, and a gift card for $25. In the end we paid about $15 toward dinner, and that was the only thing we paid for during the trip aside from what we paid to stay one night at the hotel. There are many things that cost extra. The kids would have loved to have done the magic wand thing, but we told them we were there for the water park. We went with a homeschool group, which meant we paid less than half of the regular rate for our room.

The kids slept in again this morning although not quite as late as they slept in yesterday morning. When we got home last night, it was only 53 degrees inside our house! BRRR! Our poor guinea pigs were cold! We don't know why that happened. It took awhile to get the house up to 70, which is where we usually have the thermostat set in the winter. This morning we did schoolwork for about 2 hours and then drove to an alpaca farm about 20 minutes from our house as a friend had set up a 2.5 hour tour. We spent part of the time in the barn feeding the alpacas and the rest of the time in their fiber mill. We saw the machines that are used to turn fiber (from rabbits, dogs, alpacas, etc.) into skeins of yard or thread. When we got home our house was again cooler than we'd like although not as bad as last night. We might be making a habit of wearing our winter coats inside our house.

Last December was our first trip to Great Wolf Lodge. There were a few differences this year. #1 They didn't give out wolf ears this year. This year you had to buy them if you wanted some. We didn't buy any. #2 Last year Ian received a special birthday wolf ear and also a special wrist band that entitled him to a free ice cream. This year he got a birthday pin (no ice cream). #3 Last year you could just take towels whenever you wanted in the water park. This year you had to scan your wrist band to borrow towels, and then scan again when you returned them. If you were short any towels, they would charge you $15 per towel. We brought our own towels this year for fear that someone might take a towel and we'd be out $15-75. The kids had a great time, and I'm certain they are hoping we'll return again next December!

Entropy

We've been studying physics in science lately, and with that came a brief introduction into the laws of thermodynamics. As I have been doing various tasks over the past few weeks, it has struck me how much time and energy is invested in fighting against entropy. For example, after I laundered the bedding that my sister's family used when they were here, I decided to take that opportunity to remove everything from the linen closet because it had been awhile since I straightened it up. It looks very neat and tidy right now, but I know it won't stay looking that orderly forever. I also recently did the same with the shelves that hold my sweaters and pants in our master bedroom walk-in closet. In some cases things must be repaired or replaced, it's not always just a matter of reorganization or dusting. A couple of days ago Oliver showed me a big hole in the front of his sneaker. This is one disadvantage of buying used shoes at yard sales and thrift stores, but the upside was the hand-me-down pair I gave him (used to be Ian's) which is a touch too big doesn't have any shoelaces. Although he

has learned how to tie his shoelaces, he hasn't learned how to double knot or undo knots yet.

A couple of weeks ago Paul noticed that our microwave turntable wasn't turning. He thought it was due to a plastic piece under the turntable that was very worn down. I purchased a replacement for that plastic piece because it only cost $10, but it turned out that didn't solve the problem. The next step would be to replace the motor for the turntable, which only costs about $14, but considering the microwave is more than ten years old and that is considered the average life expectancy for a microwave, I decided today to just go ahead and buy a new microwave rather than keep investing more money in what is considered to be an old microwave. In addition to knowing the part would be cheaper than replacing the entire microwave, the other reason I bought the part was I was thinking about landfills and hating to send the microwave there if it could be repaired. I wish appliances were built to last longer. My brother had a small red microwave in his apartment. That's what we've been using in the meantime. It's a small one - perfect for one person but not really ideal for a family. Also, it's red and our countertops are green. Although that's a great color combination for Christmas, it's not my preference for year round. Our previous microwave was white, which would still be my preference as that's the color of our refrigerator and dishwasher, but I ended up picking a steel colored microwave. I'm thankful we can use my brother's until the new one arrives. It had been stored in our basement since March. I didn't realize until I brought it up a couple of weeks ago that we hadn't cleaned the inside of it out. My brother didn't have a microwave cover to put on his plate, and the microwave was rather dirty. I cried as I cleaned it out. I miss my brother so much.

The weather forecast for this morning was not good as it included freezing rain and ice, but the roads looked fine so we headed to church. Attendance was definitely down. During the second service I was scheduled to teach the 1st/2nd grade girls' class. Many teachers didn't show up today, but there were far fewer children also so it wasn't a problem. I had the girls from K-5th grade, and I only had 9 girls. Usually there are more than 9 girls in just one of the classes. There were even fewer boys. They cancelled the youth (grades 6-12) class during the second service due to the weather. It's supposed to turn to snow this evening. We're praying it won't interfere with our travels to Great Wolf Lodge tomorrow morning. Today we talked to the man who leads the Bible bowl team at our church. I thought Nadia wouldn't join until next September since she has been in AWANA this fall, but it turns out students can join during the school year. Nadia and I started memorizing the first few verses of Hebrews today. She plans to start attending on Wednesdays from 4:30-6:00 starting in January. This year they are memorizing Hebrews, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter. If she participates in Bible Bowl through her senior year, she will memorize most of the New Testament. It's an eight year cycle, and they memorized John last year so she won't memorize that one. The books they do NOT memorize in the eight year cycle include Mark, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, Jude, and Revelation. I am excited about the thought she might memorize 18 books of the New Testament over the next seven years. I am going to try to memorize along with her. The books I memorized previously include 1 and 2 Thessalonians, James, and Philippians. We've been memorizing verses for Core 52 each week as a family (along with our whole church) but aside from that I haven't memorized many verses over the past 25 years. I am looking forward to doing this with Nadia!

Many Blessings

Since this is the last day of November, I thought I'd give thanks for a few more of our blessings.

1. Considering Paul's mom was in the ICU for a couple of weeks and on a ventilator for more than a week last month, we are very thankful that she had the strength to come up to our house twice this month. The kids are looking forward to spending Christmas day at Grandma and Pop Pop's house!

2. My computer had issues for quite awhile (more than a year) related to a Windows update. I kept undoing the updates until finally I was forced to go back to Windows 10. Thankfully the most recent update actually fixed the problems! Technology is a huge blessing in our lives, but it also can lead to a lot of frustration when it doesn't work properly!

3. I bought a used iPhone in June 2015; it was the

first time either Paul or I owned a smartphone. I don't know exactly how old the phone is. It could be up to six years old. Phones aren't cheap. I am grateful mine is still working. We shall see how many years I can get out of it!

4. I'm very thankful that the five of us are healthy. I had many, many surgeries, doctor appointments, and hospitalizations during the first 22 years of my life. Aside from well child visits, Nadia has been to a doctor fewer than five times in her life. Ian saw many doctors the first three years of his life, but over the past seven years the only times he's seen a doctor has been for his annual well check-up. Oliver had the roughest start of my three kiddos for the first four years of his life, but aside from his fractured skull in February 2018, he has been very healthy the past three years. I'm very thankful that it seems my kids are much healthier than I was when I was a child!

5. We love our ASTC membership. The kids get a LOT of enjoyment from the various science museums we get

into for free thanks to that $40 annual expenditure. The Virginia Science Museum in Richmond was their favorite part of our recent three day getaway

6. We have several traditions when it comes to Christmas including a trip to Corning Museum of Glass (next Saturday) and making a candy cane at Purity Candy. Nadia wasn't thrilled about going, but Oliver was VERY excited. They watch the candy maker start with 25 pounds of candy that is 320 degrees and watch him turn that into candy canes. The kids are each given a piece that they can shape and eat. Nadia turned hers into the traditional candy cane shape, and she also used some of her own money to buy some Harry Potter candy. Almost all the candy in the store is made on those premises, but she picked one of the few things they sell that they don't make. The candy canes they let the kids shape are free. Today at 12:00 they were making cherry flavored candy canes. Nadia and Ian shared part of their candy canes with me. Yum!

7. Sometimes a LONG wait can

be involved at the Walmart Auto Center, even when you have an appointment. Today thankfully it only took a little more than an hour (fast by Walmart standards) for them to put three new tires on our minivan. I'm thankful we got new tires prior to what is supposed to be our first big snow/ice storm (tomorrow and Monday). We're praying this doesn't interfere with our ability to travel to Great Wolf Lodge. Discover is giving 10% rebate at Walmart.com but only 1% if you shop in person at the store. I solved this problem by purchasing a $350 gift card online and using it to pay for my tires.

8. We love Christmas music! I confess we started listening to it some of the time a little before Thanksgiving.

9. I knew that our new furnace and air conditioner are more energy efficient, but I wasn't 100% sure that would translate to saving us money. I knew that we'd pay less for natural gas, but I figured we'd pay more for electricity during the colder months because our new system uses the AC whenever the temps are above 35 degrees. Sure enough our electric bill was a little higher than usual (for this time of year) but our natural gas bill was much less than usual so altogether we saved about $30 the first month. Hoping that trend will continue in the coming months!

Our Friday

Since my sister's family came up to our house last week on Thursday evening, we didn't do any schoolwork last Friday; we won't be doing schoolwork on December 2-3 as we will be at Great Wolf Lodge. Also, my friend scheduled a tour of an alpaca farm for December 4, which means we won't do as much school work that day as we typically do on a Wednesday. If we hadn't done school work today, we would have had twelve consecutive days off, which seemed like an awful lot for Thanksgiving even though three of those days count as field trip days since we were touring Civil War battlefields and such. There are days when the schools are in session, and my kids have the day off. The schools were closed today, but we had a typical school day. I didn't feel guilty because I knew that my kids had just had seven days off and that they'll have four more days off starting tomorrow. We finished Across Five Aprils today, which was a good book, but personally in terms of Civil War books, I liked Rifles for Watie better.

After we finished, I took Oliver

to the grocery store and the hardware store. I allow Nadia and Ian to stay at home alone for very brief periods of time (less than an hour) when Oliver and I are not any farther than a 10 minute drive from our house. If needed, they could call me on my cell phone via the Echo dot. The only thing we got at the hardware store was gift certificates. Every Black Friday you can buy up to $105 worth of gift certificates for $65. They had a Santa in a sleigh inside the store. Oliver sat in the sleigh and chatted with Santa for a few minutes and was given a candy cane. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas his first response was sweet potatoes, and when asked if he wanted anything else, he said donuts. This child ALWAYS mentions food when asked this question by someone dressed up as Santa. In pervious years his responses have included potatoes and peanut butter cups. I am guessing that not too many kids tell Santa they want potatoes or sweet potatoes for Christmas. Can you tell this boy loves potatoes? Santa asked him if there were any foods he didn't like, and he said peppermint. He

had some sweet potatoes for dinner tonight as we had leftovers for dinner.

I've never been one for doing Black Friday shopping in a store. Last week I purposefully scheduled the appointment to get new tires for tomorrow instead of today as I did NOT want to enter a Walmart on Black Friday. Sometimes I have done more online Black Friday shopping, but that also wasn't the case today. I did buy one DVD online from Target for Ian for $4 (Lego Movie 2), and that was the end of my Black Friday online shopping. Not spending money is even cheaper than spending money on bargains, right? Usually Amazon has a $10 off book coupon around this time of year. I have purposefully held out on some book purchases in anticipation of that code. Maybe it will be a Cyber Monday deal.

The first picture is from Natural Bridge State Park. See how small my kids look in comparison to the bridge? It's 215 feet tall, 40-50 feet thick, has a 100 foot span, and is 90 feet wide. George Washington was part of the survey crew that measured it in 1750. Thomas Jefferson purchased it from King George III in 1774. He paid 20 shillings for 157 acres that included the bridge and a waterfall. The second picture is from the parlor where Lee surrendered to Grant in Appomattox, and the third picture is from the visitor center at Petersburg. The pictures below are of the kids taking their junior ranger pledge at Appomattox and of Oliver in Santa's sleigh at the hardware store today.