Social Distancing

The last time I recall a pandemic being declared was in 2019 with H1N1 (swine flu). That time the only way the pandemic affected my life was because the hospitals were being stricter about screening guests, and because of H1N1 Nadia wasn't allowed to enter the hospital following Ian's birth and NICU stay. Once we got home after staying in the hospital for about 10 days, H1N1 didn't really impact our lives in any noticeable way. Over the years I've been aware of other viruses that have made the news (SARS, Ebola, and Avian flu all come to mind), but they never seemed to be an issue here in central Pennsylvania. So when Paul first told me about the coronavirus, my first instinct was to assume it would be like the others. Also, I looked up how many people typically die each year from the flu, and seeing that number made me wonder if this was going to be any worse than the flu we deal with every year (for example, according to the CDC over 80,000 died from the flu in the 2017-18 season). Well I don't know if more will die this year in the US from the coronavirus than from the flu, but life certainly has quickly become very different around here over the past few days.

First, our governor said on Thursday that we should try to avoid being in groups of 250+ people for two weeks. This caused our church to decide to only offer a service by live streaming on March 15 because our church has an average attendance that far exceeds 250. Then on Friday our governor said all the schools in PA should be closed for two weeks. The soonest they can return is March 30. The local universities had extended their spring breaks by one week, and now some are contemplating moving to an on-line format for the remainder of the spring semester. I have received a barrage of emails from museums, restaurants, AMC, and many more organizations stating how what they are doing in light of the coronavirus. In some cases that plan of action has changed multiple times in a short time span. Yesterday morning I received texts from the kids' basketball coaches that they would still be having their final practice last night, final game today, and awards assembly this evening. Then the next texts said that everything was cancelled. The third round of texts said that there wouldn't be any more practices or games but they would hold the awards assembly in a different location (the church rather than the public school auditorium) and only for grades 4-6 instead of grades K-6. Similarly, we received an email this morning from the AWANA commander saying they would have AWANA next Wednesday as usual, but then within an hour I received a recorded phone message stating that the Alliance Church (where the kids attend AWANA) would not be having any programs or services through March 28.

Up until Thursday our schedule went on as usual. We attended an ice skating party Thursday night, and the kids attended art and chorus at Meadowbrook on Thursday afternoon. Yesterday was the first day in which our schedule was changed because of COVID-19. Oliver's pizza party with his basketball team was cancelled last night, and his last game was cancelled today. Far fewer people attended the Upward award assembly this evening. Nadia was the only member of her team who showed up. We had planned to attend a maple sugaring program at Montour Preserve this afternoon, but they cancelled because of the virus. We've had a few other field trips cancelled thus far that we planned to attend this month - Saturday Science at Susquehanna University, an art program at the Children's Museum, and a homeschool day at the Hershey Museum. That field trip was postponed until June 4. The others were just cancelled. The kids and I had planned to take a ten day trip to Ohio, Chicago, and Detroit in April. It seems very likely that we'll have to cancel that trip. If that happens, I'm hoping Priceline will refund what I paid for two nights at a hotel in Michigan. We were really looking forward to spending time with Wendy's family as well as with one of my cousins in Ohio. We haven't made a firm decision, but I'm not feeling very optimistic at the moment that it will take place. The other closure that rocked our world was finding out the public library will be closed for at least two weeks. I will adjust the lesson plans accordingly. I'm hoping that these closures will really only last for two weeks. Time will tell!  I'm thankful I was just at the library on Thursday, we have many books at home, and we can access many books through digital means. From what I've read, the virus doesn't do well in temperatures above 70 degrees so I'm praying the temps will rise to that point sooner rather than later! We're especially praying for senior citizens as it seems those over the age of 80 and those with some pre-existing condition are the most at risk. If this happened when Oliver was younger, I would have been very nervous about what might happen if he contracted COVID-19, but thankfully he seems to have outgrown the lingering respiratory effects of being born prematurely. We've never been swabbed for the flu. I don't know if any of us have ever had the flu. I know Oliver has had RSV twice as well as HPMV once.

Nadia is thankful that First Baptist (where the kids play basketball) hasn't cancelled their services. She can still attend youth group there tomorrow night. She had planned to attend Winter Jam (concert) with our church's youth group (both youth groups had planned to attend), but they've cancelled the rest of that tour because of COVID-19. Nadia, Cheri, and I have tickets to attend a Sidewalk Prophets concert in April. That band has cancelled their concerts for a month, but not the one we have tickets for (yet anyhow). Sight and Sound has cancelled their shows in March, but thus far they haven't cancelled Esther in April, which is when we plan to attend. Our church hasn't made any decisions beyond tomorrow thus far. We shall see if Nadia and I go there on Wednesday for Bible bowl, choir (me), and middle school youth. Here's to hoping life returns to normal as quickly as possible. For one thing I assume it's not good for the economy to have a lengthy time when most people are staying home as much as possible. We might homeschool our kids, but we certainly don't typically stay at home all day most of the time.

I typically don't read news articles on the web, but I have certainly done that more recently both in terms of the virus and also the stock market. I have no desire to check and see what has happened to my retirement accounts recently. I can't actually use those funds for I believe at least 14 years, and after seeing what happened to my brother, I'm reminded there's no guarantee I will actually live long enough to use any of it. So ignorance is bliss in my opinion. I don't want to know how much money we "lost." We escaped the worst of the crash in 2008 because I borrowed money from my retirement account to buy our current home, but I assume we didn't dodge the bullet this time.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Nadia enjoyed attending a six hour youth conference at our church on Leap Day.

2. We survived the rabbits' first trip to the vet on March 2. The vet said they are healthy. The plan is to neuter them on May 5. I do not plan to take them for an exam every year as it cost $120 for two rabbits and didn't seem helpful in any way. They continue to do well with peeing in their litter boxes almost all the time, but they only poop in their litter boxes about half of the time. It seems like they are learning not to chew our windowsills, furniture, etc., but we still don't let them romp around the house without supervision. Sometime this summer we plan to move them to an outdoor hutch.

3. Nadia, Ian, and I attended Compassion's Roadshow concert on March 6 in Wilkes Barre. My favorite that night was Matt Maher. We stayed for 2.5 hours of the concert which meant we heard five of the seven groups. We left at the beginning of the sixth band because #1 none of us care for his music and #2 it was already going to be 11pm

by the time we got home. I would have enjoyed hearing Bethel Music (the seventh band), but I was very thankful that Peabod (the one we didn't want to hear) hadn't been scheduled earlier in the concert than they were. We passed out brochures for Compassion and were thrilled that we were able to help seven people sign up to sponsor a child!!!

4. Nadia enjoyed seeing Meadowbrook's production of Annie on Saturday afternoon with me. She wanted to attend because several of her friends were in it. I usually love taking her to see musicals, but my heart wasn't in it this time because last year I had tickets to take her to see Little Women at Meadowbrook, but instead of taking her I was in Philadelphia cleaning out my brother's apartment with Wendy. Annie is a musical I'm very familiar with because I directed a performance of it at the Christian school where I was the principal because the music teacher left part way through the year and also because Nadia was in a performance of Annie, Jr. in 2015.

5. Every year on a Sunday in March it is free to attend a variety of museums and historic sites in Pennsylvania in honor of Charter Day. I prefer to stay at home on Sunday afternoon, but since Paul usually works six days a week, Sunday is the optimal day for him. On Charter Day in 2018 we visited a couple of sites near Philadelphia. This year we went to the PA Military Museum near PSU. The last time I was there was when I was dating Paul while he was an undergrad at PSU (i.e. more than 20 years ago). Paul really, really likes this military museum. Some of their special events are geared toward children and include hands-on activities. They did offer free guided tours yesterday because of Charter Day, but they didn't have hands-on activities. The upside was that the Kids' Days aren't free, and we all got in for free yesterday. The museum contains many items from WWI that are very rare such as a German fire thrower. To be honest, guns, tanks, and such are not interesting to me, but my husband feels quite the opposite. For many years he wanted to own a real tank (I'm not

joking!). I don't think the kids thought much of the inside of the museum. The tour guide had the advantage that he is a veteran, but Paul could have given us just as thorough of a tour. The kids favorite part of the day was climbing on the tanks outside the museum. The weather was absolutely gorgeous that day. The museum is about 70 minutes from our house. I knew we needed to go there at least once since Paul loves it so much, but I doubt we'll return. I had planned to take the kids on a Saturday last fall but didn't go when I found out Paul wasn't going to join us. It's harder to find WWI and WWII field trips compared to Revolutionary and Civil War field trips since those wars weren't (thankfully) fought here on our soil. The USS Pennsylvania battleship which was used in WWII was scuttled in 1948. The museum has two of the ships guns are on display outside the museum (kids can't climb on those as they are too high up!).

6. Yesterday the temperatures got up into the low 70's, and it was a sunny day! I walked to the

playground while the boys rode their scooters there. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air and sunshine!

7. Although it was unpleasant to lose an hour of sleep last Saturday night, the kids are getting up a little later now that it's not getting light as early in the morning. To add insult to injury, the bunnies decided to THUMP loudly during the middle of the night on that night, which meant I lost even more sleep. Thankfully this hasn't happened very often over the past month that we've had the rabbits.

8. We spent about 2.5 hours at Micah and Isaiah's house today for a playdate. Even though it was a rainy day, the kids were able to run around and play outside some while they were there.

9. Over the years we've gradually added subjects to our school day. For example, in January 2019 we started putting time into grammar (parts of speech and punctuation). Over the years I have attempted to include Spanish into our day through Rosetta Stone and Duolingo. I decided it was better if we did it together, and so the plan had been to learn sign language together starting this past fall. We did it sporadically, but I decided to go back to Spanish in 2020. I'm not completely thrilled with the curriculum I recently purchased, but Nadia, Ian, and I are learning some Spanish each week. I had studied Spanish for two years, German for two years, and ASL for one year when I was in high school. Naturally I have forgotten a lot of the Spanish I had learned since that was more than 30 years ago, so I am learning (or re-learning) along with the kids. I'm determined to put even more time and effort into Spanish during the 2020-21 school year. I'm trying to use more Spanish throughout the day. I was pleased last Thursday when we were in the playland at church, and I overheard Ian say to another child "no come hamburguesa".

10. We've continued to receive Junior Ranger badges in the mail. Today we received three via FedEx from a national park in Alaska! Nadia has earned 36 badges thus far.

11. I feel like I've come up with a good plan to ensure we eat a wide variety of meals at dinner. I made a list of recipes in several different categories and then every few months we cycle through those lists. Most weeks we have soup (includes stew and chili) once, salad as a main dish once, pasta once, a "sandwich" once (could be Stromboli, quesadilla, meatball sub, sloppy joe, pulled pork, calzone, etc.), breakfast for dinner once, use a gift card at a restaurant or buy takeout pizza one night, and the other night is my miscellaneous category, which is where I put the main dishes that are not pizza, pasta, salad, soup, or sandwich such as meatloaf, pork chops, shepherd's pie, chicken cordon bleu, etc.

12. Nadia has been enjoying putting her hair in curlers when she takes a shower in the evening. I think her hair looks nice with some curls in it.

Winding Down

Winter is almost over. Yahoo! I am not a fan of cold weather. Thankfully this has been for the most part a fairly mild winter. We have had several days over the past two weeks where the temperatures were in the 50's. Tomorrow Nadia and Ian will have their last basketball games for the year. In Nadia's case, it will be her very last game. She has been on Upward basketball teams for seven years, and she has aged out of the program. Oliver's last game will be on the 14th. For three years we've had three basketball games each Saturday. Next year I think we will just have one game a week as Ian said he does want to play again. Yesterday was the last ice skating class. The ice skating classes are having a party next Thursday. After that party, we won't be ice skating again until December. As you can see below, I took a few videos last night. I intended to use our video camera, but the battery was dead. The quality isn't as good with my phone, but it's better than nothing! Because Nadia wants to be in Meadowbrook's spring musical next year, I don't think the kids will be taking ice skating lessons next year. I'm thankful all three of them know how to skate. Nadia definitely has more of a knack for skating than her brothers do, but all three of them can ice skate. I'm hoping this summer to take them roller skating a few times in the hopes that the Oliver will also learn how to roller skate.

Although we've periodically had some very pleasant days lately, it was rather chilly last Friday. I took the kids to Gettysburg for a homeschool day. We were inside rotating through nine learning stations in the morning, and in the afternoon we drove around the battlefield to complete a digital scavenger hunt. We were given a list of ways to earn points by taking pictures of specific items or making videos that contained specific things. We earned enough points that each child received a blue ribbon. The program was very well done. The children were divided into eight groups, and the other kids in our group were from Annapolis, Maryland.

Looking at our textbooks, we can also see that our school year will be winding down before we know it. Not counting field trip days, I think we only have 31 days left of school. I've already been putting time into planning for the next school year. The past two school years we have had a plethora of options for field trips that related to what we were studying in history (Colonial period to the present over two years). Next year we are studying different countries and cultures. Nadia isn't much of a fan of battlefields, although she did enjoy the homeschool day last week. She's probably glad we won't be going to any during the next school year. Some cultural field trips that I've planned next year include a Native American Powwow, Polish festival, a couple of other trips related to Native Americans, Celt Fest, La Festa Italiana, Christkindl Market, Christmas around the world, Sakura Matsuri (in DC), Greek Fest, Chinese Lantern Festival (Philadelphia), Poland through the ages, and Around the World Embassy tour (DC). 

Recently I finalized with my Aunt when we would be going to Long Island, which meant I was then able to make reservations for our lodging during our family vacation. Over the past 20 years most of our vacations have involved staying at a resort for a week through my time share, but that won't be the case in 2020 or 2021. Although my 20 year time share ended a few months ago, we still have a membership with Interval. I spent a lot of time researching lodging options via Interval, Hotels.com, Priceline, and Airbnb. I didn't use Airbnb yet this year, but I used the other three websites to make reservations for a 9 day/8 night trip the end of August to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City, that includes stops in NH, VT, MA, and NY and for an 8 day/ 7 night trip in early October to Ohio and Kentucky which includes stops in PA and WV. Together the two trips include two Six Flags amusement parks, 19 national parks, 7 industrial tours, 9 science museums, 2 cathedrals, and other sites that are harder to neatly categorize such as Parliament Hill, National Museum of the US Air Force, Creation Museum, Ark, Underground Freedom Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, Shaker Village, Kentucky Derby Museum, Kentucky Horse Park, Rideau Canal, Byward Market, La Citadelle, Chinatown, Montmorency Falls, Terrasse Dufferin, and the Plains of Abraham.

When I saw Oliver was doing spelling on his hippo, I had to take a picture.

Sking at Ski Sawmill

My father and I took Nadia and Ian skiing for the very first time at Ski Sawmill in February 2017. Paul took them skiing at the same location in February 2018; Oliver and I stayed at home that time because he had recently fractured his skull. All five of us skied at Ski Sawmill in February 2019. Last month I took the kids skiing at Elk Mountain for the first time. We can receive four lift tickets and four ski rentals for free from WVIA (PBS station) twice a year. We had *planned* to visit Elk Mountain the past three years, but this year was the first time the kids went skiing more than once in a year. All five of us skied at Ski Sawmill yesterday. Thankfully this ski resort is only one hour from our house. They have a t-bar lift for the bunny slope, which was a big problem last year for Oliver. The first attempts to use the lift this year also didn't go well, but thankfully yesterday he learned several important skills including how to ride a T-bar lift, how to get off the T-bar lift without falling off, and how to stop. They didn't have any T-bar lifts at Elk Mountain, and his method of stopping last month

was to sit on his bottom. Once he mastered the T-bar lift, he then began going up farther on the bunny slope. Once he could do that without falling, I agreed to let him go to the top of the mountain on the chair lift. Nadia did that slope more than ten times yesterday. All five of us did it together twice. I stayed in the rear so I could help Oliver get up if needed. I videotaped parts of his second trip down with my cell phone. I had forgotten to bring the camcorder. We skied for five hours. None of us were injured although some of us have some sore muscles today. Last year Paul had a bad fall; he was particularly relieved that this trip went better than the last one. The weather was incredibly nice. It was unseasonably warm; it got up to almost 60 degrees! Today is a rainy day, but Saturday through Monday were warm and sunny days.

Today I am giving thanks....

1. That the kids and I had an enjoyable Valentine's Day together. We had brownie batter donuts for  breakfast that morning that we had purchased

at Dunkin Donuts after ice skating lessons the previous night. They received gifts and cards from me and also from Grandma. We had a little bit shorter school day than usual so the kids would have time to assemble their new Lego sets. We had pizza for dinner and that was the only time we left the house that day, as Oliver's basketball practice was cancelled because it was Valentine's Day.

2. That we're healthy again. The kids had a respiratory bug. They got over it much faster than Paul and I did, but we're all healthy again. It had been seven months since the last time I was sick. Here's to hoping I can have a nice long stretch like that before I succumb to another bug!

3. Paul and I were both sick on February 16. We only attended church that day because the boys were singing in the kids' choir, and the choir is now only singing on Sunday mornings twice a year. The choir is small so their absence would definitely  have been noticed. Paul attended the first service, and I attended the second

service. Oliver REALLY sang out!!!

4. Nadia enjoyed the nerf war at the Mennonite church in the afternoon on February 16. It was an event planned for two youth groups. She is really enjoying being a part of the youth group at the Baptist church on Sunday nights.

5. On February 20 Ian scored a basket! It was his first time scoring this season. This is his first year playing full court basketball with the hoop at the full height. The WHOLE gym burst into applause when he scored!!!

6. We didn't go on any field trips in January, but we went to Wilkes Barre and Scranton last Friday. First we saw an outstanding show called "Turning 15 on the road to freedom" which was about the civil rights movement so that blacks would be allowed to vote in the 1960's. The actors had AMAZING voices. Then we visited the Electric City Aquarium in Scranton for the first time as well as spent some time at Bee's Backyard. All of

the shows we attend at the FM Kirby Center are free (aside from feeding the parking meter for an hour). The kids got in free at the Aquarium (thanks to WVIA), and we all got in free to Bee's Backyard (again thanks to WVIA). The aquarium was nothing compared to the ones in Baltimore or Camden (our two favorites), but we attended an interesting program about animals who live in the rainforest (tortoise, python, cockroach, and gecko), and the kids always enjoy touching sting rays. Ian was disappointed that their octopus had passed away. Nadia was thrilled that we used one of the gift cards from Aunt Millie and Uncle Al (Christmas gift) and had an early dinner at Red Robin before taking Oliver to his basketball practice. One unfortunate part of the day was a boy accidentally broke Ian's glasses while we were at Bee's Backyard, but considering he's worn glasses for more than four years, I guess I can't complain as this is the first time he's had a broken pair of eyeglasses.

7. That the five of us had a great day of skiing yesterday. Paul worked ALL day on Sunday so

he could join us at Ski Sawmill yesterday (he didn't get home from the plant until after 8:30pm on Sunday). I haven't been taking many pictures lately, but I took a LOT of pictures and videos yesterday. I'm including some of the photos and some of the videos in this post. WVIA used a picture of our family at Ski Sawmill last year on an email they sent out and also on the page on their website about this year's event. I was very surprised to see my face in an email from WVIA! In the afternoon as Oliver and I were in line for the T-bar, a man looked at me and said - you were on the WVIA website! I said he was right. He said he kept trying to figure out where he knew me from and then remembered it was the photo on the WVIA website. We're famous, ha ha! I pasted the picture from the email here (at left).

8. Coal and Cocoa turned three months old on February 11. Jenna (our guinea pig) seems to be doing fine so we aren't planning to adopt a second guinea pig. The bunnies are definitely getting used to us. We have all been licked by Cocoa. It feels very similar to being licked by a cat. Cocoa was very confused on Sunday when she licked my leg when I was wearing nylons. They almost always pee on their litter boxes, but they poop on their litter boxes less than half of the time. We are also teaching them not to bite the wood around our house. They want to eat our windowsills, baseboards, etc.

9. The kitchen table pad, which I ordered the end of December, finally arrived. I bought a new vinyl fitted tablecloth which has worked MUCH better than the linen tablecloths we had been using because #1 it stays in place (the kids were constantly pulling it), #2 it's easy to wipe up spills, and #3 it fits better as my other tablecloths were much too big for our new kitchen table. Having a vinyl tablecloth is not my first choice aesthetically, but practicality has won out to be sure as I didn't enjoy frequently laundering the linen tablecloths. I think between the table pads and the vinyl tablecloth our table should stay in good condition for many years to come. That's the goal anyhow! Paul drilled in glides to the bottoms of the chairs to protect our floor.

10. Nadia continues to make good progress in memorizing Hebrews and 1 Peter. She has been memorizing 21 verses per week so that she will memorize Hebrews, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter by June. She's already decided that next year she will start working on memorizing the book of Matthews in the middle of July because that book has more verses than these three books combined.

11. We've been doing some Junior ranger badges online and also by mail. Yesterday Nadia received a large envelope filled with goodies from a national park in Ohio about the Buffalo Soldiers. That had been an easy one to complete, and we only had to email something to show she had completed the quiz. She received a boatload of freebies for earning that Junior Ranger badge!

Giving Thanks

1. I got my van back on Friday afternoon! Paul came home early because it was snowing, which meant I didn't have to walk to the auto body shop as I thought I would need to do. Ian and Nadia were thankful they could stay home with Daddy while I took Oliver to basketball practice on Friday night.

2. We spent some time with friends on February 29, which included visiting a sheep farm. We always enjoy spending time with them. Unfortunately we learned that Nadia is very allergic to hay. She had hives on various places on her body after crawling through some tunnels Micah and Isaiah had made the previous day with bales of hay.

3. We used a gift certificate to get pizza from Papa John's after we left the computer programming class on January 31 while we were en route to Oliver's basketball practice.

4. Oliver had his best basketball game  on February 1. Nadia had her best game of the season thus far on February 8. Paul joined us for Ian's game on February 1, and he saw all three games with us on February 8. Nadia helped in the concession stand for 5 hours on 2/1 and for 3 hours on 2/8. I'm thankful she likes to help! Nadia has three games left, and the boys have four games left as they each had one game cancelled due to snow. This Saturday is a bye week. Yahoo!

5. Nadia enjoyed the Super Bowl party at our church. She didn't actually watch the game. She played bubble ball with her friends for about three hours. I was very thankful the Chiefs won because SF already has 5 rings.

6. The youth pastor's wife gave Nadia a ride to church on Wednesday afternoon so she could attend Bible bowl.

7. Oliver did a great job in AWANA on February 5. He recited all the books of the Bible, a few verses, and located 10 books of the Bible that they asked him to find in his Bible. Way to go, Oliver!

8. My dad gave Paul some money for his birthday that he said was for a steak dinner. Paul joined us at ice skating lessons on February 6, and after the lessons we went straight to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I don't order an entrée there - just a side dish (a sweet potato). We all love their rolls. Paul and Ian enjoy the peanuts, and Paul enjoyed his steak!

9. My brother's birthday was February 1. It was a hard day for me. I had an awful nightmare related to him on Sunday night. I am thankful for the 35 years I had a brother, and I am thankful he's with our mom, his body is whole, and I will see him again one day.

10. I'm thankful Patches was such a sweet little guinea pig. We miss her very much!!! Her little white hairs are still throughout our house....

11. The kids were so excited to go pick out two rabbits at the SPCA last week. Hopefully Cocoa and Cole will be as good of pets as Patches was. Rabbits are more expensive because they need to be neutered, which costs $259 per rabbit. Ouch!! We plan to have that surgery done next month. Now if we could just figure out how to tell the two apart!

12. I don't normally drive Paul's car, but I did last week because we only had one vehicle. We saw more of Paul than usual (which was good!) because he came home from work earlier than usual on Tuesday and Friday, and he stayed home from work on Thursday (so I could have the car) and on Saturday (so he could attend all three basketball games). When driving his car I noticed he was very overdue with getting his oil changed and tires rotated. He is taking the van to Walmart to have that taken care of right now.

13. We're in the middle of three read alouds right now, and Paul really is glad we're listening to Breaking Stalin's Nose.

7.5 Years Old!

My baby turned 7 1/2 years old today! I doubt there are many (or any?) adults who celebrate their half birthdays. Adults don't go around saying "I'm xx and 1/2 years old," but children do take pride in adding that 1/2 to their age. Oliver was VERY excited when I told him several days ago that his half-birthday was almost here. Here are a few descriptions of my baby:

1. He still LOVES to hug and cuddle. What a blessing! He sits on my lap on the comfy reclining chair when he reads to me. I soak up every minute.

2. Memorization doesn't come easily for him, but we work on his Bible verses diligently, and he's certainly doing better than he did in previous years. In early December I gave serious consideration to having him take a break from AWANA, but we had a breakthrough and now I have hope that he might be able to finish the third Sparks book in April. It's hard for me to picture him being on a Bible quizzing team in four years, but who knows.....

3. He recently started learning to

type! It was 100% his initiative. Thinking back, I had required his siblings to type in second grade, but I have been much more laid back with Oliver. He's enjoying working through lessons on Typing.com.

4. He usually wakes up sometime between 7:00-7:30. I had to wake him up last Saturday because we had to leave the house at 7:30 for Nadia's basketball game. I really, really don't like to wake my kids up, and since they are homeschooled I try to do it as little as possible. He goes to bed at 8:30 without any objections. If he's tired, sometimes he asks to go to bed early. If he's in a vehicle and its dark outside, he is very prone to falling asleep in the van. For most of his life when he woke up (once the van was in the garage), he would be VERY grumpy when he woke up (meaning lots of crying). Thankfully this doesn't usually happen any longer.

5. Long trips in the van used to involve a LOT of crying. The length of what is considered "too long" for Oliver has lengthened over the years thankfully. The only time I recall a long meltdown in the car over the past six months was on our way back from Virginia in November.

6. Oliver finished the Level 4 All About Reading curriculum. He has been reading Mouse and Mole books as well as a Bible reader. I think we will wait until third grade to start him on chapter books. He enjoys reading and is making progress. That is what is most important to me.

7. Handwriting is a big challenge for him. He finished the second grade textbook, and now I'm having him write in a journal instead. I am planning on introducing cursive in the fall. Maybe that will go more easily for him? He loves to make a big circle when he dots his i's and his periods are also HUGE.

8. If you ask him to say the spelling for a word or use tiles on a spelling app, he does pretty well, but if you ask him to write the words down he generally jumbles up the order of the letters plus writes some letters backwards.

9. Lately Oliver has been having a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. He drinks a glass of milk at all three meals (only child who did this at this age). He eats a wider variety of foods at lunch - bologna sandwich, egg salad sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, hot pocket, baked beans, yogurt, or a hot dog. He doesn't like ketchup. He wants mayonnaise on the bologna sandwich and nothing on a hot dog. The sandwiches must use Italian bread. He usually eats half of an apple at lunch, except in the summer when he has watermelon instead. Like Nadia, he loves to eat cheese. For dinner he enjoys a very wide variety of foods. It's easier to list the foods he won't eat as that list is much smaller: tomatoes, bananas, nuts, and strawberries.

10. He enjoys earning one 20 minute turn (on the Wii, Switch, or iPad) on school days, but unlike his siblings he doesn't want to earn a second turn or earn any turns on the weekend. On the other hand, watching tv is a high priority to him. Lately he and Ian have been watching an episode of Duck Tales and an episode of Clone Wars each day on Disney+.

11. His green blanket is still his most beloved possession. For awhile his orange fish was also a lovie, but he hasn't been showing a preference for any specific stuffed animal lately.

12. He still loves to play with other kids whether that means outside with kids in our neighborhood or inside the playland at our church.

13. All three kids are expected to clear their dishes from the table after every meal, make their beds, help clean up the toys, put away their clean laundry, and help me bring in and put away the groceries. His specific chores are to collect the garbage from the individual trash cans once a week and also help Ian with dusting once a week.

14. He's playing on a basketball team for the third year. He's definitely making progress but still definitely the weakest link on his team. Last Saturday he recovered the ball for the first time ever and had a look of utter shock on his face. The woman refereeing the game was laughing. I wish I had a picture or video of that. It was so, so funny! He's also taking ice skating lessons. Last year he had private lessons, and this is his first time in a group class. He's making progress.

15. He's still singing in the Soul Patrol choir at church. He uses our Echo dots a LOT to listen to music. He likes a wider variety of music than I do.

16. Math has been a huge struggle for Oliver. He has learned to look on the page before writing almost every number because otherwise he writes most of them backwards. The good news is that just in the past couple of weeks he's had a big breakthrough with his addition skills. I recently introduced regrouping and rounding to the nearest ten. I need to work with him on learning his addition and subtraction facts over the next six months.

17. He lost three teeth over the past six months. First, he finally lost ONE tooth the normal way, and then the dentist extracted two teeth from his top jaw because his permanent teeth had been in for quite a few months and the baby teeth were showing zero signs that they might come out on their own.

18. Normally Oliver has a very hard time coming up with ideas for a wish list for his birthday or Christmas. This year at Christmas was the first time he came up with several suggestions. Lately he been most interested in Paw Patrol toys. Thankfully he still isn't prone to the "gimme syndrome." If he asks for something it's usually either a food of some sort (such as spending $1 at a basketball game for a large pretzel) or an experience. Many times when we are reading picture books related to our social studies curriculum he will ask questions like, "Can we go there?" (when he saw pictures of Idaho) or "Is there a museum about him?" (after we read books about Jesse Owens). He gets excited at the thought of visiting the house of a former president.

19. He loves to look through our growing collection of photo books. Remembering people's names (even relatives!) is very difficult for him.

20. He shows almost no interest in our pets or the pets of other people, but he does enjoy seeing animals at a zoo or aquarium.

Farewell, Patches and Hello, Cocoa and Coal

Monday was a very, very sad day in our house. We noticed that Patches wasn't interested in eating anything. Ian said he didn't think she ate anything on Sunday. I called the vet in our town, but they said they didn't treat guinea pigs. They referred me to a vet in Danville. I called and made an appointment for 11:00. When I watched her more, I became convinced she might not live until 11:00 so Paul took her immediately to the vet earlier than the scheduled appointment. I had dropped the van off at the auto body shop on Sunday night. Thankfully Danville is on the way to Kennedy Concrete. We were praying and hoping against hope that the vet could do something to treat her, but he said she was suffering. He put her to sleep. Paul asked if Ian wanted to bury her in our backyard, and he was very adamant that he didn't want to have anything to do with her dead body. Oliver and Nadia didn't seem very affected by her passing, but it has been hard on Paul, Ian, and I. Ian, of course, has taken this loss the hardest because he held her All The Time. He did most of his schoolwork with Patches on his

lap or sitting beside him. He even took that guinea pig into the bathroom sometimes! I had recently made a rule that he couldn't bring Patches to Oliver's room when we have our bedtime devotions and prayers because she was a bit distracting. It was very hard for me to see her suffering. Patches was such a sweet guinea pig, and Ian was so gentle with her. I think Jenna wouldn't be so skittish if she had been Ian's pet instead of Nadia's. Ian cried many. many times on Monday. He cried some on Tuesday and Wednesday but not as much. I don't believe he's cried yet today over Patches. Guinea pigs are supposed to be social creatures, which is why we got two in the beginning. We have been keeping a close eye on Jenna, but thus far it doesn't seem that she is suffering emotionally over the loss of her cage mate. When we first got them, they snuggled together, but they haven't done that in years. Guinea pigs typically live 5-7  years, but they can live more than 10 years. We got Jenna and Patches in December 2016 so we were certainly not expecting either of them to pass away at the age of

three. Jenna has been held more than usual this week due to Ian not having his own guinea pig. If she seems to be lonely, we will adopt a guinea pig from the SPCA to be her companion, but thus far her behavior seems to be totally normal. It's an adjustment for us as we're used to speaking of them in plural ("girls" or "them"). I remember going through the same adjustment after my mom passed away. I'd out of habit say I'm going to my Mom's house or my parents' house. It was an adjustment to switch to calling it my "dad's house."

I had planned to surprise Nadia with two rabbits for her birthday in June. PopPop had agreed to build them an outdoor hutch. On Monday I realized we needed to get another pet for Ian's sake. I spilled the beans about my birthday plans for Nadia and said that Ian could get another guinea pig right now and we'd get two bunnies in June or we could get two bunnies now instead of a second guinea pig. He immediately picked rabbits. We picked out two female black bunnies on the SPCA website, and I ordered a cage, litter box,

and some wooden toys. We already have Timothy hay and bedding because of the guinea pigs. Paul assembled the cage last night. Paul came home early from work (at 4:45) on Tuesday so I could take the kids to basketball practice. The youth pastor's wife took Nadia to church at 3pm yesterday so she could attend Bible quizzing at 4:30. Paul was home in time for me to take the boys to AWANA at 6:30 and so I could go to choir rehearsal. Nadia and I left church a little early to pick the boys up at 8:00. Paul worked from home today because Thursday is the day I use the car the most. So we decided that this morning would be when we would make the trip to the SPCA to adopt two rabbits. The kids were SO excited! Nadia had a list of names she was considering. She had discussed the list with her cousin, Rachel. Ian had one name picked out, Rose. He must really like that name as that was Patches' middle name.

I needed to get my photo taken for my driver's license, and because I was trying to have my license be Real ID (have all the other ones been fake?), I needed to bring my passport, social security card, etc and go to a different location which wasn't far from the SPCA. That was our first stop. We also bought some rabbit food at a pet store. Nadia really, really, really wanted us to adopt two female rabbits. However, the two rabbits that were already used to sharing a cage were two male rabbits born on November 11, 2019. Their names were Jazz and Juniper. Their sister's name is Amber, and their mom's name is Ellie. Nadia wanted us to adopt Amber and Ellie, but they said Ellie wasn't fond of being held. Thankfully once she held the one she named Cocoa in her arms, she fell in love even though he's a male rabbit. The rabbits are both black, and thus far we can't tell them apart by looking at them, but we can tell them apart by their behaviors. Ian considered a few different names once he realized Rose wouldn't work for a male rabbit, but he ended up picking Coal. So we now have THREE pets in our living room. Here's to hoping that they all live a lot longer than Patches did. Ian of course was asking if Patches is in heaven. I told him honestly that I don't know. I know we will be happy in heaven, and I think there will be animals in heaven (all herbivores), but I have no idea if every pet we owned on earth will be in heaven. We'll find out some day. Hopefully Cocoa and Coal will be just as good pets as Patches has been the past three years!